^ March 23, 19

3.19" J

Nature

A WEEKLY

ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE

VOLUME LXXXV

NOVEMBER, 1910, to MARCH, 1911

" To the solid ground
Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for ay*;."— Wordsworth

iipa ."

MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

G?

HZ

top. V

Naiurt, 1

March, 3

INDEX.

Abbay (Canon R.), the Sailing-flight of Birds, 475

Abb6 (Prof. C), the Mr tcorology of the Future, 550

Abel (O.), die Kekonstruktion des Diplodocus, no

Abel (Dr. Williamina), Description of the Cerebral Cortex
of the Guinea-pig, 5^ ^

•Abetti (Dr.), Proper Motion of the Star B.D. + 33° qq, 181

Abney (Sir W. de W.), Colour-blindness and the Trichro-
matic Theory of Colour-vision, 259

.Abrahams (A.), the Photography of Moving Objects and
Hand-camera Work for .Advanced Workers, 102

.Abruzzi's (the Duke of the) Expedition to the Karakoram
Himalayas, Dr. F. De F'ilippi at Royal Geographical
Society, 124

.Absorbing Matter in Space, Messrs. Innes and Worssell, 41:3

.Acland (H. D.), Some Prehistoric Monuments in the Scilly
Isles, 22

Acquired Characters, Darwin and the Transmission of,
E. .A. Parkyn, 474; Prof. John W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S-,
474

.Acquired Characters, the Inheritance of. Sir W. T.
Thiselton-Dver, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. , 371 ; Prof. John W.
Judd, C.B., F.R.S., 405

.Adami (Prof. J. G., F.R.S.), the Principles of Pathology, 4

.Adams (H. Isabel), Wild Flowers of the British Isles, 134

.Adamson (R. S.), Comparative Anatomy of the Leaves of
Certain Species of Veronica, 395

Adeney (Dr. W. E.). Estimation of the Organic Matters
in Unpolluted and Polluted Waters with Potassium
Bichromate and Sulphuric Acid, 531

.Adhicary (Birendra Bhusan), Reactions in Presence of
Nickel, 130

.Administration : the Broad Stone of Empire, Problems of
Crown Colony .Administration, with Records of Personal
Experience, Sir Charles Bruce, G.C.M.G., 229

-Adria und des Mittelmeergebietes, der Naturfreund am
, Strande der. Prof. Carl I. Cori, 369

Aeronautics: an Attempt at " Vol d vortex,^' G. D.
Boerlage, 227 ; Balloon Experiments carried out at Black-
pool, Capt. C. H. Ley, 295

Aeroplane Patents, Robert M. Neilson, 270

Africa, the Yellow and Dark-skinned People of, South of
the Zambezi, Dr. G. McCall Theal, Sir H. H. John-
ston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 542

African Game Trails, Theodore Roosevelt, Sir H. H.
Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 77

Agenda Club, the, 214

Agriculture : Report on the Distribution of Grants for
Agricultural Education and Research in the Years 1908-9
and 1909-10, 13 ; the British Science Guild, the Present
Position of Agricultural Research in the United Kingdom,
13 ; Growth of Sugar-beet in England, Chas. Bathurst,
20 ; Production of Sugar from Sugar-beet, J. Saxon
Mills, 85 : Sugar-beet Grown for Export in Norfolk, Mr.
Sawyer, 317; Constituents of the Soil, Mr. Failyer, 40;
Wheat-growing and its Present-day Problems, Dr. E. J.
Russell, i;7 ; the Milling and Baking Qualities of Indian
Wheat, Albert Howard and Gabrielle L. C. Howard,
249 ; the Influence of Environment on the Milling and

Baking Qualities of Wheat in India, Albert Howard,
H. M. Leake, and Gabrielle L. C. Howard. 249 ; Wheat in
India, its Production, Varieties and Improvements, .Albert
Howard and Gabrielle L. C. Howard, 240 ; Memorandum
on Indian Wheat for the British Market, Sir James
Wilson, K.C.I.E., 547; the Practice of Soft Cheese-
making, C. W. Waliter-Tisdale and T. R. Robinson, 71 ;
Death of Dr. W. H. Brewer, 83 ; Report on the Experi-
ment Station, Tortola, Virgin Islands, for 1909-10, 85 ;
Cotton Cultivation in Egypt, Mr. Foaden, 85 ; Cotton
Growing within the British Empire, J. H. Reed at
Royal Geographical Society, 184 ; Cotton Growing in the
British Empire, Maurice .Alfassa, 382 ; Report on the
Present Position of Cotton Cultivation, Dr. Wyndham
R. Dunstan, F.R.S., 520; Agriculture in the Dry
Regions of the British Empire, Dr. E. J. Russell, in ;
Transvaal Agricultural Journal, Dr. E. J. Russell, in;
Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope, Dr.
E. J. Russell, in; Water Requirements of Crops in
India, J. W. Leather, Dr. E. J. Russell, in ; Destruc-
tion of .Agricultural Plant Pests by Chemical Means,
H. C. Long, 117; Question of Utilising Wind Power in
Country Districts, Dr. Sutton, 148 ; Agricultural Research
in Japan, 151 ; Silkworm Problems. K. Toyama, 151 ;
Prof. C. Sasaki, 151 : Kleines Handworterbuch der
Agrikulturchemie, Dr. Max Passon, Dr. E. J. Russell,
164 ; Milch und Molkereiprodukte, ihre Eigenschaften,
Zusammensetzung und Gewinnung, Dr. Paul Sommer-
feld, 168 ; Preservation of Bamboos from the Attacks of
the Bamboo Beetle or " Shot-borer," E. P. Stebbing,
178; Suitability of Bamboos and Lalang or Cogon Grass
for Making Paper Pulp, G. F. Richmond, 246 ; .Advan-
tages of Maize as a Crop for Export, Mr. MacDonald,
178; Use of Fertilisers for Cereals, 178: Feeding Value
of Mangels, Prof. Wood, 161 : Effects of Tarred Roads
on Vegetation, Marcel Mirande, 161 ; Influence of the
Tarring of Roads on the Adjacent Vegetation, Ed.
Griffon, 227 ; Jubilee of the German .Agricultural Society,
214; " Koleroga," a Palm Disease, Dr. L. C. Coleman,
217; Bacterial Disease of the Potato Plant in Ireland, and
the Organism causing it, G. H. Pethybridge and Paul
.A. Murphy, 296; Peru To-day, 317; Reports of the
Botanical Departments in Trinidad and Tobago, Prof. P.
Carmodv, 345 ; .Agricultural and Forestry Department
of the Nyasaland Protectorate, 346 ; Cultivation of Millet.
Jute, and Caravonica Cotton, 346 ; Phosphate Fields of
Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, 346; Soil Fertility, Dr. R.
Greig-Smith. 362 ; Grant for Encouragement of Light
Horse Breeding in Great Britain, 381 ; Rural Economy
of the Bombay Deccan, Mr. Keatinge, 382 ; the Imperial
Department of .Agriculture in the West Indies, Sir
Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., at Royal Colonial Institute,
418 ; transformation of Proteids into Fats, M. Nieren-
stein, 427 ; .Argentine Republic, Agricultural and Pastoral
Census of the Nation, Stock-breeding and Agriculture in
1908, 415.1; ; Live Stock and Agricultural Census of the
.Argentine Republic. 4?'; : What Science has done for
the West Indies, Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G.,

IV

Index

r Nature,

L March 23, 191 1

F.R.S., 477; the Manuring of Market-garden Crops,
Dr. B. Dyer and F. W. E. Shrivell, 505 ; Report on the
Botanic Station Experimental Plots and Agricultural
Education, 520 ; see also British Association

Agrogeological Congress at Stockholm, the International, 88

A^ulhon (H.), Action of the Ultra-violet Rays upon
Diastases, 566

Ahrens (C. D.), Ahren's Biliquid Prism, 124

Aigrettes and Bird Skins : the Truth about their Collection
and Export, Harold Hamel Smith, 207

Aird (Sir John), Death of, 343

Airship : Methods of Finding the Height of an. Captain
Paul Renard, 21 ; the Airship for the British Navy, 555

Aitken (Dr. R. G.), Double Stars, 418

Aitken (Dr. W. A.), the Voice, igg

Albec (Helen R.), Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens, loi

Albrecht (Dr.), Mars and its Atmosphere, 486

Alcoholism, a Second Study of the Influence of Parental, on
the Physique and Ability of the Offspring, Karl Pearson,
F.R.S., and Ethel M. Elderton, 470

Alcoholism in Adults, a Preliminary Study of Extreme,
Amy Banington and Karl Pearson, F.R.S., and Dr.
David Heron, 470

Alechin (V.), Vegetation on the Kasatzkisch Steppe, 246

Alexander (D.), Nigerian Punch and Judy Show, 116

Alfassa (Maurice), Cotton Growing in the British Empire,
382

Algebra : a School Algebra, H. S. Hall, 167 ; Elements of
Algebra, A. Schultze, 167; College Algebra, Prof. H. L.
Reitz and A. R. Crathorne, 368

Alkaloide, die, Prof. E. Winterstein and Dr. G. Trier, i-^i

Allbutt (Sir T. Clifford, K.C.B., F.R.S.), Physiology the
Servant of Medicine, being the Hitchcock Lectures for
igoc) delivered at the University of California, Berkeley,
Cal., 465

Allegheny Observatory, Publications of the. Prof.
Schlesinger, 218; Dr. Schlesinger and D. Alter, 218;
Dr. R. H. Baker, 218

Allen (M. J.), Easy Method of Treating Printing-out Paper
(P.O.P.) for all'kinds of Photography, 361

Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis, 37, 365

Alpago (Dr. R.), Observations of Magnetic Declination and
Dissipation of Electric Charge which they made at Padua
on May 14-21, 150

Alpine Switzerland, Plant Life in, E. A. Newall Arber, 404

Alter (D.), Publications of the Allegheny Observatory, 218

Altitude Tables, Computed for Intervals of Four Minutes
between the Parallels of Latitude 0° and 30° and Parallels
of Declination 0° and 24°, designed for the Determination
of the Position-line at all Hour Angles without
Logarithmic Computation, F. Ball, 201

Alverstone (Lord), the Work of Polytechnic Institutes, 220

Amann (M.), the Total Eclipse of the Moon of November
16, 10 10, observed at Aosta, Italy, 261

Amar (Jules), Respiratory Exchanges after Work has been
Done, 161

Ameghino (Dr. F.), Certain Teeth from a Cavern in
Cuba, 48 ; Stone Implements found near Mar del Plata,
285

America : American Meat and its Influence upon the Public
Health, Dr. Albert Leffingwell, 232 ; .Surface Water
Supply of the United States, 1007-8, 283 ; American
Association for the Advancement of Science : the Making
of a Darwin, Dr. David Starr Jordan, 31^4; the Minne-
apolis Meeting of the, 410 ; American Men of Science,
307 ; Leading American Men of Science, 397

Ammodiscus incertus, the Megalospheric Form of, F.
Chapman, ii^q

Anatomy : Summary of Recent Investigations upon the
Anatomical Localisation of the Human Cerebral Cortex,
Prof. Marinesco, 278 ; the Archaeological Survey of Nubia,
Report on the Human Remains, Drs. G. Elliot Smith,
F.R.S., and F. Wood-Jones, 310

Anderson (Dr. Tempest), Matavanu, a New Volcano in
Savaii (German Samoa), Discourse at Royal Institution,
92; Decay of Building Stones, 116

Andrews (Dr. C. W., F.R.S.), a Descriptive Catalogue of
the Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay, based on the
Leeds Collection in the British Museum (Natural History),
London, 264

Andrews (E. C.), an Excursion to the Yosemite, 130

Anecdotes of Big Cats and other Beasts, David Wilson, 333
Angiosperms, Lower Cretaceous, Dr. M. C. Slopes, 139
Angot (Alfred), Earthquake of January 3-4, 1911, 396
Annandale (Dr.), New Genus of Psychodid Diptera from

the Himalaya and Travancore, 122
Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society, 143
Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, 151
.\ntarctica : the Second French Antarctic Expedition, Dr.
J. B. C'harcot at Royal Geographical Society, 257; Pro-
posed Work of the German Antarctic Expedition, 315 ;
Present Position of Antarctic Meteorology, R. C. Moss-
man, 318; Australian Antarctic Expedition, 414; the
Ancient Fossil Archieocyathus in Antarctica, 415 ; the
Nitrates in the Atmosphere of the Antarctic Regions, A.
Miintz and E. Lain6, 463 ; Japanese Antarctic Expedition,
519
Anthropology : Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants
of Immigrants, Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., 11; Worked
Flints from the Ipswich District, W. Whittaker, F".R.S.,
116; Nigerian Punch and Judy .Show, D. Alexander, 116;
Bull-fighting among the Fuiani, Capt. A. J. N. Tre-
mearne, 116; Homo aurignacensis. Hauseri, ein palaeo-
lithischer Skelettfund aus dem unteren Aurignacien der
Station Combecapelle bei Montferrand (P^rigord), H.
Klaatsch and O. Hauser, Richard N. Wegner, 119; Die
Aurignac-Rasse und ihre Stellung im Stammbaum der
Menschheit, H. Klaatsch, Richard N. Wegner, 119; a New
Theory of the Descent of Man, Prof. A. Keith, 206, 509 ;
Gerhardt v. Bonin, 508 ; the Arrival of Man in Britain,
Huxley Memorial Lecture at Royal Anthropological In-
stitute, Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 122 ; the Negro
in the New World, Sir Harry H. Johnston, G.C.M.G.,
K.C.B., Prof. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., 172 ; Living speci-
men in the Island of Luzon bearing close Relationship to
the Palaeolithic Type, Dr. R. B. Bean, 176 ; Racial Ana-
tomy of the People of Taytay, Dr. Bean, 176; Origin of
the Rajputs and Mahrattas, W. Crooke, 177; Different
Types of Ears occurring among the Philipinos, R. B.
Bean, 216; Certain Physical Characters of the Negroes of
the Congo Free State and Nigeria, Dr. Arthur Keith, at
Royal Anthropological Institute, 221 ; Neolithic Interment
discovered between Attard and Nobile, T. Zammit, 245 ;
the Tribe, and Intertribal Relations in Australia, G. C.
Wheeler, 267 ; Two Representative Tribes of Queensland,
with an Inquiry concerning the Origin of the Australian
Race, J. Mathew, 267 ; the Archaeological Survey of
Nubia, Report on the Human Remains, Dr. G. Elliot
Smith, F.R.S., and F. Wood Jones, 310; the Tomb of
Two Brothers, Miss M. A. Murray, 332 ; Mating, Mar-
riage, and the .Status of Women, James Corin, 334;
Women of All Nations, 537 ; Ceylonese Drum known as
Udakiya, Dr. A. Willey, 344 ; Exploration of a Palaeo-
lithic Cave-dwelling, known as La Cotte, at St. Brelade,
Jersey, E. T. Nicholls and J. Sinel, 344; Dioptrographic
Tracings in Four Normal of Fifty-two Tasmanian Crania,
Prof. R. J. A. Berry and A. W. D. Robertson, 366 ; Der
Stand unserer Kenntnisse vom fossilen Menschen, Prof.
W. Branca, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 402 ; a Tribe of
Pygmies on the Kapare River, Claude Grant, 413 ; Pre-
historic Operation " T. sincipital," Pr. F. Gron, 4.';o ;
Exploration of a Flint Implement Factory, H. S. Cowper,
520 ; see also British Association
Antiquary's Life, Accidents of an, D. G. Hogarth, 238
Antoniadi (E. M.), Observations of Mars, 305
Ants, on the Origin of Slavery and Parasitism in, Henri

Pi^ron, 351
Aphrodite, the Incense-altar of, at Paphos, Dr. Max Ohne-

falsch-Richter, 323
Appell (Paul), Biographic,. Bibliographic analytique des

Ecrits, Ernest Lebon, 335

Appellof (Dr. A.), Life-history of the Common Lobster, 179

Arber (E. A. Newell), Plant Life in Alpine Switzerland, 404

Archa;ologv : Early Burial Customs in Egypt, Prof. W. M.

Flinders' Petrie, F.R.S., 41; Prof. G. Elliot Smith,

F.R.S., 41 ; New Discoveries at Knossos, H. R. Hall, 45;

Death of Richard Froude Tucker, 114; Excavations at

the Site of the Roman Station of Margidunum on the

Fosse Way, 114; the So-called "Stone Circle" on Shurd-

ington Hill, L. Richardson, 146; Arctic Plants from the

Valley Gravels of the River Lea, S. Hazzledine Warren,

206 ; the Sea-Kings of Crete, Rev. James Baikie, 235;

Nature,
March 23, 1911

Index

Accidents of an Antiquary's Life, D. G. Hogarth, 238 ;
Excavations on the Island of Pseira, Crete, Richard B.
Seager, H. R. Hail, 272 ; the Archaeological Survey of
Nubia, Report on the Human Remains, Drs. G. Elliot
Smith, F.R.S., and F. Wood-Jones, 310; the German
Excavations at Babylon, H. R. Hall, 312; an Arabic
Pompeii in the Neighbourhood of Cordova, 314; the
Incense-altar of Aphrodite at Paphos, Dr. Max Ohno
falsch-Richter. 323 ; the Annual of the British School at
Athens, H. R. Hall, 339 ; an Institute of Human Palaeont-
ology, 412; Papers of the British School at Rome, 445;
Megalithic Monuments and Prehistoric Culture in the
Western Mediterranean, Dr. Mackenzie, .445 ; Mr. Peet,
445 ; Distribution of Early Civilisation in Northern
Greece in relation to its Geographical Features, .A. J. B.
Wace and M. S. Thompson, 450; Death of P. D. Scott-
Moncrieff, 548 ; the Maya Hieroglyphs, W. E. Gates, 549
.\rchbutt (S. L.), Constitution of the Alloys of Aluminium

and Zinc, 564
.Architecture : Measurements of Spiral Stairway of the
Leaning Tower of Pisa, Wm. H. Goodyear, 347 ; the
Settlement in Strassburg Cathedral, M. Knauth, 384
Arctic Plants from the Valley Gravels of the River Lea,

S. Hazzledine Warren, 206
Ardern (E.), Oxidation of Phenol by Certain Bacteria in

Pure Culture, 127
Argentina, Anales de la Oficina Meteorologica, 250
-Argentine Republic — Agricultural and Pastoral Census of
the Nation : Stock-breeding and Agriculture in 1908, 455
Argentine Republic, Climate of the, W. G. Davis, 250
Argentine Republic, Live Stock and Agricultural Census of

the, 455
Aristotelian Society, Proceedings of the, 370
Arithmetic : Public School Arithmetic, \\'. M. Baker
and A. A. Bourne, 167; Key to Hall and Stevens's School
Arithmetic, L. W. Grenville. ^05
.Armfieid (Constance S.), the Ffower Book, 507
Armstrong (Dr. E. F.), Oxidases differ from other kinds

of Enzymes, 26
.Armstrong (Prof. H. E., F.R.S.), Leathes' Work on the
.Splitting of Fats at Intermediate Points in the Carbon
Chain, and the Formation of Peroxides by Manganese
and Iron with Hydroxy-acids, 26 ; Relations of Science
with Commercial Life, 90
.Arnold (Prof. J. O.), a Fourth Recalescence in Steel, 157
-Arrow (G. J.), the Fauna of British India, including
Ceylon and Burma : Coleoptera Lamellicornia (Cetoniinae
and Dynastinae), 467
Ashby (Dr. Henry), Notes on Physiology, 304
Ashby (Dr. T.), Excavations at Caerwent, the Site of
Venta Silurum, 22 ; Excavations at Hagear Kim and
Mnaidra, Malta, 23
Ashley (G. H.), the Value of Coal Land, 420
Ashworth (Dr.), Partial Sterilisation of Soils, 25
Asia, the Recent Earthquakes in, Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S.,

335; Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S., 335
Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, 130, 396
-Asphalt Paving or Lining and Vegetation, 318
-Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions, the, 55
Aston (F. W.), Distribution of Electric Force in the

Crookes Dark Space, 394
Astronomy: Our .Astronomical Column, 21, 51, 87, 118,
150, 180, 218, 248, 282, 319, 348, 384, 417, 453, 486,
,S23, 552 ; Fireball of October 23, W. F. Denning, 21 ;
the Motion of Molecules in the Tail of Halley's Comet,
Prof. Lowell, 21 ; Ephemeris for Halley's Comet, Dr.
Ebell, 51 ; Selenium Photometer Measures of the Bright-
ness of Halley's Comet, Joel Stebbin, 51 ; Halley's Comet,
M. Bassot, 97 ; H. E. Wood, 349 ; Messrs. Innes and
Worssell, 350 ; Father Goetz, 350 ; Profs. Nijland and
Van der Bilt, 350; F. Sy, 351; Dr. J. Mascart. 351:
M. Jamain, 351 ; Recent Helwan Photographs of Halley's
Comet, Prof. Barnard, 180; Observations of Halley's
Comet made at the Nice Observatory with the Gautier
Equatorial of 76 cm. -Aperture, M. Javelle, 129; Condition
of the .Atmosphere during the Recent Proximity of
Hallev's Comet, H. G. A. Hardinge, 130; the Spectrum
of Halley's Comet, C. P. Butler, 193 ; the Dark Band
Surrounding the Polar Caps of Mars, Prof. Lowell, 22 ;
Markings of Mars, James H. Worthington, 40 ; Prof.
A. M. Worthington, C.B., F.R.S., 372 ; "Observations of

Mars, E. M. Antoniadi. 305 ; Mars and its Atmosphere,
-Mr. Innes and Mrs. H. fe. Wood, 486; Prof. Campbell
and Dr. Albrecht, 486 ; the Satellites cf Mars, Prof.
Ix)well, 552 ; the Spectrum of Nova Sagittarii No. 2,
I^eon Campbell, 22 ; Prof. Millosevich, 22 ; Magnitude of
Nova Sagittarii No. 2, Dr. Ristenpart, 151 ; Discovery of
-Another Nova, Sagittarii No. 3, Miss Cannon, 248; Nova
-Sagittarii No. 3, H.V. 3306, Miss Cannon, 552 ; a New
Variable Star or a Nova 97, 1910, Cygni, Mr. Hinks, 22 ;
New Variable Stars in Harvard Map, No. 52, Miss
Cannon, 22 ; November Meteors, John R. Henry, 40 ;
Fireball on November 2, 51 ; Rotation of the Moon, 51 ;
the Secular Acceleration of the Moon's Mean Motion,
Dr. Robert Bryant, 119; the Total Eclipse of the Moon,
November 16, E, .A. .Martin, 118; Madame de Robeck,
118; M-M. Luizet, Guillaume, and Merlin, 180; M. Mon-
tangerand, 180; M. Lebeuf, 180; M. Jonckheere, 180;
Dr. Max Wolf, 319; Father Fenyi, 319; the Total Eclipse
of the Moon of November 16, 1910, observed at Aosta,
Italy, M. -Amann and CI. Rozet, 261 ; a New Map of
the Moon, Mr. Goodacre, 319; the Apparent Diameter
of Jupiter, Father Chevalier, 51 ; Equatorial Current of
Jupiter in 1880, A. Stanley Williams, 226 ; Analytical
Theory and Tables of Motion of Jupiter by Le Verrier,
-A. Gaillot, 327 ; Observations ot Jupiter's Galilean Satel-
lites, Mr. Innes, 524 ; Curved Photographic Plates, Prof.
E. C. Pickering, 51 ; Observations of the New Cerulli
Planet (K U), 1910, M. Coggia, 65 ; the Romance ol
Modern Astronomy, describing in Simple but Exaci
Language the Wonders of the Heavens, Hector Mac-
pherson, jun., 71 ; Death of Dr. F. Valle, 83 ; Discover>
of a Comet, Dr. Cerulli, 87 ; Cerulli's Comet, 19106, Prof.
Hartwig, 119; Dr. Ebell, 119; Observations of, made at the
Obser\-atory of Besanijon with the Bent Equatorial, P.
Chofardet, 129; Cerulli's Comet (i9io€). Identified with
Faye's Short-period Comet, Prof. Pickering, 150; Dr.
Ebell, 150; Dr. Schiller, 151; Dr. Ristenpart, 151; Dr.
Cerulli, 151 ; Observations of Cerulli's Come!
made at the Observatory of Lyons, J. Guillaume, 161 ;
Ephemeris for Faye's Comet, 1910^, Dr. Ebell, 180;
Identity of the Cerulli Comet with the Faye Comet, G.
Fayet, 193; Faye's Comet, G. Fayet, 248; Observation of
the Faye-Cerul'i Comet made at the Observatory of Mar-
seilles with the Comet Finder, M. Borrelly, 261 ; Elements
for Faye's Comet, 1910^, Prof. Ristenpart and Dr.
Prager, 319; Mr. Mejer and Miss Levy, 319; Ephemeris
for Faye's Comet, Dr. Ebell, 523 ; Metcalf's Comet
igiofe). Dr. Ebell, 87, 319; Recent Fireballs, 87; Mr. and
^frs. Wilson, 150 ; C. B. Pennington, 150 ; J. Hicks,
150; Saturn's Rings, M. Jonckheere, 150; K. Schiller,
218; Solar -Activity and Terrestrial Temperatures, W. J.
Humphreys, 87 ; Stars having Peculiar Spectra, and New
A'ariable Stars, 87 ; the Discovery of Neptune, 87 ; the
Discovery of Neptune, Leverrier's Letter to Galle, 184 ;
Variable Stars in the Orion Nebula, 87 ; Means of
Determining by Colour Photometry the Parallaxes of a
certain Class of Stars, Charles Nordmann, 97 ; der
Sternenhimmel, Prof. J. D. Messerschmitt, 102 ; Selenium
Photometry of Stars, Dr. Joel Stebbins, 119; Photo-
graphic Magnitudes of Seventy-one Pleiades Stars, .Adolf
Hnatek, 119; Elements and Numbers of Recently Dis-
covered Minor Planets. Prof. Neugebauer, 1 19 ; Spectro-
scopic Measurement of the Rotation of Stars possessing
an -Atmosphere, with Special Reference to the Sun, -A.
Perot, 129 ; a Popular Guide to the Heavens. Sir
Robert S. Ball, 136 ; the Photography of Nebulje.
Dr. William J. S. Lockyer. 140 : Observations of
Magnetic Declination and Dissipation of Electric
Charge which they made at Padua on May 14-21, Drs.
R. .Alpago and G. Silva, 150 ; a Projection on
Saturn's Outer Ring, M. Jonckheere, 248: a System of
Standard Wave-lengths, Prof. Kayser, 151 ; the Radial
Velocity of Sirius, W. Miinch, 151 ; -Annuaire du Bureau
des Longitudes, 191 1, 151 ; Comets and Electrons. Prof.
-Augusto Righi, 180 ; the Probable Errors of Radial-
velocity Determination, Mr. Plaskett, 180: the Photo-
graphic Magnitudes of Stars. Prof. E. C. Pickering, i8i :
E. Hertzsprung, 181 ; Proper Motion of the Star
B.D.-l-33°q9, Dr. .Abetti, 181; Several Entirely Unknown
-Autographs of Nicolaus Copernicus, Dr. L. Birkenmajer,
217; the Orbit of the Perseids, Henri Dierckx, 218; De-

VI

Index

Nature,
March 23,>igii

finitive Elements for the Orbit of Comet 1904 II. (1904^),
J. Sedlac'ek, 218; Designations of Newly Discovered
Variable Stars, 218; Nova Arse 98, 1910, Dr. Ristenpart,
218; Publications of the Allegheny Observatory, Prof.
Schlesingor, 218; Dr. Schlesinger and D. Alter, 218;
Dr. R. H. Baker, 218; Royal Astronomical Society, 226;
Multiple Solutions in the Determination of Orbits from
Three Observations, C. \^. L. Charlier, 226 ; Accuracy of
the Positions of the Star Images in the " Harvard Sky,"
H. H. Turner, 226 ; Determination of Selenographic
Positions, and the Measurement of Lunar Photographs,
S. A. Saunders, 226-7 ; the Quadrantid Meteor Shower,
T. W. Backhouse, 236 ; Determination of the Inter-
national Boundaries in Africa, 247 ; New Experimental
Demonstration of the Earth's Rotation, Father Hagen,
248; B. Latour, 248; Investigation of the Orbit of the
Wolf's Comet, 1898-1911, M. Kamensky, 248; the Light
Changes of Forty-nine Variable Stars, Dr. L. Pracka,
248 ; January Meteors, John R. Henry, 271 ; the Spectrum
of the America Nebula, Dr. Max Wolf, 282 ; the Move-
ments of Certain Stars, in Space, compared with that
of the Sun, Dr. P. Stroobant, 282 ; the Italian Observa-
tories, 282 ; Astronomy at the Brussels Exhibition, Dr.
Stroobant, 282 ; Tracing the Solar Corona in Lunar
Observations, Em. Touchet, 283 ; Annual Publications,
283 ; Determination of the Solar Parallax, Charles D.
Perrine, 287 ; the Stars from Year to Year, with Charts
for Every Month, H. Periam Hawkins, 304 ; the Star
Calendar for 1911, H. Periam Hawkins, 304; the Star
Almanac for 1911, H. Periam Hawkins, 304; the New
Hamburg Observatory, 309 ; Death and Obituary Notice
of, Dr. M. W'ilhelm Meyer, 313 ; Discovery of an Eighth-
magnitude Nova, Mr. Espin, 319; Nineteen .Stars with
Newly Discovered Variable Radial Velocities, O. J. Lee,
319; Observations of Planets, J. Halley, 319; Aims of
Astronomy of Precision, S. C. Hough, F.R.S., at Roval
Society of South Africa, 323 ; Observations of the Sun
made at the Observatory of Lyons during the Third
Quarter of 1910, J. Guillaume, 327 ; Round the Year
with the Stars, Garrett P. Serviss, 333 ; Astronomical
Society of Barcelona, 344 ; the January Meteors, W. F.
Denning, 348 : Nova Lacerta;, Mr. Hinks, 348 ; Mr.
Espin, .348, 384; Prof. Max Wolf, 384, 453, 1^23, i^t;2 ;
Prof. Pickering, 3S4, 523 ; Mr. Bellamy, 384 ; Dr. Graff,
417; Prof. Barnard, 453; Prof. Millosevich, 453; Dr.
Miinch, 41^3 ; Prof. Hertzsprung, 4c;3 ; Felix de Roy, 4153 ;
Herr Mewes, 453 ; P. Idrac, 486, 523 ; Prof. Nijland,
523 ; Dr. Kiih!, 523 ; P. M. Ryves, 523 ; First Observa-
tions on the New Star in Lacerta, P. Idrac, 463 ; Comets
Due to Return in 1911, Mr. Lynn, 348; Preliminarv
Results derived from Radial-velocity Determinations,
Prof. Campbell, 348: Stellar Magnitudes, J. E. Maybee,
348 ; Temperature Changes and Solar Activity, Prof.
F. H. Bigelow, 3152 ; Fireball of January 9, W. F.
Denning, 372 ; the Orbits of Several Spectroscopic
Binaries, R. H. Baker, 384 ; F, C. Jordan, 385 ; the
Discovery of Kepler's Laws, M. Bigourdan, 381; ; Bright
Bolides, M. Birkenstock, 385 ; the Astrographic Cata-
logue, Catania Zones, 385 ; Effective Diameters of the
Stars, Charles Nordmann, 395 ; Death and Obituary
Notice of Gustave Leveau, 414 ; Death of F. W.
Hermann Leppig, 414 : Death of M. Roz^, 414 ; Meteors
in February, W. F. Denning, 417 ; a New Variable or
Nova (134, 1910, Piscium), E. Ernst, 417; Mass-ratios of
the Components of Kriiger 60 and Castor, Dr. H. N.
Russell, 418; Double Stars, Dr. R. G. Aitken, 418; Prof.
Burnham, 418 ; the United States Naval Observatory,
418; Star Colours, Mr. Innes, 418; Absorbing Matter in
Space, Messrs. Innes and W'orssell, 41:3 ; Photographic
Determinations of Stellar Parallax, Prof. F. Schlesinger,
, 4<;4 ; Lines in the Spectra of Nebulas, Dr. W. H. Wright,
-KJ. ; Utilisation of the Sun's Heat, Prof. Ceraski, /^tA :
Splendid Meteor on January 21;, W. F. Denning, 4^3;
a Morning Meteor, Joseph H. Elgie, 471:;; Cometary
Theories, Messrs. Roe and Graham. 486 ; Prof. Eginitis,
486 ; Polarisation in the Spectrum of o Ceti, Dr. W'right,
486; the Earth's Action on Sunlight and Heat, James
D. Roots, 486 ; Stars shown to the Children, Ellison
Hawks, 506 ; Standard Astronometrv, W. E. Cooke, 523 ;
New Spectroscopic Binaries, J. H. Moore, 523 ; Mr.
Paddock, 523 ; Prof. Campbell, 524 ; The Progressive

Disclosure of the Entire Atmosphere of the Sun, Albert
Alfred Buss, 540 ; the Spectra of some Wolf-Rayet Stars,
J. C. Duncan, 552 ; Southern Nebulre, Mr. Innes, 5152 ;
Mr. Woods, 552 ; Mr. Mitchell, 552 ; a Slowly Moving
Meteor, F. E. Baxandall, c<;2

-Astrophysics : les Theories Modernes du Soleil, J. Bosler,
68 ; Vorlesungen iiber die Physik der Sonne, Prof. E.
Pringsheim, 68 ; the Solar Physics Observatory, 373 ; the
Progressive Disclosure of the Entire Atmosphere of the
Sun, Dr. H. Deslandres at Royal Institution of Great
Britain, 422, 457

Athens, the Annual of the British School at, H. R. Hall,

Athens, the Latitude of, Demetrius Eginitis, 56

Atkinson (Prof. G. F.), Botany for High Schools, 370

Atmospheric Nitrogen, Fixation of. Prof. J. Zenneck, 556

.Atomic Weights of Cadmium, Manganese, Bromine, Lead,
Arsenic, Iodine, Silver, Chromium, and Phosphorus,
Researches upon the, G. P. Baxter, 202

Atomistik, die experimentelle Grundlegung der, W.
Mocklenberg, 403

Audas (J. W.), Botanical Expedition in the Victorian
Alps, Plants recorded in the District by Dr. A. J. Evvart,
177

Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science,
the, 558

Australia : the Tribe, and Intertribal Relations in Aus-
tralia, G. C. Wheeler, 267 ; Two Representative Tribes
of Queensland, with an Inquiry concerning the Origin of
the Australian Race, J. Mathew, 267 ; a Research on the
Pines of Australia, R. T. Baker and H. G. Smith, 465

Aviation : Morning Post National Fund Airship's Flight
from Moisson to Aldershot, 18 ; Death of Octave Chanute,
211;; Aeroplane Patents, Robert M. Neilson, 270;
Aviators and Squalls, M. Durand-Gr^ville, 322 ; Flight
in a Curtis Biplane from Selfridge Field, Eugene Ely,
4i> ; Increasing the Stability of Aeroplanes by Means of
Gyroscopes, M. Girardville, 429; Oversea Flight by Mr.
McCurdy, 448 ; the Structural Design of Aeroplanes,
Prof. Herbert Chatley, 41^2 ; Forthcoming Attempt to
Cross the Atlantic Ocean by Airship, 484 ; Loss of Life
by Aeroplane Accidents, Prof. G. H. Bryan, 484 ; the
Airship for the British Navy, 555

Ayrton (Hertha), Sex Relationship, 406; Motion of Oscil-
lating Water, 462

Babylon, the German Excavations at, H. R. Hall, 312
Backhouse (T. W.), the Quadrantid Meteor Shower, 236
Bacteriology : Applications of the Kinematograph to
Bacteriological Photomicrography, iq ; Method for Isolat-
ing and Growing the Lepra Bacillus of Man, E. W.
Twort, 127 ; Oxidation of Phenol by Certain Bacteria in
Pure Culture, G. J. Fowler, E. Ardern, and W. T.
Lockett, 127 ; Search for Bacterium coU in Sea Water by
the Methods Employed for Fresh Water, P. Fabre-
Domergue and R. Legendre, 162 ; Bacterial Disease of
the Potato Plant in Ireland and the Organism causing it,
G. H. Pethybridge and Paul A. Murphy, 296 ; Per-
manency of the Characters of the Bacteria of the Bacillus
coli Group, Dr. R. Greig-Smith, 362 ; Soil Fertility, Dr.
R. Greig-Smith, 362
Baensch (Otto), Baruch de Spinoza, Ethik, 367
Bagster (L. S.), Properties of some Binary Mixtures of

some Liquefied Gases, 453
Baikie (Rev. James), the Sea-Kings of Crete, 235
Bailey (L. H.), Manual of Gardening, 132
Baker (Dr. R. H.), Publications of the Allegheny Observa-
torv, 218; the Orbits of Several Spectroscopic Binaries,

.S84
Baker (R. T.), a Research on the Pines of Australia, 465
Baker (W. M.), Public School Arithmetic, 167
Baldwin (Prof. James Mark), Darwinism and the

Humanities, 504
Ball (F.), Altitude Tables, computed for Intervals of Four
Minutes between the Parallels of Latitude 0° and 30° and
Parallels of Declination o* and 24°, designed for the
Determination of the Position-line at all Hour Angles
without Logarithmic Computation, 201
Ball (Sir Robert S.), a Popular Guide to the Heavens, 136

Nature, 1
March 23, 191 1 J

Inde.

'X

VII

Baning^on (Amy), a Preliminary Study of Extreme

Alcoholism in Adults, 479
Banquet to Jubilee Past-presidents of the Chemical Society,

87

Banse (Ewald), the Influence of River Systems in the East,
288

Barbour (Capt. J. H.), Two Notes from India, 73

Barclay (\V. R.), Adhesion of Electro-deposited Silver in
Relation to the Nature of the German Silver Basis Metal,
428

Barnard (Prof.), Recent Helwan Photographs of Halley's
Comet, 180 ; Nova Lacertae, 453

Barnard (H. Clive), the British Empire in Pictures, 39

Barnes (Prof. C. R.), a Text-book of Botany for Colleges
and Universities, 399

Barnes (Prof. H. T.), Marine Microthermograms and
Influence of Icebergs on the Temperature of the Sea, 137

Baroni (V.), Action of the Ultra-violet Rays upon the
Tubercle Bacillus and upon Tuberculin, 34

Barratt (Dr. J. O. Wakelin), Complement Deviation in
Mouse Carcinoma, 496

Barrett (Prof. VV. P., F.R.S.), Historical Note on Re-
calescence, 235

Barrett-Hamilton (Major G. E. H.), British Mammals, 6 ;
Notes on Winter Whitening in ^fammals, 42

Barwell (N.), Cambridge, 202

Basset (.^. B., F.R.S.), a Treatise on the Geometry of
Surfaces, 231 ; Singularities of Curves and Surfaces, 336,
440

Bassot (M.), Halley's Comet, 97

Bateman (Capt. A. E.), Experiments to ascertain if Ante-
lope may act as a Reservoir of the Virus of Sleeping
Sickness {Trypanosoma gambiense), 428 ; Experiments to
ascertain if the Domestic Fowl of Uganda may act as a
Reservoir of the Virus of Sleeping Sickness {Trypano-
soma gambiense), 428

Bates (E. L.), Practical Mathematics and Geometrv, 470

Bather (Dr. F. A., F.R.S.), Conflicting Dates of Inter-
national Congresses, 139 ; Index to Desor's Synopsis des
Echinides Fossiles, 404

Bathurst (Charles), Growth of Sugar-beet in England, 20

Battersea Park as a Centre for Nature Study, VV. Johnson,

435

Bauer (Edmund), the Blue Colour of the Sky and the
Constant of Avogadro, 129

Bauer (Dr. L. A.), on the Simultaneity of Abruptly-begin-
ning Magnetic Storms, 306 ; Observations of the Value
of the Gravitational Acceleration on Boarrf the American
Magnetic Ship Carnegie, 485 ; some Problems- of Terres-
trial Magnetism, 551

Baumann (Prof. Julius), Wolffsche BegrifTsbestimmungen,
367

Baxandall (F. E.), a Slowly Moving Meteor, 552

Baxter (G. P.), Researches upon the Atomic Weights of
Cadmium, Manganese, Bromine, Lead, Arsenic, Iodine,
Silver, Chromium, and Phosphorus, 202

Biiyeux (Raoul), Experiments made at Mt. Blanc in 1910
on Gastric Secretion at very High Altitude, 566

Baylden (H. C), Notes on Chilian Mills in Russia, 295, 497

Bean (Mr.), Venomous Toad-fishes of the Genera Thalas-
sophryne and Thalassothia, 84

Bean (Dr. R. B.), Living Specimen in the Island of Luzon
bearing close Relationship to the Palaeolithic Type, 176;
Racial .Anatomy of the People of Taytay, 176; Different
Types of Ears occurring among the Philipinos, 216

Bean (W. J.), the Arnold Arboretum, 117; Garden Notes
on New Trees and Shrubs, 414

Beattie (Prof. J. C), Historical Account of the Growth of
our Knowledge of Terrestrial Magnetism, 522

Beattie (R.), Measurements of the Magnetic Properties of
Iron, Steel, Nickel, and Cobalt at the Temperature of
Liquid Air, 347

Beatty (R. T.), lonisation of Hea\7 Gases by X-rays, 128

Becker (G. F.), the Age of the Earth, 173

Becquerel (Jean), the Reversal of the Phosphorescence
Bands, 193 ; Magnetic Modifications of the Absorption
and Phosphorescence Bands of Rubies and on a Funda-
mental Question of Magneto-optics, 463

Beddard (F. E.), the Alimentary Tract of Certain Birds,
and on the Mesenteric Relations of the Intestinal Loops,
226

Bedford (Duke of, K.G., F.R.S.), Twelfth Report of the
Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm, 71

Bee, the Anatomy of the Honey, R. E. Snodgrass, 169

Beech (.Mervyn W. H.), the Suk of East Africa, 23

Beerlage (G.' D.), an Attempt at " Vol d Vortex," 227

Beetham (B.), the Home-life of the Spoonbill, the Stork,
and some Herons, 544

Beilby (Dr.), Relations of Science with Commercial Life, 90

Belief, Reason and. Sir Oliver Lodge, 201

B«?llamy (Mr.), Nova Lacertae, 384

Bellati (Prof.), .Application of the Dilatometric Method to
the Study of the Polymorphism of the .Alkali Nitrates, Hd

Bemmelen (Dr. W. van), Report upon the Investigations of
the Upper Air, 20

Benedict (F. G.), the Metabolism and Energy Transforma-
tions of Healthy Man during Rest, 276; Metabolism in
Diabetes Mellitus, 455

Bengough (G. D.), Report to the Corrosion Committee
on the Present State of our Knowledge of the Corrosion
of Non-ferrous Metals and Alloys, with Suggestions for
a Research into the Causes of the Corrosion of Brass
Condenser Tubes by Sea Water, 428

Benham (Charles E.), the Origin of Man, 336

Bensusan (.A. J.), Notes on Passagem Mine and Works, 33

Bentley (Dr. Chas. A.), Drainage and Malaria, 471

Berger (E.), T.etranitromethane, 98

Berry (.A. J.), Conduction of Heat through Rarefied Gases,

95
Berry (G. H.), Vibrations of a Pianoforte Sound-board,

541

Berry (Prof. R. J. A.), Dioptrographic Tracings in Four
Normal of Fifty-two Tasmanian Crania. 366

Berry (Prof.), the Ether Extract of the Oat Kernel, 24

Berthelot (Daniel), Principal Types of Photolysis of Or-
ganic Compounds by the Ultra-violet Rays, 327 ; Photo-
lysis of Complex Acids by the Ultra-violet Rays, 498 ;
Comparative Action of the Ultra-violet Rays on Organic
Compounds Possessing Linear and Cyclic Structure, 565

Bertrand (Gabriel). Influence of Temperature on the
Activity of Cellase, 227 ; Haemoglobin as a Peroxydase,
429 ; Influence of Manganese on the Development of
Aspergillus niger, 464

Besson (A.), Reduction of Phosphoryl Chloride by Hydrogen
under the Influence of the Silent Discharge, 129; by
Passing a Rapid Current of Hydrogen Bromide over
Amorphous Silicon at a Red Heat a Liquid is obtained,
which, on Submitting to Fractional Distillation, gives as
the Main Product of the Reaction Silicon Tetrabromide,
227

Bidwell (E.), Fragments of the Egg of an Ostrich obtained
in a Nalla on the Kain River, 316

Biffen (Prof.), some Crosses with Rivet Wheat, 160

Bigelow (Prof. F. H.), Temperature Changes and Solar
Activity, 352

Bigelow (H. B.), the Siphonophora of the Research Biscayan
Plankton, 96

Bigourdan (M-), the Discovery of Kepler's Laws, 385

Biliquid Prism, Ahren's, C. D. .Ahrens, 124

Binns (F.), the Potter's Craft, 269

Biochemistr}-, Monographs on, the Fats, Prof. J. B.
Leathes, 502

Biological Physics, Physic, and Metaphysic, Thomas
Logan, 35^

Biology : Series of Specimens illustrating Irregularities in
the Differentiation of Sexual Characters, Dr. .Arthur
Keith, 19 ; Das System der Biologic in Forschung und
Lehre, Dr. Phil. S. Tschulok, 37 ; the Differentiation
and Specificity of Corresponding Proteins and other Vital
Substances in Relation to Biological Classification and
Organic Evolution and the Crystallography of Haemo-
globins, Prof. E. T. Reichert and Prof. A. P. Brown, 57 ;
Evolution of the Flat-fishes, Tate Regan, 65 ; Sexual
Dimorphism in Plants, Prof. K. Goebel, 85 ; Hicksonella,
a New Gorgonellid Genus, J. J. Simpson, 95 ; Some
Varietal Forms of Massilina secans, E. Heron-Allen and
A. Earland, 05 : Division of the Collar-cells of Calcareous
Sponge, Clatfirina Coriacea, Muriel Robertson and Prof.
E. .A. Minchen, 117; Effect of Gravity upon the Move-
ments and .Aggregation of Euglena viridis, Ehrb., and
other Micro-organisms, Harold Wager, 126; the Haema-
tozoa of Australian Batrachians, Dr. J. Burton Cleland

Vlll

Index

Nature,
March 23, 191 1

and T. Harvey Johnston, 130; Chemotactic and Similar
Reactions of the Swarm Spores of Myxomycetes, S.
Kusano, 151 ; Nuclear Relations of Paramecium cauda-
ium during the Asexual Period, K. R. Lewin, 161 ;
Further Evidence in favour of a so-called Pure-line
Method in Corn Breeding, Dr. G. H. Shull, 217; a Bio-
logical Inquiry into the Nature of Melanism in
Amphidasis hetularia, Linn., H. S. Leigh, 270; Remark-
;ible New Species of Volvox collected by Mr. Rousselet in
Rhodesia, Prof. G. S. West, 278 ; Spawn and Larva of
the Salamander, Amhly stoma Jeffersonianum, Prof. W. H.
Piersol, 279 ; Ostracoda collected by D. Pedashenko in
Issykkul, 279 ; Sex Relationship, Dr. R. J. Evvart, 322,
406 ; Hertha Ayrton, 406 ; Life-history of the Reindeer
Warble-fly {Oedcmagena tarandi), Prof. G. H. Carpenter,
345 ; Preliminary Note on Unio pictorum, U. tumidus,
and D. cygnea, Margaret C. March, 361, 429 ; Some
African Rotifers — Bdelloida of Tropical .Africa, Jas.
Murray, 361 ; an Introduction to Biology for Students in
India, Prof. R. E. Lloyd, 370 ; Action of X-rays on the
Developing Chick, J. F. Gaskell, 428; Determination of
Sex, Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, 463 ; Problem of Sex-
determination, 550 ; Die Variabilitat niederer Organis-
men, Hans Pringsheim, C. Clifford Dobell, 501 ; Populare
Vortrage aus dem Gebiete der Entwickelungslehre, Dr.
Wilhelm Breitenbach, 540 ; Microfauna of the Nile, Dr.
E. von Daday, 549 ; Germinal Localisation in the Egg
of Cerebratulus, N, Yatsu, 550 ; an Entoproctan Poly-
zoon {Barentsia benedeni), James Ritchie, 565 ; Marine
Biology, the Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-Sea
Expedition, 1910, Dr. Johan Hjort, 52 ; the Michael
Sars North Atlantic Deep-Sea Ex{>edition, 1910, Dr.
Johan Hjort at Royal Geographical Society, 388 ; Work
of the Port Erin Biological Station, 83 ; the Ova and
Larvae of Teleostean Fishes taken at Plymouth in the
Spring and Summer of 1909, 85; Comparison of the
Summer Plankton on the West Coast of Scotland with
that in the Irish Sea, Prof. W. A. Herdman, 96 ; the
Siphonophora of the Research Biscayan Plankton, H. B.
Bigelow, 96 ; Eel-Larvae {Leptocephalus hrevirostris)
from the Central North Atlantic, Dr. Johan Hjort, 104;
the Megalospheric Form of Ammodiscus incertus, F.
Chapman, 139 ; the Southern Division of the Mannar
Pearl-oyster Fishery, Dr. A. Willey, 148 ; Pearl and Pearl-
oyster Fishery, A. Scale, 177; Pearl-fishery off Bantayan,
L. E. Griffen, 246 ; the Breeding Seasons of Calanus
finmarchius, G. P. Farren, 565

Birds: the Flight of Birds against the Wind, Dr. W. Ainslie
HoUis, 107 ; the Flight of Birds, Lucien Fournier, A. Mal-
lock, F.R.S., 445 ; the Sailing-flight of Birds, Canon R.
Abbay, 475; F. W. Headley, 511; A. Mallock, F.R.S.,
£;n ; Edward D. Hearn, 511 ; Position of Birds' Nests in
Hedges, Lt.-Col. J. H. Tull Walsh, 207; the Conduct
and Song of Birds, F. C. Constable, 308 ; the Birds of
Dumfriesshire, a Contribution to the Fauna of the Solway
Area, Hugh S. Gladstone, 378 ; the British Bird-Book,
407

Birkenmajer (Dr. L.), Several Entirely Unknown Auto-
graphs of Nicolaus Copernicus, 217

Birkenstock (M.), Bright Bolides, 385

Bison, Present Condition of American, and Seal Herds, 12

Black (Adam), Study of Artificial Pyrexia produced by
Tetrahydro-^-naphthalamine Hydrochloride, 565

Blackman (Dr. F. F., F.R.S.), on Respiration, 26;
Germination Conditions and the Vitality of Seeds. 58 ;
a New Method for Estimating Gaseous Exchanges of
Submerged Plants, 1530 ; on Assimilation in Submerged
Water-plants and its Relation to the Concentration of
. Carbon Dioxide and other Factors, c;3o

Blackman (Prof. V. H.), the Vermiform Male Nuclei of
Lilium, 58 ; a Form of Nuclear Division Intermediate
between Mitosis and Amitosis in Coleosporium Tussila-
ginus, 59

Blair (Mr.), Relations of Science with Commercial Life, 90

Bloch (Eugene), Action of a Magnetic Field on the Electric
Discharge, 97-8 ; the Discharge Potential in the Magnetic
Field, 463

Bodeker (Dr.), Native Methods of Fishing in Relation to
the Incidence and Dissemination of Sleeping .Sickness, 178

Bodroux (F.), .Action of some Esters on the Monosodium
Derivative of Benzyl Cyanide, 328

Bohr (M.), Determination of the Tension of a Recently
Formed Water-surface, <)5

Boisbaudran (Lecoq de), the Dehydration of Salts, 565

Bolides, Bright, M. Birkenstock, 385

Bolton (Herbert), Collection of Insect Remains from the
South Wales Coalfield, 462

Boltwood (Dr. B. B.), Radiochemistry, A. T. Cameron, 1C3

Bongrand (J. Ch.), Propiolic Compounds, 161

Bonhote (J. Lewis), Experiments on the Occurrence of the
Web-foot Character in Pigeons, 160

Bonin (Gerhardt v.), Klaatsch's Theory of the Descent of
Man, 508

Borrelly (M.), Observation of the Faye-Cerulli Comet made
at the Observatory of Marseilles with the Comet Finder,
261

Boselli (Jacques), Resistance to the Movement of Small
Non-spherical Bodies in a Fluid, 429

Bosler (J.), les Theories Modernes du Soleil, 68

Bosvvorth (T. O.), Keuper Marls around Charnwood
Forest, 360 ; Metamorphism round the Ross of Mull
Granite, 387

Botany : Death and Obituary Notice of Prof. D. P.
Penhallow, 16; Specimen of Agave Americana in
Flower, 17; New Philippine Plants, E. D. Merrill, 20;
Flowers which Undergo Marked Changes after Fertilisa-
tion, Dr. H. Fitting, 20 ; the Teaching Botanist, Prof.
W. F. Ganong, 36 ; Death of Dr. Theodore Cooke, 46 ;
Obituary Notice of, 82 ; the Botanical Journal, 47 ; Rela-
tionship that Exists between the amount of Chlorophyll
present in a Leaf and the Energy of Photosynthesis,
W. N. Lubimenko, 48 ; Examples of a Monstrous
Carnation, 48 ; Pteridophyta for the Transvaal Province,
J. Burtt-Davy, 48; Two Notes from India, Capt. J. H.
Barbour, 73 ; Sexual Dimorphism in Plants, Prof. K.
Goebel, 8.1^ ; Linnean Society, 96, 160, 226, 395, 496 ;
Struggle for Water between the Soil and the Seed, .V.
Muntz, 97 ; the Jodrell Laboratory at Kew, Sir W. T.
Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., 103; the Arnold
Arboretum, W. J. Bean, 117; Wild Flowers of the
British Isles, H. Isabel Adams, 134 ; Catalogue of Hardy
Trees and Shrubs Growing in the Grounds of Syon
House, Brentford, A. B. Jackson, 136 ; Action of Light
on Plants, H. Rousset, 149 ; Theoretical Origin of
Plantago maritima, L., and P. alpina, L., from P.
coronopus, L. Vars, Prof. G. Henslow, 160 ; a Theoretical
Origin of Monocotyledons from Aquatic Dicotyledons
through Self-adaptation to an Aquatic Habit, Prof. G.
Henslow, 160 ; Some Crosses with Rivet Wheat, Prof.
Biffen, 160; Inheritance of the Yellow Tinge in Sweet-
pea Colouring, Mrs. D. Thoday and D. Thoday, 160 ;
Extinction of Cryptogamic Plants, A. R. Horwood, 177 :
Botanical Expedition in the Victorian Alps, Plants Re-
corded in the District bv Dr. A. J. Ewart, J. W. Audas,
177; Flora of Mt. Pulog, E. D. Merrill and M. L.
Merritt, 217: New South W'ales Linnean Society, 22S,
362 ; Vegetation on the Kasatzkisch Steppe, V. Alechin,
246; Bud-rot Disease of Palms, Dr. E. J. Butler, 246;
Veronica prostraia, L., teucrium, L., und austriaca, L.,
nebst einem anhang iiber deren nachste vervvandte. Dr.
Bruno Watzl, 267 ; Comparative Anatomy of the Leaves
of Certain Specifs of Veronica. R. S. Adamson. 30- ;
Lichen Collected in the Jugiur Chain (Stanovoi), Ir. M.
.Shegolef, 279 ; das Pflanzenreich, Papaveraceae-
Hvoecoideae et Papaveraceae-Papaveroideae, Friedrich
Feddc, 302 ; Plant Anatomy from the Standpoint of the
Development and Functions of the Tissues and Handbook
of Microtechnic, Prof. W. C. Stevens, 33.5 ; Dr. Ernest
Durand's Bequest to Paris Museum of Natural History,
343 ; Sporangium of Lycopodiiim pithyoides, Miss A. G.
Stokey, 341; ; Reports of the Botanical Departments in
Trinidad and Tobago. Prof. P. Carmody. 345 : Catalogue
of Hybrid Plants raised at Kew during Past Years, 346 ;
Sigillaria and Stigmariopsis, Prof. F. E. Weiss, 361,
429 ; Botany for High Schools. Prof. G. F. Atkinson,
-370; Hausliche Blumenpflege. Paul F. F. Schulz. 370:
Flora of the Samoa Islands, Dr. F. Vaupel. 382 ; Report
on the International Botanical Congress, held at Brussels
on May 14-22, iqio. Dr. O. Stapf, -^q; ; a Text-book of
Botany for Colleges and Universities, Prof. J. M.
Coulten, Prof. C. R. Barnes, and Prof. H. C. Cowles.
399 ; Plant Life in Alpine Switzerland, E. A. Newell

nature, ~\

March 25, 191 1 J

Index

IX

Arbor, 404 ; Garden Notes on New Trees and Shrubs,
W. J. Bean, 414; Journey into Nepal, I. K. Burkil!,
417 : Abnormal Fertile Spike of Ophioglossum vulgatum,
H. S. Holden, 429 : Structure of the Seed Coats of Hard
Seeds, and their Longevity, Bertha Rees, 430 ; Rosen-
krankheiten und Rosenfeinde, Dr. K. Laubert and Dr.
M. Schwartz, 4"?^ : Vergiftungen durch Pflanzen und
Pflanzenstoffe, ein Grundriss der vegetalen Toxikologie
fiir praktische Aerzte, Apotheker, und Botaniker, Dr.
K. Kanngiesser, Henry G. Greenish, 436 ; Sexual Di-
morphism in Plants, Prof. Goebel, 450 ; Desirability and
.Advantages of a South .\frican National Botanic Garden,
Prof. H. W. Pearson. 451 ; Two Botanical Excursions
in the South-west Region of West -Australia, Captain A.
Dorrien-Smith, 4:;! ; Are the Gnetales Apetalous Angio-
sperms? O. Lignier and A. Tison, 463-4; Action upon
Green Plants of some Substances Extracted from Coal-
tar and Employed in .Agriculture, >farcel Mirande, 464 ;
a Research on the Pines of .Australia, R. T. Baker and
H. G. Smith, 46^ ; Orchids, James O'Brien, 470 ; the
late Leo Grindon's Herbarium Presented to the Man-
chester Museum, 481 ; the Chinese Tree, Cupressus
hodginsii. Dr. .A. Henry, 484 ; Fertile Sport of the
Maidenhair Fern, Adiantum Farleyense, 484 ; Flora of
the Falkland Islands, C. H. Wright, 496 ; the Flower
Book, Constance S. .\rmfield, 507 ; Effect of Coloured
Light on the Development of Pure Cultures of the Green
.Alga, Stichococcus bacillaris. Prof. G. A. Nadson, 520 ;
Open-air Studies in Botany, R. L. Praeger. 540 ; Occur-
rence of Matonia sarmentosa in Sarawak, Cecil J.
Brooks, 541 ; see also British .Association
Bottomley (Prof.), Nitrogen Fixation, 25 ; the Cyano-
phyceae Endophytic in the Apogeotropic Roots of Cycads
and in the Cavities of .Azolla and .Anthoceros are
Invariablv Accompanied bv Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria,

Bouasse (Prof H.), Cours de M^canique Rationelle et

Experimentelle, sp^cialement ^crit pour les physiciens et

les ing^nieurs, conforme au programme du Certificat de

m^anique rationelle, i
Boudouard (O.), Testing of Metals by the Study of the

Damping of Vibratory Movements, 361
Bougault (J.), Transformation of Phenyl-o)3-pentenic Acid

into its 75-isomer, 463
Boulenger (G. .A.), Lacerta peloponnesiaca, Bibr., 160
Bourgeois (R.), Cause of an Instrumental Error in the

Measurement of a Base Line, 497
Bourne (.A. .A.), Public School .Arithmetic, i/^f-
Bourquelot (Em.), New Sugar Verbascose, Extracted from

the Root of Verbascum thapsus, 65
Bouville (De Drorein de), Salmon-disease on the Continent,

416
Boveri (Prof. Th.), .Anton Dohrn : Gedachtnisreele gehalten

auf den Internationalen Zoologen-Kongress in Graz am

18 .August. 1910, T?4
Bower (C. R.), the Zones of the Lower Chalk of Lincoln-
shire, 387
Bower (Prof. F. O.). Note on Obhiot^Iossum talniatum,

59 : Two Synthetic Genera of Filicales, 59 ; Sand-dunes

and Golf Links, •59
Bowyer (.A.), the .Abuse of the Singing and Speaking Voice,

Causes, Effects, and Treatment, 190
Boyd's (the late .Alexander) Collection of Birds Presented

to the British Museum, 316
Braak (Dr. C), Report upon the Investigations of the

Upper -Air, 20
Bragg (Prof. William H., F.R.S.), Radio-activity as a

Kinetic Theory of a Fourth State of Matter, Discourse

at Royal Institution, 4qi
Braithwaite (Miss D. M.). Method by which the Presence

of the Drug-room Beetle (Sitodrepa Panicea) may be

Readily Detected in Powdered Drugs, 85
Branca (Prof. W.), der Stand unserer Kenntnisse vom

fossilen Menschen. 402
Breitenbach (Dr. Wilhelm), Populare Vortrage aus dem

Gebiete der Entwickelungslehre. :;40
Breteau (Pierre), .Addition of Hydrogen in Presence of

Palladium. 328 : Method for the Complete Destruction of

Organic Matter in the Detection and Estimation of

Mineral Poisons. 46^
Brewer (Dr. W. H.). Death of, 83

Bridel (M.), New Sugar, V^erbascose, Extracted from the
Root of Verbascum thapsus, 65

Brissemoret (.A.), Contribution to the Study of the Physio-
logical Action of the Organic Bases, 262

Britain, the .Arrival of Man in, Huxley Memorial Lecture
at Royal .Anthropological Institute, Prof. W. Boyd
Dawkins, F.R.S., 122

British -Association : Sheffield Meeting of, Third Report of
the British .Association Committee, consisting of Sir
W. H. Preece (Chairman), Dugald Clerk and Prof.
Bertram Hopkinson (Joint Secretaries), Profs. Bone.
Burstall, Callendar, Coker, Dalby, Dixon, Dr. Glaze-
brook, Profs. Petavel, Smithells, and Watson, Dr.
Harker, Lieut. -Col. Holden, Captain Sankey, and
D. L. Chapman, appointed for the Investigation of
Gaseous Explosions, with Special Reference to Tem-
perature, 186
Sub-section of B (Agricultural Sub-section), continued. —
The Impurities of the Town .Atmosphere and their
Effect on Vegetation, Dr. Crowther and Mr. Ruston,
24 ; the Ether Extr.act of the Oat Kernel, Prof. Berry,
24 ; a Bacterial Disease of Potatoes, A. S. Home, 25 ;
Sugar-beet Growing, Sigmund Stein, 2^ ; G. L. Court-
hope, 2^ ; Nitrogen Fixation, Mr. Golding, 2/; ; Prof.
Bottomley, 2? ; Partial Sterilisation of Soils, Dr.
Russell and Dr. Hutchinson, 25; ; Dr. Shipley, 25 ;
Dr. Ashworth, 2^; T. J. Evans, 25;; J- J. Lister, 25;
an .Account of the " Points " Prized by the Breeder
of High-class Stock, K. J. J. MacKenzie, 2;^ ; Objects
and Methods of .Agricultural Soil Surveys, Mr. Hall
and Dr. Russell, 25 ; the " Teart " Land of Somerset,
C. T. Gimingham, 25; Cost of a Day's Horse Labour
on the Farm, Mr. Hall, 25 ; Errors of Agricultural
Experiments, Prof. Wood, 25
Section H (Anthropologv), continued — Excavations at
Caerwent. the .Site of Venta Silurum, T. Ashby, 22 ;
Some Prehistoric Monuments in the Scillv Isles. H. D.
.Acland, 22 ; Excavations of a Broch at Cogle, Watten,
Caithness, .Alexander Sutherland, 22 ; the Prehistoric
Horse, found at Bishop's Stortford, Rev. Dr. Irving,
22 ; Some Unexplored Fields in British Archaeology,
George Clinch, 23 ; Results of the Work carried out at
Meare, on Two Distinct Groups of Low Circular
Mounds, 23 ; Group of Prehistoric Sites Excavated
in South-west .Asia Minor, .A. M. Woodward
and H. A. Ormerod, 2^ ; Excavations in Thessaly
in 1910, A- J. B. Wac ard M. .S. Thomp-
son, 23 ; Excavations at Hagiar Kim and
Mnaidra, Malta, Dr. T. .Ashby, 23 ; Work carried on
by the British School in Egypt at Meydum and
Memphis, Prof. Pctrie. 23 ; a Neolithic Site in the
Southern Sudan, Dr. Seligmann, 23 ; the Bu-Shongo of
the Congo Free State. E. Torday. 23: the Suk of
East .Africa, Mervyn W. H. Beech, 23 ; Native Pottery
Methods in the .Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, G. W.
Grabham, 23 ; Kava Drinking in Melanesia, Dr.
W. H. R. Rivers, 23 : the Exogamic Character of the
' Omaha Social Organisation, Miss Fletcher. 24 ; the
Origin of Mourning Dress. E. S. Hartland. 24 ; the
Peoole of Eevpt. Prof. Elliot Smith. 24 : the People
of Cardiganshire, Prof. H. J. Fleure and T. C. James.
24 : a Rare Form of Divided Parietal in the Cranium
of a Chimpanzee. Prof. C. J. Patten, 24 : Head Form
and Pigmentation of Cretan School Children. Dr.
Duckworth. 24
Section I (Phvsiologv). continued — on Respiration. Dr.
F. F. Blackman. F.R.S., 26; Dakin's Work on Oxida-
tion of Fatty -Acids and .Amino-acids by Hydrogen Per-
oxide and Traces of Ferrous Salts. Dr. H. M. Vernon,
26 ; Oxidases differ from Other Kinds of Enzymes, Dr.

E. F. .Armstrong. 26 ; Experiments on .Anaestheti«ed
Leaves, D. Thoday, 26 ; Leathes' Work on the Splitting
of Fats at Intermediate Points in the Carbon Chain,
and the Formation of Peroxides by Manganese and
Iron with Hydroxv-acids. Prof. H. E. .Armstrong,
F.R.S., 26: Prevention of Compressed Air Illness, Dr.
Leonard Hill, F.R.S., 26; the Cause of the Treppe,
Prof. F. S. Lee, 27 ; .Summation of Stimuli. Prof.

F. S. Lee and Dr. M. Morse, 27 ; Constant Current
as a Stimulus of Reflex .Action, and the Effect of the
Intensity of the Current on the Response to Stimula-

Index

Nature,
March 23, 191 1

tion, Prof. C. S. Sherrington and Miss S. C. M.
Sowton, 27 ; tjie Conditions Necessary for Tetanus of
the Heart, Dr. J. Tait, 27 ; Neurogenic Origin of
Normal Heart Stimulus, Dr. J. Tait, 27; Results of
Some Experiments on the Combination of Poisons with
the Contractile Substance of Cardiac Muscle, Dr. H. M.
Vernon, 27 ; the Morphology and Nomenclature of
Blood Corpuscles, Prof. C. S. Minot, 27 ; Results of
Some Experiments indicating the Existence of Afferent
Nerves in the Eye Muscles, Prof. C. S. Sherrington,
F.R.S., Dr. E. E. Laslett and Miss F. Tozer, 27;
Results of the X-rays in Therapeutic Doses on the
Growing Brains of Rabbits, Dr. Dawson Turner and
Dr. T. George, 27 ; Origin of the Inorganic Composi-
tion of the Blood Plasma, Prof. A. B. Macallum,
F.R.S., 27; the Inorganic Composition of the Blood
Plasma in the Frog after a Long Period of Inanition,
Prof. A. B. Macallum, F.R.S., 27 ; the Microchemistry
of the Spermatic Elements in Vertebrates, Prof. A. B.
Macallum, 27 ; Nutritive Value of Beef Extract, Prof.
W. H. Thompson, 27
Section K (Botany), continued— Paths of Translocation
of Sugars from Green Leaves, S. Mangham, 58 ; Assi-
milation and Translocation under Natural Conditions,
D. Thoday, 58 ; New Method of Observing in Living
Leaves, while Still Attached to the Plant, the Degree
to which the Stomatal Apertures are Open or Closed,
Dr. F. Darwin, 58; Germination Conditions and the
Vitality of Seeds, Miss N. Darwin and Dr. F. F.
Blackman, 58 ; the Cyanophyceae Endophytic in the
Apogeotropic Roots of Cycads and in the Cavities of
Azolla and Anthoceros are invariably accompanied by
Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria, Prof. Bottomley, 58 ; Distri-
bution of Halophytes on the Severn Shore, 58 ; the New
Force, Mitokinetism, Prof. Marcus Hartog, 58 ; .Arti-
ficial Parthenogenesis in the Eggs of a Sea-urchin
{Strongylocentrotus purpuratus), Dr. E. Hindle, 58 ;
Behaviour of the Chromosomes during Mitosis, Prof.
Farmer and Miss Digby, 58 ; Dr. Eraser and Mr.
Snell, 58 ; the Vermiform Male Nuclei of Lilium, Prof.
V. H. Blackman, 58 ; Some Experiments on the Inherit-
ance of Colour in the Pimpernel, Prof. F. E. Weiss, 59 ;
the Function and Fate of the Cystidia of Coprinus,
Prof. Buller, 59 ; H. Wager, 59 ; the Methods of Asexual
Reproduction in a Species of Saprolegnia, A. E. Lech-
mere, 59 ; a Form of Nuclear Division Intermediate
between Mitosis and Amitosis in Coleosporiuni Tiissi-
laginis, Prof. V. H. Blackman, /(q ; Chromosome Re-
duction in the Hymenomycetes, Harold Wager, 59 ;
Cause of the Silver-leaf Disease of Fruit Trees, F. T.
Brooks, 59 ; Note on Ophioglosstim palniaiiim. Prof.
F. O. Bower, 59 ; Two Synthetic Genera of Filicales,
Prof. F. O. Bower, 59 ; Structure of the " False Stems "
of the Fossil Genus Tempskya, Dr. Kidston and Prof.
Gwynne-Vaughan, 59 ; Morphology of the Ovule of
Gnetum Africanum, Mrs. Thoday, 59 ; the Pollen Cham-
bers of Various Fossil' Seeds, Prof. F. W. Oliver, 59 ;
Morphology of the Stock of Isoetes, Prof. W. H. Lang,
50 ; Sand-dunes and Golf Links, Prof. F. O. Bower,

59.
Section L (Education), continued — ReiX)rt of the Section
L Research Committee on Mental and Physical Factors
involved in Education, Prof. Schuyten, 89 ; Prof. Green,
89 ; Prof. Findlay, 89 ; Methods of Algebra Teaching,
Dr. T. P. Nunn, 89 ; Inquiry into Individual Variations
of Memory among some 400 Subjects, Dr. Spearman,
89 ; Methods of Binet and Simon, Dr. Otto Lipmann,
Sq ; Series of Experiments Performed with a Group of
Elementary-school Children at Oxford, Cyril Burt, 89 ;
Value of Perseveration as an Index of the Quality of
Intelligence, J. G. Gray, 89 ; Series of Tests to which
the Candidates for Scholarships at a Midland Secondary
School were Submitted, H. S. Lawson, 8q ; .Application
of Binet's Tests to 200 Schoolgirls in Sheffield, Kath-
arine L. Johnson, 90 ; Collection of Masses of Psycho-
logical Data by Untrained Observers, Dr. C. S. Myers,
90 ; Practical Work in Schools, Sir Philip Magnus, 90 ;
J. G. Legge, 90 ; Relations of Science with Commercial
Life, Mr. Blair, 90; Principal E. H. Griffiths, 90; Dr.
Beilby, 90 ; Sir William White, 90 ; Dr. Stead, 90 ; Dr.
H. E. Armstrong, 90

I British Association, Forthcoming Meeting of the, at Ports-
mouth, 481

British Bird-book, the, 407

British Empire, Agriculture in the Dry Regions of the,
Dr. E. J. Russell, 11 1

British Empire in Pictures, the, H. Clive Barnard, 39

British Isles, Geology of the, 386

British Journal Photographic Almanac, 1911, the, 401

British Lands, Geological Work in, 553

British Mammals, Major G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, 6

British Museum : Guide to the British Vertebrates Exhi-
bited in the Department of Zoology, British Museum
(Natural History), 234 ; a Descriptive Catalogue of the
Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay, based on the Leeds
Collection in the British Museum (Natural History),
London, Dr. C. W. Andrews, F.R.S., 264; a Guide to
the Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fishes in the
Department of Geology and Palaeontology in the British
Museum (Natural History), 264 ; Guide to the Crustacea,
Arachnida, Onychophora, and Myriopoda exhibited in the
Department of Zoology, 505 ; Catalogue of the Lepid-
optera Phalaenje in the British Museum, 539

British Navy, the Airship for the, 555

British Place-names in their Historical Setting, Edmund
McClure, Rev. John Griffith, 131

British School at Athens, the Annual of the, H. R. Hall,

339

British School at Rome, Papers of the, 445

British Science Guild, the, the Present Position of Agricul-
tural Research in the United Kingdom, 13

Brizard (L.), Radiation of Quinine Sulphate, 429

Broglie (^L de). Radiation of Quinine Sulphate, 429

Broniewski (VVitold), Electrical Properties of the Alumin-
ium Mng^nesium .Alloys, 395

Brooks (Cecil J.), Occurrence of Matonia sarmentosa in
Sarawak, 541

Brooks (F. T.), Cause of the Silver-leaf Disease of Fruit
Trees, 59

Brooks Patent T-square Lock, the, 5

Broom (Dr. R.), Systematic Position and Feeding-habits of
the African Jurassic Genus Tritylodon and its Northern
.Allies Plagiaulax and Ptilodus, 48

Brown (A. E.), Death of, 82

Brown (Prof. A. P.), the Differentiation and Specificity of
Corresponding Proteins and other Vital Substances in
Relation to Biological Classification and Organic Evolu-
tion and the Crystallography of Haemoglobins, 57

Brown (T. A. Harvie), Scottish Natural History, 336

Brown (Prof. W.), Mechanical Stress and Magnetisation
of Nickel, 161, 531

Browne (Rev. H. C.), Suggested Improvement in Epicyclic
Variable Gears, 327

Brownlee (Dr. John), Relation of the Mono-Molecular
Reaction of Life Processes to Immunity, 497

Bruce (Sir Charles, G.C.M.G.), the Broad Stone of Empire,
Problems of Crown Colony .Administration, with Records
of Personal Experience, 229

Bruce (Col. Sir David), Experiments to ascertain if "Ante-
lope may act as a Reservoir of the Virus of Sleeping
Sickness (Trypanosoma ganihiense), 428 ; Experiments
to ascertain if the Domestic Fowl of Uganda may act
as a Reservoir of the Virus of Sleeping Sickness (Trypan-
osoma gambiense), 428

Bruce (Dr. William S.), the Oceanographical Institute at
Paris, 513

Briihl (Julius Wilhelm), Obituary Notice of, 517

Bruntz (L.), Physiological Significance of the Vital Colora-
tion of Leucocytes, 361 ; Eliminating role of the Leuco-
cytes, 429

Brussels Exhibition, Astronomy at the. Dr. Stroobant, 282

Bryan (Prof. G. H.), Loss of Life bv .Aeroplane Accidents,
484

Brvant (Dr. Robert), the Secular .Acceleration of the Moon's
Mean Motion, 119

Bryant (Mrs.), Specialisation in Teaching, 353

Buchanan (J. Y., F.R.S.), the Oceanographical Museum
at Monaco, 7

Bucking (Mr.), the Tierras Cocidas of the Pampas Beds
of Argentina, 178

Buckland (James), the Birds of our Colonies and their
Protection, 315

Nature, "I

ircli 23, 1911 J

Index

XI

Bucknill (Mr.), Eggs of Certain South African Birds, 557
Building : Novel Types of Timber Construction, Otto Hetzer^

86; Decay of Building Stones, Dr. Tempest Anderson,

116
BuUer (Prof.), the Function and Fate of the Cystidia of

Coprinus, 59
Bulloch (Dr.), Appeal for the Adequate Endowment of

Medical Education and Research, 316
Burchard (E. F.), Iron Ores, Fuels, and Flu.xes of the

Birmingham District, Alabama, 420
Burial Customs in Egypt, Early, Prof. W. M. Flinders

Petrie, F.R.S., 41 ; Prof. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., 41
Burkill (I. K.), Journey into Nepal, 417
Burnham (Prof.), Double Stars, 418
Burnside (Prof.), the Neglect of Group-theory, 313
Burt (Cyril), Series of Experiments Performed with a Group

of Elementary-school Children at Oxford, 89
Burtt-Da\T (J.), Pteridophyta for the Transvaal Province, 48
Buss ^.Albert Alfred), the Progressive Disclosure of the

Entire Atmosphere of the Sun, 540
Butler (C. P.), the Spectrum of Halley's Comet, 193
Butler (Dr. E. J.), Bud-rot Disease of Palms, 246
Butler (F. H.), Kaolin, 496
Butler (Samuel), Unconscious Memory, 3 ; Life and Habit,

505
Butts (C), Iron Ores, Fuels and Fluxes of the Birmingham
District, Alabama, 420

Calcul des Variations, Lecons sur le, Prof. J. Hadamard,

197
Calculus, the, for Beginners, J. W. Mercer, 136
Calculus, First Course in, Prof. E. J. Townsend and Prof.

G. A. Goodenough, 368
Calcutta, Asiatic Society of Bengal, 130, 396
Calendar, a Perpetual, Sir William Ramsav, K.C.B.,

F.R.S., 540; W. T. L., 540
Calendar Reform, Proposed, f. C. Chamberlin, 454; M.

Grosclaude, 454
California, University of, Berkeley, Cal., Physiology the

Servant of Medicine, being the Hitchcock Lectures for

1909, delivered at. Dr. Augustus D. Waller, F.R.S., Sir

T. Clifford Allbutt, K.C.B., F.R.S., 465
Caiman (Dr. W. T.), the Transference of Names in Zoology,

406
Calorimetry : the Metabolism and Energy Transformations

of Healthy Man during Rest, F. G. Benedict and T. M.

Carpenter, Prof. J. S. Macdonald, 276
Cambridge, N. Barwell, 202

Cambridge Philosophical Society, 128, 160, 261, 531
Cameron (A. T.), Radiochemistry, 165

Campbell (Leon), the Spectrum of Nova Sagittarii No. 2, 22
Campbell (Prof.), Preliminary Results Derived from Radial-
velocity Determinations, 348 ; Mars and Its Atmosphere,'

486 ; New Spectroscopic Binaries, 524
Campion (A.), Iron and Steel .Analysis, 268
Candlemas Day still Observed in Holland, 483
Cannizzaro (Stanislao), Sketch of a Course of Chemical

Philosophy, 2
Cannon (Miss), New Variable Stars in Harvard Map No. 52.

22 ; Discovery of Another Nova, Sagittarii No. 3, 248 ;

Nova Sagittarii No. 3 H.V. 3306, 552
Cantrill (Mr.), the Geologv of the South Wales Coalfield,

386
Cape of Good Hope, Agricultural Journal of the. Dr.

E. J. Russell, 111
Carey (A. E.), Winning of Coastal Lands in Holland, 282
Carmody (Prof. P.), Reports of the Botanical Departments

in Trinidad and Tobago, 345
Carnegie Institution of Washington and its Work, the,

Dr. R. S. Woodward, 74
Carpenter (Prof. G. H.), Life-history of the Reindeer
, Warble-fly {Oedernagena tarandi), 345
Carpenter (Prof. H. C. H.), Die Untersuchungs-Methoden

des Eisens und Stahls, Dr. A. Riidisiile, 233 ; New Criti-
cal Point in Copper-zinc Alloys, 428
Carpenter (T. M.), the Metabolism and Energy Trans-
formations of Healthy Man during Rest, 276
Carruthers (D.), Exploring Upper Part of the Basin of the

Yenesei and the Western Frontier of Mongolia, 315
Carse (Dr. G. A.), .Atmospheric Electricity, 281

Carslaw (Prof. H. S.J, the Bolyai-Lobatschewsky System,
346

Carthaus (Dr. Emil), Die klimatischen Verhiiltnisse dcr
geologischen \'orzeit vom Prajcambrium an bis zur
Jetztzeit und ihr Einfluss auf die Entwickelung der
Haupttypen des Tier- und Pfianzenreiches, 36

Carvallo (J.), Electrical Purification of Liquid Sulphur
Dioxide and its Electrical Conductivity, 34

Castor, Mass-ratios of the Components of Kriiger 60 and,
Dr. H. N. Russell, 418

Catania Zones, the Astrographic Catalogue, 385

Cave (C. J. P.), Pilot Balloon Observations made in
Barbados during the International Week, December 6-11,
190Q. 128

Cavendish Laboratory, the, 112

Cavendish Laboratory, a History of the, 1871-1910, 195

Cellulose, die Chemie der, unter besonderer Beriicksichti-
gung der Textll- und Zellstoflindustrien, Prof. Carl G.
Schwalbe, 67

Ceramics : the Potter's Craft, F. Binns, 269 ; Report of
th<j Department Committee appointed to Inquire into the
Dangers Attendant on the Use of Lead and the Danger
or Injury to Health Arising from Dust and other Causes
in the Manufacture of Earthenware and China and
in Processes incidental thereto, including the Making of
Lithographic Transfers, 273 ; Transactions of the
English Ceramic Society, 411

Ceraski (Prof.), Utilisation of the Sun's Heat, 4^4

Cerulli (Dr.), Discovery of a Comet, 87; Cerulli's Comet
(iqioe) Identified with Faye's Short-period Comet, 151

Cerulli's Comet 19106, Prof. Hartwig, 119: Dr. Ebell,
119; Identified w-ith Faye's Short-period Comet, Prof.
Pickering, 150; Dr. Ebell, 150; Dr. Schiller, 151; Dr.
Ristenpart, 151 ; Dr. Cerulli, 151

o Ceti, Polarisation in the Spectrum of. Dr. Wright, 486

Challenger Society, 6-^, 564

Chamberlin (T. C.), Proposed Calendar Reform, 4^4

Chanute (Octave), Death of, 215

Chapman (F.), Fossilised Birds' Feathers from the
Tertiary Ironstone of Redruth, Victoria, 20 ; the
Mee^alospheric Form of Ammodiscus incertus, 139;
Trilobite Fauna of Upper Cambrian .Age (Olenus Series)
in N.E. Gippsland, Victoria, 160 ; Revision of the
Species of Limopsis in the Tertiary Beds of Southern
.Australia, 430

Charcot (Dr. J. B.). the Second French Antarctic Expedi-
tion, Lecture at Royal Geographical Society, 257

Charlesworth (F.), Practical Mathematics and Geometry,
470

Charlicr (C. V. L.). Multiple Solutions in the Determina-
tion of Orbits from Three Observations, 226

Charm of the Road, the, James J. Hissey, 137

Chatley (Prof. Herbert^ the Structural Design of Aero-
planes, 4-?2

Chauss^ (P.), Latent Mesenteric Tuberculosis produced
Experimentally in the Dog, 98 ; Production of Primitive
Thoracic Tuberculosis in Cattle by the Inhalation of
Infinitesimal Amounts of Bovine Tuberculous Material,
194

Chauvenet (Ed.). New General Method of Preparing
Anhydrous Metallic Chlorides. 383

Cheesemaking, the Practice of Soft, C. W. Walker-Tisdale
and T. R. Robinson, 71

Chemistry : Sketch of a Course of Chemical Philosophy,
Stanislao Cannizzaro, 2 ; History of Chemistry, Sir
Edward Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S., ^ ; on Hydrogen in Iron,
John Parry, 6; Helium and Geological Time, Hon. R. J.
Strutt, F.R.S., 6, si : Two .Active .Alcohols and a Third
Ketone contained in Spirit from Cocoanut Oil, A. Haller,
3^ : the Nitrous Esters of Cellulose, Paul Nicolardot and
Georges Chertier. 34 ; die Chemie der Cellulose unter
besonderer Beriicksichtigung der Textil- und ZellstofT-
industrien. Prof. Carl G. Schwalbe, 67 ; Action of the
L'ltra-violet Rays upon the Tubercle Bacillus and upon
Tuberculin, Madame V. Henri-Cernovodeanu. Victor
Henri and V. Baroni, 34 ; Sterilisation of Water
on the Large Scale by Ultra-violet Light, M. Urbain,
CI. Seal, and A. Feige, 65 ; Principal Types of Photolysis
of Organic Comoounds by the Ultra-violet Rays, Daniel
Berthelot and Henry Gaudechon. 327 ; Photolysis of
Complex .Acids by the Ultra-violet Ravs, Daniel Berthelot

Xll

Index

[

Nature,
March 23, 191 1

and Henry Gaudechon, 498; Comparative Action of the
Ultra-violet Rays on Organic Compounds possessing
Linear and Cyclic Structure, Daniel Berthelot and Henry
Gaudechon, 565 ; Action of the Ultra-violet Rays upon
Diastases, H. Agulhon, 566 ; Action of Nitrates in
Alcoholic Fermentation, A. Fernbach and A. Lanzenberg,
•}.i. : Influence of Nitrates on Alcoholic Ferments, E.
Kayser, 98 ; Obscure Phenomenon of Alcoholic Fermenta-
tion, O. Overbeck, 3S0 ; Electrical Purification of Liquid
Sulphur Dioxide and its Electrical Conductivity, J.
Carvallo, 34; Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis, 37,
365 ; Constituents of the Soil, Mr. Failyer, 49 ; Prepara-
tion of Argon, Georges Claude, 65 ; Method of Analysis
of Fatty Bodies by the Separation of the Solid Fatty
Acids from the Liquid Acids, M. David, 65 ; Synthesis
of Ketones in the Tetrahydroaromatic Series, G. Darzens
and H. Rost, 65 ; New Sugar Verbascose Extracted from
the Root of Verhascum fhapsus, Em. Bourquelot and M.
Bridel, 6^ ; Liquids with Focal Conies, G. Friedel and

F. Grandjean, 61:; ; the Elements, Sir William A. Tilden,
F.R.S., Dr. Arthur Harden, F.R.S., 69; the Relations
between Chemical Constitution and some Physical
Properties, Prof. Samuel Smiles, Dr. Arthur Harden,
F.R.S., 69 ; Physical Chemistry, its Bearing on Biology
and Medicine, Prof. James C. Philip, Dr. Arthur Harden,
F.R.S., 6q ; a College Text-book of Chemistry, Prof. Ira
Remsen, 70; Outlines of Chemistry, Prof. Louis Kahlen-
berg, 70; Nobel Prize awarded to Prof. Otto Wallach,
82 ; Application of the Dilatometric Method to the Study
of the Polymorphism of the Alkali Nitrates, Prof. Bellati
and Dr. Tinazzi, 86 ; the Banquet to Jubilee Past-
presidents of the Chemical Society, 87; Chemical Physics
involved in the Precipitation of Free Carbon from the
Alloys of the Iron-carbon System, W. H. Hatfield, 9:; ;
Development of the Atomic Theory, Dr. A. N. Meldrum,
97, 531 ; Preparation of Crystallised Strontium, A. Guntz
and M. Galliot, 98 ; Tetranitromethane, E. Berger, 98 ;
Purification of Starch, G. Malfitano and Mile. A. N.
MoschkofT, 98 ; Principles of Chemical Geology, a Review
of the Applications of the Equilibrium Theory to
Geological Problems, Dr. J. V. Elsden, 100 ; Introduc-
tion to Physical Chemistry, Prof. H. C. Jones, 103 ;
Destruction of Agricultural Plant Pests by Chemical
Means, H. C. Long, 117: Oxidation of Phenol by
Certain Bacteria in Pure Culture, G. J. Fowler, E.
Ardern, and W. T. Lockett, 127; Investigations on the
State of Aggregation of Matter, S. B. Schryver, 127 ;
Reduction of Phosphoryl Chloride by Hydrogen under
the Influence of the Silent Discharge, A. Basson and L.
Fournier, 129; Research on Gases Occluded in the
Copper Allovs. G. Guillemin and B. Delachanal, 129 ;
New Method for the Preparation of the Glycidic Esters,

G. Darzens, 129 ; Influence Exerted by the Reaction upon
Certain _ Properties of Malt Extracts, A. Fernbach and
M. Schoen, 129 ; Absolute Measurement of the Magnetic
Double Refraction of Nitrobenzene, A. Cotton and H.
Mouton, 129; Reactions in Presence of Nickel,
Panchanan Neosfi and Birendra Bhusan Adhicary, 130 ;
die Alkaloide, Prof. E. Winterstein and Dr. G. Trier,
131: a Text-book of Organic Chemistry, Prof. A. F.
Holleman, 136 ; Death of Dr. Henry Wurtz, 146 ; Deter-
minations of the Amount of Arsenic present in Soil,
Plants, Fruits, and Animals, Dr. Headden, 148; Protein
Hydrolysis, F. W. Foreman, 161 ; Progressive Phos-
phorescent Spectrum of Organic Compounds at Low
Temperatures, J. de Kowalski and J. de Dziergbicki,
161 ; Propiolic Compounds, Charles Moureu and J. Ch.
Bongrand, 161 ; Kleines Handworterbuch der Agrikultur-
chemie. Dr. Max Passon, Dr. E. J. Russell, 164: Radio-
chemistry, A. T. Cameron, Dr. B. B. Boltwood, 165 •
Practical Physiological Chemistry, a Book Designed for
Use in Courses in Practical Physiological Chemistry in
Schools of Medicine and of Science, Philip B. Hawk,
169 ; Theory of the Chemical Action of the Electric
Discharge in Electrolytic Gas and other Gases, P. J.
Kirby, 192 ; Dynamic Method for Measuring Vapour
Pressures with its Application to Benzene and Ammonium
Chloride, Profs. Alex. Smith and A. W. C. Menzies, 19-? :
Quantitative Studv of the Constitution of Calomel
Vapour, Profs. Alex. Smith and A. W. C. Menzies, 193 ;
Anisotropic Liquids, G. Friedel and F. Grandjean, 194 ;

Biological Degradation of the Carbohydrates, A. Fern-
bach, 194 ; Action of the Bulgarian Ferment upon
Proteid and Amido Substances, J. Effront, 194; die
Wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen der analytischen Chemie,
W. Ostwald, 201 ; Researches upon the Atomic Weights
of Cadmium, Manganese, Bromine, Lead, Arsenic,
Iodine, Silver, Chromium, and Phosphorus, G. P.
Baxter, 202 ; Tribo Luminescence of Uranium, Prof.
W. A. Douglas Rudge, 207 ; Alfred C. G. Egerton, 308 ;
Nature of the Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide
Solutions produced by Light, M. Tian, 227 ; by Passing
a Rapid Current of Hydrogen Bromide over Amorphous
.Silicon at a Red Heat a Liquid is obtained which, on
Submitting to Fractional Distillation, gives as the Main
Product of the Reaction Silicon Tetrabromide, A. Besson
and L. Fournier, 227 ; Addition of Hydrogen to the
Isomeric Thujenes and Sabinene, L. Tchougaeff and \^'.
Fomin, 227 ; New Reaction of Morphine, Georges
Deniges, 227 ; Nature of the Oxides causing the Colora-
tion of the Oriental Sapphire, A. Verneuil, 227 ; Influ-
ence of Temperature on the Activity of Cellase, Gabriel
Bcrtrand and Arthur Compton, 227 ; die Untersuchungs-
Methoden des Eisens und Stahls, Dr. A. Riidisiile, Prof.
H. C. H. Carpenter, 233; Properties of Zinc Amalgam
as Affecting the Clark Cell, Ernst Cohen and P. J. H.
van Ginneken, 248; Radium Content of Salts of Potas-
sium, J. Satterly, 261 ; Probable Chemical Properties of
Radium and its Combinations, M. de Forcrand, 395 ;
Discharge of Positive Electricity from Sodium Phosphate
Heated in Different Gases, F. Horton, 261 ; Luminescent
Tubes containing Neon, Georges Claude, 262 ; Chemical
Composition of the Gases Spontaneously given off by
the Thermal-mineral Spring of Uriage Is^re, G. Massol,
262 ; Action of Nitric Acid upon the Aloins, E. Leger,
262 ; Hexahydroacetophenone and Hexahydrobenzoyl-
acetone. Marcel Godchot, 262 ; General Principles which
ought to be Followed in Establishing Formulae for
Insecticides, V. Vermorel and E. Dantony, 262 ; Smoke
and its Prevention, Prof. Vivian B. Lewes at London
Institution, 290; Practical Physiological Chemistry, Dr.
R. H. Aders Plimmer, 302 ; New Reaction for Cupreine,
Georges Deniges, 328 ; Brown Gold, M. Hanriot, 32S,
429 ; Action of some Esters on the Monosodium Deriva-
tive of Benzyl Cyanide, F. Bodroux, 328 ; Condensation
of Acrolein Bromide with Melonic Acid, M. Lespieau,
328 ; Addition of Hydrogen in Presence of Palladium,
Pierre Breteau, 328 ; Chemical Distinction between
Orthose and Microcline, W. Vernadsky and Mile. E.
R^voutsky, 328 ; Theoretical Principles of the Methods
of Analytical Chemistry based upon Chemical Reactions,
Prof. M. G. Chesneau, Dr. H. M. Dawson, 330 ; Soured
Milk and its Preparation, Lactic Cheeses, Prof. R. T.
Hewlett, 338 ; Apparatus for the Rapid Electro-analytical
Determination of Metals, Dr. H. J. S. Sand and W. M.
Smalley, 360 ; Thermochemical Study of some Binary
Compounds of the Metals of the Alkalies and the Alkaline
Earths, M. de Forcrand, 361 ; New General Method of
Preparing Anhydrous Metallic Chlorides, Ed. Chauvenet,
383 ; Experimental Determination of the Equivalent of
Magnesium, W. M. Hooton, 386 ; New Property of the
Magnetic Molecule, Pierre Weiss," 301; ; Influence of
Functional Groups on the Spectrum of Progressive Phos-
phorescence, J. de Kowalski and J. de Dzierzbicki,
30; ; Electrical Properties of the Aluminium Magnesium
Allovs, Witold Broniewski, 39.!^ ; Ketones derived from
the Three Isomeric Toluic Acids, J. B. Senderens, -^9:; ;
New Thiophene Compound, Cj^H^S,, and some of its
Derivatives, M. Lanfry, 396 ; Condensation of Acetic
Ester with its Higher Homologues, A. Wahl, 396 ;
Methvlamine Nitrite, P. C. Ray and Jitendra Nath
Rakshit, 306 ; die experimentelle Grundlegung der
Atomistik, W. Mecklenberg, 403 : Action of B. lactis
aerogenes on Glucose and Mannitol, G. S. Walpole, 427 ;
Transformation of Proteids into Fats during the Ripen-
ing of Cheese, M. Nierenstein, 427 : Haemoglobin as a
Peroxydase, Gabriel Bertrand and F. Rogozinski, 429 ;
Radiation of Quinine Sulphate, M. de Broglie and L.
Brizard, 429 ; New Element accompanying Lutecium and
Scandium in the Gadolinite Earths Celtium, G. Urbain,
429; Traits complet d'analyse Chimique, appliqu^e aux
essais industriels. Prof. J. Post and Prof. B. Neumann,

Katurc,
March 23, 19 11

]

Index

xiu

C. Simmonds, 43'^ ; the Afterglow of Electric Discharge
in Nitrogen, Hon. R. j. Strutt, F.R.S., 439; Properties
of Binary Mixtures of some Liquefied Gases, Dr. B. D.
Steele and L. S. Bagster, 453; a Manual of Practical
Inorganic Chemistry, Dr. A. M. Kellas, 466 ; Trans-
formation of Phenyl-o/3-pentenic Acid into its ^S-Isomer,
J. Bougault, 463 ; Acetylene Pinacone, Georges Dupont,
463 ; Method for the Complete Destruction of Organic
flatter in the Detection and Estimation of Mineral
Poisons, Pierre Breteau, 463 ; Action upon Green Plants
of some Substances Extracted from Coal-tar and Em-
ployed in Agriculture, Marcel Mirande, 464 ; Monographs
on Biochemistry, the Fats, Prof. J. B. Leathes, 502 ;
Death and Obituary Notice of Julius Wilhelm Briihl,
517; Synthesis of Camphoric Acid, Prof. Komppa, 522;
Estimation of the Organic Matters in Unpolluted and
Polluted Waters with Potassium Bichromate and Sul-
phuric Acid, Dr. W. E. Adeney. 531 ; Kapillarchemie,
Dr. Herbert Freundlich, 534 ; the Microscopical Examina-
tion of Food and Drugs, Prof. H. G. Greenish, 538 ;
Death of Dr. Leonard Parker Kinnicutt, 547 ; Crystal
Structure and Chemical Composition, Prof. W. J. Pope,
F.R.S., 5-51 ; Fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen, Prof. J.
Zenneck, 5.^6 ; Recent Advances and Problems in
Chemistry, Prof. Emil Fischer, :;-;8 ; Preparation of the
Black Enamel of the Italo-Greek Potteries, A. Verneuil,
565 ; Ketones derived from Phenylpropionic Acid, J. B.
Senderens, 56^ ; New Methods for the Synthesis of
Nitriles, M. Grignard, 565 ; the Dehydration of Salts,
Lecoq de Boisbaudran, 565 ; Direct Esterification by
Catalysis, Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe, 565 ; the Magni-
tude of Magnetism deduced from the Coefficients of
Magnetisation of Solutions of Iron Salts, Pierre Weiss,
56.=;

Chertier (Georges), the Nitrous Esters of Cellulose, 34

Chesneau (Prof. M. G.), Theoretical Principles of the
Methods of Analytical Chemistry, based upon Chemical
Reactions, 330

Chevalier (Aug.), Ou^m^ River Curious Phenomenon, 49

Chevaliir (Father), the Apparent Diameter of Jupiter, 51

Child Problems, Dr. G. B. Mangold, 538

China, Gleanings from Fifty Years in, A. Little, 275

China, Native Working of Coal and Iron in, 251

Chofardet (P.), Observations of CeruUi's Comet (1910c)
made at the Observatory of Besangon with the Bent
Equatorial, i2q

Chree (Dr. C. F.R.S.). on the Electricity of Rain and its
Origin in Thunderstorms, Dr. George C. Simpson, 81 ;
Supposed Propagation of Equatorial Magnetic Disturb-
ances with Velocities of the Order of 100 Miles per
Second, 160; the Recent Earthquakes in Asia, 33;;
Russian Magnetic Observations, Prof. Ernst Leyst, 388

Chronology : a Preliminarv Studv of Chemical Denudation,
F. W. Clarke. 177 : the'Age of the Earth, G. F. Becker,
173 ; Proposed Calendar Reform, T. C. Chamberlin, 6Xx :
M. Grosclaude. 4:^4 ; a Perpetual Calendar, Sir William
Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., :;40 ; W. T. L.. 540

Chronometry : Accuracy of Time on Magnetograms, G. W.
Walker, 236 ; Standard Time in France, 277 : Daylight
Saving Bill. 41-; ; System of Fixed or Differential
Synchronisation, Ernest Esclangon, 463 ; Synchronisation
of Clocks, 482, 516; Time Ball, 483: Government Bill
for Adoption of Greenwich Time as Official Time in
France, 518

Cisotti (U.), Dynamical Reaction of a Liquid Jet, 463

Civilisation, Engfineering and, Alexander Siemens at Insti-
tution of Civil Engineers, ^q

Clarification of Liquids by the Process of Tanking, the,
Rowland A. Earp. 308

Clarke (F. W.), a Preliminary Studv of Chemical Denuda-
tion, 173

Claude (Georges), the Preparation of Argon, 65 :
Luminescent Tubes containing Neon, 262

Claude (M.), Telephonic and Radio-telegraphic Comparisons
of Chronometers by the Method of Coincidences between
Paris and Brest, 161

Cleland (Dr. J. Burton), the Ha?matozoa of Australian
Batrachians, 130 ; Occurrence of Pentastomes in Aus-
tralian Cattle. 130

Climatic Conditions and Organic Evolution, Ivor Thomas,
36

Clinch (George), some Unexplored Fields in British

Archaeology, 22
Clocks, Synchronisation of, 482, 516
Clough (W. T.), Elementary Experimental Electricity and

Magnetism, 135
Coal : die Entstehung der Steinkohle und der Kaustobio-
lithe uberkaupt, Prof. H. Potoni^, 199; Native Working
of Coal and Iron in China, 251
Coal Dust Experiments, Records of the First Series of tho
British, conducted by the Committee Appointed by the
Mining Association of Great Britain, Prof. W. Galloway.
4S7
Cocos-Keeling Atoll, the, Rev. E. C. Spicer, 41 ; F. Wood-
Jones, 41, 106, 139; the Reviewer, 42, 106; Madge W.
Drummond, 107, 206
Cofjgia (M.), Observations of the New CerulH Planet

(K.U.) 1910, 65
Cohen (Ernst), Properties of Zinc Amalgam as Affecting

the Clark Cell, 248
Cohn (Prof. E.), Principles of Relativity, 452
Coker (Prof. E. G.), Photo-elasticity. 347
Cole (Dr.). Blackhead in Turkeys, 85-6
Cole (Prof. Grenville A. J.), Submarine Geology of the
West Coast of Ireland, 388 ; Weathering on the Surface
of a Sheet of Fine-grained Diorite near Rathmullan,
•^88: Lehrbuch der Geologie von Deutschland, Prof. J.
Walther, 468 : Geologie von Deutschland und den
angrenzenden Gebieten, Prof. R. Lepsius. 468 ; Geologie
von Ostpreussen, Prof. A. Tourquist, 468
Cole (L. J.l. Bird-marking in the United States, 147
Coleman (Dr. L. C), the Palm Disease, "Kolerc^a."'

217
Coleoptera Lamellicornia (Cetoniinae and Dynastinas), the
Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma,
G. J. Arrow, 467
Colliery Surveying, Field and, T. A. O 'Donahue, 405
Colliery Warnings, Prof. Henry Louis, 336, 438 ; the

Author of the Warnings, 437: R. M. Deeley. :;i2
Collin (J. E.), New Species of Small Hairy Flies of the
Genus Limosina taken from a Coprophagous Beetle in
Cevlon, 246
Collins (F. Howard). Death of, 146
Collins (J. H.), Wood-tin, 127
Colour Contrast in Photomicrography, Messrs. Wratten

and Wain Wright. 319
Comets : Halley's Comet. 21 ; M. Bassot. 97: H. E. Wood,
340 ; Messrs. Innes and Worssell, 350 ; Father Goetz.
3^0; Profs. Nijland and van der Bilt. 350: F. Sy. 351;
Dr. J. Mascart. 3^1 ; M. Jamain, 3^;! ; the Motion of
Molecules in the Tail of Halley's Comet, Prof. Lowell.
21 ; Ephemeris for Halley's Comet, Dr. Ebell, 51 ;
Selenium Photometer Measures of the Brightness of
Halley's Comet, Joel Stebbin. 51 ; Recent Helwan Photo-
graphs of Halley's Comet, Prof. Barnard, 180 ; Observa-
tions of, made at the Nice Observatorv with the Gautier
Equatorial of 76 cm. Aperture, M. Javelle, 129 ; Con-
dition of the Atmosphere during the Recent Proximity
of, H. G. A. Hardinge. 130 : the Spectrum of, C. P.
Butler. IQ3 ; Discovery of a Comet, Dr. Cerulli, 87 :
Cerulli's Comet, T9io<?. Prof. Hartwig, 119; Dr. Ebell.
1 19 ; Obser\' ations of. made at the Observatory of
Besangon with the Bent Equatorial, P. Chofardet, 129 ;
Cerulli's Comet (i9ioe), Identified with Faye's Short-
period Comet, Prof. Pickering, 150; Dr. Ebell, i^o; Dr.
Schiller, 151 ; Dr. Ristenpart. i^i ; Dr. Cerulli. 151 :
Observations of Cerulli's Comet made at the Observatory
of Lyons. J. Guillaume. 161 ; Ephemeris for Faye's
Comet, iQioe, Dr. Ebell. 180; Identity of the Cerulli
Comet with the Faye Comet, G. Fayet, 103 ; Faye's
Comet, G. Fayet, 248 : Observations of the Faye-Cerulli
Comet made at the Obser\-atory of Marseilles with the
Comet Finder, M. Borrclly, 261 ; Elements for Faye's
Comet. i9ioe. Prof. Ristenpart and Dr. Prager. 310;
Mr. Meyer and Miss Levy. 319 ; Ephemeris for Faye's
Comet, Dr. Ebell. ^23 ; Metcalf's Comet, 1910&. Dr.
Ebell. 87. 310; Definitive Elements for the Orbit of
Comet 1904 IT. (1904^). J. Sedla^ek. 218; Investigation
of the Orbit of Wolf's Comet, 1898-1911. M. Kamensky,
248; Comets due to Return in 1911. Mr. Lynn, 348:
Cometary Theories. Messrs. Roe and Graham. 486 ; Prof.
Eginitis. 486

XIV

Index

[

March 23, 191 1

jCompton (Arthur), Influence of Temperature on the Activity

of Cellase, 227
Congresses, Conflicting Dates of International, Dr. F. A.

Bather, 130
Conic Sections, S. Gangopdclhydya, 167
Conservation Commission of Maryland, Report of the, for

1908-9, 545
Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States,

the, Charles R. Van Hise, 545
Constable (F. C), the Conduct and Song of Birds, 308
Cook (Capt.), Memorial to, 114; Dr. A. C. Haddon,

F.R.S.. 236
Cooke (Dr. Theodore), Death of, 46 ; Obituary Notice of, 82
Cooke (R.), Variation of the Depth of Water in a Well at

Detling, near Maidstone, compared with the Rainfall,

188:5-1909, 565
Cooke (W. E.), Standard Astrometry, 523
Cooke (W. W.), Distribution and Migration of North

American Shore-birds, 116
Coon (J. M.), Alteration of the Felspar of Granite to

China-clay, 127
Copeman (Dr. S. Monckton, F.R.S.), Flies as Carriers of

Infection, t;2^
Copernicus (Nicol.aus), Several Entirely Unknown Auto-
graphs of. Dr. L. Birkenmajer, 217
Cori (Prof. Carl I.), der Naturfreund am Strande der

Adria und des Mittelmeergebictes, 369
Cbrin (James), Mating, Marriage, and the Status of

W^omen, 334
Corner (Engineer Rear-.Admira! J. T.), Some Practical

Experience with Corrosion of Metals, 428
Cornish (Dr. Vaughan), the Panama Canal in 19 10, Paper

at Royal Society of Arts, 420
Corsica, the Ice Age in, 456

Cosmogonia di Bhrgu, la, A. M. Pizzagalli, 452
Cotton Growing within the British Empire, J. H. Reed at

Royal Geographical Society, 184
Cotton (A.), Absolute Measurement of the Magnetic Double

Refraction of Nitrobenzene, 129 : Delicacy Interference

Measurements and the Means of Increasing Them, 429
Coulten (Prof. J. M.), a Text-book of Botany for Colleges

and Universities, -loo
Courthope (G. L.), Sugar-beet Growing. 25
Couturat (Dr. Louis), Internaciona Matematikal Lexiko en

Ido, Germana, Angla, Franca e Italiana, 269 ; Inter-
national Language and Science, 260
Cowan (Tames), the Maoris of New Zealand, 109
Cowles (Prof. H. C), a Text-book of Botany for Colleges

and Universities, 309
Cowper (H. S.), Exploration of a Flint Implement Factory,

520
Craig (J. 1.1, Report upon the Rains of the Nile Basin and

the Nile Flood of 1009, 485
Craniolog'y : Dioptrographic Tracings in Four Normal of

Fifty-two Tasmanian Crania, Prof. R. J. A. Berry and

A. W. D. Robertson, 366
Crapper (E. H.), Electric Circuit Problems in Mines and

F'actories, 503
Crathorne (A. R.), College Algebra, 368
Crawley (A. E.), First Annual Report of the Commission

of Conservation, Canada, no: Mitteilun^en des Provin-

zialkomitees fiir NaturdenkmnlpfleEre, no; Naturdenk-

malpflege und Aquarrenkunde, R. Hermann and W.

Wolterstorff, no: Naturdenkmalpflege, Prof. Giirich,

no; Uber Zeil u. Methode der Naturdenkmalpflege, Prof.

Dr. B. Schaefer-Cassel, no; Uber das Tierleben in dem

von der Staatsforstverwaltung sfeschiitzten Zwergberken-

Moor in Neulinum, Dr. Th. Kuhleatz, no; Neues aus

der Naturdenkmalpflege, Dr. W. Giinther, no
Creel, An Open, H. T. Sherinsjham, 102
Cresswell (F.), Origin of the English Tria$sic Strata, with

special Reference to the Keuper Marls, 247
Cretaceous .Angiosperms, Lower, Dr. M. C. Stopes, 139
Crete, Excavations on the Island of Pseira, Richard B.

Seager, H. R. Hall, 272
Crete, the Sea-Kings of. Rev. James Baikie, 2-?.^
Crick (G. C), New Genus and Species of Dibranchiate
Cephalopod Bclemnocamnx hoiveri, from the Lower Chalk
(Tottenhoe Stone) of Lincolnshire, 285
Crook (T.). Submarine Geology of the West Coast of

Ireland, 388 ; a Case of Electrostatic Separation, 496

Crooke (W.), Origin of the Rajputs and Mahrattas, 177

Crowther (Dr.), the Impurities of the Town Atmosphere,
and their Effects on Vegetation, 24

Crowthrr (J. A.), the Distribution of Secondary Rontgen
Radiation round a Radiator, 261 ; Energy and Distribu-
tion of Scattered Rontgen Radiation, 462

Crustacea : Stalk-eyed Crustaceans from the Coast of Peru,
Miss Rathbun, 84 ; Life-history of the Common Lobster,
Dr. A. Appellof, 179

Crystallography : the Differentiation and Specificity of Cor-
responding Proteins and other Vital Substances in Relation
to Biological Classification and Organic Evolution and
the Crystallography of Haemoglobins, Prof. E. T. Reichert
and Prof. A. P. Brown, 57; Crystal Structure and
Chemical Composition, Prof. W. J. Pope, F.R.S., 551

Cucchetti (Gino), Afforestation, a Remedy for the Disastrous
Effects of Earthquake in Messina and Southern Italy, 149

Curie (Madame), Royal Society of Arts' Albert Medal pre-
sented to, 176

Curves and Surfaces, Singularities of, A. B. Bassett, F.R.S.,
336, 440; T. J. I'a. B., 336, 440

Cushing (Dr. Harvey), Present Status of Neurological
Surgery, 147

Cygni, a New Variable Star or a Nova 97, 1910, Mr.
Hinks, 22

Daday (Dr. E. von), Microfauna of the Nile, 549

Dantony (E.), General Principles which ought to be fol-
lowed in establishing Formula; for Insecticides, 262

Darling (Chas. R.), the Formation of Spheres of Liquids,
512

Darwin (Dr. F.), New Method of Observing in Living
Leaves, while still attached to the Plant, the Degree to
which the Stomatal Apertures are Open or Closed, 58

Darwin (Sir George), Tidal Observations made during Sir
Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition of 1907, 281

Darwin (Miss N.), Germination Conditions and the Vitality
of .Seeds, 58

Darwin, the Making of a, Dr. David Starr Jordan at
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 354

Darwin and the Transmission of Acquired Characters, E. A.
Parkyn, 474; Prof. John W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S., 474

Darwinism and Human Life, Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, 504

Darwinism and the Humanities, Prof. James Mark Baldwin,

504

Darzens (G.), Synthesis of Ketones in the Tetrahydro-
aromatic Series, 65 ; New Method for the Preparation of
the Glycidic Esters, 129

Davenport (C. B.), Eugenics, the Science of Human Im-
provement by Better Breeding, 39

David (M.), Method of Analysis of Fatty Bodies by the
Separation of the Solid Fatty Acids from the Liquid
Acids, 65

Davidson (G. F.), Measurement of Boiler Deformations. 384

Davis (Prof. Ellery W.), the Imaginary in Geometry, 383

Davis (W. G.). Climate of the Argentine Republic, 250

Davis (Prof. W. M.), "Empirical" Method of Description,
178; Geographical Essavs, 364

Dawkins (Prof. W. Boyd^ F.R.S.), the .Arrival of Man in
Britain, Huxley Memorial Lecture at Royal Anthropolo-
gical Institute, 122

Dawson (Dr. H. M.), Theoretical Principles of the Methods
of Analytical Chemistry based upon Chemical Reactions,
330

Daylight Saving Bill, 413

Dean (Bashford), Fossil Fishes, 285

Deeley (R. M.), Glacial Erosion, 475, 541 ; Colliery Warn-
ings, 512

Deinhardt-Schlomann Series of Technical Dictionaries in
Six Languages, the, Alfred Schlomann, 99

Delachanal (B.), Research on the Gases Occluded in the
Copper Alloys, 129

Dendv (Prof. Arthur, F.R.S.), the Subantarctic Islands of
New Zealand, 43

Denigfes (Georges), New Reaction of Morphine, 227 ; New
Reaction for Cupreine, 328

Denmark, Diptera Danica, Genera and Species of Flies
hitherto found in, W. Lundbeck, 506

Denning (W. F.), Fireball of October 23, 21; the January

Nature, "I

March 23, 1911 J

Index

XV

Meteors, 348 ; Fireball of January 9, 372 ; Meteors in
February, 417; Splendid Meteor on January 25, 453

der Bilt (_Prof. van), Halley's Comet, 350

der Waals (.Prof. J. D. Van), Nobel Prize Awarded to,
46. 213

Descent of Man, a New Theory of the, Richard N. \\ egner,
119; Prof. A. Keith, 206, 509; Gerhardt v. Bonin, 50J8

Desch (Dr» Cecil H.), Metallography, 301 ; the Origin of
Man, 406

Deslandres (Dr. H.), the Progressive Disclosure of the
Entire Atmosphere of the Sun, Discourse at Royal Insti-
tution of Great Britain, 422, 457 ; Researches on the
Movements of the Solar Atmospheric Layers by the Dis-
placement of the Lines of the Spectrum, 497

Desor's Svnopsis des Echinides Fossiles, Index to. Dr.
F. A. Bather. F.R.S., 404

Dewar (G. A. B.), the Book of the Dry Fly, 39

Diabetes Mellitus, Metabolism in, F. G. Benedict and E. P.
Joslin, Prof. J. S. Macdonald, 455

Dickson (J. D. Hamilton), Thermo-electric Diagram from
— 200^ to -hioo° C, based on the Experiments of Sir
James Dewar and Prof. Fleming, 193

Dictionaries, the Deinhardt-Schlomann Series of Technical,
in Six Languages, Alfred Schlomann, 99

Dierckx (Henry), the Orbit of the Perseids, 218

Digby (Miss), Behaviour of the Chromosomes during
Mitosis, 58

Dines (\\'. H.), Results obtained from the Registering
Balloon Ascents carried out during the Two International
Weeks, December 6-1 1, 1909, and August 8-13, 1910, 128

Diplodocus, Die Rekonstruktion des, O. .Abel, no

Diptera Danica : Genera and Species of Flies hitherto found
in Denmark, W. Lundbeck, 506

Diseases of the Skin, including Radiotherapy and Radium-
therapy, Prof. E. Gaucher, Dr. A. C. Jordan, 363

Disintegration Theory, the Density of Niton (Radium
Emanation) and the, R. Whytlaw Gray and Sir William
Ramsay, F.R.S., at Royal Society, 524

Ditmars (R. L.), Reptiles of the World, Tortoises and
Turtles, Crocodiles, Lizards and Snakes of the Eastern
and Western Hemispheres, 196

Dixon (Dr. Henr}- H.), the Thermo-electric Method of
Crjoscopy, 531

Dixon (Will. A.), Protection from "White Ants," and other
Pests, 270

Dixon (Dr. W. E.), Pharmacological Action of Goniotna
Kamassi (South African Boxwood), 427

Dixon (Mr.), the Geology of the South Wales Coalfield, 386

Dobell (C. Clifford), Die Variabilitat niederer Organismen
Hans Pringsheim. 501

Doelter (Prof. Dr. C), Das Radium und die Farben, 470

Dohrn (.Anton), Gedachtnisrede gehalten auf den Imer-
nationalen Zoologen-Kongress in Graz am 18 August,
1910, Prof. Th. Boveri, 334

Doncaster (L.), Heredity in the Light of Recent Research,

331
Dorner (A.), Encyklopadie der Philosophie, 367
Dorrien-Smith (Captain A.), Two Botanical Excursions in

the South-west Region of West Australia, 451
Doumer (E.), Epilepsy and Constipation, 328
Douville (Henri), How Species have Varied, 33 ; Some Cases

of Adaptation, the Origin of Man, 65
Drainage and Malaria, Dr. Chas. A. Bentley, 471 ; Dr.

Malcolm Watson, 471
Drawing : the Brooks Patent T-square Lock, 5 ; a Course

of Drawing for the Standards, J. W. T. Vinall, 268 ;

Natural and Common Objects in Primary Drawing,

J. W. T. Vinall, 268
Dreaper (W. P.), Instruction in Methods of Research, 73
Driencourt (L.), Observations of the Tides made at Sea in

the Channel and the North Sea, 97 ; Telephonic and

Radio-Telegraphic Comparisons of Chronometers by the

Method of Coincidences between Paris and Brest, 161
Drinkwater (Dr. H.), a Lecture on Mendelism, 436
Drummond (Madge W.), the Cocos-Keeling Atoll, 107, 206
Dry Fly, the Book of the, G. A. B. Devvar, 39
Dublin: Royal Irish .Academy, 296; Dublin Roval Society,

161, 327. 531
Duckworth (Dr.), Head Form and Pigmentation of Cretan

School Children, 24
Duclaux (J.), Refrigerating Mixtures, 33

Dudetzky (M.), Microstructure of Hailstones, 485
Dudgeon (L. S.), Influence of Bacterial Endotoxins on

Phagocytosis, 127
Dumfriesshire, the Birds of, a Contribution to the Fauna

of the Solway Area, Hugh S. Gladstone, 378
Dun Coat Colour in the Horse, J. B. Robertson, 138
Duncan (J. C), the Spectra of Some Wolf-Rayet Stars, 552
Duncker (George), Pipe-fishes, Syngnathidae, from Rivers

of Ceylon, 122
Dunkelfeldbeleuchtung und Ultramikroskopie in der Biologie

und in der Medizin, N. Gaidukov, 72
Dunstan (Dr. Wyndham R., F.R.S.), Report on the Present

Position of Cotton Cultivation, 520
Duparc (Louis), Issite a New Rock in Dunite, 262
Dupont (Georges), Acetylene Pinacone, 463
Durand (Dr. Ernest), Bequest to Paris Museum of Natural

History, 343
Durand-Gr^ville (M.), .Aviators and Squalls, 322
Dussaud (Madame M.), Discontinuous Sources of Light, 129
Dyer (Dr. B.), the Manuring of Market-garden Crops, 505
Dyke (G. B.j, Some Resonance Curves Taken with Impact

and Spark-ball Discharges, 531 ; Measurements of Energy

Losses in Condensers Traversed by High-frequency Electric

Oscillations, 530
Dynamics : the Dynamics of a Golf Ball, Sir J. J. Thomson,

F.R.S., at Royal Institution, 251 ; Dr. C. G. Knott, 306
Dzierzbicki (J. de). Progressive Phosphorescent Spectrum of

Organic Compounds at Low Temperatures, 161 ; Influence

of Functional Groups on the Spectrum of Progressive

Phosphorescence, 395

Earland (A.), the Foraminifera of the Shore-sands of Selsey
Bill, 86 ; Some Varietal Forms of Massilina Secatis, 95

Earp (Rowland A.), the Clarification of Liquids by the
Process of Tanking, 308

Earth's Action on Sunlight and Heat, the, James D. Roots,
486

Earth's Rotation, New Experimental Demonstration of the.
Father Hagen, 248 ; B. Latour, 248

Earthquakes : Earthquakes in the Pacific, J. J. Shaw,
115; Prof. Milne, 115; Earthquake at Zanzibar, 244;
Two Slight Earthquakes felt at Glasgow, 244 ; Earth-
quake on the West Coast of .Africa, 244 : in Scotland. 244 ;
in New Guinea, 244 ; in the West Indies, 244 ; Earth-
quake Shocks at Elis, at San Francisco, and at Brusa, 314 ;
the Recent Earthquakes in Asia, Dr. W. N. Shaw.
F.R.S., 335; Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S., 335; Earthquake in
Russian Turkestan, 342 ; the Turkestan Earthquake of
January 3-4, Rev. Walter Sidgreaves, 372 ; F. Edward
Norris, 372 ; \'yernyi Earthquake, 379 ; Earthquake Shock
at Tiensin, 449

Ebell (Dr.), Ephemeris for Halley's Comet, 51 ; Metcalf's
Comet (1910b), 87, 319; Ceru'lli's Comet (igio^), 119;
Cerulli's Comet (1910*) Identified with Faye's Short-
period Comet, 151 ; Ephemeris for Faye's Comet (igioe),
iSo, 523

Echinides Fossiles, Index to Desor's Synopsis des. Dr. F. .A.
Bather, F.R.S., 404

Echinoderma of the Indian Museum, Prof. Rene Koehler,

134

Eckel (Edwin C), Origin of the Ores, 420

Eclipses: the Total Eclipse of the Moon, November 16,
E. A. Martin, 118; Madame de Robeck, 118; MM.
Luizet. Guillaume, and Merlin, 180; M. Montangerand.
iSo: M. Lebeuf, 180; M. Jonckheere, 180; Dr. Max
Wolf, 319; Father Fenyi, 319

Edinburgh, University of. Forestry Education : its Import-
ance and Requirements, E. P. Stebbing at, 61 : the
Reform of Mathematical and Science Teaching in
Germany, -A. J. Pressland at Edinburgh Mathematical
Societv, 125; Edinburgh Roval Society, 193, 261, 497,

565 ' . .

Education : the .Association of Teachers in Technical Insti-
tutions, 55 ; Education in Technical Optics, 56 ; Forestr>-
Education : its Importance and Requirements, E. P.
Stebbing at the L'niversity of Edinburgh, 61 ; the Reform
of Mathematical and Science Teaching in Germany, .A. J.
Pressland at Edinburgh Mathematical Society, 125 ; the
Work of Polytechnic Institutes, Lord Alverstone, 220 ;
Chez les Fran^ais, 270 ; Technical Education Branch of

XVI

Index

Nature,
March 23, 191 1

the Department of Public Instruction of New South |
Wales, Annual Report for 1909, 280 ; Educational Aims
and Efforts, 1880-1910, Sir Philip Magnus, 298 ; London
County Council Conference of Teachers, 353 ; Specialisa-
tion in Teaching, Mrs. Bryant, 353 ; the Relation of the
Memory to the Will, Dr. C. Spearman, 353 ; the Teaching
of Geography, B. C. Wallis, 354 ; Educational Experi-
ments in Schools, B. Lewis, 354 ; Conferences of Mathe-
matical Teachers and of Public School Science Masters,
385 ; Recent Advance of " the Astronomical Regiment,"
Prof. H. H. Turner, 385 ; Teaching of Elementary
Mechanics, G. Goodwill, 385 ; Two Fragments of Ancient
Geometrical Treatises Found in the Worcester Cathedral
Library, Canon J. M. Wilson, 385 ; Teaching of Algebra
and Trigonometry, 385 ; Compulsory Science 'cersus
Compulsory Greek, Sir E. Ray Lankester, 385 ; Experi-
mental Determination of the Equivalent of Magnesium,
W. M. Hooton, 386 ; Mentally Deficient Children, their
Treatment and Training, Dr. G. E. Shuttleworth and
Dr. W. A. Potts. 507 ; Association of Technical Institu-
tions, Sir Henry Hibbert, 525 ; see also British Associa-
tion
Edwards (C. A.), New Critical Point in Copper-zinc Alloys,

428
Eei-Larvas (Leptocephalus hrevirostris) from the Central

North Atlantic, Dr. Johan Hjort, 104
Effront (J.), Action of the Bulgarian Ferment upon Proteid

and Amido Substances, 194
Egerton (Alfred C. G.), Tribo Luminescence of Uranium,

^308
Eginitis (Prof. Demetrius), the Latitude of Athens, 56 ;

CometSry Theories, 486
Egvptology : Earlv Burial Customs in Egypt, Prof. W. M.
Flinders Petrie', F.R.S., 41 ; Prof. G. Elliot Smith,
F.R.S., 41 ; Egyptological Researches, W. Max Miiller,
165 ; the Tomb of 1 wo Brothers, Miss M. A. Murray, 332
Ehrenhaft (Dr. F.), Measurement of Electricity less than

the Electro or " Atom of Electricity," 383
Eiffel (G.), the Resistance of Rectangular Planes Struck

Obliquely by the Wind, 193
Eisens und Stahls, Die Untersuchungs-Methoden des. Dr.

A. Riidisiile, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, 233
Elbert (Dr.), Expedition to Java in Search of the Predeces-
sors of the Human Race, 285 .
Elderton (Ethel M.), a Second Study of the Influence of
Parental Alcoholism on the Physique and Ability of the
Offspring, 479
Electricity : Measurement of Very Small Displacements by
Means of the Electrometer, Jean Villey, 34 ; Electrical
Purification of Liquid Sulphur Dioxide and its Electrical
Conductivity, J. Carvallo, 34 ; Influence of the Magnetic
Field on Duration of the Lines of the Spectrum Emitted
by Luminous Vapours in the Electric Spark, G. A.
Hemsalech, 65 ; on the Electricity of Rain and its Origin
in Thunderstorms, Dr. George C. Simpson, Dr. C. Chree,
F.R.S., 81 ; the Production and Use of Electric Power,
S. Z. de Ferranti at Institution of Electrical Engineers,
90 ; a Spectroscopic Investigation of the Nature of the
Carriers of Positive Electricity from Heated Aluminium
Phosphate, Dr. F, Horton, 95 ; Action of a Magnetic
Field on the Electric Discharge, Eugene Bloch, 97-8 ; a
Treatise on Electrical Theory and the Problem of the
Universe, Considered from the Physical Point of View,
with Mathematical Appendices, G. W. de Tunzelmann,
99 : Practical Electrical Engineering for Elementary
Students, W. S. Ibbetson, 135 ; Practical Electricity and
Magnetism, R. Elliott Steel, 135 ; Elementary Experi-
mental Electricity and Magnetism, W. T. Clough, 135 ;
Theory of the Chemical Action of the Electric Discharge
in Electrolytic Gas and Other Gases, P. J. Kirby, 192 ;
an Electrostatic Voltmeter for Photographic Recording
of the Atmospheric Potential, G. W. Walker, 192 ;
Efficiency of Metallic Filament Lamps, Dri R. A.
Houston, 193 ; Magnetic Properties of Iron at High Fre-
quencies, R. Jouaust, 193 ; the Electric Stress at which
lonisation begins in Air, Dr. A. Russell, 225 ; Afterglow
'^f Electric Discharge, Prof. R. J. Strutt, 226 ; Two
Pieces of Metal Lightly Touching do not in general form
an Electrical Contact when the Difference of Potential is
Small, G. Lippmann, 227 ; Reception of the Hertzian
Time Signal from the Eiffel Tower, Paul J^gou, 227 ;

Discharge of Positive Electricity from Sodium Phosphate
heated in Different Gases, F. Horton, 261; Atmospheric
Electricity, Dr. G. A. Curse and D. MacOwan, 281 ;
Darkening of the Glass Bulbs of Osram Lamps due to the
use of Slight Amount of Copper in the Leading-in Wires,
Prof. G. W. O. Howe, 281 ; Suggestion to Balance
Residual Inductance and Capacity, Dr. E. Orlich, 282 ;
Recent Progress in Electric Lighting, Prof. E. W. Mar-
chant at Illuminating Engineering Society, 289 ; Appara-
tus for the Rapid Electro-.Analvtical Determination of
Metals, Dr. H. J. S. Sand and' W. M. Smalley, 360;
Measurements of Electricity less than the Electro or
"Atom of Electricity," Dr. F. Ehrenhaft, 383; Sub-marine
Cables for Long-distance Telephone Circuits, Major
O'Meara, 383 ; liistribution of Electric Force in the
Crookes Dark Space, F. W. Aston, 394 ; Electrical Pro-
perties of the Aluminium-Magnesium Alloys, Witold
Broniewski, 395 ; the Theory of lonisation of Gases by
Collision, Prof. John S. Townsend, F.R.S., 400;
Solenoids Electromagnets and Electromagnetic Windings,
Charles R. Underbill, Prof. Gisbert Kapp, 432 ; the
Afterglow of Electric Discharge in Nitrogen, Hon. R. J.
Strutt, . F.R.S., 439 ; Atmospheric Electricity over the
Ocean, Dr. G. C. .Simpson and C. S. Wright, 462 ;
Electric Motors, Henry M. Hobart, Stanley P. Smith,
468 ; Arc Lamp having a Mercury Kathode and Giving
White Light, E. Urbain, CI. Seal, and A. Feige, 497 ;
Electric Circuit Problems in Mines and Factories, E. H.
Crapper, Prof. Gisbert Kapp, 503 ; Exercises in Electrical
Engineering for the Use of Second-year Students in Uni-
versities and Technical Colleges, Prof. T. Mather,
F.R.S., and Prof. G. W. O. Howe, Prof. Gisbert Kapp,
503 ; the Electromotive Force of Standard Cells, Dr.
R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., 508 ; Report of the Berlin
Meeting of the Commission on Terrestrial Magnetism and
Atmospheric Electricity, 522 ; the International Volt, 522 ;
Experimental Measurement of the High-frequency Resist-
ance of Wires, Prof. J. A. Fleming, 530 ; Measurements
of Energy Losses in Condensers traversed by High-
frequency Electric Oscillations, Prof. J. A. Fleming and
G. B. Dyke, 530 ; Some Resonance Curves Taken with
Impact and .Spark-ball Dischargers, Prof. J. A. Fleming
and G. B. Dyke, 531

Electro-Metallurgy, a Treatise on, W. G. McMillan, A.
Mc William, 506

Electro-physiology : Das Elektrokardigramm des gesunden
und kranken Menschen, Prof. Friedrich Kraus and Prof.
Georg Nicolai, Prof. John G. McKendrick, F.R.S., 265

Elgie (Joseph H.), a \Iorning Meteor, 475

Eliot (Sir Charles, K.C.M.G.), a Monograph of the British
Nudibranchiate Mollusca, with Figures of the Species,

133

Elizabethan Age, Heroes of the, E. Gilliat, 269

Elsden (Dr. J. V.), Principles of Chemical Geology : a
Review of the Applications of the Equilibrium Theory to
Geological Problems, 100

Ely (Eugene), Flight in a Curtis Biplane from Selfridge
Field, 415

Embrvologv : Earlv Development of the Marsupialia, Prof.
J. P. Hill, 345 ■

Emmons (W. H.), a Reconnaisance of Some Mining Camps
in Elko, Lander, and Eureka Counties, Nevada, 420

Empire, the Broad Stone of. Problems of Crown Colony
Administration, with Records of Personal Experience, Sir
Charles Bruce, G.C.M.G., 229

Encyclopaedia Britannica, the, 431

Encyclopaedia of Sport and Games, the, 274

Encyclopddie agricole. Pisciculture, Georges Gu^naux, Dr.
William Wallace, 163

Energetics : Die Forderung des Tages, Wilhelm Ostwald,
298

Engineering : Progress in the Construction of the Panama
Canal, Fullerton L. Waldo, 21 ; Engineering and Civilisa-
tion, Alexander Siemens at Institution of Civil Engineers,
59 ; Proposed Battery of Humphrey Gas Pumps for
Reservoir in the Lea Valley, 86 ; the Deinhardt-Schlomann
Series of Technical Dictionaries in Six Languages, Alfred
Schlomann, 99 ; Removing Wreck of the Quebec Bridge,
118; Science and Engineering, Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S.,
at Junior Institution of Engineers, 122 ; Practical Elec-
trical Engineering for Elementary Students, W. S. Ibbet-

Nature,
March 23, 191 1

Index

XVI!

son, 135; the New Tokyo, Benjiro Kusakabe, 185;
Hydroelectric Developments and Engineering, F. Koester,
Stanley P. Smith, 198 ; Critical Speeds for Torsional
and Longitudinal Vibrations, Prof. Arthur Morley, 217;
the Transandine Railway, Dr. John \V. Evans, 219;
the Reduction of Rolling in Ships, H. Frahm, 250;
Winning of Coastal Lands in Holland, A. E. Carey, 282 ;
Recent Progress in Electric Lighting, Prof. E. W.
Marchant at Illuminating Engineering Society, 289 ;
Method of Raising Bore-casings from a Pontoon, R. W.
Hannam, 295 ; Question of Safeguards against Fire in
Trains after Collision, 318; Suggested Improvement in
Epicyclic Variable Gears, Rev. H. C. Browne, 327 ;
Death of Sir John Aird, 343 ; Submarine Cables for
Long-distance Telephone Circuits, Major O'Meara, 383 ;
Measurement of Boiler Deformations, G. F. Davidson,
383-4 ; Engine Trials at National Physical Laboratory,
384 : the Panama Canal in 1910, Dr. Vaughan Cornish
at Royal Society of Arts, 420 ; the Structural Design of
Aeroplanes, Prof. Herbert Chatley, 4^2 ; Electric Motors,
Henry M. Hobart, Stanley P. Smith, 468 ; Reorganisa-
tion of the Irrigation of Mesopotamia, 483 ; the Launch
of the Thunderer, 484 ; Scheme for the Improvement of
the Port of London, F. Palmer, 484 ; Method of
Strengthening a Bridge by Means of Sheathing the Steel
Trestles with Reinforced Concrete, 485 ; Electric Circuit
Problems in Mines and Factories, E. H. Crapper, Prof.
Gisbert Kapp, 501; : Exercises in Electrical Engineering
for the Use of Second-vear Students in Universities and
Technical Colleges, Prof. T. Mather, F.R.S., and Prof.
G. \V. O. Howe. Prof. Gisbert Kapp, 503 ; Petrol-engine
Ratings, 522 ; Experiments on Freight-train Resistance
and its Relation to Average Car Weight, Prof. E. C.
Schmidt, ^51 ; the Airship for the British Navy, 555
English (D.), a Book of Nimble Beasts, 478
English Association : Science and Literature, Lord Morley

of Blackburn at, 446
English Ceramic Society, Transactions of the, 411
Englishwoman's Year Book and Directory, the, 304
Enteric Fever Carriers, Dr. J. C. G. Ledingham, 145
Entomology : the Apterygota of Hertfordshire, 48 : Method
by which the Presence of the Drug-room Beetle (Sito-
drepa panicea) mav be Readilv Detected in Powdered
Drugs, Prof. H.' G. Greenish and Miss D. M.
Braithwaite, 85 ; the Anatomy of the Honey Bee, R. E.
Snodgrass, 169 ; Habits of Glossina morsitans. Sir Alfred
Sharpe, 176; Movements of G. morsitans in N.E.
Rhodesia, P. E. Hall, 176 ; Morphological Characters of
the Genus Glossina, R. Newstead. 270 ; Preser\-ation of
Bamboos from the Attacks of the Bamboo Beetle or
" Shot-borer." E. P. Stebbing. 178; the Damage Done to
Fruit Trees by Thrips, F. V. Theobald, 184 ; Experiments
with Dragon-fly Larvx, R. J. Tillyard. 228 ; New Species
of Small Hairy Flies of the Genus Limosina taken from
a Coprophagous Beetle in Ceylon, J. E. Collin, 246; the
Thorax of the Hymenoptera, R. E. Snodgrass, 246 ;
Fossorial Hymenoptera, R. E. Turner, 496 ; a Biological
Inquiry into the Nature of Melanism in Amphidasis
bettilaria, Linn.. H. S. Leigh, 270: a Monograph of the
Culicidae or Mosquitoes, Fred V. Theobald, 330 ; Death
of J. W. Tutt. 3.1^ ; on the Origin of Slavery and
Parasitism in .^nts, Henri Pi^ron, 3^1 ; Different Species
of Tsetses, 381 ; Annual Meeting of the Entomological
Society, 416: Death of E. A. L^veill^, 448; the Fauna
of British India, including Ceylon and Burma : Coleoptera
Lamellicornia (Cetoniinae and Dynastinae), G. J. Arrow,
4.67 : Two Families of Diptera, the Cecidomyiidae (Gall-
flies) and the Chironomidre. Prof. J. J. Kieffer, 406;
Report on a Family of Diptera, the Stratiomyiidae, Dr.
K. Kert^sz, 496 : Microlepidoptera of the Groups
Tortricina and Tineina, E. Meyrick, 496 ; Diptera
Danica, Genera and Species of Flies hitherto Found in
Denmark, W. Lundbeck, :;o6 : Flies as Carriers of Infec-
tion. Dr. G. S. Graham-Smith. 525 ; Dr. S. Monckton
Copeman, F.R.S., 52,^; Catalogue of the Lepidoptera
Phalaenae in the British Museum, ^30
Environment versus Heredity, Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S.,

II
Eoliths, 147

Eredia (Dr.), the Cold Period of June in Italy. 281
Erkenntnistheoretische Grundzuge der Naturwissenschaften

und ihre Beziehungen zum Geistesleben der Gegenwart,
Paul Volkmann, 233

Ernst (E.), a New Variable or Nova (134, 1910 Piscium),
4«7

Esclangon (Ernest), System of Fi.xed or Differential
Synchronisation, 463

Espin (Mr.), Discovery of an Eighth-magnitude Nova, 319;
Nova Lacertae, 348, 384

Ethnography : the Yellow and Dark-skinned People of
Africa South of the Zambezi, Dr. G. McCall Theal,
Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 542

Ethnology : Ethnological and .Art Collections of the Indian
Museum, 47 ; the Maoris of New Zealand, James Cowan,
109 ; the Auin, a Bushman Tribe of the Middle Kalahari
Desert, 148 ; Early Population-groups of Ireland, their
Nomenclature and Chronology, John MacNeill, 531 ; Race
Known as the Ishmaelites, Leo Wiener, 549

Eugenics : the Science of Human Improvement by Better
Breeding, C. B. Davenport, 39 ; Case of Spanish Eugenic
PoUcy, G. M. Meyer, 47; "Poor Law Number"
Eugenics Review, 115; Death of Sir Francis Galton,
412; Obituary Notice of, 440; a Second Study of the
Influence of Parental Alcoholism on the Physique and
Ability of the Offspring, Karl Pearson, F'R.S., and
Ethel M. Elderton, 479 ; Preliminary Study of Extreme
Alcoholism in Adults, Amy Banington, Karl Pearson,
F.R.S., and Dr. David Heron, 479

Eustice (Prof. J.), Experiments on Stream-line Motion in
Curved Pipes, 564

Evans (Sir John), Memorial to, 448

Evans (Dr. John W.). the Transandine Railway, 219

Evans (T. J.), Partial Sterilisation of Soils, 25

Everdingen (Dr. E. van), the Third Dimension in
Meteorology, 117

Everman (Mr.), List of the Fishes of the Lake of the
Woods, 177

Evolution: How Species have Varied, Henri Douvill^, 33;
Super-organic Evolution, Dr. E. Lluria, 71 ; Some Cases
of Adaptation, the Origin of Man, Henri Douvill^, 65 ;
the Triumph of Evolution, Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S..
148; Evolution, Darwinian and Spencerian, Herbert
Spencer Lecture at Oxford. Prof. Meldola, F.R.S., 220;
the Coming of Evolution, Prof. J. W. Judd C.B..
F.R.S., Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., 297; Origin of
Species, Prof. Max Kassowitz, 382 ; Darwinism and
Human Life, Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, 504 : Darwinism
and the Humanities, Prof. James Mark Baldwin, 504 :
Life and Habit, Samuel Butler, 505 ; Sudden Origin of
New Types, Dr. F. Oswald, 520

Ewart (Dr. A. J.), Botanical Expedition in the Victorian
Alps, Plants Recorded in the District by. 177

Ewart (Prof. J. C. F.R.S.). Origin of Dun Horses, 40;
Are Mules Fertile ? 106 ; Mendelian Expectations, 205

Ewart (Dr. R. J.), Sex Relationship, 322, 406

Fabre-Domergue (P.), Storage of Oysters in Filtered
Water, 34 ; Search for Bacterium coli in Sea Water by
the Methods Employed for Fresh Water, 162

Fabry (Louis), the Registration of Small Artificial Earth-
quakes at a Distance of 17 Kilometres, 498

Failyer (Mr.), Constituents of the Soil, 49

Fantham (Dr. H. B.), Peculiar Morphology of a Trypano-
some from a Case of Sleeping Sickness and the
Possibility of its being a New Species {Trypanosoma
rhodesiense), 64 : Possible Cause of Pneumo-enteritis in
the Red Grouse (Lagopus scoticus), 226 ; Enumerative
Studies on Trypanosoma gambiense and Trvpanosoma
rhodesiense in Rats, Guinea Pigs, and Rabbits, 260 :
Life-history of Trypanosoma gambiense and Try par.:
soma rhodesiense as Seen in Rats and Guinea Pigs, 260

Faraday Society, 360

Farmer (Prof.), Behaviour of the Chromosomes during
Mitosis, ,8

Farmery (J. R.). the Zones of the Lower Chalk of
Lincolnshire, 387

Farren (G. P.), the Breeding Seasons of Calanus fin-
tnarchius, 565

Fave (L.). Observations of the Tides made at Sea in the
Channel and the North Sea. 97

Fawcett (Major P. H.), Exploration in Bolivia, 521

XVlll

Index

Nature,
Marih 23, 191 1

Faye's Comet, igioe, Ephemeris for, Dr. Ebell, 180, 523 ;
G. Fayet, 248 ; Elements for, Prof. Ristenpart and Dr.
Prager, 319; Mr. Meyer and Miss Levy, 319

Fayet (G.), Identity of the Cerulli Comet with the Faye
Comet, 193 ; Faye's Comet, 248

Fedde (Friedrich), das Pflanzenreich, Papaveraceae-
Hypecoideae et Papaveracefe-Papaveroidea% 302

Feige (A.), Sterilisation of Water on the Large Scale by
Ultra-violet Light, 6; ; Arc Lamp having a Mercury
Kathode and giving White Light, 497

Fenyi (Father), the Total Eclipse of the Moon, November
16, 1910, 319

Fermor (Dr. L. Leigh), Quinquennial Review of the
Mineral Production of India during the Years 1904 to
1908, 121

Fernbach (A.), Action of Nitrates in Alcoholic Fermenta-
tion, 34 ; Influence Exerted by the Reaction upon certain
Properties of Malt Extracts, 129 ; Biological Degradation
of the Carbohydrates, 194

Ferranti (S. Z. de), the Production and Use of Electric
Power, Address at Institution of Electrical Engineers, 90

Ferris (^L), Telephonic and Radio-telegraphic Comparisons
of Chronometers by the Method of Coincidences between
Paris and Brest, i6i

Fichte, Schleiermacher, Stcffens iiber das Wesen der
UniversitJit, Eduard Spranger, 367

Field and Colliery Surveying, T. A. O 'Donahue, 405

Filippi (Dr. F. de), the Duke of the Abruzzi's Expedition
to the Karakoram Himalayas, Lecture at Royal Geo-
graphical Society, 124 ; Expedition of the Duke of the
Abruzzi to the Karakoram Himalayas, 4^0

Findlay (Prof.), Report of the Section L Research Com-
mittee on Mental and Physical Factors involved in
Education, 89

Finlayson (A. Moncrieff), Secondary Enrichment in the
Copper Deposits of Huelva, Spain, 128

Fireball of October 23, W. F. Denning, 21

Fireball on November 2, 51

Fireball of January 9, W. F. Denning, 372

Fireballs, Recent, 87 ; Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, 150 ; C. B.
Pennington, 150; J. Hicks, 150

Fire-damp, Safety Lamps and the Detection of, 524

Fischer (Prof. Emil), Recent Advances and Problems in
Chemistry, 558

Fisher (C. A.), Depth and Minimum Thickness of Beds as
Limiting Factors in \'aluation, 420

Fisher (Dr. Hugo), Can Acquired Characters be Inherited ?
280

Fisher (W. R.), Death of, 82; Obituary Notice of, 113

Fisheries : Salmon-disease on the Continent, Messrs. De
Drorein de Bouville and Mercier, 416

Fishing: Fly-leaves from a Fisherman's Diary, Captain
G. E. Sharp, 334; the Book of the Dry Fly, G. A. B.
Dewar, 39 ; an Open Creel, H. T. Sheringham, 102

Fitting (Dr. H.), Flowers which Undergo Marked Changes
after Fertilisation, 20

Fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen, Prof. J. Zenneck, 556

Flashes from the Orient, or a Thousand and One Mornings
with Poesy, John Hazelhurst, 371

Fleig (C), Experimental and Chemical Ocular Action of
Bitumen Dust and Vapour, 65

Fleming (Prof. J. A., F.R.S.), Some Improvements in
Transmitters and Receivers for Wireless Telegraphy, 248 ;
Experimental Measurement of the High-frequency Resist-
ance of Wires, 530 ; Measurements of Energy Losses in
Condensers Traversed by High-frequency Electric Oscil-
lations, 530 ; Some Resonance Curves Taken with Impact
and Spark-ball Discharges, 531

Fletcher (Miss), the Exogamic Character of the Omaha
Social Organisation, 24

Fieure (Prof. H. J.), the People of Cardiganshire, 24

Flies as Carriers of Infection, Dr. G. S. Graham-Smith,
525 ; Dr. S. Monckton Copeman, F.R.S., 525

Flight of Birds, the, Lucien Fournier, A. Mallock, F.R.S.,

445
Flight of Birds against the Wind, the. Dr. W. Ainslie

Hollis, 107
Flower (Captain Stanley), Animals for the Zoological

Gardens at Giza, 381
Flower Anthology, a, 335
Flower Book, the, Constance S. Armfield, 507

Flynn (T. T.), Anatomy and Development of the Marsupialia,
362

Foaden (Mr.), Cotton Cultivation in Egypt, 85

Folk Lore : the Luck of the Horse-slioe, Dr. A. Smythe
Palmer, 19 ; Folk-tales dealing with the Relations of
Hausa Parents and Children, Capt. A. J. N. Tremearne,
146

Fomin (W.), Action of Hydrogen to the Isomeric Thujenes
and Sabinene, 227

Food : Food and Nutrition, 148 ; Reports on Imperial Food-
stuffs, 157 ; the Microscopical Examination of Food and
Drugs, Prof. H. G. Greenish, 538

Forbidden Seas, in, H. J. Snow, 408; Prof. John Milne,
F.R.S., 510; Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, 510

Forcrand (M. de), Thermochemical Study of Some Binary
Compounds of the Metals of the Alkalies and the Alkaline
Earths, 361 ; Probable Chemical Properties of Radium
and its Combinations, 395

Forderung des Tages, Die, Wilhelm Ostwald, 298

Foreman (F. W.), Protein Hydrolysis, 161

Forestry : Death of W. R. Fisher, 82 ; Obituary Notice of,
113; Forestry Education: its Importance and Require-
ments, E. P. Stebbing at the University of Edinburgh,
61 ; Extension of Forestry Areas and Improved Methods
of Cultivation in the British Isles, J. C. Medd, 415 ; Early
Tree Planting in Scotland, H. B. Watt, 550

Foster (Nevin H.), the Woodlice of Ireland, their Distribu-
tion and Classification, 531

Fournier (L.), by Passing a Rapid Current of Hydrogen
Bromide over Amorphous Silicon at a Red Heat a Liquid
is obtained which, on Submitting to Fractional Distilla-
tion, gives as the Main Product of the Reaction Silicon
Tetrabromide, 227 ; Reduction of Phosphoryl Chloride by
Hydrogen under the Influence of the Silent Dischargfr»
129

Fournier (Lucien), the Fight of Birds, 44:;

Fowler (G. J.), Oxidation of Phenol by Certain Bacteria in
Pure Culture, 127

Frahm (H.), the Reduction of Rolling in Ships, 250

Frangais, Chez les, 270

Eraser (Dr.), Behaviour of the Chromosomes during
Mitosis, 58

Free (Edward E.), Pwdre Ser, 6

French Academies, the Admission of Women to the, 342,.

372
French Antarctic Expedition, the Second, Dr. J. B. Charcot

at Royal Geographical Society, 257
Freundlich (Dr. Herbert), Kapillarchemie, 534
Frever (J. C. F.), Structure and Formation of Aldabra and

Neighbouring Islands, ^6
Friedel (G.), Liquids wUh Focal Conies, 65 ; Anisotropic

Liquids, 194
Friederici (Dr.). Distribution of the Sling in America, 147
Frink (F. G.), Trigonometry, 368
Fruit Tree Pruning, George Quinn, 2
Fruit Trees, Pests of, 184
Fry (W. B.), Further Results of Experimental Treatment

of Trypanosomiasis, 64
Fur Trade, Permissible Description of Furs, E. M. Kirwany

381

Gaidukov (N.), Dunkelfeldbeleuchtung und Ultramikro-
skopie in der Biologic und in der Medizin, 72

Gaillard (Gaston), Researches on the Influence of Velocity
on the Compass. 531

Gaillot (A.), Analytical Theory and Tables of Motion of
Jupiter by Le Verrier, 327

Gallatly (W.), Geometry of the- Triangle, 50 ; the Modernr
Geometry of the Triangle, 335

Galle, Leverrier's Letter to, the Discovery of Neptune, 184

Galliot (M.), Preparation of Crystallised Strontium, 98

Galloway (Prof. W.), Records of the First Series of the
British Coal Dust Experiments, conducted by the Com-
mittee Appointed by the Mining Association of Great
Britain, 487

Gallon (Sir Francis), Death of, 412; Obituary Notice of,
440

Galton (Sir F.), and Composite Photography, Lady Welby,.

474
Gamble (Prof. F. W., F.R.S.), a Text-book of Zoology,

Mature, T

/; 23, 191 1 J

Index

XIX

Prof. T. J. Farker, F.R.S., and Prof. \V. A. Haswell,

533

Gangopddhy^ya (S.), the Student's Matriculation Geometry,
167 ; Conic Sections, 167

Ganong (Prof. \V. F.), the Teaching Botanist, 36

Gardening : Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens, Helen R.
Albee, loi ; Manual of Gardening, L. H. Bailey, 132 ;
the " Code " School Garden and Nature Note-book, 234

Gas : " Instructions of the Metropolitan Gas Referees," 417

Gases : Radiation from Heated Gases, Report of British
Association Committee, 186 ; the Theory of lonisation of
Gases b}" Collision, Prof. John S. Townsend, F.R.S., 400

Gaskell (J. F.}, Action of X-rays on the Developing Chick,
428

Gates (W. E.). the Maya Hieroglyphs, 549

Gaucher (Prof. E.), Diseases of the Skin, including Radio-
therapy and Radiumtherapy, 363

Gaudechon (Henry), Principal Types of Photolysis of
Organic Compounds by the Ultra-violet Rays, 327 ;
Photolysis of Complex Acids by the Ultra-violet Rays,
498 ; Comparative .Action of the Ultra-violet Rays on
Organic Compounds Possessing Linear and Cyclic Struc-
ture, 565 ^

Gaumont (M.), Kinematograph Synchronised with Phono-
graph or Gramaphone, 449

Geigel (Robert), Licht und Farbe, 539

Geistes, Die Entwicklung des menschlichen, Max V'ervvorn,

39

Gemmill (Dr. J. F.), the Development of Solaster endeca,
Forbes, 226

Geodesy : the Latitude of Athens, Demetrius Eginitis, 56

Geography : Teobert Maler's Journeys from North of
Yucatan and extending to the G^eat Lake of Peten-itza in
Guatemala, 19 ; the British Empire in Pictures, H. Clive
Barnard, 39 ; North-eastern Persia, the .\ncient Parthia, and
Hvrcania, Major Svkes, 84 ; Memorial to Captain Cook,
114; Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., 236; the Duke of the
Abruzzi's Expedition to the Karakoram Himalayas, Dr.
F. De Filippi at Royal Geographical Society, 124; Ex-
pedition of the Duke of the Abruzzi to the Karakoram
Himalayas, Dr. Filippo de Filippi, 450 ; " Empirical "
Method of Description, Prof. W. M. Davis, 178 ; the
Transandine Railway, Dr. John W. Evans, 219; the
Problem of the Decadence of Greek Civilisation, Prof.
Ellsworth Huntington, 247 ; the Second French .Antarctic
Expedition, Dr. J. B. Charcot at Royal Geographical
Society, 257 ; Gleanings from Fifty Years in China, A.
Little, 275 ; Exploring Upper Part of the Basin of the
Yenesei and the Western Frontier of Mongolia, Dr. Car-
ruthers, J. H. Miller, and M. P. Price, 315; Expedition
of British Ornithologists' Union to Netherlands, New
Guinea, 315 ; Changes made in the Map of the Coast
between the Rivers Khatanga and .\nabar, M. L P.
Tolmachef, 317 ; Towns and \'illages of Russia and their
Distribution in Relation to Physical Conditions and His-
torical Events, ^L Semionof-of-Tian Shan, 317; Oases
In the Libyan Desert, H. E. Hurst, 317; Saline Water
of Norfolk Broads, Miss M. Pallis and R. Gurney, 318;
Geographical Essays, Prof. W. M. Davis, 364 ; ' the
Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-sea Expedition, 1910,
Dr. Johan Hjort at Royal Geographical Society, 388 ;
Physiography of the Yarra River and Dandenong Creek
Basins, Victoria. J. T. Jutson, 430 ; Distribution of Early
Civilisation in Northern Greece in relation to its Geo-
graphical Features, A. J. B. Wace and M. S. Thompson,
450 ; Death of George Grey, 482 ; .Area affected by the
Tarawera Eruption in New Zealand in 1886, Prof. T.
Park, 485 ; Explorations in New Guinea, Dr. H. A.
Lorentz at Royal Geographical Society, 490 : the Face of
Manchuria, Korea, and Russian Turkestan, E. G. Kemp,
500; E.xploration in Bolivia, Major P. H. Fawcett, 521;
Island in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Reise-Erinne-
rungen, Paul Herrmann, 535 ; Character of the Tuantepec
Isthmus, its People, and Resources, Miss H. Olsson-
Seffer, 549

Geology : Helium and Geological Time, Hon. R. J. Strutt,
F.R.S., 6, 43 ; Die kllmatischen Verhaltnisse der geolo-
gischen Vorzeit vom Praecambrium an bis zur Jetztzeit
und ihr Einfluss auf die Entwickelung der Haupttypen
des Tier- und PP.anzenreiches, Dr. Emil Carthaus, Ivor
Thomas, ^i*^ ; Volcano in a Branch of Wood Bay,

Charles Rabot, 49; .Structure and Formation of
Aldabra and Neighbouring Islands, J. C. F.
Freyer, 96 ; Principles of Chemical Geology : a
Review of the Applications of the Equilibrium Theory
to Geological Problems, Dr. J. V. Elsden, 100 ;
an Excursion to the Yosemite, E. C. Andrews, 130;
Stockholm to Spitzbergpn : the Geologists' Pilgrimage,
G. W. Lamplugh, F.R.S., 152 ; Rhaetic and Contiguous
Deposits of West, Mid, and part of East Somerset, L.
Richardson, isq ; Geological Society, 159, 225, 261, 360,
462, 530 ; Medal Awards, 414 ; a Preliminary Study of
Chemical Denudation, F. W. Clarke, 173 ; the Age of
the Earth, G. F. Becker, 173 ; the Tierras cocidas of the
Pampas Beds of Argentina, Messrs. Outes and Bucking,
178: the E.xtensive Beds of Lignite in the United States,
Guy E. Mitchell, 179 ; die Entstehung der Steinkohle und •
der Kaustobiolithe iiberhaupt, Prof. H. Potonie, 199;
Effects of Secular Oscillation in Egypt during the Eocene
and Cretaceous Periods, Dr. W. F. Hume, 225 ; Origin
of the British Trias, A. R. Horwood, 22;; Origin of the
English Triassic Strata, with Special Reference to the
Keuper Marls, F. Cresswell, 247 ; Keuper Marls around
Cham wood Forest, T. O. Bosworth, 360 ; Relationship
of the Permian to the Trias in Nottinghamshire, R. L.
Sherlock, 360 ; the Fluvio-Glacial Terraces of Bifevre and
Basse-Is^re. W. Kilian and M. Gignoux, 261 ; Excava-
tion in the Cavern of La Cotte, St. Brelade's Bay
(Jersey), made during Present Year by the Jersey
Society of Antiquaries, Dr. A. S. Woodward, 261 ;
Triassic Masses above the Grodental, Mrs. M. Ogilvie-
Gordon, 280 ; Geology of the British Isles, 386 ; the
Geology of the Melton Mowbray District and South-east
Nottinghamshire, Messrs. Lamplugh, Gibson, Wedd,
Sherlock, and Smith, 386 ; the Geology of the South
Wales Coalfield, Messrs. Strahan, Cantrill, Dixon, and
Thomas, 386 ; the Geology of the Country around
Nottingham, Messrs. Lamplugh and Gibson, 386: the
Geology of the Country around Alresford, H. J. Osborne
White, 386 ; Correlation of the Bovey Beds with the
Lignites of the Rhine, Clement Reid, 387 ; the Inferior
Oolite and Contiguous Deposits of the South Cottes-
wolds, L. Richardson, 387 ; the Zones of the Lower
Chalk of Lincolnshire. C. R. Bower and J. R. Farmery,
387 ; British Fossil Voles and Lemmings, M. A. C.
Hinton, 387 : Evidences of a Former Land-bridge between
Northern Europe and North America, Dr. R. F. Scharff,
^87 : Bronerniart's Genus Palaeoxyris, L. Moysey, 387 ;
Metamorphism round the Ross of Mull Granite, T. O.
Bosworth, 387 : Characters of Igneous Rocks in Southern
Scotland, G. W. Tyrrell, 387; Submarine Geology of the
West Coast of Ireland. G. A. J. Cole and T. Crook,
388 : Weathering on the Surface of a Sheet of Fine-
grained Diorite near Rathmullan, Prof. Cole, 388;
Geologische Charakterbilder, ii., Grosse erratische Blocke
im nord-deutschen Flachlande, F. Wannschaffe, iii.. das
Karstphanomen, .A. Grund, 402 ; Curious Explanation of
Glacial Periods of Geology, Askin Nicholas, 417 ; Mineral
Deposits of the Cerbat Range, Black Mountains, and
Grand Wash Cliffs, Mohave County, .Arizona, F. C.
Schrader, 420 ; Iron Ores, Fuels, and Fluxes of the
Birmingham District. .Alabama. E. F. Burchard and C.
Butts. 420; Origin of the Ores, Edwin C. Eckel. 420 •
the Mercury Minerals from Terlingua. Texas. W. F.
Hillebrand and W. T. Schaller. 420 ; a Reconnaissance
of some Mining Camps in Elko. Lander, and Eureka
Counties. Nevada. W. H. Emmons, 420; the Innoko
Gold-placer District, Alaska, with .Accounts of the Central
Kuskokwim Valley and the Ruby Creek and Gold Hill
Placers, A. G. Maddren. 42Q ; a Reconnaissance of the
Gypsum Deposits of California, F. L. Hess, 420 ; Errors
in the Chemical Analysis of Gyosum, George Steiger.
jl20 ; Notes on some Mining Districts in Humboldt
County. Nevada, F. L. Ransome. 420 : the Value of Coal
Land, G. H. Ashlev, -120 ; Depth and Minimum Thick-
ness of Beds as Limiting Factors in Valuation. C. A.
Fisher. 420 ; Volcanic Region of Forez and its Rocks,
Ph. Glangeaud, 420 : Revision of the Species of Limoosis
in the Tertiary Beds of Southern Australia. F. Chapman,
430 ; die Eiszeit auf Korsika und das Verhalten der
exogenen Naturkriifte seit d^m Ende der Diluvialzeit.
Dr. Roman Lucerna. 456 ; Zonal Classification of the

XX

Index

Nature,
March 23, 1911

Salopian Rocks of Cautley and Ravenstonedale, Miss
G. R. Watney and Miss E. G. Welch, 462 ; Lehrbuch
der Geologic von Deutschland, Prof. J. Walther, Prof.
Grenville A. J. Cole, 468; Geologic von Deutschland und
den angrenzenden Gebieten, Prof. R. Lepsius, Prof.
Grenville A. J. Cole, 468; Geologie von Ostpreussen,
Prof. A. Tornquist, Prof. Gj-enville A. J. Cole, 468;
Glacial Erosion, R. M. Deeley, 475, 541 ; J. W. G., 475,
•;4i ; Geological Nomenclature, Prof. J. W. Gregory,
F.R.S., 521; the Skomer Volcanic Series (Pembroke-
shire), H. H. Thomas, 530 ; Geologie Nouvelle, H.
Lenicque, 536; Geological Work in British Lands, ci;3 ;
Visit to the Aden Hinterland, Captain R. E. Lloyd, e,e,T, ;
Distribution of Life in Pre-carboniferous Life-provinces,
F. R. Cowper Reed, 553 ; Recent Beds of Silt, Laid
Down in some Cases in Old Channels of Overflow, have
been Tilted by Earth-movements in the Lake-district of
the Punjab Salt Range, Mr. La Touche, 553 ; Certain
Glaciers in Sikkim, Mr. La Touche, t;53 ; Correlation of
the Tertiary Fresh-water Deposits of India, G. E.
Pilgrim, 553 ; Relations of the Igneous Rocks of Islands
between Johore and Singapore, J. B. Scrivenor, c;:;4 ;
Rocks from the Kinta Valley of Perak, J. B. Scrivenor,
i;i;4; Origin of the Nile Valley in Egypt, Dr. Hume, 554;
the Origin of Petroleum, Dr. Hume, 1554 ; Large Part
Played by Contact-metamorphism in the Rocks of the
Pretoria Series of the Transvaal System, Messrs. Hall
and Humphreys, .=;,';4 ; Pilgrims' Rest Gold Mining Dis-
trict, A. L. Hall, 554 ; Occurrence of High Senonian or
Danian Beds on the South Coast of Africa, Prof.
Schwarz, 554 ; Some Mineral Deposits in the Rooiberg
District, Mr. Recknagel, i;:;4 ; Gold of the Banket Con-
glomerate of the Rand Imported with the Pyrite, after
the Deposition of the Beds, Prof. R. B. Young, 51^5 ;
Occurrence of Diamonds in Dwyka Conglomerate and
Amygdaloidal Lavas and the Origin of the Vaal River
Diamonds, H. S. Harger, 555 ; Composite Gneisses,
F. P. Mennell, 1;:;;

Geometry : the Public School Geometry, F. J. W. Whipple,
167 ; the Student's Matriculation Geometry, S. Gango-
pddhydya, 167 ; Second Stage Mathematics (with Modern
Geometry), 167 ; a Treatise on the Geometry of Surfaces,
A. B. Basset, F.R.S., 231 ; the Modern Geometry of the
Triangle, W. Gallatly, 33,15 ; Practical Mathematics and
Geometry, E. L. Bates and F. Charlesworth, 470 ; the
Principles and Methods of Geometrical Optics, especially
as Applied to the Theory of Optical Instruments, Prof.
J. P. C. Southall, 409

George (Dr. T.), Results of the X-rays in Therapeutic
Doses on the Growing Brains of Rabbits, 27

German Excavations at Babylon, the, H. R. Hall, 312

Germany, the Geology of. Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 468

Germany, the Reform of Mathematical and Science Teach-
ing in, A. J. Pressland at Edinburgh Mathematical
Society, 121;

Gerney (Dr. b. J. B.), Death of, 18

Gerrard (H.), Measurements of the Magnetic Properties of
Iron, Steel, Nickel, and Cobalt at the Temperature of
Liquid Air, 347

Ghose (A.), Manganese-ore Deposits of the Sandur State,
a correction, 179

Gibson (Prof. A. H.), Behaviour of Bodies Floating in a
Free or a Forced Vortex, 531

Gibson (Mr.), the Geology of the Melton Mowbray District
and South-east Nottinghamshire, 386 ; the Geology of the
Country around Nottingham, 386

Gignoux (M.), the Fluvio-glacial Terraces of Bi^vre and
Basse-Is6re, 261

GUbev (Sir Walter), Effect of the Rapid Increase of Motor
Vehicles on the Prices of Horses, 279

Gilliat (E.), Heroes of the Elizabethan Age, 269

Gillman (F.), Malaga Magnetites, 2Qt;

Gilmore (C. W.), Crocodilian Skull from the Ceratops Beds
of Wyoming, 288

Gimingham (C. T.), the " Teart " Land of Somerset, 21;

Ginneken (P. J. H. van). Properties of Zinc Amalgam as
Affecting the Clark Cell, 248

Girardville (M.), Increasing the Stability of Aeroplanes by
Means of Gyroscopes, 429

Glacial Erosion, R. M. Deeley, 475, 541 ; J. W. G., 475,
541

Gladstone (Hugh S.), the Birds of Dumfriesshire — a Con-
tribution to the Fauna of the Sohvay .Area, 378
Glangeaud (Ph.), X'olcanic Region of Forez and its Rocks,

429
Glatzel (Br.), New Experiment in Stimulation by Shocks

in Wireless Telegraphy, 227
Glazebrook (Dr. R. T., F.R.S.), the Electromotive Force of

Standard Cells, 508
Godchot (Marcel), Hexahydroacetophenone and Hexahydro-

benzoylacetone, 262
Godfroy (M.), Study of the Antarctic Observed in the

course of the French Expedition to the South Pole,

328
Godman (F. Du Cane, F.R.S.), a Monograph of the Petrels

(Order Turbinares), 38
Goebel (Prof. K.), Sexual Dimorphism in Plants, 85, 450
Goerens (Prof. P.), Introduction a la M^tallographie Micro-

scopique, 470
Goetz (Father), Halley's Comet, 350
Golding (Mr.), Nitrogen Fixation, 25
Golf Ball, the Dynamics of a. Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S.,

at Royal Institution, 251 ; Dr. C. G. Knott, 306
Goodacre (Mr.), a New Map of the Moon, 319
Goodenough (Prof. G. A.), First Course in Calculus, 368
Goodrich (E. S.), Segmentation of the Occipital Region of

the Head in the Batrachia Urodela, 291;
Goodwill (G.), Teaching of Elementary Mechanics, 385
Goodyear (Wm. H.), Measurements of Spiral Stairway of

the Leaning Tower of Pisa, 347
Gorgas (Col. W. G.), Panama Canal Zone Death-rates, 17
Gottingen : Royal Society of Sciences, 464
Gould (Sir Arthur Pearce), Lecture on Cancer at the Royal

College of Surgeons, 214
Gouy (Nl.), Existence of a Periodic Element in the Magneto-

kathodic Radiation, 497 ; Periodic Structure of the

Magneto-kathode Rays, 565
Grabham (G. W.), Native Pottery Methods in the Anglo-
Egyptian Sudan, 23
Graff (Dr.), Nova Lacertae, 417
Graham (Dr.), Method for Destroying Typhoid and

Dysentery Bacilli in Water, 245
Graham (John), Applied Mechanics, including Hydraulics

and the Theory of the Steam-engine, 537
Graham (Mr.), Cometary Theories, 486
Graham-Smith (Dr. G. S.), Flies as Carriers of Infection,

525
Grandjean (F.), Liquids with Focal Conies, 65 ; Anisotropic

Liquids, 194
Grant (Claude), a Tribe of Pygmies on the Kapare River,

413

Gravier (Ch.), Battle for Existence in the Madrepores 0*
Coral Reefs, 161— 2

Gray (J.), Measurement of Preseveration and its Value as an
Index of Mental Character, 278

Gray (J. G.), Value of Preseveration as an Index of the
Quality of Intelligence, 89

Gray (R. Whytlaw), the Density of Niton (Radium Emana-
tion) and the Disintegration Theory, Paper at Royal
Society, 524

Great Britain, the Future of Agricultural Research in, 13 ;
see British

Green (Dr. George), the Modus operandi of the Prism, 497

Green (Prof.), Report of the Section L Research Committee
on Mental and Physical Factors involved in Education, 89

Greenish (Prof. Henry G.), Method by which the Presence
of the Drug-room Beetle (Sitodrepa panicea) may be
Readily Detected in Powdered Drugs, 85 ; Chronicles of
Pharmacy, A. C. Wootton,. 398 ; Vergiftungen durch
Pflanzen und Pflanzenstoffe, ein Grundriss der vegetalen
Toxikologie fiir praktische Aerzte, Apotheker, und
Botaniker, Dr. F. Kanngiesser, 436 ; the Microscopical
Examination of Food and Drugs, 1538

Greenwood (M.), Science from the Non-professional Stand-
point, 449

Gregory (Prof. J. W., F.R.S.), Geological Nomenclature,

521

Greig-Smith (Dr. R.), Permanency of the Characters of
the Bacteria of the Bacillus coli Group, 362 ; Soil Fer-
tility, ^62

Grenet (Francisque), Study of the Porosity of Chamberland
Filters, i6i

Nature,
Harch 23;

Index

XXI

Grenville (L. W.), Key to Hall and Stevens's School
Arithmetic, 405

Grey (George), Death of, 482

Grieve (J.), Pansies and Violas, 550

Grieve (Symington), Animals in the Glen Garry Forest, 279

Griffen (ll. E.), Pearl-fishery off Bantayan, 246

Griffith (Rev. John), British Place-names in their Historical
Setting, Edmund McClure, 131

Griffiths (Principal E. H.), Relations of Science with Com-
mercial Life, 90

Griffon (Ed.), Influence of the Tarring of Roads on the
Adjacent Vegetation, 227

Grignard (M.), New Methods for the Svnthesis of Nitriles,

56s
Gron (Dr. F.), Prehistoric Operation, " T. sincipital,* J50
Gronvold (Mr.), Egrgs of certain South African Birds, 557
Grosclaude (M.), Proposed Calendar Reform, 454
Group-theory, the Neglect of, Prof. Burnside, 313
Grund (A.), Geologische Charakterbilder, iii., das Karst-

phanomen, 402
Gueguen (Fernand), Cladosporian Mycosis in Man, 566
Guenaux (Georges), Encyclopedic agricole. Pisciculture, 163
Guillaume (J.), Observations of CeruUi's Comet made at

the Observatory of Lyons, 161 ; the Total Eclipse of the

Moon on November 16, 180 ; Observations of the Sun

made at the Observatory of Lyons during the Third

Quarter of 1910, 327
Guillemin (G.), Research on the Gases Occluded in the

Copper .Alloys. 129
GiJnther (Dr. W.), Neues aus der Naturdenkmalpflege, no
Guntz (.A.), Preparation of Crystallised Strontium, 98
Giirich (Prof.), Naturdenkmalpflege, no
Gurney (R.), Saline Water of Norfolk Broads, 318
Gwynne-Vaughan (Prof.), Structure of the " False Stems "

of the Fossil Genus Tempskya, 59

Hackspill (Louis), the Density, Coefficient of Expansion,
and Change of Volume on Fusion of the Alkaline Metals,

407
Hadamard (Prof. J.), Lecons sur le Calcul des Variations,

107

Haddon (Dr. A. C, F.R.S.), Changes in Bodily Form of
Descendants of Immigrants, 11 ; Captain Cook Memorial,
236

Hadfield (Sir Robert), Magnetic Properties of Iron and its
Alloys, 217

Hadley (Dr.), Blackhead in Turkeys, 8^-d..

Haemoglobins, the Differentiation and Specificity of Corre-
sponding Proteins and other Vital Substances in Relation
to Biological Classification and Organic Evolution and
the Crystallography of. Prof. E. T. Reichert and Prof.
\. P. Brown, 57

Hagen (Father), New Experimental Demonstration of the
Earth's Rotation, 248

Hailstones, Microstructure of, MM. Dudetzkv and Wein-
berg, 485

Hall (Prof. A. G.), Trigonometry, 368

Hall (k. L.), Large Part Played by Contact-metamorphism
in the Rocks of the Pretoria Series of the Transvaal
System, ^:;4 ; Pilgrims' Rest Gold Mining District, 5^4

Hall (H. R.), New Discoveries at Knossos, 4'? ; Excavations
on the Island of Pseira, Crete, Richard B. Seager, 272 :
the German Excavations at Babylon, 312 ; the Annual of
the British School at Athens, 339

Hall (H. S.), a School Algebra. 167

Hall (P. E.), Movements of G. Morsitans in N.E.
Rhodesia, 176

Hall (T. S.), Svstematic Position of the Species of
Squalodon and Zeuglodon described from Australia and
New Zealand, 160

Hall (Mr.), Cost of a Day's Horse Labour on the Farm,
25 ; Objects and Methods of .Agricultural Soil Surveys, 25

Hall and Stevens's School Arithmetic, Key to, L. W. Gren-
ville, 405

Hallberg (Dr. Carl S. N.), Death of, 47

Haller (.A.), Two Active .Alcohols and a Third Ketone
contained in Cocoanut Oil, 33

Halley (J.), Observations of Planets, 319

Halley's Comet, 21; H. E. Wood, 349; Messrs. Innes and
Worssell. ^50; Father Goetz, 3:50; Profs. Nijland pnd
van der Bilt, 350; F. Sy, 351 ; Dr. J. Mascart, 351 ; M.

Janiain, 351; the Motion of Molecules in the Tail of,.
Prof. Lowell, 21; Ephemeris for, Dr. Ebell, 51 j Selenium
Photometer Sleasures of the Brightness of, Joel Stebbin,
51 ; Recent Helwan Photographs of. Prof. Barnard, 180

Halliday (W.), the Book of Migratory Birds, met with on.
Holy Island and the Northumbrian Coast, to which is
added Descriptive Accounts of Wild Fowling on the Mud
Flats, with Notes on the General Natural History of
this District, 329

Halliger (G. H.), Influence of Ocean Currents along a
Coast-line on the Movement of Sand, 519

Hamburg Observatory, the New, 309

Hamerton (Captain A. E.), Experiments to ascertain if
Antelope may act as a Reservoir of the V'irus of Sleeping
Sickness {Trypanosoma gambiense), 428 ; Experiments to
ascertain if the Domestic Fowl of Uganda may act as a
Reser\'oir of the Virus of Sleeping Sickness {Trypanosoma
gambiense), 428

Hannam (R. W.), Method of Raising Bore-casings from a
Pontoon, 295

Hanriot (.A.), Brown Gold, 328, 429; Adhesivitv, ^65

Ha^den (Dr. Arthur, F.R.S.), the Elements, Sir William A.
Tilden, F.R.S., 69 ; the Relations between Chemical Con-
stitution and Some Physical Properties, Prof. Samuel
Smiles, 69 ; Physical Chemistry, its Bearing on Biology
and Medicine, Prof. James Philip, 69

Hardinge (H. G. .A.), Condition of the Atmosphere during
the recent proximity of Halley's Comet, 130

Harger (H. S.), Occurrence of Diamonds in Dwyka Con-
glomerate and Amygdaloidal Lavas, and the Origin of
the Vaal River Diamonds, 555

Harker (.Alfred, F.R.S.), Tables for Calculation of Rock-
analyses, 540

Hartert (Mr.), the Irish Jay, 381

Hartland (E. S.), the Origin of Mourning Dress, 24

Hartog (Prof. Marcus), the New Force, Mitokinetism, 58

Hartwig (Prof.), Cerulli's Comet 19106, 119

Harvard Slap No. 52, New Variable Stars in, Miss Cannon,

Has well (Prof. W. A.. F.R.S.), a Text-book of Zoology, 533
Hatfield (W. H.), Chemical Physics involved in the Pre-
cipitation of Free Carbon from the Alloys of the Iron-
carbon System, 95
Hauser (O ), Homo aurfgnacensis Hauseri, ein palaeo-
lithischer Skelettfund aus dem unteren Aurignacien der
Station Combecapelle bei Montferrand (Perigord), 119
Hausliche Blumenpflege, Paul F. F. Schulz, 370
Havelock (Dr. T. H.), Optical Dispersion, 192
Hawk (Philip B.), Practical Physiological Chemistry : a
Book designed for Use in Courses in Practical Physio-
logical Chemistry in Schools of Medicine and of Science,
169
Hawkins (H. Periam), the Stars from Year to Year, with
Charts for Every Month, 304 ; the Star Calendar for
1911, 304; the Star Almanac for 1911, 304
Hawks (Ellison), Stars Shown to the Children, 506
Hazelhurst (John), Flashes from the Orient, or a Thousand

and One Slornings with Poesy, 371
Hazell's .Annual for 1911, 335
Headden (Dr.), Determinations of the .Amount of .Arsenic

present in Soil, Plants, Fruits, and Animals, 148
Headley (F. W.), the Sailing-flight of Birds, 511
Health : .American Meat and its Influence upon the Public
Health, Dr. Albert Leffingwell, 232 ; Desirability of the
Systematic Destruction of Rats and other Vermin, 483
Hearn (Edward D.), the Sailing-flight of Birds, 511
Heat : Variation of Resistance of Steels to Crushing as a
Function of the Temperature, F. Robin, 33 ; a School
C'ourse of Heat, R. H. Scarlett, 303 ; the Thermo-electric
Method of Cryoscopy, Prof. Henry H. Dixon, 531
Heath (S.), the Heart of Wessex, 202
Heavens, a Popular Guide to the. Sir Robert S. Ball, 136
Helium and Geological Time, Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S.,

(J. 43

Hemsalech (G. A.), Influence of the Magnetic Field on
duration of the Lines of the Spectrum Emitted by Lumin-
ous Vapours in the Electric Spark, 65 ; Modifications
Undergone by the Lines of the Spark Spectrum in a
Magnetic Field. 161

Henri (\'ictor), .Action of the Ultra-violet Rays upon the
Tubercle Bacillus and upon Tuberculin, 34

XXll

Index

L M

Sat-Hrc
March 33, 191 1

Henri-Cernovodeanu (Madame V.), Action of the Ultra-
violet Rays upon the Tubercle Bacillus and upon Tuber-
culin, 34

Henry (Dr. A.), the Chinese Tree, Cupressus Hodgiusii, 484

Henry (John R.), November Meteors, 40; January Meteors,
271

Henslow (Prof. G.), Theoretical Origin of Plantago Mari-
tima, L., and P. Alpina, L., from P. Coronopus, L. Vars,
160 ; Theoretical Origin of Monocotyledons from .Aquatic
Dicotyledons through Self-adaptation to an Aquatic Habit,
160

Hepworth (Conunander Campbell), Remarkable Displays of
Phosphorescence in the Sea, 564

Herdman (Prof. \V. A.), Comparison of the Summer
Plankton on the West Coast of Scotland with that in the
Irish Sea, 96

Heredity : Environment versus Heredity, Dr. A. C. Haddon,
F.R.S., II ; Experimental Study of Heredity in Tuber-
culosis, MM. Landouzv and L. Loederich, 33 ; Origin of
Dun Horses, Prof. J. C. Evvart, F.R.S., 40; Prof. James
Wilson, 106; Dun Coat Colour in the Horse, J. B.
Robertson, 138 ; Inheritance of the Yellow Tinge in
Sweet-pea Colouring, Mrs. D. Thoday and D. Thoday,
160 ; Experiments on the Occurrence of the Web-foot
Character in Pigeons, J. Lewis Bonhote, 160 ; Mendelian
Expectations, Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S., 205 ; Can Ac-
quired Characters be Inherited? Dr. Hugo Fischer, 280;
the Inheritance of Acquired Characters, Sir W. T.
Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., 371 ; Prof. John W.
Judd, C.B., F.R.S., 405; Darwin and the Transmission
of Acquired Characters, E. A. Parkyn, 474 ; Prof. John
W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S., 474; Heredity in the Light of
Recent Research. L. Doncaster, 331 ; Death of Sir Francis
Galton, 412; Obituary Notice of, 440; a Lecture on
Mendelism, Dr. H. Drinkwater, 436 ; Hereditary Char-
acters and their Modes of Transmission, C. E. Walker,
536 ; Problem of Sex-determination, 550

Hermann (R.), Naturdenkmalpflege und Aquarienkunde, no

Heroes of the Elizabethan Age, E. Gilliat, 269

Heron (Dr. David), a Preliminary Study of Extreme Alco-
holism in Adults, 479

Heron-.AUen (E.), the Foraminifera of the Shore-sands of
Selsey Bill, 86 ; Some Varied Forms of Massilina secans,

95

Herrmann (Paul), Island in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart,

Reise-Erinnerungen, 535
Herter (Dr. Charles .Archibald), Death of, 244
Hertzsprung (E.), the Photographic Magnitudes of Stars,

181
Hertzsprung (Prof.), Nova Lacerta;, 453
Hess (F. L.), a Reconnaissance of the Gypsum Deposits of

California, 420
Hetzer (Otto), Novel Type of Timber Construction, 86
Hewitt (Dr. C. Gordon), Simulium Flies and Pellagra, 169
Hewlett (Prof. R. T.), Oriental or Bubonic Plague, 237;

Soured Milk and its Preparation, Lactic Cheeses, 338
Heyse (Herr Paul), Nobel Prize Awarded to, 213
Hibbert (Sir Henry), Association of Technical Institutions,

525
Hicks (J.), Recent Fireballs, 150
Hickson (Prof.), Place of Economic Zoology in a Modern

University, 48
Hildebrandsson (Prof. H. Hildebrand), Meteorological Rela-
tionships, 55
Hill (Prof. J. P.), Early Development of the Marsupialia,

345
Hill (Dr. Leonard, F.R.S.), Prevention of Compressed Air

Illness, 26
Hillebrand (W. F.), the Mercury Minerals from Terlingua,

Texas, 420
Hindle (Dr. E.), .Artificial Parthenogenesis in the Eggs of a

Sea-urchin (Strongylocentroius purpuratus), 58
Hinks (Mf-). a New Variable Star or a Nova 97-1910 Cygni,

22 ; Nova Lacertse, 348
Hinton (M. .A. C), British Fossil Voles and Lemmings,

387
Hise (Charles R. Van), the Conservation of Natural Re-
sources in the United States, 545
Hissey (James J.), the Charm oK.the Road, 137
Histology: the Essentials of, Prof. E. A. Schiifer, F.R.S.,
137

Hitchcock Lectures for 1909, delivered at the University of
California, Berkeley, Cal., Physiology the Servant of
Medicine, being the. Dr. Augustus D. Waller, F.R.S.,
Sir T. Clifford AUbutt, K.C.B., F.R.S., 465
Hjort (Dr. Johan), the Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-
sea E.xpedition, 19 10, 52 ; Eel-larvae (Leptocephalus
brevirostris) from the Central North Atlantic, 104 ; the
Michael Sars North .Atlantic Deep-sea Expedition, 1910,
Lecture at Royal Geographical Society, 388
Hnatek (.Adolf), Photographic Magnitudes of Seventy-one

Pleiades .Stars, 119
Hobart (Henry M.), Electric Motors, 468
Hogarth (D. G.), .Accidents of an .Antiquary's Life, 238
Holden (H. S.), Abnormal Fertile Spike of Ophioglossum

]'uls;atutn, 429
Holland (Sir Thomas H., K.C.I.E., F.R.S.), Quinquennial
Review of the Mineral Production of India during the
Years 1904 to 1908, 121
Holleman (Prof. .A. F.), a Text-book of Organic Chem-
istry, 136
Hollis (Dr. W. .Ainslie), the Flight of Birds against the

Wind, 107
Hooton (W. M.), Experimental Determination of the Equi-
valent of Magnesium, 386
Hopkinson (Prof. B.), Magnetic Properties of Iron and its

Alloys, 217
Home (.A. S.), a Bacterial Disease of Potatoes, 25
Horner (D. W.), Weather Instruments and How to Use

Them, 405
Horse, Dun Coat Colour in the, J. B. Robertson, 138
Horses, Origin of Dun, Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S., 40;

Prof. James Wilson, 106
Horses, Effect of the Rapid Increase of Motor Vehicles

on the Prices of. Sir Walter Gilbey, 279
Horst (Dr. R.), New Species of Peripatus, 177
Horticulture : Fruit Tree Pruning, George Quinn, 2 ;
Twelfth Report of the Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm,
Duke of Bedford, K.G., F.R.S., and S. U. Pickering,
F.R.S., 71 ; .Manual of Gardening, L. H. Bailey, 132 ;
Pests of Fruit Trees, 184 ; the Damage done to Fruit
Trees by Thrips, F. V. Theobald, 184; Epidemic Out-
break of Eutypella prunastri, E. S. Salmon, 184 ; Life-
historv of the Apple "Scab" Fungus (Venturia inaequalis),
E. S.' Salmon, 184; a Species of Leptothyrium, E._ S.
Salmon, 184 ; International Horticultural Exhibition,
1912, 278 ; Pansies and Violas, J. Grieve, 550
Horton (Dr. F.), a Spectroscopic Investigation of the Nature
of the Carriers of Positive Electricity from Heated .Alu-
minium, 95 ; Discharge of Positive Electricity from
Sodium Phosphate heated in Different Gases, 261
Horwood (-A. R.), Extinction of Cryptogamic Plants, 177 ;

Origin of the British Trias, 225
Hough (S. S., F.R.S.), Aims of Astronomy of Precision,

Address at Royal Society of South Africa, 323
Household Foes, Alice Ravenhill, 5
Houston (Dr. R. A.), EfTiciency of Metallic Filament

Lamps, 193
Howard (.Albert and Gabrielle L. C), the Milling and
Baking Qualities of Indian Wheat, ^49 ; the Influence
of Environment on the Milling and Baking Qualities of
Wheat in India, 249; Wheat in India, its Production,
Varieties, and Improvements, 249
Howe (Prof. G. W. O.), Darkening of the Glass Bulbs of
Osram Lamps due to the Use of Slight Amount of
Copper in the Leading-in Wires, 281 ; Exercises in Elec-
trical Engineering for the Use of Second-year Students in
Universities and Technical Colleges, 503
Hoyle (Dr. W. E.), Report of the International Commission

on Zoological Nomenclature, 29/;
Hudson's Bay, Schooner Jeanie Wrecked on September 9,

379
Hull (A. F. Basset), Birds of Lord Howe and Norfolk

Islands, with the Description of a New Species of Petrel,

22S
Human Palaeontology, an Institute of, 412
Humboldt's (Wilhelm von) ausgewahlte philosophische

Schriften, 3^7
Hume (Dr. W. F.), Effects of Secular Oscillation in Egypt
I during the Eocene and Cretaceous Periods, 22;; ; Origin

of the Nile Valley in Egypt, 554 ; the Origin of Petroleum,
' 554

Saturt, "I

xrch 23, 191 1 J

Index

xxin

Humphreys (W. J.), Solar Activity and Terrestrial Tem-
peratures, 87

Humphreys (Mr.), Large Part Played by Contact-
metainorphism in the Rocks of the Pretoria Series of the
Transvaal System, ^^54

Hunt (A. R.), the Limiting Line of Sedimentation in Wave-
stirred Areas, 72

Huntington (Prof. Ellsworth), Libyan Oasis of Kharga,
148 ; the Problem of the Decadence of Greek Civilisation,

247

Hurst (H. E.), Oases in the Libyan Desert, 317

Hutchinson (A.), an Improved Form of Total Reflectometer,
496

Hutchinson (Dr.), Partial Sterilisation of Soils, 25

Huxley Memorial Lecture at Royal Anthropological Insti-
tute, the Arrival of Man in Britain, Prof. W. Boyd
Dawkins, F.R.S., 122

Hydroelectric Developments and Engineering, F. Koester,
Stanley P. Smith, 198

Hydrogen in Iron, on, John Parry, 6

Hydrography : Curious Phenomenon, Ou^m^ River, Aug.
Chevalier, 49 ; the Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-sea
Expedition, 1910, Dr. Johan Hjort, ;^2 ; the Michael
Sars North Atlantic Deep-sea Expedition, 1910, Dr.
Johan Hjort at Royal Geographical Society, 388 ; Ob-
servations of the Tides made at Sea in the Channel and
the North Sea, L. Fav^e, L. Driencourt, 97 ; Marine
Microthermograms and Influence of Icebergs on the
Temperature of the Sea, Prof. H. T. Barnes, 137 ; Tide
Tables for the Pacific and the Eastern Coasts of Canada
for the Year 191 1, 280; Tidal Observations made during
Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition of 1907, Sir
George Darwin, 281 ; Surface Water Supply of the United
States, iqo7-8, 283 ; the Influence of River Systems in the
East, Ewald Banse, 288 ; Study of the .'\ntarctic observed
in the Course of the French Expedition to the South
Pole, M. Godfroy, 328 ; Influence of Ocean Currents
along a Coast-line on the Movement of Sand, G. H.
Halliger, 519

Hydrologv : Studv of the Seepage and Evaporation Less
from the Ibrahimia Canal, J. Murray, 317; Surface
Waters of the Missouri and Lower Mississippi Basin, the
Great Basin, and California, 281

Hygiene : Household Foes, .Alice Ravenhill. k, ; Method for
Destroying Tvphoid and Dysentery Bacilli in Water, Drs.
Nasmith and Graham, 24^ ; Lessons on Elementary
Hygiene and Sanitation, with Special Reference to the
Tropics, W. T. Prout, 270 ; Hygiene and Public Health,
L. C. Parkes and H. R. Kenwood, 507

Ibbetson (W. S.). Practical Electrical Engineering for
Elementary Students, 135

Ice .\ge in Corsica, the. 456

Ichthvology : Venomous Toad-fishes of the Genera Thalasso-
phryne and Thalassothia, Messrs. Bean and Weed, 84 ;
Eff'ect of Light on the Ova of Trout, Prof. Felice Supino,
I4Q : the Pharyngeal Teeth of Fishes, Col. C. E. Shep-
herd, 177 : List of the Fishes of the Lake of the Woods,
Messrs. Everman and Latimer, 177

Idrac (P.), First Observations on the New Star in Lacerta,
461 ■ Nova Lacertae, 486, ';23

Illuminating Engineering Societv : Recent Progress in
Electric Lighting, Prof. E. W. Marchant at, 289

Imperial Foodstuffs, Reports on, I^7

Incense. Origin of. Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dver, K.C.M.G.,
F.R.S.. 507

Incense-altar of Aphrodite at Paphos, Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-
Richter, -;23

Incubated Chicken, Factors Influencing the Vigour of. 382

Index to Desor's Synopsis des Echinides Fossiles, Dr. F. A.
Bather, F.R.S., 404

India : Two Notes from India, Capt. J. H. Barbour, 77, :
Water Requirements of Crops in India, J. W. Leather,
Dr. E. J. Russell, iii ; Quinquennial Review of the
Mineral Production of India during the Years 1904 to
T908, Sir Thomas H. Holland, K.C.I. E., F.R.S., and
Dr. L. Leigh Fermor, Prof. H. Louis. 121 ; Zoology in
the Indian Empire, 122 ; Echinoderma of the Indian
Museum, Prof! Ren^ Koehler. 134 ; Anti-malarial
Measures in India. Col. W. G. King, 240 ; la Cosmo-
gonia di Bhrgu, A. M. Pizzagalli, 4^2 ; the Fauna of

British India, including Ceylon and Burma : Coleoptera
Lamellicornia (Cetoniinae and Dynastin^e), G. J. Arrow,
467 ; Memorandum on Indian Wheat for the British
Market, Sir James Wilson, K.C.I.E., S47

Industrial England in the Middle of the Eighteenth Cen-
tury, Sir H. Trueman Wood, 299

Infant and Child Mortality, Dr. Arthur Newsholme, 556

Inheritance of Acquired Characters, the. Sir W. T.
Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., 371 ; Prof. John W,
Judd, C.B., F.R.S., 405

Innes (Mr.), Halley's Comet, 350; Star Colours, 418;
-Absorbing Matter in Space, 453 ; Mars and its Atmo-
sphere, 486 ; Observations of Jupiter's Galilean Satellites,
524 ; Southern Nebulae, 552

Instinktes, der Begriff des, einst und jetzt. Prof. Heinrich
Ernst Ziegler, 539

Institute of Metals, 428

Institution of Civil Engineers : Engineering and Civilisa-
tion. Alexander Siemens, 59

Institution of Electrical Engineers : the Production and
Use of Electric Power, S. Z. de Ferranti, 90

Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, 33. 128, 295, 497

Instruction in Methods of Research, W. P. Dreaper, 73

Internaciona Matematikal Lexiko en Ido, Germana, Angla,
Franca e Italiana, Dr. Louis Couturat, 269

International .\grogeological Congress at Stockholm, the, 88

International Congresses, Conflicting Dates of, Dr. F. A.
Bather, 139

International Language and Science, Profs. L. Couturat,
O. Jespersen, R. Lorenz, W. Ostwald, and L. Pfaundler,
269

Invicta Table Book, the. J. W. Ladner, 103

lonisation of Gases by Collision, the Theory of, Prof. John
S. Townsend, F.R.S., 400

Iredale (T.), Birds of Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, 228

Iron, on Hydrogen in, John Parry, 6

Iron and Steel Analysis, A. Campion, 268

Irving (H.), How to Know the Trees, 43;;

Irving (Rev. Dr.), the Prehistoric Horse Found at Bishop's
Stortford, 22

Island in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Reise-Erinner-
ungen, Paul Herrmann, 535

Italian Observatories, the, 282

Jackson (A. B.), Catalogue of Hardy Trees and Shrubs

Growing in the Grounds of Syon House, Brentford, 136
Jackson (S. W.), the Tooth-billed Bower-bird (Scenopaeefes

dcntirostris), 84
Jakob (Miss C), the Laws of Friction of Solids on Each

Other, 217
Jamain (M.), Hallev's Comet, 351
James (T. C), the People of Cardiganshire, 24
Janeway (Dr. Edward G.). Death of, ^^47
Jannettaz (Ed.), les Roches et leurs Elements min^ralo-

giques. 166
January Meteors, John R. Henry, 271 ; W. F. Denning, 34S
Japan, Agricultural Research in, 151
Japan Magazine, the, 185
Javelle (M.), Observations of Halley's Comet made at the

Nice Observatory w^ith the Gautier Equatorial of 76 cm.

Aperture, 129
Javillier (M.). Influence of Manganese on the Development

of Aspergillus nigcr, 464
J^gou (Paul), Reception of the Hertzian Time Signal from

the Eiffel Tower, 227
Jentzsch (Dr. F.), Appliances for Improving the Ultra-
microscope, ^22
Jerrold (W.), Norwich and the Broads, 202
Jespersen (O.). International Language and Science, 269
Joanin (A.), Contribution to the Study of the Physiological

Action of the Organic Bases, 262
Jodrell Laboratory at Kew, the, Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dver,

K.C.M.G., F.R.S., 103
Johnson (Dr. Geo. L.), Photography in Colours. 5^0
Johnson (Katharine L.). Application of Binet's Tests to

200 Schoolgirls in Sheffield, 90
Johnson (Prof. T.), a Seed-bearing Irish Pteridosperm, 161
Johnson (W.), Battersea Park as a Centre for Nature

Studv, A'X'i
Johnston (Sir H. H., G.C.M.G., K.C.B.), African G.ime

XXIV

Index

[

Na. u re,
March 23, 1911

Trails, Theodore Roosevelt, 77 ; the Negro in the New
World, 172 ; a Monograph of the Okapi, Sir E. Ray
Lankester, K.C.B., F.R.S., and Dr. W. G. Ridewood,
209; Sir Ray Lankester's Book on the Okapi, 306;
Living Okapies, 483 ; the Yellow and Dark-skinned
People of Africa, South of the Zambezi, Dr. G. McCall
Theal, 542

Johnston (T. Harvey), the Haematozoa of Australian
Batrachians, 130 ; Occurrence of Pentastomes in
Australian Cattle, 130

Jonckheere (M.), Saturn's Rings, 150; the Total Eclipse of
the Moon on November 16, 180 ; a Projection on Saturn's
Outer Ring, 248

Jones (Prof. H. C), Introduction to Physical Chemistry,
103

Jones (O.), Woodcraft for Scouts and Others, 303

Jordan (Dr. A. C), Diseases of the Skin, including Radio-
therapy and Radiumtherapy, Prof. E. Gaucher, 363

Jordan (Dr. David Starr), the Making of a Darwin,
Address at American Association for the Advancement of
Science, 31^4

Jordan (F. C), the Orbits of Several Spectroscopic Binaries,

385
Joslin (E. P.), Metabolism in Diabetes Mellitus, 4-;^
Jouaust (R.), Magnetic Properties of Iron at High Fre-
quencies, 193
Joule, an Unconscious Forecast by, B. A. Keen, 475
Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1910, 455
Judd (Prof. J. W.', C.B., F.R.S.), the Triumph of Evolu-
tion. 148; the Coming of Evolution, 297; the Inheritance
of Acquired Characters, 405 ; Darwin and the Transmis-
sion of Acquired Characters, 474
Junior Institution of Engineers : Science and Engineering,

Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S., at, 122
Jupiter, the Apparent Diameter of. Father Chevalier, 51
Jupiter's Galilean Satellites, Observations of, Mr. Innes, 524
Jurassic Floras, Comparison of, Prof. A. C. Seward, F.R.S.,

258
Jutson (J. T.), Physiography of the Yarra River and Dan-
denong Creek Basins, Victoria, 430

Kahlenberg (Prof. Louis), Outlines of Chemistry, 70
Kamensky (M.), Investigation of the Orbit of Wolf's Comet,

1898-191 1, 248
Kanngiesser (Dr. F.), Vergiftungen durch Pflanzen und
Pflanzenstoffe, ein Grundriss der vegetalen Toxikologie
fijr praktische Aerzte, Apotheker, und Botaniker, 436
Kant and his Philosophical Revolution, Prof. R. M.

Wenley, 404
Kapillarchemie, Dr. Herbert Freundlich, 534
Kapp (Prof. Gisbert), Solenoids, Electromagnets, and Elec-
tromagnetic Windings, Charles R. Underbill, 432 ;
Electric Circuit Problems in Mines and Factories, E. H.
Crapper, 503 ; Exercises in Electrical Engineering for the
Use of Second-year Students in Universities and Techni-
cal Colleges, Prof. T. Mather, F.R.S., and Prof. G. W. O.
Howe, 503
Karakoram Himalayas, the Duke of the Abruzzi's Expedi-
tion to the. Dr. F. De Filippi at Royal Geographical
Society, 124
Kassowitz (Prof. Max), Origin of Species, 382
Kayser (E.), Influence of Nitrates on .'\lcoholic Ferments, 98
Kayser (Prof.), a System of Standard Wave-lengths, 151
Keatinge (Mr.), Rural Economy of the Bombay Deccan, 382
Keen (B. A.), an Unconscious Forecast by Joule, 475
Keith (Dr. Arthur), Series of Specimens illustrating Irregu-
larities in the Differentiation of Sexual Characters, 19 ;
a New Theory of the Descent of Man, 206, 509 ; Certain
Physical Characters of the Negroes of the Congo Free
State and Nigeria, Lecture at Royal Anthropological
Institute, 221
Kellas (Dr. A. M.), a Manual of Practical Inorganic Chem-
istry, 466
Kelsch (Dr. Achille), Death of, 481
Kemp (E. G.), the Face of Manchuria, Korea, and Russian

Turkestan, 500
Kemp (Philip), Some Physical Properties of Rubber, 296
Kendall (R. H.), Treatment of Refractory Low-grade Gold

Ores at the Ouro Preto Gold Mine, Brazil, 33
Kent (H. A.), the Tribo Luminescence of Uranium, 244

Kenwood (H. R.), Hygiene and Public Heath, 507
Kepler's Laws, the Discovery of, M. Bigourdan, 385
Kerr (Prof. J. Graham, F.R.S.), Morphological Method

and the .Ancestry of Vertebrates, 203
Kersey (A. T. J.), Exercises in Metal Work, 436
Kertesz (Dr. K.), Report on a Family of Dipttra, the

Stratiomyiidaj, 496
Kew, the j'odrell Laboratory at. Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer,

K.C.M.G.. F.R.S., 103
Kew (H. Wallis), a Synopsis of the False Scorpions of

Britain and Ireland, 296
Kidston (Dr.), Structure of the " False Stems " of the Fossil

Genus Tempskya, 59
Kieffer (Prof. J. J.), Two Families cf Diptera, the Cecido-

myiidae (Gall-flies) and the ChironomidiE, 496
Kilian (W.), the Fluvio-glacial Terraces of Bi^vre and

Basse-Is6re, 261
Kinematograph Synchronised with Phonograph or Grama-
phone, M. Gaumont, 449
King (Col. W. G.), Anti-Malarial Measures in India, 240
Kinnicutt (Dr. Leonard Parker), Death of, 547
Kirby (P. J.), Theory of the Chemical Action of the Electric

Discharge in Electrolytic Gas and Other Gases, 192
Kirkpatrick (Dr. R.), Murrayona phenolepis, a New Type

of Sponge from Christmas Island, Indian Ocean, 345
Kirwan (E. M.), Permissible Description of Furs, 381
Klaatsch (H.), Homo aurignacensis Hauseri, ein pala;o-

lithischer Skelettfund aus dem unteren Aurignacien der

Station Combecapelle bei Montferrand (P6rigord), 119;

Die Aurignac-Rasse und ihre Stellung im Stammbaum der

Menschheit, 119
Klaatsch 's Theory of the Descent of Man, Gerhardt v.

Bonin, 508 ; Dr. A. Keith, 509
Knauth (M.), the Settlement in Strassburg Cathedral, 384
Knossos, New Discoveries at, H. R. Hall, 45
Knott (Dr. C. G.), the Dynamics of a Golf Ball, 306
Koehler (Prof. Ren6), Echinoderma of the Indian Museum,

»34
Koester (F.), Hydroelectric Developments and Engmeermg,

198

Komppa (Prof.), Synthesis of Camphoric Acid, 522

Kcinig (Prof. Franz), Death of, 215

Korean Meteorological Observatory, Scientific Memoirs of
the, 341

Korostelef (N. A.), Meteorological Observations Recorded
by Various Expeditions to Nova Zemlia, 521

Kos'sel (Prof.), Nobel Prize .Awarded to, 213

Kowalski (J. de). Progressive Phosphorescent Spectrum of
Organic Compounds at Low Temperatures, 161 ; Influ-
ence of Functional Groups on the Spectrum of Progressive
Phosphorescence, 395

Kraus (Prof. Friedrich), Das Elektrokardigramm des
gesunden und kranken Menschen, 265

Krogness (O.), on the Simultaneity of "Abruptly-begin-
ning" Magnetic Storms, 170

Kriiger 60 and Castor, Mass-ratios of the Components of.
Dr. H. N. Russell, 418

KiJhl (Dr.), Nova Lacertse, 523

Kuhlgatz (Dr. Th.), Uber'das Tierleben in dem von der
btaatsforstverwaltung geschiitzten Zwergbirken-Moor in
Neulinum, no

Kiikenthal (Prof. Willy), Leitfaden fiir das zoologische
Praktikum, 400

Kusakabe (Benjiro), the New Tokyo, 185

Kusano (S.), Chemotactic and Similar Reactions of the
Swarm Spores of Myxomycetes, 151

La Touche (Mr.), Recent Beds of Silt, laid down in Some
Cases in Old Channels of Overflow, have been Tilted by
Earth-movements in the Lake-district of the Punjab Salt
Range, 553 ; Certain Glaciers in Sikkim, 553

Laboratories : the Jedrell Laboratory at Kew, Sir W. T.
Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G.. F.R.S'., 103; the Cavendish
Laboratory, 112; a History of the Cavendish Laboratory,
1871-1910, 195

Labre (Henri), the Ingestion of Mineral Acids in the Dog,
498

Ladner (J. W.), the Invicta Table Book, 103

Lafay (A.), Method of Observation of the Trajectories,
followed by the Elements of an Air Current deflected by
Obstacles of Variable Forms, 532

Nature, "1

March 23, X911 J

Index

XXV

Lain^ (E.), the Nitrates in the Atmosphere of the Antarctic

Regions, 463
La!ou (S.), Variations in the Quantity and Composition of

the Pancreatic Juice during Secretions brought about by

Secretin, 98
Lamb (Horace), Atmospheric Oscillations, 192
Lamplugh (G. W., F.R.S.), Stockholm to Spitsbergen, the

Geologists' Pilgrimage, 152 ; the Geology of the Melton

Mowbray District and South-east Nottinghamshire, 386 ;

the Geology of the Country around Nottingham, 386
Landowzy (M.), Experimental Study in Tuberculosis, 33
Lane (Rev. G. L.), Jurassic Plants from the Marske

Quarry, 159
Lanfry (M.), New Thiophene Compound, C,gH,S„ and

Some of its Derivatives, 396
Lang (Prof. W. H.), Morphology of the Stock of Isoetes, 59
^^angevin (Prof.), Liquid Rendered Double Refracting by

die Action of a Magnetic Field, 118
Language and Science, International, Profs. L. Couturat,

O. Jespersen, R. Lorenz, W. Ostwald, and L. Pfaundler,

269
Lankester (Sir E. Ray, K.C.B., F.R.S.), a Monograph of

the Okapi, 209 ; Sir Ray Lankester's Book on the Okapi,

305 ; Compulsory Science versus Compulsory Greek, 385
Lantz (D. E.), Practicability and Possibilities of Breeding

Deer and Other Big Game in Confinement in the United

States, 549
Lanzenberg (A.), Action of Nitrates in Alcoholic Fermenta-
tion, 34
Laslett (Dr. E. E.), Results of Some Experiments indicating

the Existence of Afferent Nerves in the Eye Muscles, 27
Latimer (Mr.), List of the Fishes of the Lake of the Woods.

177
Latitude of Athens, the, Demetrius Eginitis, 56
Latour (B.), New Experimental Demonstration of the

ySarth's Rotation, 248
I^ubert (Dr. K.), Rosenkrankheiten und Rosenfeinde, 435
yXaurie (Dr. A. P.), the Materials of the Painter's Craft in
"^ Europe and Egypt from Earliest Times to the End of

the Seventeenth Century, with Some Account of their

Preparation and Use, 533
Laveran (.A.), Resistance of Goats and Sheep to Trypano-
somiasis, 395
Lawson (H. S.), Series of Tests to which the Candidates

for Scholarships at a Midland Secondary School were

Submitted, 89
Le Chatelier (H.), Centenary of the Birth of Regnault, 383
Leach (J. A.), .Australian Birds, 557
Lead Glaze Question, the, 273

Leake (H. ^L), the Influence of Environment on the Mill-
ing and Baking Qualities of Wheat in India, 2^9
I>ather Q. W.), Water Requirements of Crops in India,
/"I

/Leathes (Prof. J. B.), Monographs on Biochemistry, the
f Fats, 502
/ Lebeuf (M.), the Total Eclipse of the Moon on November

16, 180
Lebon (Ernest), Paul Appell, Biographic, Bibliographic

analytique des Ecrits, 335
Lechmere (.A. E.), the Methods of Asexual Reproduction in

a Species of Saprolegnia, 59
Ledingham (Dr. J. C. G.), Enteric Fever Carriers, 145
Lee (Prof. F. S.), the Cause of the Treppe, 27 ; Summa-
tion of Stimuli, 27
Lee (O. J.), Nineteen Stars with Newly-discovered Variable

Radial Velocities, 319
Leffingwell (Dr. Albert), American Meat and its Influence

upon Public Health, 232
Legendre (R.), Search for Bacterium coli in Sea Water by

the Methods Employed for Fresh Water, 162
L^ger (E.), .Action of Nitric .Acid upon the .Aloins, 262
Legge (J. G.), Practical Work in Schools, 90
Legros (L. A.), Development of Road Locomotion, 118
Leick (Dr. W.), Die praktischen Schulerarbeiten in der

Physik, 304
Leigh (H. S.), a Biological Inquiry into the Nature of

Melanism in Amphidasis betularia, Linn., 270
Lenicque (H.), G^ologie Nouvelle, ^^6
Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum, Catalogue of

the, 539
Leppig (F. W. Hermann), Death of, 414

Lepsius (Prof. R.), Geologie von Deutschland und den

angrenzenden Gebieten, 468
Lespieau (M.), Condensation of Acrolein Bromide with

Malonic .Acid, 328
Leveau (Gustave), Death and Obituarv Notice of, 414
L^veill^ (E. A.). Death of, 448

I..everrier's Letter to Galle, the Discovery of Neptune, 184
Levy (D. M.), the Successive Stages in the Bessemerising

of Copper Mattes as Indicated bv the Converter Flame,

128
Levy (Miss), Elements for Faye's Comet, 1910^, 319
Lewes (Prof. Vivian B.), Smoke and its Prevention, Lecture

at London Institution, 290
Lewin (K. R.), Nuclear Relations of Paramecium caudatum

during the .Asexual Period, 161
Lewis (B.), Educational Experiments in Schools, 3,4
Lewis (Prof. W. J.), Wiltshireite, a New Mineral from the

Binnenthal, 128
Ley (Captain C. H.), Balloon Experiments carried out at

Blackpool, 29:; ; Meteorological Significance of Small

Wind and Pressure Variations, 295
Leyst (Prof. Ernst). Russian Magnetic Observations, 388
Licht und Farbe, Robert Geigel, 539
Life and Habit, Samuel Butler, 505
Lighting : Discontinuous Sources of Light, Madame M.

Dussaud, 129; Arc Lamp having a Mercury Kathode and

giving White Light, E. Urbain, CI. Seal, and .A. Feige,

4Q7
Lignier (O.), .Are the Gnetales Apetalous Angiosperms?

463-4
Linnean Society, 96, 160, 226, 395, 496
Linnean Society. New South Wales, 228, 362
Linossier (G.), Influence of Iron on the Formation of the

Spores of Aspergillus niger, 227
Lipmann (Dr. Otto), Methods of Binet and Simon. 89
Lippmann (G.), Two Pieces of Metal Lightly Touching do

not in General Form an Electrical Contact when the

Difference of Potential is Small, 227 ; .Action of External

Forces on Pressure of Saturated Vapours and the Gases

Dissolved in a Liquid, 497
Liquids, the Clarification of, by the Process of Tanking.

Rowland A. Earp. 308
Lister (J. J.). Partial Sterilisation of Soils, 25
Literature, Science and, Lord Morley of Blackburn at

English Association, 446
Little (.A.), Gleanings from Fifty Years in China, 275
Littlewood (E. T.), Graphical Representation of some of

the Simpler Analytic Functions of a Complex Variable,

162
Livini (Prof.), Development of the Trachea in the Chick,

270
Lloyd (Prof. R. E.). an Introduction to Biology for Students

in India, 370
Lloyd (Captain R. E.). Visit to the .Aden Hinterland, 553
Lluria (Dr. E.), Super-organic Evolution, 71
Local Government Board. Supplement to the Thirty-ninth

.Annual Report of the. Dr. Arthur Newsholme. 556
Lockett (W. T.), Oxidation of Phenol by certain Bacteria

in Pure Culture. 127
Lockver (Dr. William J. S.). the Photography of Nebulae,

140
Locomotion, Development of Road, L. A. Legros. iiS
Lodere (Sir Oliver). Reason and Belief, 201
Loederich (L.), Experimental Study in Tuberculosis, -^^
Logan (Thomas), Biological Physics, Physic, and Meta-

physic, 35
Loggin (N. .A.). Notes on Placer Mining with Special Refer-
ence to Hydraulic Sluicing, 497
Logic, the Application of. Alfred Sidgwick. 436
London County Council Conference of Teachers. 3^3
London Institution : Smoke and its Prevention, Prof. Vivian

B. Lewes, 290
Long (H. C). Destruction of Agricultural Plant Pests by

Chemical Means. 117
Longley fW. R.). Theoretical Mechanics, 169
Lorentz (Dr. H. A.). Explorations in New Guinea, Address

at Royal Geographical Society, 400
Lorenz (R.). International Language and Science, 260
Louis (Prof. Henry). Quinquennial Review^ of the Mineral

Production of India during" the Year? 1Q04 to 1008, Sir
Thomas H. Holland, K.C.I.E., F.R.S.. and Dr. L.

XXVI

Index

Nature,
March 23, 191 1

Leigh Fermor, 121 ; International Mineral Statistics, 211 ;
Colliery Warnings, 336, 438
Lovell (J. H.), Are Bees Capable of Distinguishing Dif-
ferent Colours, 147
Lowell (Prof.), the Motion of Molecules in the Tail of
Halley's Comet, 21; the Dark Band Surrounding the
Polar Caps of Mars, 22 ; the Satellites of Mars, 552
Lubimenko (W. N.), Relationship that Exists between the
Amount of Chlorophyll present in a Leaf and the Energy
of Photosynthesis, 48
I Lucas (Dr. F. A.), the Armour of Stegosaurus, 73 ; Fur-
I seals of the Pribilows, 278 ; Bones from the Alabama
I Eocene, the Pelvis of a Zeuglodon, 278
] Lucerna (Dr. Roman), die Eiszeit auf Korsika und das
I Verhalten der exogenen Naturkrafte seit dem Ende der
! .Diluvialzeit, 4i:;6

! Luizet (M..), the Total Eclipse of the Moon on November
I 16, 180

j Lull (R. S.), Distribution of the Deinosauria in Time and
through Geographical Areas, 285
•Luminescence of Uranium, Tribo, Prof. W. A. Douglas
\ Rudge, 207: Alfred C. G. Egerton, 308
I Lunar Observations, Tracing the Solar Corona in, Em.
Touchet, 283
Lundbeck (W.), Diptera danica, Genera and Species of Flies

hitherto Found in Denmark, 506
Lusbv (S. G.), ]\robility of the Positive Ion in Flames, 128
Lydekker (Mr.), New Antelope, Tragelaphiis hiixtoni, 19
Lynn (Mr.), Comets Due to Return in 1911, 348

Macallum (Prof. A. B., F.R.S.), the Microchemistry of the
Spermatic Elements in Vertebrates, 27 ; Origin of the
Inorganic Composition of the Blood Plasma, 27 ; the
Inorganic Composition of the Blood Plasma in the Frog
after a Long Period of Inanition, 27

Mac.Auliffe (M.), Comparative Measurements of Individuals
of Both Sexes from Lunatic Asylums with Normal Men
and Women, 532

McClure (Edmund), British Place-names in their Historical
Setting, 131

McCollum (B.), Theory of a New Form of Dynamometer
for the Measurement of the Quantity of Electricity which
Flows through the Instrument, 551

McCurdy (^Ir.), Oversea Flight by, 448

Macdonald (Prof. J. S.), the Metabolism and Energy Trans-
formations of Healthy Man during Rest, F. G. Benedict
and T. M. Carpenter, 276 ; Metabolism in Diabetes
Mellitus, 4i;i;

MacDonald (Mr.), Advantages of Maize as a Crop for
Export, 178

Macdougal (Dr. D. T.), Organic Response. 4:50

MacGillivray (William, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.E., Ornith-
ologist, Professor of Natural History. Marischal College
and University, Aberdeen), Life of, William MacGillivray,
107

MacGillivray (William). Life of William MacGillivrav,
M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.E., Ornithologist. Professor of
Natural History, Marischal College and University, Aber-
deen, 107

M'llroy (Dr. Janie Hamilton), the Independence of the
Peripheral Neurons of the Retina, ^65

McKendrick (Prof. John G., F.R.S.)^ the Brain and the
Voice in Speech and Song, Prof. F. W. Mott, F.R.S.,
iQO ; the Abuse of the Singing and Speaking Voice.
Causes. Effects, and Treatment. Prof. E. G. Moure and
A. Bowyer, iqq ; the Voice, Dr. W. A. Aitken, iqq ;
das Elektrokardigramm des gesunden und kranken
Menschen, Prof. Friedrich Kraus and Prof. Georg
Nicolai, 26s

Mackenzie (Dr.), Megalithic Monuments and Prehistoric
Culture in the Western Mediterranean, 44^

MacKenzie (K. J. J.), an Account of the " Points " Prized
by the Breeder of High-class Stock, 2-^ ; Caponising, 161
McMillan (W. G.), a Treatise on Electro-metallurgy, 506
MacMunn (Dr. C. Alexander), Death of, ^48
MacNeill (John), Earlv Population-groups of Ireland, their

Nomenclature and Chronology, 531
MacOwan (D.). .Atmosnheric Electricitv, 281
Macohcrson CHertor, jun.'l, the Romance of Modern As-
tronomy, describing in Simple but Exact Language the
Wonders of the Heavens, 71

McWilliam (Prof. A.), Metallography, Dr. Cecil H. Desch,
301 ; Adhesion of Electro-deposited Silver in Relation to
the Nature of the German Silver Basis Metal, 428 ; a
Treatise on Electro-metallurgy, W. G. McMillan, 506

Maddren (A. G.), the Innoko Gold-placer District Alaska,
with Accounts of the Central Kuskokwim Valley and the
Ruby Creek and Gold Hill Placers, 420

Magnetism : Magnetic Survey Yacht Carnegie, 18 ; Mag-
netic Data Recorded during 1905 and 1906 at the
Observatories of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey,
SO ; Influence of the Magnetic Field on Duration of the
Lines of the Spectrum Emitted by Luminous Vapours in
the Electric Spark, G. A. Hemsalech, 65 ; Practical
Electricity and Magnetism, R. Elliott Steel, 135 ;. Ele-
mentary Experimental Electricity and Magnetism, W. T.
Clough, 135 ; Observations of Magnetic Declination and
Dissipation of Electric Charge which they made at Padua
on May 14-21, Drs. R. Alpago and G. Silva, 150;
Supposed Propagation of Equatorial Magnetic Disturb-
ances with Velocities of the Order of 100 Miles per
Second, Dr. C. Chree, 160 ; Mechanical Stress and
Magnetisation of Nickel, Prof. W. Brown, 161 ; on
the Simultaneity of " Abruptly-beginning " Magnetic
Storms, O. Krogness, 170 ; Dr. L. A. Bauer, 306 ;
Origin of Magnetic Storms, Arthur Schuster, 461 ;
Magnetic Properties of Iron at High Frequencies, R.
Jouaust, 193 ; Russian Magnetic Observations. Prof.
Ernst Leyst, Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S., 388; New Property
of the Magnetic Molecule, Pierre Weiss, 395 ; Solenoids,
Electromagnets, and Electromagnetic Windings. Charles
R. Underbill, Prof. Gisbert Kapp, 432 ; the Discharge
Potential in the Magnetic Field, Eugene Bloch, 463 ;
Studies of Magnetic Disturbances, L. Vegard, 473 ;
Observations of the Value of the Gravitational Accelera-
tion on Board the American Magnetic Ship Carnegie,
Dr. L. A. Bauer, 485 ; the Probable Ionising Action of
the Magnetic Field, Auguste Righi, 497; Historical
Account of the Growth of our Knowledge of Terrestrial
Magnetism, Prof. J. C. Beattie, 522 ; Report of the
Berlin Meeting of the Commission on Terrestrial Mag-
netism and Atmospheric Electricity, 522 ; Some Problems
of Terrestrial Magnetism, Dr. L. A. Bauer, t^^i

Magnetograms, Accuracy of Time on, G. W. Walker. 236

Magneto-optics : Liquid Rendered Double Refracting by the
Action of a Magnet Field, Prof. Voigt, 118; Prof.
Langevin, 118

Magnus (Sir Philip), Practical Work in Schools, 90 ;
Educational Aims and Efforts, 1880-1910, 298

Mailhe (A.). Direct Esterification by Catalysis, i;6^

Maire (Gilbert), Medico-psychological Study of Prof. Henri
Poincar^ undertaken by Dr. Toulouse, 4-;2

Makower (Dr. W.), Note on Scattering during Radio-
active Recoil, 296

Malaria : Anti-malarial Measures in India, Col. W. G.
King, 240 ; the Prevention of Malaria, Major Ronald
Ross, C.B., F.R.S., 263 ; Drainage and Malaria, Dr.
Chas. A. Bentley, 471 ; Dr. Malcolm Watson, 471

Maler's (Teobert), Journeys from North of Yucatan and
Extending to the Great Lake of Peten-itza in Guatemala,
iq

Malfitano (G.), Purification of Starch, q8

Mallock (.'\., F.R.S.), Influence of Viscosity on the Stability
of the Flow of Fluids, 192 ; the Flieht of Birds, Lucien
Fournier, 445; the Sailing-flight of Birds, i^ii

Mammalia : Faune des Mammif^res d'Europe. Prof. E. L.
Trouessart, 7. ; British Mammals, Major G. E. H.
Barrett-Hamilton, 6 ; Notes on Winter Whitening in
Mammals, Major G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, 42

Man, the Origin of, Charles E. Benham, 336; Dr. Cecil
H. Desch, 406

Man's Redemption of Man, Prof. W. Osier, 404

Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 97, 296, 361,
429. 531

Manchuria, Korea, and Russian Turkestan, the Face of,

E. G. Kemp, 500

Mangham (S.), Paths of Translocation of Sugars from
Green Leaves, 58 ; Translocation of Carbohydrates in
Plants, 485

Mangold (Dr. G. B.), Child Problems, 538

Manuring of Market-garden Crops, the, Dr. B. Dver and

F. W. E. Shrivell, 505

H*tur€,
March 23, 191 1

Judex

xxvii

Maoris of New Zealand, the, James Cowan, 109

Maplestone (C. M.), Descriptions of the Tertiary Polyzoa of
Victoria, 160

March (Margaret C), Preliminary Note on Unio pictorum,
U. tumidus, and D. cygnea, 361 ; L'nio pictorum, U.
tumidus, and Onodonta cygnea, 429

Marchal (Paul), Parasites of the Olive-fly in Tunis, 464

Marchant (Prof. E. \V.), Recent Progress in Electric Light-
ing, Lecture at Illuminating Engineering Society, 289

Marie (A.), Comparative Measurements of Individuals of
both Sexes from Lunatic Asylums with Normal Men and
Women, 532

Marine Biology : the Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-sea
Expedition, 1910, Dr. Johan Hjort, 52 ; the Michael Sars
North Atlantic Deep-sea Expedition, 1910, Dr. Johan
Hjort at Royal Geographical Society, 388 ; Work of the
Port Erin Biological Station, 83 ; the Ova and Lar\'ae
of Teleostean Fishes taken at Plymouth in the Spring and
Summer of 1909. 85 : the Siphonophora of the Research
Biscayan Plankton, H. B. Bigelow, 96 ; Comparison of
the Summer Plankton on the West Coast of Scotland
with that in the Irish Sea, Prof. W. A. Herdman, 96 ;
Eel-larvae {Leptocephaltis brevirostris) from the Central
North Atlantic, Dr. Johan Hjort, 104 ; the Megalospheric
Form of Ammodiscus incertus, F. Chapman, 139 ; the
Southern Division of the Mannar Pearl-oyster Fisher)",
Dr. A. Willey, 148 ; Pearl and Pearl-shell Fishery, A.
Scale, 177; Pearl-fishery off Bantayan, L. E. Griffen, 246;
the Breeding Seasons of Colonus finmarchius, G. P.
Farren, 565

Marinesco (Prof.), Summary of Recent Investigations upon
the Anatomical Localisation of the Human Cerebral
Cortex, 278

Market-garden Crops, the Manuring of, Dr. B. Dver and
F. W. E. Shrivell, 505

Marriott (L. M.), Mother and Child, 334

Mars : the Dark Band Surrounding the Polar Caps of.
Prof. Lowell, 22 ; Markings of Mars, James H. Worthing-
ton, 40; Prof. A. M. Worthington, C.B., F.R.S., 372;
Obser\-ations of Mars, E. M. Antoniadi, 305 ; Mars and
its Atmosphere, Mr. Innes and Mrs. H. E. Wood. 486 ;
Prof. Campbell and Dr. Albrecht, 486 ; the Satellites of
Mars, Prof. Lowell, 552

Marshall (F. H. A.), Some Causes of Sterility in Cattle,
161 ; Caponising, 161

Martin (E. A.), the Total Eclipse of the Moon, November
16, 118

Martin (Lawrence), the Remarkable Series of Earthquakes
in Alaska in September, 1899, 179

Martindale (Dr. W. Harrison), the Extra Pharmacopoeia of
Martindale and Westcott, loi ; Suggested Adoption of
Rounded-off Atomic Weights, 522

Maryland, Report of the Conservation Commission of, for
1908-9, 545

Mascart (Dr. J.), on Actinometry and on Meteorology at
TeneriflFe, 281 : Halley's Comet, 351

Mas6 (Rev. M. Saderra), Subterranean Noises, 451

Massol (G.), Chemical Composition of the Gases Spontane-
ously given ofif by the Thermal-mineral Spring of L'riage
Is^re, 262

Matavanu : a New Volcano in Savaii (German Samoa), Dr.
Tempest Anderson at Royal Institution, 92

Mathematics : Geometry' of the Triangle, W. Gallatly and
W. H. Salmon, 50 ; the Modern Geometry of the Tri-
angle, W. Gallatly, 33 q ; Theory' of Numbers, Dr. Vacca.
86; Mathematical Society, qj, 226, ^95, 531; Death of
Prof. Jules Tannery, 114; Obituarj- Notice of, 175; the
Reform of Mathematical and Science Teaching in Ger-
many, A. J. Pressland at Edinburgh Mathematical
Society, 125 ; the Calculus for Beginners, J. W. Mercer,
136 ; Graphical Representation of Some of the Simpler
Analvtic Functions of a Complex Variable, E. T. Little-
wood, 162 ; the Public School Geometry, F. J. W. Whipple,
167 ; the Student's Matriculation Geometry, S. Gango-
pidhydya, 167 ; First Stage Mathematics, 167 ; Second
Stage Mathematics (with Modern Geometry), 167 ; Conic
Sections, S. Gangopddhy^ya, 167 : Public Schools Arith-
metic, W. M. Baker and A. A. Bourne, 167 ; a School
Algebra, H. S. Hall, 167 ; Elements of Algebra, A.
Schultze, 167 ; the Theory of Elementary Trigonometry',
Prof. D. K. Picken, 167 ; Legons sur le Calcul des

Variations, Prof. J. Hadamard, 197 ; Practical Measure-
ments, A. W. .Siddons and A. Vassall, 202 ; a Treatise
on the Geometry of Surfaces, A. B. Basset, F.R.S., 231 ;
Internaciona Matematikal Lexiko en Ido, Germana,
Angia, Franca, e Italiana, Dr. Louis Couturat, 269 :
the Neglect of Group-theor)', Prof. Burnside, 313; Paul
Appell : Biographie, Bibliographic analytique des Ecrits,
Ernest Lebon, 335 ; Singularities of Cur\es and Surfaces,
A. B. Bassett, F.R.S., 336, 440; T. J. I'a, B., 336, 440:
the Bolyai-Lobatschewskv Svstem, Prof. H. S. Carslaw,
346; College Algebra, Prof. H. L. Reitz and A. R.
Crathorne, 368 ; Trigonometry, Prof. A. G. Hall and
F. G. Frink, 368 ; First Course in Calculus, Prof. E. J.
Townsend and Prof. G. A. Goodenough, 368 ; the Ima-
ginary in Geometry, Prof. Ellerj- W. Davis, 383 ; Con-
ferences of Mathematical Teachers and of Public School
Science Masters, 38-; ; Two Fragments of Ancient Geo-
metrical Treatises Found in the Worcester Cathedral
Library, Canon J. M. Wilson, 385 ; Teaching of Algebra
and Trigonometry, 385 ; Solutions of the Examples in an
Elementary* Treatise on Conic Sections by the Methods
of Coordinate Geometrj-, Charles Smith, 405 ; the Col-
lected Mathematical Papers of James Joseph Sylvester,
F.R.S., 434 ; the Fourier Constants of a Function, Dr.
W\ H. Young, 462 ; Practical Mathematics and Geo-
metry. E. L. Bates and F. Charlesworth, 4^0

Mather (Prof. T., F.R.S.), Exercises in Electrical Engin-
eering for the Use of Second-year Students in Universi-
ties and Technical Colleges, 503

Mathew (J.), Two Representative Tribes of Queensland,
with an Inquiry Concerning the Origin of the Australian
Race, 267

Mating, Marriage, and the Status of Women, James Conn,
334

Matouia sarmentosa in Sarawak, Occurrence of, Cecil J.
Brooks, 541

Matruchot (Louis), New Fungus Pathogenic to Man, 532

Matthew (Dr. W. D.), Phylogeny of the Felidae, 287 ; Pose
of the Sauropod Dinosaurs, 288

Maybee (J. E.», Stellar Magnitudes, 348

Mayer (Alfred Goldsborough), Medusae of the World, 285

Measurements, Practical, A. W. Siddons and A. Vassall, 202

Mechanics : Cours de M^canique Rationelle et Experiment-
elle, sp^cialement ^crit pour les physiciens et les
ing^nieurs, conforme an programme du certificat de
mecanique rationelle. Prof. H. Bouasse, i ; Theoretical
Mechanics, P. F. Smith and W. R. Longley, 169 ; Notes
on Applied Mechanics, R. H. Whapham and G. Preece.
^^7 ; Applied Mechanics, including Hydraulics and the
Theor\' of the Steam-engine, John Graham, 537

Mecklenberg (W.). Die esperi men telle Grundlegung der
Atomistik, 403

Medd (J. C), Extension of Forestr>- Areas and Improved
Methods of Cultivation in the British Isles, 415

Medicine: Death of Dr. J. F. Payne, 115; Rockefeller
Institute for Medical Research, 146; Beit Memorial
Fellowships for Medical Research, 216; the Killing of
Rats and Rat-fleas by Hydrocyanic Acid, Capt. W. D. H.
Stevenson, 246; the Medical Directory, 1911, 304; .Appeal
for the Adequate Endowment of Medical Education and
Research, Dr. Bulloch, 316; Epilepsy and Constipation,
E. Doumer, 32S ; Mother and Child, L. M. Marrion, 334 :
Death of Dr. .Achille Kelsch, 481 ; the Fothergillian Gold
Medal of the Medical Society awarded to Dr. F. W. Mott,
F.R.S., 547: Death of Dr. Edward G. Janewav, 547

Medusae of the World, Alfred Goldsborough Mayer, 285

Megalithic Monuments and Prehistoric Culture in the
Western Mediterranean, Dr. Mackenzie, 445 ; Mr. Peet,

445

Megalospheric Form of Ammodiscus incertus, the, F. Chap-
man, 139

Melanism in Atnphidasis betularia, Linn., a Biological
Inquiry- into the Nature of, H. S. Leigh, 270

Meldola (Prof. R., F.R.S.), Evolution, Darwinian and
Spencerian, Herbert Spencer Lecture at Oxford, 220 ; the
Coming of Evolution, Prof. J. W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S..
297

Meldrum (Dr. A. N.), Development of the Atomic Theorv,

97. 4^9. .S3I .
Memor)-, Unconscious, Sam.uel Butler, 3
MendeUan Expectations, Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S., 205

XXVlll

Index

[

Nature,
March 23, 191 1

Mendelism, a Lecture on, Dr. H. Drinkwater, 436

Mennell (F. P.), Composite Gneisses, 555

Mensclien, Der Stand unserer Kenntnisse vom fossilen, Prof.
W. Branca, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 402

Mentally Deficient Children, their Treatment and Training,
Dr. G. E. Shuttlevvorth and Dr. W. A. Potts, 507

Menzies (A. W. C), Dynamic Method for Measuring Vapour
Pressures with its Application to Benzene and Ammonium
Chloride, 103 ; Quantitative Study of the Constitution of
Calomel Vapour, 193 ; Method for Determining the
Molecular Weights of Dissolved Substances by Measure-
ment of Lowering Vapour Pressure, 497

Mercer (J. W.), the Calculus for Beginners, 136

Mercier (Mr.), Salmon-disease on the Continent, 416

Merlin (A. A. C. E.), Measurement of Grayson's New Ten-
band Plate, 361

Merlin (M.), the Total Eclipse of the Moon on November
16, 180

Merrill (E. D.), New Philippine Plants, 20 ; Flora of Mt.
Pulog, 217

Merritt (M. L.), Flora of Mt. Pulog, 217

Messerschmitt (Prof. J. D.), Der Sternenhimmel, 102

Messina, the Observatory at. Prof. J. Milne, F.R.S., 515

Metabolism and Energy Transformations of Healthy Man
during Rest, the, F. G. Benedict and T. M. Carpenter,
Prof. J. S. Macdonald, 276

Metabolism in Diabetes Mellitus, F. G. Benedict and E. P.
Joslin, Prof. J. S. Macdonald, 455

Metal Work, Exercises in, A. T. J. Kersey, 436

Metallography Applied to Siderugic Products, Humbert
Savoia, 202 ; Metallography, Dr. Cecil H. Desch, Prof.
A. McWilliam, 301 ; La M6tallographie appliqu6e aux
produits Siderurgiques, U. Savoia, 405 ; Introduction k la
M^tallographie INIicroscopique, Prof. P. Goerens, 470

Metallurgy : on Hydrogen in Iron, John Parry, 6 ; Notes
on Passagem Mine and Works, A. J. Bensusan, 33 ;
Treatment of Refractory Low-grade Gold Ores at the
Ouro Preto Gold Mine, Brazil, R. H. Kendall, 33 ; Varia-
tion of Resistance of Steels to Crushing as a Function
of the Temperature, F. Robin, 33 ; Secondary Enrichment
in the Copper Deposits of Huelva, Spain, A. Moncrieff
Finlayson, 128 ; the Mount Morgan Ore Deposits, Queens-
land, J. Bowie Wilson, 128; Successive Stages in the
Bessemerising of Copper Mattes as indicated by the Con-
verter Flame, D. M. Lew, 128 ; a Fourth Recalescence
in Steel. Prof. J. O. Arnold, 157; Prof. W. F. Barrett,
F.R.S., 235 ; Magnetic Properties of Iron and its Alloys,
Sir Robert Hadfield and Prof. B. Hopkinson, 217; Die
Untersuchungs-Methoden des Eisens und Stahls, Dr. A.
Riidisule, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, 233 ; Iron and Steel
Analysis, A. Campion, 268 ; Malaga Magnetites, F.
Gillman, 295 ; Report to the Corrosion Committee on
the Present State of our Knowledge of the Corrosion of
Non-ferrous Metals and Alloys, with Suggestions for a
Research into the Causes " of the Corrosion of Brass
Condenser Tubes by Sea Water, G. D. Bengough, 428 ;
Some Practical Experience with Corrosion of Metals,
Engineer Rear-Admiral J. T. Corner, 428 ; New Critical
Point in Copper-zinc Alloys, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter
and C. A. Edwards, 428 ; Adhesion of Electro-deposited
Silver in Relation to the Nature of the German Silver
Basis Metal, Prof. A. McWilliam and W. R. Barclay,
428 ; a Treatise on Electro-metallurgy, W. G. McMillan,
A. McWilliam, 506 ; Constitution of the Alloys of Alumin-
ium and Zinc, W. Rosenhain and S. L. Archbutt, 564

Metcalf's Comet (1910b), Dr. Ebell, 87, 319

Meteorology : Autumn Weather .'\ggregate Rainfall Defi-
cient, 20; Report upon the Investigations of the Upper
Air, Dr. W. van Bemmelem and Dr. C. Braak, 20 ; Study
of the North-east and South-east Trade Winds of the
Atlantic- Ocean, 40 : Misure Magnetiche fatte in Sar-
degna nel 1892, Prof. L. Palazzo, 50 ; Meteorological Rela-
tionships, Prof. H. Hildebrand Hildebrandsson, 55 ; E. T.
Quayle, 55 ; Descriptive Meteorology, Prof. Willis L.
Moore, 68 ; Two Notes from India, Capt. J. H. Barbour,
73 ; on the Electricity of Rain and its Origin in Thunder-
storms, Dr. George C. Simpson, Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S.,
81 ; Meteorological Charts of the North Atlantic and
North Pacific Oceans for December, and of the South
Atlantic and South Pacific for the Season December, 1910,
to February, 191 1, 86; Meteorological Chart of the North

Atlantic for December, 179 ; Meteorological Chart of North
Atlantic Ocean for January, 346, 382 ; the Third Dimen-
sion in Meteorology, Dr. E. van Everdingen, 117; Results
of the Hourly Balloon .^scents made from the Meteoro-
logical Department of the Manchester University, March
18-19, J910, Miss M. White, 128; Results obtained from
the Registering Balloon Ascents carried out during the
Two International Weeks, December 6-1 1, 1909, and
August 8-13, 1910, W. H. Dines, 128; Pilot Balloon
Observations made in Barbados during the International
Week, December 6-1 1, 1909, C. J. P. Cave, 128; Royal
Meteorological Society, 128, 295, 565 ; Annual General
Meeting of the, 415; Results of the Magnetic Observa-
tions at Central Meteorological Observatory of Japan,
148 ; Libyan Oasis of Kharga, Ellsworth Huntington,
148 ; Introduction to the Meteorology of the Future : the
Sun and the Prediction of Weather, Abb^ T. More.ux, 179 ;
the Meteorologv of the Future, Prof. C. .Abbe, 5^0; the
New Meteorological Office, Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S.,
181 ; Observations of the Lower Strata of Air by Kites and
Captive Balloons, 217; Aurora Borealis Witnessed at
Hampstead, 243 ; the Rainy Season in Japan, T. Okada,
247; Anales de ia Oficina Meteorol6gica Argentina, 250;
Climate of the Argentine Republic, W. G. Davis, 250 ;
Temperature Observations in the Madiisee (Pomerania),
with Mathematical Discussion of Temperature Oscilla-
tions, E. M. Wedderburn, 261 ; Report of the Council of
the Scottish Meteorological Society, 214; Atmospheric
Electricity, Dr. G. A. Carse and D. MacOwan, 281 ; the
Cold Period of June in Italy, Dr. Eredia, 281 ; on Actino-
metry and on Meteorology at Teneriffe, Dr. J. Mascart,
281 ; Atmospheric Conditions under which Explosions
Generally Occur, 277 ; Colliery Warnings, Prof. Henry
Louis, 336, 43S ; the Author of the \A'arnings, 437 ;
R. M. Deeley, 512 ; Balloon Experiments Carried Out at
Blackpool, Capt. C. H. Ley, 293 ; Meteorological Signi-
ficance of Small .Wind and Pressure Variations, Capt.
C. H. Ley, 293 ; Meteorological Office Daily Weather
Report, 314; Summary of the Weather for the Year, 314;
Decrease in Frequency and Intensity of London Fog, 318;
Present Position of Antarctic Meteorology, R. C. Moss-
man, 318; Aviators and Squalls, M. Durand-Gr^ville, 322;
Temperature of the Upper -Air, M. Rykachef, 323 ; Scien-
tific Memoirs of the Korean Meteorological Observatory,
341 ; Temperature Changes and Solar Activity, Prof.
F. H. Bigelow, 332 ; Weather Instruments and How to
Use Them, D. W. Horner, 403; "Black" Snow in the
Lower Emmen Valley, 431 ; General Character of the
Rainfall of 1910, Dr. H. R. Mill, 451 ; Subterranean
Noises, Rev. M. Saderra Mas6, 431 ; Atmospheric Elec-
tricity over the Ocean, Dr. G. C. Simpson and C. S.
Wright, 462 ; Report upon the Rains of the Nile Basin
and the Nile Flood of 1909, J. I. Craig, 485 ; Micro-
structure of Hailstones, MM. Dudetzky and Weinberg,
485 ; Meteorological Observations in Africa, 321 ; Meteoro-
logical Observations Recorded by Various Expeditions to
Novaia Zemlia, N. A. Koroste'ef, 321 ; Reports of
Meteorological Observatories, 325 ; Madrid Observatory,
1902-3, 323 ; Royal Magnetical and Meteorological Ob-
servatory, Batavia, 1907, 523 ; Odessa Observatory, 1908,
Prof. B. V. Stankevitsch, 323 ; Mysore, Rainfall Regis-
tration (1909), 323 ; Variation of the Depth of Water in
a Well at Detling, near Maidstone, compared with the
Rainfall, 1883-1909, R. Cooke and S. C. Russell, 565

Meteors : November Meteors, John R. Henry, 40 ; Recent
Fireballs, 87; Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, 150; C. B. Pen-
nington, 130; J. Hicks, 130; the Orbits of the Perseids,
Henry Dierckx, 218; the Ouadrantid Meteor Shower,
T. W. Backhouse, 236 ; January Meteors, John R. Henry,
271 ; W. F. Denning, 348 ; Fireball of January q, W. F.
Denning, 372 ; Meteors in February, W. F. Denning,
417; Splendid Meteor on January 23, W. F. Denning,
433 ; a Morning Meteor, Joseph H. Elgie, 475 ; a Slowly
Moving Meteor, F. E. Baxandall, 532

Metrology : the Invicta Table Book, j. W. Ladner, 103 ;
the Volume of the Kilogramme of Water, Sir T. Edward
Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S. , 242 ; Travaux et M6moires du
Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, Sir T.
Edward Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S., 242; Measurement of End-
standards of Length, Dr. P. E. Shaw, 394

Mewes (Herr), Nova Lacertae, 453

Man

Nature, l

k 23, 191 1 J

Index

XXIX

Meyer (G. M.), Case of Spanish Eugenic Policy, 47

Meyer (Dr. M. Wilhelm), Death and Obituary Notice of,
313

Meyer (Mr.), Elements for Faye's Comet, igioe, 319

Meyricic (E.), Microlepidoptera of the Groups Tortricina
and Tineina, 496

Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-sea Expedition, 1910,
the, Dr. Johan Hjort, 52

Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-sea Expedition, 1910, the,
Dr. Johan Hjort at Royal Geographical .Society, 388

Michaud (F.), C.apillarimeter for the Measurement of the
Surface Tension of Viscous Liquids, 129

Mickle (K. A.), Flotation of Minerals, 430

Microscopy : Dunkelfeldbeleuchtung und Ultramikroskopie
in der Biologie und in der Medizin, N. Gaidukov, 72 ;
Royal Microscopical Society, 95, 361, 463; Resolution of
New Detail in a Coscinodiscus asteromphalus, E. M.
Nelson, 06 ; Microscopy, the Construction, Theory, and
Use of the Microscope,' E. J. Spitta, 230 ; Small Micro-
scope Lamp particularly Suited for Opaque Objects and
Dark-ground Illumination with High Powers, W. R.
Traviss, 361 ; Measurement of Grayson's New Ten-band
Plate, A. A. C. E. Merlin, 361 ; Appliances for Improving
the Ultra-microscope, Dr. F. Jentzsch, 522 ; the Micro-
scopical Examination of Food and Drugs, Prof. H. G.
Greenish, 538

Migration, Ornithological Notes from a South London
Suburb, 1874-1909, a Summary of Thirty-five Years'
Observations, with Some Facts and Fancies concerning,
F. D. Power, Sir T. Digby Pigott, C.B., 44

Migratory Birds, the Book of, met with on Holy Island
and the Northumbrian Coast, to which is added Descrip-
tive Accounts of Wild Fowling on the Mud Flats, with
Notes on the General Natural History of this District,
W. Ilalliday, 329

Milch und ^iolkereiprodukte, ihre Eigenschaften, Zusam-
mensetzung und Gewinnung, Dr. Paul Sommerfeld, 168

Milk, Soured, and its Preparation, Lactic Cheeses, Prof.
R. T. Hewlett, 33S

Mill (Dr. H. R.), General Character of the Rainfall of 1910,

451

Miller (J. H.), Exploring Upper Part of the Basin of the
Yenesei and the Western Frontier of Mongolia, 315

Millosevich (Prof.), the Spectrum of Nova Sagittarii No. 2,
22 ; Nova Lacertje, 453

Mills (J. Saxon), Production of Sugar from Sugar Beet, 85

Milne (Prof. John, F.R.S.), Earthquakes in the Pacific, 115;
in Forbidden Seas, 510; the Observatory at Messina, 515

Minchen (Prof. E. A.), Division of the Collar-cells of Cal-
careous Sponge, Clathrina Coriacea, 117

Mineralogy: Mineralogical Society, 127, 496; Wood-tin,
J. H. Collins, 127; Alteration of the Felspar of Granites
to China-Clay, J. M. Coon, 127; Wiltshireite, New
Mineral from the Binnenthal, Prof. W. J. Lewis, 128;
New Locality of Phenakite in Cornwall, Arthur Russell,
128; Issite, a New Rock in Dunite, Louis Duparc and
Georges Pamphil, 262 ; Flotation of Minerals, K. A.
Mickle, 430; Kaolin, F. H. Butler, 496; Schwartzem-
bergite. Dr. G. T. Prior and Dr. G. F. H. Smith, 496

Minerals : Mineral Resources of the Philippine Islands, 49 ;
Quinquennial Review of the Mineral Production of India
during the Years 1904 to 1908, Sir Thomas H. Hollard,
K.C.I.E., F.R.S., and Dr. L. Leigh Fermor, Prof. H.
Louis, 121 ; International Mineral Statistics, Prof. Henry
Louis, 211

Mining : Notes on Passagem Mine and Works, .'\. J. Ben-
susan, 33 ; Treatment of Refractory Low-grade Gold
Ores at the Ouro Preto Gold Mine, Brazil, R. H. Kendall,
33 ; Report of the Chief Inspector of Mines of the Native
State of Mysore for 1908, 117; Safety Explosives Em-
ployed in Mines, J. Taffanel, 129 ; Manganese-ore Deposits
of the Sandur State, A. Ghose, a Correction, 179; Inter-
national Mineral Statistics, Prof. Henry Louis, 211 ;
Progress and Prospects of Mining in Western Australia,
A. ^lontgomery, 247 ; Native Working of Coal and Iron
in China, 251 ; 1200 Mining Examination Questions, 270;
Atmospheric Conditions under which Explosions Generally
Occur, 277 ; Notes on Chilian Mills in Russia, H. C.
Bayldon, 295, 497 ; Low-grade Iron Ore in Raasay, 315 ;
Colliery Warnings, Prof. Henry Louis, 336, 438 ; the
Author of the Warnings, 437; R. M. Deeley, 512; Death

of George Grey, 482 ; Record of the First Series of the
British Coal Dust Experiments, conducted by the Com-
mittee Appointed by the Mining Association of Great
Britain, Prof. W. Galloway, 487 ; Notes on Placer Mining,
with Special Reference to Hydraulic Sluicing, N. A.
Loggin, 497 ; Organisation and Work of the Department
of .Mines of Canada, Alfred W. G. Wilson, 521 ; Safety
Lamps and the Detection of Fire-damp, 524

Minneapolis Meeting of the American Association, the, 410

Minot (Prof. C. S.), the Morphology and Nomenclature of
Blood Corpuscles, 27

Mirande (Marcel), Effects of Tarred Roads on Vegetation,
161 ; Action upon Green Plants of some Substances
Extracted from Coal-tar and Employed in Agriculture,
464

Mitchell (Guy E.), the Extensive Beds of Lignite in the
United States, 179

Mitchell (Mr.), Southern Nebulae, 552

Mockler-Ferryman (Lt.-Col. A. F.), the Life Story of a
Tiger, 333

Mollusca, a Monograph of the British Nudibranchiate, with
Figures of the Species, Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M.G., 133

Monaco, the Oceanographical Museum at, J. Y. Buchanan,
F.R.S., 7

Montangerand (M.), the Total Eclipse of the Moon on
November 16, 180

Montgomery (A.), Progress and Prospects of Mining in
Western Australia, 247

Moon : Rotation of the, .<;i ; the Total Eclipse of the Moon,
November 16, E. A. Martin, 118; Madame de Robeck,
118; MM. Luizet, Guillaume, and Merlin, 180; M.
Montangerand, 180 ; M. Lebeuf, 180 ; M. Jonckheere,
180; Dr. Max Wolf, 319; Father Fenyi, 319; the Secular
Acceleration of the Moon's Mean Motion, Dr. Robert
Bryant, 119 ; a New Map of the Moon, Mr. Goodacre, 319

Moore (J. H.), New Spectroscopic Binaries, 523

Moore (T. V.), Influence of Temperature and the Electric
Current on the Sensibility of the Skin, 316

Moore (Prof. Willis L.), Descriptive Meteorology, 68

Morbology : Research Defence Society, Stephen Paget, 6 ;
Rats and Plague, G. F. Petrie, i:; ; Prevention of Plague,
17 ; Deaths due to Plague in Suffolk, 17 ; the Prevention
of Plague, Dr. Newsholme, Dr. G. F. Petrie, 81 ;
Oriental or Bubonic Plague, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 237 ;
Outbreak of Plague in East Anglia, 277 ; Plague-infected
Rats in Suffolk, 416 ; Desirability of the Systematic
Destruction of Rats and other Vermin, 483 ; Investiga-
tions of Plague, 476 ; Panama Canal Zone Death-rates,
Col. W. G. Gorgas, 17 ; a Suggested Research Fund for
Tropical Diseases, 28 ; Experimental Study in Tubercu-
losis, M. M. Landowzy and L. Loederich, 33 ; Latent
Mesenteric Tuberculosis produced Experimentally in the
Dog, P. Chauss^, 98 ; Production of Primitive Thoracic
Tuberculosis in Cattle by the Inhalation of Infinitesimal
Amounts of Bovine Tuberculous Material, P. Chauss^e,
194 ; Simulium and Pellagra, R. Shelford, 41 ; Dr. C.
Gordon Hewitt. i6q ; Further Results of the Experimental
Treatment of Trypanosomiasis, H. G. Plimmer, W. B.
Fry, and H. S. Ranken, 64 ; Note on the Examination of
the Central Nervous System in a Case of Cured Human
Trypanosomiasis, Dr. F. W. Mott, 6'^ ; Life-history of
Trypanosoma gatnbiense and Trypanosoma rhodesiense
as Seen in Rats and Guinea Pigs, Dr. H. B. Fantham,
260 ; Experiments on the Treatment of .Animals Infected
with Trypanosomes by Means of Atoxyl Vaccines, Cold,
X-rays, and Leucocytic Extract, Major R. Ross and J. G.
Thomson, 260 ; Enumerative Studies on Trypanosoma
gambiense and Trypanosoma rhodesiense in Rats, Guinea
Pigs, and Rabbits, Dr. H. B. Fantham and J. G.
Thomson, 260 ; Resistance of Goats and Sheep to
Trypanosomiasis, A. Laveran, 39; ; Autoaggluti nation of
Red Blood Cells in Trypanosomiasis, Dr. W. Yorke,
427 ; Peculiar Morphology of a Trypanosome from a
Case of Sleeping Sickness and the Possibility of its being
a new Species (Trypanosoma rhodesiense). Dr. J. W. W.
Stephens and Dr. H. B. Fantham, 64 ; Sleeping Sickness
and Tsetse-flies, 147 ; Case of Sleeping Sickness Studied
bv Precise Enumerative Methods, Major Ronald Ross
and D. Thomson, 260 ; Conference on Sleeping Sickness,
414 ; Experiments to Ascertain if Antelope may Act as a
Reservoir of the Virus of Sleeping Sickness (Trypano-

XXX

Index

Afature,
March 23, igii

soma gatnbiense), Colonel Sir David Bruce and Captains
A. E. Hamerton and H. R. Bateman, 428 ; Experiments
to Ascertain if the Domestic Fowl of Uganda may Act as
a Reservoir of the \'irus of Sleeping Sickness {Trypano-
soma gambietise), Colonel Sir David Bruce and Captains
A. E. Hamerlon and H. R. Bateman, 428 ; Commission
to Investigate .Sleeping Sickness in Rhodesia, 448; Black-
head in Turkeys, Drs. Cole and Hadlcy, S5-6 ; Influence
•of Bacterial Endotoxins on Phagocytosis, L. S. Dudgeon,
P. N. Panton, and H. A. F. Wilson, 127; Enteric Fever
Carriers, Dr. J. C. G. Ledingham, 145; Cancer, Sir
Arthur Pcarcc Gould at the Royal College of Surgeons,
.214; Possible Cause of Pneumo-enteritis in the Red
Grouse (Lagopus scoticus), Dr. H. B. Fantham and Dr.
H. Hammond Smith, 226; the Broad Stone of Empire,
Problems of Crown Colony Administration, with Records
of Personal Experience, Sir Charles Bruce, G.C.M.G.,
.229 ; Anti-malarial Measures in India, Col. W. G. King,
240 ; Some Enumerative Studies on Malarial Fever,
Major Ronald Ross and D. Thomson, 260 ; Haemoglobin
Metabolism in Malarial Fevgr, G. C. E. Simpson, 260 ;
the Prevention of Malaria, Major Ronald Ross, C.B.,
F.R.S., 263 ; Drainage and Malaria, Dr. Chas. A.
Bentley, 471 ; Dr. Malcolm Watson, 471 ; Salmon-disease
on the Continent, Messrs. De Drorein de Bouville and
Mercier, 416 ; Metabolism in Diabetes Mellitus, F. G.
Benedict and E. P. Joslin, Prof. J. S. Macdonald, 45; ;
Complement Deviation in Mouse Carcinoma, Dr. J. O.
Wakelin Barratt, 496 ; Relation of the Mono-molecular
Reaction of Life Processes to Immunity, Dr. John
Brownlee, 497 ; the Form of Sporotrichum beurtnanni in
Human Lesions, E. Pinoy, 498 ; Flies as Carriers cf
Infection, Dr. G. S. Graham-Smith, 1^25 ; Dr. S.
Monckton Copeman, F.R.S., '^21; ; New Fungus Patho-
erenic to Man, Louis Matruchot, 1^32 ; an Account of
Pott's Disease of the Spine in an Egyptian Mummy
belonging to the Time of the Twenty-first Dynasty, about
1000 B.C., Prof. G. Elliot Smith and Dr. M. Armand
Ruffer, 54q ; Cladosporian Mycosis in Man, Fernand
Gu^guen, 566

"Moreau (L.), Lead Arsenate in Viticulture, 262

^loreux (Abb6 T.), Introduction to the Meteorology of the
Future : the Sun and the Prediction of the Weather, 179

Morley (Prof. Arthur), Critical Speeds for Torsional and
Longitudinal Vibrations, 217

"Morlev (Lord, of Blackburn), Science and Literature,
Address at English Association, 446

Morphology : the Convolutions of the Brain, Prof. G.
Elliot Smith, q? ; Morphological Method and the Ancestry
of Vertebrates, Prof. J. Graham Kerr, F.R.S.. 203

"Morris (Sir Daniel, K.C.M.G.), the Imperial Department
of Agriculture in the West Indies, Paper at Royal
Colonial Institute, 418

Morse (Dr. M.), Summation of Stimuli, 27

Mortality. Infant and Child, Dr. Arthur Newsliolme, C5;6'

Morton (Prof. W. B.), Cusped Waves of Light and the
Theory of the Rainbow. 160

TVIoschkoff (Mile. A. N.), Purification of Starch, 98

Mosquitoes, a Monograph of the Culicidae or, Fred V.
Theobald, 330

Mossman (R. C), Present Position of Antarctic Meteoro-
logy, 318

Mosso (Prof. Angelo), Death of, 146 ; Obituary Notice of,

174

Mother and Child, L. M. Marriott, -^34

Mott (Dr. F. W., F.R.S.), Note on the Examination of the
Central Nervous System in a Case of Cured Human
Trypanosomiasis, 61; ; the Brain and the Voice in Soeech
and Song, iqq ; the Fothergillian Gold Medal of the
Medical Society Awarded to, 547

"Moulin (Marcel), the Blue Colour of the Sky and the Con-
stant of Avogadro, 129

Moure (Prof. E. J.), the Abuse of the Singing and Speaking
Voice, Causes, Effects, and Treatment, iq9

"Moureu (Charles). Propiolic Compounds, 161

Moureux (Th.), Photograph of " Spectre of the Brocken,"

417
Mouton (H.), Absolute Measurement of the Magnetic

Double Refraction of Nitrobenzene, 129
IVIovsev (L.), Brongniart's Genus Palaeoxvris, -;87
"Muir (Dr. T., C.M.G., F.R.S.), the State's Duty to

Science, 213; Science and the State, Address at South
African Association for the Advancement of Science, 221

Mules, are. Fertile? Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S., 106

Miiller (W. Max), Egyptological Researches, 165

Munch (Dr. W.), the Radial Velocity of Sirius, 151; Nova
Lacertae, 4^3

Muntz (A.), Struggle for Water between the Soil and the
Seed, 97

Miintz (A.), the Nitrates in the Atmosphere of the Antarctic
Regions, 463

Murphy (Paul A.), Bacterial Disease of the Potato Plant in
Ireland and the Organism Causing it, 296

Murray (J.), Study of the Seepage and Evaporation Loss
from the Ibrahimia Canal, 317

Murray (Jas.), Some African Rotifers— Bdelloida of Tropical
Africa, 361

Murray (Miss M. A.), the Tomb of Two Brothers, 332

Museums : the Oceanographical Museum at Monaco, J. Y.
Buchanan, F. R.S., 7; Guide to the British Vertebrates
Exhibited in the Department of Zoology, British Museum
(Natural History), 234 ; a Descriptive Catalogue of the
Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay, based on the Leeds
Collection in the British Museum (Natural History),
London, Dr. C. W. Andrews, F.R.S., 264; a Guide to
the Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians and Fishes in the De-
partment of Geology and Paljeontology in the British
Museum (Natural History), 264 ; Guide to the Crustacea,
Arachnida, Onychophora and Myriopoda Exhibited in the
Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural
History), 501; ; Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in
the British Museum, 1^39

Mycology : Fungal Disease of the Blue Pine, Pinus excelsa,
48 ; Epidemic Outbreak of Eiitypella prunastri, E. S.
Salmon, 184 ; Life-history of the Apple " Scab " Fungus
(Venturia inaequalis), E. S. Salmon, 184; a Species of
Leptothyrium, E. S. Salmon, 184; " Koleroga," a Palm
Disease, Dr. L. C. Coleman, 217; Influence of Iron on
the Formation of the Spores of Aspergillus niger, G.
Linossier, 227 ; Infection of Potato Plants with the
Blight-fungus (Phytophthora infestatis) by Means of
Mycelium derived Direct from the Planted Tubers, Dr.
G. H. Pethvbridge, 327 ; Cytological Investigation of
Corn Rust, Dr. F. Zach, 34'^ ; Influence of Manganese
on the Development of Aspergillus niger, Gabriel Ber-
trand and M. Javillier, 464

Mvers (Dr. C. S.), Collection of Masses of Psychological
Data bv Untrained Observers, qo

Nadson (Prof. G. A.), Effect of Coloured Light on the
Development of Pure Cultures of the Green Alga,
Stichococcus hacillaris. 520

Narramore (W.), Preliminary Physiology, 103

Nasmith (Dr.), Method for Destroying Typhoid and Dysen-
tery Bacilli in Water, 245

Natural History : Pwdre Ser, Edward E. Free, 6 ; Present
Condition of American Bison and Seal Herds, 12 ; Varia-
tion in the Oyster-boring Whelk, Dr. H. E. Walter, 20 ;
Flowering Plants and Ferns Growing in Farringdon
Street, J.' C. Shenstone, 20; the Subantarctic Islands of
New Zealand, Prof. Arthur Dendy, F.R.S., 43 ; African
Game Trails, Theodore Roosevelt, Sir H. H. Johnston,
G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 77; Linnean Society, 96, 160, 226.
395, 496 ; First Annual Report of the Commission of
Conservation, Canada, A. E. Crawley, no; Mitteilungen
des Provinzialkomitees fiir Naturdenkmalpflege, A. E.
Crawley, no; Naturdenkmalpflege und Aquarienkunde,
R. Hermann and W. Wolterstorff, A. E. Crawley, iio;
Naturdenkmalpflege, Prof. Giirich, A. E. Crawley, no;
Uber Zeil u. Methode der Naturdenkmalpflege, Prof. Dr.
B. Schaefer-Cassel, A. E. Crawley, no; Uber dos Tier-
leben in dem von der Staatsforstverwaltung geschiitzten
Zwergbirken-Moor in Neulinum, Dr. Th. Kuhls^atz, A. E.
Crawley, no; Neues aus der Naturdenkmalpflege, Dr.
W. Giinther, A. E. Crawley, no; Whale-fishery at
Inishkea and Ely Point, Dr. Scharff, 116; Distribution
and Migration of North American Shore-birds, W. W.
Cooke. n6; Presence of Sanderlings on the Shores of
Dublin Bav throughout July, A. Williams, n6 ; Bird-
marking in the United States, L. J. Cole, 147 ; Are Bees
Capable of Distinguishing different Colours? J. H. Lovell,
147 ; Position of Birds' Nests in Hedges, Lt.-Col. J. H.
Tull Walsh, 207 ; New South Wales Linnean Society, 228,

ynture.

Miirch 23, 191

,]

Index

XXXI

362 ; Teachers' Notes on Nature-study : Plants and
Anima'.s, 235 ; Stray Leaves on Travel, Sport, Animals,
and Kindred Subjects, J. C. Walter, 270; Protection
from "White Ants" and Other Pests, Will A. Dixon,
270 : Fur-seals of the Pribilows, Dr. F. A. Lucas, 278 ;
Animals in Glen Garry Forest, Symington Grieve, 279 ;
List of the Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of Ireland,
A. W- Stelfox and Robert Welch, 296 ; a Synopsis of the
False Scorpions of Britain and Ireland, H. Wallis Kew,
296 ; Woodcraft for Scouts and Others, O. Jones and
M. Woodward, 303; Philips' Nature Calendar, 1911, 304;
the Conduct and Song of Birds, F. C. Constable, 308 ;
Expedition to the Southern District of the Bahr-el-Ghazel
for the Purpose of Securing the Head and Skin of
Eland, F. C. Selous, 314; the Birds of Our Colonies
and their Protection, James Buckland at the Royal
Colonial Institute, 315 ; Aigrettes and Bird Skins, Hamel
Smith, 316; Fragments of the Egg of an Ostrich
obtained in a Nalla on the Kain River, E. Bidwell, 316;
Scottish Natural History, T. A. Har\-ie Brown, 336 ;
Camacinia othello, R. J. Tillyard, 362 ; Der Naturfreund
am Strande der Adria und des Mittelmeergebietes, Prof.
Carl I. Cori, 369 ; the Aims and Methods of Nature-
study, Dr. John Rennie, 369 ; Life-work of the late
Samuel Alexander Stewart, 415 ; Battersea Park as a
Centre for Nature Study, W. Johnson, 435 ; How to Know
the Trees, H. Irving, 435 ; Rosenkrankheiten und Rosen-
feinde, Dr. K. Laubert and Dr. M. Schwartz, 435 ;
Organic Response, Dr. D. T. Macdougal, 450 ; a Book
of Nimble Beasts, D. English, 47S ; Reported Discovery
in the Congo of a New Mammal, Dr. E. Trouessart, 481 ;
Living Okapies, Sir Harry Johnston, 4S3 ; in Forbidden
Seas, H. J. Snow. 408; Prof. John Milne, F.R.S., 510;
Prof. D'.Arcy W. Thompson, 510; Habits of the Common
American Mole, F. E. Wood and J. .A. West, 520 ;
Practicability and Possibilities of Breeding Deer and Other
Big Game in Confinement in the United States, D. E.
Lantz, 549

Natural Resources, Conservation of, in the United States,
Charles R. Van Hise, 545

Natural Selection, an Apparently hitherto Unnoticed Anti-
cipation of the Theory of, H. M. Vickers, 510

Nature, the Protection of, .\. E. Crawley, 110

Naval Architecture : the John Fritz Medal awarded to Sir
William H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S., 548

Navigation : Marine Microthermograms and Influence of
Icebergs on the Temperature of the Sea, Prof. H. T.
Barnes, 137 ; Altitude Tables, Computed for Intervals of
Four Minutes between the Parallels of Latitude 0° and
30° and Parallels of Declination 0° and 24°, designed for
the Determination of the Position-line at all Hour .Angles
without Logarithmic Computation, F. Ball, 201 ; Re-
searches on the Influence of Velocity on the Compass,
Gaston Gaillard, 531

Nebula, the Spectrum of the .American, Dr. Max Wolf,
282

Nebula;, Lines in the Spectra of, Dr. W. H. Wright, 454

Nebulae, the Photography of. Dr. William J. .S. Lockyer,
140

Nebul.-c, Southern, Mr. Innes, 552 ; Mr. Woods, 552 ; Mr.
Mitchell, 552

Negro in the New World, the. Sir Harrv H. Johnston,
G.C.M.G., K.C.B., Pro;. G. Elliot Smith.' F.R.S., 172

Negroes of the Congo Free State and Nigeria, Certain
Physical Characters of the, Dr. Arthur Keith at Royal
-Anthropological Institute, 221

Neilson (Robert M.), .Aeroplane Patents, 270

Nelson (E. M.), a Micrometric Difficulty, 95 ; Resolution of
New Detail in a Coscinodiscus asteroinphalus, 96

Neogi (Panchanan), Reactions in Presence of Nickel, 130

Neptune, the Discovery of, 87

Neptune, the Discovery of, Leverrier's Letter to Galle, 184

Neugebauer (Prof.), Elements and Numbers of Recently
Discovered Minor Planets, 119

Neumann (Prof. B.), Traits complet d 'analyse Chimique,
appliquee aux essais industriels, 433

New Guinea, Explorations in. Dr. H. .A. Lorentz at Royal
Geographical Society, 490

New South Wales Linnean Society, 22S, 362

New^ South Wales Royal Society, 129

New Zealand, the Maoris of, James Cowan, 109

New Zealand, the Subantarctic Islands of, Prof. Arthur

Dendy, F.R.S., 43
New Zealand Survey, the, 185
Newall (Prof. H. F., F.R.S.j, the Spectroscope and its

Work, 300
Newsholme (Dr. .Arthur), the Prevention of Plague, 81 ;

Infant and Child Mortality, 556 ; Supplement to the

Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Local Government

Board, 556
Newstead (R.), Morphological Characters of the Genus

Glossina, 279
Nicholas (.Askin), Curious Explanation of Glacial Periods-

of Geology, 417
Nicholle (E. T.), Exploration of a Palseolithic Cave-dwelling,

known as La Cotte, at St. Brelade, Jersev, 344
Nicholls (Prof. A. G., F.R.S.), the Principles of Path-
ology, 4
Nicolai (Prof. Georg), Das Elektrokardigramm des gesun-

den und kranken Menschen, 265
Nicolardot (Paul), the Nitrous Esters of Cellulose, 34
Nierenstein (M.), Transformation of Proteids into Fats, 427
Nijland (Prof.), Halley's Comet, 350; Nova Lacertae, 523
Nimble Beasts, a Book of, D. English, 478
Nitrogen, the Afterglow of Electric Discharge in, Hon.

R. J. Strutt, F.R.S., 439
Nobel Prizes awarded to Paul Heyer, Profs. Van der

Waals, Wallack and Kossel, 213
Nordmann (Charles), Means of Determining by Colour

Photometry the Parallaxes of a Certain Class of Stars,

97 ; Effective Diameters of the Stars, 395
Norris (F. Edward), the Turkestan Earthquake of January

.3-4. 372

Norwich and the Broads, W. Jerrold, 202

Nova .Arae 98, 1910, Dr. Ristenpart, 218

Nova Lacertae, Mr. Hinks, 348 ; Mr. Espin, 348, 384 ; Prof.
.Max Wolf, 384, 453, 523, 552 ; Prof. Pickering, 384, 523 ;
Mr. Bellamy, 384 ; Dr. Graff, 417 ; Prof. Barnard, 453 ;
Prof. Millosevich, 453 ; Dr. Munch, 453 ; Prof. Hertz-
sprung, 453 ; Felix de Roy, 453 ; Herr Mewes, 453 ; P.
Idrac, 486, 523 ; Prof. Nijland, 523 ; Dr. Kuhl, 523 ^
P. M. Ryves, 523

Nova .Sagittarii No 2, the Spectrum of, Leon Campbell,
22 ; Prof. Millose.-ich, 22 ; Magnitude of. Dr. Ristenpart,

Nova Sagittarii No. 3, H. V. 3306, Miss Cannon, 248, 552

November Meteors, John R. Henry, 40

Nubia, the .Archaeological Survey of. Report on the Human
Remains, Drs. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., and F. Wood-
Jones, 310

Nudibranchiate Mollusca, a Monograph of the British, with-
Figures of the Species, Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M.G., 133

Nunn (Dr. T. P.), Methods of Algebra Teaching, 89

O'Brien (James), Orchids, 470

O'Donahue (T. .A.), Field and Colliery Sur\'eying, 405

O'Meara (Major), Sub-marine Cables for Long-distance
Telephone Circuits, 3S3

Obser\atories : Observatory on Mount Vesuvius, 50 ; .Annales
de 1 'Observatoire National d'.Athene, Demetrius Eginitis^
56 ; Publications of the .Allegheny Observatory, Prof.
Schlesinger, 218; Dr. ^chlesinger and D. .Alter, 218;
Dr. R. H. Baker, 218; the Italian Observatories. 282;
the New Hamburg Observatory, 309 ; Scientific Memoirs
of the Korean Meteorological Obser\atory, 341 ; the Solar
Physics Observatory, 373 ; the United States Naval Ob-
servatory, 418 ; the Obser\atory at Messina, Prof. J.
Milne, F.R.S., 515 ; Reports of Meteorological Obser\-a-
tories, 325 ; Madrid Observatory, 1902-5, 525 ; Royaf
Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory, Batavia,
1907, 525 ; Odessa Observatory, 1908, Prof. B. V. Stanke-
vitsch, 525 ; Mysore, Rainfall Registration (1909). 525

Oceanography : the Oceanographical Museum at Monaco,
J. Y. Buchanan, F.R.S., 7 ; Inauguration of the Oceano-
graphical Institute in Paris, 379. 413 ; the Oceano-
graphical Institute at Paris, Dr. William S. Bruce, 513

Ogilivie-Gordon (Mrs.), Triassic Masses above the Grbden-
tal, 280

Ogilvie-Grant (AV. R.), Irish Coalrit, 557

Ohnefalsch-Richter (Dr. Max), the Incense-.AItar of Aphro-
dite at Paphos, 323

Okada (T.), the Rainy Season in Japan, 247

XXXll

Index

[

Nature,
March 23, 191 1

Okapi, a Monosfraph of the, Sir E. Ray Lankester, K.C.B.,
F.R.S., and Dr. W. G. Ridewood, Sir H. H. Johnston,
G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 209

Okapi, Sir Ray Lankester's Book on the, Sir E. Ray
Lankester, K.C.B., F.R.S., 305; Sir H. H. Johnston,
G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 306

Oliver (Prof. F. W.), the Pollen Chambers of Various Fossil
Seeds, 5q

Olsson-SefTer (Miss H.), Character of the Tuantepec
Isthmus, its People and Resources, 549

Oort (Dr. E. D. van), Anttrophasis Monorthonyx, 416

Ophthalmology : Experimental and Chemical Ocular Action
of Bitumen Dust and Vapour, H. True and C. Fleig, 65 ;
the Prescribing of Spectacles, A. S. Percival, 467

Optics : Education in Technical Optics, 56 ; a Micrometric
Difficulty, E. M. Nelson, 95; Ahrens' Biliquid Prism,
C. D. Ahrens, 124; Optical Dispersion, Dr. T. H. Have-
lock, 192 ; Colour-blindness and the Trichromatic Theory
of Colour-vision, Sir W. de W. Abney, 259 ; on the Sensi-
bility of the Eye to Variations of Wave-length in the
Yellow Region of the Spectrum, Lord Rayleigh, O.M.,
F.R.S., at Royal Society, 421 ; Delicacy Interference
Measurements and the Means of Increasing Them, A.
Cotton, 429 ; Magnetic Modifications of the Absorption
and Phosphorescence Bands of Rubies and on a Funda-
mental Question of Magneto-optics, Jean Becquerel, 463 ;
New Convertible Balopticon Lantern, 485 ; the Principles
and Methods of Geometrical Optics, especially as Applied
to the Theory of Optical Instruments, Prof. J. P. C.
Southall, 499 ; Licht und Farbe, Robert Geigel, 539

Orbits of Several Spectroscopic Binaries, the, R. H. Baker,
384; F. C. Jordan, 385

Orchids, James O'Brien, 470

Organic Analysis, Allen's Commercial, 37

Oriental or Bubonic Plague, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 237

Origin of Dun Horses, Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S., 40;
Prof. James Wilson, 106

Origin of Incense, Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G.,
F.R.S., 507

Origin of Man, the, Charles E. Benham, 336 ; Dr. Cecil
H. Desch, 406

Orion Nebula, Variable Stars in the, 87

Orlich (Dr. E.), Suggestion to Balance Residual Induct-
ance and Capacity, 282

Ormerod (H. A.), Group of Prehistoric Sites Excavated in
South-west Asia Minor, 23

Ornithology : a Monograph of the Petrels (Order Tur-
binares), F. Du Cane Godman, F.R.S., 38; Ornithological
Notes from a South London Suburb, 1874-1909, a Sum-
mary of Thirty-five Years' Observations, with Some Facts
and Fancies concerning Migration, F. D. Power, Sir T.
Digby Pigott, C.B., 44; the Tooth-billed Bower-bird
{Scenopceetes dentirostris), S. W. Jackson, 84 ; Life of
William MacGillivray, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.E., Ornith-
ologist, Professor of Natural History, Marischal College
and University, Aberdeen, William MacGillivray, 107 ; the
Flight of Birds against the Wind, Dr. W. Ainslie Hollis,
107 ; the Flight of Birds, Lucien Fournier, A. Mallock,
F.R.S., 445 ; the Sailing-flight of Birds, Canon R. Abbay,
475; F. W. Headlev, 511: A. Mallock, F.R.S., 511;
Edward D. Hearn, 511 ; Die Vogelwarte Rossitten der
Deutschen Ornithologischen Gesellschaft und das Kenn-
zeichnen der \'ogel, Dr. J. Thienemann, 207 ; Aigrettes
and Bird Skins : the Truth about their Collection and
Export, Harold Hamel Smith, 207 ; Death of Capt. G. E.
Shelley, 215; Birds of Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands,
T. Ir'edale,' 228 ; Birds of Lord Howe and Norfolk
Islands, with the Description of a New Species of Petrel,
A. F. Basset Hull, 228 ; the Late Mr. Boyd Alexander's
Collection of Birds presented to the British Museum, 316;
Nature of the Colouring of the Kingfisher, F. J. Stubbs,
316; the Book of Migratory Birds, met with on Holy
Island and the Northumbrian Coast, to which is added
Descriptive Accounts of Wild Fowling on the Mud Flats,
with Notes on the General Natural History of this
District, W. Halliday, 329 ; the Birds of Dumfriesshire —
a Contribution to the Fauna of the Solway Area, Hugh
S. Gladstone, 378 ; the Irish Jay, Messrs. Witherby and
Hartert, 381 ; Protection of Useful Birds in Hungary and
Great Britain, W. H. Shrubsole, 381 ; the British Bird-
book, 407 ; Anurophasis monorthonyx, Dr. E. D. \'an

Oort, 416 ; Unleitung zur Beobachtung der Vogelwelt,
Dr. Carl Zimmer, 502 ; the Home-life of the Spoonbill!
the Stork, and Some Herons, B. Beetham, 544 ; Austra-
lian Birds, J. A. Leach, 557; Eggs of Certain South
African Birds, Messrs. Bucknill and (ironvold, 557 ; Irish
Coaltit, W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, 557 ; White-breasted British
Cormorants, 557 ; Significance of White Markings in
Passerine Birds, H. C. Tracy, 557

Osborn (Prof. H. F.), a " Mummy " of the Iguanodont
Dinosaur from the Kansas Cretaceous, 520

Osier (Prof. W.), Man's Redemption of Man, 404

Ostwald (W.), Die Wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen der
analytischen Chemie, 201 ; International Language and
Science, 269 ; Die Forderung des Tages, 298

Oswald (Dr. F.), the Sudden Origin of New Types, 520

Outes (Mr.), the Tierras cocidas of the Pampas Beds of

' Argentina, 178

Overbeck (O.), Obscure Phenomenon of Alcoholic Fermen-
tation, 380

Oxford, Herbert Spencer Lecture at. Evolution, Darwinian
and Spencerian, Prof. Meldoia, F.R.S., 220

Oysters, Storage of, in Filtered Water, M. Fabre-Domergue,
34

Pack-Beresford (D. R.), the Woodlice of Ireland, their

Distribution and Classification, K-ii
Paddock (Mr.), New Spectroscopic Binaries, 523
Paget (Stephen), Research Defence Society, 6
Painting : the Materials of the Painter's Craft, in Europe
and Egypt from Earliest Times to the end of the Seven-
teenth Century, with Some Account of their Preparation
and Use, Dr. A. P. Laurie, 533
Palaeobotany : Lower Cretaceous Angiosperms, Dr. M. C.
Stopes, 139 ; Jurassic Plants from the Marske Quarry,
Rev. G. L. Lane, 159 ; a Seed-bearing Irish Pteridosperm,
Prof. T. Johnson, 161 ; Arctic Plants from the Valley
Gravels of the River Lea, S. Hazzledine Warren, 206;
Comparison of Jurassic Floras, Prof. A. C. Seward,
F.R.S., 258; the Leaves of Calamites, H. Hamshaw
Thomas, 496 ; the Jurassic Flora of Sutherland, Prof.
A. C. Seward, 497
Palaeolithic Shaft-straighteners, Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S.,

371
Palaeontology: Fossilised Birds' Feathers from the Tertiary
Ironstone of Redruth, Victoria, F. Chapman, 20 ; Die
klimatischen Verhaltnisse der geologischen Vorzeit vom
Praecambrium an bis zur Jetztzeit und ihr Einfluss auf
die Entwickelung der Haupttypen des Tier- und Pflanzen-
reiches. Dr. Emil Carthaus, Ivor Thomas, 36 ; Systematic
Position and Feeding-habits of the African Jurassic Genus
Tritylodon, and its Northern Allies Plagiaulax and
Ptilodus, Dr. R. Broom, 48; Geological Age of the Pithe-
canthropus of the Pluvial Period in Java, Julius Schuster,
65 ; the Armour of Stegosaurus, F. A. Lucas, 73 ; R. L.,
73 ; the Foraminifera of the Shore-sands of .Selsey Bill,
Sussex, E. Heron-Allen and A. Earland, 86 ; Die Rekon-
struktion des Diplodocus, O. Abel, no; Descriptions of
the Tertiary Polyzoa of Victoria, C. M. Maplestone, 160;
Trilobite Fauna of Upper Cambrian Age (Olenus Series)
in North-cast Gippsland, Victoria; F. Chapman, 160 ;
Birthplace of Man in the Light of Palaeontological Record,
Prof. S. W. Williston, 247 ; a Descriptive Catalogue of the
Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay, based on the Leeds
Collection in the British Museum (Natural History),
London, Dr. C. W. Andrews, F.R.S., 264; a Guide to
the Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fishes in the Depart-
ment of Geology and Palaeontology in the British Museum
(Natural History), 264 ; Bones from the Alabama Eocene,
the Pelvis of a Zeuglodon, Dr. Lucas, 278 ; Fucoids, Otto
M. Reis, 284 ; Anthracosiidae of the Upper Carboniferous
Beds of Miihrisch-Ostrau, Dr. A. Schmidt, 284 ; New
Genus and Species of Dibranchiate Cephalopod, Belemno-
camax boweri, from the Lower Chalk (Tottenhoe Stone)
of Lincoinshi'-e. G. C. Crick. 285 : Fossil Fishes, Bashford
Dean, 285 ; Distribution of the Deinosauria in Time and
through Geographical Areas, R. S. Lull, 285 ; Miocene
Mammalia of Loeben, A. Zdarsky, 285 ; Investigation of a
Pre-glacial or Interglacial Bone-deposit near Kronstadt,
Franz Toula, 28,; ; Expedition to Java in Search of the
Predecessors of the Human Race, Dr. Elbert, 285 ; Stone
Implements found near Mar del Plata, Dr. Florentine

March 23, 191 1 J

Index

XXXlll

Ameghino, 285 ; Phylogeny of the Felidae, Dr. W. D.
Matthew, 287 ; Dapliaenodon, R. O. Peterson, 288 ; Pose
of the Sauropod Dinosaurs, Dr. Matthew, 288 ; Croco-
dilean Skull from the Ceratops Beds of Wyoming, C. VV.
(jilmore, 288 ; Skull of the Saw-billed Bird {Odontopteryx
toliapica), B. Spalski, 288 ; Smne British Mesozoic Croco-
diles, D. M. S. Watson, 361, 429; Der Stand unserer
Kenntnisse vom fossilen Menschen, Prof. W. Branca,
Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 402 ; an Institute of Human Palae-
ontology, 412 ; the Ancient Fossil Archaeocyathus in
.Antarctica, 415 ; Collection of Insect Remains from the
South Wales Coalfield, Herbert Bolton, 462 ; a " Mummy "
of the Iguanodont Dinosaur from the Kansas Cretaceous,
Prof. H. F. Osborn, 520

Palazzo (Prof. L.), Misure magnetiche fatte in Sardegna nel
1892, 50

Pallis (.Miss M.), Saline Water of Norfolk Broads, 318

Palmer (Dr. A. Smythe), Luck of the Horse-shoe, 19

Palmer (F.), Scheme for the Improvement of the Port of
London, 484

Pamphil (Georges), Issite, a New Rock in Dunite, 262

Panama Canal in 1910, the. Dr. Vaughan Cornish at Royal
Society of .Arts, 420

Panton (P. N.), Influence of Bacterial Endotoxins on Phago-
cytosis, 127

Parasitology : Occurrence of Pentastomes in Australian
Cattle. T. Harvey Johnston and Dr. J. Burton Cleland,
130 ; Parasites of the Olive-fly in Tunis, Paul Marchal,
464

Paris Academy of Sciences, 33, 65, 97, 129, 161, 193, 227,
261, 327, 361, 395, 429, 463, 497, 531, 565; Prize .Awards
of the, 320; Prize Subjects Proposed by the, for 1912, 349

Paris, The Oceanographical Institute at. Dr. William S.
Bruce, 513

Park (Prof. T.), Area Affected by the Tarawera Eruption in
New Zealand in 1S86, 485

Parker (Prof. T. J., F.R.S.), a Text-book of Zoology, 533

Parkes (L. C), Hygiene and Public Health, 507

Parkyn (E. A.), Darwin and the Transmission of .Acquired
Characters, 474

Parry (John), on Hydrogen in Iron, 6

Passon (Dr. Max), Kleines Handworterbuch der Agrikul-
turchemie, 164

Pathology : the Principles of Pathology, Prof. J. G. Adami,
F.R.S.', and Prof. A. G. Nicholls, F.R.S., 4; Death of
Dr. D. J. B. Gernez, 18; Death of Dr. Charles Archibald
Herter, 244 ; Practical Pathology, Prof. G. Sims Wood-
head, 434

Patten (Prof. C. J.), a Rare Form of Divided Parietal in the
Cranium of a Chimpanzee, 24

Pa\na (C. A.), Larvae of a Common Calcutta Mosquito,
known as Toxorhynchites immisericors, 122

Payne (Dr. J. F.), Death of, 115

Pearson (Prof. H. W.), Desirability and Advantages of a
South African National Botanic Garden, 451

Pearson (Karl, F.R.S.), a Second Study of the Influence
of Parental .Alcoholism on the Physique and .Ability of the
Offspring, 479 ; a Preliminary Study of Extreme Alcohol-
ism in .Adults, 479

Pedashenko (D.), Ostracoda Collected in Issykkul by, 279

Peet (Mr.), Megalithic Monuments and Prehistoric Culture
in the Western Mediterranean, 445

Pellagra, Simulium and, R. Shelford, 41 ; Dr. C. Gordon
Hewitt, 169

Peltier and Thomson Effects, Demonstration of, S. G.
Starling, 512

Penhallow (Prof. D. P.), Death and Obituary Notice of, 16

Pennington (C. B.), Recent Fireballs, 150

Penrose's Pictorial Annual, 401

Percival (.A. S.), the Prescribing of Spectacles, 467

Perot (A.), Spectroscopic Measurement of the Rotation of

, Stars Possessing an Atmosphere, with Special Reference
to the Sun, 129 ; Luminescence of the Mercury Arc in
vacuo, 318

Perrine (Charles D.), Determination of the Solar Parallax,
287

Perseids, the Orbit of the, Henry Dierckx, 218

Peterson (R. O.), Daphaenodon, 288

Pethybridge (Dr. G. H.), Bacterial Disease of the Potato
Plant in Ireland, and the Organism Causing it, 296 ;
Infection of Potato Plants with the Blight Fungus

{Pbyiophthora infestans) by Means of Mycelium Derived
Direct from the Planted Tubers, 327

Petrels, a Monograph of the, (Order Turbinares), F. Du
Cane Godman, F.R.S., 38

Petrie (Dr. G. F.), Rats and Plague, 15 ; the Prevention
of Plague, Dr. Newsholme, 81

Petrie (Prof. W. M. Flinders, F.R.S.), Work Carried on
by the British School in Egypt at Meydum and Memphis,
23 ; Early Burial Customs in Egypt, 41

Petrology : Les Roches et leurs Elements min^ralogiques,
Ed. Jannettaz, 166 ; Tables for Calculation of Rock-
analyses, .Alfred Harker, F.R.S., 540

Pfaundler (L.), International Language and Science, 269

Pflanzenreich, Das, Papaveraceae-Hypecoideae et Papaver-
aceae-Papaveroideae, Friedrich Fedde, 302

Pharmacy : Death of Dr. Carl S. N. Hallberg, 47 ; the
Extra Pharmacopoeia of Martindale and Westcott, Dr. W.
Harrison Martindale and W. Wynn Westcott, 101 ; Chroni-
cles of Pharmacy, .A. C. Wootton, Prof. Henry G.
Greenish, 398 ; Suggested .Adoption of Rounded-off
.Atomic Weights, Dr. W. H. Martindale, 522

Philip (Prof. James), Physical Chemistry, its Bearing on
Biology and Medicine, 69

Philips' >fature Calendar, 191 1, 304

Philology : British Place-names in their Historical Setting,
Edmund McClure, Rev. John Griffith, 131 ; International
Language and Science, Profs. L. Couturat, O. Jespersen,
R. Lorenz, W. Ostwald, aod L. Pfaundler, 269

Philosophy : the Presentation of Reality, Dr. Helen Wode-
house, 269: Philosophical Essays, B. Russell, F.R.S.,
331 ; Wolffsche Begriffsbeslimmungen, Prof. Julius
Baumann, 367: Wilhelm von Humboldt's ausgewahlte
philosophische Schriften, 367 ; Fichte, Schleiermacher,
Steffens iiber das Wesen der Universitat, Eduard
Spranger, 367 ; Baruch de Spinoza, Ethik, Otto Baensch,
367 ; Encyklopadie der Philosophic, .A. Dorner, 367 ;
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 370 ; Schopen-
hauer-Darwin : Pessimismus oder Optimismus, Gustav
Weng, 403 ; Kant and his Philosophical Revolution, Prof.
R. Si. Wenley, 404 ; the Application of Logic, .Alfred
Sidgwick, 436

Phosphorescence in the Sea, Remarkable Displays of.
Commander Campbell Hep worth, 564

Photography : Applications of the Kinematograph to
Bacteriological Photomicrography, iq ; Curved Photo-
graphic Plates. Prof. E. C. Pickering, 51 ; the Photo-
graphy of Moving Objects and Hand-camera Work for
Advanced Workers, .A. Abrahams, 102 ; Photographic
Magnitudes of Seventy-one Pleiades Stars, .Adolf Hnatek,
119: the Photography of Nebulae, Dr. W'illiam J. S.
Lockyer, 140 : the Photographic Magnitudes of Stars.
Prof.' E. C. Pickering, 181 : E. Hertzsprung, 181 ; the
" Wellcome " Photographic Exposure Record and Diary,
191 1, 201 ; Photograms of the Year 1910, 234: Application
oiF the Gyroscope and of Compressed .Air to Taking Kine-
matographic Views, G. de Proszynski, 327 ; a Primer of
Photography, Owen Wheeler. 332 ; Easy Method of
Treating Printing-out Paper (P.O.P.) for '.AH Kinds of
Photography, M. J. Allen, 361 ; Penrose's Pictorial
Annual, 401 : the British Journal Photographic .Almanac,
191 1. 401; Spectre of the Brocken. Th. Moureux, 417;
Photographic Determinations of Stellar Parallax, Prof.
F. Schlesinger, 4^4 ; Sir F. Galton and Composite Photo-
graphy, Lady Welby, 474 ; Photography in Colours, Dr.
Geo. L. Johnson, s^q

Photomicrography, Colour Contrast in, Messrs. Wratten
and Wain Wright, 319

Physics : Cours de M^anique Rationelle et Experimentelle
sp^cialement ^rit pour les physiciens et les ing^nieurs,
conforme au progframme du Certificat de m^anique
rationelle. Prof. H. Bouasse, i ; Diffusion of Gaseous
Ions. Edouard Salles, 33 ; Refrigerating Mixtures, J.
Duclaux, 33 : Nobel Prize Awarded to Prof. J. D. van
der Waals, 46 : Measurements of the Heat Conductivities
of Fine Powders and the Influence of the Size of the
Grains and the State of the Gas between them on the
Conductivity. Prof. Smoluchowski, !;o ; the Relations
between Chemical Constitution and some Physical
Properties. Prof. Samuel Smiles, Dr. Arthur Harden.
F.R.S., 6q ; Physical Chemistry, its Bearing on
Biology and Medicine. Prof. James Philip, Dr. Arthur

XXXIV

Index

Nature,

March. 23, 191 1

Harden, F.R.S., 69; the Elements, Sir William A.
Tilden, F.R.S., Dr. Arthur Harden, F.R.S., 69: the
Limiting Line of Sedimentation in Wave-stirred Areas,
A. R. Hunt, 72 ; Elementary Treatise on Physics, 72 ;
Conduction of Heat through Rarefied Gases, F. Soddy
and A. J. Berry, 95 ; Chemical Physics involved in the
Precipitation of Free Carbon from the Alloys of the
Iron-carbon System, W. H. Hatfield, 95 ; Physical
Society, 96, 160, 225, 530 ; Determination of the Tension
•of a Recently Formed Water-surface, N. Bohr, 95 ; New
Method for Producing High Tension Discharges, Prof.
Ernest Wilson and W. H. Wilson, 96 ; Behaviour of
Steel under Combined Static Stress and Shock, F.
Rogers, 96 ; a Treatise on Electrical Theory and the
Problem of the Universe, considered from. the Physical
Point of View, with Mathematical Appendices, G. W. de
Tunzelmann, 99 ; Introduction to Physical Chemistry,
Prof. H. C. Jones, 103; the Cavendish Laboratory, 112;
.a History of the Cavendish Laboratory, 1871-1910, 195;
Mobility of the Positive Ion in Flames, S. G. Lusby,
128 ; Mobility of the Positive Ions in Gases at Low
Pressures, G. W. Todd, 129 ; the Blue Colour of the Sky
and the Constant of Avogadro, Edmund Bauer and
Marcel Moulin, 129 ; Capillarimeter for the Measurement
of the Surface Tension of Viscous Liquids, F. Michaud,
129 ; Effect of a Magnetic Field on the Potential Differ-
ence Necessary to Cause a Discharge to Pass Between
Two Electrodes in a Rarefied Gas, Prof. Righi, 149;
Absorption of Light by the Earth's Atmosphere, Dr.
A. W. Roberts, 149 ; Observations on the Double Refrac-
-tion Induced by Strain in Caoutchouc, Dr. Paolo Rossi,
140 ; Cusped Waves of Light and the Theory of the
Rainbow, Prof. W. B. Morton, 160 ; Study of the
'Porosity of Chamberland Filters, Francisque Grenet,
161 ; Measurements Made on the Dispersion of Metallic
Bodies in the Visible Spectrum, Dr. Const. Zakrzewski,
179-180 ; Rediation from Heated Gases, Report of British
Association Committee, 186 ; Atmospheric Oscillations,
Horace Lamb, 192 ; Influence of Viscosity on the
Stability of the Flow of Fluids, A. Mallock, 192 ;
Thermoelectric Diagram from —200° to -|-ioo° C, based
on the Experiments of Sir James Dewar and Prof.
Fleming, J. D. Hamilton Dickson, 193 ; Dynamic Method
for Measuring Vapour Pressures, with its Application to
Benzene and Ammonium Chloride, Profs. Alex Smith
and A. ^V. C. Menzies, 193 ; the Resistance of Rectan-
gular Planes Struck Obliquely by the Wind. G. Eiffel,
193 ; the Reversal of the Phosphorescence Bands, Jean
Becquerel, 193 ; the Laws of Friction of Solids on Each
Other, Miss C. Jakob, 217; the Electric Stress at which
lonisation Begins in Air, Dr. A. Russell, 225 ; the
Phvsical Society's Exhibition, 248; an Arrangement for
Keeping the Cold Junction of a Clinical Recording Ther-
mometer at a Constant Temperature, 249 ; a Simple and
Strong Form of Vibration Galvanometer based on the
Kelvin Galvanometer, H. Tinsley and Co., 240: Experi-
mental Verification of the Hydrodynamical Theory of
Temperature Seiches, E. M. Wedderburn and A. M.
Williams, 261 ; Luminescent Tubes containing Neon,
Georges Claude, 262 ; Some Phvsical Properties of
Rubber, Prof. A. Schwartz and Philip Kemp, 296 ; a
School Course of Heat, R. H. Scarlett, 303 ; die
praktischen Schulerarbeiten in der Physik, Dr. W. Leick,
304 : the Clarification of Liquids by the Process of
Tanking, Rowland A. Earp, 308 ; Luminescence of the
Mercury Arc in vacuo, M. Perot, 318; .Application of the
Gyroscope and of Comoressed Air to Taking Kinemato-
-graphic Views, G. de Proszynski, 327; Measurements of
the Magnetic Properties of Iron, Steel, Nickel, and Cobalt
at the Temperature of Liauid .'\ir. R. Beattie and H.
'Gerrard, 347 ; Photo-elasticity, Prof. E. G. Coker, 347 ;
Separation of Oxygen by Cold, J. Swinburne. 360 :
Testing of Metals by the Study of the Damping of
Vibratory Movements, O. Boudouard, 361 ; Centenary of
the Birth of Regnault, H. Le Chatelier, 383 : the Theory
of lonisation of Gases by Collision, Prof. John S.
Townsend, F.R.S., 400; die experimentelle Grundlegung
• der Atomistik, W. Mecklenberg, 403 ; Development of
the Atomic Theory, Dr. A. N. Meldrum, 429 ; Resistance
to the Movement of Small Non-spherical Bodies in a
Fluid, Jacques Boselli, 429 ; Principle of Relativity, Prof.

E. Cohn, 452 ; Prof. H. Poincar^, 452 ; Motion of Oscil-
lating Wafer, Mrs. Hertha Ayrtori, 462 ; Dynamical
Reaction of a Liquid Jet, U. Cisotti, 463 ; an Uncon-
scious Forecast by Joule, B. A. Keen, 475 ; Observations
of the Value of the Gravitational Acceleration on Board
the American Magnetic Ship Carnegie, Dr. L. A. Bauer,
481; ; Radio-activitv as a Kinetic Theory of a Fourth
State of Matter, Prof. William H. Bragg, F.R.S., at
Royal Institution, 491 ; an Improved Form of Total
Reflectometer, A. Hutchinson, 496 ; Case of Electrostatic
Separation, T. Crook, 496 ; Action of External Forces on
Pressure of Saturated Vapours and the Gases Dissolved
in a Liquid, G. Lippmann, 497 ; Existence of a Periodic
Element in the Magneto-kathodic Radiation, M. Gouy,
497 ; Cause of an Instrumental Error in the Measurement
of a Base Line, R. Bourgeois, 497 ; the Density, Co-
efficient of Expansion, and Change of \'olume on Fusion
of the Alkaline Metals, Louis Hackspill, 497 ; Method for
Determining the Molecular Weights of Dissolved Sub-
stances by Measurement of Lowering of Vapour Pressure,
Alan W. C. Menzies, 497 ; the Modus operandi of the
Prism, Dr. George Green, 407 ; Demonstration of Peltier
and Thomson Effects, S. G. Starling, 512 ; the Formation
of Spheres of Liquids, Charles R. Darling, 512 ; Demon-
stration of the Phase Difference between the Primary
and Secondary Currents of a Transformer by Means of
a Simple Apparatus, Prof. F. T. Trouton, .!53o ; Behaviour
of Bodies Floating in a Free or a Forced Vortex, Prof.
A. H. Gibson, 531 ; Mechanical Stress and Magnetisation
of Nickel, Prof. W. Brown, 531 ; Method of Observation
of the Trajectories Followed by the Elements of an Air
Current Deflected by Obstacles of Variable Forms, A.
Lafay, 532 ; Vibrations of a Pianoforte Sound-board,
G. H. Berry, 1541 ; Theory of a New Form of Dynamo-
meter for the Measurement of the Quantity of Electricity
which Flows Through the Instrument, B. McCoUum,
>:;i ; Experiments on Stream-line Motion in Curved Pipes,
Prof. J. Eustice, 564 ; Adhesivity, A. Hanriot, 56/; ;
Periodic Structure of the Magneto-kathode Rays, M.
Gouy, 565
Physiography, Elementary, Prof. R. D. Salisbury, 506
Phvsiology : Biological Physics, Piiysic, and Metaphysic,
Thomas Logan, 35 ; Variations in the Quantity and
Composition of the Pancreatic Juice during Secretions
brought about by Secretin, S. Lalou, 98 ; Preliminary
Physiology, W. Narraniore, 103 ; Death of Prof. Angelo
Mosso, 146; Obituary Notice of, 174; Respiratory Ex-
changes after work has been done, Jules Amar, 161 :
Some Causes of Sterility in Cattle, F. H. A. Marshall,
161 ; Caponising, F. H. A. Marshall and K. J. J.
Mackenzie, 161 ; Practical Physiological Chemistry : a
Book designed for Use in Courses in Practical Physio-
logical Chemistry in Schools of Medicine and of Science,
Philip B. Hawk. 169; the Brain and the Voice in
Speech and Song, Prof. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., Prof.
John G. McKendrick, F.R.S., 199; the .Abuse of the Sing-
ing and Speaking Voice, Causes, Effects, and Treat-
ment, Prof. E. J. Moure and A. Bowver, Prof. John G.
McKendrick, F.R.S., 199; the Voice, .Dr. W. A. Aitlten,
Prof. John G. McKendrick, F.R.S., 199; Handbuch der
vergleichenden Physiologie, 234 ; Colour-blindness and
the Trichromatic Theory of Colour Vision, Sir W'. de W.
.Abnev, 259 ; Observations on the Body Temperature of
the Domestic Fowl during Incubation, Dr. Sutherland
Simpson, 261 ; Contribution to the Study of the Physio-
logical .Action of the Organic Bases, 262 ; A. Brissemoret
and A. Joanin, 262 ; das Elektrokardigramm des
gesunden und kranken Menschen, Prof. Friedrich Kraus
and Prof. Georg Nicolaf, Prof. John G. McKendrick,
F.R.S., 265 : the Metabolism and Energy Transforma-
tions of Healthv Man during Rest, F. G. Benedict and
T. M. Carpenter, Prof. J. S. Macdonald, 276 ; the Cells
of the Ciliary Ganglion, Dr. Guido Sala, 270; Develop-
ment of the Trachea in the Chick, Prof. Livini, 279 ;
Segmentation of the Occipital Region of the Head in
the Batrachia Urodela, E. S. Goodrich, 20.^ ; Practical
Phvsiological Chemistry, Dr. R. H. .Aders Plimmer, 302 :
Notes on Physiology, Dr. Henry Ashby, 304 ; Influence
of Temoeratiire and the Electric Current on the Sensi-
biltv of the Skin, T. V. Moore, 316; Physiological
Significance of the Vital Coloration of Leucocytes,

Nature,
March 23, 191 1

Index

XXXV

I

L. Bruntz and L. Spillman, 361 ; Pharmacological Action
of Gonioma Kamassi (South African Boxwood), Dr.
W. E. Dixon, 427 ; Autoagglutination of Red Blood
Cells in Trypanosomiasis, Dr. \V. Yorke, 427 ; Eliminat-
ing Role of the Leucocytes, L. Spillman and L. Bruntz,
429 ; Physiology the Servant of Medicine, being the
Hitchcock Lectures for 1909, delivered at the University
of California, Berkeley, Cal., Dr. Augustus D. Waller,
F.R.S., Sir T. Clifford AUbutt, F.R.S., 465; the Inges-
tion of Mineral Acids in the Dog, Henri Labr6 and
L. Violle, 498 ; Certain Physical and Physiological Pro-
perties of Stovaine and its Homologues, V. H. Veley
and W. L. Symes, 529 ; Effect of some Local Anaesthe-
tics on Nerve, W. L. Symes and V. H. Veley, 529 ;
Comparative Measurement of Individuals of both Sexes
from Lunatic Asylums with Normal Men and Women,
A. Marie and M. MacAuliffe, 532 ; Death of Dr. C.
Alexander MacMunn, 548 ; the Sinemonic Origin and
Nature of the Affective Tendencies, Signer Rignano,
549 ; Study of Artificial Pyrexia produced by Tetrahydro-
(8-naphthalamine Hydrochloride, Adam Black, 565 ; the
Independence of the Peripheral Neurons of the Retina,
Dr. Janie Hamilton MTlroy, 565; Description of th-
Cerebral Cortex of the Guinea-pig, Dr. Williamina Abel.
565 ; Experiments made at Mt. Blanc in 1910 on Gastric
Secretion at very High Altitude, Raoul Bayeux. 566 ;
Plant Physiology, Translocation of Carbohydrates in
Plants, S. Mangham, 48; ; a New Method for Estimating
Gaseous Exchanges of Submerged Plants, F. F. Black-
man and A. M. Smith, 530 ; on Assimilation in Sub-
merged Water-plants and its Relation to the Concentra-
tion of Carbon Dioxide and other Factors, F. F.
Blackman and A. M. Smith, 530.

Pianoforte Sound-board, Vibrations of a, G. H. Berrv, ^41

Picken (Prof. D. K.), the Theory of Elementary Trigono-
metry, 167

Pickering (Prof. E. C), Curved Photographic Plates, 51 ;
the Photographic Magnitudes of Stars, 181

Pickering (Prof.), Cerulli's Comet (1910^) Identified with
Faye's Short-period Comet. i;;i ; Nova Lacertae, 384, ^23

Pickering (S. U.), Twelfth Report of the Woburn Experi-
mental Fruit Farm, 71

Pi^ron (Henri), On the Origin of Slavery and Parasitism
in .Ants, 351

Piersol (Prof. W. H.), Spawn and Larvae of the Salamander
Amblysioma jeffersonianum, 279

Pieott (Sir T. Digby, C.B.), Ornithological Notes from a
South London Suburb, 1874-1909, a Summary of Thirtv-
five Years' Observations, with some Facts and Fancies
concerning Migration, F. D. Power, 44

Pilerrim (G. E.), Correlation of the Tertiary Fresh-water
Deposits of India, 553

Pines of Australia, a 'Research on the, R. T. Baker and
H. G. Smith, 46^

Pinoy (E.), the Form of Sporotrichum Beurmanni in
Human Lesions, 498

Pinro, 235 ^ ^

Pisciculture : Encvclopedie agricole. Pisciculture, Georges
Gu^naux. Dr. William Wallace, 16^

Pizzagalli (A. M.). La Cosmogonia di Bhrgu. 452

Plague : Rats and, G. F. Petrie. 15 ; the Prevention of.
Dr. Newsholme, Dr. G. F. Petrie, 81 ; Oriental or
Bubonic Plague, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 237; Investiga-
tions of, 476

Planets : the Dark Band surrounding the Polar Caps of
Mars. Prof. Lowell, 22 : Markings of Mars, James H.
Worthington, 40; Prof. .A. M." Worthington, C.B.,
F.R.S., 372 ; Observations of Mars. E. M. .Antoniadi,
305 : Mars and its Atmosphere, Mr. Innes and Mrs.
H. E. Wood, 486; Prof. Campbell and Dr. Albrecht.
j86; the Satellites of Mars, Prof. Lowell, •;^2 ; the

^ Apparent Diameter of Juoiter, Father Chevalier. 51 ;

' Observations of Jupiter's Galilean Satellites. Mr. Innes.
^24 ; the Discovery of Neptune, 87 ; the Discovery of
Neptune. Leverrier's Letter to Galle, 184 ; Elements and
Numbers of Recently Discovered Minor Planets, Prof.
Neugfebauer, 119; Saturn's Rings, M. Jonckheere, i:;o;
K. Srhiller, 218; a Proiection on Saturn's Outer Rine,
Mr. Jonckheere, 248 ; Observations of Plants, J. Hallev,
310

Plant .Anatomy from the Standpoint of the Development

and Functions of the Tissues and Handbook of Micro-
technic. Prof. \V. C. Stevens, 33:

Plant Life in Alpine Switzerland, E. A. Newell Arber, 404

Plant Physiology : Translocation of Carbohydrates in
Plants, S. Mangham, 485 ; a New Method for estimating.
Gaseous Exchanges of Submerged Plants, F. F. Black-
man and A. M. Smith, 530; on .Assimilation in Sub-
merged Water-plants and its Relation to the Concentra-
tion of Carbon Dioxide and other Factors, F. F. Black-
man and A. M. Smith, 530

Plants for Cottage Gardens, Hardy, Helen R. Albee, 10 1

Plaskett (Mr.), the Probable Errors of Radial-velocity
Determination, 180

Pleiades Stars, Photografrfiic Magnitudes of Seventy-one,
Adolf Hnatek, 119

Plimmer (H. G.), Further Results of Experimental Treat-
ment of Trypanosomiasis, 64

Plimmer (Dr. R. H. Aders), Practical Physiological
Chemistry, 302

Pocock (R. I.), the Song of the Siamang Gibbon, 170

Poincare (Prof. H.), Principles of Relativity, 452

Pollok (Dr. J. H.), Vacuum-tube Spectra of the Vapours
of some Metals and Metallic Chlorides, 327

Polvtechnic Institutes, the Work of. Lord Alverstone, 220

Pope (Prof. W. J., F.R.S.), Crystal Structure and
Chemical Composition, 551

Post (Prof. J.), Traits complet d'Analyse Chimiquer
appliqu^ aux essais industriels, 433

Potoni^ (Prof. H.), die Entstehung der Steinkohle und
der Kaustobiolithe iiberhaupt, 199

Potter's Craft, the, F. Binns, 269

Pottery. Science and, 411

Potts (Dr. W. A.), Mentally Deficient Children, their
Treatment and Training, 507

Power (F. D.), Ornithological Notes from a South London
Suburb, 1874-1909, a Summary of Thirty-five A'ears"
Observations, with some Facts and Fancies concerning
Migration, 44

Pracka (Dr. L.), the Light Changes of Forty-nine Variable-
Stars, 248

Praeger (R. L.), Open-air Studies in Botany, 540

Prager (Dr.), Elements for Faye's Comet, 1910^, 319

Preece (G.), Notes on Applied Mechanics, 537

Prescribing of Spectacles, the, A. S. Percival, 467

Press Guide and Advertisers' Directory and Handboc^,.-
Willing's. 405

Pressland (A. J.), the Reform of Mathematical and Science
Teaching in Germany, Lecture at Edinburgh Mathe-
matical Societv. 125

Price (M. P.), Exploring Upper Part of the Basin of the
Yenesei and the Western Frontier of Mongolia. 315

Pringsheim (Prof. E.), Vorlesungen iiber die Physik der
Sonne, 68

Pringsheim (Hans), die Variabilitat niederer Organismen,
501

Prior (Dr. G. T.). Schwartzembergite, 496

Prize Awards of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 320

Prbszvnski (G. de). Application of the Gyroscope and of
Compressed Air to taking Kinematographic Views, 327

Prout (W. T.). Lessons on Elementary Hygiene and
Sanitation, with Special Reference to the Tropics. 270

Psvchologv : Unconscious Memory, Samuel Butler. 3 : die
Entwicklung des menschlichen Geistes, Max Verworn,
39 : Reason and Belief, Sir Oliver Lodge, 201 ;
Erkenntnistheoretische Grundziige der Naturwissen-
schaften und ihre Beziehungen zum Geistesleben der
Gegenwart, Paul Volkmann, 233 ; Measurement of
Perseveration and its Value as an Index of Mental
Character, J. Gray, 278; Medico-psychological Study of
Prof. Henri Poincar^ undertaken by Dr. Toulouse,
Gilbert Maire. 452 : der Begriff des Instinktes einst und
jetzt. Prof. Heinrich Ernst Ziegler. 539

Punnett (Prof.), Mimicrv in Ceylon Butterflies, 122

Pwdre Ser, Edward E. Free, 6

Ouadrantid Meteor Shower, the. T. W. Backhouse. 236
Ouavle (E. T.). Meteorological Relationships, 55
Ouinn (George). Fruit Tree Pruning, 2

Quinton (M.). Form of Treatment of Wasting Diseases o^
A'oung Children, 416

XXXVl

Index

r Nttu>e,
L March 23, i^ii

Rabot (Charles), Volcano in a Branch of Wood Bay, 49

Radial-velocity Determination, the Probable Errors of, Mr.
Plaskett, 180

Radial-velocity Determinations, Preliminary Results
Derived from. Prof. Campbell, 348

Radiation from Heated Gases, Report of British Associa-
tion Committee, 186

Radiochemistry, A. T. Cameron, Dr. B. B. Boltwood, 165

Radiography : New Method of Investigating the Positive
Ravs, Sir J. J. Thomson, 128; lonisation of Heavy
Gases by X-Rays, R. T. Beatty, 128; Action of X-Rays
on the Developing Chick, J. F. Gaskell, 428 ; Energy
and Distribution of Scattered Rontgen Radiation, J. A.
Crowther, 462 ; Production and Properties of Soft
Rontgen Radiation, R. Whiddington, 564 ; Gift of
Radium to Radium Institute by Sir E. Cassell, 176 ;
Radium Content of Salts of Potassium, J. Satterly, 261 ;
Probable Chemical Properties of Radium and its Com-
binations, M. de Forcrand, 395 ; das Radium und die
Farben, Prof. Dr. C. Doelter, 470 ; Royal Society of
Arts' Albert Medal presented to Madame Curie, 176;
the Tribo Luminescence of Uranium, H. A. Kent, 244 ;
the Distribution of Secondary Rontgen Radiation round
a Radiator, J. A. Crowther, 261 ; Note on Scattering
during Radio-active Recoil, Dr. W. Makower and Dr.
S. Russ, 296 ; Charges on Ions in Gases and some
Effects that Influence the Motion of Negative Ions, Prof.
J. S. Townsend, 394 ; Radio-activity as a Kinetic Theory
of a Fourth State of Matter, Prof. William H. Bragg,
F.R.S., at Royal Institution, 491 ; the Density of Niton
(Radium Emanation) and the Disintegration Theory,
R. Whytlaw Gray and Sir William Ramsay, F.R.S., at
Royal Society, 524

Radiotherapy : Diseases of the Skin, including Radio-
therapy and Radiumtherapy, Prof. E. Gaucher, Dr.
A. C. Jordan, 363

Radium, das, und die Farben, Prof. Dr. C. D. Doelter,
470 ; see Radiography

Raff (Janet W.), Protozoa Parasitic in the Large Intestine
of Australian Frogs, 430

Railway, the Transandine, Dr. John W. Evans, 219

Rakshit (Jitendra Nath), Methylamine Nitrite, 396

Ramsay (Sir William, F.R.S.), the Density of Niton
(Radium Emanation) and the Disintegration Theory,
Paper at Royal Society, 524 ; a Perpetual Calendar, 540

Ranken (H. S.), Further Results of Experimental Treat-
ment of Trypanosomiasis, 64

Ransome (F. L.), Notes on some Mining Districts in
Humboldt County, Nevada, 420

Rathbun (Miss), Stalk-eyed Crustaceans from the Coast of
Peru, 84

Rats and Plague, G. F. Petrie, 15

Ravenhill (.'Mice), Household Foes, 5

Rav (P. C), Methvlamine Nitrite, 396

Rayleigh (Lord, O'.M., F.R.S.), on the Sensibility of the
Eye to Variations of Wave-lengths in the Yellow Region
of the Spectrum, Lecture at Royal Society, 421

Reality, the Presentation of. Dr. Helen Wodehouse, 269

Reason and Belief, Sir Oliver Lodge, 201

Recknagel (Mr.), some Mineral Deposits in the Rooiberg
District, 5154

Reed (F. R. Cowp>er), Distribution of Life in Pre-
Carboniferous Life-provinces, 553

Reed (J. H.), Cotton Growing within the British Empire,
-Address at Royal Geographical Society, 184

Rees (Bertha), Structure of the Seed Coats of Hard Seeds
and their Longevity, 430

Regan (Tate), Evolution of the Flat-fishes, 6,1:;

Reichert (Prof. E. T.), the Differentiation and Specificity of
Corresponding Proteins and other Vital Substances in
Relation to Biological Classification and Organic Evolu-
tion and the Crystallography of Haemoglobins. c;7

Reid (Clement"), Correlation of the Bovey Beds with the
Lignites of the Rhine, 387

Reis (Otto M.), Fucoids, 284

Reitz (Prof. H. L.), College Algebrn. 3*^8

Remsen (Prof. Ira), a College Text-book of Chemistry. 70

Renard (Captain Paul), Methods of Finding the Height of

an .Mrship, 21
Rennie (Dr. John), the Aims and Methods of Nature-study,
369

Reptiles of the World, Tortoises and Turtles, Crocodiles,
Lizards, and Snakes of the Eastern and Western Hemi-
spheres, R. L. Ditmars, 196

Research : Research Defence Society, 6, 449 ; Stephen
Paget, 6 ; a Suggested Research Fund for Tropical
Diseases, 28 ; Modern .Scientific Research, Sir William A.
Tilden, F.R.S., at Vescy Club, 29; Instruction in
Methods of Research, W. P. Dreaper, 73 ; the Claims of
Scientific Research, Lord Robson at Royal Society, 183

Reviews and Our Bookshelf.

Cours de Mecanique Rationelle et Expcrimcntale, Sp^ciale-
ment 6crit pour les physiciens et les ing^nieurs, conforme
au programme du certificat de mecanique rationelle. Prof.
H. Bouasse, 1

Sketch of a Course of Chemical Philosophy, Stanislao
Cannizzaro, 2

Fruit Tree Pruning, George Quinn, 2

Unconscious Memory, Samuel Butler, 3

Faune des Mammif^res d'Europe, Prof. E.-L. Troues-
sart, 3

The Principles of Pathologv, Prof. J. G. Adami, F.R.S.,
Prof. A. G. NichoUs, F.R.S., 4

Household Foes, Alice Ravenhill, 5

Historv of Chemistry, Sir Pldward Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S., ^

A Course of Elementary Science, Practical and Descrip-
tive, John Thornton, s,

The Brooks Patent T-square Lock, :;

Changes in Bodilv Form of Descendants of Immigrants,
Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., 11

Biological Physics, Physic, and Metaphysic, Thomas Logan,

35
The Teaching Botanist, Prof. W. F. Ganong, 36
Die Klimatischen Verhaltnisse der geologischen Vorzeit

vom Praecambrium au bis zur Tetztzeit und ihr Einfluss

auf die Entwickelung der Haupttypen des Tier- und

Pflanzenreiches, Dr. Emil Carthaus, Ivor Thomas, 36
Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis, 37
Das Svstem der Biologic in Forschung und Lehre, Dr. Phil.

S. Tschulok, 37
A Monograph of the Petrels (Order Tubinares), F. Du

Cane Godman, F.R.S., 38
Eugenics, the Science of Human Improvement by Better

Breeding, C. B. Davenport, 30
The Book of the Dry Fly, G. A. B. Dewar, -jq
Die Entwickelung des menschlichen Geistes, Max Verworn,

3Q
The British Empire in Pictures, H. Clive Barnard, 39
The Subantarctic Islands of New Zealand, Reports on the

Geo-phvsics, Geologv, Zoology, and Botany of the Islands

Lviner to the South of Zealand, Prof. Arthur Dendv,

F.R.S., Ai,
Ornithological Notes' from a South London Suburb, 1874-

iqoo, a Summary of Thirty-five Years' Observations,

with some Facts and Fancies concerning Migration,

F. D. Power. Sir T. Digbv Pigott, C.B., 44
Annales de I'Observatolre National d'Athfenes, public par

Dem6trius Eginitis, 56
The Differentiation and Specificity of Corresponding

Proteins and other Vital Substances in Relation to

Biological Classification and Organic Evolution and the

Crystallographv of Hjemoglobins, Prof. E. T. Reichert

and Prof. A. P. Brown, 1^7
Die Chemie der Cellulose unter b^sonderer Beriicksichtigung

der Textil- und Zellstoffindustrien, Prof. Carl G.

Schwalbe, 67
Descriptive Meteorology. Prof. Willis L. Moore, 68
Les TWories Modernes du Soleil, J. Bosler, 68
Vorlesungen iiber die Physik der Sonne, Prof. E. Pring-

sheim, 68
The Elements. Speculations f s to their Nature and Origin,

Sir William A. Tilden, F.R.S., Dr. Arthur Harden,

F.R.S., 6q
The Relations between Chemical Constitution and some

Phvsical Properties. Prof. Samuel Smiles, Dr. Arthur

Harden. F.R.S.. 60
Phvsical Chemistrv. its Bearing on BiolofTy and Medicine,

Prof. James C. Philio. Dr. Arthur Harden, F.R.S., 69
\ College Text-book of Chemistry, Prof. Ira Remsen, 70
Outlines of Chemistrv. Prof. Louis Kahlenberg, 70

Suture.
March 23,

I 19" J

Index

XAXVll

Super-organic Evolution, Nature and the Social Problem,

Dr. E. Lluria, 71
The Romance of Modern Astronomy, describing in Simple

but Exact Language the Wonders of the Heavens, Hector

Macpherson, jun., 71
The Practice of Soft Cheesemaking, C. W. Walker-Tisdale

and T. R. Robinson, 71
Twelfth Report of the \Voburn Experimental Fruit Farm,

Duke of Bedford, K.G., F.R.S., and S'. U. Pickering, 71
Elementary Treatise on Physics, Dr. E. Atkinson, 72
Dunkelfeldbeleuchtung und Ultramikroskopie in der Bio-
logic und in der Medizin, N. Gaidukov, 72
African Game Trails, Theodore Roosevelt, Sir H. H. John-
ston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 77
On the Electricity of Rain and its Origin in Thunder-
storms, Dr.. George C. Simpson, Dr. C. Chree. F.R.S., 80
A Treatise on Electrical Theory and the Problem of the

Universe, considered from the Physical Point of View,

with Mathematical Appendices, G. W. de Tunzelmann, qq
The Deinbardt-Schlomann Series of Technical Dictionaries

in Six Languages, Alfred Schlomann, oq
Principles of Chemical Geology, Dr. J. \'. Elsden, 100
Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens, Helen R. Albee, loi
The Extra Pharm-icopoeia of Martindale and Westcott, loi
An Open Creel, H. T. Sheringham, 102
The Photography of Moving Objects and Hand-camera

Work for Advanced Workers, A. Abrahams, 102
Der Sternenhimmel, Prof. J. D. Messerschmitt, 102
Introduction to Physical Chemistry, Prof. H. C. Jones, 103
Preliminary Physiology, W. Narramore, 103
The Invicta Table Book, J. W. Ladner, 103
Life of William MacGilli%ray, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.E.,

Orninthologist Professor of Natural History, Marischal

College and University, Aberdeen, William MacGillivrav,

107 '

The Maoris of New Zealand, James Cowan, loq
Die Rekonstruktion des Diplodocus, O. Abel, no
First Annual Report of the Commission of Conservation,

Canada, A. E. Crawley, no
Mitteilungen des Provinzialkomitees fur Naturdenkmal-

pflege, A. E. Crawley, no
Xaturdenkmalpflege und Aquarienkunde, R. Hermann and

W. WolterstorfT, A. E. Crawley, no
Xaturdenkmalpflege, Prof. Giirich, A. E. Crawley, no
L'ber Zeil u. Methode der Xaturdenkmalpflege, Prof. Dr. B.

Schaefer-Cassel, A. E. Crawley, no
L'ber das Tierleben in dem von der Staatsforstverwaltung

geschiitzten Zwergbirken-Moor in Neulinum, Dr. Th.

Kuhlgatz, A. E. Crawley, no

Xeues aus der Xaturdenkmalpflege, Dr. W. Gunther, A. E.

Crawley, no
Water Requirements of Crops in India, J. W. Leather,

Dr. E. J. Russell, in
Homo aurignacensis Hauseri, ein palaeolithischer Skelett-

fund aus dem unteren Aurignacien der Station Combe

capelle bei Montferrand (P^rigord), H. Klaatsch und O.

Hauser, Richard X. Wegner, iiq
Die Aurignac-Rasse und ihre Stellung im Stammbaum der

Menschheit, H. Klaatsch, Richard N. Wegner, 119
Quinquennial Review of the Mineral Production of India

during the Years iqo4-8. Sir Thomas H. Holland,

K.C.I.E., F.R.S., and Dr. L. Leigh Fermor, Prof. H.

Louis, 121
British Place-names in their Historical Setting, Edmund

McClure, Rev. John Griffith, 131
Die Alkaloide, Prof. E. Winterstein and Dr. G. Trir, 131
Manual of Gardening, L. H. Bailey, 132
A ^lonograph of the British Xudibranchiate Mollusca. with

Figures of the Species, Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M.G.,

133
Wild Flowers of the British Isles, H. Isabel Adams, 134
Echinoderma of the Indian Museum, Prof. Ren6 Kochler.

134
Practical Electrical Engineering for Elementary Students,

W. S. Ibbetson, 135
Practical Electricity and Magnetism, R. Elliott Steel, 13-;
Elementary Experimental Electricity and Magnetism, W. T.

Clough,'i35
The Calculus for Beginners, J. W. Mercer, 136
A Text-book of Organic Chemistry, Prof. A. F. Holleman,

136

A Popular Guide to the Heavens, Sir Robert 5. Bali,

F.R.S., 136
Catalogue of Hardy Trees and Shrubs growing in the

Grounds of Syon House, Brentford, A. B. Jackson, 136
The Essentials of Histology, Descriptive and Practical, for

the Use of Students, Prof. E. A. Schafer, F.R.S., 137
The Charm of the Road, England and Wales, James J.

Hissey, 137
Report to the Local Government Board on the Enteric

Fever "Carrier," Dr. J. C. G. Ledingham, 145
Encyclop^ie agricole. Pisciculture, Georges Gu^naux, Dr.

William Wallace, 163
Kleines Handworterbuch der Agrikulturchemie, Dr. Max

Passon, Dr. E. J. Russell, 164
Radio-chemistry, .A. T. Cameron, Dr. B. B. Bolt wood, i^ -
Egyptological Researches, W. Ma.x Miiller, 165
Les Roches et leurs Elements mineralogiques : Descriptior.

Analyses Microscopiques, Structures, Gisements, Ed.

Jannettaz, 166
The Public School Geometry, F. J. W. Whipple, 167
The Student's Matriculation Geometry, S. Gangopddhvdva,

167
First Stage Mathematics, 167

Second Stage Mathematics (with Modern Geometry), 167
Conic Sections, S. Gangopddhydya, 167
Public School .Arithmetic, W. Si. Baker, A. A. Bourne, 167
A School Algebra, H. S. Hall, 167
Elements of .Algebra, A. Schultze, 167
The Theory of Elementary Trigonometry, Prof. D. K.

Picken, 167
Milch und Molkereiprodukte. ihre Eigenschaften Zusam-

mensetzung und Gewinnung, Dr. Paul Sommerfeld, 168
Theoretical Mechanics, P. F. Smith, W. R. Longley, 169
The .Anatomy of the Honey Bee, R. E. Snodgrass, i6q
Practical Physiological Chemistry, Philip B. Hawk, i6r»
The Xegro in the Xew World, Sir Harrv H. Johnston,

G.C.M.G., K.C.B., Prof. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., 172
.A Preliminary Study of Chemical Denudation, F. W.

Clarke, 173
The Age of the Earth, G. F. Becker, 173
.A Historv of the Cavendish Laboratory, 1871-1910, iq.;
Reptiles of the World, Tortoises and Turtles. Crocodilians,

Lizards and Snakes of the Eastern and Western Hemi-
spheres, R. L. Ditmars, 196
Lecons sur le Calcul des Variations. Prof. J. Hadamard,

iq7
Hydroelectric Developments and Engineering, F. Koester,

Stanley P. Smith, 198
Die Entstehung der Steinkohle und der Kaustobiolithe

iiberhaupt. Prof. H. Potonie, iqq
The Brain and the Voice in Soeech and Song, Prof. F. W.

Mott. F.R.S., Prof. John G. McKendrick, F.R.S.. 100
The .Abuse of the Singing and Speaking Voice: Causp<,

Eff^ects, and Treatment. Prof. E. J. Moure, A. Bowy*^r,

Prof. John G. McKendrick, F.R.S., iqq
The Voice : an Introduction to Practical Phonolofn.-, Dr.

W. A. Aitken, Prof. John G. McKendrick, F.R.S.. loq
Die Wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen der analytischen

Chemie. W. Ostwald, 201
The " Wellcome " Photographic Exposure Record and

Diary, iqn. 201
Reason and Belief, Sir Oliver Lodge, 201
Altitude Tables, Comouted for Inter\-als of Four Minutes

between the Parallels of Latitude rP and 30° and

Parallels of Declination 0° and 24°. designed for the

Determination of the Position-line at all Hour Angles

without Logarithmic Comoutation. F. Ball, 201
Metallography Applied to Siderurgic Products, Humbert

Savoia, 202
Researches upon the Atomic Weigfhts of Cadmium,

Manganese, Bromine, Lead, .Arsenic, Iodine, Silver,

Chromium, and Phosphorus. G. P. Baxter, 202
Practical Measurements, .A. W. Siddons, A. Vassall. 202
Thp Year-book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of

Great Britain and Ireland, 202
Cambridge, X. Barwell. 203
Norwich and the Broads, W. Jerrold, 202
The Heart of Wessex. S. Heath. 202
Di° Voeelwarte Rossitten der Deutschen Ornitholos^ischen

G°sellschaft und das Kennzeichnen der Vogel. Dr. J.

Thienemann, 207

XXXVlil

Index

Nature,
March 23, 1911

Aigrettes and Bird-skins : the Truth about their Collection

and Export, Harold Hamel Smith, 207
A Monograph of the Okapi, Sir E. Rav Lankester, K.C.B.,

F.R.S., Dr. W. G. Ridewood, SiV H. H. Johnston,

G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 209
Home Office, Mines and Quarries, Prof. Henry Louis, 211
The Broad Stone of Empire, Problems of Crown Colony

Administration, with Records of Personal Experience, Sir

Charles Bruce, G.C.M.G., 229
Miscroscopy : the Construction, Theory, and Use of the

Microscope, E. J. Spitta, 230
A Treatise on the Geometry of Surfaces, .\. B. Basset,

F.R.S., 231
American Meat and its Influence upon the Public Health,

Dr. Albert Leffingwell, 232
EMe Untersuchungs-Methoden des Eisens und Stahls, Dr.

A. Rudisiile, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, 233
Erkenntnistheoretische Grundziige der Naturwissen-

schaften und ihre Beziehungen zum Geistesleben der

Gegenwart, Paul Volkmann, 233
Photograms of the Year 1910 : Typical Photographic Pic-
tures Reproduced and Criticised, 234
The " Code " School Garden and Nature Notebook, 234
Handbuch der vergleichenden Physiologic, 234
Guide to the British Vertebrates Exhibited in the Depart-
ment of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), 234
The Sea-kings of Crete, Rev. James Baikie, 235
Pinro, 235

Teachers' Notes on Nature-study : Plants and Animals, 235
The Scientist's Reference Book and Pocket Diary for 191 1,

235
Accidents of an Antiquary's Life, D. G. Hogarth, 238
The Milling and Baking Qualities of Indian Wheat, Albert

Howard and Gabrielle L. C. Howard, 249
The Influence of Environment on the Milling and Baking
Qualities of Wheat in India, Albert Howard, H. M.
Leake, and Gabrielle L. C. Howard, 249
Wheat in India : its Production, Varieties, and Improve-
ments, Albert Howard and Gabrielle L. C. Howard, 249
Climate of the Argentine Republic, W. G. Davis, 250
The Prevention of Malaria, Major Ronald Ross, C.B.,

F.R.S., 263
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Reptiles of the
Oxford Clay, based on the Leeds Collection in the
British Museum (Natural Historv), Dr. C. W. Andrews,
F.R.S., 264
A Guide to the Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fishes in
the Department of Geology and Palaeontology in the
British Museum (Natural History), 2^4
Das Elektrokardiogramm des gesunden und Kranken
Menschen, Prof. Friedrich Kraus and Prof. Georg
Nicolai, Prof. John G. McKendrick. F.R.S., 265
The Tribe and Intertribal Relations in Australia, G. C.

Wheeler, 267
Two Representative Tribes of Queensland, with an Inquiry
concerning the Origin of the Australian Race, J. Mathew,
267
Veronica prostrata L., Teucrium L., und austriaca L. nebst
einem anhang iiber deren nachste verwandte. Dr. Bruno
Watzl, 267
A Course of Drawing for the Standards, J. W. T. Vinall,

268
Natural and Common Objects in Primary Drawing, with
Full Directions as to their Use, J. W^ T. Vinall, 26S
Iron and Steel Analvsis. A. Campion, 268
The Potter's Craft, F. Binns, 260
Heroes of tfce Elizabethan Age. E. Gilliat. 260
International Language and Science, Profs. L. Conturat,
O. Jespersen, R. Lorenz, W. Ostwald, L. Pfaundler, 269
Internaciona Mat^matikal Lexiko en Ido, Germana, Angla,

Franca e Italiana, Dr. Louis Conturat. 269
The Presentation of Reality, Dr. Helen Wodehouse, 260
Lessons on Elementary Hvgiene and Sanitation, with

Special Reference to the Trop'xs, W. T. Prout, 270
.Aeroplane Patents, Robt. M. Neilson, 270
Strav Leaves on Travel, Sport, Animals, and Kindred

Subiects, J. C. Walter, 270
1200 Mining Evamination Questions, 270
Chez les Francais, 270

Excavations on the Island of Psehra, Crete, Richard B.
Seager, H. R. Hall, 272

The Encyclopaedia of Sport and Games, 274

Gleanings from Fifty Years in China, A. Little, 275

The Metabolism and Energy Transformations of Healthy

Man during Rest, F. G. Benedict and T. M. Carpenter,

Prof. J. S. Macdonald, 276
MedusEe of the World, Alfred Goldsborough Mayer, 285
Determination of the Solar Parallax, Charles D. Perrine,

The Coming of Evolution : the Story of a Great Revolu-
tion in Science, Prof, J. W. Juddii C.B,, F.R.S., Prof.
R. Meldola, F.R.S., 297

Educational .Aims and Efforts, 1880-1910. Sir Philip
Magnus, M.P., 298

Die Forderung des Tages, Wilhelm Ostwald, 299

Industrial England in the Middle of the Eighteenth
Century, Sir H. Trueman Wood, 299

The Spectroscope and its Work, Prof. H. F. Newall,
F.R.S., 300

Metallography, Dr. Cecil H. Desch, Prof. A. McWilliam,
301

Practical Physiological Chemistry, Dr. R. H. Aders
Plimmer, 302

Das Pflanzenreich, Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus.
Papaveraceae-Hypecoideae et Papaveraceae-Papaveroideae,
Friedrich Fedde, 302

Woodcraft for Scouts and Others, O. Jones, M. Woodward,

303

A School Course of Heat, R. H. Scarlett, 303

Die praktischen Schulerarbeiten in der Physik, Dr. W.
Leick, 304

Who's Who, 191 1, 304

The Writers' and Artists' Year Book, 304

The Englishwoman's Year Book and Directory, 304

Notes on Physiology, Dr. Henry Ashby, 304

The Stars from Year to Year, with Charts for every
Month, H. Periam Hawkins, 304

The Star Calendar for 191 1, 304

The Star Almanac for 191 1, H. Periam Hawkins, 304

The Medical Directory, 191 1, 304

Philip's Nature Calendar, 1911, 304

The Archaeological Survey of Nubia, Report on the
Human Remains, Drs. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., and
F. Wood Jones, 310

The Book of Migrator>' Birds, met with on Holy Island
and the Northumbrian Coast, to which is added Descrip-
tive Accounts of Wild Fowling on the Mud Flats, with
Notes on the General Natural History of this District,
W. Halliday, 329

Theoretical Principles of the Methods of Analytical Chem-
istry based upon Chemical Reactions, Prof. M. G.
Chesneau, Dr. H. M. Dawson, 330

k Monograph of the Culicidae or Mosquitoes, mainly Com-
piled from Collections Received at the British Museum,
Fred V. Theobald, 330

Philosophical Essays, B. Russell, F.R.S., 331

Heredity in the Light of Recent Research, L. Doncaster,
331

The Tomb of Two Brothers, Miss M. A. Murray, 332

A Primer of Photography, Owen Wheeler, 332

Round the Year with " the Stars, Garrett P. Serviss,

333
Anecdotes of Big Cats and other Beasts, David Wilson,

333
The Life Story of a Tiger, Lt.-Col. A. F. Mockler-Ferry-

man, 333
Anton Dohrn : Gedacht nisrede gehalten auf dem Inter-

nationalen Zoologen-Kongress in Graz am 18 August,

1910, Prof. Th. Boveri, 334
Fly-leaves from a Fisherman's Diary, Captain G. E.

Sharp, 334
Mating, Marriage, and the Status of Woman, James Corin,

334
Mother and Child, L. M. Marriott, 334
The Modern Geometry of the Triangle. W. Gallatly, 335
Paul Appell : Biographie. Bibliographie analytique des

Ecrits, Ernest Lebon, 335
A Flower Anthology, 335
Hazell's .Annual for 1911, 335
Plant -Anatomy from the Standpoint of the Develooment

and Functions of the Tissues and Handbook of Micro-

technic, Prof. W. C. Stevrns. 335

March 23, 191 1 J

Index

xxxix

The Annual of the British School at Athens, H. R. Hall,

339
Scientific Memoirs of the Korean Meteorological Observa-
tory, 341
Diseases of the Skin, including Radiotherapy and Radium-
therapy, Prof. E. Gaucher, Dr. \. C. Jordan, 363
Geographical Essays, Prof. \V. M. Davis, 364
Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis, 365
Dioptrographic Tracings in Four Normal of Fifty-two

Tasmanian Crania, Prof. R. J. \. Berry, .\. \V. D.

Robertson, 366
Wolffsche Begriffsbestimmungen, ein Hilfsbiichlein beim

Studium Kants, Prof. Julius Baumann, 367
Wilhelm von Humboldts ausgewahlte philosophische

Schriften, 367
Fichte, Schleiermacher, Steflens iiber das Wesen der

Universitat, Eduard Spranger, 367
Baruch de Spinoza, Ethik, Otto Baensch, 367
Encvklopadie der Philosophie, \. Dorner, 367
College Algebra, Prof. H. L. Reitz and A. R. Crathorne,

368
Trigonometry, Prof. A. G. Hall, F. G. Frink, 36S
First Course in Calculus, Prof. E. J. Townsend, Prof.

G. A. Gk)odenough, 368
Der Naturfreund am Strande der Adria und des Mittel-

meergebietes, Prof. Carl I. Cori, 369
The Aims and Methods of Nature-study, Dr. John Rennie,

369
An Introduction to Biology for Students in India, Prof.

R. E. Lloyd, 370
Botany for High Schools, Prof. G. F. .\tkinson, 370
Proceedings of the .Aristotelian Society, 370
Hausliche Blumenpflege, eine Anleitung zur Pflege der

dankbarsten Zimmer- und Balkon-Pflanzen, Paul F. F.

Schulz, 370
Flashes from the Orient, or a Thousand and One Morn-
ings with Poesy, John Hazelhurst, 371
The Birds of Dumfriesshire — a Contribution to the Fauna

of the Solway .Area, Hugh S. Gladstone, 378
American Men of Science, 397
Leading .American Men of Science, 397
Chronicles of Pharmacy, .A. C. Wotton, Prof. Henry G.

Greenish, 398
A Text-book of Botanv for Colleges and L'niversities,

Prof. J. M. Coulten, Prof. C. R." Barnes, Prof. H. C.

Cowles, 399
Leitfaden fiir das Zoologische Praktikum, Prof. Willy

Kiikenthal, 400

The Theory of lonisation of Gases by Collision, Prof.

John S. Townsend. F.R.S., 400
Penrose's Pictorial Annual, 401

The British Journal Photographic Almanac, 1911, 401
Geologische Charakterbilder, Grosse erratische Blocke im

norddeutschen Flachlande. F. Wahnschafife, das Karst-

phanomen, A. Grund, 402
Der Stand unserer Kenntnisse vom fossilen Menschen,

Prof. W. Branca. Prof. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., 402
Schopenhauer-Darwin, Pessimismus oder Optimismus,

Gustav Weng, 403
Die experimentelle Grundlegung der .Atomistik, \V.

Mecklenberg, 403
Kant and his Philosophical Revolution, Prof. R. M.

Wen ley, 404
Plant Life in .Alpine Switzerland, being an .Account in

Simple Language of the Natural Histon.- of .Alpine

Plants, E. A. Newell .Arber, 404
Index to Desor's Synopsis des Echinids Fossiles. Dr. F. .A.

Bather, F.R.S., 404
Man's Redemption of Man, Prof. W. Osier. F.R.S.. 404
Weather Instruments and How to Use Them, D. W.

Horner, 405
Willing's Press Guide and .Advertisers' Directory and

Handbook, 191 1, 405
Field and Colliery Surveying. T. .A. O 'Donahue. 405
Solutions of the Examples in an Elementary Treatise on

Conic Sections by the Methods of Coordinate Geometry,

Charles Smith, 405
La Metallc^raphie appliqu^ aux produits Siderurgiques.

U. Savoia, 405
Key to Hail and Stevens's School .Arithmetic, L. W.

Grenville, 405

The British Bird-book, 407

British Bird's Eggs, .A. F. Lydon, 408

in Forbidden Seas, H. J. Snow, 408

Mineral Deposits of the Cerbat Range, Black Mountains,

and Grand Wash Cliflfs, Mohave County, Arizona, F. C.

Schrader, 420
Iron Ores, Fuels, and Fluxes of the Birmingham District,

.Alabama, E. F. Burchard, C. Butts, Edwin C. Eckel,

420
The Mercurj- Minerals from Terlingua, Te.\as, W. F.

Hillebrand, W. T. Schaller, 420
.A Reconnaissance of some Mining Camps in Elko, Lander,

and Eureka Counties, Nevada, W. H. Emmons, 420
The Innoko Gold-placer District, .Alaska, with .Accounts

of the Central Kuskokwim \"alley and the Ruby Creek

and Gold Hill Placers, .A. G. Maddren, 420
A Reconnaissance of the Gypsum Deposits of California,

with a Note on Errors in the Chemical .Analysis of

Gypsum, George Steiger, F. L. Hess, 420
Notes on some Mining Districts in Humboldt County,

Nevada, F. L. Ransome, 420
The Value of Public Coal Lands, the Value of Coal Land,

G. H. Ashley ; Depth and Minimum Thickness of Beds

as Limiting Factors in Valuation, C. .A. Fisher, 420
The Encyclooaedia Britannica, 431
Solenoids, Electromagnets, and Electromagnetic Windings,

Charles R. Underbill, Prof. Gisbert Kapp, 432
Traits complet d'analyse Chimique, appliqu^e aux essais

industriels. Prof. J. Post, Prof. B. Neumann, C. Sim-

monds, 433
Practical Patholog>-, Prof. G. Sims Woodhead, 434
The Collected ^iathematical Papers of James Joseph

Sylvester, F.R.S., 434
Battersea Park as a Centre for Nature Study, W. Johnson,

435
How to know the Trees, H. Irving, 435
Rosenkrankheiten und Rosenfeinde, Dr. K. Laubert, Dr.

M. Schwartz, 435
Exercises in Metal Work, .A. T. J. Kersey, 436
.A Lecture on Mendelism, Dr. H. Drinkwater, F.R.S., 436
The .Application of Logic, .Alfred Sidgwick, 436
Vergiftungen durch Pflanzen und Pflanzenstoffe : ein

Grundriss der vegetalen Toxikologie fiir praktische

.Aerzte, .Apotheker und Botaniker, Dr. F. Kanngiesser,

Henry G. Greenish, 436
Papers of the British School at Rome, 445
Stock-breeding and .Agriculture in 1908, 455
Live Stock and Agricultural Census of the .Argentine

Republic, May, 1908, 455
Metabolism in Diabetes Mellitus, F. G. Benedict. E. P.

Joslin, Prof. J. p. Macdonald, 4.:;^
Die Eiszeit auf Korsika und das Verhalten der exogenen

Naturkrafte seit dem Ende der Diluvialzeit, Dr. Roman

Lucerna, 456
Physiology- the Servant of Medicine, being the Hitchcock

Lectures for 1909, delivered at the LTniversity of Cali-
fornia. Berkelev, Dr. Ausrustus D. Waller, F.R.S., Sir

T. ClififoKl .Allbutt. K.C.B.. F.R.S., 465
.A Research on the Pines of .Australia, R. T. Baker, H. G.

Smith, 465
.A Manual of Practical Inorganic Chemistn.-, Dr. K. M.

Kellas, 466
The Prescribiasr of Spectacles, .A. S. Percival, 467
The Fauna of'British India, including Ceylon and Burma :

Coleoptera. Lamellicornia, Cetoniinae, and Dynastinae,

G. J. .Arrow, 467
Electric Motors. Henr>- ^L Hobart. Stanley P. Smith, 468
Lehrbuch der Geologic von Deutschland, Prof. J. Walther,

Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 468
Geolop-ie von Deutschland und den angrenzenden Gebieten,

Prof. R. Lepsius, Prof. Grenville .A. J. Cole. 468
Geologie von Ostpreussen, Prof. .A. Tornquist, Prof. Gren-
ville A. J. Cole. 468
Orchids. James O'Brien, 470
Practical Mathematics and Geometry, E. L. Bates.

F. Charlesworth, 470
Introduction i la M^tallographie Microscopique, Prof. P.

Goerens, 470
na« Radium und die Farben. Prof. Dr. C. Doelter. 470
.A Book of Nimble Beasts. D. English, 478
.A Second Study of the Influence of Parental .Alcoholism on

xl

Index

Nature
March, 23, X911

the Physique and Ability of the Offspring, Pari Pearson,
F.R.S.; Ethel M. Elderton, 479

A Preliminary Study of Extreme Alcoholism in Adults,
Amy Harrington, Karl Pearson, F.R.S., Dr. David
Heron, 479

Record of the First Series of the British Coal Dust Experi-
ments, cond'ucted by the Committee appointed by the
Mining Association of Great Britain, Prof. W. Gallovvav,
487

The Principles and Methods of Geometrical Optics,
«?specially as applied to the Theory of Optical Instru-
ments, Prof. J. P. C. Southall, 499

The Face of Manchuria, Korea, and Russian Turkestan,

E. G. Kemp, 500

Die Variabilitat niederer Organismen, Hans Pringsheim,
C. ClifTord Dobell, 501

Monographs on Biochemistry : the Fats, Prof. J. B.
Leathes, 502

Unlcitung zur Beobachtung der Vogehvelt, Dr. Carl
Zimmer, 502

Electric Circuit Problems in Mines and Factories, E. H.
Crapper, Prof. Gisbert Kapp, 503

Exercises in Electrical Engineering for the Use of Second-
year Students in Universities and Technical Colleges,
Prof.-T. Mather, F.R.S., Prof. G. W. O. Howe, Prof.
Gisbert Kapp, 503

Darwinism and Human Life, Prof. J. .Arthur Thomson,

504
Darwinism and the Humanities, Prof. James Mark Bald-
■ win, 504
The Manuring of Market-garden Crops, Dr. B. Dver,

F. W. E. Shrivell, 505

Guide to the Crustace;a, Arachnida, Onychophora, and

Myriopoda exhibited in the Department of Zoology,

British Museum (Natural History), 505
LiTe and Habit, Samuel Butler, 505
Stars shown to the Children, EUfson Hawks, 506
A Treatise on Electro-Metallurgj, W. G. McMillan,

Prof. .\. McWilliam, 506
Diptera Danica, Genera and Species of Flies hitherto found

in Denmark, W. Lundbeck, 506
Elementary Physiography, Prof. R. D. Salisbury, ^od
Mentally Deficient Children, their Treatment and Training,

Dr. G. E. Shuttleworth, Dr. W. \. Potts, 507
The Flower Book, Constance S. Armfield, 507
Hygiene and Public Health, L. C. Parkes, H. R. Ken-
wood. 507
A Text-book of Zooloav. Prof. T. J. Parker, F.R.S., Prof.

W. A. Haswell, F.R'.S., Prof. F. W. Gamble, .t;33
The Materials of the Painter's Craft, Dr. A. P. Laurie, 533
Kapillarchemie, Eine Darstollune: der Chemie der Kolloide

und verwandter Gebiete, Dr. Herbert Freundlich, 534
Island in Vergangenhoit und Gegonwart, Reise-Erinner-

ungen, Paul Herrmann, :;3^
Hereditary Characters and their Modes of Transmission,

C. E. Walker. 536
Geologic Nouvlle, H. Lenicque, 536
Women of all Nations, .1^37
Notes on .Applied Mechanics, R. H. Whapham, G. Preece,

537
Apolied Mechanics, including Hydraulics and the Theory of

the Steam Engine. John Graham, ^';7
The Microscopical Examination of Food and Drugs, Prof.

H. G. Greenish, !;38
Child Problems, Dr. G. B. Mangold. '^-^
Der Begriff des Instinktes einst und Jetzt, Prof. Heinrich

Ernst Ziegler, ^-xq
Licht und Farbe, Robert Geigel, ■;39
Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalzenae in the British

Museum, 539
Photography in Colours, Dr. Geo. L. Johnson, 539
Tables for Calculation of Rock-analvses, Alfred Harker,

F.R.S., :;40
Ponulare Vortrage aus dem Gebiete der Entwickelungslehre,

Dr. Wilhelm Breitenbach, 1:40
Ooen-air Studies in Botany, R. L. Praeger, :;40
The Yellow and Dark-skinned People of .Africa, South of

the Zambezi. Dr. G. McCall Theal, Sir H. H. Johnston,

G.C.M.G., K.C.B.. :;42
The Home-life of the Spoonbill, the Stork, and some

Herons, B. Beetham, 1544

The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United

States, Charles R. van Hise, 545
Report of the Conservation Commission of Maryland for

1908-9, 545
Memorandum of Indian Wheat for the British Market, Sir

James Wilson, K.C.S.I., 547
Supplement to the Thirtj'-ninth .Annual Report of the Local

Government Board, 1909-10, Dr. Arthur Newsholme, 556

R(5voutsky (Mile. E.), Chemical Distinction between
Orthose and Microcline, 328

Richardson (L.), the So-called " Stone Circle " on Shurding-
ton Hill, 146; Rhaetic and Contiguous Deposits of West,
Mid, and Part of East Somerset, 159; the Inferior Oolite
and Contiguous Deposits of the South Cottcswolds, 387

Richmond (G. F.), Suitability of Bamboos and Lalang or
Cogon Grass for making Paper Pulp, 246

Ridcwood (Dr. W. G.), a Monograph of the Okapi. 209

Righi (Prof.), Effect of a Magnetic Field on the Potential
Difference Necessary to Cause a Discharge to Pass
Between Two Electrodes in a Rarefied Gas, 149 : Comets
and Electrons, 180 ; the Probable Ionising Action of the
Magnetic Field, 497

Rignano (Signor), the Mnemonic Origin and Nature of the
Affective Tendencies, 549

Ristenpart (Dr.), Cerulli's Comet (19106), Identified with
Faye's Short Period Comet, 151 ; Magnitude of Nova
Sagittarii No. 2, 151 ; Nova Arae 98, 1910, 218; Elements
for Faye's Comet, 19106, 319

Ritchie (James), an Entoproctan Polyzoon (Barentsia
benedetli), 565

River Systems in the East, the Influence of, Ewald Banse,
288

Rivers (Dr. W. H. R.), Kava Drinking in Melanesia. 23

Robeck (Madame de), the Total Eclipse of the Moon,
November 16, 118

Roberts (Dr. .A. W.), Absorption of Light by the Earth's
Atmosphere, 149

Robertson (.A. W. D.), Dioptrographic Tracings in Four
Normal of Fifty-two Tasmanian Crania, 366

Robertson (J. B.)^ Dun Coat Colour in the Horse, 138

Robertson (Muriel). Division of the Collar-cells of Cal-
careous Sponge, Clathrina coriacea, 117

Robin (F.), Variation of Resistance of Steels to Crushing
as a Function of the Temperature, 33

Robinson (T. R.), the Practice of Soft Cheesemaking, 71

Robson (Lord), the Claims of Scientific Research, Speech
at Royal Society, 183

Roches ' et leurs Elements min6ralogiques, les, Ed.
Jannettaz, 166

Rock-analvses, Tables for Calculation of, Alfred Harker,
F.R.S.,'540

Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, 146

Roe (Mr.). Cometarv Theories, 486

Rogers (F.), Behaviour of Steel under Combined Static
Stress and Shock, 96

Rogozinski (F.), Haemoglobin as a Peroxydase, 429

Rolling in Ships, the Reduction of, H. Frahm, 250

Rome, Papers of the British School at, 445

Roosevelt (Theodore), African Game Trails, 77

Roots (James D.), the Earth's .Action on' Sunlight and
Heat, 486

Rosenhain (W.), Constitution of the -Alloys of Alummium
and Zinc, 564

Rosenkrankheiten und Rosenfeinde, Dr. K. Laubert and
Dr. M. Schwartz, 435

Ross (Major Ronald, C.B., F.R.S.), Some Enumerative
Studies on Malarial Fever, 260 ; Case of Sleeping Sick-
ness Studied by Precise Enumerative Methods, 260 ;
Experiments on "the Treatment of .Animals Infected with
Trypanosomes by Means of .Atoxyl, Vaccines, Cold,
X-'Ravs, and Leucocytic Extract, 260 ; the Prevention of
Malaria, 263

Rossi (Dr. Paolo), Observations on the Double Refraction
induced bv Strain in Caoutchouc, 149

Rost (H.), Synthesis of Ketones in the Tetrahydroaromatic
Series, 65

Rousset (H.), .Action of Light on Plants, 149

Row (R. W. H.), Non-Calcareous Sponges from the Red
Sea, 395

Roy (Felix de). Nova Lacertae, 453

Nature,
March 2

re, -I

3. «9«* J

Index

xli

Royal Anthropological Institute, Huxley Memorial Lecture
at, the Arrival of Man in Britain, Prof. \V. Boyd
Dawkins, F.R.S., 122 ; Certain Physical Characters of
the Negroes of the Congo Free State and Nigeria, Dr.
Arthur Keith, 221

Royal Astronomical Society, 226

Royal Colonial Institute : the Imperial Department of
Agriculture in the West Indies, 418

Royal Geographical Society : the Duke of the Abruzzi's
Expedition to the Karakoram Himalayas, Dr. F. De
Filippi at, 124; Cotton Growing within the British Empire,
J. H. Reed, 184; the Second French Antarctic Expedi-
tion, Dr. J. B. Charcot at, 257; the Michael Sars North
Atlantic Deep-sea Expedition, 1910, Dr. Johan Hjort at,
388 ; Explorations in New Guinea, Dr. H. A. Lorentz,
490

Royal Institution : Matavanu : a New Volcano in Savaii
(German Samoa), Dr. Tempest Anderson, 92 ; the
Dynamics of a Golf Ball, Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S.,
251 ; the Progressive Disclosure of the Entire Atmo-
sphere of the Sun, Dr. H. Deslandres, 422, 457 ; Radio-
activity as a Kinetic Theorv of a Fourth State of
Matter, Prof. William H. Bragg, F.R.S., 491

Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 296

Royal Meteoiolc^ical Society, 128, 295, 565

Royal Microscopical Society, 95, 361, 463

Royal Society, 64, 95, 126, 192, 259, 394, 427, 461, 495,
529, 564 ; Medal Awards, 46 ; .Anniversary Meeting of
the, 143 ; Medal Awards, 143 ; the Claims of Scientific
Research, Ix)rd Robson at, 183 ; on the Sensibility of
the Eye to Variations of Wave-lengths in the Yellow
Region of the Spectrum, Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S.,
421; the Density of Niton (Radium Emanation) and the
Disintegration Theory, R. Whytlaw Gray and Sir
William Ramsay, F.R.S., 524

Royal Society of Arts, the Panama Canal in 19 10, Dr.
Vaughan Cornish at, 420

Royal Society of .Arts, Journal of the, 455

Royal Society, Dublin, 161, 327, 531

Royal Society, Edinburgh, 193, 261, 497, 565

Royal Society of Sciences, Gottingen, 464

Royal Society, New South Wales, 129

Royal Society of South .Africa, 162 ; .Aims of .Astronomy
of Precision, S. S. Hough, F.R.S., at, 323

Royal Society of Victoria, 160, 262, 430

Roze (M.). Death of, 414

Rozet (CI.), Total Eclipse of the Moon of November 16,
1910, observed at .Aosta, Italy, 261

Rudge (Prof. W. A. Douglas), Tribo Luminescence of
Cranium, 207

Rudisiile (Dr. .A.), die Untersuchungs-Methoden des Eisens
und Stahls, 233

Ruffer (Dr. M. Armand), an .Account of Pott's Disease
of the Spine in an Egyptian Mummy belonging to
the Time of the Twentv-first Dvnasty about 1000 B.C.,
549

Russ (Dr. S.), Note on Scattering during Radio-active
Recoil, 296

Russell (Dr. .A.), the Electric Stress at which lonisation
begins in .Air, 225

Russell (.Arthur), New Locality of Phenakite in Cornwall,
128

Russell (B., F.R.S.), Philosophical Essavs, 331

Russell (Dr. E. J.). Objects and Methods of .Agricultural
.Soil Surveys, 25 ; Partial Sterilisation of Soils, 25 :
Wheat-growing and its Present-day Problems, 57 ; -Agri-
culture in the Dry Regions of the British Empire, 11 1:
Transvaal .Agricultural Journal, iii ; .Agricultural
Journal of the Cape of Good Hope. 11 1 ; Water Require-
ments of Crops in India, J. W. Leather, iii; Kleines
Handworterbuch der .Agrikulturchemie, Dr. Max Passon,
164

Russell (Dr. H. N.), Mass-ratios of the Components of
Krijger 60 and Castor. 418

Russell (S. C). Variation of the Depth of Water in a
Well at Detling, near Maidstone, compared with the
Rainfall 1885-1909. 565

Russian Magnetic Observations, Prof. Ernst Levst, Dr.
C. Chree. F.R.S., 388

Ruston (Mr.), the Impurities of the Town Atmosphere and
their Effects on Vegetation, 24

Rykachef (M.), Temperature of the Upper Air, 323
Ryves (P. .M.), Nova Lacertac, 523

Sabatier (Paul), Direct Esterification by Catalysis, 565
Safety Lamps and the Detection of Fire-damp, 524
Sailing-flight of Birds, the. Canon R. .Abbay, 475 ; F. W.
Headiey, 511; A. Mallock, F.R.S., 511; Edward I).
Hearn, 511
Sala (Dr. Guido), the Cells of the Ciliary Ganglion, 279
-Salisbury (Prof. R. D.), Elementary Physiography, 50^1
Salles (Edouard), Diffusion of Gaseous Ions, 33
Salmon (E. S.), Epidemic Outbreak of Eutypella prunastri.
184; Life-history of the .Apple " Scab " Fungus (Venturia
inaequalis), 184 ; a Species of Leptothyrium, 184
Salmon (W. H.), Geometry of the Triangle, 50
Sand (Dr. H. J. S.), Apparatus for the Rapid Electro-
analytical Determination of Metals, 360
Sanitation : Lessons on Elementary Hygiene and Sanita-
tion, with Special Reference to the Tropics, W. T.
Prout, 270 ; Death of Dr. William Williams, 548
Sarawak, Occurrence of Matonia sarmentosa in, Cecil J.

Brooks, 541
Sasaki (Prof. C), Silkworm Problems, 151
Satterlv (J.), Radium Content of .Salts of Potassium, 261
Saturn's Outer Ring, a Projection on, M. Jonckheere, 248
Saturn's Rings, M. Jonckheere, 150; K. Schiller, 218
Saunders (S. .A.), Determination of Selenographic Positions

and the Measurement of Lunar Photf^raphs, 226-7
-Savaii, Matavanu, a New A'olcano in, (German Samoa).

Dr. Tempest .Anderson at Royal Institution, 92
-Savoia (Humbert), Metallography Applied to Siderugic

Products, 202
Savoia (U.), la M^tallographie appliqu^ aux produits

Siderurgiques, 405
-Sawyer (Mr.), Sugar Beet Grown for Export in Norfolk.

317
Seal (CI.), Sterilisation of Water on the Large Scale by

LUtra-violet Light, 6^ ; .Arc Lamp having a Mercury

Kathode and giving White Light, 407
Scale (.A.), Pearl and Pearl-shell Fishery, 177
Scarlett (R. H.), a School Course of Heat, 303
Schaefer-Cassel (Prof. Dr. B.), Uber Zeil u' Methode der

Naturdenkmalpflege, 1 10
Schafer (Prof. E. A.. F.R.S.), the Essentials of Histology,

'37

Schaller (W. T.), the Mercury Minerals from Terlingua,
Texas, 420

Scharff (Dr. R. P.), Evidences of a Former Land-bridge
between Northern Europe and North America. 387

Scharff (Dr.), Whale-fishery at Inishkea and Ely Point, 116

Schiller (Dr.). CeruUi's Comet (i9ioe). Identified with
Fave's Short-period Comet, i:;i

Schilier (K.). Saturn's Rings. 2^18

-Schlesinger (Prof.). Publications of the .Allegheny Observa-
tory, 218; Photographic Determinations of Stellar
Parallax, 4:^4

Schlomann (.Alfred), the Deinhardt-Schlomann Series of

• Technical Dictionaries, 99

Schmidt (Dr. .A.). .Anthracosiidae of the Upper Carboni-
ferous Beds of Mahrisch-Ostrau, 284

Schmidt (Pr^f. E. C), Experiments on Freight-train Resist-
ance and its Relation to Average Car Weight. 5^I

Schoen (M.), Influence Exerted by the Reaction upon
Certain Properties of Malt Extracts. 129

School Garden and Nature Note-book, the " Code," 234

Schopenhauer-Darwin : Pessimismus oder Optimismus.
Gustav Weng. 403

Schrader (F. C). Mineral Deposits of the Cerbat Range.
Black Mountains, and Grand Wash Cliffs, Mohave
County, .Arizona. 420

Schrvver (S. B.). Investigations on the State of .Aggregation
of Matter, 127

Schultze (.A.). Elements of .Algebra, 167

Schulz (Paul F. F.). Hiiusliche Blumenpflege, 370

Schuster (.Arthur), Orogin of Magnetic Storms. 461

Schuster (Julius). Geological .Age of the Pithecanthropus of
the Pluvial Period in Java, 65

Schuvten (Prof.), Report of the Section L Research Com-
mittee on Mental and Physical Factors Involved in
Education, 89

Schwalbe (Prof. Carl G.), die Chemie der Cellulose unter

xlii

Index

Nature^
March 23, igii

besonderer Beriicksichtigung der Textil- und Zellsstoflfin-

dustrien, 67
Schwartz (Prof. A.), Some Physical Properties of Rubber,

296
Schwartz (Dr. M.), Rosonkrankheiten und Rosenfeinde, 435
Schwarz (Prof.), Occurrence of High Senonian or Danian

Beds on the South Coast of Africa, 554
Science : a Course of Elementary Science, John Thornton,
S ; Modern Scientific Research, Sir William A. Tilden,
F.R.S., at Vesey Club, 29 ; Observatory on Mount
Vesuvius, 50 ; the Carnegie Institution of Washington
and its Work, Dr. R. S. Woodward, 74 ; Science and
Engineering, Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S., at Junior
Institution of Engineers, 122 ; Report on the Work of
the Government Laboratories, Johannesburg, 149 ; the
Claims of Scientific Research, Lord Robson at Royal
Society, 183 ; the Year-book of the Scientific and Learned
•Societies of Great Britain and Ireland : a Record of the
Work Done in Science, Literature, and Art during the
Session 1909—10 by Numerous Societies and Government
Institutions, 202 ; the State's Duty to Science, Dr. Muir,
C.M.G., F.R.S., 213 ; Science and the State, Dr. T.
Muir, C.M.G., F.R.S., at South African Association for
the Advancement of Science, 221 ; the Scientists' Refer-
once Book and Pocket Diary for 191 1, 235; the Admission
of Women to the French Academies, 342, 372 ; thfe Making
of a Darwin, Dr. David Starr Jordan at American Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science, 3:^4 ; American Men
of Science, 397 ; Leading American Men of Science, 397 ;
Man's Redemption of Man, Prof. W. Osier, 404; Science
and Literature, Lord Morley of Blackburn at English
Association, 446 ; Memorial to Sir John Evans, 448 ;
Science from the Non-professional Standpoint, M. Green-
wood, 440 ; What Science has done for the West Indies,
Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., 477;
Progress of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. C. D.
Walcott, 1^26
Scott-Moncrieff (P. D.), Death of, £148
Scottish Natural History, T. A. Harvie Brown, 336
Scrivenor (J. B.), Relatione of the Igneous Rocks of Islands
between Johore and Singapore, e^e^j^ ; Rocks from the
Kinta Valley of Perak, 554
Sea-Kings of Crete, the. Rev. James Baikie, 235
Sea-otter, the, H. J. Snow, 408; Prof. John Milne, F.R.S.,

510 ; Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, 510
Seager (Richard B.), Excavations on the Island of Pseira,

Crete, 272
Seal Herds, Present Condition of American Bison and,

12
Sedimentation in Wave-stirred Areas, the Limiting Line of,

A. R. Hunt, 72
Sedldcek (J.), Definitive Elements for the Orbit of Comet

1904 II. (1904^), 218
Seismology : Earthquakes in the Pacific, J. J. Shaw, iii; ;
Prof. Milne, 115; Afforestation, a Remedy for the
Disastrous Effects of Earthquake in Messina and
Southern Italy, Gino Cucchetti, 149 ; the Remarkable
Series of Earthquakes in Alaska in September, 1899,
Lawrence Martin, 179 ; the Recent Earthquakes in Asia,
Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., 33-;; Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S.,
■;-?<; : the Turkestan Earthquake of January 3-4, Rev.
Walter Sidgreaves, 372 ; F. Edward Norris, 372 ; Earth-
quake of January 3-4, 1911, Alfred Angit, 396; the
Registration of Small Artificial Earthquakes at a distance
of 17 kilometres, Louis Fabry, 498 ; the Observatory at
Messina, Prof. J. Milne, F.R.S., 1^15
Selenium Photometry of Stars, Dr. Joel Stebbins, 119
Seligrnann (Dr.), a Neolithic Site in the Southern Sudan, 23
Selous (F. C), Expedition to the Southern District of the
Bahr-el-Grazal for the Purpose of Securing the Head and
Skin of an Eland, 314
Senderens (J. B.), Ketones Derived from the Three Isomeric
Toluic Acids, 30? : Ketones Derived from the Phenyl-
propionic Acid, i;6£;
Senouque (A.), Experiments in Wireless Telegraphy from

an Aeroplane, 463
Serotherapy : Method of Isolating and Growing the Lepra

Bacillus of Man, E. W. Twort, 127
Serviss (Garrett P.), Round the Year with the Stars, 333
Seward (Prof. A. C, F.R.S.), Comparison of Jurassic
Floras, 258 ; the Jurassic Flora of Sutherland, 497

Sex Relationship, Dr. R. J. Ewart, 322, 406; Hertha

Ayrton, 406
Shaft-straightencrs, Palaeolithic, Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S.,

371

Shan (Semionof-of-Tian), Towns and Villages of Russia
and their Distribution in Relation to Physical Conditions
and Historical Events, 317

Sharp (Captain (i. E.), Fly-leaves from a Fisherman's
Diary, 334

Sharpe (Sir Alfred), Habits of Glossina morsitans, 176

Shaw (J. J.), Earthquakes in the Pacific, 115

Shaw (Dr. P. E.), Measurement of End-standards of
Length, 104.

Shaw (Dr. W. N., F.R.S.), the New Meteorological OfTice,
181 ; the Recent Earthquakes in Asia, 335

Shegolef (Ir. M.), Lichen Collected in the Jugjur Chain
(Stanovoi), 279

Shelford (R.), Simulium and Pellagra, 41

Shelley (Capt. G. E.), Death of, 215

Shenstone (J. C), Flowering Plants and F"erns growing
in Farringdon Street, 20

Shepherd (Col. C. E.), the Pharyngial Teeth of Fishes,
177

Sheringham (H. T.), an Open Creel, 102

Sherlock (R. L.), Relationship of the Permian to the
Trias in Nottinghamshire, 360 ; the Geology of the
Melton Mowbray District and South-east Nottingham-
shire, 386

Sherrington (Prof. C. S., F.R.S.), Results of some Ex-
periments indicating the Existence of Afferent Nerves in
the Eye Muscles, 27 ; Constant Current as a Stimulus
of Reflex Action, and the Effect of the Intensity of the
Current on the Response to Stimulation, 27

Shipley (Dr.), Partial Sterilisation of Soils, 25

Ships, the Reduction of Rolling in, H. Frahm, 250

Shrivell (F. W. E.), the Manuring of Market-garden
Crops, 505

Shrubsole (W. H.), Protection of Useful Birds in Hungary
and Great Britain, 381

Shull (Dr. G. H.), Further Evidence in favour of a so-
called Pure-line Method in Corn Breeding, 217

Shuttleworth (Dr. G. E.), Mentally Deficient Children,
their Treatment and Training, 507

Siamang Gibbon, the Song of the, R. I. Pocock, 170

Siddons (A. W.), Practical Measurements, 202

Sidgreaves (Rev. Walter), the Turkestan Earthquake of
January 3-4, 372

Sidgwick (Alfred), the Application of Logic, 436

Siemens (Alexander), Engineering and Civilisation, Address
at Institution of Civil Engineers, 59

Silver (Dr. G.), Observations of Magnetic Declination and
Dissipation of Electric Charge which they made at
Padua on May 14-21, 150

Simmonds (C), Trait^ complet d 'analyse Chimique,
appliqu^e aux essais industriels. Prof. J. Post and Prof.
B. Neumann, 433 ,

Simpson (Dr. George C), on the Electricity of Ram and
its Origin in Thunderstorms, 81 ; Atmospheric Elec-
tricity over the Ocean, 462

Simpson (G. C. E.), Haemoglobin Metabolism in Malarial
Fever, 260 .

Simpson (J. J.), Hicksonella, a New Gorgonellid Genus,

Simpson (Dr. Sutherland), Observations on the Body Tem-
perature of the Domestic Fowl during Incubation, 261

Simulium and Pellagra, R. Shelford, 41 ; Dr. C. Gordon
Hewitt, 169

Simultaneity of " Abruptlv-beginning " Magnetic Storms, on
the, O. krogness, 170; Dr. L. A. Bauer, 306

Sinel (J.), Exploration of a Palaeolithic Cave-dwelling,
known as La Cotte, at St. Brelade, Jersey, 344

Sino-ing- the Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song,
Prof F. W. Mott, F.R.S., Prof. John G. McKendnck,
F.R.S., 199; the Abuse of the Singing and Speaking
Voice Causes, Effects, and Treatment, Prof. E. J.
Moure and A. Bowver. Prof. John G. McKendrick,
F.R.S., 199; the Voice, Dr. W. A. Aitken, Prof. John G.
McKendrick, F.R.S., 199 . „ ♦, '

Singularities of Curves and Surfaces, A. B. Bassett,
F.R.S., 336, 440; T. J. I'a. B., 336. 440

Sirius, the Radial Velocity of, W. Munch, 151

Nature, "l

March 23

Index

xliii

Sleeping Sickness, Native Methods of Fishing in Relation
to the Incidence and Dissemination of, Dr. Bodeker, 17S ;
sec Morbology

"^ling, Distribuiion of the, in America, Dr. Friederici, 147

Mnalley (W. M.), Apparatus for the Rapid Electro-
Analytical Determination of Metals, 360

Smiles (Prof. Samuel), the Relations between Chemical
Constitution and some Physical Properties, 69

Smith (Prof. Alex.), Dynamic Method for Measuring
Vapour Pressures with its Application to Benzene and
.Ammonium Chloride, 193 ; Quantitative Study of the
Constitution of Calomel Vapour, 193

Smith (.A. M.), a New Method for Estimating Gaseous
E.\changes of Submerged Plants, 530 ; on Assimilation
in Submerged Water-plants and its Relation to the Con-
centration of Carbon Dioxide and other Factors, 530

Smith (Charles), Solutions of the Examples in an Elemen-
tary Treatise on Conic Sections by the Methods of
Coordinate Geometrv, 405

Smith (Prof. G. Elliott, F.R.S.), the People of Egypt, 24;
Early Burial Customs in Egypt, 41 ; the Convolutions
of the Brain, 97; the Negro in the New VV'orld, Sir
Harry H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 172; the
Archieological Survey of Nubia, Report on the Human
Remains, 310; der Stand unserer Kenntnisse vom
fossilen Menschen, Prof. W. Branca, 402 ; an Account
of Pott's Disease of the Spine in an Egyptian Mummy
belonging to the time of- the Twenty-first Dynasty about
1000 B.C., 549

Smith (Dr. G. F. H.), Schwartzembergite, 496

Smith (H. G.), a Research on the Pines of Australia, 465

Smith (Harold Hamel), Aigrettes and Bird Skins : the
Truth about their Collection and Export, 207 ;
"Aigrettes and Bird Skins," 316

Smith (Dr. H. Hammond), Possible Cause of Pneumo-
enteritis in the Red Grouse (Lagopus scoticus), 226

Smith (P. F.), Theoretical Mechanics, 169

Smith (Stanley P.), Hydroelectric Developments and En-
gineering, F. Koester, 198 ; Electric Motors, Henry M.
Hobart, 468

.Smith (Mr.), the Geology of the Melton Mowbray District
and South-east Nottinghamshire, 386

Smithsonian Institution, Progress of the. Dr. C. D.
Walcott, 526

Smoke and its Prevention, Prof. Vivian B. Lewes at
London Institution, 290

Smoluchowski (Prof.), Measurements of the Heat Conduc-
tivities of Fine Powders and the Influence of the Size of
the Grains and the State of the Gas between them on
the Conductivity, 50

Snell (Mr.), Behaviour of the Chromosomes during Mitosis,

58
Snodgrass (R. E.), the Anatomy of the Honey Bee, 169 ;

the Thorax of the Hymenoptera, 246
.Snow (H. J.), in Forbidden Seas, 408

Soddy (F.), Conduction of Heat through Rarefied Gases, 95
Solar .Activity, Temperature Changes and. Prof. F. H.

Bigelow, 352
Solar Activity and Terrestrial . Temperatures, W. J.

Humphreys, 87
Solar Corona, Tracing the, in Lunar Observations, Em.

Touchet, 283
.Solar Parallax, Determination of the, Charles D. Perrine,

287
Solar Phvsics Observatorv, the, 373
Sollas (Prof. W. J., F.R.S.), Pateolithic Shaft-Straighteners,

Solway Area, the Birds of Dumfriesshire — a Contribution

to the Fauna of the, Hugh S. Gladstone, 378
Sommerfeld (Dr. Paul), Milch und Molkereiprodukte, ihre

Eigenschaften, Zusammensetzung und Gewinnung, 168
Song of the Siamang Gibbon, the, R. J. Pocock, 170
'Soured Milk and its Preparation, Lactic Cheeses, Prof.

R. T. Hewlett, 338
South .African .Association for the Advancement of Science,

Science and the State, Dr. T. Muir, C.M.G., F.R.S.,

at, 221
Southall (Prof. J. P. C), the Principles and Methods of

Geometrical Optics, especially as Applied to the Theory

of Optical Instruments, 499
Sowfon (Miss S. C. M.), Constant Current as a Stimulus

of Reflex Action, and the Effect of the Intensity of the
Current on the Response to Stimulation, 27

Spalski (H.), Skull of the Saw-billed Bird [Odontopteryx
toliapica), 28^

Spearman (Dr.), Inquiry into Individual V'ariations of
Memory anK>ng some 400 Subjects, 89 ; the Relation of
the Memory to the Will, 353

Spectacles, the Prescribing of, A. S. Percival, 467

Spectroscope and its Work, the, Prof. H. F. Newall,
F.R.S., 300

Spectrum Analysis : the Spectrum of Nova Sagittarti No. 2,
Leon Campbell, 22 ; Prof. Millosevich, 22 ; Stars having
Peculiar Spectra, and New Variable Stars, 87 ; Modifica-
tions undergone by the Lines of the Spark Spectrum in
a Magnetic Field, G. A. Hemsalech, 161 ; Dr. Const.
Zakrzewski's Measurements on the Dispersion of Metallic
Bodies in the Visible Spectrum, 179, 180; the Spectrum
of Halley's Comet, C. P. Butler, 193 ; the Spectrum of
the American Nebula, Dr. Max Wolf, 282 ; Vacuum-
tube Spectra of the Vapours of some Metals and Metallic
Chlorides, Dr. J. H. Pollok, 327 ; the Orbits of Several
Spectroscopic Binaries, R. H. Baker, 384 ; F. C. Jordan,
385* New Spectroscopic Binaries, J. H. Moore, 523;
Mr. Paddock, 523; Prof. Campbell, 524; on the Sensi-
bility of the Eye to Variations of Wave-length in the
Yellow Region of the Spectrum, Lord Rayleigh, O.M.,
F.R.S., at Royal Society, 421 ; Lines in the Spectra of
Nebulae, Dr. W. H. Wright, 454; First Observations
on the New Star in Lacerta, P. Idrac, 463 ; Polarisation
in the Spectrum of o Ceti, Dr. Wright, 486 ; Researches
on the Movements of the Solar .Atmospheric Layers by
the Displacement of the Lines of the Spectrum,
H. Deslandres, 497 ; the Spectra of some W'olf-Rayet
Stars, J. C. Duncan, 552.

Spheres of Liquids,^ the Formation of, Chas. R. Darling,
512

Spicer (Rev. E. C), the Cocos-Keeling Atoll, 41

Spillmann (L.), Physiological Significance of the Vital
Coloration of Leucocytes, 361 ; Eliminating R6le of the
Leucocytes, 429

Spinoza, Baruch de, Ethik. Otto Baensch, 367

Spitsbergen, Stockholm to, the Geologists' Pilgrimage,
G. W. Lamplugh, F.R.S., 152

Spitta (E. J.), Microscopy : the Construction, Theory, and
Use of the Microscope, 230

Spoonbill, the Home-life of the, the Stork, and some
Herons, B. Beetham, 544

Sport and Games, the Encyclopaedia of, 274

Spranger (Eduard) Fichte, Schleiermacher, Steffens iiber
das Wesen der Universitat, 367

Standard Cells, the Electromotive Force of. Dr. R. T.
Glazebrook, F.R.S., 508

Stankevitsch (Prof. B. V.), Odessa Observatory, 1908, 525

Stapf (Dr. O.), Report on International Botanical Con-
gress held at Brussels on May 14-22, 1910, 395

Starling (S. G.), Demonstration of Peltier and Thomson
Effects, 512

Stars : the Spectrum of Nova Sagittarii No. 2, Leon
Campbell, 22 ; Prof. Millosevich, 22 ; Magnitude of
Nova Sagittarii No. 2, Dr. Ristenpart, 151 ; Discovery
of another Nova, Sagittarii No. 3, Miss Cannon, 248 ;
Nova Saerittarii No. 3, H.V. 3306, Miss Cannon. 5^2 ;
a New Variable Star or a Nova 97-1910 Cygni, Mr.
Hinks, 22 ; New Variable Stars in Harvard Map No. 52,
Miss Cannon, 22 ; Stars having Peculiar Spectra, and
New Variable Stars, 87 ; Variable Stars in the Orion
Nebula, 87 ; der Sternenhimmel, Prof. J. D. Messer-
schmitt, 102 ; Selenium Photometry of Stars, Dr. Joe!
Stebbins, 119; Photographic Magnitudes of Seventy-
one Pleiades Stars, Adolf Hnatek, 119; the Radial
Velocity of Sirius, W. Miinch, 151 ; Proper Motion of
the Star B.D. 4-33° 09, Dr. .Abetti, 181 ; the Photo-
graphic Magnitudes of Stars, Prof. E. C. Pickering,
181 ; E. Hertzsprung, 181 ; Nova .Arae 98, 1910, Dr.
Ristenpart, 218; the Light Changes of Forty-nine Vari-
able Stars, Dr. L. Pracka, 248 ; the Movements of
Certain Stars, in Space, Compared with that of the
Sun, Dr. P. Stroobant, 282 ; the Stars from Year to
Year, with Charts for Everv Month, H. Periam Hawkins,
304; the Star Calendar for 191 1, H. Periam Hawkins,
304; the Star Almanac for 191 1, H. Periam Hawkins,

xliv

Index

Nature,
March 23, 1911

304 ; Nineteen Stars with Newly Discovered Variable
Radial Velocities, O. J. Lee, 319; Round the Year
with the Stars, Garrett P. Serviss, 333 ; Nova Lacertaj,
Mr. Hinks, 348; Mr. Espin, 348, 384; Dr. Graff, 417;
Prof. Max Wolf, 384, 453, 523, 552 ; Prof. Pickering,
384, 523 ; Mr. Bellamy, 384 ; Prof. Barnard, 453 ;
Prof. .Millosevich, 453; Dr. Munch, 453; Prof.
Hertzsprung, 453 ; Felix de Roy, 453 ; Herr Mewes,
453 ; P. Idrac, '486, 523 ; Prof. Nijland, 523 ; Dr. Kiihl,
523 ; P. M. Ryves, 523 ; a New Variable or Nova
(134, 1910, Piscium), E. Ernst, 418; Double Stars, Dr.
R. G. Aitken, 418; Prof. Burnham, 418; Star Colours,
Mr. Innes, 418; Discovery of an Eighth-Magnitude
Nova, Mr. Espin, 319; the Orbits of Several Spectro-
scopic Binaries, R. H. Baker, 384 ; F. C. Jordan, 385;
New Spectroscopic Binaries, J. H. Moore, 523 ; Mr
Paddock, 523 ; Prof. Campbell, 524 ; Photographic
Determinations of Stellar Parallax, Prof. F. Schlesinger,
454; Stars shown to the Children, Ellison Hawks, 506;
the Spectra of some Wolf-Rayet Stars, J. C. Duncan, 552

Statistics, International Mineral, Prof. Henry Louis, 211

Stead (Dr.), Relations of Science with Commercial Life, 90

Stebbing (E. P.), Forestry Education : its Importance and
Requirements, Lecture at the University of Edinburgh,
61 ; Preservation of Bamboos from the Attacks of the
Bamboo Beetle or " Shot-borer," 178

Stebbins (Dr. Joel), Selenium Photometer Measures of the
Brifjhtness of Halley's Comet, 51 ; Selenium Photometry
of Stars, 119

Steel (R. Elliott), Practical Electricity and Magnetism, 135

Steel, a Fourth Recalescence in, Prof. J. O. Arnold, 1157;
Prof. W. F. Barrett, F.R.S., 235

Steele (Dr. B. D.), Properties of Binary Mixtures of some
Liquefied Gases, 453

Stegosaurus, the Armour of, F. A. Lucas, 73 ; R. L., 73

Steiger (George), Errors in the Chemical Analysis of
Gypsum, 420

Stein (Sigmund), Sugar-Beet Growing, 25

Stelfox (A. W.), List of the Land and Fresh-water Mol-
lusca of Ireland, 296

Stellar Magnitudes, J. E. Maybee, 348

Stephens (Dr. J. W. W.), Peculiar Morphology of a Try-
panosome from a Case of Sleeping Sickness and the
Possibility of its being a New Species {Trypanosoma
rhodesiense), 64

Sternenhimmel, der. Prof. J. D. Messerschmitt, 102

Stevens (Prof. W. C.), Plant Anatomy from the Standpoint
of the Development and Functions of the Tissues and
Handbook of Micro-technic, 335

Stevenson (Capt. W. D. H.), the Killing of Rats and Rat-
fleas by Hydrocyanic Acid, 246

Stewart (the late Samuel Alexander), Life-work of, 415

Stockholm, the International Agrogeological Congress at,
88

Stockholm to Spitsbergen : the Geologists' Pilgrimage,
G. W. Lamplugh, F.R.S., 152

Stokey (Miss A. G.), Sporangium of Lycopodium pithyoidcs,

o 345

Stopes (Dr. M. C), Lower Cretaceous Angiosperms, 139

Strahan (Mr.), the Geology of the South Wales Coalfield,
386

Strahan (Col. George), Death of, 380

Stray Leaves on Travel, Sport, Animals, and Kindred Sub-
jects, J. C. Walter, 270

Strecker (Dr. Karl), Present Position of Wireless Tele-
graphy, 118

Stroobant (Dr. P.), the Movements of Certain Stars, in
Space, Compared with that of the Sun, 282 ; Astronomy
at the Brussels Exhibition, 283

Strutt (Hon. R. J., F.R.S.), Helium and Geological Time,
6, 43 ; Afterglow of Electric Discharge, 226 ; the After-
glow of Electric Discharge in Nitrogen, 439

Stubbs (F. J.), Egrets formerlv Common in England, 20 ;
Nature of the Colouring of the Kingfisher, 316

Sun : les Theories Modernes du Soleil, J. Bosler, 68 ;
. Vorlesungen iiber die Physik der Sonne, Prof. E. Pring-
sheim, 68; the Movements of Certain Stars, in Space,
Compared with that of the Sun. Dr. P. Stroobant, 282 ;
the Progressive Disclosure of the Entire Atmosphere of
the Sun, Dr. H. Deslandres at Royal Institution of
Great Britain, 422, 457 ; the Progressive Disclosure of

the Entire Atmosphere of the Sun, Albert Alfred Buss,
540; Utilisation of the .Sun's Heat, Prof. Ceraski, 454

Super-organic Evolution, Dr. E. Lluria, 71

Supino (Prof. Felice), Effect of Light on the Ova of Trout,
149

Surgery: Death of Prof. Franz Konig, 215; Present Status
of Neurological Surgerj , Dr. Harvey Cushing, 147

Surveying : Field and Colliery Surveying, T. A.
O'Donahue, 405; the New Zealand Survey, 185; Death
of Col. George Strahan, 380

Sutherland (Alexander), Excavation of a Broch at Cogle,
Waken, Caithness, 22

Sutton (Dr.), Question of Utilising Wind Power in Country
Districts, 148

Swinburne (J.), Separation of Oxygen by Cold, 360

Sy (F.), Halley's Comet, 351

Sykes (Major), North-eastern Persia the Ancient Parthia,
and Hyrcania, 84

Sylvester (James Joseph, F.R.S.), the Collected Mathe-
matical Papers of, 434

Sj^mes (W. L.), Certain Physical and Physiological Proper-
ties of Stovaine and its Homologues, 529 ; Effect of
some Local Anjesthetics on Nerve, 529

Synchronisation of Clocks, 516

Syon House, Brentford, Catalogue of Hardy Trees and
Shrubs Growing in the Grounds of, A. B. Jackson, 136

Taffanel (J.), Safety Explosives Employed in Mines, 129
Tait (Dr. J.), the Conditions Necessary for Tetanus of the

Heart, 27 ; Neurogenic Origin of Normal Heart

Stimulus, 27
Tannery (Prof. Jules), Death of, 114; Obituary Notice of,

Tasmanian Crania, Dioptrographic Tracings in Four
Normal of Fifty-two, ProL R. J. A. Berry and A. W. D.
Robertson, 366

Tchougaeff (L.), Action of Hydrogen to the Isomeric
Thujenes and Sabinene, 227

Technical Institutions, Association of, Sir Henry Hibbert,

525 . ..,.,.

Technical Institutions, the Association of Teachers in, 55

Telegraphy, Wireless : Wireless Telegrams direct from
Canada and Massowah, 82 ; Eiffel Tower used for Daily
Transmission of Time-signals to Ocean-going Vessels by
Means of Wireless Telegraphy, 114; Present Position of
Wireless Telegraphy, Dr. Karl Strecker, 118; Telephonic
and Radio-telegraphic Comparisons of Chronometers by
the Method of Coincidences between Paris and Brest,
MM. Claude, Ferri^, and Driencourt, 161 ; New Experi-
ment in Stimulation by Shocks in, Br. Glatzel, 227 ;
Some Improvements in Transmitters and Receivers for
Wireless Telegraphy, Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., 248;
Telegraphic Message from the ss. Cedric, 314; Experi-
ments in Wireless Telegraphy from an Aeroplane, A.
Senouque, 463

Temperature Changes and Solar Activity, Prof. F. H.
Bigelow, 352

Temperature of the Upper Air, M. Rykachef, 323

Terrestrial Temperatures, Solar Activity and, W. J.
Humphreys, 87

Theal (Dr. G. McCall), the Yellow and Dark-skinned
People of Africa, South of the Zambezi, 542

Theobald (F. V.), the Damage done to Fruit Trees by
Thrips, 184 ; a Monograph of the Culicidse or Mosqui-
toes, 330

Therapeutics : Diseases of the Skin, including Radio-
therapy and Radiumtherapy, Prof. E. Gaucher, Dr.
A. C. Jordan, 363 ; Form of Treatment of Wasting
Diseases of Young Children, M. Quinton, 416

Thienemann (Dr. J.), die Vogelwarte Rossitten der
Deutschen Ornithologischen Gesellschaft und das
Kennzeichnen der Vogel, 207

Thiselton-Dyer (Sir W. T., K.C.M.G., F.R.S.), the
Jodrell Laboratory at Kew, 103 ; the Inheritance of
Acquired Characters, 371 ; What Science has done for
the West Indies, 477 ; Origin of Incense, 507

Thoday (D.), Experiments on Anaesthetised Leaves, 26;
Assimilation and Translocation under Natural Condi-
tions. 58; the Inheritance of the Yellow Tinge in Sweet-
pea Colouring, 160

Thoday (Mrs.), Morphology of the Ovule of Gnetum

Nature,
March 23, igti

Index

xlv

africannm, 59; the Inheritance of the Yellow Tinge in
Sweet-pea Colouring, 160

I homas (H. Hamshaw), the Leaves of Calamites, 496

1 homas (H. H.), the Skomer Volcanic Series (Pembroke-
shire), 530

Thomas (Ivor), die Klimatischen Verhaltnisse der geolo-
gischen Vorzeit vom Prascambrium an bis zur Jetztzeit
und ihr Einfluss auf die Entwickelung der Haupttypen
des Tier- und Pflanzenreiches, Dr. Emil Carthaus, 36

Thomas (Oldfield), Mammals of the Tenth Edition of
Linnaeus, 295

Thomas (Mr.), the Geology of the South Wales Coalfield,
386

Thompson (Prof. D'Arcy W.), In Forbidden Seas, 510

Thompson (M. S.), Excavations in Thessaly in 1910, 23 ;
Distribution of Early Civilisation in Northern Greece
in Relation to its Geographical Features, 450

Thompson (Prof. W. H.), Nutritive Value of Beef Extract,
27

Thomson (D.), Some Enumerative Studies on Malarial
Fever, 260 ; Case of Sleeping Sickness Studied by Precise
Enumerative Methods, 260

Thomson (Prof. J. Arthur), the Determination of Sex, 463 ;
Darwinism and Human Life, 504

Thomson Q. G.), Enumerative Studies on Trypanosoma
gambiense and Trypanosoma rhodesiense in Rats,
Guinea-pigs, and Rabbits, 260 ; Experiments on the
Treatment of Animals Infected with Trypanosomes by
Means of Atoxyl, Vaccines, Cold, X-Rays, and Leuco-
cytic Extract, 260

Thomson (Sir J. J., F.R.S.), Science and Engineering,
Address at Junior Institution of Engineers, 122 ; New
Method of Investigating the Positive Rays, 128; the
Dynamics of a Golf Ball, Discourse at Royal Institution,

Thomson EITects, Demonstration of Peltier and, S. G.
Starling, 512

Thornton (John), a Course of Elementarv Science, 5

Thorpe (Sir T. Edward, C.B., F.R.S.), History of Chem-
istry, 5 ; the Volume of the Kilogramme of Water,
242 ; Travaux et M^moires du Bureau International des
Poids et Mesures, 242

Tian (M.), Nature of the Decomposition of Hydrogen
Peroxide Solutions produced by Light, 227

Tiger, the Life Story of a, Lt.-Col. A. F. Mockler-Ferry-
man, 333

Tilden (Sir William A., F.R.S.), Modern Scientific Re-
search, Address at Vesey Club, 29 ; the Elements, 69

Tillyard (R. J.), Experiments with Dragon-fly Larvae,
228 ; Camacinia othello, 362

Time, Accuracy of, on Magnetograms, G. W. Walker,
236

Tinazzi (Dr.), Application of the Dilatometric Method to
the Study of the Polymorphism of the Alkali Nitrates, 86

Tinsley (H. and Co.), a Simple and Strong Form of Vibra-
tion Galvanometer based on the Kelvin Galvanometer, 240

Tison (A.), Are the Gnetales Apetalous Angiosperms?

Todd (G. W.), Mobility of the Positive Ions in Gases at

Low Pressures, 129
Tokyo, the New, Benjiro Kusakabe, 185
Tolmachef (I. P.), Changes Made in the Map of the Coast

between the Rivers Khatanga and Anabar, 317
Tomb of Two Brothers, the, Miss M. A. Murray, 332
Torday (E.), the Bu-Shongo of the Congo Free State,

23

rTornquist (Prof. A.), Geologie von Ostpreussen, 468
~Touchet (Em.), Tracing the Solar Corona in Lunar

Observations, 283
foula (Franz), Investigations of a Pre-glacial or Inter-

gflacial Bone-deposit near Kronstadt, 285
Pownsend (Prof. E. J.), First Course in Calculus, 368
Townsend (Prof. J. S., F.R.S.), Charges on Ions in Gases

and some Effects that Influence the Motion of Neg^ative

Ions, 394 ; the Theory of lonisation of Gases by Collision,

400
Toxicology : Vergiftungen durch Pflanzen und Pflanzen-

stofTe, ein Grundriss der vegetalen Toxikologie fiir prak-

tische Aerzte, Apotheker und Botaniker, Dr. F.

Kanngiesser, Henry G. Greenish, 436
foyama (K.), Silkworm Problems, 151

Tozcr (Miss F.), Results of some Experiments indicating

the Existence of Afferent Nerves in the Eye Muscles, 27
Tracy (H. C), Significance of White Markings in Passerine

Birds, 557
Transandine Railway, the, Dr. John W. Evans, 219
Transference of Names in Zoology, the, Dr. W. T. Caiman,

406
Transvaal Agricultural Journal, Dr. E. J. Russell, in
Travis (W. R.), Small Microscope Lamp Particularly
Suited for Opaque Objects and Dark-ground Illumination
with High Powers, 361
Tremearne (Capt. A. J. N.), Bull-fighting among the
Fulani, 116; Folk-tales dealing with the Relations of
Hausa Parents and Children, 146
Trier (Dr. G.), die Alkaloide, 131

Trigonometry, Prof. A. G. Hall and F. G. Frink, 368
Trigonometry, the Theory of Elementary, Prof. D. K.

Picken, 167
Tropical Diseases, a Suggested Research Fund for, 28
Trouessart (Prof. E. L.), Faune des Mammif^res d'Europ-, 3
Trouessart (Dr. E.), Reported Discovery in the Congo of a

New Mammal, 481
Trouton (Prof. F. T.), Demonstration of the Phase Differ-
ence between the Primary and Secondary Currents of a
Transformer by Means of a simple Apparatus, 530
True (H.), P2xperimental and Chemical Ocular Action of

Bitumen Dust and Vapour, 65
True (F. W.), Specimens of Beaked Whales (Ziphiidae) in

the United States National Museum, 116
Tschulok (Dr. Phil. S.), das System der Biologic in

Forschung und Lehre, 37
Tucker (Richard Froude), Death of, 114
Tunzelmann (G. W. de), a Treatise on Electrical Theory
and the Problem of the Universe, considered from the
Phvsical Point of View, with Mathematical Appen-
dices, 99
Turkestan Earthquake of January 3-4, Rev. Walter Sid-
greaves, 372 ; F. Edward Norris, 372
Turner (Dr. Dawson), Results of the X-rays in Therapeutic

Doses on the Growing Brains of Rabbits. 27
Turner (Prof. H. H.), Accuracy of the Positions of the
Star Images in the "Harvard Sky," 226; Recent
Advance of " the Astronomical Regiment," 385
Turner (R. E.), Fossorial Hymenoptera, 496
Tutt (J. W ). Death of, 343
Twort (E. W.), Method for Isolating and Growing the

Lepra Bacillus of Man, 127
Tyrrell (G. W.), Characters of Igneous Rocks in Southern
Scotland, 387

Underbill (Charles R.), Solenoids, Electromagnets, and

Electromagnetic Windings, 432
United States, the Conservation of Natural Resources in

the, Charles R. Van Hise, 545
United States Naval Observatory, 418

University and Educational Intelligence, 32, 62, 93, i2->,
. 158, 190, 223, 258, 294, 327, 360, 393, 426, 460, 494, 528,

563
Uranium, Tribo Luminescence of. Prof. W. A. Douglas

Rudge, 207 ; Alfred C. G. Egerton, 308
Urbain (E.), .'\rc Lamp having a Mercury Kathode and

giving White Light. 497
Urbain (G.), Sterilisation of Water on the Large Scale by

Ultra-violet Light, 6^ ; New Element .Accompanying
' Lutecium and Scandium in the Gadolinite Earths,

Celtium, 429

Vacca (Dr.), Theorv of Numbers, 86

Valle (Dr. F.), Death of, 83

Variabilitat niedcrer Organismen, die, Hans Pringsheim,

C. Clifford Dobell, 501
Variations, Lemons sur le Calcul des, Prof. J. Hadamard,

197
Vassall (A.), Practical Measurements, 202
Vaupel (Dr. F.), Flora of the Samoa Islands, 382
Vegard (L.), Studies of Magnetic Disturbances, 473
Veiev (V. H.), Certain Physical and Physiological Pro-
perties of Stovaine and its Homologues, 529 ; Effect of
some Local Anaesthetics on Nerve, 529

xlvi

Index

[

Nature,
March 23, 1911

Vermorel (V.), General Principles which Ought to be
Followed in Establishing Formulae for Insecticides, 262

Vernadsky (W.), Chemical Distinction between Orthose
and Microcline, 328

Verneuil (A.), Nature of the Oxides causing the Coloration
of the Oriental Sapphire, 227; Preparation of the Black
Enamel of the Italo-Greek Potteries, 565

Vernon (Dr. H. M.), Dakin's Work on Oxidation of Fatty
Acids and Ami no-acids by Hydrogen Peroxide and Traces
of Ferrous Salts, 26 ; Results of some Experiments on
the Combination of Poisons with the Contractile Sub-
stance of Cardiac Muscle, 27

Veronica prostrata, L., Tcucrium, L., und austriaca, L.,
nebst einem anhang iiber deren nachste verwandte, Dr.
Bruno Watzl, 267

Vertebrates, Guide to the British, Exhibited in the Depart-
ment of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), 234

Vertebrates, Morphological Method and the Ancestry of,
Prof. J. Graham Kerr, F.R.S., 203

Verworn (Max), die Entwicklung des menschlichen Geistes,

Vesey Club, Modern Scientific Research, Sir William A.

Tilden, F.R.S., at, 29
Vibrations of a Pianoforte Sound-board, G, H. Berry, 541
Vickcrs (H. M.), an Apparently Hitherto Unnoticed

" Anticipation " of the Theory of Natural Selection, 510
V'illey (Jean), Measurement of Very Small Displacements

by Means of the Electrometer, 34
Vinall (J. W. T.), a Course of Drawing for the Standrads,

268 ; Natural and Common Objects in Primary Drawing,

268
V^inet (E.), Lead Arsenate in Viticulture, 262
Violle (I^.), the Ingestion of Mineral Acids in the Dog, 498
Viticulture, Lead Arsenate in, L. Moreau and E. Vinet,

^62
Vivisection, the Truth about, 344
Vogelwarte Rossitten der Deutschen Ornithologischen

Gesellschaft und das Kennzeichnen der Vogel, die. Dr.

J. Thienemann, 207
Vogelwclt, Unleitung zur Beobachtung der, Dr. Carl

Zimmer, 502
Voice, the, Dr. W. A. Aitken, Prof. John G. McKendrick,

F.R.S., 199
Voice, the Abuse of the Singing and Speaking, Causes,

Effects, and Treatment, Prof. E. J. Moure and A.

Bowyer, Prof. John G. McKendrick, F.R.S., 199
Voice in Speech and Song, the Brain and the, Prof. F. W.

Mott, F.R.S., Prof. John G. McKendrick, F.R.S., 199
Voigt (Prof.), Liquid Rendered Double Refracting by the

Action of a Magnetic Field, 118
Volcanoes : Matavanu : a New Volcano in Savaii (German

Samoa), Dr. Tempest Anderson at Royal Institution, 92
Volkmann (Paul), Erkenntnistheoretische Grundziige der

Naturwissenschaften und ihre Beziehungen zum Geistes-

leben der Gegenwart, 233
Volume of the Kilogramme of Water, the, Sir T. Edward

Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S., 242

Wace (A. J. B.), Excavations in Thessaly in 1910, 23 ;
Distribution of Early Civilisation in Northern Greece in
Relation to its Geographical Features, 450

Wager (Harold), Chromosome Reduction in the Hymeno-
mycetes, 59 ; the Function and Fate of the Cystidia of
Coprinus, 59 ; Effect of Gravity upon the Movements
and Aggregation of Euglena viridis, Ehrb., and other
Micro-organisms, 126

Wahl (A.), Condensation of Acetic Ester with its Higher
Homologues, 396

Wahnschaffe (F.), Geologische Charakterbilder, ii., Grosse
erratische Blocke im nord-deutschen Flachlande, 402

Wainwright (Mr.), Colour Contrast in Photomicrography,

319

Walcott (Dr. C. D,), Progress of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, 526

Waldo (Fullerton L.), Progress in the Construction of the
Panama Canal, 21

Walker (C. E.), Hereditary Characters and their Modes
of Transmission, 536

Walker (G. W.), an Electrostatic Voltmeter for Photo-
graphic Recording of the Atmospheric Potential, 192 ;
.Accuracy of Time on Magnetograms, 236

Walker-Tisdale (C. W.), the Practice of Soft Cheese-
making, 71
Wallace (Dr. William), Encyclopedia agricole, Pisciculture,

George Gu6naux, 163
Wallach (Prof. Otto), Nobel Prize Awarded to, 82, 213
Waller (Dr. Augustus D., F.R.S.), Physiology the Servant
of Medicine, being the Hitchcock Lectures for 1909
delivered at the University of California, Berkeley, Cal.,
465
Wallis (B. C), the Teaching of Geography, 354
Walpole (G. S.), Action of B. lactis aerogenes on Glucose

and Mannitol, 427
Walsh (Lt.-Col. J. H. Tull), Position of Birds' Nests in

Hedges, 207
Walter (Dr. H. E.), Variation in the Oyster-boring Whelk,

20
Walter (J. C), Stray Leaves on Travel, Sport, Animals,

and Kindred Subjects, 270
Walther (Prof. J.), Lehrbuch der Geologic von Deutsch-

land, 468
Warren (S. Hazzledene), Arctic Plants from the Valley

Gravels of the River Lea, 206
Water, the Volume of the Kilogramme of. Sir T. Edward

Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S., 242
Watney (Miss G. R.), Zonal Classification of the Salopian

Rocks of Cautley and Ravenstonedale, 462
Watson (D. M. S.), Some British Mesozoic Crocodiles,

361, 429
Watson (Dr. Malcolm), Drainage and Malaria, 471
Watt (H. B.), Early Tree Planting in Scotland, 550
Watzl (Dr. Bruno), Veronica prostrata L., Teucrium L.,
und austriaca L. nebst einem anhang iiber deren
nachste verwandte, 267
Wave-lengths, a System of Standard, Prof. Kayser, 151
Wave-stirred Areas, the Limiting Line of Sedimentation

in, A. R. Hunt, 72
Weather Instruments and How to Use Them, D. W.

Horner, 405
Wedd (Mr.), the Geology of the Melton Mowbray District

and South-east Nottinghamshire, 386
Wedderburn (E. M.), Temperature Observations in the
Madiisee (Pomerania), with Mathematical Discussion of
Temperature Oscillations, 261 ; Experimental Verifica-
tion of the Hydrodynamical Theory of Temperature
Seiches, 261
Weed (Mr.), Venomous Toad-fishes of the Genera

Thalassophryne and Thalassothia, 84
Wegner (Richard N.), Homo aurignacensis Hauseri, ein
palasolithischer Skelettfund aus dem unteren Aurignaci-
ender Station Combecapelle bei Montferrand (P^rigord),
H. Klaatsch and O. Hauser, 119; die Aurignac-Rasse
und ihre Stellung in Stammbaum der Menschheit, H.
Klaatsch, 119
Weinberg (M.), Mici-ostructure of Hailstones, 485
Weiss (Prof. F. E.), Some Experiments on the Inherit-
ance of Colour in the Pimpernel, 59 ; Sigillaria and
Stigmariopsis, 361, 429
Weiss (Pierre), New Property of the Magnetic Molecule,
395 ; the Magnitude of Magneton deduced from the
Coefficients of Magnetisation of Solutions of Iron Salts,
565
Welby (Lady), Sir F. Galton and Composite Photography,

474
Welch (Miss E. G.), Zonal Classification of the Salopian

Rocks of Cautley and Ravenstonedale, 462
Welch (Robert), List of the Land and Fresh-water

Mollusca of Ireland, 296
" Wellcome " Photographic Exposure Record and Diary,

the, 1911, 201
Weng (Gustav), Schopenhauer-Darwin : Pessimismus oder

Optimismus, 403
Wenley (Prof. R. M.), Kant and his Philosophical Revolu-
tion, 404
Wessex, the Heart of, S. Heath, 202
West Indies, the Imperial Department of Agriculture in

the, Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., at Royal Colonial

Institute, 418
West Indies, What Science has Done for the. Sir W. T.

Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., 477
West (Prof. G. S.), Remarkable New Species of Volvox

Collected by Mr. Rousselet in Rhodesia, 278

Nature,
March 33, 1911)

Index

xlvii

West (J. A.), Habits of the Common American Mole, 520

Westcott (VV. Wynn), the Extra Pharmacopoeia of Martin-
dale and Westcott, 10 1

Whapham (R. H.). Notes on Applied Mechanics, 537

Wheat : the Milling and Baking Qualities of Indian
Wheat, Albert Howard and Gabrielle L. C. Howard,
249 ; the Influence of Environment on the Milling and
Baking Qualities of Wheat in India, Albert Howard,
H. M. Leake, and Gabrielle L. C. Howard, 249; Wheat
in India, its Production, Varieties, and Improvements,
Albert Howard and L. C. Howard, 249 ; Memorandum
on Indian Wheat for the British Market, Sir James
Wilson, K.C.I.E., 547

Wheat-growing and its Present-day Problems, Dr. E. J.
Russell, 57

Wheeler (G. C), the Tribe, and Intertribal Relations in
Australia, 267

Wheeler (Owen), a Primer of Photography, 332

Whiddington (R.). Production and Properties of Soft
Rontgen Radiation, 564

Whipple (F. J. W.), the Public School Geometry, 167

Whitaker (W., F.R.S.), Worked Flints from the Ipswich
District, ii6

" \Vhite Ants " and other Pests, Protection from. Will
A. Dixon. 270

White (H. J. Osborne), the Geology of the Country around
A Ires ford, 386

White (Miss M.), Results of the Hourly Balloon Ascents
made from the Meteorological Department of the Man-
chester University, March 18-19, *9io» 128

White (Sir William), Relations of Science with Com-
mercial Life, 90

White (Sir William H.. K.C.B., F.R.S.), the John Fritz
Medal Awarded to, 548

Whitman (Dr. Charles Otis), Death of, 244

Who's Who, 191 1, 304

Wiener (Leo), Race known as the Ishmaelites, 549

Wild Flowers of the British Isles, H. Isabel Adams, 134

Willey (Dr. A.), the Southern Division of the Mannar
Pearl-oyster Fishery, 148 ; Ceylonese Drum known as
Udakiya. 344

Williams (A.), Presence of Sanderlings on the Shores of
Dublin Bay throughout July, 116

Williams (A. M.). Experimental Verifications of the
Hvdrodynamical Theory of Temperature Seiches, 261

Williams (A. Stanley), Equatorial Current of Jupiter in
1880, 226

Williams (Dr. William), Death of, 548

Williston (Prof. S. W.), Birthplace of Man in the Light
of PaIa?ontolofifical Record, 247

Willing's Press Guide and .Advertisers' Director}- and Hand-
book, 405

Wilson (.Alfred W. G.), Organisation and Work of the
Department of Mines of Canada, 521

Wilson (David), .Anecdotes of Big Cats and other Beasts.

333

Wilson (Prof. Ernest), New Method for Producing High
Tension Discharges, 96

Wilson (H. .A. F.), Influence of Bacterial Endotoxins on
Phagocytosis, 127

Wilson (Prof. James), the Origin of Dun Horses, 106

Wilson (J. Bowie), the Mount Morgan Ore Deposits,
Queensland, 128

Wilson (Canon J. M.), Two Fragments of .Ancient Geo-
metrical Treatises found in the Worcester Cathedral
Librarv. 38.^

Wilson (W. H.), New Method for Producing High Tension
Discharges, 96

Wilson (Mr. and Mrs.), Recent Fireballs, 150

Wine, .Analysis of, and other Spirituous Liquors, C. Sim-
monds. 433

Winter Whitening in Mammals, Note on. Major G. E. H.
Barrett-Hamilton, 42

Winterstein (Prof. E.), die .Alkaloide, 131

Wireless Telegraphv : Wireless Telegrams direct from
Canada and Massowah, 82 ; Eiffel Tower used for Daily
Transmission of Time-signals to Ocean-going Vessels
bv means of Wireless Telegraphy, 114; Present Position
of Wireless Telegraphy, Dr. Karl Strecker, n8 ; Tele-
phonic and Radio-telegraphic Comparisons of Chrono-
meters bv the Method of Coincidences between Paris and

Brest, MM. Claude. F"erri^, and Driencourt, 161 ; New
Experiments in Stimulation by Shocks in, Br. Glatzel,
227 ; Some Improvements in Transmitters and Receivers
for Wireless Telegraphy, Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S.,
248; Telegraphic Message from the ss. Cedric, 314;
Experiments in Wireless Telegraphy from an Aeroplane,
A. Senouque, 463

Witherby (.Mr.), the Irish Jay, 381

Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm, Twelfth Report of the,
Duke of Bedford, K.G., F.R.S., and S. U. Pickering, 71

Wodehouse (Dr. Helen), the Presentation of Reality, 269

Wolf (Dr. Max), the Spectrum "of the .American Nebula,
282 ; the Total Eclipse of the Moon, November 16, 1910,
319; Nova Lacerta;, 384, 453, 523. 552

Wolffsche Begriffsbestimmungen, Prof. Julius Baumann.

367
WolterstorfF (W.). Naturdenkmalpflcge und Aquarienkunde,

no
Woman, Mating, Marriage, and the Status of. James Corin.

334
Women, the Admission of. to the French Academies, 342,

372
Women of All Nations, 537

Wood (F. E.), Habits of the Common .American Mole, 520
Wood (H. E.), Halley's Comet, 349
Wood (Mrs. H. E.), Mars and its .Atmosphere, 486
Wood (Sir H. Trueman), Industrial England in the Middle

of the Eighteenth Century, 299
Wood (Prof.). Errors of .Agricultural Experiments, 25 ;

Feeding Value of Mangels, 161
Wood-Jones (Dr. F.), the Cocos-Keeling .Atoll, 41, 106,

139; the Archaeological Survey of Nubia, Report on the

Human Remains, 310
Woodcraft for Scouts and Others, O. Jones and M. Wood-
ward, 303
Woodhead (Prof. G. Sims), Practical Pathology. 434
Woods (Mr.), Southern Nebulae, 1552
Woodward (A. M.), Group of Prehistoric Sites Excavated in

South-west Asia Minor, 23
Woodward (Dr. .A. S.), Excavations in the Cavern of La

Cotte, St. Brelade's Bay (Jersey), made during Present

Year by the Jersey Society of .Antiquaries, 261
Woodward (M.), Woodcraft for Scouts and Others. 303
Woodward (Dr. R. S.), the Carnegie Institution of

Washington and its Work, 74
Wootton (.A. C), Chronicles of Pharmacy, 308
Worssell (Mr.), Halley's Comet, 350 ; .Absorbing Matter

in Space, 453
Worthington (Prof. A. M., C.B., F.R.S.), the Markings

of Mars, 372
Worthington (James H.). Markings of Mars. 40
Wratten (Mr.), Colour Contrast in Photomicrographv, 319
Wright (C. H.), Fk>ra of the Falkland Islands. Jo6 '
Wright (C. S."). .Atmosoheric Electricity over the Ocp^n, 462
Wrieht ^Dr. W. H.), Lines in the Spectra of Nebulae, 454 ;

Polarisation in the Spectrum of o Ceti, 486
Writers' and .Artists' Year Book, the, 304
\Vurtz (Dr. Henry), Death of, 146

Yatsu (N.), Germinal Localisation in the Egg of Cere-
bratulus, 5.^0

Yorke (Dr. W.), .Autoagglutination of Red Blood Cells in
Trypanosomiasis, 427

Young (Prof. R. B.), Gold of the Banket Conglomerate
of the Rand Imported, with the Pyrite, after the Deposi-
tion of the Beds, 5j;5 _

Young (Dr. W. H.), the Fourier Constants of a Function,
462

Zach (Dr. F.), Cytological Investigation of Corn Rust, ^45
Zakrzewski (Dr. Const.), Measurements made on the Dis-
persion of Metallic Bodies in the Visible Spectrum, 179-
180
Zammit (T.), Neolithic Interment Discovered between

.Attard and Nobile, 24^
Zdarskv (.A.), Miocene Mammalia of Loeben, 285
Zenneck fProf. J.), Fixation of .Atmospheric Nitrogen, 556
Ziegler (Prof. Heinrich Ernst), der Begriff des Instinktes

einst und jetzt. 539
Zimmer (Dr. Carl), Unleitung zur Beobachtung der
Vogelwelt, 502

xlviii

Index

Nature ,
March, 23, ,1911

Zoology: Faune des Mamniif^res d 'Europe, Prof. E. L.
Trouessart, 3 ; British Mammals, Major G. E. H.
Barrett-Hamilton, 6 ; New Antelope, Tragelaphus
buxtoni, Mr. Lydekker, 19 ; Egrets formerly Common
in England, F. J. Stubbs, 20; Origin of Dun Horses,
Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S., 40; Prof. James Wilson,
106; Dun Coat Colour in the Horse, J. B. Robertson,
138 ; the Cocos-Keeling Atoll, Rev. E. C. Spicer, 41 ;
F. Wood-Jones, 41, 106, 139; the Reviewer, 42, 106;
Madge W. Drummond, 107, 206 ; Note on Winter
Whitening in Mammals, Major G. E. H. Barrett-
Hamilton, 42 ; Certain Teeth from a Cavern in Cuba,
Dr. F. Ameghino, 48 ; Place of Economic Zoology in a
Modern University, Prof. Hickson, 48 ; Death of A. E.
Brown, 82; Are Mules Fertile?, Prof. J. C. Ewart,
F.R.S., 106; Specimens of Beaked Whales (Ziphiidae)
in the United States National Museum, F. W. True, 116;
Zoology in the Indian Empire, 122; Mimicry in Ceylon
Butterflies, Prof. Punnett, 122; Pipe-fishes, Syngnathida;,
from Rivers of Ceylon, George Duncker, 122 ; New
Genus of Psychodid Diptera from the Himalaya and
Travancore, Dr. Annandale, 122 ; Larvae of a Common
Calcutta Mosquito, known as Toxorhynchites ini-
misericors, C. A. Pavia, 122 ; a Monograph of the British
Nudibranchiate MoUusca, with Figures of the Species,
Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M.G., 133 ; Echinoderma of the
Indian Museum, Prof. Ren^ Koehler, 134; Experiments
on the Occurrence of the Web-foot Character in
Pigeons, J. Lewis Bonhote, 160; Lacerta pelo-
ponnesiaca, Bibr., G. A. Boulenger, 160; Zoological
Society, 160, 226, 295 ; Systematic Position of the
Species of Squalodon and Zeuglodon described from
Australia and New Zealand, T. S. Hall, 160 ; Battle for
Existence in the Madrepores of Coral Reefs. Ch. Gravier,
161-2 ; the Song of the Siamang Gibbon, R. I. Pocock,
170; New Species of Peripatus, Dr. R. Horst. 177;
Reptiles of the World, Tortoises and Turtles, Crocodiles,
Lizards, and Snakes of the Eastern and Western Hemi-
spheres, R. L. Ditmars, 196 ; Morphological Method and
the Ancestry of Vertebrates, Prof. J. Graham Kerr,
F.R.S., 203 ; a Monograph of the Okapi, Sir E. Ray

Lankester, K.C.B., F.R.S., and Dr. W. G. Ridewooil
Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 209; Sir R.ix
Lankestcr's Book on the Okapi, Sir K. Ray Lankcst* 1
K.C.B., F.R.S., 305: Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.(.
K.C.B., 306; the Alimentary Tract of Certain Bird-
and on the Mesenteric Relations of the Intestinal Looj)-
F. E. Beddard, 226 ; Development of Solaster endecu
Forbes, Dr. J. F. Gemmill, 226; Guide to the Briti>i
Vertebrates Exhibited in the Department of Zoology,
British Museum (Natural History), 234 ; Death of Dr.
Charles Otis Whitman, 244 ; the Encyclopadia of .Sport
and Games, 274 ; Medus;e of the World, Alfred Golds-
borough Mayer, 285 ; Mammals of the Tenth Edition of
Linnaeus, Oldfield Thomas, 295 ; Report of the Inter-
national Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, Dr.
W. E. Hoyle, 295; Anecdotes of Big Cats and other
Beasts, David Wilson, 333 ; the Life Story of a Tiger,
Lt.-Col. A. F. Mockler-Ferryman, 333 ; Anton Dohrn,
Gedachtnisrede gehalten auf den Internationalcn Zoologen-
Kongress in Graz am 18 August, 19 10, Prof. Th. Boveri,
334 ; Murrayona phanolepis, a New Type of Sponge from
Christmas Island, Indian Ocean, Dr. R. Kirkpatrick,
345 ; Unio picioruni, U. tutnidus, and Onodonta cygnea,
Margaret C. March, 361, 429 ; Anatomy and Develop-
ment of the Marsupialia, J. J. Flynn, 362 ; Animals for
the Zoological Gardens at Giza, Capt. Stanley Flower,
381 ; Non-calcareous Sponges from the Red Sea,
R. W. H. Row, 395 ; Leitfaden fur das zoologische
Praktikum, Prof. Willy Kukenthal, 400 ; Index to
Desor's Synopsis des Echinides Fossiles, Dr. F. A.
Bather, F.R.S., 404; the Transference of Names in
Zoology, Dr. W. T. Caiman, 406 ; Protozoa Parasitic
in the Large Intestine of Australian Frogs, Janet W.
Raff, 430 ; New York Zoological Park, 450 ; Guide to
the Crustacea, Arachnida, Onychophora, and Myriopoda
Exhibited in the Department of Zoology, British Museum
(Natural History), 505 ; the Woodlice of Ireland, their
Distribution and Classification, D. R. Pack-Beresford
and Nevin H. Foster, 531 ; a Text-book of Zoologv,
Prof. T. J. Parker, F.R.S., and Prof. W. A. Haswell,
F.R.S., Prof. F. W. Gamble, F.R.S., 533

A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

'* To the solid ground
Of Xature trusts the mind which builds for aye." Wordsworth.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1910.

THEORETICAL MECHANICS.
Cours de Mecaniqiie Rationelle et Experimentale,
specialement ecrit pour les physiciens et les in-
genieurs, conforme au programme du certificat de
mecaniqiie rationelle. By Prof. H. Bouasse. Pp.
692. (Paris : Ch. Delagrave, n.d.) Price 20 francs.

A NOTICEABLE feature of this treatise on
theoretical mechanics is the large number of
practical examples discussed. The majority of these
are of a physical rather than an engineering char-
acter, some of them dealing with physical apparatus.
Investigations of oscillations under various conditions
occupy a considerable part of the book. The author
claims mechanics as a branch of phvsics, the first
diapter of physics, and aims at supplying a treatise
of the kind which is likely to be useful to those whose
interest in the subject depends on its applications to
practical physical questions. He protests against the
unpractical character of the French treatises on the
subject written b}' mathematicians, and of the ques-
tions asked in examinations.

To a considerable extent the book fulfils its aim.
It contains a great deal of information (including some
Useful fragments of mathematics connected only inci-
dentally with mechanics), and it is for the most part
written in a pleasant, lucid style, slightly marred by
occasional eccentricities. As much of the theor\- is
included as is generally needed for practical use, no
attempt being made to restrict the use of mathe-
matical methods. There are, however, some slips.
An important one, which should puzzle a reader un-
acquainted with the subject, occurs in the investiga-
tion of Euler's equations. Occasionally also the
methods adopted are clumsy or unduly ponderous.

A case of ponderous treatment of theory occurs in
so simple a matter as the investigation of the com-
position of angular velocities. The author hints at
reasons, not fullv explained, which appear to him to
make it desirable, " in order to avoid all difficulty,"
to derive the composition of angular velocities from
the study of a succession of finite angular displace-
NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

ments. He goes on to discuss the theor\^ of this at

considerable length, a rather tiresome procedure.

Now the meaning of the composition of simul-
taneous motions is not a very easy thing to under-
stand, and ought to be a matter for clear definition.
Without a definition, expressed or implied, it is un-
intelligible. Prof. Bouasse does not give a definition
of it, but he implies that the resultant motion
is to be calculated from the limiting case
of successive displacements when these are
small. Such a method of treatment is not un-
common, but surelv the method afforded by the con-
sideration of relative motions taking place simul-
taneously is preferable. In the case of angular
velocities, the mounting of a body in gimbals provides
the mechanism which is needed for a clear conception
of the composition, the angular velocity of the body
being the resultant of its angular velocity relative to
an intermediate base and the angular velocit}.- of this
base relative to the final one. The difference between
the two methods of treatment is not solely one of
style. The resultant is given by either method, and
an experienced reader would pay no attention to any
other feature of the arrangement adopted. But in-
experienced readers, for whom the more elementary-
parts of a book like this must be intended, might
reasonably be puzzled by perceiving that successive
displacements do not give results identical in all re-
spects with what is proposed. The path of a point of
the moving body remains a zigzag up to the limit, and
if the length of this path were the thing to be cal-
culated the method of successive displacements would
not give a correct result. If the limit of successive
displacements is to be regarded as the definition of
the composition, it ought to be a correct method for
calculating everything about the motion.

It might be expected that a professor of physics,
who regards mechanics as a branch of his subject,
would give some attention in detail to the physical
laws which form the basis of his calculations. Our
author, however, frankly ridicules the idea of ques-
tioning the truth of them, and does not even take the
trouble to state them correctly. He professes to deal
with the subject from the beginning, but any reader

B

NATURE

[November 3, 1910

who had no previous knowledge of it would be be-
wildered. No pure mathematician could be more
careless as to what the equations which he desires to
write down are based upon, or show less interest in
the question whether the results to which they lead
are verified. Moreover, he does not explicitly refer
to the base, relative to which the motions studied are
reckoned, according to the theory which he is using,
or appear to take any interest in the remarkable fact
that the observed motions of bodies define such a
base, which presumably has some relation to other
physical phenomena. The only occasion on which he
attempts to deal with the foundations of the subject
is in connection with the law of action and reaction
in statics, the treatment of which is clumsy and un-
convincing-, perhaps even unintelligible.

As in tne case of the rest of physics, there are two
ways of looking at mechanics, each of which has its
own proper place. One is to regard all parts of the
subject as coordinated by means of a generalisation
which is as comprehensive as possible. The
other is to aim rather at isolating the points
involved in the subject, so that any degree of inde-
pendence which they possess may be recognised, and
so that it may as much as possible be seen how far
the most precisely ascertained results carry us, and
whether a doubt cast on any particular doctrine
affects the whole foundation of the subject or
not. Though the attainment of the former is the
constant aim of scientific study, the latter is the
proper attitude in which to approach it, and it seems
to be a mistake to write the first chapter of physics in
a different spirit. W. H. M,

CANNIZZARO'S COURSE OF CHEMICAL
PHILOSOPHY.

Sketch of a Course of Chemical Philosophy. By
Stanislao Cannizzaro (1858). Alembic Club re-
prints. No. 18. Pp. iv + 55. (Edinburgh: The
Alembic Club, 19 10.)

Tp"HE Alembic Club have done well at this juncture
J- to publish a translation of Cannizzaro's famous
letter to De Luca — a letter which, to use Davy's
phrase in connection with an equally memorable pro-
nouncement, acted like an alarm-bell on Europe. In-
deed, now that he has joined the majority, no more
fitting monument to the perspicacity and genius of
the great Italian chemist could be conceived than the
publication, in the form of an admirably executed
translation, of that statement of doctrine which
astonished and ultimately convinced the chemical
world of the mid-Victorian epoch.

To the chemists of the present age it is hardly
possible to convey an idea of the profound sensation
which this letter created. The effect was immediate
and irresistible. At that time the name of Canniz-
zaro was hardlv known beyond a limited circle of
French and Italian men of science. With the appear-
ance of the message came the conviction that a
Daniel had come to judgment — that a prophet and a
law-giver had arisen amongst us. The middle period
of the last century was a time of political ferment
NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

and social unrest, and here and there it culminated ii
revolution. It was equally a period of disturbanci
and upset in other spheres of human activity than
politics and sociology. In chemistry, more perhaps
than in the case of any other science at that time, the
old order was changing, but the process was destruc-
tive rather than constructive. Old faiths were being
undermined and thrown down, but the new dogmas
had not stability enough to supplant them.

Cannizzaro's letter appeared at what, in the cant-
phrase, is termed the psychological moment. It
brought order, method, and arrangement into what
hitherto had been a mass of inconsistency and con-
tradiction. Its logic was so clear, its appeal to history
and to well-ascertained fact so irrefutable, its state-
ment of proof so admirably marshalled, that criticism
was silenced, and the doubter disarmed. Before a
decade had passed its principles were everywhere
accepted, and it is not too much to say that Canniz-
zaro_ effected a revolution in chemical thought as
momentous in its way as the revolution he was sub-
sequently concerned in bringing about in the political
development of Italy.

To the student of chemistry it would be superfluous
to enter into an analysis of Cannizzaro's letter, as
its principles are now intimately woven into the web
of modern chemical doctrine. Indeed, so indissolubly
associated is the fundamental basis of Cannizzaro's
chemical philosophy with the chemical philosophy of
to-day that the statement of these principles, or of
the course of argument upon which they are based,
would have the semblance of a platitude. But we can
assure the student that, however familiar he may be
with the outcome of the doctrine with which the name
of Cannizzaro will be imperishably connected, he will
read with admiration and delight the pronunciamento
in which the Genoese chemist makes known to his
friend and colleague, and through him to the world,
the dogma of what was henceforth to be the new-
chemistry — with admiration for the extraordinary per-
spicacity and conviction of its argument, and with
delight at the simplicity and force of its statement.

T.

PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES.

Fruit Tree Pruning. A Practical Text-book for Fruit-
growers working under the Climatic and Econoinic
Conditions prevailing in Temperate Australia. By
George Quinn. Pp. vi + 230. (Adelaide, Australia:
R. E. E. Rogers, Acting Government Printer, 1910.)
Price IS. 3d.

THE pruning of fruit trees is an operation that de-
mands, on the part of the operator, first, an inti-
mate knowledge of the natural habits of the particular
trees, and, in the second place, considerable experience
of the general results which follow a proper system
of pruning. Unfortunately, every gardener and
amateur who cultivates ever so few trees gets the
conviction that, come what will, he must prune, and, if
he is ignorant of the methods, nevertheless he
mutilates the branches and imagines that his trees
will respond satisfactorily to the treatment given

J

November 3, 19 10]

NATURE

them. In these circumstances it is not to be wondered
at if the value of pruning in any form or degree
has come to be questioned by certain fruit-growers
and experimentalists, who have had very little diffi-
'.ttter to expose all parts of the tree to the sun and
t diminishing the crop.

It still remains incontrovertible, however, that young
trees are benefited by a moderate degree of pruning
if this is carried out by intelligent operators possessing
rhe knowledge and experience necessary for the task.

ach pruning is necessary for forming a proper
■ oundation for the tree, for the removal of cross-
branches, and the thinning out of the centre in order
to better expose all parts of the tree to the sun and
air.

This volume, prepared by the horticultural in-

ructor for the Department of Agriculture, South
vustralia, under the direction of the Hon. Minister
: Agriculture, is issued for the purpose of teaching
the technique of pruning to fruit-growers having to
work under the climatic and economic conditions
prevailing in temperate Australia. The author's quali-
fications for teaching are clearly shown in his sensible
and pertinent remarks upon the facts on which the
l.eory of pruning is based, and his description of the
bjects the pruner seeks to obtain. Having instructed
the reader in these matters, he describes the opposite
effects of winter and summer pruning, the parts
of a tree, and their different values ; also the
forms of tree to be encouraged, and the best means
of developing fruit-bearing wood in place of foliaceous
but barren branches. He n(.'Xt passes to a descrip-
tion of the specific treatment of different kinds of
fruit, including apricot, plum, cherry, almond, peach,
apple, pear, quince, fig, orange, lemon, and loquat.

There are 200 illustrations from photographs, most
of these being valuable as a means of explaining the
text, but others are inferior, and their omission would
not have detracted from the appearance of the volume.

UNCONSCIOUS MEMORY.
Unconscious Metnory. By Samuel Butler. New
edition. With an Introduction by Prof. Marcus
Hartog. Pp. xxxvii+186. (London: A. C. Fifield,
Clifford's Inn, E.C., 1910.) Price 5^. net.
TT is probable that Butler will live in history as the
-*• writer of " Erewhon," but his more serious works,
dealing with what may be called the philosophical
side of biology, are still worth reading, and Mr.
Fifield's re-issue will be welcomed by many. The
volume under review consists partly of rather personal
polemic against Darwin, and partly of a further de-
velopment of Butler's views as expressed in his " Life
and Habit." These views may be summarised as
follows.

It is a fact of hourly observation that practice makes
things easy which once were difficult (e.g., the play-
ing of a sonata), and even results in their being done
without consciousness of effort. It follows that the
fact of an intricate action being done unconsciously
is an argument for the supposition that it must have
been done repeatedly already. Now take the case of
NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

a newly-hatched chicken, which pecks at once and
perfectly. How is this? It is because something in
the chicken remembers having pecked before, and
consequently knows how to do it. An individual is
not a new being ; it — or part of it — has existed in the
bodies of its parents. Thus heredity is memory.
Cells remember what they have done before, and
know how to do it again.

This, followed to its conclusion, involves the attri-
bution of some kind of intelligence even to atoms.
Indeed, we can hardly avoid it. Atoms have their
likes and dislikes. Carbon and oxygen are sociable,
fluorine is reserved and stand-offish. " The distinc-
tion between inorganic and organic is arbitrary."
(This view is closely akin to that of Haeckel.) All
action is purposive and intelligent. When an organ-
ism develops a new quality, it is because the organism
has felt the need of it. Evolution is therefore
teleological from within ; differentiation of species,
and variations of all kinds, are not entirely due (or
as much as Charles Darwin supposed) to natural
selection. Here Butler follows Buffon, Lamarck, and
Erasmus Darwin.

Mr. G. Bernard Shaw has said that Butler was, in
his department, the greatest English writer of the
latter half of the nineteenth century; and, though
he was only a dilettante, it is surprising how
illuminating and suggestive his ideas seem, even now,
thirtv or forty years after first publication. It is note-
worthy that Dr. Francis Darwin quoted him with
special approbation in his presidential address before
the British Association in 1908.

Prof. Marcus Hartog furnishes a useful introduc-
tion, discussing Butler's whole work and his place
in the history of science.

The first edition of " Unconscious Memory " was
reviewed in Nature, January 27, 1881.

THE MAMMALS OF EUROPE.
Faiine des Mammiferes d'Europe. By Prof E.-L.
Trouessart. Pp. xvii + 266. (Berlin: R. Fried-
lander and Sohn, 1910.) Price 12 marks.
IN issuing an up-to-date descriptive catalogue of the
mammals of Europe Prof. Trouessart has conferred
a real and lasting benefit on zoological science, sincj.
owing to the great increase of species and races du
to modern methods of discrimination, the well-known
work of Blasius has long been practically useless.
Indeed, if the two works be compared, it might at
first sight be difficult to believe that they treat of the
same subject, so great has been the increase in the
last few vears in the number of recognisably distinct
forms, and so extensive the changes in nomenclature.
Nowadays views differ — and will probably continue to
differ — SiS to the limitations of species and races; but
Dr. Trouessart appears inclined in most cases to use
the former term in the most restricted sense. Justify-
ing himself in doubtful instances by the dictum of
Desmarest that " il est plus misable de trop reunir que
de trop diviser," he might, if we remember rightly,
have supported an opposite view by a statement of
Huxley to the effect that it is more important to re-

NATURE

[November 3, 1910

cognise resemblances than to overlook differences;
and in the excessive multiplication of genera and
species (as distinct from division into races) there is
undoubtedly a great danger of losing sight of mutual
affinities.

As instances of this multiplication, reference may
be made to the specific separation of the Irish from
the Scotch hare, of the Scotch from the English wild
cat, and of the British from the Continental water-
rats. On the other hand, the British squirrel is re-
garded merely as a local race of the Continental
species, a classification difficult to reconcile with that
adopted in the case of the species just mentioned.
Whatever may be individual views on such matters, we
venture to think that most naturalists will agree in
objecting to the principle of introducing the names
of one or more species between those of the typical
form and the races of another, as is done in the case
of the wild cats. In regard to generic grouping, it
may be mentioned that, in the case of mice, the
long-tailed species appears as Mus sylvaticus, and the
harvest-mouse as Apodemus minutus, whereas the
latter (if generic spHtting be adopted), should be
Micromys tninutus, and the former Apodemus
sylvaticus. The weasels, again, are included in the same
genus as the polecats, from which they are sundered
by many modern naturalists. As regards the distri-
bution of the European fauna, the author recognises
four distinct areas, viz., Central European, Arctic,
Eastern or Steppe, and African or Mediterranean.

While congratulating Dr. Trotiessart on the com-
pletion of a laborious task, we may take the oppor-
tunity of mentioning that his work strongly em-
phasises and confirms a reply the present writer was
compelled to make some months ago to Dr. A. R.
Wallace, namely, that to give, even approximately,
the number of species of mammals inhabiting the
various zoological provinces is, under present con-
ditions, an absolute impossibility. It is very largely
a case of "go as you please." R. L.

THE SCIENCE OF PATHOLOGY.
The Principles of Pathology. By Prof. J. G. Adami,
F.R.S., and Prof. A. G. Nicholls, F.R.S. (Can.).
Vol. II., Systemic Pathology. Pp. xvi+1082.
London: Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton,
1910.) Price 305. net.

THIS second volume of Prof. Adami 's great work
on the science of pathology deals with systemic
pathology-^the pathology of the individual tissues and
organs of the body, or special pathology, as it is often
termed^ — and has been written in conjunction with his
colleague, Prof. Nicholls. In the preface the authors
offer an (unneeded) apology for the bulkiness of the
first voluiTbe on general pathology (reviewed in Nature
of November 25, 1909, vol. Ixxxii., p. 94), and the
relative brevity of this second volume, for many would
consider that special pathology requires at least double
the space devoted to general pathology. They point
W't, howevfer, that, provided the student has acquired
a good grasp of general pathology, he has but to apply

no". 2140, VOL. 85]

those principles in order to become possessed of a
sound basis of special pathology, a proposition with
which we are in complete agreement.

But for the inclusion, therefore, of the pathology of
the blood and cardio-vascular system, and also of the
disorders of function as well as of structure of the
various organs, even the present volume might have
been curtailed in length. At the same time, we think
that this attempt at brevity has in some cases been
carried too far, and although the subjects may have
been dealt with at length in the first volume on general
pathology, some repetition would not have been out
of place. As instances, we may mention the
bare reference to diabetes in the section dealing with
the pancreas, and the omission of blackwater fever
as a disease in which haemoglobinuria occurs. Other-
wise, we confess we have found little to criticise, and
the work gives a very full and accurate account of the
subject.

Each organ is dealt with on a systematic plan ; first
a brief summary of its developmental history, ana-
tomical structure and physiological functions, followed
by a description of the congenital and acquired abnor-
malities, circulatory disturbances, inflammations and
parasitic Infections, and retrogressive and progressive
metamorphoses to which it may be subject. In the
division devoted to the blood and cardio-vascular
system, the sections dealing with leukaemia seem some-
what brief in view of the importance of the subject,
and no mention is made of cases of the lymphatic
variety in which the total number of leucocytes is not
markedly increased, but in which nearly all the leuco-
cytes present are lymphocytes. In the section dealing
with pernicious anaemia also no mention is made of
the almost invariable leucopenia present, a point of
considerable diagnostic importance in the numerous
cases in which the blood picture is not typical. In
discussing the origin of oedema, the authors hold that
the facts demand the assumption (with Heidenhain)
that the lymphatic and capillary endothelium is en-
dowed with a certain grade of selective secretory
activity.

In the section dealing with the diseases of the nose
it is surely not expedient to refer to the common
polvpus as a "poljp," a term which now has a more
or less definite zoological signification.

We congratulate the authors heartily on the com-
pletion of their labours; the work is not a mere com-
pilation, but is the outcome of a ripe personal know-
ledge of the subject. Divergent views are stated fairly,
and if the authors' views do not always agree with
those current, the reasons are given, and they merit
careful consideration.

The book is profusely illustrated with plates and
figures (some coloured), drawn or photographed directly
from patients, specimens, and sections, which are
admirably reproduced. We think it a mistake, how-
ever, not to have given the magnification of the photo-
micrographs ; simply to state, as is done, the lenses
with which the photographs were taken does not
sufficiently indicate the magnification of the object
depicted.

November 3, 1910]

NATURE

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Household Foes. A Book for Boys and Girls. By
Alice Ravenhill. Pp. xxiii + 359. (London : Sidg-
wick and Jackson, Ltd., 1910.J Price 2s. 6d.

Miss Ravenhill has written this small work with the
bject of arousing the interests of boys and girls in
:\e practice of daily domestic cleanliness, and at the
ime time of furnishing them with reasons for this
: actice. She also aims at indicating the links which
.aould be made to connect school lessons with home
habits, and prominence is given to the value of good
habits and to the necessity for their constant daily
practice. She directs attention to the broad educa-
tional value of the subject of '"hygiene," in exercising
observation and reason, and in cultivating the habit
of tracing effects to their causes. The text of most
: the chapters is "dirt"— the dirt of home surround-
;.gs, of air, water, and food; and at the end of each
chapter references are given to works in which the
subject-matter may be further studied and developed,
ore especiallv on the practical and experimental
de. Young people are slow to learn that there are
no rights apart from responsibilities, which in this
connection include duties to self, to home, to com-
munitv, to empire, and to race; it is well, therefore,
that Miss Ravenhill devotes her two concluding
chapters to "the citizen's power to control dirt, decay,
and disease," and "imperial safeguards against dirt
and disease."

Hygiene has gradually found a footing in the
elementary school code ; but one cannot hope, for
some years to come, to get the best results of this
teaching and training, for the reason that school
teachers as a body do not possess the necessar^f know-
ledge to enable them to present the subject with judg-
ment and discrimination. This small work well
serves as a ven,- useful guide to them, and to this end
it is perhaps the best statement hitherto published,
for the essential facts are dealt with in an appropriate
and impressive manner, and the book contains little
(if anything) which is unsuitable or unnecessary, while
the authoress tells practically all that it is necessary
to tell. A child with the elementary- knowledge of
hygiene which Miss Ravenhill seeks to convey, and
trained to act in accordance with its precepts, should
be well equipped from the standpoint of hygiene. The
book may be confidently recommended to all those
parents and teachers who are concerned with the
. education of the young.

History of Chennstrw By Sir Edward Thorpe, C.B.,
F.R.S. Vol. i.. From the Earliest Times to the
Middle of the Nineteenth Century. Pp. viii+148.
Vol. ii.. From 1850 to 1910. Pp. viii+152. (Issued
for the Rationalist Press Association, Ltd.)
(London : Watts and Co., 1909 and 19 10.) Price
\s. net each volume.

Sir Edward Thorpe, who has enriched chemical
literature with so many valuable biographical contri-
butions, has added greatly to our indebtedness bv the
publication of these two' small volumes of chemical
histor}-. In method and st\le thev follow the emin-
ently readable work of Thomas Thomson, which has
been so long out of print, and in many respects out
of date, and the modern student is now' supplied with
a brief history- of chemistr>% which is well within his
intellectual and material means, and cannot fail
to add greatly to the interest of his studies. The
divorce of historical and other human interest from the
study of science, resulting from our examination svstem,
is greatly to be deplored. It gives good ground for the
allegations of ariditv so often made against scientific
teaching and scientific text-books, and it deprives the
NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

student of much that would aid him in the comprehen-
sion of modern chemical theory. It is to be hoped
that these volumes will have a very wide circulation,
and that students may be encouraged to proceed to
study some of the works which are indicated in the
appended bibliographies.

The first volume, beginning with the chemistr>- of
the ancients, brings the reader to the early part of
the nineteenth centur\-, whilst the second volume
follows the subject to the present day. This last
volume is naturally highly compressed, but, like the
first, it bears the imprint of a master-hand in the
exact and readable presentation of chemical history.
A series of admirable portraits is inserted throughout
the work. A. S.

A Course of Elementary Science, Practical and De-
scriptive. By John Thornton. Pp. vi + 216.
(London : Longmans and Co., 1910.) Price 25.

This book, which contains chapters on measurement,
mechanics, and heat, is intended by the author for
junior pupils who are attending class and laboratory
instruction. As the title implies, it is partly descrip-
tive and partly practical in character. After perusing
the book one is led to the conclusion that the author
has not a very wide acquaintance with physics or
much experience of up-to-date laboratory methods.
The book has the characteristic of those many manuals
on this subject which appeared so hurriedly ten or
twelve years ago. The language is often loose, e.g.
p. i;^, Expt. I, "Draw a large circle on a sheet of
cardboard and divide it into degrees." On p. 29 the
author states that results need not be carried beyond
the second decimal place as a rule. In determining
quantities in the laboratory' where the final result is
obtained by arithmetical operations on quantities
actually measured, it is the degree of accuracy with
which these several quantities are measured that
determines the number of significant figures in the
final answer. Such examples as Expt. 11, p. 35 : —
Weight of lead in air, 17 oz. ; weight of lead in water.
155 oz. ; specific gravity, ii'3 ; or the example on
p. 41 : — 3ooo/o'8.; = 35294 c.c, are ill-chosen. On
p. 131 we are told that the steel rails of a tram line
have a small space left between their ends, when
laid, to allow for expansion. How many observant
boys have looked for such spaces and failed to find
them? On p. 144 it is stated that water expands
regularly from CM-dinan,' air temperature to 100° C.

The Brooks Patent T-square Lock. (Letch worth,
Herts : W^m. J. Brooks and Co.) Prices 45. 6d. and
55. 6d.
This very useful adjunct to the ordinary- T-square
is one of the best of the devices which have recently
been introduced to facilitate the work of the draughts-
man, and it will be much appreciated by all who are
engaged in mechanical and architectural drawing.
The contrivance is simple in character, moderate in
price, and well made, and is designed so as to be
readily attachable to any existing square, no altera-
tion of the drawing board being required. By its use
the T-square, without loss of freedom, is instantly
locked in any desired position on the board, thus
freeing both the hands of the operator. The lock
may be put out of action at will, and the T-square
manipulated in the ordinary manner. The " lock "
attachment will be found extremely serviceable when
used with a board which rests horizontally, as on a
table, but when the board is much inclined or is
vertical, the employment of this or a similar device is
indispensable. There are many teachers who might
with great advantage utilise this apparatus for black
board work.

NATURE

[November 3, 1910

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 ^oiher /)art o/ Nature.
No notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

Helium and Geological Time.

In Nature of October 27 (p. 543) a short notice appears
relative to some experiments of Prof. A. Piutti, of Naples,
on the occlusion of helium from the air by salts in
the act of solidification. Prof. Piutti apparently considers
his results as throwing doubt on the figures which I have
given for the age of different geological formations from
the accumulation of helium in them. I wish to give my
reasons for dissenting from this criticism.

In the first place, it is not clear from Prof. Piutti's
description that the gases extracted from his solidified
salts contain any more helium than normal atmospheric
air. He has not attempted to show, if I understand his
description rightly, that there is any selective absorption
of helium in preference to the other atmospheric gases ;
nor is it at all likely that such a selective absorption
exists, for we have no knowledge of chemical affinity
between helium and other gases, while, in respect of
solubility, it would probably be inferior to them. Again,
on account of its low molecular weight, it would, if any-
thing, be better able to escape from mechanical retention.
But the gases from minerals are in practically all cases
many times richer in helium than is atmospheric air.
Mere retention of air cannot therefore account for any
appreciable proportion of, the helium found.

There remains the question, also alluded to by Prof.
Piutti, of whether helium can have been absorbed from
any source in the interior of the earth. I have already
discussed this question, as regards igneous rocks, in Proc.
Roy. Soc, A, vol. Ixxxiii., p. 298. As regards the bulk
of the rock, it is impossible to exclude such an origin, and
I have carefully avoided drawing conclusions which might
be vitiated by it. My inferences have been drawn from
minerals like zircon and sphene, which are immensely
rnore radio-active than the rock in general, and immensely
richer in. helium. It is without plausibility to assume that
the excess of helium in these has any extraneous origin.

R. J. Strutt.

Imperial College of Science, South Kensington.

Pwdre Ser.

On my return from a field season beyond the reach of
periodicals, I have just seen, for the first time, Prof.
McKenny Hughes's article on " Pwdre Ser" in Nature
of June 23, and the correspondence relating thereto in the
succeeding numbers. It may interest your readers to
know that a substance of this sort was found by Mr.
Rufus Graves (at one time lecturer on chemistry In' Dart-
mouth College) at Amherst, Mass., on August 14, 1819,
and by him identified with a luminous meteor which had
been seen to fall at that spot on the previous evening.
His report of the occurrence appeared in the American
Journal of Science, vol. ii., pp. 335-7, 1820. The mass
of jelly was circular, about 8 inches in diameter and
about I inch thick. It was of a bright buff colour, and
covered with a " fine nap similar to that on milled cloth."
The interior was soft, of an insufferable odour, and
liquefied on exposure to the air. Some of this liquid was
allowed to stand in an open glass for a few days, when
it had entirely evaporated, leaving only a small quantity
of a " fine ash-coloured powder without taste or smell,"
which effervesced strongly with sulphuric acid, but not
with nitric nor hydrochloric.

Mr. Graves's account was noted by Arago in the Annal.
de Chimie, vol. xix., pp. 67-9 (182 1), who quoted also
several similar occurrences cited in earlier chronicles. It
is probable, of course, that Mr. Graves was mistaken in
his identification, that the meteor actually fell at some
other point, and that the jelly was confused therewith :
only because no other unusual substance was found at the ;
point where the meteor was supposed to have fallen. Mr. j
Graves himself considered that there was " no reasonable

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

doubt that the substance found was the residuum of the
meteoric body," but the evidence which he states is hardly
satisfactory to the modern, more critical inquirer.

It seems probable that these jellies are, in general,
Plasmodia of some form or forms of Myxomycetes, and
that their common identification with falling stars may
have its basis in the frequent recurrence of this error into
which Mr. Graves seems to have been led. It is well
known that visual estimates of the distance of falling
stars are almost invariably far too low. If, then, an un-
trained observer of a meteor goes next morning to the
near-by place where he thought he saw the body fall, and
finds there no unusual body excepting one of these Plas-
modia, the jelly and the meteor are almost sure to be
associated in his mind. Especially is this probable, since
the Plasmodia, in general (at least in my experience), have
the appearance of having fallen on the grass rather than
of having grown there. Edward E. Free.

United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau
of Soils, Washington, D.C., October 17.

On Hydrogen in Iron.

At the recent meeting of the British Association at
Sheffield, Sir Norman Lockyer referred to the relationship
Between hydrogen and iron at stellar temperatures. Some
observations of mine, made several years ago, are of
interest in this connection. I also note that at the recent
meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, in a discussion
on the influence of carbon in iron, it was suggested that
the gases known to be present should also receive
attention.

Iron contains ten times its volume of hydrogen, and in
many instances 20 volumes of hydrogen ; even 100 has
been noted. Iron therefore contains from about 0-013 to
0-026 per cent, of hydrogen, 100 volumes equalling 0-13 per
cent., all deemed important in metal with like proportions
of carbon and sulphur and phosphorus. It is now fully
admitted that hydrogen hardens iron, and should there-
fore be estimated: i gram frozen H, ice = 7-2 c.c,
0-1=0-72 c.c. I note also iron=i c.c. =7-2 gram iron.
II 1 1 c.c. of solid H = i/io gram in 100 iron =14-4 c.c. =
7 grams per 1000 c.c, and 1000 ordinary pressure = only
0-08961 gram. The figures quoted are apparently in
accordance with the periodic law, series 1-7.

As regards the above, more might be said if space
permitted. John Parry.

October 19.

Research Defence Society.

In connection with the cases of plague in Suffolk, let
me say that this societ}^ has lately published an illustrated
pamphlet, on "Plague in India, Past and Present," by
Lieut. -Colonel Bannerman, director of the Bombay
Bacteriological Laboratory. It gives a full account of the
experiments which proved that fleas carry the plague from
rats to man ; it also gives a full account of Haffkine's
preventive treatment, and of the many thousands of lives
which have been saved by this treatrnent. I am sorry that
th.' Research Defence Society cannot afford to give away
this pamphlet in large quantities, but I shall be happy to
send it to any of your readers who will send me seven
stamps. I shall also be happy to send copies, on sale or
return, to all booksellers.

Stephen Paget.
(Hon. Secretary Research Defence Society.)

21 Ladbroke Square, London, W.

British Mammals.

I AM grateful for your reviewer's good wishes for the
success of my book (Nature, October 20). He writes
that he has only one fault to find, namely, that a paper
of Dr. K. .Andersen's dealing with the authority for the
names Nyctalus noctula and N. leisleri is not mentioned
anywhere. I beg to state that the title of this paper is
given on p. 53. It could not be cited in the synonymy, as
the. names Nyctalus noctula and N. leisleri do not actually
occur in it. In fact, I believe that my book is the first in
which these names occur.

G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton.

November

J'

1910]

NATURE

THE OCEANOGRAPHICAL MUSEUM AT
MONACO.

IN the history' of the development of the study of
the sea all the sciences find an application, 'and
nil were worthily represented at the inauguration of
:he Oceanographical Museum of Monaco on March
^q of this year. The ceremonies and festivities inci-
dent to the occasion have already been chronicled in
the columns of Nature (April 14, vol. Ixxxiii., p. 191).
it is proposed here to give an impression of the life-
work of the Prince of Monaco, which found expression
in the solemnities of that occasion. The accompany-
ing illustrations ^ afford an idea of the magnificence
of the building and of the richness of the collections.
Fig. I gives a view of the museum from the sea.
The scale on which it is built can be judged from
:he fact that the height of the roof above the lowest
masonrj' is 75 metres. Fig. 2 is the statue of the
Prince standing on the bridge of his yacht. It is an
artistic work, and a good portrait. It gives fine ex-
pression to the modesty as well as to the power of
the creator of the greai
monument in the centre of
which it stands.

The museum and the
vessels attached to it, with
heir staffs and general
jrganisation, are only one-
half of the great enterprise
which is entitled, " Institut
Oceanographique Fondation
Albert I" Prince de Monaco."
Its seat is in Paris, where it
possesses its own buildings
and a rich endowment, both
of them the gift of the
Prince. It has professors of
physical and biological
oceanography and of the
physiology of marine ani-
tnals, and the lectures de-
livered during last year had
the most numerous attend-
ance of any in Paris. During
the life of the Prince he
exercises supreme authority.
Both in Paris and at Monaco
there is complete organisa-
tion for giving effect to his
wishes, and, in the event of
his death, for carrying on
the work without interrup-
tion, and on the lines inau-
gurated by himself. Thus continuity and permanence
have been assured.

It will be readily realised that the establishment
of these two great institutions has not been accom-
plished without the expenditure of large sums of
money and the devotion of much time and labour to '
it. It is almost impossible for anvone to realise the \
greatness of the work which is being accomplished J
without having been intimatelv connected with it, and i
even with this advantage the development of the con- ;
ception is slow. As with all great achievements, it >
■will take at least a generation before it is thoroughlv !
'understood and adequately appreciated. ' |

The museum at Slonaco bears testimonv at every !
turn to the great lines on which the Prince has him- '
self worked, and in which his work is fundamental. (
Thus, in the purely hydrographical department, we
see his bathymetrical chart of the world, on which i

1 For the illuMrations in this anicle we are indebted to the courtesy of l
the propn-tor of the Xatu^vissfnsch'r/iluhe Wochenschri/t. They are
reprodMctrd from photographs hy Prof. Doflein. of Munich, and illustrate an '
article by him in that periodical.— Editor. Nature.

all the trustworthy deep soundings are entered. This
great document may be said to be the foundation-stone
of oceanographical work. .Another and much earlier
piece of hydrographical work is the current chart of
the North Atlantic, which gives the result of his
laborious work on board the Hirondelle. By the
methodical dispersion of floats, especially constructed
to expose the least possible surface above water, along
different lines radiating generally from the group of
the .Azores, by patiently awaiting their recovery, and
by then combining their records, he furnished the
demonstration that this portion of the ocean is prac-
tically a lake, bounded, not by land, but by the motion
of its own peripheral waters, thus enclosing a roughly
circular portion of the sea, part of which is generally
associated with the Sargassum weed and called the
Sargasso Sea. The "water, thus self-confined in the
warm, drv subtropical region, is exposed to powerful
evaporation, and to a considerable annual variation of
temperature at the surface. The combination of these
two thermal factors furnishes the mechanical power

iiJMWifeui.as6ga;g€-5«yjaK355»hiJgjWMa

Fig. 1.— V

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

iew of the Oceanographical Museum at Monaco as seen from the sea.

by which the deeper layers of the water obtain more
heat and attain a greater density in this sea than
they do in any other part of the of>en ocean, as was
pointed out by the writer in a paper "on the vertical
distribution of temperature in the ocean," read before
the Royal Society- on December 17, 1874, and pub-
lished in its Proceedings, vol. xxiii., p. 123.

In the great hall to the left of the entrance the
visitor is at once struck by the magnificent collection
of skeletons of Cetaceans, which includes those of
many species. These are skeletons of individual
whales, nearly all of which have been killed by the
Prince himself, and each is complete, every- bone in
the animal being accounted for. From alf points of
view this collection is at once the most attractive and
the most interesting in the museum, and in it we see
the Prince reflected as a hunter and as a naturalist.

In Fig. 3 we have the Orca, with its formidable
double row of teeth. It preys on other Cetaceans, and
always shows plenty of sport. The specimen figured
belonged to the leader of a school of three, which was

NATURE

[November 3. 1910

met with a few miles outside of Monaco. They
fought to the death, and when killed they were

Fig. 2. — Statue of Prince Albert I. of M jnaco in the Museum

a large mass of something came out of its mouth close
to the yacht and began slowly to sink. The Prince
at once jumped into the dinghey, and, with a
long landing net, retrieved the object before
it sank out of sight. The object is represented
in Fig. 5, and is a unique piece. It is a frag-
ment of the gigantic scaled cephalopod which
Prof. Joubin, who described it, named
Lepidoteiithis Grimaldii.

A healthy cachalot is valued for the
spermaceti, or wax, which is contained in its
head, and a sick one is still more valued for
the ambergris which it may contain. This
curious substance, which has at all times been
so highly esteemed in pharmacy and per-
fumery, forms the subject of a very interesting
"Account of Ambergris " by Dr. Schweidawer*
which was read before the Royal Society on
February 13, 1783, and published in the Philo-
sophical Transactions, vol. Ixxiii., p. 220.
From his investigations it appears that amber-
gris is a by-product of an inflammation of the
intestine, which has probably been started by
the "beaks" of the cephalopods which it has
swallowed, for these are the invariable and
characteristic ingredient of all genuine amber-
gris. He further states that the whalers are
convinced that the cachalot feeds only on
squids, which, when unmutilated, must be of
great size. One whaler reported a case where
the whale in its death-throe rendered a single
tentacle, which, though incomplete from
having been partially digested, still measured
29 feet in length, and he held that this justifies
the common saying of the whalers that the
squids are the biggest fish in the sea.

The work of the Prince amongst the toothed
Cetaceans has had an interesting sentimental

towed in and beached on
what is now the hew
harbour of Monaco.

Not far from the Orca
is a skeleton, Fig. 4, of
the best known of the
toothed Cetaceans, the
cachalot or sperm-whale.
It wgs not taken by the
Prince himself, but he
was present at its cap-
ture, and his' scientific
instinct enabled him to
seize an opportunity
which would probably
have been missed bv
another. The cachalot
had been struck by a
crew of whalers from Ter-
ceira, one of the islands
of the Azores. The
Prince followed the chase
in his yacht, and was
close to the animal when
it became evident that
its end had come. .At
this moment these ani-
mals always charge what-
ever they see, and in
their death agony they
usually render whatever
they have last eaten.
This animal charged the
charge did not get home.

■1

WK..^ ^^fl

^Hi

^^^^^H

Ji^

„^*^

iifJiHM

H

Fig. 3. — Skeleton of the great Crca killed by the Prince of Monaco near Monaco.

Princesse Alice, but the
The animal stopped, and

result. The combat of the " thrasher " and
whale,' so dear to the nautical mind, seems to

the
be

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

November 3, 19 10]

NATURE

•9

nothing but the violent and desperate resistance of

the giant squid to being- swallowed when brought to

the surface by the cachalot.

The whalebone whale, shown in Fig. 6, was struck

\- the Prince in May, 1896, not many miles from

Fig. 4. — Skeleton of the Cachalot which furnished th: fragments of gigantic Cephalopods

Monaco, but it escaped. Its carcase was washed
^hore in September of the same year, near Pietra
Ligure, on the Italian Riviera. A remarkable feature
of this skeleton is the evidence of fracture and repair
of a number of ribs of its left side. This has been
ascribed to collision with a steamer, but it is very
unlikely that such an experi-
ence would leave its mark
in nothing but a number of
perfectly repaired ribs. It
would seem to point to a
type of accident to which
whales are certainly exposed,
and from which they per-
haps not infrequently suffer.

The habitat of the whale
is the air and the water, and
its functional economy has
to be adapted to life in both
elements, or rath.r, to life
sometimes in the one, a;:
other times in the other
element.

In one of the Prince's
recent cruises in the Medi-
terranean the yacht was
found to be steaming in the
wake of a whale, which was
evidently making a passage,
and in a leisurely way. The
Prince seized the oppor-
tunity to follow the animal without pursuing it, and
rhis was done with such skill that it remained uncon-
-cious of being followed. It kept a steady course,
and, t6 "keep station" with it, the Princesse Alice
had to steam at a spesd of about ten kpots. In

NO. 2140, VOL. 8.^1

these conditions the whale came up to breathe at
regular intervals of between ten and eleven minutes,
the intervals between the spouts being the same almost
to a second. This experiment supplies an important
constant in the natural historj- of the whale. It

looks very simple, but it
will not be readily re-
peated, except perhaps by
the Prince himself. As the
whale was on passage, it
is unlikely that it went far
i)elow the surface, but
there is abundant evidence
that, in the search for food
or to escape enemies, it
penetrates to very consider-
able depths. In these ex-
cursions its body is exposed
tO rapid and considerable
variations of pressure.
These have to be borne by
the structural frame of the
animal, of which the ribs
are an important part.

It is generally assumed
that, before sounding, the
whale fills its lungs with
air. but this, being at
tmospheric pressure, is
uf no use in assisting the
body to resist the external
pressure of a column of
water equivalent, it may
be, to many atmospheres.
How the power of resist-
ance is, in fact, provided,
I am not anatomist enoug^h
to know, but it must be
finite, and it is easy to imagine conditions in which the
animal, whether in the pursuit of prey or in the endea-
vour to escape being- made itself a prey, may strain
it beyond its limits, and the ribs of one side, whichever
is the weaker, may give way. In such an accident,
beyond being broken, the ribs need nort be seriously

Fig. 5. — The principal ngxaeaxs, oS Lepidoteuihis Gritnaliil, 1ov^\

disturbed, and with the return to the surface or more
moderate depths, they would fall into their places
again, and that all the more easily because there is
little or no pressure of one part on another, every
part of the body of a totally immersed animal being

lO

NATURE

[November 3, 1910

water-borne. In such conditions recovery would be
rapid and the joints perfect, as can be seen to be the
case in the skeleton in the museum.

The accident to this whale is very suggestive. In
a well-known experiment, Paul Bert reduced the pres-
sure of the air in the lungs of a dog^ by a not very
large fraction of an atmosphere, when the thorax
immediately collapsed, every rib being broken. When
a whale is struck and sounds, if only to a depth of
one hundred metres, the pressure on its body is in-
creased tenfold in a few seconds. How does its body
stand it?

It is certain that the cachalot finds its prey in
water of considerable depth. When it has seized it,

of meteorology, a science which, especially as
regards its application to the higher regions of
the atmosphere, owes much to the participation
of the Prince in its development. Until he
directed his attention to it, the hallons-sonde, carry-
ing their freight of valuable instruments, vyere very
frequently lost. Now, thanks to the method of keep-
ing the "dead reckoning" of the balloon, developed
and brought to perfection on the Princesse Alice, if it
is followed for a few minutes during its ascent, it
may disappear in the clouds, and its recovery, when
it descends at sea, is almost a certainty. This de-
partment of investigation has been prosecuted outside
the Mediterranean, and in the Prince's cruises of the

Fig. 6. — Skeleton ji whalebone whale the ribs of which have been brolcen and mended.

can it swallow it in situ, in a medium of water under
very high pressure? The dentition of this animal, a
formidable row of teeth in the lower jaw fitting into
corresponding sockets in the upper jaw, makes it
certain that, when it has seized its prey it can hold it
indefinitely. It has been observed that the cachalot
sometimes takes its prey to the surface and swallows
it there. Is this accidental or habitual? If habitual
is it not another link with the far-back time when its
habitat was the air and the land ? These are some
questions suggested by an attentive visit to the
Museum of Monaco.

In the museum, room is provided for a department

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

last two or three years it has been carried from the
Cape Verde Islands in the heart of the tropics to
the north of Spitsbergen, within five hundred miles
of the Pole.

Besides the collections of animals and the instru-
ments for their capture and study, there is in the
lower part of the museum an aquarium, remarkable
for its size and the completeness of its installation.
This already commands a constant flux of visitors,
chiefly the curious, but it is also frequented by men
of science for serious study. It is already proposed
to enlarge it considerably. The storey above the
aquarium is divided into separate laboratories, fitted

November

O'

1910]

NATURE

II

w ith a service of both fresh and sea water, and every-
ing else required for chemical, physical, and
^logical study. In these laboratories the occupant
has all that a laboratory can supply, and at any time
tresh material from the sea, collected by one of the
small steam tenders of the museum.

Anv notice of the museum of Monaco would be
incomplete without an acknowledgment of what it
owes to its director, Dr. Richard. None of the many
men of science who have enjoyed the hospitality, either
of the museum or the yacht, will require to be re-
minded of this, nor will they forget what they indi-
viduallv owe to Dr. Richard's never-failing courtesy
ind helpful aid. Personally, I have more thanks to
ler than I can express for the countless services that
has rendered me during our friendship of twenty
ars. The Prince was fortunate in being able to
lach him to his service in the early days of the
Ilirondelle. Since that time Dr. Richard has been
'lis never-failing aid and assistant. It is not too
uch to sav that without Dr. Richard's strenuous and
selfish work during these many years the museum
■ , ith its rich collections and complete equipment would
not be, as it is now, the greatest Institution of the
kind in the world. J. Y. Buchanan.

ENVIRONMENT VERSUS HEREDITY.^

'T^HE question of the assimilation of immigrants

■*- under American conditions has long been looked

■ ion as of vital importance, and it has been much

^cussed, but heretofore with little accurate informa-
lon. Speaking from general personal observation,
people have thought that under the influence of the
existing educational, social, and political conditions
the immigrants gradually change their habits of
life and their ways of thinking, and thus become
Americans. The statement is often made that
American citizens tend to resemble the American
Indian, meaning thereby some generalised tvpe of
plains Indian, but this has never been put to scien-
tific test. Little or no thought, however, has been
given to the possible effect of the phvsical and social
environment on the phvsical type of descendants of
immigrants. The establishment by Congress of the
Immigration Commission in Februarv. 1907, gave the
opportunity for a thorough investigation of the
problems of immigration, and the inquiry into the
anatomical characters of immigrants and their
descendants was put under the direction of Prof.
Franz Boas, of Columbia University, than whom no
better selection could have been made. The present
short report deals with only a portion of the material
collected, but results obtained are of unexpected in-
terest and importance.

The results so far worked out mav be summarised
as follows : —

I. The head form, which has always been con-
sidered as one of the most stable and permanent char-
acteristics of human races, undergoes far-reaching
changes due to the transfer of the races of Europe
ro American soil. The East European Hebrew, who
has a very round head, becomes more long-headed ;
the south Italian, who in Italy has an exceedinglv
long head, becomes more short-headed; so that both
approach a uniform type so far as the roundness of
the head is concerned. Fig. i shows at 1 and i the
cephalic index of foreign-born Hebrews and Sicilians;
at 2 and 2 that of those born within ten vears after the
arrival of their mothers In the United States ; at 3 and
^ that of those born more than ten years after the

" Changes in Bodily Form '^f Descendants of Immigrants." The Im'ni-
\tion Committee, Document No. 2o3 presented to the 6ist Congress, 2nd
-ession. (Washington, D.C., U.S..\., iqio.)

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

arrival of their mothers in the United States. The
diagram shows the very rapid approach of the two
types among children born shortly after the arrival
of their mothers in America, and the slower con-
tinuation of this approach among those born later.
Fig. 2 roughly indicates the general form of (i) the
foreign-born Hebrew, (2) the foreign-born Sicilian,
and (3) the average form of the head of the American-
born Hebrew and Sicilian-born more than ten years
after the arrival of the mother in America.

2. The influence of .American environment upon the
descendants of immigrants increases with the time
that the immigrants have lived in the country before
the birth of children.

3. The changes in head form consist in the increase
of some measurements and in the decrease of others.
The lentrth of the head of Hebrews is increased; the
width of the head and the width of the face are
decreased. Among the Sicilians the length of the
head is decreased, the width increased, but the width
of the face Is decreased.

4. The differences in type between the American-
born descendant of the immigrant and the European-

^

1

^\^2

}

,,—--''3

^*-'*

^' 2

£0

,,-'

/

fiebretv —
^iciliart

Fig. I. — Comparison of head form of Hebrews and Sicilians. At i is indi-
cated the head form expressed by the ratio between width and length of
head of foreign-born Hebiews and Sicilians; at 2, the same ratios of
those born wiihin ten years after the arrival of their mothers in the
United States ; at 3, the corresponding values ot tho>e bom more than
ten years alter the a- rival of their mothers in America. The diagram
shows the very rapid approach of the two types among children bom
shortly after the arrival of their mothers in America, and the slower
continuation of this approach among children born a long time after the
•arrival of their mothers in America.

born immigrant develop in early childhood and per-
sist throughout life.

5. Among the East European Hebrews the en-
vironment, even in the congested parts of the city, has
brought about a general more favourable development
of the race, which is expressed in the increased height
of body (stature) and weight of the children. The Italian
children, on the other hand, show no such favourable
influence of American environment, but rather a
small loss in vigour as compared to the average
condition of the immigrant children ; so that it
appears that the south Italian race suffers under the
influence of American city life, while the East
European Hebrew develops under these conditions
better than he does In his native country.

6. The type of the immigrant changes from year to
vear, owing to a selection which is dependent upon
the economic conditions of the country. This is
shown by the fact that after the panic of 1893 a
sudden decrease in the general development of immi-
grants may be observed, which persisted for several
years. A similar change seems to have taken place

12

NATURE

[November 3, 1910

after the panic of 1907. The significance of these
changes is at present obscure.

7. It has been observed that, while immigrants have
large families, the size of the family is very materially
reduced in the second generation. This reduction of
the size of the family goes hand in hand with the
improvement of the physical development of the indi-
vidual, as is demonstrated by the fact that children
belonging' to small families are considerably tallei
than children belonging to large families.

In connection with this last statement it is worth
noticing that Prof. Boas points out that statistics
taken on the school children of Toronto, Ont., and
Oakland, Cal., show that there is a decided decrease
in development of the individuals according to the
increasing size of the family, and the Toronto material
proves that the decrease in stature with increasing size
of family takes place on every economic level. This

Flc. 2. — Sketches of head forms. Showing (i) the average form of the head
of the foreign-born Hebrew ; (2) the average form of the head of the
foreign-born Sicilian ; (3) the average form of the head of the American-
born Hebrew and Sicilian born more than ten years after the arrival of
the mother in America. These sketches are intended only to give an
impression of the change in proportion. They do not represent the head
iorms in detail.

does not seem to be due entirely to inherited physio-
logical causes nor to differences of nutrition. The
fact, however, comes out with greatest clearness that
reduction in the size of families goes hand in hand
with the improvement of physical development.

The data upon which these conclusions are based
are given in tables of measurements, and synthesised
in curves. Their trustworthiness depends upon several
conditions being carefully investigated. The wide ex-
perience of Prof. Boas as a physical anthropologist
and his mastery of statistical methods give us con-
fidence that his conclusions are well founded. He
acknowledges that the problem is an exceedingly com-
plicated one, and he describes the various ways in
which he has endeavoured to arrive at trustworthy
results ; for these the reader is referred to the report.

One of the most important problems of physical

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

anthropologv is to determine what effect environment
has upon the human species. In his address to tht
Anthropological Section of the British Association al
the Dublin meeting in 1908, and again in his pres_
dential address to the Royal Anthropological Institute
on "The Influence of Environment on Man," delivered
on January 25, 1910 (which will shortly be published),'
Prof. W. Ridgeway has directed attention to this
question. Reference may also be made to Dr. R.
Humphrey Marten's presidential address to the South
Australian Branch of the British Medical Association
(Adelaide, 1900), on "The Effects of Migration from
the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere." The inves-:
ligations Prof. Boas is now undertaking are of prime
importance, as they are based on careful measure-
ments, but many more similar studies must be made-
before general conclusions can be drawn. It is also
obvious that this is not a matter of purely anthropo-
logical ^ interest, but is of significance to the
sociologist, and should not be neglected by the states-
man. A. C. Haddon.

PRESENT CONDITION OF AMERICAN BISON

AND SEAL HERDS.
T7ROM the third annual report of the American
■*■ Bison Society, recently published at Boston, we
learn that the condition and prospects of the three
herds of bison maintained by the Government of the
United States are all that can be desired, and that,
in the opinion of Dr. Hornaday, the future of the
species is now secured. These herds comprise one in
the Yellowstone Park, with ninety-five head, a second
in Wichita, with nineteen head, and a third in Mon-
tana, with forty-seven head, the total number of
animals thus being 161. Of these herds the one in
Montana, which occupies a tract of twenty-nine square
miles, has only recently been brought together (as
described in the present report), and promises to be
the best of the three. Indeed, Dr. Hornaday is of
opinion that this herd alone would be suflficient to
safeguard the species against extinction, since, owing
to the extent of the area on which it is established, it
is secure against any ill-effects from in-breeding. Re-
garding the Yellowstone herd. Dr. Hornaday is less
confident, as the relatively small tract on which it is
kept may lead to deterioration. The Wichita herd,
on the other hand, is as well situated as the one in
Montana.

In another part of the report is given a census of
the total number of pure-bred bison living in. captivity
in America on May ist, 1910. This total is 1633,
against 1592 in 1908, and loio in. 1903, thus showing^
a well-marked and progressive increase. Out of the
1633, 626 are in Canada, and the remaining 1007 in'
the United States. In 1903 Canada possessed only
forty-one head, the enormous increase being appar-
ently due to the transference of the Pablo herd from
the United States. Of wild bison the total number
is estimated at 475, of which twenty-five are in the
Yellowstone, and the remaining 450 in Canada. In
1908 the number of wild Canadian bison was esti-
mated at 300. The grand total of pure-bred animals
living in North America is thus approximately 2108,
against 1917 in 1908.

A considerable portion of the Montana herd was
purchased from Mrs. Conrad, of Kalispell, in that
State, who also presented the magnificent herd-bull
shown in the foreground of the illustration herewith
reproduced.

The selected portion of the Conrad herd was driven
bv cowboys, without any noise, to the nearest railway
siding. Here "each animal was driven singly into
the corral that communicated with the loading chute.

November 3, 1910J

NATURE

i3<

. . The chute of a railway cattle-yard is a long,
irrow canon with wooden walls, sloping upward
ther steeply, and ending in the open door of a
ittle-car. ... A crate was placed in the middle of
L' chute; the sliding door at the outward end of the
r>ox was lifted high and carefully poised for a quick
drop. .\n animal specially fitting the crate was then
cut out from the bunch, driven into the chute, driven
on into the crate, and shut in with a bang. After
that the crate was hauled and shoved into the stock-
ear and settled in its place."

In Nature of July 28 appeared a paragraph relat-
ing to the danger threatening the Alaskan fur-seals
owing to unrestricted pelagic sealing by the Japanese.
Since that paragraph was written the editor has re-
ceived a copv of an "open letter" addressed bv th''
Camp-Fire Club of America to the people of the United
States, together with certain letters addressed by the
committee of the club to Mr. Secretary Nagel. and
the replies to the same. From a covering letter it
appears that the Camp-Fire Club comprises about 350

95 per ceat. of the younger male seals are annually
killed the "surplus bulls" will fight with "the breed-
ing bulls" ov^r tne lemaies, and seriously retard
the breeding of the herd. To this the committee,
after indicatin<r their opinion of the experts concerned
by printing the word with inverted commas, make
tne toUovving reply : — " .As if a wild species does not
know how to breed and multiply successfully without
the help of man ! The excuse is most inadequate,
and in any event it is no excuse whatever for not
dealing squarelv with Congress, and in accordance
with a very plain understanding."

From this it will be manifest that the controversy
has entered a somewhat acute and embittered stage,
th? details of which I have neither space nor inclina-
tion to discuss. If, however, pelagic sealing weighs
heavily, as I understand it does, on female seals,
there may be something in the contention that a
certain number -of young males should be annually
killed off, although 95 per cent, certainly seems a
heavv toll. On the other hand, there is no doubt

The Best Bull Bison in the Montana Herd. (From the Third Annual Report of the American Bison Society.)

members, all interested in the preservation of
American big game, and the opinions of whom ought
therefore to carry considerable weight. According to
the "open letter," the Pribilov Islands, when pur-
chased from Russia about the year 1867, were the
resort of at least 4,500,000 fur-seals, or sea-bears ; at
the present day the number is only from 30,000 to
50,000. Formerly the islands yielded a large revenue
to Government ; now they involve a heavy expendi-
ture. The Camp-Fire Club is of opinion that all
slaughter of seals on the islands should be prohibited
for ten years, in order to permit of the recuperation
of the herds to a point when they will yield an annual
revenue of 2oo,oooi., and at the same time to make
treaties with the British, Canadian, Japanese, and
Mexican Governments for the suppression of pelagic
sealing, the latter being an even more urgent matter
than the former.

The secretary to Government, on the other hand,
acting apparentlv on expert advice, demands a re-
newal of a killing licence on the ground that unless

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

whatever that unrestricted pelagic sealing should be
stopped, this being a matter, not of .American, but
likewise of world-wide interest. R. L.

THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
IN GREAT BRITAIN.'

'T^HE announcement recently made to the effect
^ that the Board of .Agriculture has applied for a
large sum of money from the development grant for
the purpose of aiding agricultural research lends a
peculiar interest to two publications just issued, the
report of the Board of .Agriculture on the grants made
for the last two years for agriculture education and
research, and the statement of the British Science
Guild recently submitted to the Prime Minister in an
influentially signed memorial. The report may

1 Report on the Distribution of Grants for Agricultural Education and
Research in the Years igo^-q and 1909-10. Board of Agriculture and
Fi=herie«. Cd. 5388. Price yid.

The British Science Guild. '1 he Present Position of Agricultural Research
in the United Kingdom.

H

NATURE

[NOVEMBZR 3, I91O

be taken as an indication of the official attitude, and
the memorial as the attitude of the professed man
of science, towards agricultural research, and it is
interesting to compare them, to see what they have
in common and how far their differences are funda-
mental.

From the fact that both publications, after a few
preliminary statements, come straight to one and the
same point, we may take it that this is regarded as
the real issue : Does Research pay ? The position of
the Board of Agriculture is thus set out : —

A pviblic department when authorising the expenditure
of money on research is bound to take into consideration
the probable value of the work to the State. It cannot
rest satisfied with the assurance that sooner or later all
accessions to knowledge will benefit the country. The
taxpayer of to-day naturally wishes to see a return for
his contribution, if not in his own lifetime at least in that
of his children. It is obvious therefore that, as a matter
of elementary justice, the question of time must receive
consideration from any department entrusted with the
expenditure of State funds on research.

On the other hand, the memorial states : —

The committee of the British Science Guild would urge
very strongly that the value of investigation can rarely be
translated directly into terms of pecuniary gain. The
benefits lie more in the method of thought that is induced
among the farmers and those concerned in advising them,
in the stimulus it gives to a more exact conduct of the
business of farming, in the confidence with which men
take up the fresh resources which science and the indus-
tries are always putting at the disposal of agriculture, than
in any sudden revolutions effected by research. The fact
that the countries whose agriculture has made the greatest
advances in recent years are those which pay the greatest
attention to research is itself sufficient justification for
the action of the British Science Guild in urging the
British Government to move in this direction.

Between these two positions there is a great gulf,
but one may hope that it will not prove impassable.
The Board of Agriculture has recently appointed a
committee, including several distinguished men of
science, to advise on questions dealing with research,
and doubtless a broad view will be taken of "the
probable value " of a piece of really good research
work. The memorial gives several instances where
research has directly resulted in financial gain to
farmers. An outstanding case is the use of super-
phosphate, which w'as discovered by Sir John Lawes,
and has been of enormous benefit to farmers. Den-
mark affords at least two good illustrations. Sonne's
work on barley has resulted in the general adoption
of a particular type of malting barley, so that the
yield has gone up three or four bushels per acre, and
the malting quality has become more uniform. The
whole butter industry is founded on scientific control.
Nilson's work in Gothland, Sweden, is also mentioned.
More than 30,000 hectares of this island consisted
of sterile swamps. Nilson proved by careful investi-
gations that the factor causing sterilitv was deficiencv
of phosphates ; when these were supplied the richest
crops of corn, rape, and sugar-beet could be
secured. He further devised a suitable phosphatic
manure out of a rather poor phosphatic mineral in
the north of Sweden. Coming to our own Colonies,
the control of live stock diseases in the Transvaal
furnishes an illustration.

At the end of the war the whole country was ravaged
by various diseases, which had reached the country at an
earlier period, but had been distributed broadcast by the
movements of horses and stock during the war — rinder-
pest, redwater. East Coast fever, in succession had
attacked the cattle, until few were left in the colony, and
importations died as rapidly as they were introduced.
Sheep and horses were equally affected, until stock raising

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

of any description seemed an impossibility. The invest,
gations, however, conducted by Dr. Theiler for the Trani
vaal Department of Agriculture into the causes of thes.
diseases have resulted in a number of methods of immuni
sation, which, coupled with veterinary regulations as
the movements of stock, are now rendering the countr
habitable by cattle again and the business of agricultui^
once more possible-
Many other instances might have been given, but!
the memorialists very wisely do not allow themselves
to be drawn into a false position, and repeatedly urge
that the results of research work cannot usually be
translated direct into terms of general practice. They!
decline, in short, to regard the probable financial value
of a particular piece of work as the only criterion of
its usefulness. This is, of course, the position one
expects from the British Science Guild, but it must
also be remembered that the attitude of the Board is.]
unquestionably that of a large body of the public.

In reading the two publications it becomes evident,!
that the word "research" is used in rather a different
sense in each of them. The Board's report states that
"research must satisfy one or both of two conditions
(i) it must, as a result of observation or experiment,
result in the collection of fresh facts ; (2) it must
involve an examination of the facts collected, or
phenomena observed, and the reduction of them to a
form in which they constitute an addition to know-
ledge." This definition is not adhered to, and work
that is primarily educational, such as demonstration
trials and tests, is apparently classed as research.
The memorial recognises the difficulty of drawing a
hard and fast line, but adopts this as a working
definition: — "Work which is published only in the
annual reports of the institution may be regarded as
educational, work also published by one of the learnedj
societies or in the Journal of Agricultural Science
may be treated as research."

This difference of view explains why the memc
rialists only put the number of colleges where researct
has been done at seven, whilst the Board consider
that research is being done at all the colleges. So fai
as the demonstration trials are concerned the Board's
position is sound ; such demonstrations are intended
to improve practice, and must obviously be judged on
their profitableness. Only in regard to researchj
proper is there any difference of opinion, and here the
difference is fundamental. It would, however, be
premature and ungracious to labour this point ; the
Board's advisory committee is only just appointed^
and it is clear that an open mind prevails : — " It is noti
usually a difficult task to distinguish research from
spurious imitations, on the other hand it may at times,
be difficult to say whether a particular piece of re-'
search is, or is not, entitled to receive aid from agri-^
cultural funds. One may be permitted to express the
hope that the public interested will not take a narroV
view on this point."

The object of the British Science Guild memorii
was to urge the necessity of "granting adequate^
assistance for the continuous conduct of scientific
investigations having for their object the development
of agricultural production." No scheme is fore-
shadowed ; indeed, any attempt would have been out
of place,

. The report of the Board of Agriculture, whilst it
does not set out a scheme, discusses the general lines
on which one might be based. In the first instance,
"At the present time the number of well-qualified
men engaged in agricultural Investigation in this
country is relatively small and one of our chief aims
in expending additional funds should be to establish
a system which will bring agricultural science suit-
able recruits." But when we come to inquire the
meaning of " suitable recruits," we learn that " the

November 3, 1910]

NATURE

I

lief demand of the present time is for 'spade

orkers ' and * quarrj-men ' to prepare foundations

-:d material." It is to be h<^)ed that on this point

: least the Board ^ill allow itself -to be converted.

nless men of outstanding ability can be attracted to

.:• research stations and agricultural «rfleges, there is

c much hope that the taxpayer will see anything

<e the return he ought for the money expended.

his., indeed, is the \-ital question ; if the right sort

: men are got to do the work all tfie other questions

: administration sink into insignificance. But here

so the Board is m what appears to be the safF>

ound. The idea of a central experimental station

dismissed, and a wider policy is suggested : — '" It

uld probably be advisable, therefore, to use part of

e Develc^ment Fund in making such grants to

iversities and imiversity cc^eges as would induce

em to make provision fw agricultural research."

At no period in its history has agricultural science

vl a greater opp«-tunity than at present. It is no

"ger hampered by lack of funds or by apathy on

■? part of the farmer. The problems are more

imerous and more interesting than ever they were.

ut unfortxmately the workers are few. and fresh

rkers are not readily forthcoming. The hopeful

ature is that a number of eminent men of science are

ving up time and thought to the organisation of the

■X work, and, further, that the Board of Agriculture

:.d the large agricultural societies are manifestly and

. nuinely anxious to render all die help they can.

RATS AND PLAGUE.

ALTHOUGH the recent epidemics of bubonic
plague in China, India, and other parts of the
world have been always associated with outl»-eaks of
die same disease amongst rats, the historical study of
plague throughout the world reveals the singular fact
that previous to 1800 very few references to a coin-
cident mortality amongst rats have been put on record.
Many excellent accounts of the older outbreaks,
notably of the Black .Death in Eurc^ in 1347, and
the Great Plague of London in 1665, are in existence,
but careful research into these documents by nkidem
historiographers — Haeser, Hirscfa, Abel, and Sticker —
has shown that for reascms difficult to discover very
scanty mention of associated rat mortality has been
made.

The earliest recorded instance is perhaps that given
in the Bible in the account of the pestilence amongst
die Philistines, which they ascribed apparendy to
"the mice diat marred the land." Avicenna refers
to the assooadmi between rats and plague in his
description of the epidonic in Mesopotamia about the
year 1000 a.d. Nicephorus Gregoras, writing of the
Great Plague of 1348, which entered Europe by way
of Constantinople, makes a similar reference. Rats
are mentioned in connection with the plague in Yun-
nan about 1757, and later in 1871-3. In India an
association between rats and plague is noted in the
Bhagaeata Purana. by the Emperor Jefaangir in the
plague epidemic of 1615, and in a report of the Pali
plague in Rajputana in 1836. Lastly, Orraeus refers
definitely to rat mortality in his account of the
epidemic of 1771 in Moscow.

• The identity of the disease in rats widi that affecting
man was established hv die discovery in 1894 of B.
Pestis by Yersan and Kitasato.

Within the next few years the relationsfaip between
rat and himian plague was investigated in manv parts
of the world— by Thompson and Tidswell in Svdnev,
Clark and Hunter in Hongkong. Snow, Weir, Hankin
and James in India, and bv Kitasato in Japan. In
tqo=i die Plague Research Commisaon was appmn^ed
to investigate plague in India, and the reports of this
NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

Commission represent the results of the most exhaus-
tive inquiry into the subject that has yet been carried
out.

The JCommission early turned its attention 10 the
relationship of rat plague and human plague, and
instituted an extensive examination of the rats in
Bombay and elsewhere for the presence of plague in-
fection. The maps and charts, representing graphic-
ally the results of this examination, clearly show ihe
correlation between the epizootic and the epidemic —
the rat epizootic preceding the epidemic by an interval
of ten to fourteen days. Every outbreak of bubonic*
plague, -«'hen .adequately investigated, was found to
be associated with the disease amongst rats. The
conclusion must be drawn that e\'ery epidemic of
bubonic plague is caused by the ccmcomitant rat
plague.

In Bombay the rat population is an enormous one,
Mus decumanus (the brown or grey rat) swarming in
the sewers, gullies, and outhouses in the cit\', and
Mus rattus (the black rat) living in countless numbers
in the houses of the people. The latter species is of
especial importance in plague epidemics, because it is
essentially a house rat: it may almost be said to be
a domesticated animal. The severity of the epizootics
in the two q>ecies will be appreciated when it is stated
that during mie year die examination of 70,789 M.
decumanus, taken frmn all parts of BcMnbay city,
proved that 13,277 were plague-infected = 18^8 per
cent., and that out of 46,302 If. rattus examined 4,381
were plague-infected =9*4 per cent. The heavier
incidence of plague in If. decumanus is explicable ty
the circumstance that the flea infestation of diis species
is more than twice that of M. rattus.

Some interesting observations on the distribution of
different ^)ecies of rats in India have been made
recendy by Captain R. E. Lloyd, I. M.S. The most
commcm rats in India are M. rattus, M. decumanus,
and Gunomys {Nesokia hengalensis). M. decumanus
is common both in Bombay and Cakrutta, but is
absent from the city of Madras. It is significant diat
Madras is the one port in India which has never been
seriously infected with plague. \l. rattus appears to
be universally distributeid in India, whereas JJf. decu-
manus does not seem to occur in India except in sea-
ports. Nesokia hengalensis is found in even' part of
India.

The qutetion of the transportation of plague by
ship rats is an extremely important one, but has not
so far been thoroughly wcMlced out. It would appear
that M. decumanus is the spedes most commonly in-
festing ships, although Af. rattus is also found.

Sticker, in his history of plague epidemics, quotes
the statonent that M. decumanus got into Europe
from Persid about the year 1725. In England Af.
rattus was displaced bv the inva^on of If. decumanus
about this time. At the present day the predominat-
ing species in this country' is undoubtedhr M. decu-
manus i M. rattus is, however, becoming increasingly,
commcm in the seaports.

.^n important question in plague epidemiolf^ is the
mode of convCT-ance of the infective organism from the
plague rat to man. It is impossible even to sum-
marise here the numerous experiments and observa-
tions on this subject, but it may be said that from
many sides, and espenally from experiments in the
laboratory and in actiial plague^infected houses, a mass
of evidence has been raised whidi incriminates and
indeed convicts die rat flea as the transmitting agent
of the infection.

_^ , , I*«re fc ks »Bde of spread.

'*_o«»«'_P*^'^ rwi ■■!■■ I ocean, dbe iefaliwe orenr m<

dncctif HUM caat to rase hr oaagjhiBK ami infciliiiiiii It •$

diat Ae anal ftmmat iafciijua m tkc fine caw oftbe scries

oocaniag ia a fatieat vilb stfttiejrmic

i6

NATURE

[November 3, 19 10

In India the rat flea, Loemopsylla cheopis, which
closely resembles the human flea, Pulex irritans, in
appearance, is by far the most commonly found
species. In England the common rat flea is Cerato-
phyllus fasciatus ; a single specimen only of L. cheopis
has been found up to the present time.

L. cheopis, especially if hungry, will bite man ; C.
fasciatus does not take to man with any readiness,
but will undoubtedly bite on occasion. This diff^erence
in the appetite of the two species for human blood
may be of significance in determining the likelihood
of the spread of rat plague to human beings.

G. F. Petrie.

PROF. D. P. PENHALLOW.

WE regret to announce that Prof. D. P. Penhallow,
D.Sc, F.R.S. (Canada), president of the American
Society of Naturalists, and professor of botany in
McGill University, Canada, died on October 20, in
consequence of an apoplectic seizure, whilst on board
the ss. Lake Manitoba, on voyage to Liverpool. His
remains were brought to Liverpool, and were, in
accordance with his wishes, cremated at Anfield
Cemetery on Friday, October 28. Prof, and Mrs.
Penhallow were about to begin a year's vacation, and
had intended spending the winter in the south of
England. In consequence of the severe strain of
work which Prof. Penhallow had undergone during
the last few years, his previously excellent health "lad^
shown signs of giving w'ay, and under medical advice
he was about to take a prolonged rest, when the
lamentable event of his decease occurred..

Prof. D. P. Penhallow was born in 1854 at Kittery
Point, in Maine, where his parents had a summer
cottage, but their home was in New Hampshire, and
Prof. Penhallow always regarded himself as a New
Hampshire man. His family were in the direct line
of descent from Governor Wentworth, of pre-Revolu-
tionary days, and Prof. Penhallow was a splendid
embodiment of the best tj^pe of New Englander. He
received his scientific education in Boston University,
and after graduation he was offered the post of
professor of botany in the Imperial College of Agri-
culture in Japan. In the same year (1876) he married
Miss Sarah Dunlap, who, like himself, could boast
of a distinguished New England ancestry, and the
first four years of his married life were spent in Japan.
He thus enjoyed the distinction of being one of the
group of Western students who were chosen by the
Reformed Japanese Government to inaugurate the
epoch of Meiji (intellectual enlightenment) in Japan.

Returning to America in 1880, he undertook work
in connection . with the summer school of botany in
Harvard University, and in 1883 he was offered the
newly-created chair of botany in McGill University,
Montreal, where the rest of his professional life was
spent. He had a very uphill fight in Montreal, which
he manfully fought. There was no botanical labora-
tory and there were no funds to provide one ; but as
Prof. Penhallow gained the respect and esteem of the
community help was forthcoming, and before he died
the botanical laboratory was exceedingly well equipped.
When he was appointed obscurantist views prevailed in
Montreal, both in the city and in the University, and
Prof. Penhallow was one of the very first to teach
evolution, and may thus be said to have helped to
inaugurate the epoch of "meiji" in Montreal. In his
own science he devoted special attention to the
anatomy of woods, both recent and fossil ; on this
subject he publis'hed many valuabTe~~papers, and in
his great work on " Gymnosperms," which appeared
in 1908, he summed up the results of twenty years'
labour. His eminence in his special department was

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

cordially recognised by the American scientific world,
and when he died he was not only president of the
American Society of Naturalists, but vicerpresident of
the American Society of Botanists.

But Prof. Penhallow's activities were by no means
limited to teaching in his special subject. He threw
himself into every movement calculated to bring a
wider intellectual outlook into Montreal and Canada
generally. He instituted courses of lectures to
teachers, which had for many years a beneficial effect
on those engaged in instruction in the public schools
of the city. He was a leading member of the Canadian
Royal Society, and in 1897, when the British Asso-
ciation met in Toronto, he was appointed a member
of a committee to impress on the Canadian Govern-
ment the desirability of founding a marine biological
station. The Government acted in accordance with
the advice of this committee, and in 1899 ^ small
floating station was started, which was moved from
placed to place in eastern Canadian waters.

When in 1907 the Government was persuaded to
give a grant towards the foundation of a permanent
station at St. Andrews, Prof. Penhallow was deputed
by the Biological Board to supervise its erection.
When he arrived at St. Andrews it was found to be
necessary not only to build the station, but to cut a
road through a mile of forest and to build a wharf.
No one was ready to undertake the contract for this
work, and those who were ready to undertake part of
it, when they discovered that it was to be paid for by
"Government money," would only do so at exorbitant
prices. With characteristic American energy and ver-
satility. Prof. Penhallow threw himself into the
breach, became contractor himself, and constructed
the road, the station, and the wharf in one-third the
time he was told it would require, and at a great]
saving in cost. Next year he superintended the activi-
ties of the station, but a political crisis at Ottawa!
temporarily stopped supplies, and the anxiety andl
financial strain which he underwent undermined his]
health, and, in the opinion of his friends, constituted'
the first link in the chain of causes which led to his
death.

Prof. Penhallow is survived by his wife and
by his son. Dr. P. Penhallow, who is engaged in
medical practice in Boston. By his death McGill
University loses one of its most distinguished pro-
fessors, the city of Montreal one of its most public-
spirited citizens, and the science, not only of botany,
but of marine biology generally, a devoted supporter
who could ill be spared. E. W. M.

NOTES.

We learn with great regret that it has been found
necessary to postpone the festivities arranged to take place
at Leyden to-day (November 3). On this date Prof, van
Bemmelen completes his eightieth year, and he was to
have received the personal congratulations of friends and
disciples from all parts of the world. Owing to his illness,
the ceremony is to be confined to the formal presentation
of the jubilee volume by Prof. Lorentz, if, as is hoped,
Prof, van Bemmelen is sufficiently recovered to receive
him. The jubilee volume is a remarkable testimony to
the regard which is felt throughout the world for the dis-
tinguished second founder of colloidal chemistry. It con-
tains a portrait, together with a biography and a biblio-
graphy of the professor's published works. Sixty papers
on subjects connected with the colloidal state have been
contributed by workers from all parts of the world.
Amongst the authors are le Chatelier, Duhem, Zsigmondy,
Liesegang, von Wiemarn, Hissink, Freundlich, Biltz,
Spring, Hardy, Svedborg, Jordis, Wolf. Ostwald, Lotter-

November 3, 19 10]

NATURE

17

nioser, Nietzk, Spiro, Bechold, Tamman, Barus, Bredig,
Lorenz, Malfitano, &c. The volume is published by
C. de Boer, Helder, Holland.

The Allahabad Pioneer Mail of October 7 contains a

melancholy review of a resolution recently passed by the

Punjab Government regarding the prevention of plague.

This resolution records that, in the opinion of a com-

rttee consisting of plague experts and district officers of

perience, " no remedy has been found for the disease ;

ihat the people generally will not go to plague doctors to

b^» treated when suffering from plague ; that disinfection

of houses by means of chemicals, or even by heat, as a

means for checking or preventing an epidemic is useless ;

that rat destruction by poison or trapping is almost equally

useless ; and that inoculation, though a splendid means

of individual protection, cannot be used to check the

epidemic owing to popular prejudice." As the result of

this, the Punjab Government propose, while keeping on

the field the establishment of plague doctors, to reduce

the cost if possible, and make suggestions as to how this

can be done. It is not easy from this report in the

Pioneer Mail to analyse the evidence upon which the

Punjab Government acts, but the paper must cause

melancholy reflections among the friends of India. Is it

not true that the words non possumus are somewhat fre-

ently heard from the mouth of the Government of

Ha? We have just listened to them in connection with

alaria prevention, and we have heard them over and

r again in connection with the prevention of cholera.

rhaps a complete reform in the sanitary service of the

untry, with much more attention to sanitary investiga-

in and a more generous employment of trained scientific

.vorkers, would not only save the Government the waste of

much money on fruitless efforts, but would also do more

to ensure success in the future.

CoLONFL W. C. GoRGAS, who has done such splendid
tvork in removing mosquito-borne diseases from the
Panama Canal zone, sends a short letter to the Times of
October 28 in which he gives the death-rates for that
area ; and they are so remarkable that we here reprint
his facts. Colonel Gorgas says : — " For the years since
our occupation the statistics for the city of Panama have
been as follows : —

Xo. of deaths Death-rate per 1000
1,447 •.. 65-82
1,142 ... 4475
1,156 ... 34-45
. 1,292 ... 34-83
. 1,038 ... 25-44
The rates for the Canal Zone, under American jurisdic-
tion, including the cities of Colon and Panama, are as
follows : —

Vear

Population

1905 .

21,984

1906

25,518

1907 .

33,548

1908 .

37,073

1909 .

40,801

Year
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909

Population

56,624

73,264

102,133

120,097

135,180

No. of deaths Death-rate per looo

2,828
3.544

3,435

2,983

2,459

49 94
48-37
33-63
24-83
18-19

Among employes the rates have been as follows : —

Ys*r Employes Death-rate per 1000

1905 16,511 25-86

1906 26,475 4173

1907 39,343 28-74

1908 43,890 13-01

1909 47,167 1064

There has been no case of either plague or yellow fever
on the Isthmus since 1905. We admitted to our hospitals
for malaria in the year 1905, 514 cases for each thousand
NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

employes; in 1906, 821 cases for each thousand employes;
in 1907, 424 for each thousand employes ; 1908, 282 for
each thousand empksy^s ; and 1909, 215 for each thousand
employes."

^ There seems little doubt that the four deaths reported
recently at Freston, in Suffolk, were due to plague. To
prevent any further development of the disease, active
measures are being adopted to effect a general destruction
of rats in Freston and the neighbourhood. The southern
part of rural Ipswich has been systematically explored,
and large quantities of poison laid down. The Samford
Rural District Council has issued a warning notice point-
ing out that it is dangerous to touch dead rats with the
naked hand, and urging their burial without delay. The
public has been requested not to eat rabbits or hares
killed in the district. The notice also urges a general
campaign against uncleanliness and insects. The ques-
tion of destroying rats over a wider area than that pro-
posed has been raised, as many dead rodents have been
found north of the Orwell. It is pointed out that the
increase of rats can be traced to the practical extinction
of their natural enemies — owls, kestrels, and hawks, which
are now seldom seen in the localit}-. The origin of the
disease is still uncertain, but there is reason to believe,
in view of the plague at Odessa, that grain vessels from
the Black Sea to the River Orwell may have brought over
plague-stricken rats. The position of knowledge as re-
gards the relation between rats and the spread of plague
is described in an article elsewhere in this issue.

Is the gardens of the Zookagicaf Society of London,
Regent's Park, there is now in flower a specimen of Agave
Americana. The Agaves are popularly known as
" American " Aloes ; but there are no true Aloes in
-'\merica, the genus being almost entirely confined to South
Africa. Agave is a member of the natural order
Amaryllidaceae, and Aloe of the natural order Liliaceae.
Another popular fallacy connected with the Agaves is the
belief that the plants flower after 100 years and then die,
hence the Agave is sometimes called the centurv- plant.
The facts are these, that the plants, being monocarpic,
are only capable of flowering once, but the age at
which a particular specimen will flower is determined by
many circumstances, including constitutional characters
and the suitability or otherwise of the conditions in which
the plant is growing. These remarks apply specially to
.Agave Americana, for another species, namely, .4. Sartori,
is capable of flowering from year to year. A. Americana
has very thick leaves of from 4 feet to 6 feet in length.
They have sharp prickles all along the margins, and each
leaf has a stiff, sharp point i inch to 2 inches long ; these
latter are sometimes called " Adam's needles." The plant
contains fibre in the roots and leaves, and the fibre is
used for commercial purposes. Agaves are cultivated for
ornamental purposes in this country, being used frequently
as terrace plants in large boxes or tubs. The flower spikes
grow very rapidly when once they have formed, their
height varying from about 15 feet to upwards of 20 feet.
The numerous flowers are greenish-yellow, occasionally
quite yellow, but scarcely golden as they are sometimes
described. The plant which is now flowering at Regent's
Park has stood out of doors during the summer, but it is
blooming in the warm atmosphere of the reptile house.
Ai'other specimen bloomed in the same gardens in 1906,
and two specimens flowered in the Victoria Park, London,
in 1902. In Mr. Smith's gardens in the Scilly Islands a
dozen or more specimens flowered out of doors in 1875,
and in the south of France Agaves in flower are not un-

iS

NATURE

[NOVF.MBER 3, 1910

common objects. There is a variegated variety of
A. Aynericana which is more ornamental than the type.

It is announced in the Revue scientifique that Prof.
Kammerling Onnes, of the University of Leyden, has put
his cryogenic laboratory at the disposal of Madame Curie
for her researches on radio-activity at low temperatures.

The daily Press has recently given currency to a vague
report that a " vast lake " has been discovered in an
unexplored part of north-western Canada by Indians, which
they declare to be as large as Lake Superior. The report
is hardly likely to be correct so far as the size of the lake
is concerned.

A COURSE of twelve lectures on " The Coasts of Great
Britain and Ireland " (Swiney lectures on geology) will
be delivered by Dr. T. J. Jehu in the lecture theatre of
the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, on
Mondays and Tuesdays at 5 p.m., and Saturdays at 3 p.m.,
beginning Saturday, November 5. Admission to the course
is free.

A Reuter message from Vienna states that on
October 28 the Radium Institute created there by the
Academy of Sciences was formally opened by the Archduke
Rainer. The new institute is to be devoted solely to
chemical and physical research, and will be open to scien-
tific men of all countries. The institute has at its dis-
posal three grams of radium from Joachimsthal.

At the annual general meeting of the Cambridge Philo-
sophical Society, held on October 31, the following officers
were elected : — President, Sir George H. Darwin, K.C.B. ;
vice-presidents, Dr. Fenton, Prof. A. C. Seward, and Prof.
H. F. Newall ; treasurer. Prof. E. W. Hobson ; secretaries,
Mr. A. E. Shipley, Dr. Barnes, and Mr. A. Wood. The
new members of the council elected are Mr. E. A. Newell
Arber, Sir Joseph J. Thomson, and Mr. J. E. Purvis.

The Chemical Society's banquet to past presidents,
which was postponed from May 26, will be held at
the Savoy Hotel (Embankment entrance) on Friday,
November 11. The banquet is in honour of the following
past presidents who have attained their jubilee as fellows
of the society : — Prof. William Odling, F.R.S., the Rt.
Hon. Sir Henry E. Roscoe, F.R.S., Sir William Crookes,
F.R.S., Dr. Hugo Muller, F.R.S., and Dr. A. G. Vernon
Harcourt, F.R.S.

The Berlin correspondent of the Times states that the
German Ministry of the Interior has called a meeting to be
held within the next few days 10 consider whether the
foundation of a special institute for aviation research is
practicable, or whether the work can be better carried out
by existing institutions. Delegates from the Imperial
Government and the Federal States will be present,
together with representatives of the German technical
universities, of various associations connected with aviation
and motors, and of the industries concerned.

The death is announced of Dr. D. J. B. Gernez, member
of the Paris Academy of Sciences and a former collaborator
of Pasteur. From a notice in the Times we learn that
Dr. Gernez was born in 1834. On the completion of his
studies he filled various posts as a teacher of scientific
subjects. While engaged upon professorial work at the
Lyc6e Louis-le-Grand he assisted Pasteur in some of his
researches, and was for many years an intimate friend and
collaborator of the great French investigator. For more
than twenty years Dr. Gernez was a lecturer at the Ecole
Normale of Paris, a post which he held simultaneously

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

with professorships at other great educational institution-.
and from which he retired in 1904. Dr. Gernez was th
author of a number of treatises on scientific subjects, ami
was an Officer of the Legion d'Honneur.

At the general meeting of the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh, held on October 24, the following office-bearer<
were elected: — President, Sir William Turner, K.C.B. ,
F.R.S. ; vice-presidents. Prof. Crum Brown, F.R.S., Prof.
J. C. Ewart, F.R.S., Dr. J. Home, F.R.S., Dr. J.
Burgess, Prof. T. Hudson Beare, Prof. F. O. Bower,
F.R.S.; general secretary. Prof. G. Chrystal ; secretaries
to ordinary meetings, Dr. C. G. Knott, Dr. R. Kidston,
F.R.S.; treasurer, Mr. J. Currie ; curator of library and
museum. Dr. J. S. Black; councillors, Prof. J. W.
Gregory, F.R.S. ; Dr. A. P. Laurie, Prof. Wm. Peddie,
Prof. H. M. Macdonald, F.R.S., Prof. D. Noel Paton,
Dr. W. S. Bruce, Prof. F. G. Baily, Dr. J. G. Bartholo-
mew, Dr. R. H. Traquair, F.R.S., Prof. James Walker,
F.R.S., Prof. A. Robinson, and Dr. W. S. M'Cormick.

A meeting of the Optical Convention executive com-
mittee was held on October 25 in the rooms of the
Chemical Society to consider the desirability of holding a
second convention in the year 1912. On the motion of
Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, C.B., F.R.S., it was resolved that
a meeting of the permanent committee, which all members
of the trade and others interested be invited to attend, be
held some time in November to consider what action
should be taken with the view of organising an optical
convention in 1912. The time and place for this meeting
will be announced as early as possible. The chair will
be taken by Dr. Glazebrook, director of the National
Physical Laboratory, as chairman of the permanent com-
mittee, and a statement of the principal matters to be
brought forward for consideration at the meeting will be
published in due course.

The magnetic survey yacht Carnegie left Para, at the
mouth of the Amazon, under the command of Mr. W. J.
Peters, on October 15, bound for Rio de Janeiro. This
vessel, since leaving Brooklyn last June on her present
cruise of three years in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific
Oceans, had covered nearly 7000 miles up to Para, during
which i>ortions of the first cruise were several times inter-
sected by the introduction of loops. It is reported that the
magnetic results obtained on the present cruise up to Para
have fully confirmed the errors revealed by the first cruise
in the existing magnetic charts of the North Atlantic.
From Rio de Janeiro the Carnegie will proceed to Monte-
video and Buenos .Aires, and thence across to Cape Town,
where she is due towards the end of March, 1911. At the
latter port the director, Dr. Bauer, expects to rejoin the
vessel, and be with her on the portion of the cruise in the
Indian Ocean. En route to Cape Town, Dr. Bauer is to
visit certain magnetic institutions in Europe in order to
perfect arrangements for cooperative magnetic survey
work.

The Morning Post National Fund .\irship made a flight
from Moisson to Aldershot on October 26. The airship
left Moisson at 10 a.m. (French time), the coast of Fran(
near St. Valery en.Caux at 12 noon, passed over th'
English coast-line near Rottingdean at 2.18 p.m., and
reached Aldershot at 3.28 p.m., being brought to earth at
4.5 p.m. The distance of 197 miles was accomplished in
5h. 28m. The rate of speed was about 36 miles an hour,
including partially adverse wind conditions. The airship
carried a crew of eight. During the journey 528 lb. of
ballast were used ; 400 litres of petrol were consumed by

November .3, 19 10]

NATURE

19

the engines, and at the moment of landing there were
RSo lb. of water ballast, 990 lb. of petrol in reserve, in

icJition to at least 200 litres in the reservoirs. The

^ines started at 850 revolutions; they then worked up
qoo revolutions, and fell again to 850, and only finally

:ring the landing worked at their full power of 1000

solutions. The highest altitude reached was 2120 feet,
and throughout the sea passage there was a steady level
of about 200 feet. The overall length of the airship is
;;7-75 feet, and the water- and gas-proof envelope has a

pacity of 353,165-8 cubic feet.

Ax appeal is made for funds to erect a new building for
the Royal Society of Medicine. Of the sum required, the

riety has already provided 17,000/., and it asks that not

-s than 26,000/. may be contributed from without, so
:hat it may not be crmpelled to curtail its very valuable
"Liblic and scientific work. Towards the money in hand

:'X>/. has been subscribed by members of the medical pro-

-^ion. The Lord Mayor has become chairman of a

' insion House committee formed to promote the raising
upwards of 30,000/. for the new building. The governor
the Bank of England has opened an account for the

ceipt of donations, which may be sent to the Bank of
England, payable to " The Royal Society of Medicine
Building Fund," or to the Lord Mayor at the Mansion
House. The society now has 3200 fellows and members,
and possesses a library- of nearly 100.000 volumes. It was
originally founded in 1805, under the name of " The Royal
Medical and Chirurgical Society. " A new charter was

anted it in 1005 under the new name of " The Royal

ciety of Medicine."

Several of the Parisian hospitals entertained their
isitors last Christmas to kinematograph exhibitions, in
which very realistic phases in the life-histor>- of various
pathogenic organisms were thrown on the lantern screen.
On October 28 Messrs. Path^ Fr^res, of Paris, gave the
-r-^mbers of the Medical Society of King's College Hospital
opportunity of seeing some of their most successful
applications of thf- kinematograph to bacteriological photo-
micrography. The films shown represented (i) the experi-
mental production of sleeping sickness in a rat, and the
movements of the irypanosomes in the blood ; (2) the
spirochjita of recurrent fever, and the ticks which convev
the parasite ; (3) the spirochieta of fowls, some of which
were seen imprisoned and revolving within the red cor-
puscles ; (4) the movements of the infusoria from the intes-
tine of a mouse ; (5) Trypancroma lewisi of the rat ;
(6) Spirochaeta pallida, which, although only i /2000th of
a millimetre in width, could be followed in its movements
across the field of the microscope. Other films were shown
representing involuntary movements of the embn.o of the
Axolotl and its emergence from the egg, and the move-
ments of the human stomach as seen during an X-rav
examination of a patient. There can be no doubt that
these films are a triumph of technique, but the gain at
present is rather in favour of the public entertainer than
of the worker in science. The main advantage from a
scientific point of view is that rapid movements may be
slowed and analysed, while slow movements may be
accelerated, and thus realised. Such films will become an
essential part of the equipment of every physiok)gical and
medical workroom.

Three years ago the council of the Royal College of
burgeons, England, instituted demonstrations in connection
with the museum. .At one of these, given in the theatre
of the college on October 28, the conservator, Dr. .Arthur
Keith, showed a series of specimens illustrating irregulari-
ties in the differentiation of sexual characters. The
NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

museum is peculiarly rich in specimens of this nature
owing to the fact that John Hunter, its founder, had pre-
served many preparations which illustrated tfie influence
of the sexual organs in determining the growth and
features of many parts of the body. Amongst these are
I the specimens which show the assumption of the male
plumage of aged pea-hens and hen pheasants. Prepara-
tions added to the museum by Mr. S. G. Shattock show
that such an alteration of secondary sexual characters is
accompanied by a change in the sexual glands, usually of
an atrophic nature. A- Leghorn fowl, in which the
external characters were those of a cock rather than of a
hen, had genital glands of an ovo-testicular tjpe. The
Hunterian preparations, illustrating the sexual organs of
the " Free-Martin " — a form of ox born as the twin of a
perfect bull calf — were also exhibited. Although these
specimens had been preserved for more than 150 years„-
their tissue was in perfect condition for microscopical >
examination. In one case Hunter was of opinion that
both testes and ovaries were present in the same individual
(a true hermaphrodite), but on microsc<^ical examination ^
it was found that the " ovary " was really a mass formed
by a remnant of the Wolffian body. .A higher vertebrate
• with both testes and ovary has not yet been seen. Hunter
explained all irregularities in the development of the
accessory sexual organs and of " secondare* " sexual
characters as the result of an " imperfection " in the
development of the testis and ovar}'. .AH museum speci-
mens an>l recent experiments are in favour of his inter-
pretation.

The third part of the fourth volume of Memoirs of the
Peabody Museum is devoted to an account by Mr. Teobert
Maler of a series of adventurous journeys starting from
the north of Yucatan and extending to the great lake of
Peten-itza, in Guatemala. The value of the memoir would
have been enhanced by a sketch of the routes, which are
not traceable on ordinary maps. Several important sites
representative of the Maya-Toltec culture were identified,
such as ^^otul, where a remarkable stela depicting a pair
of dancing priests was found, Tubusil, Silbituk, and the
remarkable island city of Itza-Flores. When the country
passes under the control of a decent government the great
lake of Peten will be brought into connection with the
sea, and vast economical resources of this region will be
developed, with the result that the remarkable ruined
cities connected with the career of Cortes will receive
adequate examination.

Ix the Oxford and Cambridge Review for Michaelmas
term Dr. .A. Smythe Palmer concludes his study on the
luck of the horse-shoe. He arrives at the conclusion that
it is derived from the cult of the new moon, which was
adopted by primitive races as a symbol of recoverv and
good fortune. Incidentally, he has collected some curious"
examples to show that the symbol was regarded as possess-
ing magical power among the prehistoric people of"
Europe, as is proved by various records of the discovery
of horse-shoes in ancient interments, by the shape of
many tumuli, and by the ring of trilithons at Sione-
henge. He further points out that, following Babylonian
precedent, the rising moon lying on her back was believed
to be a silver boat. He thus disposes of the controversv
between two sets of people who use the talisman in our
days — one preferring to fix it with the heels upwards, the
other downwards — in favour of the former.

Ix the Field of October 22 Mr. Lydekker points out
that the new antelope described in N.ature of September 29
(P- 397) as Strepsiceros buxtoni, with the alternative name
of Tragelaphus buxtoni, should be known by the latter title."

20

NATURE

[November 3, 1910

In the Zoologist for October Mr. F. J. Stubbs adduces
further evidence, especially an Act of 1564 (2 Eliz. c. 15),
to show that egrets were formerly common in England.
" At the middle of the sixteenth century England was the
liomo^ of an egret that was highly esteemed for the table.
It nested with us, and was protected by law; and the
same, or an allied, species inhabited an adjacent part of
the Continent, and was brought to this country alive for
food. Probably the bird was not altogether white, thus
•differing from any existing European egrets or herons, and
resembling species now found in America."

Variation in the oyster-boring whelk (Urosalpinx
cincreus) forms the subject of an article by Dr. H. E.
Walter in the October number of the American Naturalist.
This mollusc is a native of the Atlantic coast of North
America, but was unavoidably introduced when oysters
were transplanted to the Pacific shore. It was the original
object of the article to compare these introduced Cali-
fornian whelks with their Atlantic prototypes, but com-
parisons were extended to a wider basis. As the result
of the investigation, it appears doubtful whether
Urosalpinx is more variable in its new than in its original
home.

As fossilised birds' feathers have hitherto been recorded
from only some fourteen localities — with one exception of
Tertiary age — brief reference may be made to Mr. F.
Chapman's description in vol. xxiii., part i., of the Pro-
■ceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, of a fossil of
this nature from the Tertiary ironstone of Redruth,
Victoria. No definite determination of the genus of the
specimen, which is in the form of impressions on the two
halves of a split nodule, is attempted, although it is
suggested that it may have belonged to one of the smaller
waders, such as the ibises.

The third botanical number of the current volume of
the Philippine Journal of Science contains a compilation
of new or noteworthy Philippine plants, and a sixth part
of an index to Philippine botanical literature, both pre-
pared by Mr. E. D. Merrill. Among the new plants,
about a hundred in number, mostly trees or shrubs, there
are eleven additions to the genus Ardisia, ten to Ixora,
and six to Hiptage ; also new genera, Astrocalyx and
Cephalomedinilla, are proposed under the family Mela-
stomacese, Curraniodendron under Saxifragaceae, and
Pygmaeopremna under Verbenaceae. With reference to
Ixora, it is noted that Ixora coccinea does not grow wild,
but a closely allied species, I. philippinensis, is abundant
and widely distributed.

An enumeration of twenty-eight flowering plants and
ferns growing on a London building site, about half an
acre in extent, in Farringdon Street that has been vacant
for two years is communicated by Mr. J. C. Shenstone
to the Selborne Magazine (October). As the author points
out, the chief interest lies in the methods of distribution
by which the plants have reached the spot, and he has
classed them as wind-distributed, kitchen refuse weeds,
and forage or packing weeds. It is extremely puzzling
to find a growth of bracken fern, since the plant is very
difficult to transplant, and the appearance of Ficus Carica
is not immediately explicable. Three casuals, that is,
plants not indigenous to Britain, are provided by
Epilohium angustifolium, Senecio viscosus, and Erigeron
canadense.

Of the flowers which undergo marked changes after
feitilisation, tropical orchids afford some striking examples.
For instance, it frequently happens that after the poUinia
reach the stigma the flowers fade prematurely, the column

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

swells, the stigmatic surface becomes enclosed, and eventu-
ally the ovules begin to develop. It would generally bi-
assumed that these changes can only be induced by the
stimulus of the pollen on the stigmatic surface, and the
subsequent growth of the pollen tube. It has, however,
been observed by Dr. H. Fitting, as is pointed out in the
Gardener's Chronicle (October 29), that certain of these
effects can be produced by inorganic means. Thus scratch-
ing the stigmatic surface suffices to cause premature
withering, and the application of dead pollinia or an
extract therefrom may bring about swelling of the column ;
but apparently development of the ovules does require the
stimulus induced by the pollen grains penetrating the
ovary.

Among the numerous articles now appearing in agri-
cultural publications on the growth of sugar-beet in
England, one, by Mr. Chas. Bathurst, M.P., in the
Agricultural Students' Gazette (vol. xv., part i.) deserves
some attention. The importation of beet sugar into
Great Britain is steadily increasing, and amounted in 1908
to nearly eighteen and a half million pounds sterling in :
value. Much of this could be produced in England, but
the ojjeration of the sugar bounties rendered the industry
financially impracticable. Now that the bounties are
abolished by the Sugar Convention, active steps are being !
taken in several counties to start factories, which, in Mr.
Bathurst 's view, should prove distinctly profitable unless
an excise duty is placed on the sugar. An average crop.
is given as 18 tons per acre, selling at the factory for i8s^
per ton, or 16I. 45. The cost of production, including
the rent of the land, should not exceed gl. per acre, leav^j
ing a profit to the cultivator of yl. 45. per acre.

The summary of the weather issued by the Meteor-^
ological Office shows that for the eight weeks of autumi
as yet expired the aggregate rainfall has been largelj
deficient over the entire area of the British Islands. The
greatest deficiency occurs in the north of Scotland, where
the total rainfall is only 2-89 inches, which is 6-24 inche
less than the average of the corresponding period for the
last twenty-five years. In the west of Scotland the
deficiency is 5-13 inches, the aggregate rainfall being onlj
3-10 inches. In the north of Ireland the deficiency i^
3-98 inches, and in the north-west of England 3-60 inches^
In the south-east of England, which comprises London,
the deficiency amounts to i-i6 inches. The duration
bright sunshine for the period is deficient, except in a fev
northern districts, the greatest deficiency being fifty-eigli
hours in the east of England and fifty-six hours in thf
Midland counties. The mean temperature was not ver
different from the average, but its maximum readings werfl
lower than usual, the absolutely highest temperature since
September 4 being 76°, in the Midland counties. Frost al
night has, as yet, only occurred in a very few districts^
The aggregate rainfall since the commencement of the yea
is not very different from the average, but there is an
excess, except in a few of the northern districts. Th«|
duration of bright sunshine as yet this year is generally
deficient, the deficiency exceeding one hundred hours ir
the eastern districts of England.

In the Proceedings of the Amsterdam Academy
Sciences of June 25 Dr. W. van Bemmelen and Dr. Cj
Braak give a preliminary report upon the investigation
of the upper air, begun at Batavia in 1909. The observa^^
tory is now equipped with registering balloons and suitable
instruments, but it was thought advisable to procee
cautiously in using them so near to the sea before obtain^J
ing more knowledge of the drift of the upper currents by''
means of pilot balloons. The following data showing the

November 3, 19 10]

NATURE

21

in decrease of the temperature gradient per lOO metres
lie lower 2 kilometres were obtained (i) above the land
1 a captive balloon and light wind; (2) above the
i with a moderate westerly wind, with kites; and (3)
ve the sea (January 14-20), weather rainy, with kites;
the results are not strictly comparable, owing to
rences of time of day : —

Metres IOO-5CO 500-icco 1000-1500

Balloon ... o 77- C. ... 0-37- ... —
Kite(lan«^)... 087 •■ 072 ... 044 (<I500M)

Kite (sea)... O 91 ... 059 ... 0-]l

Further kite observations over sea gave for 1500-2000 m.,
0-34°; 2000-2500 m., 050°; 2500-3000 m., 0-46°. At
about 1000 m. the gradient shows a sudden decrease, prob-
ably due to the formation of cumulus clouds. The observa-
tions of wind direction for the period September-May show
that the upper air-current has easterly components up to
the greatest heights attained (10-15 km.). The average
altitude of the west monsoon was 5-4 km. The upper
easterly, as well as the lower westerly, winds were some-
times affected by strong northerly or southerly components.
It is mentioned that diagrams of a registering balloon sent
up on May 19, during the passage of the earth through
tfie tail of Halley's comet, showed no other noteworthy
feature than an inversion of temperature between 6 and
7 km. ; the balloon burst at about 7 km.

The various methods of finding the height of an airship

are discussed by Captain Paul Renard in the Revue

scientifique for September 17. Of the several methods of

observing the height from the airship itself. Captain

Renard considers that the use of the barometer affords

only practicable one. Of the methods of observing

height from the ground the large majority involve

- niultaneous measurement of several angles, and this is,

general, impracticable. Captain Renard considers that

best methods are by observation with a telemeter,

.;pled with a determination of the altitude, or by two

•ultaneous observations of the altitude at the instant

airship is in the vertical plane joining the two

-•?rvers. ,

The Builder for October 29 contains an illustrated article
'i-scriptive of the fine building now being erected in London
: the Y.M.C.A. This building occupies an island site of
ne 33.000 square feet, bounded by Great Russell Street,
dford .Avenue, Tottenham Court Road, and Caroline
r-»et. Reinforced concrete plays an important part, and
^ been employed for the solution of various structural
roblems of considerable magnitude. The building is not
•:- of the reinforced concrete skeleton class merely
athed in masonry-, but rather is a combination of
isonry with reinforced concrete, the latter material
king the duties hitherto very generally assigned to
uctura' steel-work in modern architecture. Thus we
d reinforced concrete columns, beams, and wall lintels
rming the backbone of masonry features, and bearing a
rge proportion of the loads to be supported, yet without
\olving any noticeable departure from the familiar aspect
masonry. In some important respects reinforced con-
.-te is exclusively adopted, as in floor, roof, gallery stair-
vay, and swimming-bath construction, and in the form
of exceptionally large girders. The details of the rein-
forced concrete work were prepared by Messrs. L. G.
Mouchel and Partners, in accordance with the Hennebique
system.

-An article by Mr. Fullerton L. Waldo on recent pro-
gress in the construction of the Panama Canal appears in
the Engineering Magazine for October. Rapid progress

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

has been made in the great lock-works and the huge dam
that is rising at Gatun. The three lock flights divide the
vertical distance to the 85-foot level between them, whereas
the locks of the Pacific division have lifts of 33 1 feet and
54§ feet respectively. The usable dimensions of the locks,
are 1000 feet by no feet, giving ample margin for even
the new White Star liners, the overall dimensions of which
are 890 feet in length and 92 feet in width. It is calcu-
lated that the lock-stair at Gatun will require about
I J hours for the transit ; the Pacific locks will detain the
vessels for about the same length of time. The total
passage across the Isthmus wilj take about 10 to 12 hours.
The train takes about 2 J hours, so that passengers will
probably prefer this method of transit. About 15 minutes
are required to fill the lock chamber, but in case of need
for haste the process can be completed in about half this
time. The available water supply will allow of 48 ktckages
per day, which might mean an average of something like
80,000,000 tons of traffic annually as compared with-
21,000,000 tons in the case of the Suez Canal and the
40,000,000 tons of the Sault Ste. Marie.

We have received the first five numbers of a leaflet
entitled Hygieia, which is published by the Bureau of the
International Congress of Hygiene, which is to be held in
Dresden in 191 1. It contains notices with regard to the
congress and brief abstracts of papers dealing with sub-
jects appertaining to hygiene, e.g. sugar as a food-stuff,
taverns as hospitals, cleansing of towns, &c.

Messrs. Newton .\sd Co., Fleet Street, London, have
issued a supplementary list of lantern-slides for the present
session. .Among many others, we notice numerous astro-
nomical slides dealing with Halley's comet, the moon, and
Greenwich Observatory ; a set of slides showing Sicily and
Messina after the earthquake ; sets to illustrate eight lec-
tures on India, drawn up by Mr. H. J. Mackinder for the
Visual Instruction Committee ; and slides showing aerial
experiments and aeroplanes.

The Penny Science Lectures at the Royal Victoria Hall.
Waterloo Road, S.E., during November include : —
November 8, " Early Men in Britain," W. Lower Carter,,
and November 22, " Liquid Air," Dr. R. Whittan Gray.

Mr. H. K. Lewis, of Gower Street, London, has pub-
lished a catalogue of new books and new editions added
to his well-known medical and scientific circulating library
during July, August, and September of this year.

OUR ASTROXOMICAL COLUMN.

FiREB.\i.L OF October 23. — Mr. W. F. Denning writes : —
" The fireball of Sunday, October 23, Sh. 12m., was
observed at Kenley (Surrey), llford (Essex), and in Wales,
as well as at other places. It appears to have passed over
thj sea N.E. of the mouth of the Thames at heights
of 84 to 40 miles. The length of the luminous course was
about 75 miles, and the velocity 19 miles per second-
Radiant near o Arietis.

" The observation of the meteor from stations in Wales
is interesting, and it is probable that the object was seen
from a great many towns in England, for it appeared at
a time when many people would be out of doors. The
sky was, it is true, cloudy at some places and veiled the
brilliant light of the meteor, but it was a very fine one,
and gave several flashes as it slowly sailed along the
E.N.E. as seen from the neighbourhood of London. It
is important that if any further observations of an exact
character were made they should be published, so that the
flight of the object may be investigated accurately."

The Motion of Molecules in the Tail of Halley's
Comet. — In a recent note in these columns (September 29,
p. 404) attention was directed to some results published

22

NATURE

[November 3, 1910

by Prof. Lowell in which he showed that particles repelled
by light-pressure along the tail of Halley's comet travelled
with accelerating velocities. An important addition to
these results is now published in No. 48 of the Lowell
Observatory Bulletins. By comparing the images shown
on direct ' photographs with those shown on contem-
|X)raneous objective-prism spectrograms, taken under con-
ditions which permit the comparison, Prof. Lowell has
educed evidence that the gaseous molecules of the tail
were repelled by light-pressure.

A series of spectrograms, taken during April and May,
shows that the constituents of the tail varied consider-
ably from one date to another. But the evidence indicates
that on May 23 about 70 per cent, of the radiations repre-
sented on the spectrograms was due to emission, the re-
maining 30 per cent, being taken up by the continuous
spectrum. That is to say, that the knots previously
measured, on the direct photographs for May 23, were
composed chiefly of gaseous molecules. As these knots
showed, by their accelerating velocities, the action of a
repulsive force exerted from the sun, it follows that light-
pressure is competent to repel gaseous molecules.

Confirmation of this important result is derived from a
similar comparative study of the direct and spectral
images of the tail of Morehouse's comet. The spectro-
scopic evidence in that case indicated that practically all
the light recorded on the plates was emitted by gaseous
particles, yet the direct photographs afforded evidence of
the action of light-pressure.

The Dark Band surrounding the Polar Caps of
Mars. — Readers of these columns will remember the dis-
cussion raised by M. Antoniadi's contention that the dark
band seen circling the polar cap on Mars is simply a
contrast effect. In support of this contention M.
Antoniadi stated (see Nature, December 23, 1909, vol.
Ixxxii., p. 227) that photographs of the planet, taken in
America, did not show the dark band, although at the
same time they showed that the cap was not brighter than
the continental areas, and therefore irradiation could not
be adduced as the reason for the absence of the band.
Prof. Lowell, in a note appearing in No. 4448 of the
Astronomische Nachrichten, emphatically states that the
photographs do show that the polar cap is brighter than
the " continents," and actually irradiates in consequence
beyond the confines of the disc. Further, the screen
through which the photographs were taken was such that
the relative brightness of the caps would be considerably
modified.

The Spectrum of Nova Sagittarii No. 2. — The nova
recently announced by Mrs. Fleming appears on sixteen
photographs taken at Arequipa between March 21 and
June 10 ; the magnitude varied from 7-8 to 8-6 between
those dates. The spectrum is quite faint, but shows the
hydrogen lines, H/3, H7, H5, He, Hf, and Hrj, bright ; a
trace of Hy as a dark line is seen on the less refrangible
edge of the bright Hy line.

The star does not appear on seventeen photographs
taken between July 23, 1889, and October 7, 1909,
although stars down to magnitude 12-0 are shown on the
majority of the plates ; one plate shows the fifteenth
magnitude or fainter.

A visual observation by Mr. Leon Campbell, using the
Harvard 24-inch reflector on October 3, showed the magni-
tude of the nova to be 10-5.

Prof. Millosevich, on October 15, determined the position,
reduced to 19100, as i7h. S4m. 26-28s., —27° 32' 521",
and the magnitude as 10-4 (Astronomische Nachrichten,
No. 4448).

A New Variable Star or a Nova, 971910 Cygni. — In
No. 4448 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Mr. Hinks
records the discovery of what appears to be a new star,
or an unrecorded variable, on plates taken by him on
August 7, 10, and 12, 1909. The position of the object
is R.A. = i9h. 49m. S5-OIS., dec. = 4-36° 46' 57-4* (1900),
and the approximate magnitudes on the dates named were
104, IO-2, and 10-5 respectively.

Plates taken on August 17, 19, and 26 show no
trace of an object in this position, although those of
August 17 and 26 show stars down to magnitude 12-5 ;
nor could the star be found visually on September 19 and

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

26, when it should have been visible if brighter thai;
mag. 130.

Mr. Hinks publishes a chart of the region around tb.
object, and asks for any available information as to iis
appearance on photographs which may have been taken
elsewhere.

New Variable Stars in Harvard Map, No. 52. — In
Circular No. 162 of the Harvard College Observatory
Prof. Pickering announces the discovery, by Miss Cannon,
of twenty-two new variable stars on No. 52 of the Harvard
maps. The region of the plate is i8h. —60°, and
altogether thirty-five variables were found. Some of the,
new variables have ranges of three or four magnitudes,
one, D.M. —57° 8613, varying from 76 to 100 ; this is
of the Algol type, and has a spectrum of the fifth class.

ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE BRITISH
ASSOCIATION.
'T'HE Anthropological Section at the Sheffield meeting was
presided over by Mr. W. Crooke, whose works dealing
with the ethnology of India are well known and highly
valued by all anthropologists. His address has already
appeared in Nature (September 29) and need not be alluded
to here, except to refer to the tribute that was paid to the
work of Dr. Tylor, who has so lately resigned his pro-
fessorship at Oxford, and who presided over the department
(as it then was) of anthropology at the last Sheffield
meeting, held thirty-one years ago.

A feature of the section's work was the joint discussion
with Section L (Education) on the measurement of in-
telligence in school children, to which Dr. Spearman, Dr.
Lipmann, Dr. Myers, and Messrs. Burt, Brovirn, and Gray |
contributed. A report of this discussion will be given in I
the account of the proceedings in Section L.

Beyond this the work of the section ran on the usual
lines, the number of archaeological papers being again a
prominent feature. The section, as usual, had the advan- !
tage of hearing reports on their work by members of the
British Schools of Archaeology at Athens, Rome, and in
Egypt, and also from gentlemen who have been excavating
and exploring in the British Isles.

In the following summary the papers are broadly grouped
together under the various subjects with which they dealt.

Archaeology. ^^

Mr. T. Ashby described the excavations which have taken
place at Caerwent, the site of Venta Silurum. These have
consisted of the uncovering of several more houses, and of
the excavation of the central insula to the north of the city,
which contains the Forum and Basilica. This latter had no
apses, and from its S. aisle at each end were entrances into
the streets. The Forum was surrounded by an ambulatory
and shops. Numerous skeletons were found in another part
of the city, but were not contemporary, being obviously of
post-Roman date. Closely akin to this paper was Prof.
Bosanquet's account of the excavations at Caersws, under-
taken by the Liverpool committee for excavation and
research in Wales and the Marches.

Mr. H. D. Acland presented a paper on some prehistoric
monuments in the Scilly Isles, which consisted of a
description of two groups of menhirs. Several of those of
one group have a constant orientation differing 4° from a
normal bearing. A group of intersecting banks was also
described, which have a similar variation as the menhirs.

The excavation of a broch at Cogle, VVatten, Caithness,
was described by Mr. Alexander Sutherland. The building
had been overgrown with vegetation, and five successive
layers of ashes and pavement were found. Among the
Neolithic remains were several stone pestles, discovered in
the lowest stratum ; these were of a basalt-like stone and
were originally of oval or oblong shape, but had been worn
down by constant pounding until some of them had become
circular. The broch was 30 feet in diameter.

The Rev. Dr. Irving read a paper on the prehistoric
horse, found some little time ago at Bishop's Stortford.
Careful comparisons have been made with other skeletons,
and the conclusion seems warranted that it represents a late
Pleistocene race, which has survived into Neolithic, Bronze,
or the Early Iron period, the age of the deposit being

November 3. 19 10]

NATURE

23

difficult to judge, as stone, bronze, and iron have all been
found. The site, however, shows promise of proving to be
of some importance, and a committee has been appointed
by the association to assist in its c xamination.
A suggestive paper was contributed by Mr. George
linch on some unexplored fields in British archjeology, m
iiich he directed attention to the amount of destruction
ot antiquities which is occurring annually, urged the estab-
lishment of regular and systematic oversight of great
I engineering works which involve excavation and removal
of soil, and directed attention to certain promising forms of
archaeological exploration, such as blown sands, peat
iposses, marshes, and dried river sites.

The committee appointed to investigate the lake villages
in the neighbourhood of Glastonbury reported the results
of the work carried out at Meare, on two distinct groups of
low circular mounds. The excavations included the
examination of three dwellings and trenching with the
object of finding the palisading, but although the ground
was examined for some loo feet from the mounds, no such
border protection was discovered. The relics found were
all of the j'reatest interest and importance, and show
clearly that the Mearc people lived under similar physical
■ rinditions and civilisation as did their neighbours at
astonbuiy.

In what may be termed Mediterranean archaeology four
pers were presented. Messrs. A. M. Woodward and
;. A. Ormerod described a group of prehistoric sites
' xcavated by them in south-west Asia Minor. Nineteen
prehistoric mounds were examined, extending from the
plains of Elmeli in N.E. Lycia to Lake Kestel in Pisidia.
The potsherds found were mainly of a red hand-polished
ware, assignable to the Bronze age, but fragments of a
black polished ware were also discovered, some of which
ii;ay possibly be of Neolithic origin. Painted pottery show-
ing affinities to Cappadocian and Early Cypriote Iron age
; fabrics were also discovered, but this pottery appears to be
'pdependent of /Egean influence or importation. The
nains of a megalithic rectangular house were found.
A paper on excavations carried out in Thessaly in 1910
15 submitted by Messrs. A. J. B. Wace and M. S.
ompson, the sites chosen for the season's work being
~ ingli and Rachmani. On the first of these, remains of
olithic houses were discovered, square in plan with
...ternal buttresses. Celts and vases were found, and also
terra-cotta statuettes, of which the male figures, rare in
'■ Thessaly, showed markedly phallic characters, while the
female were steatopygous.
At Rachmani houses were discovered, and a considerable
i amount of pottery and a few figurines. A comparison of
I the two excavations enables the prehistoric age in Thessaly
1 to be divided into four periods : — (i) Neolithic, with red and
white painted pottery; (2) Neolithic, with Dhimini and
kindred vases ; (3) sub-Neolithic, to which period belongs
; the remarkable encrusted ware ; and (4) Chalcolithic, in
1 which period the pottery is unpainted, and the latter part
of it is apparently contemporary with Late Minoan II
and III.

Dr. T. Ashby, the director of the British School at Rome,

! described the excavations carried out by him at Hagiar Kim

I and Mnaidra, Malta, under the auspices of the Maltese

' Government. The object of the work was to discover

! whether the excavations carried out many years previously

had completely reveakd the ground plan and to endeavour

to find sufficient pottery to enable the date of the structures

' to be determined. In both respects the action was justified

by results. \ large, hitherto unknown, roughly paved area

was discovered at both places, and at Mnaidra subsidiary

buildings, perhaps devoted to domestic uses, were disclosed.

The small objects found, fragments of pottery and flint,

corresponded absolutely with those from the hypogeum at

Halsaflieni, so that it seems clear that Hagiar Kim and

, Mnaidra are also of the Neolithic period.

1 Some cup and ring markings and spirals from the
I hypogeum at Halsaflieni were described by Dr. Dukinfield
I Astley. The markings are done in red paint on two of the
roofs of the buildings.

Prof. Petrie gave an account of the work carried on by

I the British School in Egypt at Meydum and Memphis.

At the first place the archaic sculptured tombs were

removed, owing to the damage they had sufTered from

NO. 2140, VOL. 85I

native plunderers. Two of these chambers are unique, the
colours being inlaid in deep undercut hollows. The burial
chamber of the largest tomb was excavated, in which was
found a sarcophagus of red granite, the oldest known,
di-ting about fiftv years earlier than that in the Great
Pyramid. In the' course of the work at Meydum quarry
marks were found on many of the blocks. As these name
Ihf months of quarrying, it makes it possible to fix the
shifting months of the Egyptian calendar, as the season of
quarrying is closely fixed by the inundation. The result is
the fixing of the reign of Sneferu at 3200 or 4700 B.C.

kx. Memphis work was begun on the temple of Ptah
The main result has been the discovery of a large shrine
built by Amenhotep III, and a portrait head of King
Amasis. Sealings were found on the palace site, while
pottery kilns were also carefully explored.

Dr. Seligmann contributed a paper on a Neolithic site ii>
the southern Sudan, at which hammerstones, pygmy imple-
ments, and implements of hornstone were found, all on the
surface.

.\ description of the archaeological activities in the United
StiJtes, as carried on by the various universities and public
bodies, was given by the well-known American anthropo-
logist. Miss .Alice Fletcher, who was appointed a vice-
president of the section for the meeting.

Ethnology and Ethnography.

Several papers on general ethnology and ethnography-
were presented to the section. Mr. E. Torday described
the Bu-Shongo of the Congo Free State, a tribe inhabiting
the district between the fork of the Kasai and Sankuru
rivers. The nation is composed of a number of subtribes
all under one paramount chief. The most famous of the
chiefs was Shamba Bolongongo, who has become the
national hero, and is venerated because he was a man of
peace and a great lawgiver and philosopher. The organisa-
tion of government now existing is that remodelled by this
chief, although it has become greatly weakened. In theory
the king is absolute, but his power is limited by two
bodies, somewhat analogous to two houses of parliament.
Above all is the king's mother. There is a form of
totemism. The people are great wood-carvers, amongst the
most interesting products of this art being portrait statues
of their kings. Five of these are known and three of these
are now in the British Museum, amongst these being that
of Shamba Bolongongo himself.

Mr. Mervyn W. H. Beech contributed a paper on the Suk
of east Africa. These people, who live to the north of
Lake Baringo, are akin to the Nandi, but with a large
aboriginal element. This is especially seen in their lan-
guage, which, although it contains a large percentage of
Nandi and a little Turkana, has a considerable amount of
what is probably aboriginal. The tribe is divided into
totemic and exogamcus clans, and the social system re-
sembles the Nandi ; but, on the other hand, the dress,
ornaments, and dances are like those of the Turkana and
differ entirely from those of the Nandi.

Mr. G. W. Grabham read a paper on native pottery
n'ethods in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. He described the
various kinds of pots made, the most interesting, perhaps,
being the gobanas, or coffee-pots. Two cup-shaped saucers
are made and roughly dove-tailed together ; the join is then
smoothed down, a handle and spout added, and the whole
is then scraped, polished, ornamented, and baked.

Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, in his paper on kava drinking in
Melanesia, explained that manv facts point to this custom
being indigenous and not an importation from Polynesia,
or, if introduced, that it has a far greater antiquity than
other Melanesian customs to which a Polynesian origin has
been ascribed. In the southern New Hebrides the method
of preparation resembles the Polynesian, and the name is
the same, so that here the practice may have been in-
fluenced by the Polynesians ; but in the northern New
Hebrides, Banks and Torres Islands, the name is indi-
genous, and the whole ceremonial of making and drinking
the infusion differs fundamentally from that of Polynesia.
In many cases its use has a clearly religious and social
character. The occurrence of the practice in the Fly River
region of New Guinea suggests that the distribution of the
custom may have been very wide, and that in New Guinea
and northern Melanesia kava has been replaced by betel.

24

NATURE

, [November 3, 19 10

In his paper entitled " A Search for the Fatherland of
the Polynesians," Mr. A. K. Newman endeavoured to prove,
partly by the evidence of place names, that the first home
of the Polynesians was in the Ganges Valley.

Two papers of general ethnological interest were contri-
buted by Miss Fletcher and Mr. E. S. Hartland. In the
former — a sidelight on exogamy — the author directed atten-
tion to the exogamic character of the Omaha social
■organisation, while in the latter Mr. Hartland discussed
the origin of mourning dress, and held that mourning was
worn not so much as a disguise, as suggested by Dr.
Frazer, but as a means of typifying the union of the dead
-and as an expression of sorrow and abasement, so as to
deprecate the malice of a spirit, naturally annoyed at
finding itself disembodied.

It is particularly gratifying to record that the committee
appointed at Winnipeg to consider the feasibility of starting
an ethnographic survey of Canada reported that, owing to
-representations made by the council of the Association and
by a deputation of the committee and others, which waited
upon Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Dominion Government has
included in its estimates the sum of 420Z. to establish a
department of ethnolog}' under the Geological Survey. This
most gratifying result may be considered as entirely due to
Xhe initiative taken by the Association at the Winnipeg
meeting.

Two ethnological papers of great interest were those by
Prof. Elliott Smith on the people of Egypt, and by Prof.
H. J. Fleure and Mr. T. C. James on the people of
Cardiganshire. The latter of these should perhaps be
classified under physical anthropology, as the survey was
largely an anthropometrical one.

Prof. Elliott Smith began by urging the impossibility of
reconstructing the history of man in Egypt unless the work
is based on the study of physical characters, as apart from
mere measurements, of accurately dated human remains
from the three great divisions of the Nile Valley — Lower
and Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia. Of the origin of the
■predynastic Egyptians, all that at present could be safely
said was that they showed affinities to both the Mediter-
ranean race and to the Arabs. Although just before the
end of the predynastic period some slight change in the
character of the population can be seen, it is not until the
Third Dynasty that the significance of the change can be
fully appreciated. At this date it becomes clear that each
-of the three divisions of Egypt had its own distinctive
population : Lower Nubia, a people identical with the pre-
dynastic but tinged with negro ; Lower Egypt, the de-
scendants of the predynastic peoples, mixed profoundly
with white immigrants, who came in by way of the Delta,
while Upper Egypt, though not directly affected by either
•of these alien stocks, was yet indirectly affected by both,
through the intermingling of its people with those of the
two other districts.

In the time of the Middle Kingdom this white and
Nubian influence became more marked in the Thebaid, and
thus the gradual gradation of physical characters, from the
"black of Nubia to the white of the Levantine population
in the north, began to set in, a gradation which has
-persisted to the present day.

Messrs. Fleure and James pointed out in their paper that
the basis of the population of Cardiganshire appears to be
-the Mediterranean tvne, that is, a type marked by con-
siderable dolichocephaly, dark hair, slight prognathism, and
-a stature a little below the average. But as the type
■becomes fairer these marked characteristics disappear,
prognathism ceases to exist, and the head becomes shorter.
Amongst this population there is also a fair type, in which
•the heads become still shorter and the stature higher, while
the face becomes opisthognathous.

Physical Anthropology.

In purely physical anthropology two papers only were
presented, there being still the marked decline in papers of
this nature which has been noticeable during the last five
years. It is very much to be regretted that the anatomists
and other workers in the field of physical anthropology
"have ceased from presenting the results of their work to the
Association, and it is to he hoped that a turn in the opposite
-direction will soon set in.

Prof. C. J. Patten described a rare form of divided
•parietal in the cranium of a chimpanzee. Cases of this

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

kind are extremely rare, and the one under consideration
appeared to be an example of complete division of both
parietals, each by a horizontal suture, running the entire
length of the bones and joining the coronal and lambdoid
sutures. The case is of further interest owing to the way
in which the upper segment of each bone is again sub-
divided. Correlated with this condition there is a thinning
out of the bones of the cranial vault and a reduction in the
size and strength of the zygomatic arch and of many of
the processes at the base of the skull.

Dr. W. L. H. Duckworth exhibited a microtome, made
by the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, which
provides a means of preparation of anthropological material
possessing great interest. Some of the preparations thus
made were mounted as lantern-slides and exhibited ; for
example, in a section of the leg of an adult man, tissues so
distinct in consistency as bone, tendons, and muscles could
be seen. Other specimens exhibited were sections of the
larynx and tongue.

Finally, the report of the committee to conduct archa;o-
logical and ethnological researches in Crete contained long
reports on Cretan anthropology, by Mr. C. H. Ilawes, and
physical observations, viz., head form and pigmentation,
of Cretan school children, by Dr. Duckworth. Both
these reports contained a mass of detailed measurements
and observations which it is impossible to summarise. One
point may, however, be mentioned. Dr. Duckworth is of
opinion that the general physique of Cretan chiWren is
frequently, if not always, poor, being markedly inferior to
that of British children of the same age.

AGRICULTURE AT THE BRITISH
ASSOCIATION.
T N drawing up the programme for the Sheffield meeting
-*• the organising committee of the Agricultural Sub-
section adhered to the lines laid down last year. Certain
problems of current interest and importance were discussed
at joint meetings so far as possible, and attention was
directed particularly to those aspects of the problems on
which men of pure science could throw much needed light.
There were, therefore, very few general papers, and such
as were read were regarded rather as preliminary accounts
of work that must come on later for discussion.

The chairman's address has already been printed in
exfenso in these columns (September 8). It dealt with
fertility, the eternal and fundamental problem in agri-
culture, and traced the history of the views that have been
held since the early experimenters of the seventeenth
century began their 'work. Fertility depends on several
factors, any one of which may at a given time become a
limiting factor and determine the growth of the plant.
The amount of available mineral food, the supply of water,
and the supply of nitrates all enter into the problem. All
that science can do as yet is to ascertain the existence of
these factors one by one, and bring them successively under
control ; it is not Vet possible to disentangle all the inter-
acting forces the resultant of which is represented by the
crop. . . .

Dr. Crowther and Mr. Ruston discussed the impurities
of the town atmosphere and their effect on vegetation.
Rain water falling within the industrial section of Leeds is
highly charged with mineral and tarry matter, and also
contains a good deal of acid. The rain of the residential
districts is much purer, but still not as pure as country
rain. Pot experiments, and observations made in gardens,
parks, &c., showed that the effect of the impurity was
complex; the stomata'of the plants were blocked, especially
if they happened to be sunk as in the conifers; the soil
also suffered. These actions produced marked results on
vegetation ; in extreme cases the plants were actually
killed, and even those surviving were much affected. The
case of grass was examined in some detail because of its
technical importance. It was found that the impure rain
reduced the yield and the protein-content of the herbage but
increased its fibre-content. The feeding value was therefore
much diminished.

Prof. Berry followed with an account of the ether extract
of the oat kernel. It has long been known in a general
wav that the ether extract is not all fat, although so
labelled as a matter of convenience. Prof. Berry has

ll November 3, 1910]

NATURE

25

unined the extract in detail, and the great value of his
rk is that he is dealing with definite varieties of oats
\vn under known conditions. It is understood that the
research is being continued, and some interesting con-
clusions may be looked for.

Mr. A. S. Home gave an account, illustrated by photo-
phs, of a bacterial disease of potatoes. Not long ago
was supposed that plant diseases were caused by fungi,
but cases are steadily accumulating where bacteria are
the active agents. Several cases have been worked out at
Newcastle, and it was felt that on a future occasion more
time will have to be devoted to this important branch of
study.

The second day was given up to a discussion of two

subjects now coming much into prominence. Sugar-beet

growing was dealt with by Mr. Sigmund Stein and Mr.

; G. L. Courthope, M.P. Later in the day nitrogen fixation

was discussed by Mr. Golding and Prof. Bottomley. It has

. always been known that sugar beet could be grown in

England, but the industry never had an opportunity of

development by reason of the Continental sugar bounties.

The Brussels Convention, however, has so altered the

-:iion of affairs that a reasonable prospect of success

:!s assured ; already factories are springing up in

(iinerent parts of the country, and farmers are contracting

to supply the necessary beets. For many years Mr. Stein

Hie; advocated beet-sugar production, and in his paper he

a summary of the various experiments he has made to

t the objections that have from time to time been

raised. He claimed that the practical difficulties, both in

; the field and the factory, are now overcome, and the time

is ripe for active development. Mr. Courthope dealt with

' the financial aspects of the question, and gave a number of

carefully prepared statistics showing that the new industry

1 has every probability of success. This paper created a

jvery favourable impression, and the speakers that followed

: agreed that a good case had been made out. There has,

as usual, been a good deal of exaggeration about the

possible effect of a new rural industry. If sugar beet is

grown, some other crop will have to go out ; the gain to the

country will therefore be the difference between the new and

the old, and not, as is commonly stated, the whole amount

; that the new crop will bring in Still, there is no doubt

that a new industry and a new market would have a useful

! steadying effect on agricultural prices.

I Nitrogen fixation was the next subject. Prof. Bottomley
I brought forward the evidence in favour of his proposition
•that .Azo:obact('r, in coniunction with Pseudomonas. both
obtained from the root tubercles of Cycas, will " fix " more
I nitrogen than either alone. He further argues that this
j mixed culture will grow in soils and " fix " nitrogen to
' form compounds readily transformable into plant food.
Some discussion arose as to the interpretation of the
results ; the quantities involved are small, and the experi-
mental errors known to be considerable. The great diffi-
culty arises, however, in the absence of a satisfactory
: standard by which one experiment may be compared with
I another.

I Mr. Golding dealt with his subject in a more general
way, his researches having been directed to the whole
question of nitrogen fixation in the root nodules of
leguminous plants. This fixation is brought about by
bacteria which invade the root hair as infection threads,
pass through a rod-shaped stage, and finally assume the
bacterojd (Y) form. Mr. Golding is steadily overcoming
the difficulties of working with the organisrn in artificial
media, and is succeeding in making it pass through the
changes that it undergoes in the plant. During the period
of active nitrogen assimilation an alkaline substance is
formed ; after a time, if the products are not removed,
assimilation stops, the alkali disappears, and the medium
becomes acid. Dr. Russell pointed out that this change
from alkaline to acid reaction indicated that the organisms
were now utilisine: the nitrogenous base alreadv formed,
and therefore setting the acid free, a change known to go
on in other cases.

On Monday. Seotember 5, a joint meeting was held with
the Zoological Section to discuss the effect of partial
sterilisation of soils. Dr. Russell read a paper which he
and Dr. Hutchinson had orepared, giving an account of
the work they have been doing at Rothamsted during the
past three years. There is a notable increase in productive-
NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

ness when a soil is heated or treated with volatile antiseptics-
like toluene. This was traced to an increase in bacterial
activity, which, in turn, was shown to be the result of
removing some factor that had in the original soil limited
bacterial activity. By drawing up a systematic plan of
experiment it was possible to find what processes would,
and what would not, put the injurious factor out of action,
and so the authors had arrived at a list of properties the
factor possessed. .According to their results it appears to^
be a living organism larger than bacteria, but developing,
more slowly, killed at or below 50° or by prolonged
drought. It might actively destroy bacteria, or, on the other
hand, it might form a protoplasmic layer round the soil
particles containing organic matter, and thus keep off and
starve the bacteria. Tne zoologists present made some very
useful suggestions. Dr. Shipley recommended sewage-farm
soils as the best place to start hunting for the organism.
Dr. Ashworth suggested that the amoebae or amoeboid
organisms of the soil might be the culprits, and considered
that methods of investigation like those used by Musgrave
and Clegg or by Noc might with advantage be tried. Mr..
T. J. Evans, on the other hand, thought that the results
indicated a mycetozoan Plasmodium, while Mr. J. J. Lister
urged that mycetozoa would require vegetable matter, which,
however, they would have in the soil.

Mr. K. J. J. Mackenzie followed with an account of the
" fKDints " prized by the breeder of high-class stock, and
gave the results of measurements he had made to find out
how far the " points " really are correlated with the
characters they are supposed to indicate. So far as he has
gone — he is pursuing the problem further — the correlation.
is very slight, and it can only be inferred that the breeder
arrives at his eminently successful results rather by an
intuitive process than by any use of his "points." The ques-
tion is of great economic importance, because England is,
and seems likely to remain, the stud-farm of the world.

A joint meeting with tlie Geological Section followed, at
which soil sur\eys were discussed. .\ paper by Mr. HalL
and Dr. Russell was read, dealing with the objects and
methods of agricultural soil surveys. The ordinary drift
map is not sufficient, although it makes an admirable
starting point. It is necessary to classify the soils further,
to studv them in their relation to the local agriculture, and'
to ascertain the effect of manures, of rainfall, topographical
position, &c. Illustrations were given to show that a soil
may be sufficiently described from the agricultural point of
view when its mechanical analysis, and its positions on
the geological, orographical, and rainfall maps are known.
Mr. L. F. Newman gave a preliminary account of his
survey of the drift soils of Norfolk, which seems to indicate
a fairly regular distribution of the various types of soil.
Mr. C. T. Gimingham described the " teart " land of
Somerset, on which animals " scour " badly. This con-
dition is confined to one formation, the lower lias, and
disappears when even the most superficial covering of
alluvium occurs. \ large acreage is affected. Evidence is
adduced that the cause is to be sought in the physical state
of the soil ; if this is so, it should be capable of remedy. It
is much to be hoped that the field trials which Mr. Giming-
ham has drawn up to test this view will be carried out.

The last day opened with a paper by Mr. Hall on the
cost of a day's horse labour on the farm. This funda-
mental problem of agricultural economics has been but
little investigated, and Mr. Hall's estimate of 25. "jd. per
dav must be regarded as the most complete we have at
present. Another economic paper followed, by Mr. Turnor,
on costs in the Danish system of dairy farming. The data
were gathered during a tour of Denmark, and represent a
good deal of study of the subject. Mr. Turner is shortly-
bringing out a book in which the results of his investiga-
tions will be more fully dealt with.

The rest of the dav was devoted to a discussion jointly
with the Economic Section of the errors of agricultural
experiments. Prof. Wood opened the subject with three
papers prepared in conjunction with Messrs. Stratton and
Bruce. From the results it appears that many of the
feeding trials carried out in the country are of very
doubtful value. Agriculturalist.*; have usually neglected the
experimental error ; in few, if any, of the numerous county
council experiments, for instance, is it ever taken into
account. Prof. Wood's papers, along with one by Mr. Hall
and Dr. Russell on field trials, have emphasised the import-

26

NATURE

[November 3, 1910

ance of the matter, and steps are being taken to distribute
these papers among agricultural experimenters.

A paper by Mr. Collins on the errors of milk analysis
concluded the session.

The position of agriculture at the British Association is
not yet settled. Whatever the council decide to do, it is
hoped they will continue to give a separate organisation to
agriculture, and thus afford to workers in agricultural
science an opportunity — the only opportunity for some of
them — of meeting their fellow workers in pure science and
discussing their problems. It is necessary to get help from
several sides and not simply from one, as from the chemical
or the botanical, which seems to be the theory of a sub-
section. However, whether lawfully or not (it appears to
have been unlawfully) the organising committee has
hitherto enjoyed the fullest liberty, and has succeeded in
arranging a series of meetings that have proved extremely
helpful to agricultural investigators, and promise to play
no small part in the encouragement of agricultural research.

TUYSIOLOGY AT THE BRITISH
ASSOCIATION.

T N addition to the presidential address, which has
■*■ appeared already in Nature, there were a number of
interesting papers communicated to the section. Physi-
ology was unique in that it was the only section that
met at the University ; and thus, although somewhat
isolated from the other sections, enjoyed the advantage
of the laboratories for demonstrations.

There were two joint meetings, one with Chemistry
(Section B) and Botany (Section K) on the biochemistry of
respiration, and the other with Education (Section L) on
speech ; the latter will be reviewed in the proceedings of
the section of Educational Science. In addition. Dr.
Leonard Hill, F.R.S., gave an interesting address on the
prevention of caisson disease. The individual papers will
be reviewed, as much as possible, so as to form groups
in a logical sequence.

The discussion on respiration, held in the meeting-room
of Section K, was opened by Dr. F. F. Blackman, F.R.S.,
who dealt with the subject under three headings.

(i) The series of chemical reaction which take place
during oxidation. He took glucose as a typical example,
of which the final products are carbon dioxide and water,
but the intermediate steps are difficult to follow.
Buchner's zymase produces alcohol and carbon dioxide
from glucose, but it has been shown that alcohol cannot
be oxidised by plants, and hence it must be surmised that
some other substance, before the breakdown has reached
the alcohol stage, is what is actually oxidised. There are
probably many of these fugitive compounds, amongst
which- may occur lactic acid and di-hydroxy acetone. An
alkaline sugar solution, as the result of exposure to sun-
light, gives rise to substances which are easily oxidised.
He then dealt briefly with oxidases, peroxide formation,
and Palladin's hypothesis of respiratory chromogens,
which are oxidised by oxidases to peroxides, and then
pass on the oxygen to oxidisable material.

(2) The physical chemistry of the processes involved in
oxidation. Influence of temperature on velocity of re-
action (usually shows a coefficient of about 2-5 within the
limits of temperature at which living processes can occur) ;
the uniformity of the respiratory quotient (O^/CO,) at
different temperatures and the effect of the concentration
of the reacting substances were discussed. He illustrated
these points by referring to his experiments with green
leaves and potatoes (starchy and rich in sugar). The
output of carbon dioxide by green leaves is reduced to
zero by exposure to sunlight. The potatoes rich in sugar
show a greater rate of oxidation than the starchy ones.
The conclusion is arrived at that there is a minimal tissue
respiration and an excess of respiration depending on the
supply of respirable material.

The influence of accelerators, paralysators, and other
substances was mentioned.

(3) Special influences of colloidal nature of cell proto-
plasm. Oxidation and reduction take place side by side,
and death of the cell mixes up these two processes.
Alterations of permeability of protoplasmic septa may
account for changes in physiological oxidation processes.

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

Dr. H. M. Vernon referred to Dakin's work on oxida-
tion of fatty acids and amino-acids by hydrogen peroxide
and traces of ferrous salts. If zymase is allowed to act
upon glucose for a short time, then the solution is boiled
and oxidase and hydrogen peroxide are added, there is
almost complete oxidation to carbon dioxide and water ;
this suggests that oxidases may act in living cells if
organic peroxides can replace hydrogen peroxide. His
own experiments on survival respiration (kidney) point to
the presence of oxidases, and that certain poisons act by
combining with aldehyde or similar groups. Some sub-
stances act especially on the " high-grade " process (forma-
tion of carbon dioxide) and not so much on the " low-
grade " process (oxygen absorption), and thus the respira-
tory quotient is lowered. In relation to minimal proto-
plasmic and excess respiration, he directed attention to
the fact that minced tissues show at first a greater out-
put of carbon dioxide than when intact, but that the
respiration soon falls to a much lower level.

Dr. E. F. Armstrong pointed out that in many respects
oxidases differed from the other kinds of enzymes (they
are heat stable and not specific in action), that their
action can be imitated by colloidal suspensions of inorganic
matter, and that traces of inorganic material are usually
present in them. There are, however, specific oxidases.
He then demonstrated the blackening of laurel leaves by
the action of toluol (other chemically inert substances with
little affinity for water act similarly), which he ascribed
to a general breakdown of the protoplasm with liberation
of oxidases.

Mr. D. Thoday spoke about the result of experiments
on anaesthetised leaves. Small doses of chloroform cause
a temporary increase of oxidation. A large dose causes
a diminution in the output of carbon dioxide ; with
Helianthus and cherry laurel there is a great increase in
oxygen intake, which quickly falls off, but with
TropaK)lum the oxygen intake falls at once. It was sug-
gested that tannins oxidise first, and as there are no
tannins in Tropaeolum there is no initial increase of oxida-
tion. Probably the result is brought about by an increase
of permeability.

Prof. H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S., referred to Leathes'
work on the splitting of fats at intermediate points in
the carbon chain, and to the formation of peroxides by
manganese and iron with hydroxy-acids. Oxidation may
take place by decomposing water with liberation of
hydrogen ; in plants the hydrogen may be used to reduce
carbon dioxide to formaldehyde. The leaf surfaces show
a permeability similar to that found by Adrian Brown for
barley grains.

Prof. Waller and Dr. Reynolds Green spoke, and Dr.
Blackman replied.

Dr. Leonard Hill, F.R.S., reviewed the work done in
relation to the prevention of compressed air illness.
Whilst exposed to high pressure the body dissolves a
larger amount of gas than at ordinary atmospheric
pressure, and when the pressure is reduced bubbles of gas
may be set free in the blood vessels. The solubility of
the gas follows Henry's law; owing to the capacity of the
tissues to absorb oxygen it is only the nitrogen that is
set free in the vessels. The symptoms depend on the por-
tion of the circulation which is stopped by the nitrogen
embolus. Different portions of the body saturate at
different rates, but work, by increasing the circulation,
increases the rapidity with which the body takes up and
gives off nitrogen. By analysis of the gases in urine it
can be shown that it takes an appreciable time for the
body to get into equilibrium with the pressure of the
nitrogen in the atmosphere, or, in other words, the blood
does not get into equilibrium with the gas on passing
once through the lungs.

The relative merits of uniform decompression and de-
compression by stages were discussed. Long shifts are
better than short, as there are fewer decompressions for
the same amount of work, and the danger is due to
decompression. When symptoms occur they can be
abolished, or the danger minimised by recompression to
the original pressure.

He recommended that, during decompression, occasional
inhalations of oxygen should be taken (to lower the
partial pressure of the nitrogen in the lungs, and thus

November 3, 19 10]

NATURE

27

-ten the removal of nitrogen from the blood) and that
• \' rcise should be taken to increase the circulation, and
thus remove the nitrogen from the " slow " parts more
c'.iickly.

Prof. F. S. Lee, of Columbia University, read two
)ers. (a) "The Cause of the Treppe." During the
use of the staircase the excitability of the muscle
leases. Clamping the trachea causes a second treppe.
ihlich states that the treppe is due to slowing of relaxa-
1, so that the increase in height of contraction is only
larent, as the contraction starts at a higher level ; but
one stage of the treppe the contractions are not pro-
ged, while there is no delayed relaxation during fatigue
mammalian muscle. {Jo) " Summation of Stimuli,"
h Dr. M. Morse. Repeated subminimal stimuli can
■ ause contraction. Traces of lactic acid, carbon dioxide,
and other substances that are formed during fatigue in-
crease the excitability of muscle. Gotschlich finds that
muscle becomes acid as the result of repeated subminimal
stimuli. Prof. Lee suggested that the treppe and summa-
tion of stimuli are both due to traces of fatigue substances.
Prof. C. S. Sherrington and Miss S. C. M. Sowton
presented two communications dealing with the constant
current as a stimulus of reflex action, and the effect of
the intensity of the current on the response to stimula-
tion. The preparation used was the isolated extens'jr
of the knee in decerebrate rigidity. Non-polarisable
electrodes were placed on an afferent nerve of the limb.
.A weak stimulation caused a reflex increase of tonus.
' '.is is a nearer approximation to the artificial produc-
! of reflex tonus than has hitherto been obtained,
iierwise the result of artificial stimulation is a reflex
: iiibition, as indeed it is with this stimulus when
- 'onger. .\ stronger stimulus causes an increase of tone,
owed by inhibition. A strong stimulus abolishes the
liminary increase of tone, and only inhibition results,
fact, the results obtained are exactly the same as
-e long been known for the direct stimulation of the
ning muscle of .'\stacus claw. Stimulation occurs at
make and break of the constant current, and not
lally during its passage. With a strength of current
which gives a reflex increase of tone, chloroform converts
the response to inhibition, and as the chloroform passes
off the response to the stimulus again becomes an increase
of tone.

Dr. J. Tait : (i) " The Conditions Necessary for
Tetanus of the Heart." Refractory period of heart
consists of absolute and relative refractory stages. The
former lasts during systole, and the latter gradually
diminishes from the end of systole. The stronger the
stimulus the earlier it can be made effective in the relative
refractory period. If the stimuli are sufficiently strong
they can be effective at the end of systole, and tetanus
results. Very strong stimulation causes electrolysis, which
produces a series of contractions that gradually die away.
(2) " Neurogenic Origin of Normal Heart Stimulus."
Excised frog's heart-beat sometimes shows grouped beats
(Luciana groups). These are probably due to waves of
excitation from rhythm-producing centre. The tendency
to grouped beats is increased by lack of oxygen, and the
rate and rhythm correspond to that seen in tracings of
Cheyne-Stokes respiration ; hence the normal heart-beat is
regulated by some mechanism similar to that which is
affected in Cheyne-Stokes respiration. A constant
stimulus with waves of increasing and diminishing strength
would, as the strength increased, become effective earlier
in the relative refractorj- period, and hence the increase
of rate of beat.

Dr. H. M. Vernon reported the results of some experi-
ments on the combination of poisons with the contrac-
tile substance of cardiac muscle. He used the tortoise
heart, and perfused it with the various solutions.
Alcohol, chloroform, and ether all cause effects propor-
tional to their concentration, and recovery occurs on re-
moval of the drug by fresh saline. Hydrocyanic acid and
sodium fluoride cause a marked effect in small concentra-
tions, but the action does not increase much when the
strength of solution is increased. Recovery is not good,
and is less with the stronger strengths. On removal of
the sodium fluoride the heart-beats show remarkable
oscillations of amplitude. The vitality of the heart is

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

always permanently injured, as a second test with the
same strength causes a greater effect than at first. The
season and condition of the heart cause minor differences
in the result.

Prof. C. S. Minot, of Harvard University, gave his
views on the morphology and nomenclature of blood
corpuscles. Present nomenclature not satisfactory. Both
red and white cells originate from the primitive wander-
ing cells (mesamoeboid). Leucocyte = white cell, and can
be subdivided into lymphocyte (>oung leucocyte), finely
granular, and coarsely granular. Erythrocyte = red cell,
and they can be subdivided into ichthyoid stage (cells like
those in fish with a nucleus showing chromatin network),
sauroid stage (like birds and reptiles, nucleus homo-
geneous, usually called normoblast), and plastid (non-
nucleated or mammalian type).

Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S., Dr. E. E. Laslett, and
Miss F. Tozer communicated the results of some experi-
ments indicating the existence of afferent nerves in the
eye muscles. The sensory nerve-endings maintain a
primitive reptilian type; many "brush" and "creeper"
endings are found in the region where muscle and tendon
join. No muscle-spindles are found, but a clasping form
of ending, which is probably a simple form of spindle.
The eye muscles have a greater nerve supply than any
other muscles. By cutting the nerves and examining the
muscles after the nerves had degenerated it was proved
that the third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerves contain
sensory fibres in addition to the motor fibres, which are
usually stated to be the only kind present. These nerves
are therefore afferent-efferent nerves. No sensory fibres
to the extrinsic eye muscles were traceable from the first
division of the fifth nerve. There are a few small
medullated nerve-fibres which do not degenerate after
section of all of the foregoing nerves ; these are apparently
vasomotor, and come from the otic ganglion.

Dr. Dawson Turner and Dr. T. George recorded the
results of the X-rays in therapeutic doses on the growing
brains of rabbits. The development of the exposed side
of the brain was slower than the other side. Fatty
degeneration of the irides and loss of weight occurred
during treatment. The subject is important, as X-rays
are frequently used on children in the treatment of ring-
worm.

Prof. k. B. Macallum, F.R.S., read three papers : ' The
Origin of the Inorganic Composition of the Blood
Plasma," "The Inorganic Composition of the Blood
Plasma in the Frog after a Long Period of Inanition,"
and " The Microchemistry of the Spermatic Elements in
Vertebrates."

The first two deal with the relative amounts of the
inorganic salts in the blood. The ratios of these to each
other are fairly constant throughout, and agree with the
relative amounts of the same substances in sea-water ; but
there are some variations, and the total amounts of in-
organic material are different in the different species. He
explains the distribution of the salts as reflecting the
composition of the ocean at that epoch when the blood
plasma of the species in question ceased to respond to
changes in the salts of the ocean. The vertebrate kidney
is the factor that maintains the ancestral composition of
the blood.

The third paper dealt with the distribution of iron and
potassium in the spermatic elements. The iron in the
nucleus diminishes through the series spermatogonia,
spermatocyst, spermatid, and is absent from the head of
the sperm itself. Mode of elimination masked. Potassium
abundant in spermatic elements, gathered at anterior and
posterior ends in frog, and only in posterior region and
in bands in man. No potassium in the head itself.

Prof. W. H. Thompson spoke on the nutritive value
of beef extract. Dogs were fed on a constant amount of
dog biscuit until their weight was steady. The addition
of beef extract caused an increase of weight ten or twenty
times as great as the amount of extract added. Boiled
egg-white was not nearly so efficacious. Nitrogen appar-
ently not retained, and when beef extract was discontinued
the dogs returned to their former weight. The increase
in weight is not due to retained water, but to an increased
digestion and absorption of the dog biscuits, as the
nitrogen and total amount of faeces were diminished.

28

NATURE

[November 3, 19 10

The reports of research committees were, as usual, of
a technical nature. They often briefly referred to papers
which have been published elsewhere, and thus are not
suited for detailed description here. Arising out of the
report on anaesthetics was a brief discussion on the advisa-
bility of legislation to improve the training of those who
are destined to administer anaesthetics, and to prohibit
unqualified persons from administering them. Prof. A. D.
Waller, F.R.S., in connection with the report on electro-
motive phenomena in plants, read a paper describing the
method used to estimate hydrocyanic acid in plants and
animals, with an application of the method to medico-
legal purposes. The committee on ductless glands report
on a considerable number of researches, the results of
some of which have already appeared. The reports on
body metabolism in cancer and on mental and muscular
fatigue each contain instructive and suggestive material.

Some interesting photomicrographs of muscle fibres were
shown by Dr. Murray Dobie, who published his first paper
on the structure of muscle in 1848.

Prof. J. S. Macdonald exhibited the respiration calori-
meter on two separate occasions. The heat production of
a resting man was compared with that of a man riding
a bicycle.

A SUGGESTED RESEARCH FUND FOR
TROPICAL DISEASES.
nTHE Times of November 2 publishes the subjoined appeal
which Lord Northcote has addressed to the Lord
Mayor in favour of the allocation of a part of the fund
raised for a London memorial to the late King to the
establishment of an Edward VIL Tropical Research Fund.
The proposal has received the support of leading repre-
sentatives of many national interests, including Lord
Crewe, Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Elgin,
Lord Kitchener, and Mr. Joseph Chamberlain.

Letter to the Lord Mayor.
My Lord Mayor, — Having noted that you are taking
steps to form a representative Mansion House Committee
for the purpose of raising a fund to provide a memorial
of the late King in London, and that you are receiving
numerous suggestions as to the form which that memorial
should take, we desire respectfully to offer the following
suggestion for your earnest consideration.

(2) The late King, in his beneficent activity for the
welfare of his people, was inspired by two ideals — peace
for mankind and war on disease. His work in the
former of these directions has been recognised by the
world at large ; it is in following his lead in the second
that we think that a fitting tribute to his memory will
be found.

(3) Only recently, but now unmistakably, has the nation
become alive to the vital importance of its tropical
possessions. Their development proceeds apace, but at a
heavy cost in human life and vital energy. Rarely does
a mail arrive which does not bring sorrow into at least
one home in these islands.

(4) For generations mankind have been willing to
accept in a fatalistic spirit the death toll levied upon
them by what was vaguely known as "the climate."
Now this is no longer so. Thanks to the devoted labours
of scientific men — -among whom our own countrymen hold
an honoured place— we know in many instances what the
enemy is and how it is to be met.

(5) Those who are not conversant with the subject will
be surprised and almost startled to hear the effect on
human life of measures taken as the result of such
investigations. We give three illustrations, drawn from
the history of three of the greatest scourges of the
tropics : —

(a) Malaria. — In Klang and Port Swettenham, two
towns within the protected Federated Malay States,
remedial measures were commenced in 1901. The deaths
from malaria were in 1901 368 and in 1905 45. In the
surrounding districts, where no measures were taken, the
'deaths for these years were respectively 266 and 351.
In Hong Kong remedial measures were commenced in
1901. In that year the admissions to hospital were 1294
and the deaths 132. In 1905 the admissions were 419 and

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

the deaths 54. In 1904 the United States took over the
administration of the zone of the Panama Canal ; the
deaths from malaria, which in 1906 were 821, had sunk
in 1908 to 282.

(b) Yellow Fever.— In the city of Havana 35,952 per-
sons perished of yellow fever between 1853 and 1900. The
United States Government commenced remedial measures
in 1900, and in 1907 only one case of yellow fever was
reported.

(c) During the last three years steps have been taken
in Uganda to stamp out sleeping sickness, an epidemic
which in one district alone had destroyed some 200,000
people out of a total population of 300,000. In 1907 th<-
deaths in the kingdom of Uganda numbered less than
4000, and in 1908 they fell to 1700.

(6) I: will be seen that, tested by results, these figures
are full of promise, and prove conclusively that the
measures taken have proceeded on sound lines.

(7) It will naturally be asked : How have these results
been achieved? The answer, so far as this country is
concerned, is by private effort in close cooperation with
the Government. Leaving out of account the Liverpool
School of Tropical Medicine, which has been generously
endowed by the citizens of that city, the bodies which are
responsible for sustaTiied an4 organised effort are the
Royal Society, the London School of Tropical Medicine,
the Sleeping Sickness Bureau, and the African Entomo-
logical Research Committee, all of which are associated
with the metropolis. The first of' these enjoys no direct
Government support, and has carried out its work by a
committee which includes some of the most eminent names
in the profession of tropical medicine, who have given
their services freely and gratuitously. The London School
of Tropical Medicine at the Albert Dock, which owes its
establishment, in part, to private generosity, receives an
annual grant from Government of 1300!!. The Sleeping
Sickness Bureau is supported entirely by Government, the
annual cost being some 1200Z. The African Entomological
Research Committee has recently been established to
investigate the insects which convey disease to men,
animals, and plants in the tropics, and includes among its
m.embers the best authorities on the subject. It receives
a Government grant of 2000Z. a year, and it is working
in close cooperation with the Natural History Museum.
In addition to the foregoing grants, a grant of 750Z. a
year is made to the University of London for. the pur-
pose of assisting work which has an important bearing on
tropical medicine.

(8) The three cases which we have mentioned above
are those in which the most striking results of scientific
research have hitherto been obtained, but it is hardl\
necessary to say that they cover only a small portion oi
the field. Notwithstanding the rapid advance of know
ledge in tropical diseases, there are many as yet unknowr.
or imperfectly understood. The causation of blackwatir
fever, of dengue, of beri-beri, and of many other diseases
still calls for investigation.

(9) We submit to your committee that no more appro-
priate memorial to our late Sovereign could be proposed
than the establishment of a fund to carry on and extend
the work of research into tropical disease. We further
submit that it is eminently appropriate that London, the
metropolis of the Empire, should take the lead in a move-
ment for giving the full benefit of British administration
to these outlying portions of the King's dominion, which
have contributed in no small measure to her prosperitv
in the past, and will, by their development, give still
ampler ground for her gratitude in the future.

(10) There can be no. class in this great cit\' to which
the scheme will not appeal. To the rulers, the mission-
aries, the philanthropists, and all those who concern
themselves with the welfare of the millions of coloured
races whom Providence has committed to our charge it
will appear of transcendent importance. To those whos'
kith and kin have gone out to bear their part in th'
work of civilising our tropical possessions, in whatever
station of life, it will appeal no less strongly. To the
man of business, in whose profit and loss account the
dangers to the health of his employes figure so largely,
our proposal will need no further recommendation. The
ultimate aim is the creation of a Tropical Britain whose
peoples are freed from the scourge of sickness, and where

November

o>

1910J

NATURE

29

work of civilisation moves forward without the present
of life and health. It is impossible to overestimate
results, both moral and material, that such a con-

:nation would entail.

i) We suggest that a fund should be established — to

hcnown as the Edward VII. Tropical Research Fund —
interest of which should be devoted to furthering the

cts which we have indicated. We think that the

- which we have at heart will be best served by not
inpting to define too strictly the way in which this
nue should be appropriated. It is probable that in
first instance, and to a large extent, it would be most
ally expended in subsidising the efforts of the institu-

- to which we have already referred, being administered
.1 body whose composition will be a guarantee to the
>cribers that their moneys are being wisely and
lomically applied.

We are, my Lord Mayor, yours faithfully,

NORTHCOTE.

!5 St. James's Place, S.W., October 27.

MODERN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.^
T? ESEARCH is a word much used in newspapers and in
public discussions nowadays, but few people outside

: ely scientific circles have any clear idea as to its mean-
Of course, the dictionary tells us that it signifies

-marching again or a careful search, but the question

1 arises. What is the object of the search and are there
rules to guide?

1 he object ma}- be purely visionary, as was the object

<i! the early chemists and alchemists, whose operations,

nding through the dark centuries of the Middle Ages,

behind practically nothing but an extensive, though

ren, literature, the witness of the credulity and ignor-

■^ of those times. The lesson to be derived from the

ole of this strange history is one which needs to be
continually revived and set in the new light of modern
discovery and invention. The lesson is simply that until
men began to observe and interrogate nature for the sake
of learning her ways, and without concentrating their
attention on the expectation of useful applications of such
knowledge, little or no progress was made. In other
words, until a sufficient foundation of pure science has
been successfully laid there can be no applied science.
Real progress comes from the pursuit of knowledge for its
own sake.

I say, again, this truth needs to be continually reiterated,
for there are still too many people who think that the
true and only business of science is to find out useful
things, and who regard all the rest as waste of time.

The first qualification for research is undoubtedly that
kind of inspired curiosity which can never be eradicated,
and which we know by many examples is not defeated by
such obstacles as poverty, or ill-health, or pressure of other
necessary occupations. Another qualification is some
knowledge of the subject chosen for inquiry. As to this
latter qualification considerable differences of opinion have
been expressed. Priestley, whose statue stands near the
Town Hall in Birmingham, and many of the chemists of
his time, had very little preparatory instruction, but some
of them made discoveries of fundamental importance.
Priestley seems to have been of opinion that very little
preparation is necessary, and the discoveries which might
result from experiment were regarded by him as largely
the result of chance and to be compared with the game
which might fall to the gun of a sportsman in a new
country, and whether fur or feather cannot be foretold.
But though this might have been partly true in Priestley's
time, it is certainly very far from true in our day, when
the« apcumulation of knowledge, however imperfect, is still
immense.

Every great discovery is the culmination of a long series
of discoveries each of which is a necessan," step, and ignor-
ance of these preliminaries stands in the way of advance.

It will be worth while to examine a few cases by way
of illustration, \o better example can be found than the
establishment of the great principle in chemistry commonly
called the periodic law. According to this law, the proper-

1 Presidential address delivered to the Vesey Club, Sutton Coldfield, on
October 13, by Sir William A. Tilden. F.R.S.

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

ties of the elements and of their compounds stand in a
definite relation to their atomic weights.

Modern views concerning the constitution of gases afifords
another illustration of the way in which the possession of
one kind of knowledge leads to more knowledge. Fort>-
years ago students were led to believe that there were two
kinds of gases, namely, on the one hand, those which by
the action of cold, or pressure, or both together could be
liquefied, and on the other hand some half a dozen which
could not be reduced to the liquid state. This was
attributed to some fundamental difference of constitution
in the two kinds of gas.

If we look for an example drawn from the domain of
biology there is the doctrine of evolution, now universally
accepted, which is based on the results of the patient
collection of facts by Darwin and Wallace. But those facts
would perhaps not have been collected, and they would
certainly have been without meaning, but for the results
of the study of comparative anatomy by previous genera-
tions of naturalists and palaeontologists, as well as the
recognition of the great doctrine of uniformitarianism in
geology proclaimed and established by Lyell.

The examples cited will not appeal to the practical man
in the same way as some instance taken from a direct
application of science to business or practical affairs. If
it is really necessary to consider a case of that sort, nothing
could be better than the dynatfio, which, as a transformer
of energy, comes into prominent daily use in connection
with lighting, traction, and as a general motive agent.
The detailed history of the evolution of the dynamo would
Be a long story, and on this occasion it is only necessary
to point out one or two facts. For the fundamental prin-
ciples involved we must go back to Benjamin Franklin,
and Galvani and \'olta, all in the eighteenth century, and
later to 183 1, when Faraday discovered the generation of
induced currents by moving a conductor in a magnetic
field. But doubtless the experiments made by Franklin
with the kite, by Galvani on frogs' legs, and by Volta and
Faraday with bits of wire, were by the people of their day
looked upon with a mixture of amusement and contempt,
just as some people even at the present time are apt to
exclaim, " Who cares whether there is oxygen in the
sun? "

It is obvious, then, that whatever may have been possible
in Priestley's time, the wholly uninstructed person cannot
expect to meet with much success in these days in the
discovery of new facts ; and although the exceptional man
may acquire in a very short time some knowledge of a
special part of a subject, he is in perpetual danger of fall-
ing into great mistakes. It seems to me that a consider-
able amount of knowledge, skill, and experience is an
indispensable equipment for anyone who enters seriously
into the practice of scientific research. Not that these
qualifications alone serve as inducements to such a career,
for it would be quite easy to point to examples of learned
people who have added nothing new to the branch of
knowledge with which they are best acquainted. This is
not necessarily due to indolence, nor to ignorance of the
methods of research, but is merely the result of peculiarity
of temperament which lacks that divine curiosity which
alone supplies the stimulus.

I am speaking now only of real scientific research, the
inquiry into the secrets of nature, not of the occupation
of those who have only practical ends in view.

Looking back over the great principles of natural science,
we see that in every case they have been established by
the efforts of the amateur, and by amateur I mean all
who have undertaken the work for the pure love of it.
This includes, not only men of independent position like
Cavendish, Lyell, and Darwin, but a large number of men
who have held the office of professor or teacher, but who,
in this country at any rate, are neither paid to do such
work nor required by the conditions of their appoint-
ments to undertake it. So far as I know, there is but
one institution in this country- in which the professors are
not required to teach, but only to press forward into the
unknown, and that is the Royal Institution in London.
But the character which that famous place has assumed
during the last hundred years is not that with which it
began its career. It was started at the end of the
eighteenth century by Count Rumford with purely
utilitarian purposes in vieWj namely, for teaching the

\o

NATURE

[November 3, 1910

applications of new discoveries in science to the improve-
ment of arts and manufactures and to " facilitating the
means of procuring the comforts and conveniences of life";
and while retaining that character and those pretensions
it soon came to the verge of collapse. But Davy's lectures
and discoveries changed all that, and Faraday's genius
consecrated the laboratories for all time to the service
of pure science.

Let us review very briefly the great principles on which
physical science is based.

First, of course, there are the fundamental principles
of the conservation of matter and of energy, the latter
finally established on a quantitative basis by Joule in 1843.
There is the principle of uniformitarianism introduced into
geology by Lyell now extended so as to include, not only
the phenomena of this earth, but of the whole cosmos,
such -extension being mainly due to the use of the spectro-
scope by Kirchoff and Bunsen, and only a little later by
Huggins. The principle embodied in the so-called periodic
law of the elements, already referred to, has led to a
general belief in the evolution of matter from one primary
material, and physicists and chemists are vying with each
other in the endeavour to gain evidence as to the details
of the process. I need scarcely say that the principle of
evolution as applied to living beings is associated indis-
solubly with the names of Darwin and Wallace.

Notwithstanding the discovery of radium and its allies,
and the discoveries by J. J. Thomson as to the disintegra-
tion of atoms into corpuscles a thousand or more times
smaller, all ordinary chemistry is built up on the concep-
tion of atoms introduced by John Dalton just a hundred
years ago. The consolidation of this theory has proceeded
as a consequence of the discoveries begun in 1872 by
Wislicenus, developed by van 't Hoff and Le Bel in 1874,
and confirmed by an army of other workers down to the
present day. We now not only suppose it probable that
atoms are placed within a molecule in definite positions
relatively to one another, but in a great many cases their
order and arrangement in space can be positively traced.

Suppose all these great laws and principles never to
have been discovered — science and its applications would
jiot exist, and the world would have remained in about
the same condition as it was in two hundred years ago.
Railways, electric light and traction, telegraphs, dyes,
explosives, antiseptics, anzesthetics and many other drugs,
metals such as sodium, aluminium, magnesium, tantalum,
and even modern steel would be unknown.

But these things are merely the results of the recogni-
tion, development, and application of the principles already
indicated as fundamental, and the immediate corollaries
from them. And so it seems that there are two fields for
research which are equally necessary to civilisation and
progress. In the one the worker watches the operations of
nature and puts questions in the form of experiments solely
with the desire to find out her ways ; in the other atten-
tion is given only to those laws, facts, and phenomena
which can be made serviceable to man. There is much
more public anxiety in regard to the latter, and consider-
ing how entirely ignorant are most people about the
principles of physical and natural science this is not greatly
to be wondered at.

Some people are under the impression that there is an
art of scientific discovery which can be communicated from
one person to another. That is not my belief. I think
the history of scientific discovery shows that each successful
pioneer has invented methods for himself, or has at least
known how to select from the tools ready to his hand.
And with regard to personal qualifications, I do not think
it possible to create that combination of mental powers
which is called insight. Hence I have very grave doubts
about the advisability of spending time and energy in try-
ing to evoke and cultivate the capacity for research in all
students in colleges and universities. If this were possible
we ought to see greater results in those cases in which it
has already been tried. The judicious teacher will, of
course, be careful to avoid any appearance of indifference
toward ardour and enthusiasm whenever they appear, and
Tie should ever be on the look-out for indications of the
kind of capacity which alone repays cultivation, and give
it all the encouragement in his {xiwer. But the clamour
which has of late been raised as to the supposed desira-
bility of extending instruction in the principles and methods

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

of research, down to the very beginners, indicates, to m.
mind, a lack of judgment on the part of some of tl
agitators. It seems to be forgotten that in every bran,
of experimental science, and especially of applied sclent
there is a great deal to learn, and it is necessary ■ that ;■.
the end of his career as a student a young man should 1
able to do things practically and usefully. The theory •
music and the laws of harmony are very desirable for tl
musician, but if he is to be a performer he must devo
tKe greater part of his time to practice on his instrumer
whether piano or violin. The case of the student of scien
is analogous, and if he does not devote a good deal ■
time to learning the technique of his business he will n
be ready for research or anything else. At the prest :
time too many students who can write at length on th-
retical questions of a most recondite character, and \v'
boast that they have been engaged in research unci
eminent teachers, are yet incapable of choosing a subj
for themselves or of handling successfully a subject fou;.
for them by their teachers or someone else.

With the object of testing the influence exercised by
methods of education in science on the development of the
faculty of research, I have lately had the curiosity to
compare the results indicated by the lists of Doctors of
Science of the University of London. Up to 1886 this
degree was awarded on the results of a very severe
examination. From 1887 onwards it has been obtainable
only on the production of a thesis supposed to embody the
ideas and the work of the candidate on some subject
selected by himself. The examiners are at liberty to
impose an examination with the object of assuring them-
selves of the candidate's knowledge of his subject, but as
a matter of practice the examination has been reduced to
a mere formality. It was expected that this change of
system would be followed by indications of much greater
fertility in the fields of research. Owing to the complete*
ness with which chemical literature is indexed, I have
been able to make a comparison between the number and
character of original papers published by the chemists in
these two lists within the ten years following graduation
in each case. I have not been able to make so strict a
comparison among the physicists owing to the distribution
of their work through so many media of publication, but
I have been led by a careful survey to the same conclusions
as in the case of the chemists. In both classes, the
Examinees and the Researchers, if they may be so dis-
tinguislied, there are cases in which the doctor, after
taking his degree, has done no original work — or at any
rate none that was fit for publication — and his name does
not appear in the literature of his science. On the other
hand both lists contain famous names. I will only men-
tion in passing that the names of Larmor and Lodge
appear among the examined. On the whole, I see no
indications that the procedure by thesis has had any effect
whatever on the character of the graduates. If anything,
the list of examined is of somewhat higher quality than
the list of graduates by dissertation, for there are nine
out of fiftv-four who have become Fellows of the Royal
Society, while among the others there are only eight out
of lifty-nine who can write themselves F.R.S.

In the latter list there may be one or two who may
achieve this distinction hereafter, but there are no indica^
tions that in the long run the amount and quality of the
contributions made to science by the graduates who are sup-
posed to have been trained to research will surpass those
of the men who had to face the ordeal of examination.

Does this not seem to justify my original contention that
the researcher is born, not a product of educational manu-
facture, and that his disposition to research will survive
all sorts of adverse condition's, including those which are
by some people supposed to be inherent in examination?

' I feel convinced that most of the great discoveries of
th? future will be made, as in the past, by the inspired
amateur, working usually alone and often on apparently
insignificant beginnings, and with results which may not
at first receive any attention from the world.

It is, however, necessary in these days to provide for
some form of cooperation in research, partly for the
reason that the cost of some kinds of investigation is quite
bevond the means of most private persons, and partly
because of the unfortunate separation which still prevails,
chiefly in this country, between science and industry. *

November

J'

1 910]

NATURE

3^

iirst, then, science may justly look for assistance from

State. In England this is given in a grudging way.

irliament allots 4000Z. to the whole range of the physical

\ natural sciences. The fund is administered by the

ival Society, and the biggest slices out of it are taken

n the form of contributions to the expenses of expeditions.

Then there is the National Physical Laboratory, with an

■xpenditure of about 25,000/. a year, of which 7000/. comes

rom the Treasury. This seems to be all that comes

lirectly from the national purse ; but science is endowed

o a certain extent by her friends. This assistance is

epresented by the equipment of certain schools and

!!eges by the Guilds of London, and by the small re-

rch funds of the Chemical Society and the British

^ociation.

Something more systematic is, however, wanted, and I

1 strongly that some of the rather large funds given

the form of scholarships to young students could be

rt advantageously used if applied to the maintenance of

. :oved investigators to make them independent of the

i-essity to earn a living by teaching or other professional

rk. I recognise, however, the difficulties which would

nd any such scheme. In the first place, discoveries

not be made to order. An able, industrious, and

iscientious man might work for many years without

ducing definite results, and a few cases of that ^kind

J Id destroy or shake public confidence. It would also

necessary to provide incomes large enough to retain the

- .-vices of the most able men available.

With regard to the application of science to industry, I

■nk our manufacturers have made some progress during

last thirty years. But they still suffer from delusions.

mistake most commonly made arises out of a mis-

rehension of the methods, powers, and promises of

nee. It still seems to be too often supposed that a

ntific man. called into hurried consultation, can at once

:come a diliiculty in a manufacturing process or can

se an improvement which, if adopted, would represent

ly thousands of pounds profit to someone. If this

e so scientific men would be better off than thev usually

are. What is wanted is a general recognition of "the prin-

•riole that improvements can be expected onlv as the result

the use of scientific methods, which are simply the

hods of reason applied to the materials provided bv

^^rience.

\ hat every manufacturer wants is to begin with a

ntific education, if not for himself then for his sons

successors, so that those who are at the head of affairs

\ understand fully the problems before them and in

•^hat direction to look for help towards improvement.

Failing this he will be dependent on the services of paid

-■^tants, and those services cannot be expected to pro-

^ the desired results unless thev are paid for on a

_-al scale. In this country there has not hitherto been

sufficient attraction to draw into the field of technologv

a due share of the best brains of the nation. The prospect

of ultimately reaching a salary of two or three hundred

a year at the utmost is not sufficient to induce a voung

man of first-rate ability to spend several vears of his life

and a thousand pounds or so of capital in scientific and

technical studies; and so the supplv of the highest class

of scientific assistance is at present far from what it ought

to be. *•

But suppose conditions to improve, a question arises as
to the best way of turning such assistance to account.

A suggestion has latelv been made that a new societv
should be formed, to be' constituted of trade committees
associated with experts in various divisions of science, to
carry on experiments confidentiallv in the interests of the
manufacturers who become members of the society. It
seems to me that any suggestion is better than none if
It results in the closer association of industry and science:
but I think this particular proposal would' not be found
to work in practice. The requirements of different indus-
tries are too numerous and complicated to be met by an
arrangement so simple, for each committee would ' find
Itself occupied with so many different problems that
nothing would be accomplished, unless, indeed, the staff
were very large. In my judgment each manufacturer
must endeavour to work out his own salvation. More-
over, the experience of the German manufacturer, and
to some extent also of the American, shows that it can
NO. 2140. VOL. %^

be done effectively. The most famous example known to
me is the case of the great Badische colour works at
Ludwigshafen, on the Rhine. There is a factory which
employs some 5000 men, and which pays, and has always
paid, 25 to 30 per cent, or more on its ordinary capital.
The great feature of its organisation is to be seen in the
direct association of manufacture with research conducted
by a staff of highly skilled scientific men.

In England arrangements so complete are unknown, and
the number of highly qualified chemists and physicists
employed in works is very small. I say nothing about
engineers, with whom I am not so well acquainted, but
the greater number of the chemists are merely testers
doing routine work, and because such men, receiving the
wages of a clerk, have not been able to advance the indus-
tries with which they are connected, their employers have
in too many cases in the past come to the conclusion that
science is of no use. In the meantime many things have
happened. The neglect of organic chemistry in England
forty years ago led to the complete removal of the ooal-
tar dye industry to Germany, where since that time has
sprung up the equally important manufacture of synthetic
drugs. The saccharin, the antipyrin, the artificial per-
fumes consumed in England are not made here, and it
now looks as if the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen in
the form of nitrate, so imp>ortant from the agricultural
and industrial points of view, was going to be taken
possession of by Germany and America acting together,
England being left out.

Such things have been said over and over again for
the last thirty y«ars or more, and I am not aware that
such statements have been shown to be fundamentally
mistaken, nor has there ever been any public excuse or
explanation of the indifference so commonly displayed.

The link between science and industry must be estab-
lished by the masters of industry themselves. I do not
believe in the efficacy of much of the technical instruc-
tion which is talked about, and I fear that much money
is being wasted in the attempt to imitate industrial opera-
tions in schools and colleges. What is wanted is the
highest and most complete kind of instruction in pure
science, following a good general education conducted on
such lines that the fittest only are passed forward to the
university or scientific school. Young people educated in
this way form the material which should be utilised by
the manufacturer. But he must not expect that a man
so prepared is going to earn his salary the first year or
two. He has got to learn his business, and must have
facilities for doing this, or such talent as he has cannot
be turned to account, and this can only be done by taking
him into the works. This is a subject on which a great
deal might and should be said, but such a discussion is
not suited to the present occasion.

In conclusion, I may perhaps be allowed to give a few
minutes to a glance at the future — not that I can pretend
to descry very much.

We must remember that there is no finality in physical
science. The farther we go the wider does the horizon
before us become, but every discovery of a new fact or
principle gives us a new instrument to help on to higher
things. Hence we may reasonably suppose that, wonderful
as the past has been, the future will be more wonderful
still.

Here I will venture to draw a distinction between inven-
tion and discovery, and to invention there is probably no
limit. It may be said to consist in making new combina-
tions and permutations in the elements of knowledge
already acquired. Among the inventions which have
affected the condition of mankind, those which are con-
cerned in locomotion stand first. It may truly be said
that life is lengthened, not only by years, but by oppor-
tunities, and from this point of view quick travelling, pro-
vided by steam and electricity, is a great advantage. It
would be unwise to utter any predictions as to what may
hereafter be done with big ships and aeroplanes, only the
old-fashioned type of nervous system — already shrinking
from the increased noise and bustle of the town — shudders
at the thought that neither distant valley nor mountain
top, from the tropic to the pole, can now be expected to
provide an asylum where peace secure from intrusion is
to be found.

In Samuel Butler's " Erewhon," a remarkable book

NATURE

[November 3. 1910

published about forty years ago, a country was pictured
in which moral delinquency was treated with sympathy
and condolence, while bodily disease of all kinds was held
to be a crime, and was punished by fine or imprisonment.
I suppose it will take a good many generations to reach
that condition of enlightenment, but the time cannot be
far off when the propagation of infectious disease will in
all civili?-3d countries be abolished.

The habitability of the planet Mars has of late been a
subject of much revived discussion. The possibility or
probability of the existence of intelligent beings in other
parts of the universe, long a subject of debate, is a ques-
tion of profound interest, but whether communication
with them from the earth can ever be established, who
can tell?

But as to discovery in physical science, as already said,
the horizon widens as we go on ; but it seems not improb-
able that there is a limit set, though as yet very far off,
by the capacity of the human intellect. " Nature's ways
used to be thought simple, but now we know that she
is not only mysterious, but complex. However, there is
every reason to expect that great strides are possible, even
in the immediate future. The sort of problems which
remain to be solved are represented by such questions as
the following : — What is the cause and nature of gravita-
tion and other sorts of attraction? What is the difference
between positive and negative electricity, and what is
the relation of electricity to matter? What is the nature
of chemical affinity, and is it really electrical? What is
the constitution of the elements, and is the transmutation
of metals a dream or a physical possibility?

The penetration into final causes seems as we proceed
to be further and further out of our reach. The problems
of life and mind are, up to the present, inaccessible to
man in his present state, and, notwithstanding the hopes
and beliefs of some physiologists, it is safe to say that
they will remain so for a long time to come, if not
always.

And even in regard to common matter and the phvsical
forces, all we know about them is derived from the per-
ception of phenomena through the agency of our senses.
Now the senses, sight, hearing, and the rest, have been
evolved, not to provide the means of surveying nature,
but for the protection and advantage of the body to which
they belong. It is possible, therefore, that the human
view of phenomena is only a partial and imperfect view ;
at any rate, the world which is open to the sense percep-
tion of a man must be very different from that which is
perceived by many animals' with their highly specialised
senses, such as the scent of the dog, the sight of the
carrier pigeon, and perhaps other senses for which we
have no name.

^^ " In its ultimate nature," said Herbert Spencer,
"matter is as absolutely incomprehensible as Space and
Time. Whatever supposition we frame leaves us nothing
but a choice between opposite absurdities."

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

Cambridge. — The Vice-Chancellor has published to the
Senate certain letters from the clerk to the Drapers' Com-
pany in which it is announced that the company is pre-
pared to erect a physiological laboratory at Cambridge at
a cost not exceeding 22,000/., and to make a further grant
of loooZ. for the equipment of it upon the following con-
ditions : — (i) that the site be given by the University and
approved by the company; (2) that the architect be
appointed and the plans approved by the company ; (3) that
the University undertake adequately to maintain the
laboratory when erected, and to provide the salaries of
teachers and demonstrators. A Grace will be proposed at
the next Congregation gratefully accepting the offer of the
Worshipful Company of Drapers, and a syndicate will be
appointed to discuss details with the company.

Mr. R. S. Goodchild has been reappointed assistant secre-
tary to the Appointments Board for three j^ears.

Glasgow. — On Wednesday, October 26, the services of

Prof. William Jack, who lately resigned the chair of

mathematics in the University of Glasgow after a tenure

of thirty years, were suitably recognised at an interesting

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

and largely attended ceremony in the Bute Hall. Si
Henry Craik, M.P. for the University, presented to th
Vice-Chancellor, Sir Donald MacAlister, K.C.B., a fin
portrait of the professor, painted by Sir James Guthri.
president of the Royal Scottish Academy, which had bet ■
subscribed for as a gift to the Court by a large numb' :
of colleagues, students, and friends in all parts of th
world. In addition, a sum of 300Z. was provided for th
foundation of a William Jack prize, to be awarded a
intervals of three or four years to the author of the br-
dissertation on a mathematical subject submitted durin.
the period in question for the degree of Doctor of Scien
in the University. A present of plate bearing a corn
memorative inscription was made at the same time l'
Prof. Jack. The latter, in an interesting speech o
reminiscence, recalled the notable teachers and student
with whom he had been associated during the half-ccntur
of his connection with Glasgow. His successor, Prol
Gibson, explained the value of the new prize as a stimulus
to post-graduate study and research. The Vice-Chancellor,
on behalf of the Senate and Court, acknowledged its debt
to Prof. Jack, not only for what he had done, and done
well, but for what he had been — the trusted friend and
guide as well as the instructor of his students, the loyal
comrade and peacemaker among his fellow-workers.

Mr. S. Brierley, formerly head of the Textile School,
Stroud, has been appointed head of the textile department
of the Huddersfield Technical College.

Dr. J. A. EwiNG, C.B., F.R.S., Director of Naval
Education to the Admiralty, will distribute the prizes at
the Merchant Venturers' Technical College, Bristol, on
Thursday, December 15.

Mr. J. G. Stewart, of Edinburgh, has been appointed
by the Essex Education Committee principal of the County
Laboratory at Chelmsford. One of the chief duties of the
office is to teach scientific farming to the agriculturists of
Essex and Herts.

It is announced in Science that Mr. J. D. Rockefeller
has recently offered to give to Western Reserve University
for further endowment of its medical department the sum
of 5o,oooZ., provided 150,000/. additional is raised. Toward
this 20o,oooZ. fund Mr. H. M. Hanna, of Cleveland, ha?
given 50,000/. The trustees of the University have indi-
cated their intention to undertake to secure the 100,000/.
needed to complete the fund. Yale University is to receive
the residue of the estate of the late Mr. S. H. Lyman on
the death of the testator's brother, with the exception of
5000/. The value of the bequest is not known, but the
estate is said to be large.

In Nature of October 13 a letter appeared from Mr.
E. G. Reiss, honorary secretary of the Apprenticeship and
Skilled Employment Association, directing attention to th.
fact that a number of laboratory monitors in secondar
schools, who, having reached the age of sixteen years,
were no longer eligible for employment by the London
County Council, wanted situations. Mr. Reiss writes to
say that he has succeeded in placing in various suitable
posts all the boys referred to, and points out that a number
of girls who have been employed in a similar capacity
also want suitable employment. As yet Mr. Reiss has
been unable to discover posts for these girls, and would
be glad of any suggestions as to openings for them. They
are about seventeen years of age. The address x>f the
association is 36 Denison House, 296 Vauxhall Bridge
Road, London, S.W.

The Yarrow Educational Fund of the Institution of
Civil Engineers was established to afford assistance to
young men who desire to become engineers, who have
given proof of their capacity to profit by specialised educa-
tion and training, but who lack sufficient means to obtain
it. Grants varying between 50/. and 100/. per annum, for
a period not exceeding three years, may be made in the
discretion of the committee. Applicants for such grants
must be of British birth, not more than twenty-one years
of age, and must be prepared to qualify for attachment
as students of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Several
vacancies for scholarships under the fund will occur in
March, 191 1, and the council of the institution are pre-
) pared to receive and consider applications therefor.

November 3, 1910]

NATURE

jj

Applications should be addressed to the secretary of the
Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, West-
minster, S.W. Further particulars may be obtained on
application to the secretary of the institution.

In the technical schools of this country the library is
usually a comparatively unimportant factor in the intel-
lectual work done by the institution in question. This is
perhaps partly due to the insistent and ever-growing claims
of the laboratories and workshops for apparatus, plant,
&c. As a result of this and other causes, the higher work
of many technical institutions is seriously hampered by the
inadequate provision of scientific and technical literature,
works of reference, and the journals of the learned socie-
ties. Not only is there a deficiency in the supply of books
and journals open to the student, but in some cases the
libraries themselves are small, badly lit, noisy, and
crowded. This militates against fostering those habits of
study which are essential to the progress of the student,
especially as in some cases the technical student is unable
to secure a quiet working place in his or her own home.
The magnificent new library at the Battersea Polytechnic,
recently presented by the munificence of Mr. Edwin Tate,
and opened on October 2i by the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, is excellently adapted for study and reading by those
attending classes at the polytechnic. The library is 70 feet
long and 30 feet wide, and is erected at the south-western
corner of the polytechnic, and can be approached both from
the main corridor and the present reading-room. At the
western end of the library is a wide bay containing a
beautiful stained-glass window. The book-cases project at
right angles to the wall, forming bays to seat readers, and
the gallery runs round three sides of the librar}'. The
total book accommodation is 18,000 volumes. The whole
of the fittings and panelling are of oak, the floor being of
teak. .As the building stands close to the road there are
double casements, the inner ones being filled with orna-
mental lead glazing. As regards lighting, there is a
separate window to each bay. Speaking generally, the
library is planned on lines similar to those on which all
modern universit}' libraries are being developed, the books,
for instance, being accessible at once to all students. The
cataloguing is by card. Efforts are being made to obtain
funds in order to increase very largely the technical and
scientific portions of the libran.-. It may be mentioned
that the library is of considerable use, not only to students
of the polytechnic, but also to certain local firms. Some
little time ago a circular was sent from the polytechnic
to the local chemical firms inviting them to utilise, if they
wished, the works of reference and technical journals in
the library.

At the meeting of the Education Committee of the
ndon County Council on October 26 the question of the
nior scholarships awarded by the council was under
scussion. It was eventually decided to increase the
. mber of these scholarships in 1912. Just as it was
necessary to increase the number of int'^rmediate scholar-
ships in 1910 when the first batch of junior scholars
■rained the age of sixteen, so it will be necessary to in-
case the number of senior scholarships in 1912 when the
ime candidates reach the age of eighteen. The number
' senior scholarships available for competition at present
- 50; in 1912 it will be 100. The standard required for
,e award of these senior count}- scholarships is, how-
ver, not to be lowered in any way. It is estimated that
e annual cost of awarding 100 of these scholarshios will
20.oooZ. In the award of senior county- scholarships the
ouncil has regard, in the first instance, to the past achieve-
ments of the candidates and to the reports of the teachers
under whom they have worked and of other responsible
pf/sons acquainted with the candidates, and such reports
must have reference to the character and qualifications of
thA applicants as well as their scholastic attainments. The
:holarships consist of a maintenance grant not exceeding
>/. a year. This amount is in each case determined after
■^nsideration of the requirements and the financial circum-
ances of the candidate. Senior county scholarships are,
as a rule, tenable for a length of time necessary for a
<rudent to take an honours degree in the subject selTted,
:>rovided that this period is not more than four "years When
he scholarship has been held for four years the council
ay, in a limited number of cases, continue the scholar-

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

ship for a fifth year if satisfied that there are exceptional
circumstances which render such further continuance
desirable. At present the income of the parents or
guardians of a scholarship holder must not exceed 400/.
a year. A proposal to abolish this limit was referred back
to the higher education sub-committee for further con-
sideration.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
London.
Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, October 19.—
Mr. Edgar Taylor, president, in the chair. — A. J.
Bensusan : Notes on passagem mine and works. — R. H.
Kendall : Treatment of refractory low-grade gold ores at
the Ouro Preto Gold Mine, Brazil. These two papers,
which were discussed conjointly, both deal with the same
mines from slightly different points of view, so that one
may be taken as the complement of the other. The ore
treated is composed of quartz, tourmaline, arsenical and
iron pyrites, with some bismuth, and the method of high
concentration had to be adopted in view of the diflliculties
and losses encountered with amalgamation in the presence
of arsenical pyrites and bismuth. The ore from the mine
passes through grizzlies and rock-breakers to two series
of Californian stamps, eighty head in all, and thence over
blankets. The material remaining on the blankets is piped
to passadores for daily concentration, and the concentrate
passes through a second passador and thence to bateas,
whence the gold dust is recovered, and the tailings return
to the passador, and thence with the first passador tail-
ings to the concentrates cyanide plant. The pulp from the
mortar boxes passes over Frue vanners, whence the rich
concentrates pass to the cyanide plant, and the tailings
pass through spitzkasten and thence through the sands and
slimes cyanide plants respectively. The papers describe
the various processes and the plant in considerable detail,
and give statistics as to costs, time of operations, and
results.— J. Egerton Wood : A method of collecting gold
from pannings. A short note dealing with a simple means
of collecting and preserving gold values obtained in the
field until such time as they can be be cupelled in the
laboratory.

P.ARIS.

Academy of Sciences, October 24- --M. Emile Picard in
the chair. — A. Haller : Two active alcohols and a
third ketone contained in spirit from cocoanut oil. The
raw material used in the investigation was a bye-product
in the purification of cocoanut oil. Apart from acids
separated by alkalies, possibly arising from saponification
of fatty bodies, methyl-heptyf-ketone, methyl-nonyl-ketone,
and methyl-undecyl-ketone were isolated, as well as methyl-
heptyl-carbinol and methyl-nonyl-carbinol. The two
alcohols were dextrorotatory, the optical inverse of the
alcohols isolated from oil of rue.— M. d'Arsonval : The
second International Congress for the Suppression of
.Adulteration. — Henri Douviile : How species have varied.
.As the result of a comparative study of the Lamellibranchs,
the author is of opinion that the evolutionary- changes have
not been continuous, but have occurred in a series of
abrupt steps separated by periods of stability-. — MM.
Landouzy and L. Loederich : Experimental study of
heredity- in tuberculosis. The experiments were made on
guinea-pigs. dogs, and rabbits, and evidence was obtained
of direct placental infection. In the cases where there was
no direct infection the mortality was very high from causes
other than tuberculosis. — F. Robin : The variation of
resistance of steels to crushing as a function of the tempera-
ture. Relations between the static and dynamic properties
of the steels. Data are given for copper, nickel steel,
manganese steel, and three steels containing 007. 0-384.
and 1-8 per cent, of carbon at temperatures ranging
between —185° and 1400° C. — Edouard Salles : The
diffusion of gaseous ions. Experiments were carried out
with air, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and oxygen ; measure-
ments were carried out with air at two pressures, 758 mm.
and 1028 mm., and with nitrogen at four, 760 mm..
1000 mm., 1120 mm., and 1302 mm. — J. Duclaux :
Refrigerating mixtures. .A lowering of temperature is pro-
duced when carbon bisulphide is mixed with acetone. _ A
simple apparatus is described, utilising the regenerative

#

34

NATURE

[November 3, 1910

principle, by means of wiiich a volume of 20 c.c. can be
continuously maintained at a temperature 70° below that
of the room, with an expenditure of 100 c.c. of carbon
bisulphide and 70 c.c. of acetone per hour. — Jean Villey :
The measurement of very small displacements by means i
of the electrometer. A condenser formed of two parallel i
plates and charged to a suitable potential is applied to 1
measure extremely small displacements of one of the ;
plates. Using an electrometer giving a motion of 150 cm. \
per volt on a scale 350 cm. distant, with a condenser I
formed of circular plates 65 cm. radius and 158 /t apart, ;
a displacement of the spot of 150 cm. on the scale is i
obtained when the condenser plate, charged to 17b volts, j
is moved 0001 mm., or a magnification of 1,500,000. The
sensibility exceeds that of the interference methods. — J.
Carvallo : The electrical purification of liquid sulphur
dioxide and its elt-ctrical conductivity. Liquid sulphur
dioxide, already fairly pure, is further purified by the
prolonged passage of a current at a high potential. The
limiting values obtained for the conductivity do not follow
Ohm's law, but laws which recall those governing the
conductivity of gases. — Paul Nicolardot and Georges
Chertier : The nitrous esters of cellulose. In an attempt
to find the cause of the differences in the percentage of
nitric nitrogen in guncotton when determined by the
Schloesing and Crum methods respectively, the author was
led to examine the action of the nitrogen peroxides on
cotton in presence of glacial acetic acid. The nitro-
products thus obtained appear to contain nitrites, and do
not yield their true percentage of nitrogen by the Crum
method. — MM. Magrnan and Perrilliat : An acephalous
human monster.— Mme. V. Hcnri-Cernovodeanu, MM.
Victor Henri, and V. Baroni : The action of the ultra-
violet rays upon the tubercle bacillus and upon tuberculin.
After a short exposure to the ultra-violet rays the tubercle
bacilli are attenuated ; after a more prolonged exposure
they are destroyed. Tuberculin, after a very long ex-
posure (five hours), gives no reaction with tuberculous
guinea-pigs. — A. Fernbach and A. Lanzenbergr : The
action of nitrates in alcoholic fermentation. Nitrates are
not prejudicial to the fermentation. — E. Roubaud : The
influence of the physiological reactions of Glossina in the
salivary development, and the virulence of the pathogenic
trypanosomes. — Paul Marchal : Contribution to the bio-
logical study of Chermes.- — M. Fabre-Domergue : The
storage of oysters in filtered water. After remaining for
eight days in filtered water oysters do not diminish in
weight, and do not appear to be depreciated in any way. —
Carl StSrmer : The situation of the zone of maximum
frequency of the aurora borealis according to the cor-
puscular theory.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, November 3.

Royal Society, at 4.30. — The Origin of the Hydrochloric Acid in the
Gastric Tubules : Miss M. P. Fitzgerald. — (i) Trypano'-ome Diseases
of Domestic Animals in Uganda. II. Trypanosoma Brucei. (Plimmer
and Bradlord) ; (2) Trypanosome Diseases of Domestic Animals in
Uganda. HI. Tiyjtanosomaviz'a.r {Zie.ms.nT\): Colonel .Sir D. Hruce,
C.B., F.R.S., and others. — Further Results of the Kxperimental
Treatment of Trypanosomiasis ; being a Progress Report to a Com-
mittee of the Royal Society: H. G. Plimmer, F.R.S., Capt. W. B.
Fry, and Lieut. H. S. Ranken. — On the Peculiar Morpho'ogy of a
Trypanosome from a case of Sleeping Sickness and the possibility of
its being a new Species : Dr. J. W. Stephens and Dr. H. B. Fantham. —
Note upon the Examination of the Tissues of the Central Nervous
System, with Negative Results, of a case of Human Trypanosomiasis,
which apparently had been cured for years by Atoxyl Injections : Dr.
F. W. Mott, F.RS. — On a remarkable Pharetronid Sponge fiom Christ-
mas Island : R. Kirkpatrick.

LiNNEAN Society, at 8. — Biscayan Plankton, Part XIII. The Siphono-
phora : H. B. Bigelow. — Plankton Fishing in Hebridean Seas : Prof.
W. A. Herdman, F.R.S.

ROntgen Society, at 8.15. — Presidential Address : Dr. G. H. Rodman.

AtONDA y, November 7.
Aristotelian Society, at 8. — Self as Subject and Self as Person : S.

Alexander.
Royal Geographical Society, at 8.30. — A Sixth Journey in Persia:

Ancient Parthia, Nishapur, and Turshiz: Major Molesworth Sykes,

C.M.G.
Society of Engineers, at 7.30. — Public Slaughter Houses : S. M.

Dodington.

TUESDAY, November 8.
Illijminating Engineering Society, at 8. — Recent Advances in, and

the Present Status of Gas Lighting : F. W. Goodenough.
Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — The London County Council

Holborn to Strand Improvement, and Tramway Subway: G. W.

Humphreys.

NO. 2140, VOL. 85]

WEDNESDAY, November 9.
Geological Society, at 8.— I he' Rhaetic and Contiguous Deposits of
West, Mid, and Part of East Somerset : L. Richardson. — Jurassic Plants
from the Marske Quarry: Rev. G. J. Lane.

THURSDAY, Nonember 10.

Royal Society, at ^.ya.— Probable Papers: The Tidal Observations of
the British Ant.irctic Expedition, 1907 : Sir George Darwin, K.C.B.,
F.R.S. —Conduction of Heat through Rarefied Gases: F. Soddy, F.R.S. .
and A. J. Berry. — 'I he Chemical Physics involved in the Precipitation of
Free Carbon from the Alloys of the Iron Carbon System : W. H. Hatfield.
— On the Determination of the Tension of a recently-formed Water surface :
N. Bohr.

Mathematical Society, at 5.30. — Annual General Meeting. — The
Relation of Mathematics to Experimental Science (Presidential Address) :
Sir W. D. Niven. — Properties of Logarithmico-exponential Functions:
G. H. Hardy. — The Double Six of Lines : G. T. Bennett. — On Semi-
integrals and Oscillating Successions of Functions : Dr. W. H Young. —
On the Existence of a Differeniial Coefficient : Dr. W. H. Young and
Mrs. Young. — The Analytical Extension of Kiemann's Zeta-function :
F. Tavani. — The Geometrical Representaiion of non-real Points in space
of Two and Three Dimensions: T. W. Chaundy. — The Extension of
Tauber's Theorem : J. E. Littlewood. — A Note on the Property of being
a Differential Coefficient : Dr. W. H. Young. — The Stability of Rotating
Shafts : F. B. Pidduck. — A Class of Orthogonal Surfaces : J. E.
Campbell. — On Non-integral Orders of Summability of Series and
Integrals: J. W. Chapman. — Optical Geometry of Motion : A. A. Robb.
— Lineo-linear Transformations, specially in Two Variables : Dr. A. R.
For.syth. — On the Conditions that a Trigonometrical Series should have
the Fourier Form : Dr. W. H. Young.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Presentation of Scholar-
ships and Premiums. — Inaugural Address of the President : S. Z. de
Ferranti.

FRIDAY, November ii.

Royal Astronomical Society, at 5.

Malacological Society, at 8. — On the names used by Bolten and
Da Costa for genera of Venerdise : A. J. Jukes-Browne, F.R.S. — On
New Melaniida: from Coram and Kei Islands, Malay Archipelago :
H. B. Preston.— On the Anatomy of the British Species of the Genu>
Psammobia : H. H. Bloomer. — Note on Tritcn tesselatits: Major A. J.
Peile.

Physical Society, at 8. — On the supposed Propagation of Equatorial
Magnetic Disturbances with Velocities of the Order of 100 miles per
second : Dr. Chree, F.R.S.— On Cusped Waves of Light and the Theory
of the Rainbow: Prof. W. B. Morton.— Exhibition of a Brightnes>
Photometer : J. S. Dow.

CONTENTS. PAGE

Theoretical Mechanics. By W. H. M i

Cannizzaro's Course of Chemical Philosophy. By T. 2

Pruning of Fruit Trees 2

Unconscious Memory 3

The Mammals of Europe. By R. L 3

The Science of Pathology 4

Our Book Shelf 5

Letters to the Editor : —

Hehum and Geological Time.— Hon. R. J. Strutt,

F.R.S 6

Pwdre Ser.— Edward E. Free 6

On Hydrogen in Iron.— John Parry 6

Research Defence Society.— Stephen Paget .... 6
British Mammals. — Major G. E. H. Barrett-
Hamilton . . . 6

The Oceanographical Museum at Monaco. {Illus-
trated.) By J. Y. Buchanan, F.R.S -7

Environment versus Heredity. {With Diagrams.) By

Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S "

Present Condition of American Bison and Seal

Herds. {Illustrated. By R. L .12

The Future of Agricultural Research in Great

Britain I3

Rats and Plague. By G. F. Petrie IS

Prof. D. P. Penhallow. By E. W. M 16

Notes 16

Our Astronomical Column: —

Fireball of October 23 21

The Motion of Molecules in the Tail of Halley's Comet 21

The Dark Band surrounding the Polar Caps of Mars . 22

The Spectrum of Nova Sagittarii No. 2 22

A New Variable Star or a Nova, 97 1910 Cygni ... 22

New Variable Stars in Harvard Map, No. 52 ... . 22

Anthropology at the British Association 22

Agriculture at the British Association 24

Physiology at the British Association 26

A Suggested Research Fund for Tropical Diseases 28
Modern Scientific Research. By Sir William A.

Tilden, F.R.S 29

University and Educational Intelligence 32

Societies and Academies 33

Diary of Societies 34 n

J

NA TURE

35

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER lo, 1910.

VHYSWLOGY AS A SPECULATIVE SCIENCE.
Biological Physics, Phvsic. and Metaphysic. Studies
and Essays. By Thomas Logan, Edited by Q.
McLennan and P. H. Aitken. Vol i., Biological
Physics. Pp. XXX + 576. Vol. ii., Physic. Pp. viii +
284. Vol iii., Metaphysics. Pp. vi+iio. (Lon-
don : H. K. Lewis, 1910.) Price, 3 vols., 245. net.
IN a prefatory note we read that Dr. Thomas
Logan was an Ayrshire man, who received his
■1 medical education at Glasgow and Aberdeen, and
spent almost half a century on busy practice as a
public health officer and general practitioner, first in
Scotland, latterlv in Yorkshire. He died three years
ago, at the age of sixty-nine, leaving behind him the
manuscript of the three volumes now published. It
is stated that his editors were not permitted to make
alterations or excisions of any of the text, which
therefore appears in the form the author wished, and
is illustrated by a number of cuts borrowed from
standard works on anatomy and histology. The first
volume is entitled "Biological Physics," the second
" Physic," the third " Metaphysics."
" Dr. Logan would appear to have been very early
impressed with the truth of the aphorism, '"Circulatio
Circulationum omnia Circulatio," and the great bulk
of his volumes is devoted to the repetition and ampli-
fication of this text. He possessed a great facility
with the pen, and was never at a loss for a word or
words to express his meaning. Hence his sentences
run to 10, 15, or, in favourable instances, 25 lines or
more in length. As a philosopher, he committed him-
self to unbridled speculation and unchastened
teleologA, employing the deductive method that has
found so little favour since the end of the sixteenth
centun*-. Thus, for example, he showed (i., p. 165)
that the axon of a nerve-cell must be — and therefore
is —

"a compound of at least four tubes circulating fluids
and substances of diflferent consistence, and qualities,
along its intra-spaces, each circulation differing from
the other according to the consistence of its material
and the freedom from obstacles to its onward pro-
gress, the two inner being necessarily slow, but the
two outer necessarily relatively quick."

With ever\- nerve-fibre acting as a four-fold tube,
there can be no doubt that circulation might proceed
merrily indeed; but anatomical or microscopical
evidence either that these fibres are tubes, or that they
do serve as circulator)- channels. Dr. Logan offered
none. He was, also, on purely a priori grounds, a
firm believer in the importance and activitv of the
pituitary gland. After describing its position in the

skull, he went on to say (i., p. 94) :

• Situated thus, it, the pituitary- bodv, must become

tKe receptacle of a mixture of materials, consisting of

eerebro-spmal lymph, endothelial cell debris, neuroglial

jzmgs. and whatever else obtains an entrance into

:. r.hich it must of anatomical necessitv dispose of.

id this, we claim, must be its function; and surelv

» mean function, yea, a function second to none in

-e whole category- of glandular functions in its direct

anngs on the grreat problem of life and health."

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85I

It may be noted in passing that he offered a solu-
tion for one at least of these great problems, by say-
ing what life is (i., p. 445) : —

•• Life, therefore, is a tripartite, but indis>olubly
united, transcendental entity, beginning with the
vitalisation of the elements of nutrition * culminating
in their organic incorporation, and ending with their
devitalisation and elimination."

Discussing the pituitary and pineal bodies, he
did not agree that they are survivals of once important
organs (i.. p. 97) :—

" Surz'ivals forsooth ! *Tis nothing less than an
insult to nature, and an impeachment of her working
and administration of the law of ' evolution, ' to manu-
facture and propagate this stor\- of her prodigality
in the use of most valuable cephalic, or brain, space
as a museum for the storage of obsole,;e organisms,
and her persistent exhibition of a juvenile affection
for the display of some of the works of her ' prentice '
hand in this, the gallen,- of her latest, best, and finest
productions ! These structures, called pituitary and
pineal glands respectively, are illustrations of the
truth of this exclamation and contention, and, it
seems to us, that their more exhaustive study will
reveal many facts indicating that they are structures
of the greatest functional importance in the regulation
of the cerebro-spinal lymph circulation, a circulation
of equal importance with the great blood-circulation,
and a circulation, in fact, emanating from the blood-
circulation, and the last of the great series of circula-
tions involved in the chain of I'ital processes called by
the names deglutition, digestion, absorption, circiila-
tion proper, nutrition, assimilation, secretion, arid
excretion."

Dr. Logan was no less successful in tracing out the
path followed bv these pituitarv- products ; speaking
of the tongue, he said (i., p. 545) : —

" Here, then, we claim to see the theatre of one of
the concluding acts of the great cerebro-excretory cir-
culation and the final disposal of the residual pituitary
material, which finds its way through the pituitary
gland, and which in turn finds its way through the
lateral sphenoidal foraminal openings into the ton-
sillar bodies, and thence into the amorphous and semi-
adipose material matrix, in the inter-muscular spaces
of the tongue, where it affords that semi-plastic and
fainth-fluid material in the discharge of which the
epithelial covering and papillan,- structures of that
org^an are constantly engaged."

One may doubt whether obscurantism could go
further. Enough of Dr. Logan's writing has been
quoted to exhibit the surge and flow of verbiage on
which he launched his a priori theories, and floated
his elaborate yet elusive and illusory deductions.
Throughout his essays he was content with specu-
lation and assertion, rarely did he come down to
the level of simple fact and commonplace proof of
his novel views. So little was he in agreement with
the modern spirit or methods of scientific investiga-
tion that one cannot but see in him a writer fared to
live some two or three centuries after his time. His
volumes illustrate very clearly the strength and the
weakness of the undisciplined scientific imagination,
so-called, and show the limitations of the arm-chair
man of science to perfection. They should be of no
little interest to collectors of the literarv curiosities
of science. A. J. J. B.

C

36

NATURE

[November io, 1910

THE COMPLETE BOTANY-TEACHER.

The Teaching Botanist. A Manual of Information
iipon Botanical Instruction, including Outlines and
Directions for a Synthetic General Course. By
Prof, W. F. Ganong. Second edition, revised. Pp.
xi + 439. (New York: The Macmillan Company;
London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price
$5. net.

1"^HE first edition of Prof. Ganong's book received
a welcome on this side the Atlantic such as is
accorded to few elementary botanical works produced
in America, and it has proved of the greatest value
to many engaged in the teaching of elementary botany,
or in training as future teachers of the subject. The
second edition, lately published, has been thoroughly
revised, and, indeed, re-written almost throughout,
besides being considerably enlarged, though the
general plan, and, above all, the animating spirit of
the book, not to mention the very moderate price,
remain unchanged. To all intents and purposes this
edition is a new work, and should be in the hands of
all botanical teachers, both in esse and in posse,
whether or not they already possess the first edition.

In part i., occupying, roughly, half of the book,
the author deals in a practical, yet philosophic and
stimulating, manner with the place of the sciences in
education and of botany among the sciences, followed
by a thoughtful and vigorous discussion of the per-
tinent question, "What botany is most worth?" and
proceeds to the consideration of the training of the
good botanical teacher, the methods of good botanical
teaching, botanical drawings and descriptions, the
equipment of laboratories, and the arrangement of
collections. A valuable chapter follows on botanical
books and their use, with a bibliography — by no means
exclusively American — which, with a few deletions,
would serve as the catalogue of an ideal library for
any institution in which the subject is taught. One
is inclined to wonder when there will be found an
author^and publisher — courageous enough to publish
a 'black list" of undesirable books on botany and
nature-study generally; but, after all, this would
merely postpone for a time the oblivion into which
bad books are bound to sink sooner or later.

As is well known. Prof. Ganong has shown him-
self, especially in his valuable "Plant Physiology,"
to be an acute critic of many erroneous facts and
ideas, and of faulty methods of experimentation, which
are only too common in botanical literature, not only
in books of the baser sort, but even in standard and
authoritative works. In the present work he ends
part i. with a breezy and delightful chapter — only too
short — on some common errors prejudicial to good
botanical teaching, which will bring some discomfort
to conscientious teachers, while pointing out to them
the better way. Such teachers will, however, be to
some extent consoled by the author's candid confes-
sion that he, too, has occasionally perpetuated, and
even originated, ideas and phrases which are " unfor-
tunate if not erroneous." This chapter is certainly
deserving of most careful study by all teaching
botanists.

NO. 2 141, vol. 85]

In part ii. Prof. Ganong outlines a general course
in elementary botany — not a mere skeleton or series
of headings, but a thoroughly practical, fairly de-
tailed, and altogether excellent syllabus of instructions
for the carrying out of a very full year's work in the
morphology and physiology of plants. It would be
difficult to devise a better guide to the elements of
botany for those who may go no farther with the
subject, or a more suitable first-year course for those
who intend to proceed to more advanced work in
botany. This admirable and wisely designed course
of instruction may be warmly commended, not only
to teachers of botany, but to those who are responsible
for the drafting of examination syllabuses in the sub-
ject in this country. F. C.

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS AND ORGANIC
EVOLUTION.
Die klitnatischen Verhdltnisse der geologischen
Vorzeit voni Praecambrium an bis zur Jetztzeit tind
ihr Einfluss auf die Entjvickelung der Haupttypen
des Tier- und Pflanzenreiches. By Dr. Emil
Carthaus. Pp. v + 256. (Berlin: R. Friedlander
und Sohn, 19 10.) Price 8 marks.

I^'HIS treatise commences with a consideration of
the views of different authors upon the early
evolution of the earth. Of the rocks in the earth's
crust, Olivine rock (Dunite) is considered by the author
to be the most primitive, its formation having taken
place before the condensation of the water-vapour
contained in the very earliest atmosphere. The
gneisses, however, were formed after such condensa-
tion had occurred. The beginnings of organic life
were present in the original atmosphere of water-
vapour, but the author doubts the view of Arrhenius
that the early spores could have reached the earth
from other heavenly bodies. The period between the
Upper Cambrian and Purbeckian was one of little rain,
the existence of salt deposits in the early formations
at various places, widely separated from one another,
and the complete absence of real freshwater calcareous
deposits prior to the Jurassic being cited as evidence
in support of that view. In this connection the inter-
esting questions are propounded : Why have no re-
mains older than the fauna of late Tertiary or
diluvial times been found in the caves of Devonian,
Carboniferous, Triassic, and Jurassic limestones?
Whv did cave formation thus probably begin first in
Tertiary times?

The occurrence of forests of Rhizophora (Dicotyle-
dons) in the sea of the Malay Archipelago is instanced
as a reason against the assumption of the necessarily
freshwater origin of the Ferns, Sigillaria, Lepido-
dendron, Equisetites, Conifers, and Cycads of- the
older geological formations. Great stress is laid upon
the difference in the movements of the sea-water as
affecting the forms of life at different times. The
increase of these movements in later geological periods
tended to destroy the brachiopods, the bilateral sym-
metry of the Tetracoralla gave v^ay to the radial
symmetry of the Hexacoralla, while the later Echi-
noidea, as compared with the earlier, underwent

NoVEMliER lO, 1910]

NATURE

changes in the number and arrangement of plates ;
the increasing complication of the ammonite sutures
is explained on the same ground. It is pointed out
that the multiplication in number of the sinupalliate
Lamellibranchiata in Cretaceous time and their further
acceleration in company with the Heterodont forms
in the Tertiary period correspond with the incoming
and continuance of freshwater conditions. In recent
times certain Lamellibranch species in the Black Sea
and Caspian Sea have wandered into brackish and
fresh water, and as a result there is an increase in
length of the siphon, a gaping of the shell, and the
formation of a mantle-sinus.

The work has been written in the seclusion of an
Indian hotel without the immediate advantages of
close contact with the scientific world and its literature.
This explains to a great extent the semi-popular nature
of the book, and accounts, perhaps, for the omission
of a bibliography other than rare and general refer-
ences in the text. .\ division into chapters and the
inclusion of a more extensive index would have been
a decided improvement. Although controversial in
many of its statements, the contribution has the un-
doubted merit of arousing interest and thought. The
author appears to be a strong believer in the inherit-
ance of acquired characteristics, and is not inclined
to the assumption of an indwelling tendency towards
perfection in forms of life; the followers of Cope,
von Baer, Naegeli, and von Eimer would, therefore,
find much material for debate. The statement that
land or fresh- water animals and plants older than of
Tertiary age are not found in the earth clefts of
primary- and secondarv* formations is certainly errone-
ous. For instance, the teeth of Microlestes found bv
Charles Moore and submitted to Owen in 1858 came
from a Rhaetic breccia filling a fissure in the mountain
Limestone, near Frome, Somersetshire.

Ivor Thomas.

COMMERCIAL ORGANIC ANALYSIS.
Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis. Edited by
Prof. H. LefTmann and W. A. Davis. Vol. II.,
Fixed Oils, Fats and Waxes, Soap, Glycerol,
Cholesterols, &c. Fourth edition, entirely rewritten.
Pp. x+520. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1910.)
Price 2 IS. net.

\J OST analysts are aware that a fourth edition of
■i-'J- Allen's well-known work is in course of pre-
paration. Two of the eight volumes composing the
edition have now appeared, and a notice of Vol. I.
will be found in Nature of June 16 last. Two more
are announced for publication this year, and the
remaining four are promised without undue delav.
The plan of having both an American and an English
editor has been adopted, and articles are contributed
by writers from each side of the Atlantic. This seems
a sensible arrangement, as with comparativelv little
modification the book is made to serve the needs of
chemists in both countries.

The volume now under review is much extended

and improved as compared with its predecessor of the

last edition. Mr. C. A. MitcheU is responsible for

the opening section describing the general properties

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

of the fixed oils and fats, as well as the common
processes of analysis, whilst the special characters
of the individual products, and the particular methods
of examining them, are discussed by Mr. L. .\rchbutt.
Having regard to the scope of the book, both sections
appear to be very well done. As much trustworthy
information as could well be given in the space allotted
will be found in these two sections, and no point
of importance calling for adverse remark has been
noticed by the present writer in looking through a
number of representative pages. Perhaps the articles
on arachis oil, olive oil, and the beeswax group may
be singled out as good examples of compressed
essentials. Sometimes, indeed, the compression is a
trifle too marked. Many references, however, are
given to original papers, so that fuller details can
often be obtained.

Certain products, including butter, soap, and
glvcerol, are each given a special section. Messrs.
Revis and Bolton have taken charge of the chapter
on butter fat. The\' have studied their subject well,
and, among other things, have grasped a fact which
seems to have puzzled some experts on butter analysis
— namely, that the addition of lard to butter may
produce a distinct (apparent) increase of the " Polenske
figure," which might be taken by the unwan,- as in-
dicating the presence of cocoanut oil. One or two
small errors have crept in ; thus the Zeiss values in
the first table on p. 290 are wrongly given as being
taken at 40° C. instead of 45°, and there are two
misprints in the second table on the same page. A
favourable opinion, based upon the authors' own ex-
periments, is expressed in reference to Lallemant's
"barium saponification" method of examining butter
fat. How far the commendation is deserved cannot
be judged from the particulars given. For example,
granted that the method detects cocoanut oil in butter,
it may yet be that the detection could be made just
as certainly and much more readily by older pro-
cesses. The really difficult problem is the recognition
of lard or beef-fat when present in butter, and it is
in the promise of this that the chief importance of
Lallemant's process lies. It will be interesting to
see how it stands the test of experience when applied,
on a sufficiently extended scale, to genuine butter
having Reichert-W'ollny values in the region of 23
and 24.

Of Prof. LefTmann 's chapter on soaps and the other
special contributions it must suflRce to note that they
contain all that an analyst will generally require to
know on the subjects. They help to make the volume
a distinct improvement upon the former editions.

C. S.

THE SEVEN L.UIPS OF BIOLOGY.
Das System der Biologic in Forschung und Lehre.
Eine historisch-kritische Stttdie. By Dr. Phil. S.
Tschulok, Zurich. Pp. x + 409. (Jena : Gustav
Fischer, 1910.) Price 9 marks.

THE author discusses at great length some of the
attempts that have been made to define the scope
of biology, and to indicate the logical sub-divisions of
the science. Starting with early workers like Ray,

NATURE

[NOVEMBKR lO, 1 910

he works on to A. P. De Candolle and Schleiden (of
whose importance he is very appreciative), and thence
to Haeckel and Spencer, Karl Pearson, and Burck-
hardt. This laborious historical survey, which must
have cost the author much time and trouble, is inter-
esting to those who care for such questions, but it
seems to us to be robbed of some of its value by
being overloaded and by a lack of perspective. Dr.
Tschulok quotes classifications of the different depart-
ments of biology from a large number of text-books,
isome of which are rather humdrum performances,
while others are by men who left a deep mark on
the science, but had neither any particular interest
in mapping out its subdivisions, nor any special apti-
tude for so doing.

To illustrate, a man like Burckhardt was a good
zoologist — too early lost to science — but he was also
a philosopher. He went the length of thinking about
the classification of the sciences, about the relation
of biology to other disciplines, about methodology, and
so on, his writings sometimes reminding us of those
of Prof. Patrick Geddes in this country. Naturally,
therefore, we are glad to have from Dr. Tschulok an
exposition of Burckhardt 's views, and we are espe-
cially grateful for the unearthing of an essay on the
history of biological " Systematiks," well-buried "an
einem ziemlich versteckten Orte." But what we regret
is the space that is given to what are really incom-
petent classifications. The author wearies us with
citations from manuals of botany, which start with
commonplace mappings out of the science, sometimes
beginning with a weird word like "Glossology," and
ending up with " Fossil Botany." The last is a care-
less usage, which in an interesting irony sometimes
justifies itself. Our regret that the author has been
.at such pains to expose the nakedness of the larid is
heightened when we find that he has missed most
of the few really illuminating British contributions
to the subject of his book. We may refer, for in-
stance, to well-known encyclopaedia articles by Prof.
Patrick Geddes and Sir E. Ray Lankester.

The author divides biology into Biotaxis and Bio-
physik. The first has to do with the establishment of
conceptual relations, the second with the establishment
of real relations — causal and teleological. Classifica-
tion, for instance, is "biotactic"; physiological
analysis is "biophysical." He contrasts his dual
division with others, e.g., with morphology and physi-
ology (which is a "scholasticism," he says), or with
biostatics and biodynamics, which expresses a different
idea. But does Dr. Tschulok mean more than this,
that we have in biology, as elsewhere, to discover the
orderliness of sequences and to sum this up in con-
ceptual formulae?

The author's chief contribution is a scheme of the
subdivisions of biology. His idea is that there are
seven kinds of inquiry which are individually indis-
pensable and collectively exhaustive. These are :
taxonomy, morphology, physiology, cecology, chor-
ology, chronology, and genetics. This appears to us
to illustrate most of the vices of classification, such
as overlapping, cross-division, and inequality of values.
It appears to us, for instance, that taxonomy and
NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

morphology are inseparably bound together; that
cecology, as Semper said, is part of physiology; that
chorology is not an independent division of the science;
and so on. It must be noted, however, that Dr.
Tschulok defends his seven-fold classification with
enthusiasm and learning. J. A. T.

A MONOGRAPH OF THE PETRELS.
A Monograph of the Petrels (Order Tubinares). By
F. Du Cane Godman, F.R.S. With hand-
coloured plates by J. G. Keulemans. Part iv., pp.
233-296; part v., pp. 297-381 + Iv, (London:
Witherby and Co.) Price 15/. 155., bound in full
morocco.

'T^HE fourth and fifth parts of the " Monograph
*- of the Petrels," completing this beautiful and
valuable work, have been received, and the whole
work can now be had, bound in full morocco, price
fifteen guineas. It contains 436 pages printed on
rag paper, and over one hundred hand-coloured plates
by Keulemans, our best ornithological artist. In
every respect this beautiful volume has been produced
in the best possible style. Nor is the letterpress anv
less excellent. The work was projected, if not
actually begun, by the late O. Salvin, who wrote
the "Tubinares" for the British Museum catalogue
of birds, and the author has endeavoured to carrv
out the work on the lines laid down by Salvin,
taking the catalogue as his guide. The final part
contains a masterly introduction to the order
Tubinares, a systematic list of species, a classification
and key to the genera and species, and an essay by
Mr. Pycraft on the systematic position of the petrels.

Petrels apparently belong to an ancient race of
birds, as their remains have been found in a fossil
state in various parts of the world, mostly in super-
ficial deposits, one species, however, being known
from the Red Crag of Norfolk. In external appear-
ance the families of petrels differ in an extraordinarv
manner, and the, species vary in size from the tiny
storm petrel to the wandering albatross. Notwith-
standing their wide differences, petrels mav at once be
distinguished from all other birds by their prominent
tubular nostrils and by .their bills, which consist of
several horny pieces separated by deep grooves. Thev
are dispersed throughout the oceans of the world,
penetrating to the ice barrier at both Poles, though
they are more numerous in the southern than in the
northern hemispheres. They are oceanic wanderers,
and, unless storm-driven, seldom, if ever, come to land
except for the purpose of breeding.

The two parts now before us comprise the rest of
the genus Qistrelata, and the genera Pagodroma
(the snowy or ice petrel) Bulweria, Macronectes (ihe
"stinker or Nelly" of the sailors), Fulmarus, Daption
(the well-known "Cape Pigeon"), Halobaena, and
Prion, completing the family PufTinidae; the family
Pelecanoididae comprising one curious genus ; and
the family Diomedeidae (the albatrosses), compris-
ing the genera Diomedea, Thalassogeron, and Phce-
betria. Certainly the most curious and perhaps the
most interesting of all these are the strange little

November io, 1910]

NATURE

39

diving petrels f)eculiar to the southern seas, and
absurdly resembling the little auk of the northern
seas both in appearance and habit — diving, fishing,
and flying — although widely differing in structure.
Darwin wrote of one of them : —

"No one seeing the bird for the first time, thus
diving like a grebe, and flying in a straight line, by
the rapid movements of its short wings, like an
auk, would believe that it was a member of the
family of petrels, the ji^eater number of which are
eminently pelagic in their habits, do not dive, and
whose flight is usually most graceful and continuous."

Since the completion of Salvin's catalogue the
present monograph has derived much benefit from
the considerable additions to the national collection
made through the several expeditions sent to the
Antarctic regions, among which may be mentioned the
vof\-ages of the Discovery, the Southern Cross, the
Scotia ; and from the cruises of the Valhalla ; as well
as from the expedition sent to the Hawaiian Islands
by the Hon. Walter Rothschild ; these together have
considerably increased our knowledge of the distribu-
tion of the petrels. A full index brings this important
volume to a close.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Eugenics, the Science of Human Improvement by
Better Breeding. By C. . B. Davenport. Pp. 35.
(New York: Holt and Co., 1910.) Price 50 cents
net.

This useful little book consists of two parts. The
first is an account of the principles which determine
whether a given marriage will produce fit or unfit
offspring, the second contains suggestions for future
eugenic research. In the somewhat limited class of
characters and diseases for which definite Mendelian
laws of inheritance have already been made out, it is
possible to predict with an approach to certaintv the
proportion of the children which will or will not be
affected. Thus the malformation of the fingers
known as brachydactyly is a Mendelian dominant.

".\n abnormal person married to a normal will
beget 100 per cent., or 50 per cent, abnormal, accord-
ing to circumstances, and such a marriage is unfit;
but two parents who. though derived from brachv-
dactvl strains," are themselves normal, "will have
only normal children . . . such a union is entirelv
fit."

Deaf-mutism may be due to any one of a varietv
of defects, but in different individuals of the same
familv the chance is large that it is due to the same
defect. Such defects are often recessives, and jnay
appear in the offspring ef normal parents of deaf-mute
stocks. Interrnarriage between two such parents,
especially of cousins, is 'unfit." .\gain, too, im-
becile parents, whether related or not. produce only
imbecile offspriner. a fact which should impress those
responsible for the long delay in embodving in legis-
lation the recommendations of the Roval Commis-
sion on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded.

In concluding his suggestions for future inquirv.
Mr. Davenport rijihtly points out the contrast be-
tween the difficultv of raising funds for such scientific
inquiries, and the ease with which monev is obtained
for charitable and humanitarian action which often
proves to have been ill-judged.

"One cannot fail to wonder that, where tens of
ntillions have been given to bolster up the weak and
alleviate the suffering of the sick, no important means
NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

have been provided to enable us to leai'n how the
stream of weak and susceptible protoplasm mav be
checked." W, C. D. \V.

The Book of the Dry Fly. By G. A. B. Dewar.

New edition. Pp. xxvii + 277. (London: A. and

C. Black, 1910.) Price 75. 6d. net.
The second edition of Mr. Dewar 's " Book of the
Dr}- Fly " follows the first after an interval of thirteen
years. It is to be regretted that this second edition
is, in reality, little more than a reprint of the first ;
the art of dry-flv fishing has been developed, and
knowledge of the natural history of the trout and of
the aquatic creatures upon which it feeds has advanced
during these years, and it is a little deceptive to find
that references to "last year" in a book with 1910 on
the title-page refer to 1896. The deception may even
be turned to confusion by the addition of a footnote
modifying or contradicting the statements made in
the text.

However much we may regret that the book has
not undergone a more complete revision, we may still
be glad to find that a second edition has been pub-
lished. Mr. Dewar is a student of nature, as well as
a fisherman, and he writes with obvious enthusiasm
and interest of various chalk and limestone streams
and their surroundings. He deals well with the
elements of drv-fly fishing, and appears to touch on
most points likelv to interest a student of that art.

There are some matters in which we find Mr.
Dewar hard to follow, such as his discussion of the
modern higher education of trout, but as a rule his
explanations are lucid and his opinions clearly ex-
pressed. The grayling is, perhaps, treated with rather
scant courtesv in the text, althoug^h the footnotes
show signs of a change of view. .•\ singular misuse
of the term " dropper " in chapter ii. is obviously the
result of an oversight, and this should be corrected in
anv future edition.

.\n attractive feature of the present edition of Mr.
Dewar's book is the series of excellent reproductions
of water-colour sketches of typical chalk and lime-
stone streams ; these should assist the fisherman who
does not know the waters of Hampshire or other
southern and Midland counties to appreciate the con-
ditions which have brought dry-fly fishing into being
far more easily than anv mere description in words.

Last, but not least, there is a good index.

Die Entu'icklunq des menschlichen Geistes. By Max
Verworn. Pp. iv + 52. (Jena: Gustav Fischer.
1910.) Price I mark.
This is a lecture by the well-known professor of
physiology in the University' of Bonn, and is a kind
of popular sur\-ey of human development. After
dealing with the fact that " the development history
of the individual form is a short recapitulation of its
race development " (Fritz Miiller) and with the
elaboration of this by Haeckel, Dr. \'erworn g^oes on
to emphasise the importance of child-study with rela-
tion to pedagog:ics. A eulogy of Charles Darwin
follows, and a curious and interesting table of sup-
posed psychological development from the Eolithic to
the present time.

The British Empire in Pictures. A Geographical Read-
ing Book. By H. Clive Barnard. Pp. 64 (London :
.\. and C. Black, 1910.) Price is. 6d.
The thirty-two excellent illustrations in colour which
form the distine;uishing characteristic of this book will
ser\-e excellently to predispose young pupils in favour
of the study of geography. As a supplement to the
more serious work of the class-room, the book should
prove useful, and it should not be difficult to get
children to read the book as a leisure-hour under-
taking.

40

NATURE

[November lo, 1910

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

[The Editor does not hold himself responsible iot 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.]

Origin of Dun Horses.

In discussing the colours and stripes of horses in
*' Animals and Plants under Domestication," Mr. Darwin
says : — " I have endeavoured, but with poor success, to
discover whether duns, which are so much more oftener
striped than other coloured horses, are ever produced from
the crossing of two horses, neither of which are duns. . . .
One case, however, has fallen under my own observation
of a foal from a black mare by a bay horse, which when
fully grown was a dark yellow-dun and had a narrow but
a plain spinal stripe."'

In a recent number (October 15) of the Veterinary
Record Mr. J. B. Robertson gives the following instances
of reversion to dun from the last eleven and first four
volumes of the General Stud Book : —

(1) Bay-dun filly (1907), by Ash (chestnut), out of
Unexpected (bay).

(2) Dun filly, Sarah Curran (1892), b\' Robert Emmett
(bay or brown), out of Cellulites (black).

(3) Dun colt (1897), by Sir Frederick (bay), out of
Lobelia (bav or brown).

(4) Light' dun filly (1886), by Lord Gough (bay), out of
Danseuse (brown).

(5) Dun or chestnut filly, Sancta (1884), by Exminster
(bay), out of Halloween (chestnut).

(6) Dun filly (1763), bv Young Cade (bav), out of Miss
Thigh (grey).

(7) Dun colt (1730), by King George II. 's one-eyed grey
Arabian, out of Young Kilty Burdett (bay).

(8) Dun fillv (1829), bv Lotterv (brown), out of Octavia
(bay).

Mr. Robertson also mentions (i) that a half-bred yellow-
dun filly was obtained out of a liver-chestnut ^^'elsh cob by
a bay thoroughbred with a dorsal band — this fill}' " during
early foalhood was profusely striped on the face, neck, and
quarters"; and (2) that of 45 duns given in the tables
included in his paper, 39 cannot be traced to an original
dun ancestor. They sprang from the union of Silver-
locks (chestnut) and the Godolphin Arabian (brown), " and
hence afford incontrovertible evidence that a gametic line
of duns — which in this case extended to four generations —
may spring from parents neither of which are dun."

The L'niversity, Edinburgh. J. C. Ewart.

Markings of Mars.

I HAVE recently returned by way of Tasmania from a
series of visits to the chief observatories in the United
States, which included a month's stay at the Lowell
Observatory during the past opposition of Mars. This
visit was made with the express object of testing by my
own observation the reality of the data on which Dr.
Lowell has based his speculations.

I find on my return that so much scepticism has been
raised by the observations and arguments of M. Antoniadi
and others that a record of my own experience may be
of some vahie.

When I first looked at Mars at FlagstafT (September 27,
1909) I saw with great difficulty three streaks, presumably
canals. The seeing was bad, and the general faintness
of the planet's markings at that time is admitted by all.
I continued to observe Mars on every possible night (which
was nearly every night) until October 25, and as my eye
became accustomed to the work I saw more and more.
The canals were seen repeatedly better — this with the
24-inch refractor generally stopped down to about
18 inches. I found that with more than 20 inches the air
was nearly always too unsteady, and with less than
15 inches too much separating power was lost. The
canals were seen best with a power of 390 diameters.

Clearer they became each night until, on October 25,

■I " Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i., p. 62. (1872.)

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

the seeing being the best I ever experienced, the canals
came out with amazing clearness and steadiness, sharp and
clean, like telegraph wires against the sky, the oases als(^
being exquisitely defined. Whereas on previous nights th-
canals could be held only by short glimpses of perhap>
half a second at a time, they were now steadily visibl-
for three or four seconds together, when a short flicker
would sweep over them ; during the lucid intervals th-
limb also of the planet was perfectly steady, as I hav
never seen it before or since. Of the objective existenc
of these markings in the image at the focus of the tele-
scope there could be no manner of doubt, and Lowell ''^
representations of them are nearer the actual appearanc
than any I have seen, though even in his drawings th'
lines seem hardly fine enough. The effect produced on my
mind by this remarkable definition, which lasted for
upwards of one and a half hours (from about 8.30 until
after 10 p.m.), was staggering and ineffaceable. Soon
after ten the definition went to pieces.

It may be relevant to mention that a few evening-^
previously I had obtained a fair and convincing view of
the canals with the 40-inch reflector (full aperture and a
power of about 700), when they had appeared hazy and
broader, but the image had been very unsteady, and only
obtained in very short flashes ; but nothing that I had
hitherto seen had prepared me for the astonishing steadi-
ness and fineness of the details visible on this superb
night.

There is in my mind no sort of doubt that the revela-
tion of this night was due both to the perfection of the
instrument (which its maker long ago pronounced to be
the best that the firm of Alvan Clark ever turned out) and
the atmospheric conditions which are found at Flagslaff.
With respect to these I would mention, as pointing to
the freedom from water vapour, that I have seen the
thermometer fall from more than 70° F. at 3 p.m. to
below the freezing point at 3 a.m. without a ti'pce of hoar-
frost, and the general clearness of the air was such that
I could see Uranus with the naked eye within 5° of the
horizon, and could nearly every night count nine star?;
in the Pleiades and separate e and 5 Lyrse.

The telescope also afforded on other nights ampli
evidence of the extraordinary clearness of the air. On
many occasions both satellites of Mars, when not ver\
near the limb, could be seen, without screening the planet,
with 18 inches of aperture ; and on one occasion with this
aperture I picked up one of them unawares while looking
for canals with a yellow screen. (N.B. — The importance
of colour screens in rendering the canals visible does not
seem to be sufficiently appreciated.)

In the face of .ill this positive evidence, and in the
absence of any evidence that the observing conditions at
Mfudon, just outside Paris, ever approach these best con-
ditions at Flagstaff, I find it impossible myself to attach
any serious weight to the ingenious and plausible conten-
tions of M. Antoniadi. which seem to have been much too
hastily accepted in this country.

.As to the deductions which Dr. Lowell has drawn from
his observations I have nothing to. say except that the
startlingly artificial and geometrical appearance of thf
markings did force itself upon me.

James H. Wortmincton.

Wycombe Court, High Wycombe, October 31.

November Meteors.

The moon is full about the time when the Leonids
become due in the present year, but that is no reason why
these meteors should elude observation, for the Sickle h.a-;
furnished some notable displays of shooting stars. With
the moon in opposition in mid-November, as, for instance,
in 1799 and 1867, though the coming apparition cannot
be expected to vie as regards brilliancy with either of
these historic events, yet in its way it may not prove un-
important nor be allowed to pass unobserved. Besides the
Leonid epoch, there are also some other meteoric events
that occur in November, of which the following par-
ticulars have been computed by the writer : —

Epoch, November 11, 9h. (G.M.T.), approximately
second order of magnitude. Principal maximum.

November io, 1910]

NATURE

41

November .12, jh. 4501. ; secondary maximuin, November
12, 9h.

Leonid epoch, November 17, 2ih., twenty-eighth order
of magnitude. Principal maximum, November 16,
i3h. 45m. ; secondary maxima, November 16, ijh. 20m.
and i5h. 30m.

Epoch, November 19, gh., eighth order of magnitude.
Principal maximum, November 20, i5h. 15m. ; secondary
maxima, November 20, 6h. 30m. and i6h. 30m.

Epoch, November 19, gh. 30m., fifth order of magnitude.
Principal maximum, November 20, i4h. 30m. ; secondary
maxima, November 19, 2oh. 30m., and November 21,
oh. 30m.

Epoch, November 23, 22h., approximately second order of
magnitude. Principal maximum, November 21, 2oh. 30m. ;
secondary maximum, November 22, ih.

Epoch, November 28, 6h., approximately second order
of magnitude. Principal maximum, November 30,
I4h. 30m. ; secondarj- maxima, November 30, 2h. 30m.
and iih. 30m.

It may be seen from the foregoing that there are four
periods during the last three weeks of November that will
probably be characterised by an unusual degree of meteoric
activit)-, viz. November 12, 16, 20-21, and 30. The circum-
stance that the moon will be eclipsed in the night of
November 16 may favour and stimulate Leonid observa-
tions, but the former phenomenon will perhaps have nearly
ended before the latter may put in an appearance.

November 7. John R. Henry.

Early Bunal Customs in Egypt.

It is suggested in Prof. Elliot Smith's letter (October
27. p. 529) that the burial customs in other countries
influenced our observation of the burials in Egypt. On
the contrary, the occasional practice of dismemberment in
Egypt was a surprise to myself and to others ; it is only
gradually that the evidence for the wide distribution of
such customs elsewhere has been brought forward as a
parallel.

In place of all workers in Egypt finding " precisely the
same state of affairs," many entire differences of custom
are found in other material facts besides dismemberment,
as thirty years' experience has proved.

The first principle for the archaeologist to realise in
Egvpt is the great diversity of thought and custom which
prevailed. With four totally incompatible beliefs about the
future life, shown by diverse funeral customs throughout
the history, it is quite natural that diversity should occur
In the treatment of the body in the earlier ages. When
the long-promised publication of Dr. Reisner on prehistoric
Egypt is accessible, we shall be in a position to define
some more localities where certain customs ruled. Dis-
cussion of these local variations before the fresh facts are
published is premature.

W. M. Flinders Petrie.

Stripped of all irrelevant considerations, the question at
Issue resolves itself into this, " Is there any real evidence
to prove, or even to suggest, that the ancient Egyptians
ever mutilated the bodies of their dead? "

In reply, I maintain that there is no evidence whatso-
ever capable of being twisted into the semblance of sup-
port to Prof. Flinders Petrie's contention.

Of all the multitudes of so-called " dissected burials "
recorded by him, there is only one (see " Deshasheh."
1898) which carries conviction to those familiar with
Egyptian conditions as a genuine case of secondarv burial.
Prof. Flinders Petrie says he has found two more cases
this year. That may well be so. We found more than
a score of such cases in Nubia.

.But they are not evidence of deliberate mutilation of
the body. They are all of them instances of some un-
intentional damage to the corpse— either bv unskilled
embalmers or by accident.

In reference to Prof. Flinders Petrie's closing remarks, I
may state that by the time this letter is printed there will
re published in Cairo Dr. Reisner's report (vol. i.) on the
Archaeological Sur\ev of Nubia, containing his observa-
tions on prehistoric Egypt and Nubia.

G. Elliot Smith.

Simulium and Pellagra.

The interesting discovery by Dr. Louis Sambon that
pellagra is due to a protozoal parasite conveyed by flies of
the genus Simulium (Nature, October 27) is, we may
presume, merely the prelude to an energetic campaign of
extermination directed against the insect.

It is well that medical men and sanitary officials should
realise at the outset of such a campaign that the destruc-
tion of Simulium flies in any given area is an infinitely
harder task than the destruction of mosquitoes. The larvae
of Simulium live in rapid streams, attached to submerged
rocks and stones, and it is difficult to see how these
streams can be drained drj- if they are numerous in any
particular district. Even if it were practicable to cover the
surface of these streams with a film of oil, such a pro-
cedure would have no effect on the Simulium larvas, for,
unlike mosquito larvae, the little creatures derive the
oxygen necessary for their existence from the water bath-
ing the gills situated at the anterior end of their bodies.
In other words, the Simulium larva cannot be suffocated
as can the mosquito larva.

Finally, it may be noted that the species of Simulium
are very small flies, consequently to exclude them from
houses wire gauze or muslin screens of extremely fine
mesh must be employed. Such screens are bound to
interfere seriously with the circulation of air in a house,
and in a warm climate the discomfort entailed will be
almost intolerable; R. Shelford.

Hope Department, Oxford University Museum.

The Cocos-Kceling Atoll.

Dlring a very short visit to these islands some years
ago I was taken across the lagoon in a light canoe, and
when wading to land, about a quarter of a mile distant,
over the rough surface of fresh coral branches, I suddenly
crashed downwards for about 2 feet into a mass of rotten
coral which spread over an irregular area some 20 or 30
yards across. I did not investigate this further, as a
shark's fin appeared above the water off shore, but Mr.
Ross informed me that a good deal of the coral in the
lagoon had been " killed " at various times by sulphurous
exhalations from below, and had become black and rotten
in consequence. Mr. Ross (the owner of the island group)
supposed that the wide and deep well-like holes and broad
irregular patches of varying depth in the lagoon were due
to this cause, which he compared to the sulphurous steam
constantly roaring from the crater of the Gedeh and other
mountains in Java.

If this comparison be correct, as it doubtless is, the
Cocos ring is around the submerged summit of a volcanic
cone which has not quite lost its solfataric activity. I
have never seen it suggested that such poisonous exhala-
tions coming into the still water confined within the atoll
ring might account for the slower growth of the coral,
and the deepening of the lagoon by the degradation of the
coral branches where the polyps had been suddenly
poisoned. It is, however, possible that some such influence
may cooperate to prevent the coral flourishing as rapidlv
as it does outside the ring in the boisterous wash of the
fresher waves that are constantly stirred by the trades.

I have not yet read Mr. Wood-Jones's book, but it was
the decided opinion of Mr. Ross, founded upon boat navi-
gation, that the lagoon was shallowing, because, as he
thought, the submerged summit was slowly rising. If
this be so something more than slower growth is necessary
to account for the continued existence of the lagoon, since,
however slow the growth, it must ultimately in a rising
area bring the summit up at least to water-level ; but if
there is this kind of active degradation, neither slow
upheaval nor slower growth could prevail against such
rapid destruction, and a comparatively deep atoll with
irregular bottom contours would result.

Waterstock, Oxon, October 31. E. C. Spicer.

NO. 2 141, VOL, 85]

It would be ungenerous, after the frank admissions of
inaccuracy on the part of the reviewer (Natlre,
October 27), to criticise the substance of his review in anv
more detail ; but it is necessary to make some replv to
his assertions concerning the development of atolls.

42

NATURE

[November io, 1910

From the general trend of his first article (Nature,
October 6) I gathered that the reviewer was an advocate
of the " solution " theory of Sir John Murray, and by
carefully reading his second contribution (October 27) I
have not entirely dispelled this impression. Yet he says,
"I do not regard the lagoon in an atoll, which was
formed, as Darwin suggested, by subsidence, as covering
a reef at all."

This would seem to suggest a belief in Darwin's theory,
and, if it is the case that the reviewer upholds this theory
(as well as the opposed one of " solution "), it may be
well to point out that I too would not regard the lagoon
of an atoll, formed by subsidence, as covering a reef. I
should not have imagined it probable that anyone would
so regard a lagoon were it formed in such a manner.
The essential difference between such a view and the
one that I have attempted to uphold is that I do not regard
the lagoon as being formed by subsidence at all ; but I
do look on the lagoon as being a " slightly submerged
reef " having a raised rim upon which islets are developed.
Does the reviewer genuinely regard the lagoon as being
formed by subsidence? If he does, why does he also
plead the opposed theory of solution, and appeal to the
elevated islands of Fiji? If he does not, why does he
urge the statement as an argument against my views?

I am glad to see that he is prepared to admit that the
various well-known phases of development of atoll-shaped
reefs are " indirect evidence " of the truth of what I have
'"P.intained ; but the Funafuti bore, he thinks, does not
support it. The reviewer states that he does not think
"the borings in the lagoon at -Funafuti suggest a reef
such as surrounds a lagoon." I should not have expected
them to have suggested a reef such as surrounds a lagoon,
for that reef is a consolidated and specialised "breccia
platform." What might be expected is that such a bore
would show the characters of a submerged reef — the open
coral bankT— /);m5 the lagoon accumulations added since the
completion of the atoll.

When such a successful bore is driven we may look for
such appearances ; but it is surely within the knowledge
of the reviewer that the only bore at Funafuti which met
with any , success was not situated iii the lagoon. The
lagoon bore ("bore L ") penetrated only 144 feet, and then
failed; the only successful bore (on the results of which
alone any safe argument may be based) was situated on
the seaward reef, far removed from the lagoon. The
successful bore (" main bore "), which reached a depth of
1 1 14 feet, was driven on the extreme windward edge of a
large atoll reef. In such a situation one would confidentlv
expect the bore to penetrate the talus slope of the out-
wardly growing reef, and, from the description of the
core obtained, it would appear that this expectation was
realised. The Funafuti "main bore" tells little of the
development of atolls save that they grow to windward
on their own talus slopes — a fact hardly requiring a
laborious boring for its acceptance.

The " L bore " can support no particular theory by
reason of its very incompleteness ; but such evidence as it
does afford in no way contradicts, but rather goes to
support, the supposition that it penetrated the lagoon
debris of a submerged reef.

Whether the reviewer regards the Funafuti boring as
evidence supporting Darwin's theory of subsidence or Sir
John Murray's theory of solution I cannot quite deter-
mine; but he next defends the solution theory in the case
of the Fijian Islands. He says that these islands have
reefs " which superficially appear to be of the ordinary
coral-reef type. Such reefs cannot have existed when the
islands were first elevated, and it seems to me that
.'\gassiz's photographs show that high islands do crumble
to pieces within the calm of encircling barrier reefs." I
own that I fail to follow this argument, for, granting that
the reef is new since the island was elevated, what proof
— or what probability — is there that the coast erosion was
not present before the development of the reef, when the
same condition is seen quite apart from reefs, or any
other coral structures, all over the world?

The problem of the formation of coral structures (fring-
ing reefs, barrier reefs, open reefs, atoll-shaped reefs, and
atolls) is not, I think, to be solved bv appeals to a multi-
tude of opposed theories, and no critic's position is likely

to gain strength by a series of fallacious arguments based
alternately on the theory of subsidence, the theory oi
solution, and the results of the Funafuti bore.

F. Wood-Jones.
-St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School.

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

-As a reviewer I would point out that I do not desire
to uphold any theory, but merely to show what is good
and what is bad in the book which I am reviewing, what
facts are new, how far these and other facts support any
theories, &c. An essay on the duties of a reviewer might
be a suitable suggestion to the Editor of Nature, but
obviously I am not the author to present such an article.

In the first paragraph of Mr. Wood-Jones's letter of
October 27 I am practically accused of being an
"anonymous destructive . critic " of, I suppose, the con-
structions erected by the facts brought together by Mr.
Wood-Jones, some of them new and some old. I regard r
some of the bricks of his building as faulty, and I scarcely
think there are enough bricks with which to .complete the
building. I intended to indicate in my review that. I
considered that science had gaine by the attempt to
build, and I desired indirectly to indicate some of the
bricks which I. thought future workers should attempt to
collect. I do not believe any research.?r on the coral-reef
problem will consider my review as in any way unfair if
he regards (as I did) Mr. Wood-Jones's book as a con-
tribution to science. .

I. shall after this .lettc not continue this correspondence,
not caring for Mr. VV.od-Jones's style of writing. I
would, however, make .lyself clear on two points. Mr.
\\'ood-Jones admits that he assumes the lagoon of an
atoll to be a slightly submerged reef.' I point out that
the nature of the material underlying the lagoons of
atolls .is doubtful. I appeal to the lagoon boring at
Funafuti as giving the most valuable facts we have as to
its nature. ■ Do these facts, the best known geographical
facts, support the theory of a slightly submerged reef, such
as is supposed to exist at Cocos-Keeling? Down to
27 fathoms the first Funafuti lagoon boring passed through
lagoon debris, and from that depth to 41 fathoms there
occurred some firmly compacted masses ">f coral rock. Irr.
the second boring,, which was carried to nearly 36 fathoms,
a similar section was obtained. I do not consider that
these two borings are sufficient to justify ; Mr. Wood-
Jones's assumption, and I did not consider that the
evidence given as to Cocos-Keeling lagoon justifies it. I
quite fail to remember any description ■ of the. material
under the Cocos-Keeling lagoon such as; would suggest
the open, coral bank which is mentioned in Mr. W'ood-
Jones's letter,- while its- shallowness made it a peculiarly
favourable place for investigation.

The fringing reefs round the high limestone islands ia
Fiji I certainly am inclined to . regard as platforms left
at low tide-level when those islands were washed away.
In this sense they are new. They formed part of the
bases of the islands when they were first elevated.
Possibly the edges of these platforms have extended sea-
ward since the land Was removed by solution, and, still
more important, by the erosion of the numerous small
particles carried in the swirling watei-s. I consider these]
views are amply supported by published evidence. High
limestone islands are also being washed away within
barrier reefs, and I think it is a fair inference frorrn
the evidence that many of these barrier reefs were oncei
similar shelves cut out from the land, or, to put it another)
way, le*^*. behind when the land was removed.

The Reviewer.

i

f

Note on Winter Whitening in Mammals.

I HAVE just seen a letter in N.ature of March 24 byl
Miss I. B. J. SoIIas, in which, commenting on Mr.j
Mudge's observations, it is suggested that the yellow bodyi
produced artificially by Mr. Mudge in the fur of the albinorj
rat is a substance similar to the yellow pigment of the!
stoat's winter coat, and therefore probably represents a|
stage in the reduction of the pigment to the condition in^
which it exists in the white hairs.

I had previously read Mr. Mudge's observations withj
great interest, and had suggested to him that they wou|^
throw light on the hitherto unexplained yellow tints inl

November io, 1910]

NATURE

4:-?

he fur of the winter-whitened stoat, as well as in the
: :rmanently white polar bear. 1 think Mr. Mudge's
bservations are a distinct help to us in getting at the
leaning of these white coats. I should like to see what
\Iiss Sollas can do with the hair of the variable hare, as
in the whitened specimens of this animal I have never
5een any trace of the yellow tints found in the stoat.

Mr. Mudge's note that the white areas of a piebald
nouse can be turned pink by immersion in 5 per cent,
itric acid in 78 per cent, spirit, but only in summer or
; warm temperature, is also of great interest. Does it
r.QX. suggest a reason why pink colour in feathers is mostly
• und in summer plumages and in warm climates? And
- not his production of brown in the hairs of white rats
exposed to damp warm weather comparable with the well-
known saturated tints so prevalent in animals living
naturally in damp but warm countries?

While writing on winter whitening it may be well to
direct attention to another point, which has always been
difficult to explain on physiological grounds, namely, the
fact that the black ear tips of the hare and the black tail
tip of the stoat are not subject to winter whitening. This,
however, would be explicable if, whereas the general

THE SUBANT ARCTIC ISLAXDS OF NEW
ZEALAND^

'T'HE naturalists of New Zealand have always shown
•* themselves eager to take advantage of any oppor-
tunity for extending our knowledge of the fauna and
flora of their countr)'. Such opportunities are pre-
sented from time to time by the periodical official
visits of the Government steamer to the outlying
islands. In November, 1907, the s.s. Hinemoa de-
posited a large party of New Zealand men of science
on Auckland and Campbell Islands, calling for them
again on her return trip more than a week later.
The expedition was undertaken at the instance of the
Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, primarily for
the purpose of extending the magnetic sur\'ey of New
Zealand to the outlying southern islands, but the
volumes before us consist chiefly of zoological and
botanical observations, though there are also articles
on geophysics and geology.

The work has been issued under the editorship of

^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^B -IflBi

W^^^^^'

body coat of both these animals is cast twice a year, the
black hairs on the ears and tail are renewed only once
a year. If they are renewed only once they must remain
{apart from fading) of the same colour throughout the
year. That such a single moult is possible, and even
|MX>bable, in these two instances is shown by the fact that
in the squirrel there are two moults of the general body
coat, but only one of the ear tufts and tail hairs.
Similarly in the Equidae (according to Ewart), there are
two moults of the general coat but one only of the mane
and tail. G. E. H. Barrett-H.wiiltox.

Jiilmanock House, Campile, Co. Wexford,
Ireland, November 3.

Helium and Geological Time.
1 MUST apologise for an error in my letter published in
Nature of November 3. The sixteenth line and onwards
should read "... for we have no knowledge of chemical
aflSnity between helium and solid substances ; while, in
respect of solubilitv, it would probablv be inferior to the
Other gases." ' R. j. Strutt.

Imperial College of Science, South Kensington.
NO, 2 141, VOL. 85]

Dr. Charles Chilton, and the publication has been
rendered possible by a substantial subsidy from the
New Zealand Governinent. It comes at an opportune
moment, and acquires a special interest in relation
to the exploration of the Antarctic continent now in
progress.

The time at the disposal of the expedition was, of
course, all too short for a complete biological survey,
and the collections were evidently, at any rate in
many cases, ver\- fragmentary-, but many verj' interest-
ing results were obtained. The zoologists were un-
doubtedly right in devoting most of their energies to
the terrestrial fauna, which is much more likely to
be modified or even exterminated by human agency
than the marine fauna, but we cannot help wishing

1 The Subantarctic Islands of New Zealand. Reports on the Geo-Physics,
Geology, Zoology, and Botany of the Islands lying to the South of Neur
Zealand. Based mainlv on Observations and Collections made daring an
Expedition in the Government Steamer Hinemoa (Capl. \. Belloius) in
November, 1907. ExUted by Pr if. Charles Chilton. Vol. L, pp. XXXV+3S8 ;
vol. iL, pp. 389-848. (Wellington, N.Z. : Philosophical Institute of Can-
terbury. London ; Dulan and Co., Ltd., 1909.) 2 vols. Price ^-u. net.

44

NATURE

[November lo, 1910

that the latter had received a little more attention.
No fewer than i68 species and varieties of Foraminifera
were discovered by Mr. Chapman in the dredgings
sent to him, and if other j^roups are equally well
represented in these seas there must be a rich harvest
waiting to be reaped. Incidentally we may note the
surprising and very satisfactory fact that of these 168
species and varieties of Foraminifera, from a practically
unknown region, only four species and two varieties
had to be described as new ! Such a record gives one
hope that some day our systematic knowledge of the
marine fauna will be approximately complete. In the
report on the sponges, on the other hand, Prof. Kirk
mentions only two species, and of holothurians there
were only three.

A large proportion of the collections, both botanical
and zoological, has been worked up and reported on

FtG. 2.. — Young S--a-lion {.irctoL\-(>k:ilics hookeri), Carnley Harbour,
Auckland Islands. Iroiii " 1 hi bubantarciic Islands of New Zealani."

by local naturalists. Prof. Benham, Prof. Chilton, Prof.
H. B. Kirk, Mr. Edgar Waite, Mr. Henry Suter, Mr.
E. V. Hudson, Mr. T. Brown, Mr. T. F. Cheeseman,
Dr. L. Cockayne, Mr. R. M. Laing, and Mr. Donald
Petrie, many of whom also took part in the expedi-
tion. Other collections were sent to specialists in
other countries and reported upon by them.

Amongst the more interesting forms obtained, we
'may note two new species of land nemertines, from
Auckland and Enderby Islands, a remarkable addition
to this extremely limited group. These are described
by Mr. \. D. Darbishire, who contributes some use-
ful notes on the taxonomic value of certain anatomical
characters. In addition to the purely systematic re-
ports, we havt others of more general interest. Thus
Dr. Cockayne contributes a long essay on the
ecological botany of the islands, with a number of

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

beautiful photographic illustrations, and Dr. Chilton
gives us an account of the history of the scientific
investigation of the islands, and a veVy useful sunimary
of the biological results of the expedition, especially
from the biogeographical point of view.

The results in general appear to support the current
view that the existing islands of New Zealand are
mere fragments of a very much larger land area, which
at one time extended southwards beyond Campbell
Island, eastwards beyond Chatham Island and Anti-
podes Island, and north-westwards towards New
Guinea. Thus the fauna and flora are essentially
Novae-Zealandian in aspect, but with a large .Antarctic
element which may perhaps be accounted for by a
former northward extension of the Antarctic con-
tinent. The existence of an Antarctic continent has,
of course, long been used in explanation of certain
striking resemblances between the fauna and flora of
New Zealand and those of South America, but, as Dr.
Chilton points out, we must also suppose that at some
former time the climate of Antarctica was sufticiently
mild to allow of the existence of a far more abundant
animal and vegetable population than we find there
to-day. Such a supposition is justified by the geo-
logical observations of recent Antarctic expeditions.
Fossil leaves w^ere found near the winter Quarters o\
the Discovery, and coal still further south bv Shackle-
ton, while the Swedish Antarctic expedition met with
abundant fossil plants in rocks of Tertiarv age on
Seymour Island, indicating a temperate or sub-
temperate climate.

In conclusion, we must congratulate the New
Zealand naturalists on the performance of a line piece
of work, and at the same time express our regret
that they still have to labour under numerous dis-
advantages. Of these the want of adequate scientific]
libraries appears to be one of the most serious. The]
New Zealand Institute, with its various local branches,!
has for many vears past played a most useful part in|
promoting scientific research in the dominion, and it]
appears to us that the Government might do well toj
assist in some scheme whereby the defect referred
to might be remedied, and the necessary scientific]
literature provided, not onlv for Wellington, which isi
the headquarters of the New Zealand Institute, but]
also for those large provincial towns where the prin-l
cipal branches of the institute are situated.

Arthur Dendy.

BIRD MIGRATION.'

OF all the many problems of animated nature
awaiting solution, few, if , any, have of late'
received more attention than — perhaps the most
mysterious of all — the migration of birds.

Mr. Eagle Clarke and the other painstaking
observers working with him have during the last
few vears learnt and taught us much, but only
enough to show that still, as Prof. Newton wrote
some twentv years ago, "our ignorance is immense."

What is the propelling power which at the appointed
seasons sets the great hosts in motion? It seems
now at least probable that almost every bird is in
some degree migratory, and that even the robins and
thrushes that come to the windows for crumbs in
winter are more often than not other birds than those
which nested in the garden in the spring.

When and how in the long-past eternity were the
great aerial highways from zone to zone first marked
out, to last apparently for all time ? Our boasted

1 "Ornithological Notes from a South London Suburb, 1S74-T909. _A
Summary of Thirty-five Years' Observations, with some Facts and Fancies
concerning Migration." By F. D. Power. Pp. 60-f chart. (Londoiir
Henry J. .Glaisher, 55-57 Wigmore Street, W.)' Price 3J. 6a'. net.

November io, 1910]

NATURE

45

Roman roads, Aitken streets and Watling streets are,
compared to these, thirrgs of yesterday.

How is the knowledj^e of the chart passed on, with-
out fault or break, from jjeneration to j^eneration?
If old birds led the way the matter would be less
incomprehensible. But, writes Herr Gatke, as " the
incontestable result " of fifty years' watch in Heligo-
land : —

" under normal conditions, the autumn migration is
initiated by the young birds from about six or eight weeks
fter leaving the nest.

" The parents of these young individuals," he adds, " do
not follow until one or two months later " !

How and under what physical conditions are the
journeys made?

Mr. Pycraft is a writer to whom ornithologists
already owe much, and from whom they confidently
look for more. His views will always carry weight,
but they may change. Just now he thinks it "hardly
necessary to attempt to bring rebutting evidence "
to confute Herr Gatke 's closely-reasoned argument
that migration flights must be made at speeds which,

" Through the mists and vapours.
Amid these earthly damps,"

may well seem incredible ; but, with atmospheric re-
sistance removed, need seem no longer so.

The veteran ornithologist's dream of " the existence
of a special respiratory mechanism, enabling birds
to remain in strata of the atmosphere beyond the
reach of all other organised beings," may yet prove
true. There are things more improbable. Then we
shall think nothing- of flig-hts at a speed of "a
hundred and eighty miles an hour."

" -Airy navies grappling in the central blue "

Bnot many months ago seemed impossibilities. Now
they seem uncomfortable probabilities.

These are a few only of the questions which have
yet to be answered before we can hope to understand
what the migration of birds means. The answers are
not likely to be given in the lifetime of our genera-
tion, if ever.. It is only by the patient collation of
trustworthy observations, spread over a long series
of years, that any general conclusions can be hoped
for. We may sow, but others must reap.

A modest and unpretending little volume, latelv
published. "Ornithological Notes from a South
London Suburb, 1874-1909," by Mr. F. D. Power, is
a useful contribution to the general stock of know-
ledge of a fascinating subject. The first chapters of
the book, well worth publication though they are,
will appeal rather to local than to general readers.

It is interesting to know what birds are to be
looked for in one's own neighbourhood, and where
and when thev have been seen there. But there is
not rnuch to be said of thrushes and tits in Surrey
or Middlesex which is not to be noted as well in
other counties.

There is the usual sad tale to tell — and it is very
well told — of wild life crowded out by growing human
populations.

The lake in Dulwich Park, for instance, was once,
Mr. Power writes, a favourite resting-place for pass-
ing ducks. He has seen "on and about this com-
paratively small sheet of water seven species not
observed elsewhere in the district. In one day in
October, 1898, there were five scaups and four
shovellers on the lake, and the tufted duck nested on
the island for three or four years." The common
sandpiper was a regular visitor, and the kingfisher not
Uncommon. Boats have been placed on the water,
and " the saddened bird-lover has now little chance of
even an early morning note of extra interest."
NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

On Mitcham Common, once a favourite nesting-
place of many small birds, golf balls have taken the
place of eggs.

It is in the "Migration Notes," and more esf)ecially
in a broadsheet table printed at the end, that the chief
interest of the volume for ornithologists living beyond
the "South London Suburb" will be found, and a
very real interest it is.

Mr. Power has, during a long succession of autumn
migrations, kept careful records of the forces and
direction of the wind and of the size and direction
of the flifi^^hts passing within sight of his garden.
In a simple and admirably clear chart, the results of
his observations are shown for every day, without a
single gap, for the month of October for twenty-
five years.

The rather surprising conclusions to which his
observations have led him would seem to find at least
prima facie justification in the facts tabulated. He
sums up as follows : —

It used to be supposed, and by many the idea is still
held, that birds come and go with wind favouring them.
. . . My observations during these many years have con-
vinced me that migrants travel best and by choice against
the wind. . . . My experience is [he is speaking of the
autumnal migration] that the only visible and sustained
migration in numbers is invariably in a N.W., VV., or
S.W. direction almost directly against the wind, even
when such approaches a stiff breeze, the birds in their
progress meeting the wind on the right or left breast."

The italics are Mr. Power's,

The photograph otf " the garden from which the
migration notes were taken " does not, certainly,
suergest exceptionally favourable opportunities,

His little book, like Alphonse Kerr's delightful
"Voyage autour de mon jardin," shows how much is
to be seen by "the observing eve" without going far
from home. T. Digby Pigott.

NEW DISCOVERIES AT KNOSSOS.
/^N September 16 a letter appeared in the Times
^-^ from Dr. Arthur Evans, describing the results
of his excavations this year at Knossos. All
archaeologists will congratulate themselves on the fact
that Dr. Evans has passed out of the path of politics,
which he had essaved to tread, back into the more
peaceful (?) ways of archaeology. For there were
many more things that we wanted to know about
Knossos, and one of them has been made clear by
the work of this season. The great domed pit. the
tholos, as it seemed to be, over which part of the
southern quarter of the palace was built, has been
excavated to the bottom, not without danger to the
workmen. .\nd it turns out to be a great f/ioZos-like
reservoir, with a spiral staircase round the inside of
it, which breaks off, as in other similar cases, at what
must have been the average water-level. The springs
that supplied this reservoir are now dry, and no doubt
were so before the place was entirely filled up. This
was done, as we know from the character of the
potsherds found in it, in the first " Middle Minoan "
age.

" In other words the reservoir itself belonged to the
Early Minoan Age, and was filled in at the time of the
construction of the first Palace of which we have any
existing remains — the object of the work being to obtain
a secure foundation for the South Porch and adjoining
parts of the outer wall. The filling materials themselves
were probably supplied by the levelling away at this time
of the summit of the ' Tell ' of Knossos in order to gain
the area for the Central Court of the Palace." There
was also a smaller reservoir on another part of the mound,
" and from the magnitude of the work we may well
conclude that some earlier predecessor of the Great Palace
already existed on the site that it has since occupied."

46

NATURE

[NOVEMI^ER lO. 1910

This is an important conclusion. If we are to judge
by the reservoir, the early Minoan palace was prob-
ably a great architectural work. The "Early Minoan
III." architects were perhaps almost as capable as
their contemporaries, the Egyptian pyramid-builders
of the fifth and sixth dynasties.

In the small "palace" on the hillside west of
Knossos further discoveries have been made, includ-
ing a paved way with the rut-marks of ancient Minoan
chariots. In this part of the site more recent re-
mains, of classical and Roman date, constantly are
found above the Minoan level; whereas in the main
palace, " whether owing to a superstitious awe or to
other causes, the hilltop . . . was never invaded by
later habitations." A fine metope of a Doric temple,
contemporarv with the Parthenon sculptures, was
found over the \\ estern palace.

Mr. Doll has proceeded with the work of conserv-
ing^ the palace buildings, and has run the great stair-
case another flight higher. Also the nature and com-
position of the frescoes have been studied by Mr.
Noel Heaton.

In the tomb-field of Isopata further important dis-
coveries have been made, owing to the /?aiV of
Gregori, Dr. Evans's Cypriote foreman,
" the most expert tomb-hunter of the Levant. . . . The
wild, long-rooted fennel, which seeks out by preference
the spots above ancient cuttings, served him, as often
before, as a guide, and the result was the discovery of
six chamber-tombs, some of which for their size and the
interest attaching to their contents and arrangement sur-
pass any hitherto known of this class."

The date of the tombs is the second late Minoan
period, about 1450 B.C., contemporary with the
eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. The most remarkable
point about these tombs is the information as to
Minoan religion which they giv-e us. In one tomb,
where "the religious interest culminated," was found
an arrangement whoUv new, which " rather recalled
the domestic Etruscan ideas of the after-life than any-
thing yet known of the Minoan age." The tomb w'as
made to resemble a house of the living, with stone-cut
benches, as if for family gatherings. And at the head
of the sepulchral cist were found the remains of a
double-axe shrine, with an offering-vessel, in the shape
of a bull's head, lying close bv. These tomb-
chambers seem not to have been kept open regularly,
but were opened for solemn service on the anniversary
of the death probably. They were rifled of their
more valuable contents by robbers of the early
Iron age (geometrical period), who left behind them
traces by which we can identify their date.

" It will be seen that the ' Tomb of the Double Axes '
has produced more definite evidence regarding the sepul-
chral cult and religious ideas as to the after-world than
any grave yet opened in Crete or prehistoric Greece."

Dr. Evans's comparison of the interior of the tomb
with that of an Etruscan grave is very apposite and
suggestive. This Etruscan impression has already
been given by the great painted sarcophagus found
by the Italians at Agia Triada, and it is most in-
teresting to see how- a relationship between the
Etruscan, Minoan, and Anatolian (^Hittite) cultures in
matters of religious cult is gradually becoming clearer
to us. H. R. Hall.

l^OTES.

The following is a list of those who have been recom-
mended by the president and council of the Royal Society
for election into the council for the year 191 1 at the
anniversary meeting on November 30 : — President, Sir
Archibald Geikie, K.C.B. ; treasurer, Mr. Alfred Bray
Kempe ; secretaries, Sir Joseph Larmor and Dr. John Rose

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

Bradford; foreign secretary, Sir William Crookes ; other
members of the council, Mr. L. Fletcher, Dr. W. H.
Gaskell, Sir David Gill, K.C.B., Dr. E. H. Griffiths,
Prof. VV. M. Hicks, Prof. ¥. S. Kipping, Major P. A.
MacMahon, Mr. H. R. A. Mallock, Dr. C. J. Martin,,
the Duke of Northumberland, K.G., Prof. W. J. Pope,
Prof. J. H. Poynting, Prof. E. Rutherford, Mr. A. E.
Shipley, Mr. M. R. Oidfield Thomas, and Mr. Ilaroirf
W. T. Wager.

TiiK Royal Society's medals have this year been adjudi-
cated by the president and council as follows : — The Coplev
medal to Sir Francis Galton, F.R.S., for his researches on
heredity ; the Rumford medal to Prof. Heinrich Rubens, for
his researches on radiation, especially of long wave-length ^
a Royal medal to Prof. Frederick O. Bower, F.R.S., for
his treatise on the origin of a land flora ; a Royal medal
to Prof. John Joly, F.R.S., for his researches in physics
and geology ; the Davy medal to Prof. Theodore W.
Richards, for his researches on the determination of
atomic weights ; the Darwin medal to Mr. Roland Trimen,
F.R.S., for his South African bionomic researches, in large
part undertaken as the outcome of correspondence with
Charles Darwin ; the Sylvester medal to Dr. Henry F.
Baker, F.R.S., for his researches in the theory of Abelian
functions and for his edition of Sylvester's " Collected
Works " ; the Hughes medal to Prof. John A. Fleming,
F.R.S., for his researches in electricity and electrical
measurements. The King has been graciously pleased to
approve of the award of the Royal medals.

.'\t the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh held
on November 7, the following honorary fellows were i
elected : — British : Prof. J. G. Frazer, Sir Joseph Larmor, ;
F.R.S., Dr. Alfred Russel W^allace, O.M., F.R.S.
Foreign: Prof. Hugo de Vries, Amsterdam; Mr. F. A»,
Forel, Morgos ; Prof. Karl F. von Goebel, Munich ; Prof.
J. C. Kepteyn, Groningen ; Prof. Elie Metchnikoflf, Paris;
Prof. A. A. Michelson. F.R.S. , Chicago; Prof. W. Ostwald,
Leipzig ; Prof. F. W. Putnam, Harvard University ; and^
Prof. A. F. L. W'eismann, Freiburg (Baden).

It is reported from Stockholm that the Academy of j
Sciences has decided to award this year's Nobel prize for ]
physics to Prof. J. D. van der Waals, of Amsterdam, for]
his work on gases and liquids.

We regret to see the announcement of the death of Mr.
Theodore Cooke, for many years principal of the Poon» •
College of Science, at seventy-four years of age.

A Reuter telegiam from Wellington, New Zealand,
states that Mr. Priestly, who accompanied Sir Ernest.
Shackleton, as geologist, on his .Antarctic expedition, is!
going out with Captain .Scott in the place of Mr. Thomp-i
son, who is ill.

The date of the annual exhibition held by the Physical^
Society of London, which was fixed some time ago for;
December 13, has been altered to Tuesday, December 20.
The exhibition will be open in the afternoon as well as \n\
the evening.

The annual Huxley memorial lecture of the Royal
Anthropological Institute will be delivered on Tuesday,
November 22, at the theatre of the Civil Service Com-
mission, Burlington Gardens, W., by Prof. W. Boyd
Dawkins, F.R.S., whose subject will be " The .A^rrival of
Man in Britain in the Pleistocene Age."

Mrs. Tyndall has presented to the Royal Institution two
Nicol's prisms, constructed for the lectures on light givea.j
by Dr. Tyndall in America in 1872, and used by him sub-i

November io, 1910]

NATURE

47

sequently in his researches and lectures ; also two pieces of
rocksalt, the remains of a large block given to Dr. Tyndall
by the King of Wurttemberg in 1867.

The eighty-fifth Christmas course of juvenile lectures,
founded at the Royal Institution in 1826 by Michael
Faraday, will be delivered this year by Prof. Silvanus P.
Thompson, F.R.S., his subject being " Sound, Musical and
Non-musical : a Course of Experimental Acoustics."

The General Purposes Committee of the Birmingham
City Council has recommended to the council that an
invitation be given to the British Association to meet in
that cit>: in 1913. The council will cooperate with the
I niversity and other public institutions in making the
• cessarj- arrangements.

The death is announced of Dr. Carl S. N. Hallberg,
professor of pharmacy in the Chicago College of Pharmacy
in connection with the University of Illinois. He was
born in Sweden in 1856, and emigrated to America when
a lad. He organised in 1885, and subsequently directed,
the National Institute of Pharmacy. Since 1906 he had
edited the Bulletin of the American Pharmaceutical
Association.

The Simon Newcomb library, which has been presented
to the New York Cit\- College by Mr. John Claflin, has
just been classified and catalogued. It is a collection of
4000 volumes and 6000 pamphlets, and includes many
mathematical and astronomical publications of unusual
interest. Among them may be mentioned sn early edition
of Euclid's Elements, a Pacioli of 1494, the 15 15 edition of
the Almagest of Ptolemy, and the first book ever published
on sun-spots.

Mr. G. M. Meyer sends us an extract from the Madrid
weekly periodical Suevo Mundo of October 6 in which a
Spanish case of eugenic policy is described. It appears
that an illustrious Salamancan, Don Federico Gomez-
Arias, founded an annual prize of 1000 pesetas, which is
awarded every year to a young woman of Salamanca from
fifteen to twenty-three years of age, of good physical con-
stitution, attractive, and well conducted, who must have
received at least an elementary education and be on the
point of being married to a man of similar physical and
moral condition and of suitable age.

By the generosity of Sir Julius Wernher, who recently
placed a sum of lo.oooZ. at the disposal of the committee
for the purpose, a much needed extension of the department
of metallurgy of the National Physical Laboratory has now
been commenced. The department has been accommodated
in scattered rooms in Bushy House, which, in consequence
of the increase and importance of the work, have become
quite inadequate. Plans have been prepared in consultation
with Dr. Rosenhain, the superintendent of the department,
and the contract has been let to Messrs. Dick, Kerr and
Co., who have already made good progress with the
foundations.

The programme for the isyth session of the Royal
Society of Arts is being issued to the members. There
will be five ordinary meetings before Christmas, at the
first of which the usual address will be given by the
chairman of the council. Sir John Cameron Lamb. The
papers announced for the other four meetings are by Sir
Henry H. Cunynghame, K.C.B., " Detecting Fire-
damp" ; Mr. C. P. Ogilvie, "Argentina"; Dr. Vaughan
Cornish, "The Panama Canal"; and Mr. Reginald
Smith, " Roman London." There will also be a meet-
ing of the Colonial Section, at which Mr. A. Montgomery
will read a paper on " Mining in Western Australia,"
NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

and one of the Indian Section to be occupied by a paper
by Mr. R. F. Chisholm, on " The Taj Mahal." On the
four Mondays before Christmas Mr. C. R. Darling is tOj.
give a course of Cantor lectures on " Industrial Pyro-
metry," There is also a ver\- full list of papers and
lectures for the part of the session after Christmas.

A QfARTERLV periodical entitled the Botanical Journal
is issued as the official organ of the Royal Botanic Society
of London. The first number contains an account of the
history of the society since 1839, the date of the Royal
Charter, in which are set forth the objects which have
been served in that period. In recent years progress has
been impeded by a lack of sufficient financial support, and
consequent increase of debt, but the latest report shows
that in some measure, at least, this condition is iheing
remedied. The number of Fellows now is 1834. as com-
pared with 1570 last year. The debenture debt is 14,714/.,
as compared with 24,248/., and the current liabilities 572/.
instead of 3050/. Prof. A. J. Ewart, of Melbourne
University, has an article on "The Flora of Victoria,"
and other subjects treated upon include " Our Native
Lawns," " The Melbourne Botanic Gardens," " Fruit-
growing in Queensland," and " Art in the Garden." There
are notes upon botanical questions of interest and recently
issued books. Two plates in colour from paintings by Miss
Bertha Maguire prettily illustrate chr}santhemums, but
their value is purely decorative, for they shed no light on
the evolution of the flower, as would appear to be the case
from the title. Mr. Butler's colour photographs are
welcome, because thej- illustrate interesting plants in
the society's collection. The number is not entirely free
from the blemishes common to first issues : especially is
this the case in the awkwardness of some of the titles to
the subject-matter. The journal is issued by Messrs. .Page
and Pratt, and the price is one shilling.

The Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for October
(xxi.. No. 235) contains an appreciation of the life and
work of Lord Lister, by Mr. Charles Judd. with biblio-
graphv ; an historical inquiry on the decussation of the
pyramids (nerve tracts in the brain), by Dr. Thomas ; and
an historical sketch of the practice of blood-letting, by
Dr. Joseph Smith. Dr. Thomas ascribes the first definite
observation of the crossing in the medulla of the great
motor tracts passing from the brain to the spinal cord to
Francois Pourfour du Petit (1664-1741). The practice of
blood-letting or " bleeding " is at least two thousand years
old, and is mentioned by the earliest medical writers.

Under the provisions of the Indian Museum .\ct of
1910, the ethnological and art collections have been
separated from those of economic products, and in his last
report of the museum as originally constituted, the
curator, Mr. I. H. Burkill, has given a useful account of
its past history and present condition. The museum was
first started by the Asiatic Society- in 1814, the first donor
being the Countess of Loudoun. The collections have
passed through many vicissitudes, due to the absence of
suitable accommodation. L'nder the present scheme of
reorganisation they have at last been placed upon a satis-
factory footing. The ethnological gallery now contains
about 11,000 exhibits, but it still lacks a proper descrip-
tive catalogue, which can be prepared only by a com-
petent ethnologist. The progress of the art series has
been stimulated by the patronage of Lord Curzon, who
provided an annual State grant of about 400/. for the
purchase of specimens. Most of the older economical
exhibits have perished, but these are being gradually re-
placed. It is satisfactory to learn that these important

48

NATURE

[iNoVEMBER lO, 1910

collections are now being arranged in suitable galleries,
and it only remains for the Government of India to provide
a series of descriptive catalogues prepared by competent
experts, which will render the exhibits available for study
by students of art, anthropology, and the exonomic
sciences in Europe.

Part 8 of vol. v. of the Annals of the South African
Museum contains five articles on the entomology of
the country. Among these, Mr. E. Meyrick continues his
description of new Microlepidoptera, while Messrs. A.
Raffray and L. B. Billecoq treat, in separate communica-
tions, of two groups of Coleoptera.

To the Journal of Economic Biology for October
Messrs. Collinge and Shoebotham contribute a long article
on the Apterygota (Thysanura and Collembola) of Hert-
fordshire, to which they have devoted special study.
Before they commenced there appear to have been
no records of these minute insects from the " county of
Hertfordshire," but the authors are how enabled to
enumerate four species of Thysanura and sixty-nine of
Collembola.

To the Anales of the National Museum of Buenos
Aires, ser. 3, vol. xiii., p. 317, Dr. F. Ameghino con-
tributes a note on certain teeth from a cavern in Cuba,
which are referred to a large monkey the dental formula
of which is identical with that of the Cebidae, but the
cheek-teeth of which are stated to approximate to those of
Old World monkeys and man. For this monkey the
new generic and specific name of Monianeia antropo-
morpha is proposed. It is noteworthy that no wild
monkeys are found in Cuba at the present day.

In the October issue of the Journal of Economic Biology
Prof. Hickson discusses the place of economic zoology in
a modern university, and the best way of training students
in that branch of science. After pointing out that there is
a growing demand for the services of men capable of deal-
ing with the problems of economic biology in a practical
manner, the author observes that the qualifications usually
associated with what is termed " a good field-entomo-
logist " will not suffice, and that a man who aspires to
a post of this nature must have a working acquaintance
with parasitism, parthenogenesis, heredity, and embry-
ology ; while he should possess special knowledge of the
Protozoa, parasitic worms, land and fresh-water snails,
and, particularly, tracheate arthropods. Such a course
of study " could be given in the zoological departments
of the principal universities of our country without very
much additional equipment or a very material addition to
the numbers of the teaching staff. But in order that the
student may have the opportunity of getting some train-
ing in the recognition of insect pests in the field, the
work of the laboratory should be supplemented by some
systematic teaching in connection with an institution of
the nature of an agricultural college, in which access to
growing crops may be facilitated."

The question of the systematic position and feeding-
habits of the African Jurassic genus Tritylodon, and its
northern aHies Plagiaulax and Ptilodus, is reopened by
Dr. R. Broom in the October issue of the Proceedings of
the Zoological Society. In the first place, the author has
no doubt as to Tritylodon being a mammal, while as the
only known specimen is from the Stormberg beds, it must
be regarded as of Lower Jurassic, and not Triassic, age.
As regards the affinities of the three genera. Dr. Broom
refuses to admit that Mr. Gidley is justified in including
them among the diprotodont marsupials, remarking that

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

the dentition, both structurally and numerically, is of a
different type, while the presence of a well-developed septo-
maxillary in the African genus suggests monotreme rather
than marsupial affinities. It is also pointed out that there
is a considerable probability of diprotodonts having
originated in Australia. " In the present state of our
knowledge it seems wisest to leave the Multituberculata
as a distinct independent group with no very near affinities
with the living monotremes, marsupials, or eutherians."
As regards the food of these mammals, the author points
out that fruits were non-existent in Jurassic times, while if,
as he considers probable, Tritylodon and its relatives were
carnivorous, they must have fed mainly on reptiles, which
would require a type of dentition different from that of
mammal-eating species.

A NOTE on a fungal disease of the blue pine, Pinus
exceha, reported from the Simla forestry division, is con-
tributed to the Indian Forester (October) by the assistant
tD the imperial mycologist at Pusa. The chief object of
the note is to establish the observation of infection pro-
ceeding from diseased to healthy roots, for which good
evidence is adduced. The fungus is reported to be
Tfametes pini, for which such marked fungal development
in the root, and infection from root to root, has apparently
not been previously recorded.

Messrs. Flatters, Milborne and McKechnie, of Long-
sight, Manchester, are issuing a quarterly publication of
fifteen pages entitled the Micrologist. Part ii., issued
October i, contains two excellent articles, one on mount-
ing microscopical objects in fluid media in cells, the other
(by Mr. H. E. Hurrell) on the polyzoa and the methods
of collecting and mounting them. It is well printed and
illustrated, and contains a beautiful plate of five repro-
ductions of photomicrographs of starch, volvox, hydra, &c.

A USEFUL list of pteridophyta for the Transvaal province
is communicated by Mr. J. Burtt-Davy to the South
African Journal of Science (October) on behalf of the late
Mr. V. G. Crawley and himself. To make the list
serviceable to teachers and students, brief diagnoses are
supplied for the classes and genera, while analytical keys
and localities are given for the species. Among the true
ferns, Cyathea Dregei and Mohria caffrorum are two re-
markable common species ; Oleandra articulata, Todea
barbara, and Marattia fraxinea are said to be rare. With
respect to the number of species, Asplenium, Pellaea, and
Gymnogramme are conspicuous genera.

Mr. W. N. Lubimenko publishes in the botanical section
(series iii., parts i.-ii.) of Travaux de la Societi des
Naturalistes de St. Pitersbourg a long paper (in Russian)
in which he presents the results of experiments directed
towards ascertaining the relationship that exists between
the amount of chlorophyll present in a leaf and the energy
of photosynthesis. In the summary it is stated that the
minimum intensity of light required to start photosynthesis
depends on the amount of chlorophyll, being less as the
amount of chlorophyll is greater ; also that as the amount
of chlorophyll increases the energy of photosynthesis
increases up to a maximum, and then decreases. It is
further suggested that certain experiments indicate that
photosynthesis proceeds in two stages ; first, CO, is
decomposed and O is liberated, then certain photochemical
reactions lead to the transport and incorporation of organic
material.

A correspondent sends us examples of a monstrous
carnation in which the inflorescences have produced no
true flowers, but a superabundance of bracts. This

November io, 1910]

NATURE

49

peculiarity in carnations and certain species of Dianthus
was observed many years ago (see " Vegetable Terato-
togy." P- 37'' **>' ^*- ^- ^'asters). An example is illus-
trated in the Botanical Magazine, Tab. 1622, in which
' one bud has developed into a perfect double flower, and
several others are exactly similar to those sent by our
correspondent. Earlier than this, Linnaeus had met with
a similar malformation, and given it the name of
imbricatus. The distorted flower buds so nearly resemble
ears of wheat that they are known as " wheat ear "
carnations. It is not known what causes the suppression
of the other parts of the flower and the increase in the
number of bracts, but Masters pointed out that the con-
dition is met with frequently in a species of Moesa, in
Piantago major, and in Gentiana Amarella.

Hitherto agricultural chemists have concentrated atten-
tion mainly on those constituents of the soil that are
essential to the production of plant food, but recently
attempts have been made to ascertain the effect of the
non-essential or the rarer constituents. The investigations
at Woburn are well known. Mr. Failyer, of the United
States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Soils, has
published (Bulletin 72) a number of analyses showing that
barium is present in most soils in the United States,
especially in soils derived from rocks containing barite
deposits or from the Rocky Mountains. The quantity
sometimes rose near to o-i per cent. Felspar is also
a source of barium. It appears probable that the soil
moisture, which plays a part in the nutrition of plants,
contains barium salts, and cases are on record where
barium has occurred in the plant ash. Its presence there
would be injurious to animals, and may perhaps be the
f-.-iuse of some of the unexpected results occasionally pro-
.-ed by vegetation.

M. Aug. Chevalier, in a letter on his explorations in
Upper Dahomey, published in the last number of La
Geographic (October 15), mentions a curious phenomenon
which he observed with respect to the Ou6me River. In
its middle course, last May, he found during his stay of
fifteen days that the stream ran continuously in a reversed
direction, toward the head of the river. The gradient of
Its bed in this part is very small, and the upper reaches
are completely dry during several months of the year, as
13 the case with most of the rivers of the central African
plateau. The rainy season sets in earlier in the down-
stream part of the country and fills the empty channel,
hich then runs for a time both ways until equilibrium
established, after which the normal direction of flow
:i maintained. Similar abnormalities have been previously
observed in some of the water-channels of the Kalahari
'^sert in south-central Africa.

In* Nature of October 20 (p. 503) reference was made

to an article in the Times on the Norwegian expedition to

Spitsbergen, which contained a somewhat detailed account

of the discovery of a volcano of recent age in a branch of

Wood Bay. It appears, however, that there is still some

doubt about the age of the volcanic phenomena. The

latest number of La Geographie (xxii.. No. 4, October 15)

includes a note on the results of the expedition by M.

Charles Rabot, based on an article in the Christiania

''tenpost, sent to him by Captain Isachsen, the leader of

•■- expedition, as the only official communication which

13 yet been published. On this authority the following

"ference is made in La Geographie to the discovery : —

"Finally, round a branch of Wood Bay, Mr. Hoel [one

of the geologists] has made the very unexpected discovery

of an ancient volcanic development (appareil). Contrary to

what has been announced from Spitsbergen correspondence

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

published in Christiania journals, it does not date the actual
epoch, and for a long time has not been the seat of
manifestations. At present, upon the shores of Bock Bay
the internal activity manifests itself only by the presence
of thermal springs, of which the temperature does not
exceed 28-5°." The scepticism respecting the earlier news-
paper accounts of the volcano, alluded to in our previous
note, was therefore not altogether unjustified. The full
particulars of the discovery will be examined with keen
interest by geologists and geographers.

The Bureau of Science, Department of the Interior,
Manilla, has issued the annual report on the mineral
resources of the Philippine Islands for the year 1909. It
is thoroughly characteristic of American methods that the
United States Government should have straightway set
about fostering the development of the mineral industrj-
of their first colony. The success that has attended this
attempt is clearly enough indicated in the present report.
The main product up to the present has been gold, the
output of which for the year 1909 is valued at about
49,600/. ; it shows an increase of 14 per cent, over that
of 1908, in which year the output was about three times
that of the year previous. Even more important from the
point of view of general industrial development and civilisa-
tion is the increase in the production of coal ; the total
quantity raised in 1909 was 30,336 tons, an increase of
155 per cent, over the previous year, and more than
seven times as great as the production in 1907. The
entire production now comes from two mines on the island
of Batan, one at the extreme east and the other at the
extreme west of the island. The seams now worked are
from 3 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 8 inches in thickness. The
coal appears to be of Tertiary age ; it is classed as sub-
bituminous, is low in ash, and has given satisfactory
results in raising steam. From the scientific point of view
the chief interest of the report centres in a very brief sketch
of the geology and geological history of the Philippine
Islands.

The Meteorological Committee has issued a useful con-
tribution to the study of the north-east and south-east
trade winds of the Atlantic Ocean (Publication No. 203),
comprising (i) an investigation by Commander Hepworth
with the view of tracing any effect of the variations ^of
those winds upon the temperature of the water in the
North .Atlantic ; (2) a risumi of the meteorological data
available for St. Helena, by Mr. J. S. Dines ; and (3) a
calculation, by Mr. E. Gold, of the relation between the
periodic variations of wind velocity and of atmospheric
pressure, with the application of the general theorem to
the case of St. Helena. In Nature of December 21, 1905,
Dr. Shaw directed attention to an apparent connection
between the circulation of the atmosphere, as represented
by the south-east trade wind, and the meteorological con-
sequences in other parts of the world, and the present
work may be considered as an attempt to identify that
connection, to trace the links in the chain of cause and
effect, and also to supply information available for meteor-
ologists interested in the subject. In a very lucid preface
summarising some of the results Dr. Shaw points out
that the marine discussion of the south-east trade wind
shows hardly any seasonal variation (possibly due to the
peculiarities of the Beaufort wind-scale), while the results
for the north-east trade show a marked variation very
nearly complementary to that at St. Helena, where the
anemometer record exhibits a regular mean variation
(irrespective of direction) between about 14 miles per hour
in May and 21 miles per hour in September. Dr. Shaw
points out that Mr. Gold's solution, on dynamical prin-

50

NATURE

[NOVEMDER lO, 19 lO

.iples, of the origin of the diurnal variations of the trade
wind over the South Atlantic gives results which are
hopeful, but not final.

The well-known observatory on Mount Vesuvius was
founded in the days of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, and
was taken over by the Government at the time of the
unification of Italy. The work that it has done under
the direction of Prof. Palmieri, and latterly Matteucci, is
well known; but in a plea put forward in the Atii dei
Lined, xix., 3. Dr. Carlo dei Stefani states that the
institution has been hampered by the want of a more sub-
stantial subsidy from the State, and he further directs
attention to the desirability of establishing a much more
extensive institution for the study of Vesuvius in all its
aspects. It is pointed out that since the observatory was
founded eveiy branch of science has advanced enormously,
that the study of volcanoes plays an important part in
geology and geophysics, and that Vesuvius, from its
situation as well as from our intimate knowledge of its
past history, offers exceptional facilities for systematic
study. In such an institution the departments of geology,
mineralogy, chemistry, and physics should all be repre-
sented on the staff.

The geometry of the triangle occupies a somewhat
unique position in mathematics, leading as it does to a
large number of results which appear to be capable of
being added to almost without limit, which do not require
the employment of advanced methods for their study, and
have the further interesting peculiarity — perhaps not
altogether a disadvantage — that they can be studied with-
out afterthoughts as to probable utilitarian applications.
We have received two papers on this subject. One is by
Mr. W. Gallatly (London : Francis Hodgson, price
2S. 6d.), dealing with Lemoine and Brocard points,
angular and tripolar coordinates, pedal and antipedal
triangles, the medial triangle, Simson's line, the ortho-
pole, and orthogonal projection. The second, by Mr.
W. H. Salmon, is a note reprinted from the Quarterly
Journal of Pure and Applied Mathen^atics, dealing with
the Omega and Omega-prime lines and the y line. These
lines are defined by the property that if O be any point
in the plane of a triangle, and the lines OA, OB, OC be
rotated through a constant angle, they will, for certain
angles of rotation, meet the sides taken in order in three
points lying on a straight line, these lines being the lines
in question.

Prof. L. Palazzo has sent us a copy of his " Misure
Magnetiche fatte in Sardegna nel 1892," extracted from
vol. xxiv. of the Annali of the Italian Meteorological
Service. This volume belongs to the year 1902, but the
chronological order has not been observed in the publica-
tions of the Italian Meteorological Service — some of which
are much in arrears — so that an account is only now
published of the magnetic survey of Sardinia made by
Prof. Palazzo in 1892. Sixteen stations were occupied, the
observations at which are described in minute detail, the
results being embodied in a chart. No really large local
disturbances were detected, but some minor disturbances
were noticed, especially towards the north-west of the
island. Besides a full description of the observational
methods and reductions, there are descriptions, with plates,
of apparatus for determining the temperature and induc-
tion coefficients of collimator magnets, with which very
consistent results seem to have been obtained.

In the May number of the International Bulletin of the
Academy of Sciences of Cracow Prof. Smoluchowski, of
the University of Lemberg, gives an account of some

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

I measurements he has recently made of the heat Qonduqtlv

ties of fine powders, and the influence of the size of the
, grains and the state of the gas between them on the con-
i ductivity. His apparatus is in principle identical with
I that used by Kundt and Warburg in their measurements
of the heat conductivities of gases. It consists of a
thermometer the bulb of which is surrounded by a tube
nearly concentric with it, the space between the bulb and
1 tube being filled with the powder and connected to a
Gaede pump, so that it can be filled with a gas or
I evacuated. Whatever the nature of the powder, the con-
ductivity through the gas between the grains is found to
; diminish rapidly as the pressure of the gas is reduced,
I and for granular, as distinguished from spongy, powders
1 its dependence on the pressure may be calculated by the
j aid of the kinetic theory of gases if the surface resi-
ahce, which depends on the mean free path of the mol
cules of the gas, is taken into account at the low
pressures.

Copies have reached us of the volumes of magnftic data
recorded during 1905 and 1906 at the observatories of the
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. There are five of these
observatories, viz. at Cheltenham, Baldwin, Sitka, Hono-
lulu, and Vieques (Porto Rico). The Cheltenham volume
is dated 1909, the others 1910. Thus the delay in publi-
cation seems hardly accounted for by the inclusion of two
.years' data in the same volume. The procedure followed
and the mode of presenting the data are closely alike at
all the stations. Full particulars are given of all th"
hourly readings and of the daily maxima and minima, but
only the ten quietest days of each month are employed
for deducing the diurnal inequalities. Each volume con-
tains a table of the principal magnetic disturbances, and
some of the curves showing them are reproduced on a
reduced scale. Except at Cheltenham, the times shown on
the curves are G.M.T., thus facilitating intercomparison.
but the times of commencement, &c., given in the text
are in local mean time. The stations are now all pro-
vided with a complete outfit of Eschenhagen magnet<
graphs, including vertical force instruments. The troubl'
experienced — discontinuities in the trace, changes of seal-
value, drift of trace across the sheet, and general instabiliiv
— are described in some detail, and though most prominent
in the vertical force instruments, seem by no means con-
fined to them. Even the declination instrument gave
serious trouble at Baldwin, leading to considerable loss of
trace. One cannot but experience a doubt whether ;i
more stable and less sensitive type of instrument would
not have been preferable, especially at the less accessible'
stations. In addition to other troubles, Sitka suffered
from an outbreak of dry rot, which necessitated a lari^
amount of internal structural alteration in the magnet*
graph room. This led, however, practically to no loss < :
trace, the magnetographs being accommodated during th'
alterations in a temjxirary building. In addition to mac-
netic data, there are particulars of the seismic movement -^
recorded by seismographs, mostly of the Bosch-Omori
pattern.

A LIST of observing stations and particulars of th-
apparatus employed in connection with the Michael Sais
North Atlantic Deep Sea Expedition, 1910, has just been
received. An article by Dr. Johan Hjort describing th-
work of the expedition is given in another part of th-
present issue.

Messrs. Henry Sotheran and Co., 140 Strand and
43 Piccadilly, London, have issued a new classified cata-
logue (No. 709) of second-hand books on geology,

November lo, 1910]

NATURE

1

mineralogy, mining, and metallurgy, including the library
of the late Prof. Hilary Bauerman, with a supplement of
sets of periodicals and publications of the learned societies.

The Cambridge University Press has undertaken the
publication of a work entitled " Principia Mathematica,"
bv Dr. A. N. Whitehead, F.R.S., and the Hon. B.
Russell, F.R.S. ; the aim of the work is to show the
dependence of mathematics upon logic by deducing from
purely logical premises the elementary propositions of
various branches of mathematics. The first volume, on
mathematical logic and prolegomena to cardinal arith-
metic, will be published very shortly. The second volume,
concerning the principles of arithmetic, is in the press.
In the third volume the authors have dealt with measure-
ment and the principles of geometry.

We have received the first part of vol. xviii. of the
Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall. The pro-
ceedings at the annual and spring meetings of 1909 are
given at length. The annual excursion of 1909 is
described, and the address of the president. Dr. Richard
Pearce, at the spring meeting in 1909 is printed in exienso.
Among papers read at the meetings during 1909 may be
mentioned :— King Arthur's Hall on Bodmin Moor and
some Irish circles, by Mr. A. L. Lewis ; the fauna of St.
Ives Bay for 1908, by Mr. R. Vallentin ; and the inverte-
brate fauna of Cornwall — Hymenc^tera Entomophaga and
Hymenoptera Aculeata, by Mr. W. A. Rollaston. The
volume also contains meteorological tables for Cornwall
for 1909.

OVR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMX.

Fireball ox November 2. — A brilliant fireball was
observed on Wednesday, November 2, 7.46 p.m. It
passed from east to west over the English Channel, and
fell from heights of 84 to 26 miles. As seen from Corn-
wall and from the north of France, as well as from ships
in the Channel, the meteor was a splendid object, yield-
ing a brilliant light, as though the moon had broken out
from clouds. The stream of aerolites from which the
phenomenon was directed has its radiant point in .\ries,
and further observations are desirable.

Rotation of the Moon.— A correspondent has been
puzzled by the perennial perplexity of non-mathematicians
as to how the moon can be said to rotate when she always
presents the same face to the earth. The answer, of
course, is that as we prove the rotation of the earth by
the fact that any meridian, such as that of Greenwich,
completes its circuit with respect to any fixed star in the
course of a sidereal day, so also the similar consideration
shows that the moon rotates on her axis in 275 days,
during which time she also completes her circuit about the
earth with respect to the stars.

The moon's equator is not quite circular, since her
figure may be considered as possessing a solidified tidal
inequality of shape. Laplace examined the mechanical
results of this condition of affairs, and showed that the
moon would oscillate slightly about a mean position
relatively to the earth. This is called the physical libra-
t'lon of the moon, and in consequence of its existence we
see slightly more than half of the moon's surface.

It is probable that the moon once rotated more rapidlv
on her axis, and that her rotation was reduced by tidal
friction to its present magnitude. The transition from a
slow rotation to a libration would present a problem of
consideiable mathematical difficulty. We can, however,
see what would be the several stages through which the
changes would pass. There would first be unequal speed
in the several parts of the rotation ; this inequality would
increase until at two moments in one rotation that rota-
tion would nearly cease ; then there would occur an actual

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

stoppage, and the direction of motion would reverse itself
for half a rotation, constituting a very large libration ;
finally, the amplitude of libration would diminish • ■ '-
actual insignificant magnitude.

Ei'HEMERis FOR H ALLEY 's CoMET. — Dr. Ebell publishes
a continuation of his ephemeris for Halley's comet in
No. 4450 of the Astrononiische Nachrichleti. The
ephemeris covers, in four-day steps, the period November 5
to December 31, and shows that the comet is now travel-
ling in a south-westerly direction through Corvus ; its
magnitude is about 15-5.

Selenium Photometer Measures of the Brightness of
H.ALi.Ev's Co-met. — Observing at the Illinois University
Observatory, Mr. Joel Stebbins measured the brightness of
Halley's comet with his selenium photometer on fifteen
occasions during May, and now publishes the results ir»
No. 2, vol. xxxii., of the Asfrophysical Journal. The
selenium cell was attached to the 12-inch refractor, and,
through a diaphragm, light from a circle 7 minutes of
arc in diameter was admitted to it ; Mr. Stebbins suggests
that eye-estimates of the comet's brightness never included
a larger area. The cell is known to be especially sensitive
near the red end of the spectrum, and it is supposed that,
unless the spectrum of the comet was very peculiar, the
systematic error of these observations would be less than
visual comparisons of a luminous surface with a point
source of light, such as a star ; extra-focal images of stars
were used in the comparison, and in the morning observa-
tions the brightness of the sky was measured and taken
into account in adopting final values for the comet's
brightness. The range of the latter is shown by the
following values, given in magnitudes: — May 3, 2-0;
May II, 06 ; June i, 36. The second value, o-6. is
vitiated by bad observing conditions, but Mr. Stebbins
states that the comet became brighter than the first magni-
tude, although it never reached magnitude 0-0.

The Apparent Diameter of Jupiter. — An earlier dis-
cussion of the observations of an occultation by Jupiter,
made at the Z6-se Observatory on May 21. 1908, led to the
conclusion that the apparent diameter of the planet, as
generally adopted, should be diminished ; the occulted star
was BD. + iq° 2095.

In No. 4450 of the Astrononiische Xachrichten Father
Chevalier, director of the Z6-sfe Observatory, suggests that
the observational results were not sufficiently certain to
have such an important conclusion based upon them.

Attempting to determine more trustworthy data, he
measured a photograph of the planet taken on Slay 19, and
determined the corrections to the tabular place. Then
applying these differences he found the jxjsition for May 21.
This gave the position-angle of the star as 140° 23' and
its distance from the centre of Jupiter as 18-7''. a value
greater than the semi-diameter of the planet. It is difficult
to reconcile this result with the data for the occultation,
and F"ather Chevalier urges that the observations made at
other observatories should be closely examined and dis-
cussed from this point of view. .\ number of discussions
such as he now publishes would possibly elucidate the
matter

Curved Photographic Plates. — In No. 161 of the
Harvard College Observatory Circulars Prof. E. C.
Pickering describes some interesting experiments made for
ascertaining the practical efficiency of curved plates in
celestial photography.

\\'ith the 16-inch Metcalf telescope employed, the differ-
ence in focus between the edge and the centre of the plate
is only 08 mm., but the experiments show that the bend-
fng of the plates to the focal curve is advantageous, while
there is little likelihood of counterbalancing disadvantages.

Several methods were tried, such as holding the ordinary
photographic plate against a properly curved concave
surface by means of mucilage, &c., but it was found
that the most successful method was to have the space
between the plate air-tight, and then to exhaust it by
means of a pump. Reproductions of actual photographs
j illustrate the gain in definition over the whole plate.

5'

NATURE

[November lo, 1910

TH£ -MICHAEL SARS'' NORTH ATLANTIC
DEEP-SEA EXPEDITION, 1910.

TN the month of August last year, Sir John Murray
approached me with the liberal offer of defraying the
expenses of a deep-sea expedition to the Atlantic Ocean,
provided the Norwegian Government were willing to lend
their research-vessel, Michael Sars, for the purpose. Sir
John Murray wished lo ascertain whether the appliances
and instruments used by the Michael Sars for her work in
the Norwegian Seas would yield new information in the
Atlantic. It was, besides, considered desirable to examine
parts of the Atlantic that had previously been only very
slightly explored. The Norwegian Government at once
signified its willingness to accept this proposal, and 1
accordingly employed the past winter in making prepara-
tions for the expedition, assisted by the captain of the
vessel, Mr. Thor Iversen, Prof. H. H. Gran, who agreed
to lead the investigation of phytoplankton, and Mr. Helland
Hansen, who took charge of the hydrographical researches.
For my own part, I decided to cooperate with Mr. E.
Koefoed, and to devote myself especially to zooplankton and
the study of the bottom-fauna.

The expedition left Bergen at the end of March, arrived
at Plymouth — where it was joined by
Sir .John Murray — and then followed
the coasts of Europe and Africa down
to Cape Bogador, carrying out special
investigations in the Bay of Biscay, the
Bay of Cadiz, and the waters between
the Canary Islands and .'Africa — thirty-
four stations in all. It next undertook
■a section into the Sargasso Sea, and
after touching at the Azores, proceeded
right across the Atlantic to St. John's,
Newfoundland (forty stations). From
there a section was taken to the south
coast of Ireland (twenty-two stations),
and, finally, we concluded our investiga-
tions bv examining the waters between
Scotland and Rockall and between
Scotland and the Faroes — that is to
say, north and south of the Wyville
Thomson ridge — so as to study the in-
fluence exerted by the Atlantic Ocean
upon the Norwegian Sea. The route
of the expedition will be seen on the
accompanying sketch (Fig. i).

During this cruise we endeavoured,
■so far as time permitted, to undertake
hydrographical and plankton investiga-
tions simultaneously, and we further
carried out a considerable number of
hauls with the trawl.

The large number of observations
and specimens thus secured can, natur-
ally, not be fittingly described before
being systematically studied, and it is
accordingly only possible as yet to furnish mformation
regarding their nature and extent.

Hydrographical Investigations.

Hydrographical investigations have been carried out at
about 110 stations. The temperature readings were taken
with Richter's reversing thermometer and Nansen's thermo-
meter, while the water-samples were collected by means of
Ekman's water-bottle and the Petterson-Nansen isolated
■water-bottle. At most of the stations the temperatures
have been recorded by two thermometers simultaneously at
each depth, no fewer than 519 simultaneous readings being
taken with the same two thermometers. The corrected
temperatures gave an average difference of o"oi° Centi-
grade.

The difference between the two thermometers was : —

In 168 cases o'oo°

In 231 , o'oi°

In 84 o-o2°

In 36 ,, o'o3° or over.

A fair number of simultaneous observations have been
made with the reversing thermometer and Nansen's thermo-

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

meter in the isolated water-bottle, with the view <>
observing the adiabatic effect by means of the difference i
pressure. Besides the temperature readings, we have tak<
water-samples from all depths to determine the salinity ai
specific gravity, and we have endeavoured to get a
exactitude in the determinations of salinity of o'oi-oo2 p'
mille, and in the density in situ an exactitude of 1-2 ;
the fifth place of decimals. On these lines the investigatioi
have been carried out along the whole route of the cxped
tion. We have, further, procured about 100 large water
samples from different stations and depths, for the purpo^
of determining the quantitative occurrence of nitrogenou.-,
substances, particularly ammonia.

The determinations from the deepest layers (down to 4950
metres) have given very uniform results, with a tempera-
ture of 248 C. It has been found that there is a very faint
increase of temperature near the bottom at great depths,
due, possibly, to the conduction of heat from the interior of
the earth or a radium effect. In the upper layers conditions
have varied considerably at times, especially in the neigh-
bourhood of the Gulf Stream area and in the western
portion of the North Atlantic. Here our investigations
furnish apparently a number of new and interesting
results, which, however, it is impossible to do more than

Fig. I.

allude to before the water-samples have been thoroughly
examined.

Surface temperatures have been recorded every hour
during nearly the whole cruise, while every two hours a
water-sample has been taken from the surface with par-
ticulars of the different meteorological conditions (wind,
barometer, temperature of the air, humidity, and cloudi-
ness). Altogether we have about 2500 water-samples and
about 3000 temperature readings.

Several series of direct-current measurements have been
made with Ekman's propeller current measurer. In the
Straits of Gibraltar the current was so strong that we
encountered no small difficulty in regard to anchoring.
However, we succeeded in the course of a day in
obtaining altogether seventy good measurements from
eight different depths between the surface and the
bottom. There were considerable tidal fluctuations both
in the west-going surface current and in the deep east-
going current ; simultaneously with the fluctuations in the
strength of the current the boundary between the two
streams shifted upwards and downwards, as clearly
appears from repeated series of temperatures and water-
samples. The boundary lay at a depth between 50 and
100 fathoms below the surface. Velocities of four knots or

November io, 1910]

NATURE

00

more were on several occasions recorded in both the surface
current and the undercurrent; in the majority of cases,
howevrr the velocity varied between i and 2\ knots.

On the slope south of the Azores the Michael Sars was
anchored in 500 fathoms. Here about ninety current-
measurements were made at different depths. In the deep
sea between the Azores and the Canary Islands a series

Fig. 2.

was taken right down to 2000 metres, from the vessel
while under slow, steady drift, with one of the large tow-
r.ets out as a drift-anchor. These measurements also show
considerable fluctuations, which are apparently connected
with tides. Similar investigations with modern methods
have never been undertaken before either in deep water or
in the Straits of Gibraltar.

A number of measurements of light were also made in
the ocean south and west of the Azores. Mr. Helland
Hansen has constructed a new photometer which worked
well ; he determined the quantity of light by the aid of
panchromatic plates with and without gelatine colour filters.
The investigations showed a great influence of light rays
at too metres, red being the weaker, and blue and ultra-
violet rays the strongest ; at 500 metres blue and ultra-
violet rays were still found, and even at 1000 metres the
influence of the ultra-violet rays was clearly evident. No
trace of light could be noticed on the plates at 1700 metres,
after an exposure of two hours at noon with a clear sky.

PhYTOPL-ANKTOX.

Vertical hauls have been undertaken at various depths, at
fully forty stations, with a fine-meshed Nansen closing-net,
our object being to collect material for studying the vertical
and horizontal distribution of peridinae and diatoms in the
Atlantic Ocean. We specially aimed at obtaining material
fof comparing the plankton of the coast-banks with
plankton from purely oceanic waters, as also for comparing
subtropical and boreal conditions of existence. The coast-
banks off Ireland, Cadiz Bay, the west coast of Africa, and
the Newfoundland banks have a characteristic flora which
is sharply marked off from the oceanic flora, rich in
species but poor in individuals, which is met with in the
central parts of the Atlantic Ocean, especially the Sargasso
Sea south of the Azores.

Largely owing to Lohmann's interesting researches in

the Mediterranean, we arranged to devote a considerable
part of our work to the study of those organisms, especially
Coccolithophoridae and the naked flagellates, which pass
through even the finest silk net. These organisms have
been partly collected by filtering sea-water through sand
filters and partly by employing a large centrifuge driven
by a small steam winch. Altogether we have employed the
centrifuge in the case of about sixty
of these water-samples ; and, by
'means of a suitable contrivance.
Prof. Gran was able to examine
these samples on board in their
living state, both in regard to
quality and quantity.

Examination showed a large
number of new forms, partly belong-
ing to quite new types, which will
be described by Prof. Gran. In the
central oceanic parts of the Atlantic
Ocean these small organisms were
found to occur in numerous forms
and in such large quantities that
they exceed in volume the plants
obtained through the medium of the
silk nets. In the neighbourhood of
the European coast-banks the
number of species was far smaller,
but the quantity of individuals was
particularly large. Thus we secured
in a single sample more than
200,000 individuals per litre of one
species alone. On the coast-banks
off Newfoundland and off Ireland
the peridinse far exceeded in volume
the Coccolithophoridae.

Altogether the samples from the
more northerly waters show a
greater quantity of plants than the
subtropical portion of the ocean.
The material will likewise furnish
information with regard to the dis-
tribution of phytoplankton in rela-
tion to depth. In the more
northerly waters its range is limited
to a thinner, less deep-reaching
more southern portion of the area of

Fig.

layer than in
investigations.

the

ZOOPLANKTON.

For the study of smaller plankton animals, of the size of
copepods, for instance, we employ a vertical closing-net, one
metre in diameter, with rather coarser silk. With this we
took samples at various depths and at many stations.

However, I perceived from the very first that an appli-

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

F16. 4.

ance of this sort would not be able to afford us much
information regarding the occurrence of the larger pelagic
animals, such, for instance, as cephalopods, decapod
crustaceans, and deep-sea fishes. Both the Challenger and
Valdevia expeditions employed, as will be remembered, a
big tow-net, with which they made many vertical hauls
from great depths to the surface of the sea. By this means
they . caught a certain amount, though by no m^ans a-

54

NATURE

[NOVEMIJER lO, 1 910

particularly large quantity, of fish in proportion to the
number of hauls ; and they naturally obtained but little
information regarding such questions as the depth at which
tlic animals live, and their vertical wanderings by night
and day. These questions seemed to me to be of special
interest at the present juncture, and accordingly an essential
part of the work of our expedition was directed towards
therr solution. We first constructed some large nets of
3*25 metres diameter, partly of coivser silk and partly of
prawn-net, arranged to close on the principle of Nansen's
closing net (see Figs. 2 and 3). With these we made
several successful hauls at various depths, and obtained
sufficient catches of the commonest forms to enable us to
determine more approximately the actual depth at which
they occur. Nevertheless, we soon discovered that even
these large nets yielded merely an incomplete collection of
the fauna, since many species occur far too sparsely to be
caught with vertical hauls. It was therefore found neces-
sary to employ large horizontal-fishing appliances and to
make hauls of considerable length.

Such, hauls would, however, take an unduly long time, if
they were to be carried out singly at the same station, for
hours in succession, at different depths. It was, therefore.

largest net, in particular, worked splendidly. We hav*
thus discovered quite a number of species of pelagic deep-
sea fish not previously described.

As there were so many stations, and we fished in widely
differing waters and at all hours of the day and night, a
comparison of these catches with each other will afford
much information concerning the geographical distribution
of the different species, as well as regarding the depth at
which they occur by day and by night, and so on. The
catches show that the hauls have much in common, and
we may accordingly assume that they are in the mam
representative of the depth in which the appliances have
been towed ; and it is further extremely satisfactory to
note that the experiences gained from these hauls and from
the vertical closing-net are in close accordance.

It is too soon yet, and, moreover, would take too long,
to describe in full the results of our experiences. I will
confine myself, therefore, to mentioning that everywhere
in the Atlantic Ocean, from the Wyville Thomson Ridge
to the Sargasso Sea, there appears to be, at depths below
400 metres, a consistently uniform fauna of small, chiefly
black pelagic fish, large red crustaceans, numerous
medusae, &c., a fauna which, in any case so far as the
fishes are concerned, is probably also shared by other
oceans, and which presents the same variety of form that
the Valdivia expedition, for instance, has found in the
Indian Ocean, and the Challenger in the Pacific. In the
upper layers, at depths less than 400 metres, we have

I

KiG. 5.

particularly desirable to drag a number of appliances at
several depths simultaneously. The appliances had in this
case to be fastened to one or two wire ropes, as one
cannot tow many wires at the same time. The technical
difficulty now presented itself that long lengths of wire get
twisted, when towed, and consequently destroy the appli-
ances or displace their position in the water. We solved
this by an arrangement, shown in the accompanying figure
(Fig. 4), by which a shackle to which the appliance is
fastened moves freely round the wire. By this means it
became possible to have no fewer than ten appliances out
simultaneously from two wires, as shown in the figure
(Fig. 5). Here we see a series, consisting partly of nets,
partly of Dr. C. G. Joh. Petersen's young-fish trawls, in
use at the following lengths of wire : o, 100, 200, 300, 600,
1000, J500, 2000, 2500, 3000 metres. The total number of
these tbwing stations exceeded thirty.

The material obtained in this way was very large indeed.
From the same station hundreds of pelagic deep-sea fishes
an^i litres of large decapods, medusae, &c., were secured.
All the same, the hauls showed that the material was not
by any means too large, since right up to the very last
haul we continued to capture a few species of pelagic fishes
that had not occurred in any of the previous hauls. The

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

discovered numerous younger stages of fish that are not
as yet determined, mostly of transparent, colourless form,
such as Leptocephali, to take merely one example.

Trawlings.
During previous expeditions in the Atlantic Ocean a
great number of hauls have been undertaken either with
the dredge or with small trawls. There was, therefore, no
pressing necessity for the Michael Sars to investigate the
bottom-fauna of the Atlantic, more particularly as hauls of
this nature require a considerable expenditure of time, ana
could therefore with difficulty be combined with our exact-
ing programme of hydrographical and plankton investiga-
tions. It was of interest, on the other hand, to try
whether a large-sized model of the ordinary otter-trawl
(with 50 feet of head-rope) would yield new results.
During my previous researches I had succeeded to my
satisfaction, and had secured very good catches, by making
use of a trawl of this kind at depths down to 1000 fathoms.
It was, in my opinion, especially desirable to employ this
appliance along the Continental slope from the Wyville
Thomson ridge southwards to the tropical coast of Africa,
so as to ascertain the composition of the fauna on this
long stretch at depths varying from 500 to 1600 fathoms.

NOVEMJBER lO, 1 910]

NATURE

I Besides, I considered it of the utmost interest to attempt
' some hauls far out from the coast-banks on an oceanic
• deep plain with depths descending to 3000 fathoms. Alto-
i gether we have carried out twenty-two hauls at various
depths-with this large trawl.

It will be seen that our trawl had a greater capacity

I than any of the appliances previously employed, and that it

! can therefore, without doubt, be recommended for investi-

I gations of the deep-water tish-fauna. This is especially the

case where it is requisite to have many individuals for

examination. For invertebrate organisms, on the other

' hand, smaller and more handy appliances may be

preferable.

Essentially new types of fishes the trawl cannot be said
to have taken. But the material we possess furnishes a
good picture, especially of the uniform fish-fauna to be
met with along the slopes of the coast-banks of Europe
; and .Africa from the Wyville Thomson ridgo down to
Cape Bogador, and it also shows clearly the sharp tran-
sition from the southern to the northern side of the Wyville
: Thomson ridge, which the Triton, the Knight Errant, and
my own investigations, amongst others, had previously
demonstrated.
5 The hauls at great depths (about 5000 metres) were no
] doubt few, perhaps too few ; but they accorded with each
other and with the hauls made by . previous expeditions,
more especially those of the Challenger, : Travailleur, and
; Talisman, in indicating that the actual eastern deep-ocean
' plain of the .Atlantic is especially poor in all kinds of higher
I organisms and particularly in fish. It might, by some
naturalists, be regarded as a desert region. A fuller
discussion of our observations must, however, be reserved
■ a more comprehensive publication.

JOHAX HjORT,

THE ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS L\
TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS.
'. 'THE annual meeting of the .Association of Teachers in
■*■ Technical Institutions was held at the Northern
i Polytechnic, London, on Saturday, November 5. In
i moving the adoption of the annual report of the council,
Mr. J. Wilson (Battersea Polytechnic), the retiring presi-
dent, stated that any further extensive progress in the
' general technical and scientific education of this countr>-
depends upon" the adoption of certain educational reforms,
for most of which public opinion is now ripe. These
; reforms may be briefly summarised as follows : —
(i) ehmentary education to be more practical or construc-
; live; ^2) compulsory attendance at day or evening (prefer-
1 ably day) continuation schools, with a limitation of the
hours of labour of adolescents ; (3) the institution of
' "technical-secondary" schools; (4) the linking of the
elementary school through the continuation and secondary
school to the technical school ; (5) the increased provision
I of scholarships, with adequate maintenance grants, so that
I the qualified day and evening technical student mav receive
( the highest possible technical and scientific training.
These suggested reforms are all quite practical, and their
adoption would entail but relatively little strain upon the
financial resources of this country-, while the commercial
; and educational results would be of incalculable benefit.
I .Attention was directed to the promise held out in the
Prefatory .Memorandum to the recent Board of Education
regulations for technical schools, that the Board would
I take action, in the near future, with respect to certain
; of the more pressing of the educational reforms just
I referred to. .A significant statement in the memorandum,
I relatmg to the payment of grants for technical instruction
to institutions of university rank, together with the recent
; formation of a " University Branch " at the Board of
1 Education, emphasises the modern tendency towards bring-
i ing the English universities within the purview and in-
• fluence of the national educational authorities The hope
' was expressed that this would result in the opening wider
! of the doors of the university to the communitv, and a
' closer connection of the universities with all phases of
I educational effort in this country.

[ The recent regulations of the Board of Education respect-
j ing the registering of the attendance of dav and evening
I Students , at technical institutions were criticised adverselv.

inasmuch as by considerably increasing the time, and atten-
tion to be devoted by the teacher to the merely mechanical
work of registration, they inevitably detract from the
efficiency of the teaching as a whole.

In discussing the first volume of the minutes of evidence
submitted to the Royal Commission on University Educa-
tion in London, Mr, Wilson stated that in this evidence
there appears vague and unjust criticism of the higher
work of the London polj technics, generally based upon
want of knowledge of the work these institutions are now-
doing.

The president of the association for 1910-11 is Mr.
Barker North, of the chemistry and dyeing department,
Bradford Technical College.

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

METEOROLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS.

pROF. H. HILDEBRAND HILDEBR-ANDSSON is
continuing his important series of papers on the
centres of action of the atmosphere, and the fourth com-
munication, recently received, is entitled '* Sur la Com-
pensation entre les types des Saisons simultanes en
differentes regions de la Terre " (_Ktingl. Si'cnska
Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar, Band 45, No. 11 '. In
his third paper he suggested that the principal cause of
the different types of seasons depended very probably on
the condition of the ice in the polar seas, and the evidence
he brought forward was such as to show that this view
had very much in its favour. In the present communica-
tioa he makes a closer study of these compensations
between the types of simultaneous seasons in both winter
and summer seasons, and extends his researches to North
.America. He further directs attention to some analogous
results which he finds exist in the southern hemisphere.
Thus he finds both in winter and in summer that there
occurs an opposition between the north and south of both
Europe and of North .America, and also probably between
the sub-polar regions and sub-tropical regions of the
southern hemisphere. There is also, in general, an opposi-
tion between the north of Europe and Siberia.

Special attention is directed to some regions where this
opposite nature of seasons is in some years less -pro-
nounced, and Prof. Hildebrandsson points out that these
districts are intermediate between the main centres of
typical action, and are therefore dependent on the intensit)'
of the latter. This communication is accompanied by
several plates of curves, and these should be closely studied
in connection with the text. There is little doubt that
these researches will in time open up a field for the future
forecasting of seasons, but it is important to bear in mind
that so intimate are the meteorological associations
between very widely separated regions on the earth, it
behoves the investigator to take a ver\' broad view of the
subject, and not confine himself to one small portion of
the earth's surface.

Mr. E. T. Ouaylc, of the .Australian Commonwealth
Meteorological Bureau, has recently (Bulletin No. 5,
March) published the results of his investigations in rela-
tion to the possibility of forecasting the approximate rain-
fall for northern Victoria. .At the outset he states that
it has long been his conviction that ordinary statistical
methods must prove inadequate, and that they do not
enable the essential differences between the weather of
successive years to be grasped. In his study of the storm
systems as they have affected Victoria he has made a
classification of them, and on this he bases his method
of forecasting. The storms which affect Victoria and
bring the rain belong to two main systems, one called
" .Antarctics, *' which originate in the southern seas, and
the other called " Monsoonals," which are of tropical
origin. The first-named he divides into two classes : —
(a) .Antarctics, when their centres are too far south to be
identified ; and (6) .Antarctic cyclones, when their centres
can be located inland or over Bass Strait. The monsoonal
low depressions he divides into three groups : — (a) mon-
soonal troughs ; (6) monsoonal dips ; and (c) monsoonal
cyclones.

By the use of isobaric charts the number of occurrences
of each t>"pe of disturbance was taken out for each month
for the years 1888 to igoq. .As the northern districts of
Victoria receive most rain chieflv from monsoonal de-

56

NATURE

[November io, 1910

pressions or the fronts of well-developed Antarctics, a
typical rainfall curve of the northern areas was con-
structed. Thus for each half-year the low- and high-
pressure systems passing Victoria were counted, and along-
side the numbers thus obtained were placed the figures
for the rainfall over the northern areas and the mean
air pressure and temperature for Melbourne. The com-
parison brought out the result that an excess in the
number of summer monsoonal disturbances was followed
by an excess in the winter rainfall in seventeen cases out
of twenty-two.

Mr. Quayle then evolves a rough rule for predicting the
approximate winter rainfall over northern Victoria, giving
the weights of two, one and one to the number of mon-
soonal disturbances, mean pressure, and mean tempera-
ture, respectively, for the preceding summer. Noting the
coincidences of sign only in the values he evolves for the
calculated winter rain, he finds that they are in agree-
ment with those for the actual departures from normal
of the winter rains nineteen times out of twenty-two, and
in serious agreement in two cases only. It is unfortunate
that, owing to lack of daily isobaric charts, the period
could not have been extended over more years ; neverthe-
less, the system may be used tentatively, and the results
will be watched with interest.

THE LATITUDE OF ATHENS.'
TN the volume referred to below M. Eginitis describes
-^ the varied activities that exercise the staff of the
National Observatory of Athens and of the smaller institu-
tions that his zeal has called into existence and made to
yield results useful to science, both as regards seismology
and meteorology. It seems not a little strange to find
well-remembered names like Thebes, Sparta, Naxas,
Samos, and many others famous in the past, figuring in
this list, and playing a new role by contributing climatic
observations made on approved lines with modern instru-
ments. Of the last mentioned of these stations, that on
the island of Samos, the author remarks, " malheureuse-
ment, elle a ^t6 compl^tement d^truite, le jour du bom-
bardement de cette ile, en 1908, par la flotte turque,"
recalling a struggle which seems more in keeping with
its ancient history than its effort to accumulate meteor-
ological observations.

But the real serious piece of work here described is
the attempt to determine the latitude of Athens, a problem
that interested Ptolemy, who recorded the value 37° 15',
placing the city some 45 kilometres south of its true
«ite, even when allowance for all known sources of error
is made, a larger error than is usual in similar deter-
minations in that age. But error seems to cling to this
unfortunate coordinate, for M. Eginitis informs us that
the latitude for the Pantheon given in the " Connaissance
"des Temps " is about 6" too small. In striving for the
nicest accuracy, the director has found the problem to be
one of extreme difficulty. He has employed two methods
and two instruments, and the results do not coincide.
He has employed the Horrebow-Talcott process, carried
out by means of an instrument originally intended for a
meridian circle, but by removing the microscopes and
adding a level, adapted to that particular form of observa-
tion. Later, through the generosity of M. Syngros, he
was supplied with a modern and excellent meridian circle
"by Gautier, the construction of which was supervised by,
M. Loewy. This instrument was used for determining
the zenith distances of both circumpolar stars and stars
of known declination, the zero being derived from nadir
observations only.

The interest in the discussion consists in the different
values obtained after reversing the instrument. The
<iifferehce is constant and rather larger than has been
noted elsewhere. Like the R-D term in similar inquiries,
It refuses to yield a satisfactory explanation, however
ingeniously solicited. There is no attempt to determine
the actual variation of latitude, though the observations
extend over a considerable period, nor, as we think, is

1 Anna'es de I'Observatoire National d'Athenes, oublirf par Demi'rius
Eginitis, Directeur de I'Observatoire. Tome v. Pp. ii + 592. (Athens,
1910.)

sufficient attention paid to the possible effect of a " magni-
tude equation." The inquiry is of a purely instrumental
character, and is directed mainly to the legitimacy of
employing an arithmetic mean of the values obtained in
the two positions of the instrument, if this conclusion
is warranted and offers the only possible means of correctly
determining the latitude, M. Eginitis is justified in insist-
ing upon the necessity of reversion and of providing for
the operation in the construction of the instrument. But
as the director promises further experiments and a more
rigorous attempt to eliminate all possible sources of error,
it will be desirable to pause before offering any criticism
or accepting the result as final.

EDUCATION IN TECHNICAL OPTICS.

T^HE reawakening of the British optical industry whicli
■*■ began with the first years of this century brough:
with it a demand for the provision of special technical
education in optics. The Northampton Polytechnii
Institute, from its situation in Clerkenwell, where much oi
the London optical industry is centred, was particularl\
suited as a centre for such work, and optical classes wer^
begun there as a branch of work in general physics. Th>
optical trade, however, regarded these classes as being oi
little value, and in 1902 a new syllabus was adopted and '
special department of technical optics was instituted
Since that time this department, under Mr. S. D
Chalmers, has developed very considerably and done muc!
useful work for both day and evening students, but th-
scope and value of this work has been continually hampered
and further development has been completely blocked b\
want of proper space and equipment. This unsatisfactorv
state of affairs has been fully realised, and the governor-
of the Northampton Institute have acquired the necessarx
land on a site opposite the institute, and have had ^plan-
prepared for a complete " Opto-technical Institute"; fo
the erection and equipment of the building they are, how
ever, dependent on a grant from the London Count \
Council. .

The County Council or its predecessors in authontv,
the School Board, has been repeatedly approached in thi-
matter. A deputation from the Optical Society in 1902
led to a grant which resulted in the establishment of tli
optics department at the institute; for a time this w.i
supplemented by a grant from the Company of Spectacl-
Makers, but this has subsequently been replaced by a trad-
fund, collected principally by the efforts of Mr. J. Aitchison
and administered by the Optical Society. In 1905 th
Optical Convention sent a deputation to the London Educ..-
tion Committee ; this deputation was headed by Dr. R. I
Glazebrook, and included a large number of influential
men connected with the science or industry of optics, but.
although favourably received, no practical steps result,
for five years. .

Now, 'however, there appears to be a definite prosper
that this want of our optical industry may soon be met 1;
an adequate manner. This is indicated by a circular lett.
issued a few weeks ago by the L.C.C. Education Oflic
to members of the optical trade in London. In this lett.
the members of the trade are asked to state their viev
as to the need for an Opto-technical Institute in Londo;
and to indicate to what extent they or their employ,
would take advantage of anv facilities provided, and wh;.
benefits they would expect to derive from such teachin..
The letter concluded by inquiring whether, in the opinij
of the trade, an expenditure of about 30.000/. for a buil.
ing for such a purpose would be justified, and the genei ;
scheme of the new institute as proposed by the Northami
ton Institute is indicated. This comprises a series of lar;.
teaching laboratories and lecture-rooms for instruction 1
all branches of optics, lens-working and general instruirier
design and construction being provided for. as well as t.
theoretical and extierimental branches of the subject. 1 r
new institute would accommodate 300 to 400 day and evf-r
ing students, complete day courses as well as evenin.i,
classes being contemplated.

Fortunately there is every reason to believe that the
optical trade' will respond to this circular letter in a manner
which will fully justify the London County Council in
proceeding at cnce with a scheme which is really of

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

November io, 1910J

NATURE

57

national importance. An opening meeting of opticians and
those interested in optics was called by Mr. J. Aitchison
at Anderton's Hotel in Fleet Street on October 17, and
an attendance of 300 enthusiastically and unanimously
affirmed their approval of the London County Council
scheme. This was probably the largest, and certainly the
most unanimous, optical meeting ever held in London ; all
the speakers emphasised the need for close cooperation
between science and industry in the optical more than in
most other industries, and the consequent need of the best
educational facilities for masters and workmen. It is
clearly recognised — not in this country alone — that the
British optical industry has made and is making a very
great effort to regain lost ground ; such names as Grubb
and Hilger show that there is even now British leadership
in some fields of optics. With the help of such schemes
as that of the London County Council these fields might
il be extended.

THE CRYSTALLOGRAPHY OF
H.EMOGLOBINS.^

/^ RVSTALS of oxyhaemoglobin differing greatly in
^^ character are figured in every text-book of physi-
ology ; but in the absence of specially skilled study by a
crystallographer it has always seemed possible hitherto
that the differences observed might be dependent on poly-
morphism, differences in water of crystallisation, effects
of environment, or on chemical change, and that haemo-
globin, from whatever source obtained, was essentially one
and the same substance. Hiifner's observation that all
haemoglobin solutions giving the same extinction coefficients
in the spectrophotometer showed the same capacity for
oxygen appeared to support such a view, although it
could also be interpreted as showing merely, what was
already probable on other grounds, that the hsematin por-
tion of the molecule was identical in all cases.

Profs. Reichert and Brown, regarding crystalline
character, when interpreted with care and knowledge, as
a trustworthy criterion of identity or non-identity, have
prepared crystals of oxjhaemoglobin and its near allies
from some two hundred species of animals, and subjected
them to minute crystallographic analysis. Their observa-
tions show beyond doubt that haemoglobin exists in almost
innumerable varieties, each of which is more or less charac-
teristic of the species from which it was obtained. In
view of the ease with which oxyhaemoglobin undergoes
chemical change, the demonstrated impossibility of purify-
ing it by recrystallisation without the occurrence of such
cnange, the effects of admixture with other substances on
crystal form, and the difficulties of crystallographic inter-
pretation, it is inevitable that some reserve should be felt
in accepting all their conclusions in detail, but the main
facts presented can hardlv b*' interpreted otherwise than
in the way suggested by the authors.

It is, however, much to be regretted that they have not
described the spectroscopic characters of the crystals
studied in each case, since the omission of this informa-
tion leaves it open to doubt whether the material examined
was always wh.at it was taken for. In the absence of
spectroscopic evidence, their statement that the blood of
the horse, python, and many primates, including man, con-
tains in the same individual two different kinds of oxy-
haemoglobin, while that of the baboon and some other
animals contains as many as three, carries no conviction.
Scepticism on this point appears, indeed, to be very much
in place in view of the extraordinary statement in the
last chapter that " metoxyhaemoglobin," the substance
ordinarily known as methaemoglobin, the neutral or acid
solptions of which show a four-banded spectrum, becomes
converted to oxyhaemoglobin by treatment with ammonia.
It is almost impossible to resist the conclusion that the
•authors are unfamiliar with the spectrum of alkaline-
meth^moglobin. and the suspicion that the crystals

1 " The Differentiation nnd Specificity of Corresponding Proteins and
other Vital Substances in Relation to Biological Classification and Organic
Evolution and the Crystallography of Hemoglobins." By Prof. E. T.
Reiche't and Prof. A. P. Brown. Pp. xix+338+ 100 plates. (Washington,
D.C. : Carnegie Institution, 19C9.)

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

described as a second kind of oxyhaemoglobin may have
consisted of the former substance.

.Another interesting statement concerning which ampler
justification would have been very welcome is that the
blood of the shad during the breeding-season, and that o{
the bear during hibernation, is especially rich in " metoxy-
haemoglobin."

The first two chapters deal very completely with the
general properties, and distribution in the animal kingdom,
of haemoglobin, hsemocyanin, and the colourless respira-
tory substances termed achroglobulins ; they contain also
some very useful comparisons of the chemical and morpho-
logical characters of the blood of different animals, and
full references to the literature. The third chapter is
devoted to a special consideration of the physical and
chemical properties of haemoglobin, and it is no fault of
the authors that Barcroft's important work on this sub-
ject had not appeared in time for its inclusion. The rest
of the monograph contains an admirable critical account
of the work of previous investigators, and a full descrip-
tion of the methods, results, and conclusions of the
authors, illustrated by 600 very successful photomicro-
graphs and numerous figures in the text.

The results obtained are of general biological interest,
not only as showing that the differences already proved
to exist between the corresponding serum-proteins of
different animals are equally manifest between their
hzemoglobins, but also as throwing light on phylogenetic
relations, since the crystals from closely allied species often
exhibit close similarities. They are also of great interest
to the crystallographer by reason of the extensive isomor-
phous series brought to light, and some important
observations on mimetic twinning of crystals.

PROBLEMS OF WHEAT GROWING.

71

HE October number of Science Progress contains an im-
portant article on " Wheat-growing and its Present-
day Problems," by Dr. E. J. Russell, of the Rothamsted
Experimental Station. TTie article is based very largely
upon a discussion which took place at the Winnipeg
meeting of the British .Association, at a joint meeting of
the Botanical, Chemical, and Agricultural Sections. The
work of the Rothamsted station has long ago made
familiar the main facts in reference to the fertilisation of
wheat-fields under normal conditions, but the recent dis-
covery of the use of phosphatic manures in order to
secure earlier ripening may prove to be an important
factor in extending the northern limit of the wheat-belt ;
in the same way, it is suggested, the use of late-ripening
varieties manured with potassium salts may be of value
in extending the southern limit ; phosphates have also^
proved of value in securing rapid root development in the
dry soils of Australia, where it is of great importance
that the plant should secure access to the subsoil water
as quickly as possible. Refeience is also made to the
recent experiments of Dr. Saunders and others on the
breeding of wheat in order to develop " strength," heavy
cropping power, early maturity, and resistance to rust
and drought. The work to be done here is very extensive,
as different localities demand widely different types, owing
both to economic and to physical differences. Even in a
given locality the results obtained vary greatly according
to the conditions, a " strong " wheat often giving a crop-
of weak piebald wheat when grown on newly broken
land, whilst on old land the crop may be superior in
quality to that used as seed, a difference that is perhaps
due to the great decrease in the proportion of water in
the older land during the period of growth of the crop.
It is pointed out that continuous cropping with wheat
appears to break down the fertility of the soil by bacterial
changes, which result in disintegrating the nitrogen, rather
than by chemical exhaustion; the soil recoveis, however,
when planted with clover and similar crops, which act as
agents foi the fixation of nitrogen ; as this seems to fit
in with the natural development of farming in a new
country, the temporary k)ss of fertility is of less import
ance than might appear at first sight to be the case.

=;i

NATURE

[November io, 1910

I

BOTAW AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

The President's Address.

N accordance with the custom that is growing up of
arranging for a minimum of clashing between the
various presidential addresses, Prof. Trail delivered his
address (which was printed in full in Nature of October 0)
at 12 noon on Thursday, September i. The address
dealt with the subject of field botany, and the president
particularly urged the need for the preparation of a really
great national flora. .As a direct outcome of the address,
a corhmittee was subsequently appointed, with Dr. Trail
as chairman, to consider what steps should be taken
towards organising and preparing the materials for such
a flora.

.Vs regards the rest of the proceedings, the outstanding
features of. the Sheffield meeting were the sittings devoted
respectivelv to physiology, cytology, and morphology.
Judged by the keenness of the discussions and the numbers
attending the section, the meeting must be pronounced to
have been distinctly better than the average. It will be
convenient to deal first with the subject of physiology.

Physiology.

On Monday morning, September 5, there was a joint
sitting of the botanists, chemists, and physiologists in the
meeting-room of Section K, the subject being the bio-
chemistry of respiration. A report of this discussion will
be found in the account of the proceedings of Section I
(p. 26), so it is unnecessary here to do more than men-
tion the botanical contributions to the discussion. Dr.
F. F. Blackman, who opened the subject, by way of
introduction outlined our present knowledge of the re-
spiration of plants in respect to : — (i) the nature of the
reaction (or reactions) which constitutes respiration ;
(2) the physical chemistry of the respiration reaction : and
^3) the influence of protoplasm upon the progress of the
reaction. Mr. D. Thoday dealt with the effect of chloro-
form on the respiration of plants.

Tuesday morning, and to some extent Wednesday, were
also devoted to physiological papers. Mr. S. Mangham
read an interesting paper on the paths of translocation of
sugars from green leaves. Using Senft's method of test-
ing for sugars by the precipitation of osazones, the author
was able to obtain definite evidence that the sieve-tubes
(and not the parenchymatous vein sheaths) provide the
main paths for the translocation of free sugars from the
lamina of the leaf. He was thus able to confirm Czapek's
theory, which had been disputed by Haberlandt and others.
Mr. D. Thoday followed, and discussed assimilation and
translocation under natural conditions. His experiments
show that in detached leaves the increase of dry weight,
due to assimilation, is surprisingly small in bright diffuse
light as compared with bright sunlight. Leaves still
attached to the plant show a smaller rate of increase than
detached leaves ; this is probably largely due to trans-
location. Dr. F. Darwin demonstrated a new method of
observing in living leaves, while still attached to the
plant, the degree to which the stomatal apertures are
open or closed. The instrument (which he calls a poro-
ineter) consists of a small glass chamber cemented on to
the stomatal surface of a leaf, and connected with a
suction tube and manometer. By diminishing the air-
pressure in the chamber a flow of air through the stomata
is induced, the rate of flow indicating the condition of
the stomatal apertures. Dr. Darwin then discussed some
actual results obtained by the porometer. On comparing
the readings of the latter with the loss of weight by
transpiration, it was found that the two curves rise and
fall together, but the transpiration readings have a much
smaller range than those of the porometer. This is
perhaps what might have been expected, taking into
account Dr. Horace Brown's work on diffusion.

Miss N. Darwin and Dr. F. F. Blackman contributed
a paper on germination conditions and the vitality of
seeds. If the vitality of seeds is lowered by exposure to,
e.g., high temperatures, they do not germinate well, and
become more sensitive to any unfavourable modification
of the environment. Failure to germinate when too little
water is present is due to purely physical causes, while

NO. 214I, VOL. 85]

the injurious effects of excess of water are due to the
water acting as an o.xygen excluder. Mr. A. S. Home
next discussed the absorption of water by various legu-
minous seeds. Prof. Bottomley showed that the Cyano-
phyceae endophytic in the apogeotropic roots of cycads
and in the cavities of .Azolla and Anthoceros are invariably
accompanied by nitrogen-fixing bacteria. He suggested
that this may really be a symbiotic association of the
algae and the bacteria.

Ecology.

In contrast to the Winnipeg meeting, ecology was re-
presented this year by only two papers. Mr. J. H.
Priestley gave an account of the distribution of halophyte;,
on the Severn shore. In this district the halophytes
exhibit three well-marked zones : — (i) the low-lying
Salicornia zone ; (2) the Sclerochloa and .Aster zone ; and
(3) the rarelv submerged Junciis Gerardi and Festuca
rubra zone. Apparent anomalies of distribution are prob-
abl)' referable to differences of drainage and salinity. Mr.
M. Wilson discussed plant distribution in the woods of
north-east Kent.

Cytological Papers, <5^'C.

Friday morning was occupied with papers dealing with
cytology and heredity, the first two being taken jointly
with .Section D (Zoology). In a paper entitled " The
New Force, Mitokinetism," Prof. Marcus Hartog further
developed his views on the formation of the spindle and
other structures observed during karyokinesis. Discuss-
ing the various theories put forward. Prof. Hartog con-
tended that neither diffusion currents on one hand,
nor electrolytic or electrostatic force or magnetism on the
other, are sufficient to account for the formation of the
mitotic spindle. As an alternative the author postulates
the existence of a new force, which he terms "mito-
kinetism," and which, so far, is unknown outside the
living cell. Dr. E. Hindle followed with an account of
artificial parthenogenesis in the eggs of a sea-urchin
(Strongylocentrotus purpuratus). The author described the
process of artificial fertilisation in these eggs by treatment
with a monobasic fatty acid, and subsequently with hyper-
tonic salt solution. The cytological changes undergone
were carefully described, including the formation of an
artificial fertilisation membrane and the various nuclear
changes. Under suitable conditions free-swimming larvae
were produced. These, though their dividing nuclei con-
tained only the reduced number of chromosomes, were
identical in form and behaviour with those developed from
normallv fertilised eggs. This concluded the joint sitting
of Sections D and K, and the remaining papers were com-
municated to Section K alone.

The next two papers dealt with the behaviour of the
chromosomes during mitosis, and particularly with respect
to the stage at which longitudinal fission is initiated.
Prof. Farmer and Miss Digby found in Galtonia that
during the archesporlal divisions the longitudinal fission
begins by a condensation of the chromatin on the edges
of the chromosomes during the telophase of the preceding
division, and the duplicate character can thus be detected
verv early. Similarly, in the heterotype division of
mitosis, the longitudinal fission is prepared for, as in the
somatic mitoses, during the telophase of the last arche-
sporlal division. Dr. Fraser and Mr. Snell obtained very
similar results in Vicia faba. They found that the
chromosomes which are separated from each other in any
given division are the product of a longitudinal fission
which is initiated in the preceding telophase. This was
stated to be the case in both the sporophyte_ and gameto-
phvte generations, the resting chromosomes in both cases
exhibiting a double structure. Prof. V. H. Blackman, in
a very interesting short paper, described the vermiform
male nuclei of Lilium. The author brought forward
evidence that, although purely nuclear in structure and
possessing no cilia, these structures are capable of active
movement. It seems probable that the activity of these
nuclei, and not the streaming movements of the surrounds
ing cytoplasm, is responsible for their entrance into the
ovum and passage to the polar nuclei.

The remaining two papers taken on Friday dealt with
problems of heredity. Mr: R. P. Gregory offered sonie
further observations on inheritance in Primula sinensis.

November io, 1910]

NATURE

59

and Praf. F. E. Weiss described some experiments on
the inheritance of colour in the pimpernel. The latter
author crossed Atiagallis arvensis and A. coerulea (the
red and blue pimpernels). The red colour proved to be
dominant, while in the /, generation there was complete
segregation into red and blue forms. This is another
^resting case of a recessive blue in the Primulaceae.

Fungi.
The fungal papers were taken on Thursday morning
before the president's address. Prof. Duller discussed the
function and fate of the cystidia of Coprinus. The author
confirmed Brefeld's view that the cystidia act as props
to keep the gills from touching each other. He pointed
out that this is necessarj- to allow for the free escape of
the rif)e spores. The cystidia themselves disappear bv a
process of autodigestion just before the basidia in their
immediate neighbourhood are ready to discharge their
spores. In the discussion on this paper Mr. Wager sug-
C-^sted that the cystidium must be regarded as having
n phylogenetically derived from the basidium. Mr.
E. Lechmere read an interesting pa|>er on the methods
asexual reproduction in a species of Saprolegnia. In
ging-drop cultures great variation was found in the
aviour of the zoospores, the method of discharge, and
shape of the sporocyst. Variations of form, &c.. sup-
d to be characteristic of distinct genera of the Sapro-
-ieae were found within the limits of this single species.
:. \ . H. Blackman described a form of nuclear division
inrermediate between mitosis and amitosis in Coleosporiunt
Ttissilagiiiis. A spindle is formed on which granular
chromatin collects, and is then drawn apart towards the
poles. The chromatin is not aggregated into definite
chromosomes. Mr. Harold Wager, in a paper on chromo-
some reduction in the Hymenomycetes, maintained that
normally only two nuclei (each containing four chromo-
soniesl fuse in the basidium. During the division of the
fusion nucleus the spireme breaks up into eight chromo-
somes, reduction being brought about in a simple manner
by the distribution of the chromosomes to the two
daughter nuclei. Mr. F. T. Brooks described his investi-
gations into the cause of the silver-leaf disease of fruit
trees. These experiments are still proceeding, but,
although not absolutely proved, the available evidence
points, as previously suggested by Percival and Pickering,
to Stereum purpureum as the probable cause of the
disease.

Morphological and other Papers.
.\lthough only an afternoon session (on Monday) was
available for morphology, the papers proved so attractive
that the section sat for nearly three and a half hours.
Prof. F. O. Bower led off with two papers. The first
was a short note on Ophioglossum palmatum. The
divided character of the leaf-trace supports the conclusion,
previously arrived at from its external morphology", that
O. palmatum is one of the more extreme and specialised
types of the Ophioglossaceae. The second paper, on two
synthetic genera of Filicales, dealt with some very interest-
ing problems of phylogeny. The two genera in question
are Plagiogyria (formerly included in Lomaria) and
Lophosoria (.usually grouped with .Alsophila). The author
not only put forward strong reasons why these respective
genera should be kept separate, but suggested that both
are probably important intermediate synthetic forms.
Thus he regards Plagiogyria as a transitional form related
on the one hand to the Gleicheniaceae and the Schizaeaceic,
and on the other to the whole series of Pterideae.
-Similarly in the case of Lophosoria, a probable sequence
may be traced from forms also having affinities with the
tjleicheniaceae through Lophosoria to .Alsophila and other
Cyatheaceze.

Dr. Kidston and Prof. Gwynne-Vaughan described the
structure of the " false stems " of the fossil genus
lempskya. This plant had an extraordinarv habit. Its
erect " stem," which grew to a height of 9 or more feet.
kLj'^""*'*'^*''^ °^ ^" aggregate of branching stems
embedded m a compact mass of their own adventitious
roots. _ The individual stems were slender, and possessed
a dorsi-ventral symmetry. The authors think that in this
case the erect habit had been onlv recentlv acquired, the
particular method adopted being one which could be
NO. 2141, VOL. 85]

evolved with great rapidity. They further suggest that the
erect habit of modern tree-ferns may be a secondary
character derived from Tempskya-like forms, in which the
original axis has developed at the expense of the lateral
branches. Dr. M. C. Stopes read a paper in which she
further described the fossil flower Cretovariutn japonicunt,
dealing especially with the structure of the ovary. Mrs.
Thoday, in a communication on the morphology- of the
ovule of Gnetum africanum, instituted a comparison
between this and the ovules of Welwitschia and Lageno-
stoma. She regards the ovule of Gnetum as probably
more primitive than that of Welwitschia on account of
its radial structure, the presence in the young ovule of a
well-developed pollen chamber, and the small develop-
ment of the free portion of the nucellus. Prof. F. \V.
Oliver next discussed the pollen chambers of various fossil
seeds. He showed that in certain seeds {e.g. Conostoma
spp.) the structure of the nucellar apex is much more
complex than in forms such as Lagenostoma, &c. In
these more complicated forms a second pollen chamber
was excavated below the primary one (which alone is
found in Lagenostoma). the latter becoming merely
vestigial. In the light of this discovery it seems possible
that the nucellar beak of Trigonocarpus, Ginkgo, &c..
may represent a vestigial primary pollen chamber, which
had been functionally replaced by a more deeply seated
cavity.

Prof. W. H. Lang concluded the afternoon's sitting
with a very interesting account of the morphology of the
stock of Isoetes. He produced evidence that the stock
grows regularly in two opposite directions. Leaves are
produced at the upper end, the stem apex being situated
at the base of a deep depression. Similarly, the roots
are borne in regular sequence on a downwardly growing
region. In this case, too, the apex is at the bottom of a
deep depression, but the growing point is obscured by the
congenital union of the sides of the depression. The
young roots are finally freed by the gradual and partial
separation of the united lobes of the stock. Although
greatly modified, the axis of Isoetes is strictly comparable
with that of Lepidodendron or Pleuromeia.

The Semi-popular Lecture
this year was given by Prof. F. O. Bower, the subject
being " Sand-dunes and Golf Links." The lecture, which
was greatly appreciated, dealt chiefly with the part pl.ayed
by vegetation in the formation and fixing of sand-dunes.
Perhaps the prominence given to this part of the subject
caused some mild disappointment to the golfers present,
who wished for practical hints on the keeping of greens.
Prof. Bower showed a number of beautiful photographs,
amongst the most interesting being some of shifting
dunes.

EXGIXEERIXG AXD CIVILISATIOX.'
T N ' order rightly to appreciate the share taken by our
^ profession in bringing about the present state of
civilisation, a comparison should be made between the
conditions prevailing, say, in the Greek st.-ites during the
fifth and fourth centuries before Christ and those existing
now in the twentieth century after Christ.

In indicating the state of knowledge at that period of
Greek history, it is enough to remind you that it was the
age of Themistocles, .Aristides, and Pericles, the states-
men ; of .^ischylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristo-
phanes, the dramatists ; of Phidias, Scopas, and Praxiteles,
the sculptors ; of Apollodorus, Zeuxis, and Apelles, the
painters ; of Ictinus, the chief designer of the Parthenon,
and Dinocrates. who rebuilt the temple of Diana at
Ephesus and laid out the city of .Alexandria, the architects ;
of Herooofus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, the historians ;
of Socrates. Plato, and Aristotle, the philosophers.

Can we say that there have been many since th.at time
who are worthy to be mentioned as equals of the men
I have just named? The fact alone that we use the
adjective " classical " to indicate perfection in literature
and art shows what a standing had been attained more
than 2000 years ago, and in many respects we feel down

1 From the Presidential Ad1re?s delive-ed at th- Institution of Civil
Engineers on Xo\-ember i. by Mr. Alexander Siemens.

6o

NATURE

[November io, 1910

to the present time the direct influence of Greek and
Roman learning.

In his " Organcn " Aristotle expounded the logic of
deductive reasoning in such a complete form that even
the terms which he was the first to establish are in use
at the present time, and both Kant and Hegel acknow-
ledged that from the time of Aristotle logic had made no
progress. But the schoolmen did not realise that the
" Organon " was merely an " instrument " setting out
the theory of reasoning ; they neglected altogether the
teaching of Aristotle, that in every branch of science or
art the only means of obtaining premises on which logical
deductions can be based is by experience and observation
of facts. He says in the " Prior Analytics," I., xxx., 3 : —
" \\'hen the facts in each branch are brought together it
will be the province of the logician to set out the demon-
strations in a manner clear and fit for use."

This principle of bringing together facts was absolutely
neglected in mediaeval times by the later schoolmen, even
when, during the thirteenth century, the complete works
of Aristotle, translated into Latin, had become known to
them, although at first the Church authorities would not
allow any lectures to be delivered on them in the
universities.

A reaction against Scholasticism, or Obscurantism as it
is sometimes called, set in during the fifteenth century ;
it was strongly supported by the Reformation, but it is
the merit of Sir Francis Bacon to have directed the course
of the further studies of mankind into the right channel
by showing that the object of all science is to recover
man's sovereignty over nature, or, as he expresses it, " to
extend more widely the limits of the power and of the
greatness of man " (" Novum Organum," I., 116).

For this purpose, Bacon asserts, it is necessary to study
nature by inductive investigation after observing and
collecting facts, but, in contrast to the deductive reasoning
adopted by the schoolmen, he lays down that " the induc-
tion that is to be available for the discovery and demon-
stration of sciences and arts must analyse nature by proper
rejections and exclusions, and then, after a sufficient
number of negatives, come to a conclusion on the
affirmative instances, which has not yet been done save
only by Plato . . . and this induction must be used not
only to discover axioms, but also in the formation of
notions" ("Novum Organum," I., 105).

Although it cannot be said that the Baconian method
has been followed in its entirety during the subsequent
development of science, its fundamental ideas, viz. the
need for rejecting rash generalisation and the necessity for
critical analysis of experience, serve as the sound basis of
the modern method of framing hypotheses and verifying
them by observation and experiment.

In literature and art or in philosophy we cannot boast
of being greatly superior to the ancients, but, so far as
engineering problems are concerned, we have enormouslv
advanced, thanks to the practical application of scientific
theories.

Comparing generally the conditions of life then and
now, we may sum up the difference by claiming that our
progress is "due principally : — (i) to the improvement of
the means of communication ; (2) to the saving of manual
labour by the introduction of mechanical power ; which
main features have caused a general lowering of the cost
of " obtainables."

When Hertz discovered the property of electric sparks
to start waves of the aether which can be detected at a
distance, nobody anticipated that Marconi and others
would succeed in developing these small beginnings to the
system of wireless telegraphy, of which nowadays so many
applications are in constant use.

Again, the polyphase motors and generators of elec-
tricity had their beginning in the researches of Prof.
Ferraris, who demonstrated that three alternate currents
can be combined in such a manner that the sum of the
three currents at any moment is equal to zero, and that
by their aid a revolving magnetic field is produced.

When we seek to recognise true progress in the material
conditions under which we are living, it is not unreason-
able to expect that any further advance will be made on
the same lines as differentiate our present civilisation from
that of the ancients, and that " lowering the cost of
obtainables," based upon improvement of communications

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

and upon the saving of manual labour, will furnish
trustworthy test whether a change suggested to be m;i
in our material surroundings is worth adopting or
merely an alternative without any prospect of bei:
generally accepted.

The development of the manufacture of glow-lamps i.-
striking e.xample of the advantage of labour-savi
machinery; at first the lamps were made by a few skill
workers at a high cost, so that they could not be sold I
less than twenty-five shillings each. This excessive r<
naturally restricted their sale ; but the efforts of the man
facturers to devise labour-saving machinery were i
relaxed until the selling price of glow-lamps \\.
diminished to its present level, when they are sold by 1
million. Can anybody doubt that the introduction
labour-saving machinery into this industry, far fr(
diminishing opportunities for employment, has not o;
benefited the skilled workers, but has opened new aveni.
for profitable employment to the so-called unskili
labour.

Nor is the advantage limited to this particular industr
the possibility of obtaining cheap glow-lamps has increa-
the sale of dynamos, steam and gas engines, cables w.
fittings, giving employment to thousands of workm-
Similar consequences have followed the introduction
labour-saving machinery into other branches of mar
facture.

In their own interest inventors should appreciate m<
than they have done in the past that progress is not ;
result of flashes of genius that illuminate suddenly
hitherto unknown subject, but that it can only be gaii;
by plodding work and careful study directed by an infir,:
capacity for taking pains.

This requirement is expressed very tersely by .Xristn
in his definitions of science and of art, which, unfor
nately, have been lost sight of in the course of ages,
that they cannot be used any longer. They are, he
ever, so appropriate to our subject that I do not hesit.
to repeat them.

Aristotle says : — Science is the trained faculty of dem<
strating necessary conclusions from necessary premi>
and these conclusions are independent of the producer.

Art is the trained faculty of producing, involving sou
reasoning; it has to do with the genesis, the product:
of things, and the result depends on the producer.

From these definitions it follows that every profess;
requires to have its *' science " which teaches the " soi;
reasoning " on which its " art " is based, and for b<
" science " and " art " training is a necessary condit;
for success.

They indicate, to my mind, for our profession in p;
ticular, that the college teaching should occupy its
principally, though not exclusively, with " science," n
the natural laws which are " independent of the produce;
leaving the " art " of engineering to be developed by pr.
tical work either in the field, in the drawing office, or in
the workshop.

So far as the " science " of any industry is concerned,
all civilised countries have access to the results of the
latest researches which are published without loss of time
in the technical journals, and the " art " of each industry
devotes itself everywhere to the problem of lowering the
cost of production in order to widen the circle of possible
customers.

Viewing the question of international competition from
this aspect, it can only be regarded as an extension of
the competition at home, and, applying the same reason-
ing, the question naturally arises whether it would be
desirable to have international standards or not. Looked
at from the point of' view of the consumer, it certaii '
appears to be very convenient to be able to obtain supp'
from a number of different sources with the certainty ,.
their being interchangeable, or at least equivalent.

In fact, the same reasons that have led to the establish-
ment of the Engineering Standards Committee in this
country hold good for international dealings, so that w-e
may look forward to the time when international standard
specifications will be accepted all over the world. A
beginning was made when the British .Association intro-
duced in 1861 the C.G.S. system of electrical units, which,
since that time, have been adopted internationally, and a
further step w-as taken at the St. Louis Exhibition of

November io, 1910]

NATURE

01

1904, when the International Electro-technical Commission
was called into being.

It is a very significant circumstance that it has been

found necessary for this commission to associate itself

in some branches of its activity with the Engineering

Standards Committee, and it is not unreasonable to expect

- such joint international action will gradually extend

nd the field of electricity.

FORESTRY EDUCATION: ITS IMPORTANCE
AND REQUIREMENTS.'

I PROPOSE to deal to-day with a brief exposition of
the points on which the system of forestry education
is based. It will be of interest, I think, first to glance
briefly at the training to be obtained at some of the
European forestr}- schools, and the facilities provided for
giving it. We will then consider some of the things the
student in forestry must know, and in this connection
glance briefly at a few of the duties which confront the
forest officer in the course of his ordinary work in India,
concluding, finally, with a review of the present position
of the university as regards forestry training and the steps
which require to be taken to enable us to send out the
class of British forester which is already required in many
of our colonies, and for which we trust there will soon be

I a demand in the British Isles.

j A few years ago, whilst on furlough from India, I made
a tour of some of the forestry colleges and schools of
Europe, my object being to study the lines uf>on which
the Continental system of education was based and the

. methods they adopted to combine a proper proportion of
practical work with the theoretical instruction given in
the class-room. In the course of my tour I visited Ebers-
walde, Tharandt, .Aschaffenburg, and Munich Forestry
Schools in Germany, the Imperial Forestry Institute at St.
Petersburg, the .Agricultural and Forestrv- Institute at
Menna, and the fine French Forest School at Nancy.
That tour was an education in itself. Briefly, I may sum
UD the results of my observations as to the essentials for
tuition of forestry thus : — (i) a strong teaching staff ;
^ood museums ; (3) a forest garden and forest educa-
tional woods.

j (i) The Instructional Staff. — The study of forestry so
depends on a number of cognate subjects, such as botany,
chemistry, geology, zoology, surveying, and forest engineer-
ing, &c., that it is essential that the student should be
given first-class courses in these matters. Excellent courses
are given in all the Continental colleges. There remains

I the subject of forestry itself, comprising the various
branches of silviculture, forest management, forest valua-
tion, forest protection, forest utilisation, the law of the
forests, and procedure and accounts. To lecture on these

^ various branches, the best Continental colleges retain the

( services of at least three men, professors and assistants,

I many of the former having world-wide reputations in their

I various branches. These men are also often responsible

, for their ow-n departments of work in the school forest

I garden and instructional forests. Their work, as we shall
see. falls under two heads. They deliver courses of

I lectures in the lecture hall, and they conduct the students

j on the excursions made into the woods to illustrate these
lectures, and personally supervise every piece of practical

! work laid down for the student to do. Since the minimum
time in which a student can finish the forestrv course is

' two years, the professor requires at least one assistant to
conduct a part of the lectures, for the junior and senior

, students are both necessarily attending courses at the same
time, and one lot may be in the woods whilst the other

, IS in the lecture hall. .At the well-known Forestry School
at Munich, the home of a number of famous foresters, the

': various branches of forestrv science are in charge of three
professors : Prof. Mayer takes silviculture, forest utilisa-
tion, protection, and foreign forestrv; Prof. Endres, forest

I policy, administration, valuation, and finance; whilst Prof.

.bchufTer lectures in forest management and working plans.

I estimation of increment, and yield. Each of the professors

I 1 From the inaugural lecture delivered at the University of Edinbareh on
October 12, by Mr. E. P. Stebbing, Head of the Forestr>- Department of

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

is responsible for the excursions, laboratory and practical
work, of their various courses.

(2) Good Museums. — The educational value of a good
museum is fully recognised. It need not be enlarged upon
here. Forestry is peculiarly a science the tuition of which
on the one side and assimilation on the other is dependent
upon two essentials, a thoroughly efficient system of
practical work, and up-to-date, well-planned museums
exhibiting in a simple and efficient manner the various
details connected with forest work.

So important is the museum as an adjunct to the
efficient teaching of forestry that we find in all the Con-
tinental forestry colleges that considerable sums of money
have been spent on this part of the equipment alone, and
yet in some instances, although with treble the space avail-
able here in Edinburgh, the cr>- was often that more room
was required. Where all is so good it is difficult to
particularise, but as examples of efficiency in this respect
I will instance the museums at the Forestry School of
Nancy in France, the Imperial Forestry Institute in St.
Petersburg, and the Forestry College at the University of
Munich. The latter, so far as its building accommodation
and museums are concerned, forms the nearest parallel to
the position of Edinburgh University, and it will be of
interest to glance briefly at the accommodation provided.

The Forestry College at Munich forms part of the
University- of the town and State, and considerable sums
of money were spent a few years ago with the object of
bringing it thoroughly up-to-date. The buildings devoted
to forestry instruction are two in number, both situated in
the grounds of the Universit\\

The new building, which was opened about the year
1900, is the most perfect institution of its kind that man
could have devised. The whole of the inside fittings are
of wood, highly polished parquet flooring being used
throughout, whilst the rooms are handsomely panelled with
various kinds of woods. The chemical, mineralbgical,
meteorological laboratories, &c.. are in the basement;
forest surveying, mathematics, and forest-wood museums
on the first floor ; and forest implements, forest products,
and models and diseases of woods on the next floor. Each
of these branches or departments of science has its own
museums, one or two rooms as are required, its own
large lecture hall, with professors' and assistants' rooms,
laboratories where required, packer's room, &c.

The space devoted to forestry- pure and simple is ample,
no fewer than five large rooms and halls being devoted to
the exhibition of the collections alone, those of each branch
being exhibited alone.

This brief description will show that there is little fault
to be found with the arrangements and space devoted to
this wonderfully efficient forestry college. With such
equipment there is ever}- incentive to professor and student
alike, not only to work, but to undertake research work
in the various branches of forestry. In the Bavarian
University the State pays for the upkeep of the major
portion of the Forestry Department, and in return the
Government reaps the advantages derived from the very
important research work and experimental work in which
its professors, many with great Eur<^an reputations,
spend all their spare time.

(3) The Forest Garden and Educational Woods. — We
come now to our third essential to the proper teaching of
forestry', the forest garden and educational woods. It may
be said at once that the subject of forestry cannot be
taught by the professor or assimilated by the student unless
efficient instructional woods are available to which the
student can be taken during the lecture course, as well as
during the practical course, to be shown eye object-lessons
of what he is told. He should be shown in the woods
what he is told in the lecture-room, and taught to observe
for himself — that first and most important of the lessons
of a forester. These first principles of the education of a
forestry student are well understood on the Continent, and
are adequately provided for.

I will give two instances out of many. The German
Forestry- .Academy of Tharandt is situated not tar from
Dresden, in Saxony. The school is provided with a fcest
garden and demonstration forest, forming a compact bloc'rc
in its immediate vicinity. The forest garden is situated
on a hill-side immediatelv behind the school. The hill-

62

NATURE

[November io, 19 io

side is terraced into beds, which contain some 1800 different
species of trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals of various
kinds, both indi{«enous and exotic. This garden serves as
a forestry and botanical garden, and is an exceptionally
fine one, covering an area of about 18 hectares. There is
a forest nursery in the garden managed on most up-to-date
lines.

The school demonstration forests adjoin the forest
garden, and are kept up entirely for educational and
demonstration purposes. They are situated in a hilly area
presenting ever-varying conditions, aspects, and variations
in soil, thus allowing of a variety of object-lessons with
different species and mixtures being presented to the
student. For example, these woods contain spruce and
beech with birch in mixture ; spruce and silver fir, or the
two latter with birch. Or again, there are woods
of spruce, beech, Scotch pine, silver fir, larch, maple,
birch with maple and various mixtures, ash (pure, about
thirty years old), alder (in wet valleys), oak, and a little
yEsculus. There are some most interesting mixtures to be
seen doing remarkably well, and forming an ideal of what
demonstration woods should be. The steep slopes of the
hill-sides are worked under different sylvicultural systems
to the area of tableland above, where the woods are clear-
cut and naturally regenerated or sown or planted. Exotics
are being largely introduced, and thousands of plants are
sent out annually from the forest garden and nursery in
the demonstration area into the forests all over Saxony.
Fencing of young planted areas and other ways of protect-
ing young plants from deer, &c., are to be seen in practice
in the woods. Time will not permit of my dwelling upon
this excellent educational demonstration area ; but from
his earliest course in the lecture-room the student is taken
out week by week into the forest garden or woods, and
with his own hands learns how to trench, sow, plant, thin,
and fell and measure up his woods ; is taught to dis-
tinguish the different species of tree, and how they differ
in their requirements of soil, light, moisture, &c. ; is shown
on what the foundations of sylviculture depend ; and is
gradually led, step by step and stage by stage, to under-
stand and grasp both the theory and practice of the various
branches of the lore of the woods comprised in forestry.

I should like to give another instance of this educational
forest. The Imperial Institute of Forestry at St. Peters-
burg is probably the largest forestry college in Europe.
The students number 500, all training for the controlling
staff. In addition, there are thirty-three lower-grade
schools containing fifteen students apiece, from which the
ranks of the forest rangers and upper guards are filled.
Attached to the institute at St. Petersburg are two educa-
tional forests, the one 14 versts (9 miles) from the capital,
the other, and larger, 60 versts (40 miles) away. At each
of them buildings are maintained for housing the professors
and students during their visits. Portions of every summer
are spent by the students in these woods occupied in prac-
tical work. The woods are entirely under the manage-
ment of the director of the college, as is the case at
Tharandt, and are managed on similar lines, and solely
for demonstration purposes. The directors at both these
places, as also the forestry professors (and this applies to
many of the Continental colleges), are all practical men
who have themselves been through the mill of executive
work, have themselves held charge of large areas of woods
worked entirely on a commercial basis, and are therefore
in a position to see that the instruction given to the
students is such as will return full value to the State or
proprietor who employs the men leaving their institutions.

This is a point which I think worthy of the most serious
consideration in this country. Too great stress cannot be
laid on what are, after all, actual facts. The excellent
and remunerative results of forestry in Europe, which we
also wish to arrive at in the British Isles, are solely the
result of the study of higher forestry both in the woods
and in the laboratory. Practical foresters can only be
successful in proportion to the knowledge they themselves
possess or which is imparted to them by those who know.
We can learn from other countries a great deal, but the
application of what we learn must depend on ourselves
and must be carried out by ourselves.

We have now seen what the Continental forestry colleges
consider the essentials to the proper tuition of forestry as
a science, and have shown how the student is gradually

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

led, not only to assimilate the theoretical portions of th-
study in the lecture-room, but to take with him what he
has absorbed there and apply it practically in the woods.
We have seen that these practical object-lessons must
begin with the student's first lectures, that he must be
taken into the woods at the beginning and be shown, step
by step, that what he is being told in the lecture-room is
not so much matter to be studied for an examination and-
to be subsequently forgotten when his text-books and note-
books are thrown aside after the " pass " has been gained.
It has been said of the forester that he is always at school,
from the moment he first enters the lecture-room to com-
mence his first course to the end of his life ; and those
of us who are foresters know this to be true. Our text-
books and lecture notes remain our trusted friends to the
end, and as we grow older and have had a more extensive
practice and experience in forestry we grow more diffident
about expressing definite opinions and laying down the
law on the subject of the life-histories of our friends the
trees. For the tree is very much like the human being.
He has his wants and requirements, his fancies for par-
ticular aspects and localities, for certain soils and degrees
of light, moisture, heat, and shade.

.Ml these the forester must know and. study, and even,
then his fastidious friend will often discover something he
dislikes, and refuses to grow. The forester has to set to-
work to find out what this something is, and meanwhile
all he has done is a failure — :a failure, that is, unless he
is a thoroughly trained scientific man. As such he will
turn his failures to account, for he will place them on
record so that he and others like him may set to work
to get at the reasons for the failure of a crop which, so
far as human forethought was capable of doing, had been
given every chance. How much sound practical know-
ledge and observations have been lost to the foresters all
over the world by this regrettable neglect to place upon
record their failures. Almost more valuable are they to
record than the successes ; to the forester far more valu-
able. This is one of the spots upon which the scientific
forester can place a finger in the British Isles. Had one
a full, or even a partial, record of all the failures of the
past, how much simpler would be the task at present
facing the nation of getting its forestry house in order.

Scotland is more favourablv situated and in a better,
position as regards woods of a high educational value
than any other portion of the British Isles for undertaking
this necessary research work. There are woods in Scot-
land, many of them known by repute, others less well
known, in which the student on his practical course can
learn a great deal and in which work of high importance
to afforestation in ihe British Isles can be carried on.
Edinburgh is very favourably situated for participating in
this pioneer work, and has every intention of taking her
share in it.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

Cambridge. — To-day, November ip. Graces will be offered
to the Senate proposing that the offer of the Worshipful
Company of Drapers to erect a new physiological labora-
tory at Cambridge be gratefully accepted, subject to the
conditions set forth in the letter, dated February 11, 1910,
from the clerk to the company ; that a syndicate be
appointed to discuss details with the company ; and that the
Vice-Chancellor be authorised to convey to the court of
assistants of the company the grateful thanks of the
university for their munificent benefaction. Further, that
the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Mason, Master of Pembroke
College; Mr. Shiplev, Master of Christ's College; Dr.
Langlev, professor of" physiology ; Dr. W. M. Fletcher, and
K. Lucas, of Trinity Colletje, be the syndicate appointed
under the above-mentioned Grace.

Applications for the tenure of the Benn W. Levy student-
ship in bio-chemistry should be sent to Mr. F. G. Hopkins,
Trinity College, on or before Wednesday. November 30.
iqio. Applicants should state their university standing and
previous scientific experience, mentioning if they are m
receipt of any other endowment for research. The student-
ship is open' to members of the University of Cambridge
who have been admitted to a degree, or to members of

November io, 1910]

NATURE

ton or Newnham Colleges who have acquitted them-
;_lves so as to have deserved honours and have fulfilled the
conditions respecting length of residence which members of
the university are required to fulfil before being admitted
to a degree. The annual value of the studentship is looZ.
The student, during his or her tenure of the studentship,
shall prosecute original research in bio-chemistry, and shall
not engage in such other work as in the opinion of those
entrusted with the administration of the fund would
seriously interfere with his or her original inquiries. The
appointment will be for one or two years, at the option of
the managers.

Notice is given that a prize of 50Z. out of the Gordon-
Wigan fund will be awarded at the end of the Easter
term, 191 1, for a research in chemistrv', of sufficient
merit, carried out in the University of Cambridge.
Candidates for the prize must have taken Part I. of a
Tripos examination, and be under the standing of M.A.
The research may be in any branch of chemistry. The
dissertation, with the details of the research, must be sent
to the professor of chemistry not later than June 10, 191 1.

The local examinations and lectures syndicate is about

') appoint an assistant secretary for examinations. The

son appointed will be expected to enter on his duties not

r than January i, 191 1. The appointment will be made

the first instance for the period ending March 31, 1912,

a stipend of 400J. a year. The post will after that date

DC held during the pleasure of the syndicate, and the stipend

will bf* raised by annual increments of 25/. to 500Z.

Graduates of the university who desire to offer themselves

as candidates are requested to send their names to Dr.

Keynes, Syndicate Buildings, so as to reach him not later

than 9 a.m. on Monday, November 21.

The \'ice-Chancellor gives notice, on behalf of the
Board of Geographical Studies, that Mr. R. T. Giinther
has consented to deliver a lecture in Cambridge on Friday,
November 11, at 5 p.m., on " Earth Movements of the
Italian Coast." The lecture will be given in the Sedgwick
Museum, and will be illustrated by lantern slides. Members
of the University and others are invited.

The Regius professor of physic gives notice that Prof.
Osier has consented to deliver a lecture on November 17,
at 5 p.m., in the large theatre of the medical schools, on
^ledical Education in France."

( )XFORD. — The congregation of the University of Oxford
nad before it on November 8 the first of the important
series of statutes framed by the Hebdomadal Council, in
pursuance of the comprehensive scheme of reform initiated
by the Chancellor, Viscount Curzon. The adoption of the
statute, which deals with the constitution and powers of
the boards of faculties, including that of mathematics and
natural science, was advocated by the President of
Magdalen, the Master of University College, and Prof.
Geldart. Its provisions were sharply criticised by the
Warden of All Souls and the Master' of Balliol, and its
rejection was recommended by Prof. Holland and the
President of Corpus. The preamble was carried in a full
house by a majority of rather more than two to one ; but
there is no doubt that strong efforts will be made to modify
the effects of the statute by amendment, especially those
of its provisions which deal with the composition of the
electorate and with the control exercised by the University
and colleges respectively over the subjects and methods of
instruction.

The tenancy of the well-known house in Broad Street,
long the residence of Sir Henrv Acland, has lately been
acquired for the Oxford School 'of Geography. When the
necessary arrangements have been completed, the house
will contain a library, reading-room, and collections of
maps, views, and models. Part of the premises will be
fitted up for the use of the Beit lecturer in colonial history
(Mf. W. L. Grant), and accommodation will be provided
for purposes of general geographical instruction and
research. The whole will be under the direction of Prof.
^" ): . Herbertson. This much-needed development of the
facilities for geographical studies in the Universitv has been
made possible by the generosity of Mr. Bailey, of' Johannes-
burg, who has given 500Z. towards the adaptation of the
house, and has promised 250?. a year for five years towards
>ts maintenance.

XO. 2141. VOL. 85]

.Mr. O. G. S. Crawford, of Keble College, has been
appointed junior demonstrator in geography for one year.

Mr. G. C. Robson, formerly exhibitioner of New College,
has been elected to the vacant Naples biological scholarship
lately held by Mr. J. S. Huxley, of Balliol College.

Mr. Selwyn Image, of New College, who has recently
delivered his inaugural lecture as Slade professor of fine
art, is a well-known student of the microlepidoptera, and
is at present a member of the council of the Entomological
Society of London. The seal of the society, which is a
work of great artistic merit, was designed by the new
Slade professor.

To encourage further interest in the subject of oceano-
giaphy, it has been decided to invite the members of Dr.
Bruce 's class in geography at the summer school at St.
Andrews this year to write essays on certain aspects of
oceanography, and to submit them at the end of next
spring. The essays are to be on one or other of the follow-
ing subjects : — (a) on the effects of wind, temperature, and
salinity on the circulation of the ocean, or (h) on the ques-
tion of continental connections. The competition is only
open to members of Dr. Bruce 's class, and the essays must
be lodged with the director of studies on the last day of
April, 191 1. Two prizes will be awarded, viz. two sets of
the report on " The Scientific Result of the Voyage of the
s.y. Scotia during the Years 1902, 1903, 1904." The two
successful essays will be published either by the Scottish
Oceanographical Laboratory or in the Scottish Geo-
graphical Magazine.

The Electrical Review in its issue of October 21 directs
attention to the great falling off in attendance at the even-
ing, classes of our technical schools which occurs during
the course of each winter session. It contrasts the eager-
ness of the prospective student in consulting the teachers
as to his course, in buying the text-books, and in making
all his arrangements for strenuous work during the forth-
coming winter evenings, with his tired and weary look and
his vain attempt to follow the explanations given by his
class teacher three months later. For this change, sheer
fatigue and inability to stand the strain of perpetual day
and evening work are responsible, and the Review charges
the evening-school authorities with attempting too much
and demanding attendance on the part of students for four
or five evenings per week. It points out that undue strain
can only be prevented by a reduction of the evenings of
attendance to two, or in exceptional cases to three, per
week, and urges the authorities to take this step as a
means of improving both day and evening work of the
students who attend their evening classes.

The Duke of Connaught on November 5 laid the
foundation-stone of the new University Hall of the Cape
University. The council of the University presented an
address, in which the hope was expressed that the union
now accomplished in South Africa would lead to the con-
version of the present Cape University into a teaching
university for the whole of South Africa, by incorporating
existing institutions of higher education as constituent
colleges, and by creating chairs for those subjects for which
no single college could provide. In replying, the Duke of
Connaught said he trusted that the funds necessary to
convert the Cape University into a great teaching university
would be forthcoming. At a university luncheon held on
the same day, Mr. Malan, L^nion Minister of Education,
announced that Mr. Otto Beit had agreed to divert the
sum of 20o,oooZ., bequeathed by the late Mr. Alfred Beit
for the foundation of a university at Johannesburg, to the
creation of a great teaching university at Groote Schuur,
the estate of the late Mr. Cecil Rhodes outside Cape Town.
It was also announced that Sir Julius Wernher has
promised to make up the amount to a total of 500,000!.

A NEW engineering laboratory was opened at the
Darlington Technical College on October 20 by the Hon.
C. A. Parsons, F.R.S. During the course of his address
Mr. Parsons said that in the early part of last century
engineering was principally guided by traditional rule and
trade knowledge, handed down from father to son and
from master to apprentice. Engineering has gradually
assumed a more important place, its field of operations has
become wider and more complex, and it has becom.e

64

NATURE

[November io, 1910

imperative to institute, instead of the old and primitive
methods, systematic technical training for young men.
There is probably no field of work in modern times where
so great an amount of well-ordered experimental investi-
gation has been undertaken as in engineering. Referring
to the advantages of engineering workshops, Mr. Parsons
said that knowledge, more especially of the practical kind,
must be acquired when a man is receptive, and at such
an age when ideas and impressions become so ingrained
as to constitute intuitive and guiding principles in after
life. In the engineering laboratory students are brought
face to face with materials and machinery for dealing
with and discovering principles ; they gradually acquire a
familiarity with practical engineering and the power to
think in engineering materials, and to form a mental pic-
ture when it is necessary to design a new or improve an
old machine or to design new methods of work. Such a
training fits a student to go out into the world with mind
and eyes alert, ready to acquire more knowledge, and fit
to command success in most branches of engineering. By
the help of good technical training a much larger propor-
tion of men of high standard are produced than formerly —
men of knowledge capable of taking the lead and com-
manding, and able and willing to deal fairly with their
subordinates.

The executive council of the County Councils' Associa-
tion has made a series of recommendations with regard
to rural education. They follow the main lines of the
proposals of the Departmental Committee on Agricultural
Education, which reported two years ago. Among other
plans, the council encourages the formation of separate
agricultural committees appointed by the county education
committees. Another proposal is to appoint, in consulta-
tion with the agricultural college with which the counlv
may be associated, a resident agricultural instructor and
adviser at a salary of not less than 500Z. per annum, who
shall be under the control of the county council. The
duties of this officer will be to give courses of lectures
during the winter months ; to supervise experiments and
demonstration plots ; to visit farms, small holdings, or
allotments, and advise as to the appearance of disease in
crops, insect pests, and on other matters ; to meet bodies
of farmers at local exhibitions and shows for the purpose
of discussion ; to organise classes for instruction in farm
labour subjects and prize competitions in connection with
such subjects as hedging, ditching, and thatching ; and to
advise the committee as to the establishment of permanent
centres for agricultural instruction. It is also suggested
that each county should organise, with the aid of the
agricultural adviser, developments of a semi-educational
character in connection with cooperative small holdings,
instruction in pig-breeding, the establishment of poultry
societies for improving breed and management, the pro-
vision of instruction in bee-keeping, the establishment of
demonstration small holdings, the provision of a central
county garden with demonstration and experimental centres
for horticulture, and the provision of a demonstration
farm of 100 to 300 acres, which might be used later as the
nucleus of a farm institute. The association estimates
that 2ooo^ per annum will be needed as a commencement,
and suggests that an apolication should be made for a
grant of this amount. The association has adopted the
view of the Departmental Committee that " agricultural
education is of such vital importance to the United
Kingdom that no effort should be spared in making the
provision for it as full and complete as possible," and
that a complete system of technical agricultural education
is " the natural corollary to the vast sums spent on
elementary education in the rural parts of the countrv."

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
London.
Roval Society, November 3.— Sir Archibald Geikie.
K.C.B., president, in the chair. — Sir D. Bruce and
others : (i) Trypanosome diseases of domestic animals in
Uganda. II. — Trypanosoma brucei (Plimmer and Brad-
ford). (2) Trypanosome diseases of domestic animals in
Uganda. III. — Trypanosoma vivax (Ziemann). — H. G.
Plimmer, W. B. Fry, and H. S. Ranken : Further results
of the experimental treatment of trypanosomiasis : being
NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

a progress report to a committee of the Royal .Socieiv
This paper gives detailed results of the continuation <•!
the work which has been going on under the direction v
a subcommittee of the Royal Society. The general result
have confirmed an opinion which the authors have befoi
expressed, viz. that antimony is a more powerful trypan<
cide than arsenic, and that such compounds as they ha\
tried have not shown such severe toxic effects as som
arsenic compounds have. But there are unpleasant effeti-
produced (varying according to the animal used) by anti-
mony, such as sloughing and necrosis at the seat of injec-
tion and severe pain, so they have devoted considerable
time to the study of new methods and new forms of
antimony. Finding that in dogs the subcutaneous and
intramuscular administration caused pain and sloughing of
the tissues, intravenous injections of the salts were tried.
The elimination of the antimony was so rapid, however,
that, beyond prolonging life, little good effect was pro-
duced ; so that eventually the injection of the metal itself,
in state of finest division (devised and prepared for thenT
by Dr. R. H. Aders Plimmer, of University College), was
tried. This is taken up by the leucocytes, and is gradu-
ally transformed into some soluble compound, and their
idea was that perchance it might be carried to parts of
the body not easily accessible to other methods of adminis-
tration. The results so far have been, on the whole, more
satisfactory than those of any other means they have
tried, but the technique in many animals is difficult, ancf
there have been difficulties in the preparation of the
antimony. .Although putting a metal into the circulation
sounds impossible, they have not had any case of plugging
of capillaries in rats, guinea-pigs, rabbits, dogs, goats, or
horses. It of course acts much more slowly than the
salts, and takes from two to three times as long to clear
the peripheral circulation of trypanosomes as subcutaneous
injection of a salt does. But the excretion is also much
slower, so that the blood and organs are in much longer
contact with antimony than when a salt is administered.
If carefully administered no irritation of the tissues is
produced, and the vessel walls are not affected. Animals
appear to be more susceptible to overdosage than with
the salts ; and it is curious that an animal with trypano-
somes in the biood can bear well a dose which is fatal
to a healthy animal. It has also been used intra-
peritoneally successfully in rats and rabbits. A number of
experiments have been made with silver salts, with nega-
tive results in every case. A number of experiments have
been made with two new compounds (one an arsenic-
camohor compound, one an organic antimon ,' compound)
kindly sent to them by Dr. Morgan, of .he Imoerial
College of Science, with negative results. — D;-. J. W. W.
Stephens and Dr. H. B. Fantham : The peculiar
morphology of a trypanosome from a case of sleeptng
sickness, and the possibility of its being a new species
(Trypanosoma rhodesiense). The main points of the
paper may be thus summarised : — (i) This trvpanosome
was first observed by one of the authors (J. W. \V. S.)
in February in the blood of a rat infected from a case
of sleeping sickness. (2) The patient, W. A., infected
in Rhodesia, had never been in Glossina paJpalis areas,
though he had been in areas infested with G. morsitans
and G. fusca. (3) The trypanosome shows long forms and
short stout or stumpy forms with hardiy any free
flagellum, but it is unique in that about 6 per cent, of
the forms have the nucleus at the posterior (non-flagellar)
end near the blepharoplast. and in some cases actually
posterior to it. (4) Such forms have not been described
before in any known strain of T. gambiense. (5) Pro-
longed search has been made for them in the stock labora-
tory strain of T. gambiense, but they have not been found.
(6) They are not due to the drying of the blood films,
because they can be seen by intra vitam staining, and
because dried films of the ordinary T. gambiense strain
do not show them. (7) They are not degenerate, as
division forms of them occur. (8) Thev are not due to
drug treatment, because the original animals were inocu-
lated before treatment was begun. (0) These forms still
persist in rats, guinea-pigs, rabbits, and monkevs. (10) On
morphological grounds the authors believe they are deal-
ing with a new species of human trypa^osome also
causing sleeping sickness, for which they prop' e the name
T. rhodesiense. — Dr. F. W. Mott : Not-v upon the

November lo. 1910]

NATURE

65

examination, with negative results, of the central nervous
system in a case of cured human trypanosomiasis. A
Sikh belonging to the 4th K.A.R. (aged thirty at death)
was found to be suffering from trypanosomiasis in June,
1905, and received treatment with inorganic arsenic. The
drug was given intermittently for eighteen months or
more, and pushed until toxic symptoms of neuritis and
mental dullness rendered further energetic treatment
impossible ; trypanosomes were then no longer obtained by
puncture of the glands. Unfortunately, there is no note
"if lumbar puncture having been performed until a few
hs before death. Sir David Bruce, in December,
. saw this man, and stated that he appeared to be in
lent health. .A year later he was seen by Captains
erton and Bateman, who reported no symptoms of
ping sickness. They made a very careful investigation
3f the blood, both by microscopic examination and by
experimental injection into monkeys ; the results were
negative. In June lumbar puncture was performed, and
17 c.c. of fluid withdrawn ; the centrifuged fluid
'-"•ved no lymphocytosis or tr\panosomes ; injection of
:luid into a monkey was followed by negative results,
patient was attacked with pneumonia in August,
and died three days after admission to the hospital.
Post mortem the brain was found quite normal in appear-
and there was no excess of fluid. Histological
'lination. — Sections were prepared of portions of the
rum, cerebellum, and medulla oblongata by all the
ads which the author had previously adopted for the
.ination of sleeping-sickness cases. He found no trace
he characteristic meningeal and perivascular infiltra-
nor of gliosis. It may therefore be asserted that this
proves that human trypanosomiasis is curable, but it
not prove that sleeping sickness is curable, for the
>r contends that the diagnosis of " sleeping sickness "
mly be made when there is a proof that the tr>pano-
^ had invaded the sub-arachnoid space. The tissues
forwarded to the author by C. A. Wiggins, the acting
ipal medical officer of Uganda. — Miss M. P. ritx-
serald : The origin of the hydrochloric acid in the gastric
ubules. — Dr. A. Harden and R. V. Norris : The
::ntation of galactose by yeast and yeast juice (pre-
ary communication). — ^\V. M. Thornton: The oppo-
electrification produced by animal and vegetable life.
— R. Kirkpatrick : A remarkable pharetronid sponge
Irom Christmas Island.

Challf'nger Society, Oc^ber 26.— Dr. A. E. Shipl.y in the
'hair. — Mr. Earland exhibited and made remarks upon
"ilulina jeffrey'ni, a rare species of Foraminifera dredged
vest of St. Ki'da by the Goldseeker, which had onlv been
'-'Hrorded once since its discovery by the Porcupine in 1869. —
•Ir. Tate Regan discussed the evolution of the flat-fishes,
vhich he regarded as asymmetrical perches ; from some
orm not unlike Psettodes, indifferently dextral or sinistral,
lad arisen two well-marked groups, and each of these
'lad split into two series, a sinistral and a dextral.
I'arker's resea.ches on the optic nerves had made it clear
reversal to the asymmetn,- of opposite sign was
idar}- in the Pleuronectidae.

Paris.

Academy of Sciences, Ocnbei qi -M. Eimle Picard in

hair. — The president announced the loss by death of

' lernez. — Henri Douville : Some cases of adaptation.

origin of man. A discussion of some modifications

uced in various species by change in the conditions

te, including changes which may possibly have been

jced in the anthropoid apes by lower temperature,

ed rainfall, and consequent destruction of forests. —

Cogrgia : Observations of the new Cerulli planet

iqio. made at the Observaton,- of Marseilles with

Hichens equatorial of 26 cm. aperture. Observations

Ojven for October 21 and 22, and also the positions of

comparison star.— H. Larose : The extinction of the

ntinuities by reflection at the extremities of a tele-

nic line. In a previous paper the expressions f<M- the

tial and current on a telegraphic line of indefinite

h were given; the case of a line of limited length

vorked out in the present communication. — G. A.

;lemsalech : iThe influence of the magnetic field on the

"ration of t!- ; lines of the spectrum emitted bv luminous

-urs in tfe electric spark. In a magnetic field the

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

durations of nearly all the lines are diminished, and the
intensity of the action on the different lines appears to be
selective. Nearly all the lines diminish in intensity except
in the immediate neighbourhood of the electrode. —
Georges Claude : The preparation of argon. Compressed
oxygen prepared by the fractional distillation of liquid air
is now an article of commerce. If the proportion of
oxygen is more than 95 per cent., as is always the case
in practice, the chief impurity is argon, the volatility of
which is intermediate between that of oxygen and that of
nitrogen. Since the oxygen is very readily absorbed, such
a mixture forms an advantageous starting point for the
preparation of argon. — L. Gay : The osmotic equilibrium
of two fluid phases. — M. David : A method of analysis of
fatty bodies by the separation of the solid fatty acids
from the liquid acids. This method is based on the fact
that, at a temperature of 13° to 14° C, the ammoniacal
salts of the solid fatty acids are absolutely insoluble in a
large excess of ammonia, whilst the ammoniacal salts of
the liquid acids are completely soluble. Results are given
of the appRcation of the method to the separation of
stearic or palmitic acid from oleic acid. — G. Darzens and
H. Rost : The synthesis of ketones in the tetrahydro-
aromatic series. Cyclohexene is treated with an acyl
chloride in presence of aluminium chloride, and the pro-
duct of the reaction heated with an excess of diethyl-"
aniline. The physical properties of four ketones prepared
by this method are described. — Em. Bourquefot and M.
Bridel : A new sugar, verbascose, extracted from the
root of Verbascum Thapsus. The mode of extraction
employed is given in detail. The new sugar is analogous
to stachyose, of which it would appear to be an isomer
and from which it differs by its higher melting point and
its greater rotator\" power ; it gives levTilose, glucose, and
galactose on hydrolysis. — G. Friedel and F. Grandjean :
Liquids with focal conies. Liquids of the group of ethyl
azoxybenzoate are characterised by the existence of groups
of focal conies in their mass or at their surface.— P. A.
Dang^eard : Two lower organisms met with in the
Roscoff laboratory-. — A. Imbert : The influence exerted
by pain on the form of ergographic diagrams of fatigue.
— H. True and C. Fleigr : The experimental and chemical
ocular action of bitumen dust and vaf>our. Bitumen dust
can rapidly produce various lesions of the eye in man.
The condition of the eye before exposure is an important
predisposing cause, and the action of sunlight is also
prejudicial. The lesions resulting from the action of
bitumen vapour upon the eye are comparatively slight.
— M. Urbain, CI. Seal, and A. Feiee : The sterilisation
of water on the large scale by ultra-violet light. The
water is caused to circulate spirally round a source of
light in such a manner that with a flow of 20 cubic
metres per hour the water is exposed for three minutes
to the rays. With this device complete sterilisation of
water has been obtained with an expenditure of twenty
watts per cubic metre. — Ch. Gravier : The duration of
life in the Madrap<M-es. — Henry P^nau : The c\-tology of
Endomices albicans. — ^Y. Deprat : The geographical distri-
bution of the different layers recognised in Yun-nan (Geo-
logical expedition. 1909-10). — ^Julius Schuster : The
geological age of the Pithecanthropus of the pluvial period
in Java. From a study of the fossil plants collected from
the Quaternary deposits of Lasem, Java, the author is
able to confirm his earlier estimate of the age of Pithecan-
thropus. If with Penck the age of Homo heidelbergensis
be taken as 300,000 years. Pithecanthropus lived at least
400,000 years ago. — Louis Gentil ; Geological sketch of the
massif of Kebdana (Eastern Morocco). — E. A. Martel :
The chasms of the Pyrenees. A short description of seven
groups of subterranean fissures, eighty-four in all. together
with a discussion of their effect on the water supply of the
district.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, November 10.
Royal SocrBTV, at 4.50- — The Tidal Observations ot the BritUh Antarctic
Expedition, 1007 : Sir George Darwin, K.C B., F.R S.— Conduction of
Heat throueh Rarefied Gases: F. Soddy F.R S., and A. J. Berrv.— Ihe
Chemical Ph>-sics involved in the Precioitation of Free Carbon from the
-Alloys of the Iron Carbon System : W. H. Hatfield.— A Spectroscopic
Investigation of the Nature of the Carriers of Positive Electricity froo*

66

NATURE

[NOVRMBER lO, T9IO

heated Aluminium Phosphate: Dr F. Horton. — On the Determination of
the Tension of a recently-formed Water surface : N. Bohr. — Aerial Plane
Waves of Finite Amplitude : Lord Rayleigh, '^.M., F.R.S. — Observations
on the Anomalous Behaviour of Del'cate Balances, and an Account of
Devices for increasing Accurncv in Weighines : T. J. Manley. — On the
Improhability of a Random Distribution of the St^rs in Space : Prof.
Y. W. Dyfon, F.R.S. — The Conditions necessary for Discontinuous
Motion in Gases : G. I. Taylor. — (i) On the Radium Conf'nt of Basalt ;
{■2\ Measurements of the Rate at which Helium is produced in Thorianite
and Pitch-blende, with a Minimum Estimate of their Antiquity: Ihe
Hon. R. J. Strutt, F R.S.
Mathematical Society, at 5.30. — Annual General Meetine. — The
Relation of Mathematics to Experimental Science (Presidential Address) :
Sir W. D. Niven. — Properties of Losarithmico-exponential Functions:
G. H. Hardy.— The Double Six of Lines : G. T. Bennett.— On .Semi-
integrals and Oscillating Successions of Functions : Dr. W. H Young. —
On the Existence of a Differential Coefficient : Dr. W. H. Young and
Mrs. Young. — The Analytical Extension of Riemann's Zeta-function :
F. Tavani. — The Geometrical Representation of non-real Points in space
of Two and Three Dimensions: T. W. Chaundy. — The Extension of
Tauber's Theorem : J. E. Littlewood. — A Note on the Property of being
a Differential Coefficient : Dr. W. H. Young. — The Stability of Rotating
Shafts : F. B. Piddurk. — A Cla.ss of Orthosonal Surfaces : J. E.
Campbell. — On Non-integral Orders of Summability of Series and
Integrals : S. Chapman. — Optical Geometry of Motion : A. A. Robb.
— Lineo-Iinear Transformations, specially in Two Variables : Dr. A. R.
Forsvth. — On the Conditions that a Trigonometrical Series shouH have
the Fourier Form : Dr. W. H. Young. — Notes on Termir.ating Hyper-
geometric Series : Dr. W. F. Sheppard. — The Transformation of a
particular type of Electromagnetic Field and its Physical Interpretation :
H. Bateman.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Inaugural Address of
the President : S. Z. de Ferranti.

Society of Dyers and Colourists, at 8. — A Comparison between the
Action of Dyeing,^ Tanning, and Vulcanisation : W. P. Dreaper.

FRIDAY, November ii.

Royal Astronomical Society, at 5. — On the Formulae for comparison of
Observed Phenomena of Jupiter's Satellites with Theory : W. de Sitter. —
Photographs of Halley's Comet taken with the Astrographic Telescope at
the Cordoba Obsers'atory : C. D. Perrine. — Third note on the number of
Faint Stars with large Proper Motions : H. H. Turner. — (i) Mean Areas
and Heliographic Latitudes of Sun-spots in 1907, 1908, and 1909; (2) Ob-
servations of Minor Planets in 1909 ; (3) Observations of Jupiter's Eighth
Satellite in 1910 : Royal Observatory, Greenwich. — Probable Paptrs:
Preliminary Comparison with Observation of the Tables of the Four
great Satellites of Jupiter : R. A. Sampson. — (i) The Svstematic Motions
of the Stars of Boss's " Preliminary General Catalogue"; (2) Note on a
Moving Cluster of Helium Stars in Perseus : A. S. Eddington.

Malacological Society, at 8. — On the names used by Bolten and
Da Costa for genera of Venerdise : A. J. Jukes-Browne, F.R.S. — On
New Melaniidse from Goram and Kei IslanHs, Malay Archipelago :
H. B. Preston. — On the Anatomy of the British Species of the Genus
Psammobia : H. H. Bloomer. — Note on Triton tesselatus : Major A. J.
Peile.

Physical Society, at 8. — On the supposed Propagation of Equatorial
Magnetic Disturbances with Velocities of the Order of 100 miles per
second : Dr. Chree, F.R.S. — On Cusped Waves of Light and the Theory
of the Rainbow : Prof. W. B. Morton. — Exhibition of a Brightness
Photometer : J. S. Dow.

TUESDAY, November 15.

Royal Anthropological Institute, at 8.15. — The Castes of Eastern
Bengal (Epidiascope) : Sir H. H. Risley, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.

Zoological Society, at 8.30. — On the Inherftance of the Webfoot
Character in Pigeons : J. Lew'S Bonhote. — Notes on the little-known
Lizard Laccrta jacksoni Blgr., with special reference to its Cranial
Characters: Edward Degen. — On Lacerta peloponnesiaca Bibr. : G. A.
Boulenger, F.R.S. — Remarks on Two Species of Fishes of the Genus
Gobius, from Observations made at Roscoff : Edward G. Boulenger.

Royal Statistical Society, at 5. — Presidential Address on a Statistical
Survey of the Problems of Pauperism : Lord Gorge Hamilton, G.C.S. I.

Mineralogical Society, at 5.30. — Anniversarj' Meeting. — Further Notes
on Wood-tin: J. H. Collins. — On the Alteration of the Felspar of
Granites to China-clay : T. M. Coon. — On Wiltshireite, a new Mineral
from the Binnenthal : Prof. W. J. Lewis. — A. new Locality of Phenakite
in Cornwall : A. Russell.

Junior Institutiov of Engineers, at 7.30. — Presidential Address on
the Influence of Pure Science in Engineering: Sir T. J. Thomson,
F.R.S. ^

Institution of Civil Engineers, at i.— Further discussion : The
London County Council Holbora to Strand Improvement, and Tramway-
Subway : G. W. Humphreys.

WEDNESDAY, November 16.

Royal Meteorological Society, at 7.30. — Results of the Hourly
Balloon Ascents made from Manchester, March i8th-i9th, iqio : Miss
Margaret White. — Registering Balloon Ascents, December 6th to nth,
1909, and August 8th to 13th, 1910 : W. H. Dines, F.R.S. — Pilot Balloon
Observations in Barbados, December 6th to nth, 1909 : Charles J. P.
Cave. — Report on Balloon Experiments at Blackpool: Capt. C. H. Ley.
— Registering Balloon Ascents at Liverpool, June 21st to 23rd, 1910 :
W. Marriott.

Royal Microscopical Society, at 8. — Specimens of British Mycetozoa :
A. E. Hilton.

Entomological Society, at 8.

NO. 2 141, VOL. 85]

THURSDAY, November 17.

Royal Society, at ^.-^o.— Probable Papers: On the Effect of Ora\ t
upon the Movements and Aggregation oi EuglenaniridisVJaTh. and oilier U
Micro-organisms: Harold Wager, F.R.S.— The Influence of Bacterial
Endotoxins on Phagocytosis {including a new method for the Differentia-
tion of Ba'-teria). (Second Report) : L. S. Dudgeon, P. N. Panton, and
H. A F. Nil.son.— On the State of Aggregation of Matter. Part I. On
the Action of Salts in Heterogeneous Svstems, and on the Nature of ihe
Globulins. Part II. On theAction of Formaldehyde on Witte's Peptone
Part III. On the Solubility of Phenol and certain Crystalline Substances
in Salt Solutions: Dr. S. B. Schryver — The Proteolytic Enzyme of
Drosera : Miss Jean White —A Method for Isolating and Growing the
Leprosy Bacillus of Man : F. W. Twort.— The Oxidation of Phenol by
certain Bacteria in Pure Culture : G. J. Fowler, E Ardern, and W. T.
Locke tt.

LiNNEAN Society, at 8.— (i) Theoretical Origin of Plantago mnritima
and P. alpina, from P. coronopus ; (2) Supplementary Observations on
the [Theory of Monocotyledons being derived from Aquatic Dicotyle-

^ dons : Rev. George Henslow.

Royal Geographical Society, at 5.— Research Meeting. Origin of the
Present Geography of Northern Nigeria : Dr. J. D. Falconer.

FRIDAY, November 18,
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, at 8.— The Development of
Road Locomotion in Recent Years : L. A. Legros.

CONTENTS. PAGE

Physiology as a Speculative Science. By A. J, J. B. 35

The Complete Botany-teacher. By F. C 36

Climatic Conditions and Organic Evolution. By

Ivor Thomas 36

Commercial Organic Analysis. By C. S 37

The Seven Lamps of Biology. By J. A. T 37

A Monograph of the Petrels 38

Our Book Shelf 39

Letters to the Editor:—

Origin of Dun Horses. — Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S. 40

Markings of Mars. — ^James H. Worthington ... 40

November Meteors. — ^John R. Henry 40

Early Burial Customs in Egypt. — Prof. W. M.
Flinders Petrie, F.R.S. ; Prof. G. Elliot Smith,

F.R.S. 41

Simulium and Pellagra. — R. Shelford 4I

The Cocos-Keeling Atoll.— Rev. E, C. Spicer ; F.

Wood-Jones; The Reviewer 42

Winter Whitening in Mammals. — Major G. E. H,

Barrett-Hamilton 42

Helium and Geological Time. — Hon. R. J. Strutt,

F.R.S 43

The Subantarctic Islands of New Zealand. {Illus-
trated.) By Prof. Arthur Dendy, F.R.S 43

Bird Migration. By Sir T. Digby Pigott, C.B. ... 44

New Discoveries at Knossos. By H. R. Hall ... 45

Notes 46

Our Astronomical Column: —

Fireball of November 2 5*

Rotation of the Moon •. . 5'

Ephemeris for Halley's Comet 51

Selenium Photometer Measures of the Brightness of

Halley's Comet . . . • 5*

The Apparent Diameter of Jupiter 5*

Curved Photographic Plates 5^

The "Michael Sars " North Atlantic Deep-sea

Expedition, 1910. {Illustrated.) By Dr. Johan Hjort 52
The Association of Teachers in Technical Institu-
tions 55

Meteorological Relationships 55

The Latitude of Athens 56

Education in Technical Objects 5^

The Crystallography of Haemoglobins 57

Problems of Wheat Growing 57

Botany at the British Association 58

Engineering and Civilisation. By Alexander Siemens 59
Forestry Education: its Importance and Require-
ments. By E, B. Steboing 61

University and Educational Intelligence 6a

Societies and Academies 63

Diary of Societies 64

NA TURE

67

THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 17, 1910.

THE CELLULOSE AGE.

l^ie Chemie der Cellulose urtter besonderer Beriick-
sichtigung der Textil- iind Zellstoffitidustrien. By
Prof. Carl G. Schwalbe. Erste Halfte. Pp.
272. (Berlin : Gebriider Borntraeger, 1910.J Price
9 mk. 60 pfg.

THIS work is created by an opportunity, and in
producing it the author has obeyed what in
another walk of life would be a "call" — Germany not
having produced a text-book or systematic work on
this subject, the hiatus is a sufficient raison d'etre
for this publication. The author's qualifications as
a worker in the field of cellulose promise a worthy
fulfilment of his task, and we may say at once, the
volume before us — the moiety of the work to be com-
pleted in and by a second volume, to appear at the
end of this year — is a weighty contribution to the
literature of this section of organic chemistry.
The general title presages a systematic treatment
the subject-matter ; but the plan and method laid
\vn are not criticallv selective, and the result is
lather a classified account of original investigations,
under sectional titles, such as '" Cellulose and
i Alkalis," "Cellulose and Acids," "Cellulose and
Salts," and "Colouring Matters" and "Oxidants,"
' &c. The second part of the volume under the main
I title, " Derivatives of Cellulose," deals successively
i with ■' hydratcelluloses," "hydrocelluloses," "oxy-
kelluloses," " hydracelluloses," "acid celluloses," &c.
I The result is in effect a compilation, an edited
biblioj^^raphy. In recording this general impression
iwe do not wish to detract from the value of the book;
we merelv note for the benefit of our fellow-students
jthat there is a certain nonconformity of its matier
with the title, and the promise of a pioneer work,
which it contains, is still unfulfilled. The sub-title,
Nith special reference to the textile and wood pulp
v^dlstoff) industries," also fails to impress itself upon
|the plan or method of treatment, and therefore a
|dominating technical aim or Leitmotiv is no more in
evidence than the critical scientific. The second
kolume yet to appear may modify these impressions ;
put we do not anticipate that the work will take
{ank otherwise than as an exhaustive bibliographical
■ecord. If we infer that this may be the author's
ntention, it is because we have no special or self-
vealing preface (Vorwort), only a general introduc-
n (Einleitiiug), and the reader is left to form his
'inclusions.
Following the short introduction in which tech-
ical. rather than scientific generalities are prominent,
e are confronted at once with the full complexity
cellulose in the title of section i, "Die Baumwolle-
lulose Luft und Licht." To open with the
'blems connoted by this title is indeed to build
•:n the top, upon foundations laid in the air. A
rely a priori analysis challenges all we know plus
well-defined estimate of what we do not know of
■llulose as a chemical individual, in being. The
NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

next section, " Baumwollecellulose und Elektrizitat,"
continues to occupy the reader with problems of much
complexitv and obviously of the most general import.
The phenomena and reactions involved are those of
the cellulose aggregate, of which nothing can be
affirmed. Section 4, " Die Baumwollecellulose bei
Warmezufuhr," continues the study of the aggregate
in relation to energy. The series of decompositions
presented by destructive distillation are infinitely
varied, and pyrogenetic products of resolution are
generally the least simply related to the parent sub-
stances or molecules ; the author does not attempt
this genealogical investigation.

We notice in passing that no mention is made
either of the specific heat or heat capacity of cellu-
lose, or of the physical phenomena, such as changes
of volume and dimensions, within the range of tem-
perature— i.e. up to 150° — which conditions the per-
sistence of cellulose as a chemical individual. Since
cellulose and many derivatives are now produced in
the form of solids of regular and controlled dimen-
sions, this important direction of physical investiga-
tion is opened up.

The following and main sections are devoted to the
changes determined in the cellulose complex by the
action of acids, alkalis, and salts and oxidants, and
its relations to colouring matters and "mordants,"
generallv to such compounds which enter into what
it is now fashionable to call "adsorption " combination.
It is particularly in the treatment of the complex
phenomena attending hydration, hydrolysis, and con-
densation, that the author should have adopted a
critical method. A " genial " drawing is worth a
volume of photography, and if the author had trusted
himself as impressionist rather than camera artist he
would have used his great opportunity to more
adequate purpose. No chemist regards "hydrocellu-
lose," "h%dracellulose," " hydratcellulose," "oxycellu-
lose," as terms defining chemical individuals ; they
connote a more or less definite equilibrium of action
and reaction within the cellulose agg^regate, which is
susceptible of infinitely varied " schemes " of degrada-
tion ; these are better classified in relation to the
determining conditions than in terms of presumed
end-products. The alternative method, with the con-
scientious discharge of the duties of an " all-truistic "
bibliographer, leaves the reader without mental pic-
tures which are the pleasurable reward of the dili-
gent student. Students of the natural sciences bewail
a tendency to over-population of their book-world as
of other "worlds." The literature of cellulose is
alreadv of formidable dimensions, and yet its funda-
i mental chemistry can be set forth on the proverbial
"half-sheet of notepaper."

The present phase of diffuse expansion in the re-
gion of "cellulose" and other typical colloids calls
for a more critical attitude of workers and investi-
gators, both in the researches undertaken and the
extent of their records.

We may note in conclusion that the volume, in
paper covers, weighs 733 grams. It involves there-
fore a considerable weight of cellulose; and, more-
over, the printing and finish of the volume are un-
usually excellent.

D

68

NATURE

[NpVEMBER 17, 1910

DESCEIPTIVE METEOROLOGY.

Descriptive Meteorology. By Prof. Willis L. Moore,
Chief of United States Weather Bureau. Pp.
xviii + 344. (New York and London: D. Apple-
ton and Company, 1910.) Price 12s. 6d. net.

A TEXT-BOOK by the Chief of the great Weather
Bureau of the United States of America will be
received with not a litde interest, and Prof. Willis
Moore, in submitting this treatise, has had before
him the definite aim of providing the young men enter-
ing the service of the bureau with "a comprehensive
introduction to modern meteorology." We think that
the author has in most ways successfully realised his
aim, though the great prominence given to American
methoids and the researches of American official
meteorologists make the work to some extent unsuit-
able for adoption as a text-book for students in other
countries. The author warmly expresses his obliga-
tion for valuable help received from various colleagues
—Abbe, Bigelow, Kimball, Henry, Cox, and Hum-
|>lireys— and the extent of this indebtedness will be
appreciated by those familiar with the writings of
these specialists in the " Monthly Weather J^eview "
and in various official bulletins of the bureau. We
should have been glad, however, if attention had been
directed somewhat more fully to the splendid work of
A. L. Rotch, for a book such as this should be a
source of inspiration to the student, and nothing in
American meteorology is inore inspiring than a con-
.sideration of the history of the Blue Hill Observatory.

To indicate briefly the scope of the work, we may
say that the science of meteorologv is given the
widest possible reference, and that great attention is
devoted to the dvnamics of the subject. The opening
chapters deal very fully with such general questions
as the composition of the earth's atmosphere, the
physical condition of the sun and its relation to the
earth's atmosphere, and radiation waves in their
different forms. Passing to a consideration of the
vertical and horizontal distribution of temperature, a
special chapter is devoted to an interesting study of
the so-called " isothermal layer," where perhaps de
Bort's term, "stratosphere," might have been adopted.
A discussion of atmospheric pressure and circulation
follows — where Buys Ballot's name is not mentioned —
and Bigelow 's work is summarised in considerable
detail. Chapters on anemometry and the winds of
the globe, on clouds, and on precipitation in its various
forms, are good, but the international classification of
clouds should have been included. Then follows an
admirable discussion of weather forecasting, a chapter
on meteorological optics, and a final one on climate
— ^somewhat discursive, but excellent in its treatment
of the influence of topographical conditions.

Prof. Moore is a master of the art of condensation
and the fortunate possessor of a good sense of propor-
tion, and these qualities have enabled him to cover
a wide field in a satisfactory manner. The great
organisation the work of which he directs touches the
practical interests of the people at many points, and he
rs at his best in discussing the practical problems of
weather forecasting, which are illustrated by an excel-
NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

lent series of weather maps. Again, his brief discus-
sions of such questions of perennial popular interest
as the influence of forests on rainfall and the supposed
influence of the (iulf Stream on the climate of western
Europe are excellent. It was perhaps well practically
to exclude mathemavical formulae, but we think
that here and there the book might have been
strengthened by the inclusion of statistics in tabular
form. Thus the vital differences between insular and
continental climates would have been most forcibly
brought home to the student by actual data for actual
places along some given parallel of latitude across,
say, the Eurasian continent.

Each chapter concludes with an e.xcellent biblio-
graphy, but the attention of American students might
have been directed to the research papers issued from
the British Meteorological Office during the last few
years. And the book properly ends with an index,
but a glance at this leaves us puzzled as to what prin-
ciple was adopted in the inclusion of. proper names.
Buchan and Rotch are merely mentioned in the book,
and their names are not quoted, nor are those of
Bigelow and Humphreys, though their work is laid
under heavy contribution, whilst those of less well-
known authors are given. In a book published in
iqio a different adverb should have been used in a
reference (p. 194) to " Sir William Thomson (now
Lord Kelvin)."

The publishers have done their work well and the
volume is a handsome one. The numerous illustra- ^i
tions and charts are excellent, though the map repre-
senting the normal distribution of rainfall over the
United States would have been more readily grasped
had it been printed in different shades of colour instead
of merely with red isohyets running over a white sur-
face.

THEORIES AND PHYSICS OF THE SUN.

(1) Les Theories Modernes du Soleil. By J. Bosler,
" EncyclopMie Scientifique." Pp. xii + 37o4-xii.
(Paris : Octave Doin et Fils, 19 10.) Price 5 francs.

(2) Vorlesungen, ilber die Physik der Sonne. By Prof.
E. Pringsheim. Pp. viii + 435. (Leipzig and Ber-
lin : B. G. Teubner, 1910.) Price 16 marks.

IN the first of these two books, dealing with our
central luminary, the sun, the author presents
his readers with a very well-arranged survey of the
more modern views with respect to this important
bodv. The author, who is one of the astronomers
at the Meudon Observatory, is in a particularly good
position to become acquainted with modern solar re-
searches and opinions, and the solar work in pro-
gress at that observatory is second to none.

The book bears evidence of the author's command
of his subject, and the method of placing the material
before his readers which he has adopted is one that
is highly commendable and particularly suitable for
the valuable series of volumes which form this
" Encyclopedie Scientifique."

Commencing with the general theories of the soli
constitution, he makes a brief resiinii of older vie'
up to i860, which include those of Herschel, Kircl

November 17, 1910]

NATURE

69

Iioff, ZoUner, Secchi, &c. Then at some length the

circular refraction and anomalous dispersion theories

by Schmidt and Julius respectively are discussed.

The temperature of the sun comes next under review,

allowed by a chapter on the dynamic and thermal

quilibrium of the sun. Lastly, the electromagnetic

held of the sun and the theories concerning the corona

are taken in hand, and the views of Schuster, Bige-

low, Deslandres, Ebert, Nordmann, Arrhenius, &c.,

ire contrasted. This chapter also includes an account

t Hale's work on the magnetic field in sun-spots, and

recent researches carried out at Meudon on the high

level strata of the solar atmosphere.

The text is well illustrated with numerous repro-
ductions from recent solar researches, and the volume
contains good bibliographical author and subject
indices.

(2) Prof. Pringsheim's book is the outcome of a set
'^f lectures which extended over a series of years at
le Berlin Universit\'. These lectures were not re-
>tricted to astronomical students only, so that the
subject was dealt with in a little more popular manner
than otherwise would probably have been the case.

The twelve lectures which form the subject of this
volume comprise a comprehensive sur\ev of the past
and present views relative to the physics of the. sun,
and the author has managed to include a great deal of
material in these lectures. The information has been
brought well up to date, and the monochromatic
work accomplished by the aid of the spectroheliograph
in the hands of Deslandres and Hale has been
thoroughly dealt with, and forms a valuable chapter.
The volume is well illustrated, contains a great
number of references, and is accompanied bv useful
subject and name indices. It will be found a service-
able book for students and a good readable volume for
those who wish to become acquainted with the pro-
ress in our knowledge of the physics of the sun.

-OME ASPECTS OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.
II The Elements. Speculations as to their Nature
atid Origin. By Sir William A. Tilden, F.R.S.
Pp. xi+139. (London and New York: Harper
and Brothers, 1910.) Price 25. 6d. net.
^i) The Relations between Chemical Constitution and
^Some Physical Properties. (Text-Books of Physical
^cience. Edited by Sir William Ramsav.) By
prof. Samuel Smiles. Pp. xiv + 583. (London:
|Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.) Price 145.
0 Physical Chemistry. Its Bearing on Biology and
Medicine. By Prof. James C. Philip. Pp. vii +
^^2. (London : Edward .Arnold, 1910.) Price
7s. 6d. net.

T^HE discovery of radio-activity has, by the
introduction of a new idea,' reawakened in-
terest in many outstanding problems of physical
saence. Prominent among these is the fascinating
question of the nature and origin of the elements.
Chemists with the periodic table of Mendeleeff before
them, in spite of the warnings of its author, have
been unable to resist the idea that some close genetic
NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

relation exists between the different elements of the
nine groups of which the table consists, certainly
along the vertical lines and probably also along the
horizontal series. As to the nature of this relation-
ship, nothing very definite was known or even imagined
beyond the fact that it was accompanied by increase
in atomic mass, and the probability that it was the
result of condensation of some primal matter or
protyle, under the influence, of changing conditions,
of which temperature was possibly one of the chief
factors.

(i) The effect of recent work on the views enter-
tained by chemists on this question forms the subject-
matter of the latter portion of Sir \Mlliam Tilden 's
book, the former half being devoted to a brief and
clear exposition of the ideas which led to 'the formula-
tion of the periodic law. The interesting account given
of the various theories of the evolution and constitu-
! tion of the elements which have recently been proposed
culminates in a tentative and most suggestive genea-
logical table of the elements, which cannot fail to
arrest the attention of all chemists. The author
favours the idea that the elements of the seven chief
vertical groups (with exception of the families headed
by copper, chromium, and manganese) are directly
"descended" from the seven elements from sodium
to chlorine, the members of the odd and even series
forming separate families with a common ancestor.
The remaining elements (Group 8 and the exceptions
just mentioned) are more or less directly descended
from iron, which itself is placed in genetic relation
with aluminium. The elements sodium to chlorine
are direct de.scendants of the corresponding elements
of lower atomic weight, lithium to fluorine, and these
are themselves formed by the condensation of vary-
ing proportions of the two primal constituents of all
matter, positive and negative protyle, as to the nature
of which nothing is known. It is, moreover, by the
addition of further amounts of these two primal sub-
stances that one element is derived from another
of lower atomic weight.

Hydrogen is ^ progenitor of lithium, and a new
unknown element, of atomic weight 3, is postulated
as a precursor of fluorine. The elements of the zero,
group (the helium gases) are supposed to be by-
products of the disintegration of elements of high
atomic weight, possibly long extinct. In this con-
nection it may be noted that the radium emanation
is stated to be wholly converted into helium, a con-
ception at variance with the generally received idea.
Such a scheme, in the nature of things, teems
with doubtful points, and the author is to be con-
gratulated on his courage in exposing his ideas to
the shafts of criticism which are sure to be winged
against them. His table, however, undoubtedly ex-
presses much that has been vaguely in the minds of
many chemists, and removes some of the chief diffi-
culties inherent in the classification of the elements
in the strict order of their atomic weights. Where
it appears to be deficient is in the expression of the
relations between the members of the horizontal
series. It must also be remembered that the onlv
positive evidence of genetic relationship at present

70

NATURE

[November 17, 19 10

available, which is afforded by the disintegration of
the radio-active elements, seems to indicate that devo-
lution occurs primarily along the horizontal scries,
and that the highest known member of the helium
group — the newiy-christened niton — takes its place
in the chain of descent along with the other elements,
and cannot be reg^arded simply as a by-product.

Enough has been said, however, to indicate the
great interest attached to this short work, and the
service rendered by the author in presenting in a
collected form the ideas of chemists, enriched by his
own suggestions, on this fundamental problem of the
science.

(2) Dr. Smiles treats of a subject much inore amen-
able to experiment than the disintegration of the
elements, and the perusal of his bulky volume shows
how difficult it is to arrive at any but empirical rela-
tions between physical properties and chemical con-
stitution, even when the effect of everv minute ch.'inge
in constitution can be examined experimentally. The
work deals with the chief physical properties of the
elements and their compounds (with certain excep-
tions which have already been considered in other
volumes of the series), and provides an extremelv
useful compendium of the work which has been done in
this connection. The author has, however, not allowed
his subject, great as is the mass of detail comprised
in it, to overwhelm him, but has throughout paid
special attention to the applications which have been
made of the knowledge acauired to the solution of
problems of constitution, and to the effect of progress
in this branch of the subject on the general trend
of chemical theory. The interest is further increased
by a preliminary clear account of the nature of each
physical property in turn, and a historical sketch of
the progress of knowledge with regard to it. The
author's final conclusion that further advance will
depend essentially on a more complete solution of the
problem of valency will probably commend itself to
most chemists, and there seems little doubt that, as
foreshadowed in many parts of' this book, the study
of physical properties will be an imjJortant factor in
the attainment of this result.

In his exposition of the general principles of
physical chemistry (3), Dr. Philip has aimed at giving
an account of the subject which will be of special
value to workers in the borderland regions of biology
and chemistry, and has therefore adapted his book
both in scope and treatment to attain this end.
Without anv sacrifice of scientific accuracy, he has
given a sound and readable account of the subjects
of chief interest to biologists, and has illustrated
them wherever possible bv reference to problems of a
biological nature. In addition to the ordinary fare of
works on elementary physical chemistry, special atten-
tion is paid to osmosis, permeability and imperme-
ability of membranes, the properties of colloids and
adsorption. On the whole, the author has succeeded
admirablv in his purpose, and has provided a valuable
and interesting introduction to the subject, not over-
burdened with detail and almost; free from those
mathematical subtleties which are too frequently the
despair of biologists. Arthur Harden.

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

CHEMISTR Y FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS.
(i) A College Text-book of Chemistry. By Prof. Ira

Remsen. Second edition, revised. Pp. xxiii + 702.

(London : .Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1908.) Price

los. net.
(2) Outlines of Chemistry. A Text-book for College

Students. By Prof. Louis Kahlenberg. Pp. xix +

548. (New York : The Macmillan Co. ; London :

Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1909.) Price iis. net.
(i) 'T^HE first edition of Prof. Remsen 's "College
A Chemistry " was somewhat unfavourably re-
viewed in these columns [Nature, vol. Ixv., p. 314
(1902)], and, unfortunately, most of the faults then
pointed out recur in the present edition. Notable
exceptions are, however, the treatment of the ionic
hypothesis and of the determination of molecular
weights from measurements of osmotic pressure. The
least satisfactory portions of the work are those deal-
ing with physical and electro-chemistry. Even
on the purely chemical side there are some
passages which might be amended. Thus it is not
generally true, as stated on p. 144, that metals can
be distinguished from non-metals according to
whether they do or do not liberate hydrogen from
hydrochloric acid to form chlorides. (A better
criterion is, however, given on p. 169.) On pp. i85-(>
volumetric analyses are calculated on the objectionabl"
system based on a consideration of the weights of the
reacting substances in the respective measured
volumes, instead of by the straightforward "equi-
valent " method.

These faults are the more to be regretted since the
book is in many ways admirably suited for the purport
for which it is intended. Thus Chapter V., dealint^
with the atomic theory and the determination ('
atomic and molecular weights, is, for the most part, ;:
model of clearness. Attempts have been made to
bring the work up to date by the insertion of short
references to the phase rule, catalysis, the electron
theory, radioactivity, &c. Within the scope allowed,
the systematic descriptive portion is excellent. The
experimental exercises given at the end of each chapter
are well chosen ; but, unfortunately, few first-year
students in this country would have the time or the
laboratory facilities for carrying them out.

(2) Prof. Kahlenberg's book is, like the preceding,
intended for first-year students, and of necessity covers
much the same ground ; but there the resemblance
ends. The general plan, as set forth in the preface, is
to lead up to general theories through the fundamental
facts and laws instead of first laying down general
propositions and then illustrating these by facts.
Accordingly, no mention of the atomic and molecular
theories or of chemical nomenclature and symbols is
made until the sixth chapter is reached.

Physical chemistry does not occupy a prominent
place in the book ; nevertheless, seeing that Prof.
Kahlenberg is practically the only opponent of the
generally accepted ionic hypothesis to be taken seri-
ously, we turn with interest to the pages dealing
with this part of the subject. On p. 429 we find the
remark : •" The main difference between the Clausius
and Arrhenius theories is that the latter assumes the

November 17, 19 10]

NATURE

7L

presence of a very much larger percentage of dis-
sociation"; and on p. 432, "The reader will have no
difticultv in comprehending- books that still use the
nomenclature of the theory of electrolytic dissociation
bv remembering that the term ion as used in express-
ing chemical change means the same as atom or
radical " {sic).

The periodic law is discussed in Chapter XX., but
in the arrangement of the descriptive matter it is
• ntirely ignored. This is a great drawback, as in-

rganic chemistry without the periodic law and the
i mic hypothesis becomes a mere jumble of discon-

lected facts, difficult to remember, and still more
difficult to assimilate. Otherwise the book contains
as much pure chemistry as a student of medicine or
engineering, who can devote only one year to the
subject, requires. There are also short accounts of
the chief processes in applied chemistr}\

OUR BOOK SHELF.
<nper-organic Evolution. Nature and the Social
Problem. By Dr. E. Lluria. With a preface by
Dr. D. Santiago Raman y Cajal. Translated by
Rachel Challice and D. H. Lambert. Pp. xix +
233. (London : Williams and Norgate, 1910.) Price
js. 6d. net.
"Man is a product of universal mechanics."

" The solution of the social problem is contained in
the law of evolution."

"There exists an irrefragable law which has made

man out of a conglomeration of matter, and this same

law, sooner or later, will have to be followed, in order

that man himself may attain the state of happiness

that is his legitimate aspiration."

These aphorisms lie at the root of Dr. Lluria 's

hilosophy. The researches of Don Santiago Raman

Cajal into the phylogeny and ontology of the nervous

ystem have greatly impressed him, arid a third of the

jlume is occupied with an account of them. He assumes

hat the nervous system of man will continue to increase

!i complexity. "The brain of man still continues

its psychic evolution." While agreeing that this is

"a conclusion of paramount value," we fail to trace

the logical steps by which it is reached, and the same

may be said of the further inference, " In society,

-uper-organic organism, the rapiditv of change wnll

e greater than in any other."

With the best will in the world, it is not easy always

to follow the author, as, e.g., when he tells us that

"Society lives in a profound error as to property.

It has chosen the paltry medium of monev instead

of the grand inheritance of Nature, which belongs to

It by right, confirmed by the theorv of evolution."

But it is not only society that is to blame. "The

responsibility falls particularlv on manv men of science

who have not understood "the theorv of evolution,

-^ivmg it, for example, such a false' and iniquitous

nterpretation as the struggle for existence— a dreadful

distortion of the natural course of ideas."

It is unfortunate that the translator is evidently
"■nfamiliar with the technical terminology which is
inseparable from a treatise of this description. There
IS no index.

The Romance of Modern Astronomy, describing in

Simple but Exact Language the Wonders of the

Heavens. By Hector Macpherson, Jun. Pp. 333.

(London : Seeley and Co., Limited, 191 1.) Price 55.

Commencing with a chapter on our place in the

universe, the author proceeds in the established

^equence with chapters on the earth's motions, the

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

sun. Mercury, Venus, &c., completing the discussion
of the solar system with comets and shooting-stars.
At more remote distances the suns of space, stellar
motions and systems, and nebulae are the subjects
claiming the writer's pen. Some forty pages are
devoted to tides, the spectrum and other incidental
subjects, while five chapters deal with popular aspects
of astronomical histor\-.

The treatment, thouerh generally clear and accurate,
seldom rises above the commonplace. A feature
which cannot be commended is the persistent intro-
duction of somewhat lengthy quotations from other
writers on astronomy. This method of providing
"purple patches" discounts the individuality of the
writer, whether it be due to modestv or otherwise.

Though steering clear of error in his elementary
exposition, the author is not guiltless of loose state-
ments, such as that silver-on-glass reflectors "have a
light-gathering power far exceeding the telescopes
whose mirrors are constructed of speculum metal."

Many of the illustrations are new, and, on the
whole, well done, the artist being successful in finding
picturesque settings for some of the more common
astronomical happenings. The frontispiece, however,
is very misleading ; here an enlarged drawing of the
head of Hallev's comet fills the picture above a por-
tion of landscape, put in doubtless for effect, the
whole giving the impression that the coma stretched
from zenith to horizon.

The Practice of Soft Cheesemaking. .4 Guide to the
Manufacture of Soft Cheese and Preparation of
Cheese for Market. By C. W. Walker-Tisdale and
T. R. Robinson. Second edition, revised. Pp. 04.
(London : Office of the Dairy World, 1910.) Price
15. net.
.\ SECOND edition of this little book havine been called
for, the authors have taken advantage of the oppor-
tunity for introducing a certain amount of new matter.
\\'ith true commercial instinct, thev have put in a
section describing fuUv the preparation of Bulgarian
sour milk and sour cheese, but their chief object is to
give a number of recipes for making soft cheese —
often known as cream cheese — likely to sell w-ell and
at a efood profit.

Soft cheese is a much simpler matter for the pro-
ducer than ordinarv cheese. No great capital or
strength are required ; the uniformity desirable for
butter-making is not needed, so that comparatively
small volumes of milk suffice, and the best demand
exists precisely at the time when milk is in greatest
abundance, i.e. in spring and summer. It is therefore
essentially a product that the small holder can fro in
for. and the recognition of this fact bv the authors
adds greatly to the value of the book. The process
of manufacture is simple, and consists merely in add-
ing rennet to milk or to a mixture of milk and cream,
then seoaratinc the coagulum, and allowing it to
drain. There are. however, numerous details that re-
quire attention, but these are fully set out.

The book will be found very useful for dairy
students and small holders, as well as for the growing
class of dwellers in the country who keep a cow for
their own use.

Twelfth Reiiort of the Wohurn Ext>erimental Fruit

Farm. Bv the Duke of Bedford, K.G., F.R.S.,and

S. v. Pickerinf?. F.R.S. Pp. iv + 51. (London :

Amalgamated Press, Ltd., 19 10.) Price is. y^d.

(post free).

In this, the twelfth report issued from the Woburn

fruit farm, the authors deal with the silver-leaf disease

of plums and other fruit-trees in the tV>nrough manner

that characterises all their work. This disease is

caused by the fungus Stereuni purpureum, but the

72

NATURE

[November 17, 1910

relationship is less obvious than usual, because the
fungus only fructifies on the tree that it has killed,
and the mycelial threads are only discoverable with
difficulty on the livinp^ wood. The proof lies in the
fact, well brought out in this report, that inoculation
of a healthv tree with a piece of the fungus nearly
always causes the disease.

As its name implies, the disease is characterised by
the silvery look taken on by the leaves, due, appar-
entlv, to a disconnection of the cells. Changes in
nutrition processes are, no doubt, the immediate cause,
but it is sufi^gested that the final cause is a poison
formed during the growth of the fungal threads,
which then spreads into the tree. This hvpothesis
explains, amonp- other things, whv the fungus is never
found on the diseased leaves. The disease is usually
fatal. All kinds of fruit are not equally susceptible ;
plums come first, followed by apples, laburnums, Por-
tugal laurels, and pears as the least susceptible. If a
tree recovers, it mav still be badly attacked again ;
there was nothing to show that previous infection
tends to immunise trees against subsequent attacks.

In New Zealand, where this disease is also trouble-
some, the application of ferrous sulphate is recom-
mended as a remedy, but the authors cannot find that
it is of any value. Indeed, no method of treatment
seomed trustworthy, and all that the grower can do
a.'j yet is to burn afTected trees and so prevent the
disease from spreading.

'Elementary Treatise on Physics, Expetimcntal and
ApHied, for the Use of Colleges and Schools. Trans-
lated from Ganot's " Elements de Physique." By
Dr. E. Atkinson. Eigfhteenth edition, edited by
Prof. A. W. Reinold, F.R.S. Pp. xiv+1225.
(London : Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.) Price
155.

All teachers and most students of physics know
Ganot's " Physics," and will be interested in the
appearance of another new edition. On examining
the new volume they will find changes in the
arrangement of subjects and chapters. In the section
dealing with heat, the subjects of solution, equili-
brium, and liquefaction have been put into separate
chapters. Radiation is now dealt with under light.
In numerous parts -of the book extensive additions
have been made, and much new matter on modern
subjects of physics of g-reat importance has been
added. But to prevent an undue increase of size,
sections dealing- with matters of no interest to
students of to-day have been omitted. In its new-
form the treatise is likely to continue its popularitv.
When another edition is necessary the editor should
substitute a modern form of rain-gauge for that on
p. 1146, and revise the section on the Gulf Stream on
p. 1 172, where several time-honoured fallacies are
repeated.

Dunkelfeldbeleuchtung und Ultramikroskopie in der
Biologie und in der Medizin. By N. Gaidukov.
Pp. vi + 8^+Tafel v. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1910.)
Price 8 marks.

This booklet g-ives a brief but fairlv complete sum-
mary of the researches which have been pursued by.
means of dark g^round illumination and the ultra-
microscope in the domain of biology and medicine.
Thus the structure of colloids and of "sols" and
"gels" and the minute structure of various animal
and vegetable cells as revealed bv these methods are
epitomised. But the methods themselves receive but
the scantiest notice, the theory of the subject and th-e
apparatus being dismissed in the space of a couple
of pages. Those who desire to work at the subject
will therefore have to seek instruction elsewhere. In

NO.

2142, VOL. 85]

some cases we do not think justice is done to ordinary

methods of illumination ; in Fig. 5, for example, a
comma bacillus is depicted as being practically
structureless when viewed by transmitted light,
whereas with care a certain amount of structure can
alwavs be made out. Dark ground illumination no
doubt does much to elucidate the finer structure of
minute unicellular organisms; how far the ultra-
microscope will help remains to be proved.

The work concludes with a very useful bibliogfraphy.
and is illustrated with numerous fi^j^ures in the text
and five plates, two of which are coloured.

R. T. H.

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.
.Vo notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

The Limiting Line of Sedimentation in Wave-stirred
Areas.

If you can spare the space I think I can put your
reviewer (October 6, p. 433) in the way of obtaining th>'
information he seeks as to the " limitinj^ line of sedi-
mentation " in " wave-stirred areas." The presence of
tidal and other currents is assumed.

In a paper to the Royal Society in 1882 I chanced to
hit upon this limit, experimentally and incidentally, in the
following observation : —

" Dried peas placed on a glass plate in a slight
depression on a sandy bottom in 6 inches of water were
rolled off by waves about 12 inches long and about i inch
high. . . .

" Shorter w-aves ih inches high had much less effect on
them. A little sand that had collected on the glass was
beautifully rippled with |-inch ripples " (Proc. Roy. Soc,
1882, p. 16).

According to this chance experiment the limit was rather
more than half the wave-length.

In 1884 I submitted to the late Sir G. G. Stokes, F.R.S. .
the case of a soda-water bottle, trawled at about 40
fathoms in the English Channel, which exhibited evidence
that It had been subjected to long periods of quiescence,
with intermittent disturbance. Sir George Stokes replied
in the very important letter published in my paper on th.-
Skerries Shoal (Trans. Devon. .Association, 1887, p. 498).
For publication in the same paper I had asked Lord
Rayleigh to give me some simple formula for ascertainin|:j
the practical limit, of wave-action. His reply was: —

" For each step downward of A/8 divide by 2-2." I
mav mention that A represents the wave-length.

Now according to this formula the disturbance at a
depth of half (or four-eighths) of the w-ave-length is about
one-twenty-third of that at the surface, whereas at the
depth of five-eighths it is about one-fiftieth. I believe that
one-fiftieth is negligible, whereas one-twenty-third is not
always so.

Thus the limit of disturbance lies between half and five-
eijjhths of the wave-length.

This exactly agrees with my accidental tank experiment.

For further confirmation I may refer your reviewer to
Stevenson's interesting discussion on the " Level assumed
by Mud a Measure of Exposure " (Stevenson on Harbours,
second edition, p. 16).

I will not trouble your reviewer with my own papers
except to mention one in the Linnean Society's Journal,
Zoology, vol. xviii., p. 263, " On the Influence of Wave-
currents on the Fauna inhabiting Shallow Seas."

.'\t the recent inquiry on coast erosion Mr. R. H. Worth
cited a delightful zoological proof of a local limit of dis-
turbance. Speaking of Alcyonium digitatum and several
other hydroids, Mr. Worth stated that : —

" Somewhere below 35 fathoms they will attach them-
selves to light bodies ; above 25 fathoms they will never

I

November, i-j, 1910]

NATURE

73

Inch themselves to anything but heavy bodies " (Royal

immission on Coast Erosion, Ans. 4059).

A steady current has often no disturbing effect on the

a bottom, as the upper strata slide over the lower ones,

ut the slightest wave-action on the bottom, with its

ilternating currents, is most effective ; and, as Sir George

stokes pointed out (I believe for the first time), the com-

ined action of wave and tidal current may be very

.Tgetic, as in the case he cites, in which the combina-

in of a steady- tidal current of two miles an hour, com-

!ied with a reciprocating flow of one mile, would result

' in a flow rapidly changing between one mile and three

miles." I doubt whether this important fact had ever

occurred to anyone else ; and, up to the present time, no

one has taken any notice of it, so far as I am aware.

Torquay. A. R. Hunt.

Two Notes from India.

I .4M writing to report a rather curious freak lily which
I have lately seen out here. It was a garden variety, and
it possessed a perianth of eight segments, which, however,
is not unusual, but it also possessed eight stamens, the
anthers of which were joined together in pairs, the re-
mainders of fhese organs being separate. The union began
about two-thirds of the way down from their apices, and
from then up was complete. If any of your readers can
suggest a cause I shall be glad to know it ; I have never
seen such a condition before. I may say that the rest of
the organs were normal (there was only one flower on the
plant), and both flower and plant were very healthy.

The second note which I might record as well, I think,
though I know my statements about it will perhaps make
some people doubt my veracity, is that while on duty one
day, in the evening, about twenty miles away from
Sangor, Central Provinces, in January a year ago, I was
driving back through the jungle to Sangor about 7.30 p.m.
when I distinctly saw what I consider to be an aurora
borealis. The sun had set, and there was no moon out at
the time. Suddenly faint streaks, and later distinct and
many bright streaks, of light appeared across -the skv, and
I got out of the tonga and watched it about a quarter
of an hour. There was continual vibration and movement
of the light as a whole and of individual parts. The light
Avas a plain white one, and very like a zig-zagged comb.
No lights of any kind were near, nor could I see the fires
or lights of any native villages e.xcept faintly in the
distance, and these were quite distinct and easily dis-
tinguished from the sky phenomena. I pointed it out to
my tonga wallah, who shook his head and said he did
not know what it was. The stars were out, but that it
was not a planetary light I am certain. I imagine the
occurrence of this phenomena must be most uncommon in

opical countries, and I noted it in my diarv.

J. H. Barbour.

Jubbulpore, Central Provinces, India, October 20.

Instruction in Methods of Research,

In Nature of November 3 appeared an address by Sir
u . A. Tilden on modern scientific research.

The technical chemist may hardly agree with his con-
clusions that the art of scientific discovery cannot be com-
municated from one person to the other when the matter
IS considered in its wider aspect, and although it may be
true that the great discoveries of the future will be made
by the " inspired amateur," yet there is plenty of evidence
that m Germany, at any rate, the general" increase of
knowledge and progress is to a great extent made up in
detail work, without which it may also be stated that the
great discoveries would never be 'made. Progress in this
detail work to a great extent seems to be influenced, if not
controlled, by training in research.

It is interesting to note that some authorities seem to
_'ve the impression that in this country the proportion
Of research men to chemists is higher than abroad.

In the columns of Nature and elsewhere I have
previously advocated the teaching of the principles of re-
search in class in all our chief colleges, and I believe that
NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

the student when entering them looks for some such
training and expects it. This training would be of great
value to the majority of chemists, who will naturally find
their future work in industry. Its influence must be felt
in the conduct of their future work.

The greater part of the time of the industrial chemist
is taken up with dealing with unseen difficulties and over-
coming them. This may not be research in its proper
sense, but these difficulties can only be overcome in one-
way, and this when examined in detail will be found to
be very similar, if not identical, with that necessary for
the conduct of research. In fact, such work might be
defined as the application of such principles of research to
industry. It is not the application of ordinary academic
chemical knowledge. That is certain.

So that with such a- training, I would venture to point
out, the man who has not that " combination of mental
powers which is called insight " will derive great benefit,
for it seems difficult to think that the student who has
passed the entrance examination and gone through the
college course can be entirely devoid of some such quality,
even if he has not it to a superlative degree. The latter
men must be trained, for has not Newton said that " zeal
without knowledge is like expedition to a man in the
dark "?

Some two years ago I put the question Sir William
Tilden mentions of the establishment of central research
stations for the chief industries before a textile society in
the north.

It was then suggested that there were many difficulties in
the way of a technical nature. One of the advantages of
such a scheme would consist of the training which might
be given to the younger men who are entering industrial
work, and it may be that this could, to a great extent,
take the place of the practical training in the colleges
themselves, which Sir William Tilden, perhaps rightly,
depreciates when it is carried too far.

W. P. Dreaper.

Royal Societies Club, St. James's Street, S.W.,
November 5.

The Armour of Stegosaurus.

Pardon me for saying that there is not the slightest
reason to believe that the restoration of Stegosaurus with
a double row of plates is incorrect, in spite of the state-
ment of the reviewer in Nature for October 13. Not a
single plate of this animal has been found with a sym-
metrical base, the base always being at an angle to the
vertical 'axis of the plate; this implies that the plates were
not placed on the median line, but to one side of it.
Furthermore, in the onh' sf>ecimen in which anything like
a complete series of plates has been preserved the linear
extent of these plates is, roughly speaking, 40 feet, and
it is a physical impossibility to arrange them in one series
on 20 feet of back. These plates lie in position over-
lapping one another.

The only point at issue between Dr. Lull, who has
studied the Stegosaurs most carefully, and myself is in
regard to the arrangement of the plates. Dr. Lull believes
that they were arranged in pairs. My own view is that,
reasoning by analogy, they should have been thus arranged,
but the facts in the case point to their having been
placed alternately on opposite sides of the median line.
No pair of plates has ever been found, and, making the
greatest allowance possible for individual variation, it
seems incredible that differences of several inches should
exist between the plates from the two sides of the body if
they were arranged in symmetrical pairs.

F. A. Lucas.

Museum of the Brooklvn Institute.

The above letter from Mr. F. A. Lucas shows that my
apologies are due to the author of " Extinct Monsters and
Creatures of Other Days." It is Marsh's restoration of
Stegosaurus with a single row of dorsal plates that is
incorrect, as was pointed out in a notice of Dr. Lull's
restoration in the American Journal of Science for March,
19 10, in Nature for the present year. In writing the
review of Mr. Hutchinson's volume I must have trusted
to memory, which played me false. R. L.

74

NATURE

[November 17, 1910

THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHING-
TON AND ITS WORK.
QUESTIONS of the organisation, the objects, and
the activities of the Carnegie Institution of
Washington are of widespread interest. The demand,
indeed, for popular and technical information concern-
ing this institution is far greater than the available
supply. It should be stated, however, that it is not
practicable to explain in any brief compass the history
of the development of so novel an establishment.
There has been scant time thus far for those engaged
in this development to step aside and write anything
but an abstract of current events. It should be stated
also that the complexity of the subject is much greater
than might appear to casual observation. The insti-
tution has recently issued the eighth of its series of
year-books, or annual reports. These year-books con-
tain upwards of two thousand pages of condensed

D. Walcott, Edward D. White, and Carroll D.
Wright. Articles of incorporation were duly approved
on the same date, and a board of trustees was there-
upon elected. These included the President of the
United States, the President of the Senate, the Speaker
of the House of Representatives, the secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, and the President of the
National Academy of .Sciences as ex-officio members,
along with twentj'-tvvo other members. On January
29, 1902, the trustees of the proposed institution
assembled in the diplomatic room of the Department
of State, under the chairmanship of John Hay, and
received from Mr. Carnegie his recommendations for
the foundation of the proposed institution, his outline
of its general aims, and his deed of trust, by which he
transferred in perpetuity to the trustees as an endow-
ment fund 2,ooo,oooL worth of United States Steel
Corporation bonds. These bonds bear 5 per cent, in-
terest, payable semi-annually, so that the original

Fig. I. — The Administration Building of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

history, and when one considers that they embody
what is probably the most complicated miscellany o(
contemporary literature, it may be seen to be no ea;-
matter, even if one had the time, to gain first-hand
knowledge by reading these books ; and it may also
be seen to be no easy matter even for one participating
in their publication to give a comprehensive summary
of their contents. Only the barest outline, therefore,
of this history can be given in the present article,
while some major and many minor considerations of
interest doubtless to individuals may be referred to
only casually or not at all.

On January 4, 1902, a committee of incorporators
held a meeting in Washington, D.C., for the purpose
of considering articles of incorporation, looking to the
establishment of what was subsequently called the
Carnegie Institution. This committee consisted of
John S. Billings, Daniel C. Gilinan, John Hay, Charles

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

income of the institution was ioo,oooi. In December.
1907, this endowment was increased by 400,000/., so
that the present income is i2o,oooZ.
, The institution was originally incorporated in
accordance with the provisions of the laws of the
District of Colombia, under the title Carnegie Institu-
tion. Subsequently, however, it was re-incorporated
by an Act of the Congress of the United States,
approved April 28, 1904, under the title of Carnegie
Institution of Washington, which is now its corporate
designation. 1 By this new Act of Incorporation, the
institution was placed under the control of a board
of twenty-four trustees, all of whom had been mem-
bers of the original board referred to above. This

1 The reader's attent on mav be called lo the facis that_ the Carnegie
Institute, located at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching, with headquarters in New York City ;
and the Carnegie Institution of Washington are separate and independent
corporations.

November 17, 1910]

NATURE

75

board is self-perpetuating, but none of its members
mav be such bv reason of official connection with

Fio.

of .' tation of Dei artraent of

advantages of the museums, libraries, laboratories,
observatory, meteorological, piscicultural, and forestry
school, and kindred institutions of the
several departments of the Govern-
ment.

(6) To ensure the prompt publica-
tion and distribution of the results of
scientific investigation, a field con-
sidered highly important.

No great amount of reflection is
needed to reach the conclusion that
the fields of work thus clearly
mapped out by the founder could not
be entered without some difficulties.
That the organisation of such an in-
stitution would be no easy matter
might have been inferred also from
tJie experience of the closely similar
establishment, the Smithsonian Insti-
tution, sevent}- years earlier, for it
may be recalled that the wisdom of
the Congress of the United States
debated the question of the proper
functions of Smithson's foundation
for a full decade before arriving at a
definite programme for action. Even
amongst those best qualified to judge
of the merits of the wa\s and means available for
the inauguration of this new enterprise, a great

Evolution, Cold Spring H.irbjur.

the United States Government or with other organisa-
tions. Thus the institution is now, like any other
private corporation, neither subject
to any special restrictions by, nor
benefited by any special privileges
from, the Government.

The trustees meet annually in De-
cember to consider the aff^airs of the
institution in general, the progress of
work already undertaken, the initia-
tion of new projects, and to make the
necessary appropriations for the en-
suing year. During the intervals
between the meetings of the trustees
the affairs of the institution are con-
ducted by an executive committee.
This committee consists of seven
members chosen by and from the
board of trustees and the president
of the institution, who is a member
ex-officio, and acts as chief executive
officer.

Amongst the aims of the institution
specifically set forth in the founder's
deed of trust are the following : —

(i) To promote original research,
paying great attention thereto as one
of the most important of all depart-
ments.

(2) To discover the exceptional man
in every department of study when-
ever and wherever found, inside or
outside of schools, and enable him to
make the work for which he seems
specially designed his life-work.

(3) To increase facilities for higher
education.

(4) To increase the efficiency of the
universities and other institutions of
learning throughout the country, b\
utilising and adding to their existing
facilities and aiding teachers in the
various institutions for experimental
and other work, in these institutions
as far as advisable.

(5) To enable such students as may find Washington I variety of opinions arose. ' Indeed, the volume of
the best point for their special studies, to enjoy the | excellent advice and suggestion received bv the

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

Fig. 3, — Sixty-inch Reflecting Telescope of Solar Oi^er

76

NATURE

[November 17, 1910

trustees of the institution during the first two years
of its existence was overwhelming in abundance.
The severity of the situation thus developed, however,
was relieved by a humorous aspect found in the fact
that it became possible to quote equally expert opinions
on all sides of any question relative to the objects
of the institution. In order, therefore, to accomplish
anything in addition to correspondence it became
necessary for the trustees to proceed in a way which
has appeared in some degree arbitrary and without
due regard to all interests concerned.

The productive activities of the institution have been
developed thus far along four principal lines of work.
These are, first, large projects organised under and
conducted by the institution itself; secondly, minor
projects carried on by individuals who are for the

not inappropriately may be added the divisiions in
charge of the work of publications and the work of
administration, makin}^^ thus twelve different depart-
ments or divisions of work within the institution itself.
Each of these principal departments of investigation
is in charge of a director who is primarily responsible
for the organisation and the conduct of the work
entrusted to him. Annual appropriations are made to
these departments in conformitv with carefully speci-
fied budgets drawn up by the directors in cooperation
with the president of the institution. Within the
limits of his annual appropriation each director is
given the larg-est freedom of action in the prosecution
and in the development of the work he has in charge.
Under the head of minor projects manv researches
in widely separated fields have been undertaken bv

Fig. 4, — Inteiicr View of Nutrition Laboratory.

most part connected primarily with other institutions ;
thirdly, the work of research associates and assistants
who are temporarily attached to the institution, and
who are for the time being: engaged chiefly in work
of research; and, fourthly, the issue of publications,
including especially the results of the investigations
accomplished under the first three heads just men-
tioned, and the publication of investigations of special
merit not likelv to be cared for under other auspices.

Under the head of large projects, ten departments
of work have been established. Two of these depart-
ments are devoted to* astronomical investig'ations ;
three to research :.in biology ; one to economics and
sociology ; one to research in geophvsics ; one to his-
■torical research; one to" investigations in nutrition;'
^hd one to research in terrestrial mag^netism. To these

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

individual investigators. In round numbers about thret>
hundred of these investigators have been connected
with academic institutions. Similarly, limited num-
bers of eminent research associates have been and
still are attached to the institution. In its earlier
experience there were appointed also a limited number
of research assistants, who were young men and
women of promise, but had not yet demonstrated
capacity for the accomplishment of fruitful research.

Next in importance to the work of research is the
work of publication carried on by the institution. For
this object io,oooZ. to 15,000/. are now allotted
annually, and the institution is publishing books at
the rate of twenty to forty volumes per year. These
publications are distributed g^ratuitously to a limited
list of the greater libraries of the World. They atie

November 17, 1910]

NATURE

77

also offered for sale at the mere cost of production
and transportation to purchasers, which cost is about
half that which would be charged if the works were
issued throug^h commercial publishing houses. The
< xpense entailed by this work prohibits the issue of
large editions for free distribution ; in fact, any
attempt to meet the public demand for a free receipt
u{ the institution's publications would speedily cur-
tail the prosecution of research.

In addition to the productive work referred to
above, there falls to the administrative division
<>peciallv, in the institution, a large amount of unpro-
ductive work. This arises from a very general mis-
.ipprehension as to the aims, objects, and capacities
of the institution. Grossly exaggerated estimates of
its income have generated, and tend to maintain, an

Vkic:

Fig. 5. — Non-magne:ic Ship C>iriii^u\

<xi.ii:<;%^r aggregate of fruitless correspondence.
Deluded enthusiasts and designing charlatans,
amateurs, dilettanti, arc-trisectors, circle-squarers.
perpetual motion men and women, and all sorts of
paradoxers press for endorsement, if not for pecuniary-
aid. It appears to be a serious defect of existing
•social conditions that there is no way of preventing
those who have nothing to communicate to the world
from interfering with those who have.

In closing this brief account of the institution, the
'effective work it has thus far accomplished may be
summarilv indicated by the following statement : —

Since its organisation, in 1902, upwards of one
thousand individuals have been engaged in investiga-
tions under the auspices of the institution, and there
are at present nearly five hundred so engaged. Ten

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

independent departments of research, each with its
staff of investigators and assistants, have been estab-
lished. In addition to these larger departments of
work, organised and conducted by the institution itself,
numerous special reseiu-ches, carried on by individuals,
have been subsidised. Two obser\-atories and five
laboratories, for as many different fields of investiga-
tion and in widely separated localities, have been con-
structed and equipped. \ building in Washington,
D.C., for administrative offices and for storage of
records and publications, was completed and dedicated
in December, 1909. For ocean magnetic surveys a
specially designed non-magnetic ship with auxiliary
propulsion was constructed and put in commission
during the year 1909. Work in almost ever)- field,
from archaeology and astronomy to thermodynamics
and zoology-, has been undertaken, and the geograph-
ical range of this work has extended to more than
fort)' different countries. One hundred and fiftv-five
volumes of researches, with an aggregate of forty
thousand pages of printed matter, have been pub-
lished. Upwards of one thousand shorter papers have
been published in the current journals of the world
by departmental investigators, by associates, and bv
assistants. The total amount of funds expended to
date in the consummation of this work is, in round
numbers, 900,000/. R. S. Woodward.

THE ROOSEVELT S IS AFRICA.'

"^ O one can read this interesting book by Mr.
■•-^ Roosevelt, sen., without realising how much
the record owes to the work of Roosevelt, jun., of
Kermit, the boy of nineteen to twent\- who, before he
had reached his twentieth year, had contributed some
of the finest trophies to the expedition, who, though
slight of build and bojish of aspect, confronted great
dangers with calm resourcefulness, who took admir-
able photograohs. and assisted the work of the expedi-
tion as a collector with the greatest zeal and useful-
ness.

The book under review is not without its defects
and incongruities, and the expedition of which it is
the record has received heavy censure from a good
many people interested in the preser\-ation of the
world's fauna. Theodore Roosevelt, its author, has
the defects of his qualities. His remarkable disposi-
tion and character have somewhat (as in the case of
the late Sir Henr>- Stanley) prejudiced the judgment
of a good many critics. In the first place, Mr. Roose-
velt has not had sufficient leisure in which to do him-
self justice as the writer of a book on real natural
histor\-. Being a poor man when he left the Presi-
dency, he was obliged, to a great extent, to pav the
expenses of his very costly expedition by writing an
account of it to be published week by week bv the
newspapers, a full diary, so to speak, of the day's
events. Then, taking advantage of a brief rest at
Khartum, he puts this diar)- together in book form,
and has barely time to glance at the proofs before
leaving England for the States in June. In addition
to this, his publisher has thought it wise (and this
reviewer feels bound to say that he thinks it unwise)
to add to this work on natural history two speeches,
delivered by Mr. Roosevelt in Egypt and in London ;
while the author himself, not content with his wonder-
fully successful expedition and his own vivid appre-
ciation of the African fauna and .\frican landscapes,
has further added, under the form of a dissertation
on his " pig-skin " trave1-librar\'. a HUs'^rtation on the
world's best books, ancient and modem.

1 " African Game Trail*." An Aoxjnnt of the African WaiHerings of an
American Hunter NatdraUst. Bv Theodore Roosevelt. Pp. xvi-f-534.
(London : John Murray, 1910.) Price i8x. net.

78

NATURE

[November 17, 1910

With the speeches delivered at the Muhammadan
University of Cairo and at the Guildhall, London,
the reviewer in Nature has nothing to do, since they
treat of politics, but he thinks they are out of place
in a natural history book. They should have been
published with the next volume of Mr. Roosevelt's
public speeches, and with thorn should have been
given the other side of the picture, the things he also
observed but did not mention publicly, or, if he did so,
were not reported bv patriotic British stenographers or
editors. As it is, these speeches do not give by any
means a full statement of Mr. Roosevelt's views on
Egypt. As to the "pig-skin library," it is perhaps a
dangerous thing for a person of the world-wide in-
fluence of Theodore Roosevelt to set up an index
commendatorius of books ancient and modern, with
the inference that books dealing with the subjects he
prefers, but not mentioned by him, are not worth the
traveller's attention.

The fact is, that a second edition of this work should

Photo:,

Fig. I. — The Reticulated Giraffe. From "African Game Trail

be broug^ht out, stripped of these unnecessary appen-
dices and the at first necessary, but after wearisome,
records of thanks and obligations to a hundred-and-
one personages. We should like to see Mr. Roose-
velt's book take its place in the ranks with Bates's
"Naturalist on the Amazons," Schillings's "With
Flashlight and Rifle," and works of such character.
He is a g^ood zoolog-ist and a peculiarly accurate and
discriminating observer. Although he has traversed
lands visited already by some of the great naturalist-
explorers of the world, he has still made discoveries
himself, or through others, and records a great many
facts not hitherto known about the life-history of
beasts and birds in equatorial East Africa. He is
careful to note the seasons at which the young of
different antelopes and other large game appear. He
brings home to us, as no previous traveller has done,
the extent to which this wild game is persecuted and
infested ■\vith ticks, to which, however, they seem to
have become so habituated that they dread them much

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

less than the biting-flies, though the ticks are prob-
ably quite as much spreaders of disease, and even
where they do not introduce disease germs must be
extraordinarily weakening as blood-suckers. Many
birds are devoting themselves in Africa to little else
than the picking off and eating of the ticks and flies
that infest the mammals. Where these birds are killed
by European sportsmen, a g^reat deal of future trouble
is no doubt being prepared for us. For example
(though 1 do not think this is mentioned by Mr.
Roosevelt), certain types of heron (egret) are perpetu-
ally snapping at tsetse-flies, or other flies, which
settle on oxen or game, and, if fully protected, might
account for a considerable proportion of these disease-
carrying creatures.

He has much that is new and interesting to say on
the subject of the chita hunting-cat, really a little-
known and little-studied carnivore in its wild state,
both in Asia and Africa. The ordinary rhinoceros and
:ts funny habits receive full illustration at his hands,
and the square-lipped, white
rhinoceros is revealed to us in
Its gentler, less aggressive dis-
position, as well as its asso-
ciation with the white egrets
which, in accompanying it fur
its protection from ticks, whiten
its broad back with their
guano. (May this fact, equally
possible in South Africa with
the same kind of white heron,
be an explanation of the other-
wise absurd description " white
rhinoceros"?) He pictures it
for us in words, sitting down
on its haunches like a dog (and,
like its relation, the tapir), and
shows us that due importance
in dp'^cription and pictures has
not hitherto been given to the
hump over its vertebrae at the
shoulders. Grevy's zebra and
the northern type of Equus
biircheUi (Grant's zebra) are
rightly contrasted in appear-
ance, habits, and cry. Some
other peculiar features in both
zebras, not hitherto recorded by
naturalists, are set down here.
Besides a good description of
the vivid colours of the topi,
or bastard hartebeest, he tells
us that he has met with forms
of the topi which develop a
white blaze on the forehead.
This is possibly a local sport, but is interesting as be-
ing a parallel to the white forehead of a southern type
of topi, the blesbok. (This white forehead would seem
to arise from exaggeration of the two white, frontal
chevron marks which are liable to occur and re-occur
in certain types of hartebeest and gnu.)

Mr. Roosevelt gives interesting particulars as re-
gards the lion's method of killing most of the large'-
antelopes and zebra by springing on the back and
biting through the vertebrae of the neck. It is pos-
sible that in the case of the stronger zebras or wiM
asses, the lion flings himself on to the neck itself and
drags down the animal's head, biting at the vertebree
not far from the base of the skull. (This is well illus-
trated bv a drawing in Mr. Millais's "Breath from
the Veld.") In the case of full-grown buffalo, the
lion's attack is generally made in concert, two or
three voung male lions, or a lion and lioness, working
together, but also with the same object of severing
the neck vertebras. Failing this, attempts are made

[Theodore Roosevelt.

November 17, 1910]

NATURE

79

to hamstring the beast by biting through the tendons
of the hind legs, and once it is prone it is eviscerated
bv claws and teeth.

The alternation of the red-gold Jackson's hartebeest
and the black and white Grant's zebra (looking silver\-
often in a slant of sunlight) is charmingly described ;
in fact, the book is full of verbal pictures, meet sub-
jects for treatment by a painter. Indeed, on this
score Mr. Roosevelt's remarks on the importance of
pictures, as well as of photographs, in the effective
illustration of wild life, are ver>- sensible.

He describes to us the speed of the chita and its

peculiar attitudes and en.-, ■" a bird-like chirrup " ; the

dancing habits of the male widow-finches (Chera) ;

■ the rhinoceros standing in the middle of the African

plain, deep in prehistoric thought " ; the zebras and

when at bay. He gives interesting and precise in-
formation regarding the spitting-cobras, describing the
venom as it is ejected through the point of the hollow
tooth "like white films or threads." He quotes a
fellow-traveller to the effect that the girafie when
fighting with other giraffes or other foes, makes liitle
or no use of the short ossicones as a weapon, but
strikes with the strong chisel-like teeth of the lower
jaw, the blow being delivered with all the force behind
it of the immense, heavy neck. The boldness of the
hippo in regions where he has not as vet been taught
to be afraid of man, is vividly described — the angr\-
combats in the water between rival males, and the
departure on shore of the vanquished bull, who,
straight awav, in a rhinoceros-like rage, attacks on
land the native cattle, or even men and wcwnen cross-

Copyrignz t .

Fig. 2.— a Herd of Elephant in an Open Forest of High Timber. From "African Game Trails,"

[Kermit Roosevelt.

their stamping-grounds and their boldness in attack-
ing dogs with teeth and hoofs, and not unreadiness to
attack the white man also; the lions with their black
and yellow manes (he might also have alluded to the
frequency with which East African lionesses are boldlv
spotted with leopard-like markings, black below, and
tawnv-brown above); the large cuckoos "which eat
mice," and the mice they eat, striped like miniature
zebras; the fantastic little elephant-shrews with their
probosces; the variet>- and beaut\' of the water-birds
(not foreettingf that creature of lovelv tints, the ibis-
stork, Pseudotantalus) ; the white-tailed ichneumons,
never sufficiertlv hitherto commented on in descrip-
tions of East .African nature ; the bold roan antelopes,
with their lar^e mouths and reported habit of biting
as well as horning their foes, and squealing savagely
NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

ing his angr>- trot. Roosevelt's notes on baboons,
hyenas, elephants, white rhinoceroses, water-birds
(especially p. 298), Grevy's zebra, white-bellied hedge-
hogs, the hyraxes, and the forest and mountain rats,
are all most interesting, and in nearlv every case novel,
even to those acquainted with the East African fauna.
Excellent in ever\' wav are his descriptions of the life
of the savage men (invariably kindlv towards this
expedition), amongst whom and with whom he
travelled. His descriptions of the botanical aspects
of the country are full of colour and actualitv. but
are unfortunatelv marred here and there by the cor-
rectlv described tree or plant being given the wrong
name, either botanically or in the vernacular.

In short, Mr. Roosevelt has written a book which
would have been quite as noteworthv and of as lasting

8o

NATURE

[November 17, 19 10

interest if it had been written by an unknown per-
sonage. But in its permanent form the relatively
trivial press errors and slips of the pen should be
corrected and all extraneous matter not connected with
natural history, cut out.

The illustrations — drawings as well as photographs
• — are admirable. Mr. Roosevelt deserves praise for
having carefully photographed the small mammals as
well as the big.

Special triumphs of the expedition were the shooting
bv Mr. Theodore Roosevelt of the rare Somali reticu-
lated giraffe, and by Mr. Kcrmit Roosevelt, of the
East African sable antelope. In regard to this
achievement, the writer of this review has enjoyed
some satisfaction. In describing his own journey to
Kilimanjaro in 1884, he stated that he had seen the
sable antelope on the way thither. This statement
was somewhat rudely derided bv a succeeding traveller,
who declared that the sable antelope was never found
north of the region opposite Zanzibar Island.

H. H. Johnston.

ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY AND RAIN.

I'^HE fact that raindrops often bring down a
measurable charge of electricity has been known
for twenty years, but numerical measurements have
been comparatively few, and data of even moderate
trustworthiness are scarce. A recent memoir of the
Indian Meteorological Department ^ contains an
account of the important work done on this subject
in 1908 and 1909 by Dr. G. C. Simpson. This work
is partly observational, partly experimental, and partly
theoretical. To see its true bearing, reference is
necessary to some other aspects of atmospheric elec-
tricity.

If we denote by v the electric potential at a height
s above the ground, and if dvjdz represents the rate
of increase of v with height just above ground level,
then treating the conductivity of the air as negligible
the earth must have a charge the surface density a
of which is —{dvjdz)! AfT. ^" ordinary fine weather v
increases as we go upwards, and so a- is negative.
In practice one usually derives dvjdz from the differ-
ence of potential between two points in the same
vertical one metre apart. This quantity, termed the
potential gradient, varies much from day to day, or
even hour to hour, and the average value seems to
vary considerably at different parts of the earth. If,
for example, we suppose it to be 150 volts, then re-
membering that the centimetre is the unit of length,
and that the electrostatic unit equals 300 volts, we
deduce <r = — (i/47r)(i*5/3oo)=: — 4*0 x 10-* E.U. (or
electrostatic units).

Atmospheric air is in reality not a perfect non-
conductor. If one gives a body in air on a perfectly
insulating support a charge, whether positive or nega-
tive, this is gradually lost. Of the numerous observa-
tions on the rate of loss of charge those made by Mr.
C. T. R. Wilson, with an apparatus which he devised
a few years ago, appear least open to criticism. In
a paper published in 1908, Wilson^ gives the result of
a considerable number of observations on the loss of
negative electricitv under fine weather conditions.
His mean rate of loss exceeded 8 per cent, of the
charge per minute of time. In other words, a charge
equal to the earth's charge at any instant was lost
every twelve minutes. During these observations the
mean value of the potential gradient was 187. This
answers to a surface density of — io-*X4'97 E.U., or

^ Vol. XX., part 8, "On the Electricitv of Rain and its Orie'n in Thunder-
storms.'' Rv Dr. George C. Simpson, Imperial Meteoro'ogist (also in
Trans, and Pro-. R.S.).

2 Roy. Soc. Proc, A, vol. Ixxx., p. e,-^y.

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

— i6"6xio-'* coulombs. Taking an 8 per cent, loss
per minute, the loss per second — i.e. the value of an
upwardly directed negative, or downwardly directed
positive current — is (8/60)10-^ x i6'6x lo-'* or
2'2xio-** in amperes. If this represented average
conditions, we should have in the course of a year
from each sq. cm. of the earth's surface a loss of
7x10-* coulombs, or 21 E.U. of negative electricity.
During rain the potential gradient is often negative,
but the total duration of negative gradient in the
course of a year is not large. We are thus led to the
conclusion that whilst 21 E.U. is probably an over-
estimate of the charge lost annually per sq. cm. of
surface by conduction through the air, it is unlikely
to be much in excess of the truth unless the con-
ductivity of the air is exceptionally high at times
when the gradient is negative. The question thus
arises : How is the earth's charge maintained?

Of the hypotheses advanced of late years, the one
that has met with most approval is due to C. T. R.
Wilson, who suggested that while districts enjoying
fine weather are losing negative charge, other districts
are deriving a corresponding amount of negative elec-
tricitv from falling rain, the circuit being completed
below by earth currents, and overhead by horizontal
currents at a considerable height. Our knowledge of
earth currents at the present moment does not enable
us either to afiirm or to deny a systematic transfer of
electricity between wet and dry areas.

When Wilson's suggestion was made, it was be-
lieved that while the electricity brought down by rain
was sometimes positive, still negative largely pre-
dominated, that being the result arrived at by Elster
and Geitel, who were the chief of the early observers.
Dr. Simpson's first contribution to the subject was the
invention of an ingenious apparatus giving a con-
tinuous record of the amount and sign of rainfall .
electricity. This apparatus has been in operation at J
Simla during the monsoon or rainy seasons of 1908 I
and 1909, and the results are of an unexpected char-
acter. What the apparatus really does is to collect
and record rainfall electricity for two-minute intervals.
The data represent the total charges received for each
successive interval and the corresponding rainfall.
During the two monsoons 172" i cm. of rain were re-
corded, with 44'o E.U. of positive and i3'8 E.U. of
negative electricity, or a balance of 30*2 E.U. of posi-
tive. The two-minute intervals during which a posi-
tive charge was measured amounted in all to 4*16
days, as against i"7o days of negative. During about
37 per cent, of the total duration of rainfall no sensible
charge was measured. Snow is rare at Simla, but
for such snow as fell there was much the same rela-
tive excess of positive electricity as in the case of rain,
the chief difference being that snow brought down
more electricity than an equal weight of rain. An
annual rainfall of 86 cm. is norrnal enough, and if
the corresponding balance, 15 E.U., of electricity had
been negative, it would have fitted Wilson's theory
well so far; but being positive, it adds to the mystery
respecting the source of supply of the fine weather
current.

There are some features which raise doubts as to
whether Simla phenomena are fairly representative.
Rain there seems to be accompanied by much thunder
and lightning, and the excess of positive electricity
was especially prominent during the very heavy rain
accompanying thunderstorms. In 1908, when rain
was falling at a less rate than 0*17 inch per hour, the
time during which negative electricity was recorded
was about 90 per cent, of that during which
positive was recorded, and the mean charge
per c.c. was 2*2 E.U. for negative, as against
i"7 E.U. for positive, so that in the lightest

November 17, 19^0]

NATURE

81

tins negative electricity was slightly in ex-
>s. The charge per c.c. tended to be larger the
-hter the rain, but the fall in two minutes was so
Tiall in light rains that it seems by no means im-
: obable that with a more sensitive apparatus there
A i.uld have been a smaller total excess of positive elec-
ricitv recorded. Observations covering the complete
iinual precipitation, whether rain or snow, at a
umber of stations in different latitudes will be neces-
sary before we can safely draw conclusions respecting
I lie earth as a whole.

It was discovered by Lenard many years ago that

in the case of an ordinary waterfall, or when water

falls on a solid obstacle, the water drops formed take

.( positive, the surrounding air a negative charge.

Lenard believed, however, that no such separation

curred when drops split up without falling on an

;i<tacle. Simpson found a similar absence of charge

when experimenting with Simla tap-water, but on

trvinir distilled water he found that the splitting up

• drops bv means of a vertical air jet is accompanied

a marked separation of electricity, the water tak-

i,^ the positive charge. The breaking up of drops,

,ch containing about 1/4 c.c. of water, gave the

water a charge of about +23 x 10-^ E.U. per c.c. If

the drops were already charged, this additional charge

was added when they broke, so that the action is

cumulative. Raindrops become unstable on attaining

■ certain size, and tend to break, so that natural

-nditions approach those of Simpson's experiments.

rational explanation is thus given of a positive

large on rain if it behaves as distilled water. This

•• should expect it to do, except perhaps in smoky

districts, but further experiments on actual rain-water

in various localities seem desirable. The presence on

nne rain of negative electricity is ascribed by Simp-

on to a transfer of charge from air which has pre-

viouslv surrounded breaking raindrops.

The theoretical problem mainly considered by Simp-
- in is the relation of rain to thunderstorms. He
lieves that there are normally present in thunder-
orm areas upward currents of air with velocities of
: least 8 metres per second (18 m.p.h.). Such cur-
rents prevent raindrops from falling, and Simpson
supposes the drops to go through frequent repetitions
of the cycle ; growth, breaking up (with separation of
iectricitv), fresh growth, and so on, at a nearly con-
ant height in the atmosphere until the charge is
I great as to produce at a certain level a gradient
irger than 30,000 volts per cm., which he takes to
e the electric strength of air. When this limit is
-ached, a lightning flash neutralises the accumu-
ited charge over a limited area, and the process goes
n repeating itself. There are various difficulties in
he wav of accepting this explanation as complete,
ut some represent our present ignorance rather than
ositive knowledge. We should like to know, for
istance, whether vertical air currents such as Simp-
on postulates really do exist near the precise level
here the air breaks down, also what the true nature
t a lightning flash is, whether unidirectional or
wcillator)-, what charge passes, and what is the ex-
•enditure of energy. For all we know, the air may
e in a strongly ionised condition, possibly even there
nay be separation of the constituent gases, and a
'Otential gradient much under 30,000 volts per cm.
lav suffice to cause a discharge. In the meantime,
impson's theory of thunderstorms had better be
^garded as a hypothesis, but, unlike some hypotheses,
promises to be useful in suggesting promising:- lines
or observation and experiment. The separation of
electricity by the breaking up of raindrops may not
play quite so fundamental a part as Simpson sup-
poses, but assuming it to take place with natural

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

rain, it can hardly fail to play an important part in
thunderstorm phenomena.

The memoir as a whole is most original and sug-
gestive, and is one on which the meteorological service
of India deserves to be congratulated. As many
readers of Nature are doubtless aware, Dr. Simpson's
services have been lent by the Indian Government to
the present British Antarctic Expedition, principally
with the view of his studying electrical conditions in
high latitudes, and we may, I think, entertain high
hopes that the resulting increase of knowledge will
be eminently satisfactory both to India and to this
country. C. Chree.

A

THE PREVENTION OF PLAGUE.
-MEMORANDUM on plague has recently been
prepared by Dr. Newsholme, medical officer of
the Local Goveinment Board, and has been sent to
the sanitary authorities of England and Wales, with
a request that their officers should endeavour to secure
the adoption of the suggestions contained therein.
The memorandum gives an interesting conspectus of
the essential features of the disease, and deals mainly
with its methods of spread and the measures which,
in the light of recent researches, must be taken for
its prevention. Fortunately, i)lague, although a
disease capable of manifesting i"tself as an epidemic
of a widespread and virulent character, is now so well
understood on its epidemiological side, that the direc-
tion which preventive measures should take is obvious.
The situation may be summarised in the dictum — " no
rats, no plague." Practically, however, the matter is
perhaps not so simple as it may seem.

The first section of the memorandum describes
briefly the symptoms in plague. The injected eyes and
the thick, "drunken" speech are noted as character-
istic signs of the disease. There is no mention, how-
ever, of the tendency to "shouting" delirium and the
impulse to get out of bed and wander off, utterly heed-
less of their condition — well-known symptoms in the
natives of India. The "acute" ward of a plague hos-
pital is at times a very noisy place, and mild restraint
requires to be put upon patients to prevent their un-
conscious excursions.

The "ambulant" form of plague is referred to, and
it is stated that persons with this type of the disease
may spread the infection. Spread of infection by
such persons would seem, however, to be very doubt-
ful, bv direct personal contagion at least, and it is
equally doubtful whether effective carriers of-, the
disease in the sense of typhoid carriers exist. The
evidence for the existence of such carriers is not satis-
factory, and although the possibility of the occurrence
of "pneumonic" carriers must be considered, the
rarity of this type, at least in India, and its extreme
fatality, considerably limit its importance from this
point of view.

The statement that there is little or no liability to
infection from contaminated food is a comforting one,
and is justified by the accurate observations on the
pathology of human plague made some years ago in
Bombay by the Austrian Plague Commission, and by
the results of experiments on susceptible animals.

The memorandum accepts in its entirety the results
of the recent investigations of the Plague Research
Commission, viz., that the sole infective agents in an
epidemic of bubonic plague to be reckoned with are
the infected rat and the infected rat flea — the former
an indirect agent and the latter the immediate infect-
ing agent. It follows that the measures suggested
for attempting to stamp out the disease are directed
solely towards the destruction of rats and their para-
sites. It has indeed been claimed that domestic

82

NATURE

[November 17, 1910

animals, such as cattle, pigs, fowls, ducks, &c., are
susceptible to plague inftcuon, but extensive experi-
ments made by competent observers in several parts
of the world completely agree in opposition to this
belief.

In the memorandum the importance of preventing
the access of rats to or their entrance into buildings
is emphasised. It is pointed out that a cat in the
house is a safeguard against domestic invasion by rats
and mice, although it must be borne in mind that the
cat is in some degree susceptible to plague. Major
Buchanan, of the Indian Medical .Service, has strongly
urged the advisability of stocking the villages in India
with cats as a preventive measure, but it must be
said that no very definite evidence in support of the
proposal has been produced.

With regard to the extermination of rats it is
admitted that complete extermination is perhaps im-
possible. .-\ material diminudon in the rat population
would undoubtedly lessen the spread of infection
amongst them, but the fertility of the rat and the fact
that it overruns the whole country in enormous
numbers make the task of permanently suppressing
the rat community in this country an extremely diffi-
cult one. It is certain that only a never-ceasing and
complete organisation for rat destruction will appre-
ciably reduce their numbers, and it is perhaps not
sufficiently realised by some of the advocates of a
general rat campaign that in order to be thorough and
effective such a campaign would involve a most ex-
tensive and, in the aggregate, a most costly organisa-
tion. In this connection the experience of rat destruc-
tion gained in Japan is instructive. Kitasato has
reported that in five years 4,800,000 rats were killed
in Tokio alone at a considerable financial outlay, but
that at the end of this time no appreciable decrease in
the rat population could be detected. Kitasato attri-
buted this to the circumstance that the rate of de-
struction, vigorous as it was, did not keep pace with
the natural increase in the rat population. Recent
experience in India appears to point in the same
direction.

It is beyond question, however, that so far as plague
prevention is concerned a great deal can be done in
this country by diminishing or, preferably, abolishing
rat infestation in human habitations and in their
immediate neighbourhood.

G. F. Petrie.

DR. THEODORE COOKE.

AX7E announced with regret last week the death, on
•'' November 5, of Dr. Theodore Cooke, C.I.E.,
formerly a member of the Bombay Educational De-
partment. Born at Tramore, co. \Vaterford, in 1836,
Dr. Cooke entered Trinity College, Dublin, where,
after a distinguished career as a student, he graduated
in 1859 in the faculties of arts and engineering. In
the former faculty he was Hebrew prizeman, first
honoursman, and senior moderator and gold medallist
in science ; in the latter he obtained special certificates
in mechanics, chemistry, mineralogy, mining, and
geology. Pursuing his profession as an engineer, he
joined in i860 the service of the Bombay, Baroda and
Central India Railway, then under construction ; dur-
ing this service he built for the company the great
iron bridge at Bassein. Five years later the Govern-
ment of Bombay secured the services of the talented
young engineer as principal of the Civil Engineering
College, which later with widened scope became the
College of Science, at Poona. The post proved con-
genial to Dr. Cooke ; his wide and varied knowledge,
with which were associated much tact and great

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

administrative gifts, enabled him to fill it with signal
success until he retired from India in 1893.

Throughout his service Dr. Cooke had taken a keen
interest in botanical studies, and field-work connected
therewith was one of his chief recreations. What he
did as a pastime was, however, characterised by the
thoroughnes.s that marked his official work; he soon
became a recognised authority on the vegetation of
Bombay and .Scinde, and it was only fitting that when,
in i8qi, the Botanical Survey of India was organised.
Dr. Cooke should be placed in charge of the survcx
operations in western India. Encouraged thereto bv
.Sir George King, then director of the survey, Dr.
Cooke made preparations for the production of a
" Flora of the Presidencv of Bombay." Difficulti( s
over which neither Sir George King nor Dr. Cooki-
had control at first prevented the realisation of thi-
scheme, and when Dr. Cooke retired in 1893 his
energies found an outlet in a post to which he wa^
appointed at the Imperial Institute.

The difficulties that had stood in the way of th(
publication of a local flora of Bombay having at la>t
been overcome, Dr. Cooke was able, some years later,
to settle at Kew and commence the preparation of the
work in the herbarium there. The first part was pub-
lished in 1901 ; the seventh and concluding part ap-
peared about two years ago. The work is marked b\
the thoroughness and attention to detail characteristic
of all that Dr. Cooke did ; nothing is taken for
granted ; every previous statement is carefully verified
or, refuted ; and the " Flora " will remain a lasting
meniorial to Dr. Cooke's critical acumen, industry,
and energy. On its completion Dr. Cooke continued
to work in the herbarium with undiminished ardour,
assisting as a volunteer in the preparation of the grept
" Flora Capensis," edited by Sir W. T. Thiselton-
bver, until laid pside by the illness which has endei^l
his career. Dr. Cooke, on whom his university' had
already conferred the degrep of LL.D., was created a
CLE. in i8qi, and was a Fellow of the Linnean and
the Geological Societies.

NOTES.

The Nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to
Prof. Otto Wallach, professor of chemistry in the
University of Gottingen.

We regret to see the announcement of the death, on
November 13, of Mr. W. R. Fisher, formerly assistant
professor of forestry at Coopers Hill College.

The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall at its annual
meeting at Penzance on November 8 awarded Dr. George
J. Hinde, F.R.S., the Bolitho gold medal for his valuable
papers and services in connection with the geology of the
county.

A Reuter telegram from Pisa states that on
November 10, in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel
and a Government Commission, Signor Marconi received
wireless telegrams direct from Canada and Massowah by
means of his extra powerful installation at Coltano.

Mr. a. E. Brown, secretary of the Zoological Society
of Philadelphia, has died suddenly of heart disease in his
sixty-first year. He was vice-president and curator of the
Academy of Natural Sciences in the same city, and a
frequent contributor of zoological and biological articles
to various scientific journals.

Dr. C. Willard Hayes, chief geologist to the U.S.
Geological Survey, is now visiting Panama by the direc-
tion of President Taft to make a preliminary study of

November 17, 19 10]

NATURE

8.

■ logical formations in the "canal zone," with special
reference to the excavations at the Culebra cutting. Upon
the results of his investigations will depend the decision
whether a geologist will be permanently assigned to assist
the canal commission.

A Reuter message from Munich announces the election

the following corresponding members of the Munich

.\cademy of Sciences : — Dr. F. G. Kenyon, director and

principal librarian of the British Museum ; Dr. L. Fletcher,

F.R..S., director of the Natural History Museum, South

Kensington ; Principal Miers, F.R.S., the University of

adon; Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S. ; Profs. Wilson and

lx)rn, Columbia University, New York.

Prior to the anniversary meeting of the Mineralogical

.society in the Geological Society's rooms at Burlington

House on Tuesday, November 15, Dr. Lazarus Fletcher^

'•' R.S., was presented with his portrait, painted by Mr.

raid Festus Kelly, in recognition of the invaluable

-^ivices he had rendered to the society during the past

quarter of a century, the presentation being made by

Prof. W. J. Lewis, F.R.S., on behalf of the members

and other subscribers. For three j-ears, 1885-8, Dr.

''I/tcher was president, and for twenty-one years, 1888-

09, general secretary, of the society-, and it is to his

lial and stimulating influence that its present prosperous

idition is largely due. Dr. Fletcher resigned the

retaryship upon his appointment as director of the

itural History Museum.

A CAREFLLLY planned effort is being made by the authori-
< of the -American Museum of Natural History in New
rk to popularise the resources of that institution. On a
?nt afternoon they gave a reception to from 1500 to
1800 of the school teachers of the city, having invited the
principal of each school and two delegates whom he should
appoint. The programme of this " Teachers' Day " in-
cluded a personally conducted tour of the building, an
introductory address by the president of the museum. Dr.
H. F. Osborn, and six ten-minutes' talks by experts,
interspersed by orchestral music, and followed by tea in
the ornithological hall. The object of the reception was
to show the teachers of New York what the museum had
to offer both for themselves and for the children in their
classes.

Dr. \V. H. Brewer, professor emeritus of agriculture
at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, has
died at New Haven from the infirmities of old age. He
was born in 1828. Before his appointment to the Yale
chair in 1864 he had been professor of chemistry and
geology at Washington College, Pennsylvania, and pro-
fessor of chemistry in the University of California. He
became professor emeritus in 1903. He had served on
several important Government commissions, and had been
president of the Connecticut Board of Health, of the
Connecticut Academy of Sciences, and of the Arctic Club
of America. In an editorial note on his career, the New
York Evening Post describes him as one of the fast dis-
appearing representatives of a stirring type. It quotes
from a friend who once spoke of him as an " eminent
geologist, an expert mining engineer, an .Arctic explorer,
an art critic, an author, and a charming companion,"
and adds that, like Shaler and Holmes, he " was the
product of no system other than that prescribed by his
owh capacity of learning, and perhaps for that very reason
possessed a vitality and range which are seen but seldom
in the younger generation."

At the annual general meeting of the London Mathe-
matical Society, held on November 11, the following were
elected to be the council and officers for the session
NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

1910-11 (the names of members not on the retiring council
are printed in italic type) : — President, Dr. H. F. Baker,
F.R.S. , vice-presidents, Mr. J. E. Campbell. F.R.S. . Major
P. A. MacMahon, F.R.S., Sir William Niven, K.C.B.,
F.R.S. ; treasurer. Sir Joseph Larmor, F.R.S. ; secretaries.
Prof. A. E. H. Love, F.R.S., Mr. J. H. Grace, F.R.S. ;
other members of the council, Mr. G. T. Bennett, Dr.
T. J. I'A. Bromwich, F.R.S., Dr. W. Burnside, F.R.S.,
Mr. E. Cunningham, Mr. A. L. Di.xon, Dr. L. N. G.
Filon, Dr. E. W. Hobson, F.R.S., Prof. H. M. Mac-
donald. F.R.S., and Dr. A. E. Western.

A'ery great vigour has characterised the conduct of the
Tacubaya Observatory of late, and therefore the severe
loss the institution has suffered by the death of the director.
Dr. F. Valle, will be keenly felt, for he made the observa-
tory a centre for scientific activity throughout all Latin
America. Dr. Valle plaj-ed a foremost part in promoting
scientific usefulness and maintaining an efficient standard
throughout the Republic of Mexico. The " Annuaire," for
which he was mainly responsible, appeared with great
regularity,', and supplied a mass of information connected
with geodesy, meteorology, and physics that would be par-
ticularly useful in the society in which it circulated, while
the articles on astronomy quickened local and popular scien-
tific effort. But of greater importance in general, and on
what the reputation of the late director will rest, was his
ardent prosecution of the work of stellar photography in
connection with the Carte du del, the observatory being
responsible for the zone io°-i6° south declination. When
the last report was issued, only 22 fields remained to com-
plete the 1200 for the catalogue, and these must have long
since been supplied. No fewer than 800 plates had been
measured, and the catalogue plates were being actively
pushed forward. Such activity contrasts very favourably
with the results obtained at some observatories engaged
on the southern zones, and the zeal displayed is the more
commendable, as it is known Dr. Valle had to contend
with very great difficulties in regard to the figure of the
object-glass of his photographic refractor. Dr. Valle did
not only measure his plates, but he used his meridian circle
vigorously for determining the position of standard stars
used in the reduction of the photographic plates. .Add to
this record the work of the observatory in sj>ectroscopv,
magnetism, seismology, and meteorology, and it will be
admitted that Dr. Valle 's energy went far to remove the
stigma of indifference and lassitude which at one time was
inclined to rest on the observatories of Spanish America.

The account of the work of the Port Erin Biological
Station given by Prof. W. A. Herdman to the Liverpool
Biological Society on November 1 1 shows that the station
continues to develop. It is expected that the much needed
extensions now in progress will be completed and equipped
by Easter of next year. During last summer vacation
Prof. Herdman, Dr. Dakin, and Dr. Roaf conducted, for
the first time, a valuable course of work in the science of
oceanography (including hydrography and planktology).
The work consisted partly of lectures and demonstrations
in the biological station, partly of collecting and observing
work on the seashore, and partly of expeditions at sea in
the steam yacht Ladybird and in the Lancashire Sea
Fisheries steamer. The operations of the fish hatchery at
the station have rtsulted in the hatching and setting free
at sea of upwards of 8,000,000 plaice fry and more than
5000 lobster larvae — a substantial advance upon the work
of any previous year. Plankton observations were carried
out on the same lines as in the previous three years, three
collections being made twice a week in the sea off Port
Erin the whole year round. During July Prof. Herdman

84

NATURE

[November 17, 1910

took a series of vertical plankton hauls from various deep
localities off the west coast of Scotland. A comparison
of the collections show (i) that there is a constancy year
after year in the nature of the plankton at certain locali-
ties, and (2) that some of the localities, not very far apart,
differ considerably from one another in the nature of their
plankton at the same time of year (July).

The general committee of the Mansion House fund for
providing a memorial to King Edward in London has had
under consideration numerous proposals as to the form
the memorial should take. The only decision which has
as )et been arrived at is that, apart from the provision
of a larger memorial of his Majesty, a statue of King
Edward VII., with suitable accessories, be erected in some
prominent and appropriate position in London, and that
ti fund be immediately opened for the purpose. Other
schemes are still under consideration. Originally 164 pro-
posals were received by the committee, but, according to
the daily papers, these have been ruled out, with a few
exceptions, as unsuitable or impracticable. The general
committee has still to decide finally ; but among schemes
recommended to them by the executive committee are
Lord Esher's proposal for an historical museum in London
on the lines of the Mus6e Carnavalet in Paris. Secondly,
the scheme of Lord Avebury for the building of a great
hall for the University of London, to be used for degree
and ceremonial purposes, and also for examinations.
Thirdly, Lord Northcote's suggestion that a portion of the
fund should be devoted to a scheme " for the protection of
human life in the tropics by a great extension of that
campaign against tropical disease which has already abated
so largely the sum of human suffering." This last pro-
posal has the support of the Society of Tropical Medicine
and Hygiene, and a letter, signed by Prof. Ronald Ross,
F.R.S., and other of^cers of the society, outlining the
valuable work for the Empire which could be done by
such an endowment of the study and prevention of
tropical diseases, appeared in the Times of November 5.
Lord Rosebery, as Chancellor of London University, has,
In a letter to Lord Avebury, expressed his hearty approval
of the scheme put forward by Lord Avebury.

On November 8 Major Sykes delivered an interesting
lecture to the Royal Geographical Society describing two
short journeys which he took recently in north-eastern
Persia the ancient Parthia, and HjTcania. This district
has alwaj's been one of special interest to the historian. It
formed part of the patrimony of the earliest Persian kings ;
in it originated both the religion of Zoroaster and the
Parthian dynasty, which measured its strength successfully
with Rome ; it has always been the debatable land on the
border between Iran and Turan ; and now it seems within
measurable distance of falling, finally, into the possession
of Russia, without any of the clamour, nay, danger, of
war which such an advance of the Muscovite would have
caused in England a few years ago. Such are the ways
of high politics. The cities of north-eastern Persia are
interesting also. Meshhed is a great centre of caravan-
routes ; ancient Nishapur* is renowned as the birthplace
and abiding-place of Omar Khayyam ; Turshiz is the tradi-
tional town of Zoroaster, where the great prophet con-
verted Vishtaspa the king and. planted the sacred cypress ;
Budjurd and Astrabad are interesting as really Turanian
rather than Iranian towns. The dividing line between
Hyrcania and Parthia was never drawn definitely. In the
inscription of Darius the Great at Bisitun (Behistun), the
lands of " Parthva and Varkana " are mentioned together.
The name of Hyrcania (Varkana) survives in that of the
modern river Gurgan. Major Sykes had previously visited
the valley of the Atrek, in which Budjurd lies. His route

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

on this journey was taken from Meshhed to Budjurd.
thence to Astrabad, and back by way of Shahrud, Subza-
war, and Nishapur (the well-known old trade-route) to
Meshhed. On the way he made several interesting explora-
tions, and identified some ancient sites, notably that of
Paras, which is probably the ancient Parthian capital.
On his second journey he went to Nishapur and Turshiz.
At Nishapur he identified the sites of several ancient cities
which have been built near the spot from the original
Niv-Shapur of Sapor I. to the mediacv.'il Nishapur of Om.ir
KhayyAm and the entirely different modern town. .At
Turshiz Major .Sykes also made interesting discoveries.

In spite of having presented his unrivalled collection to
the nation. Lord Walsingham, as evident from a papf 1
on Madeiran Tinerinae in the November number of th'
Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, continues to devoii
attention to his favourite Micro-Lepidoptera. Two new
species are described in this communication.

Witiierby's British Birds for November contains a lon^^
list of birds marked in the British Isles which have been
recently recovered in various places, either at home or
abroad. Among the items may be noted a teal marked
in Essex in February and taken off Schleswig in August,
and a tern ringed in Cumberland in July and captured
south of Oporto in September.

In a paper on the tooth-billed bower-bird {Scenopceetes
dcntirostris) published in the Emu for October Mr. S. ^^".
Jackson states, as the result of continued observation, that,
as a rule, during the height of the breeding season thr>i
birds do not visit their play-grounds or indulge in mimic ^
vocalisation in the daytime, but reserve the latter per-
formance for the periods before sunrise and after sunset,
when they are in the tree-tops. During the nesting season.,
the play-grounds are silent, unoccupied, and, most signifi-
cant of all, untidy.

To the November number of Pearson's Magazine Mr.
Walter Brett contributes an appreciative notice of the bird
groups mounted in the Natural History Museum at; New
York. According to the author's own words, the birds in
these groups " positively breathe with life. Their pose is
natural ; their surroundings are true to nature ; their
throats almost tremble with the song one expects to hear.
And the reason of this is that these birds are life studies,
scientifically correct as well as artistically perfect. The
visitor knows they are stuffed only because he is aware
that they are in a museum, not in an aviary." The article
is illustrated with reproductions from photographs of
several of the groups.

No. 1766 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National
Museum is devoted to an account, by Miss Rathbun, of a
collection of stalk-eyed crustaceans, from the coast of Peru
and adjacent parts of South America. The most notable
additions to the fauna include a small crab of the genus
Dromidia — the first of its group from western South
America — and Panopaeus bermudensis, previously known
from the Atlantic, while examples of two species hitherto
represented by the types were also obtained. A noticeable
feature is the abundance of Xanthidae and Inachidae and
the scarcity of Parth'enopida; and shrimps of all kinds.
Many of these Peruvian crustaceans, especially hermit-
crabs, are used either as food or for bait.

At the commencement of a review of the species of
venomous toad-fishes of the genera Thalassophryne and
Thalassothia, published as No. 1765 of the Proceedings of
the U.S. National Museum, Messrs. Bean arid Weed state
that these fishes differ from all other members of the class
by possessing grooved or perforated spines, analogous to

November 17. iq»o]

NATURE

8=;

the fangs of venomous serpents, for introducing the poison
they secrete into the bodies of their victims. In a speci-
men of Thalassophryne reticulata examined by the authors
the poison-sac was found to occupy the whole length of
the under side of the spine. The position of the sac is
ich that any pressure tending to drive the spine into the
;in of another animal would produce a pressure on the
ic, and thus inject the poison with considerable force into
e wound.

The ova and larvae of teleostean fishes taken at
Plymouth in the spring and summer of 1909 form the
..bject of the chief article in the Journal of the Marine
■ ological Association (October). The work was specially
reeled to practical questions connected with the fishing
dustry, such as the location of spawning areas, the dura-
tion of the spawning period, and the relative extent of the
breeding of various kinds of fishes in the Plymouth area
rather than to details of purely biological interest, and
accordingly the descriptions of the eggs and larvae form-
ing the subject of the article bear special reference to the
means of ready identification at different stages of develop-
ment. A striking feature in the collection of pelagic
■ :Jgs was the overwhelming preponderance of those of non-
arketable species, such as rockling, rock-wrasse, boar-
~h. and dragonets. It may be assumed, if sufficient
uTiples be taken, that the relative abundance of eggs in
ihe plankton affords a trustworthy index to the pro-
portionate numbers of adult fish at the spawning season,
and it may therefore be expected that in inshore areas
such eggs should be largely those of rockling and wrasse.
nut this does not explain the predominance of dragonets,
ar-fish, &c., over whitings, dabs, plaice, and soles.
Although the latter are the objects of attention on the
part of trawlers, it is still an open question to what
xtent the present state of affairs may be attributed to
awling.

In the Biologisches Centralblatt (October 15) is published
le first portion of an article, by Prof. K. Goebel, on
xual dimorphism in plants, discussing the extent to
vhich dioecious plants are modified apart from the sexual
organs. Examples of specific differences in seed plants
. are rare. Cannabis sativa is often quoted as a good
, example, although the author doubts if there is much dis-
tinction in a praefloral stage ; he also questions whether
: is possible to distinguish staminate and pistillate speci-
aents of Cycas, Taxus, and Juniperus when not in flower.
\mongst cryptogams better examples occur, notably in
le case of such liverworts as Symphyogyne leptothele,
hich is figured. The fundamental reason for the differ-
nces lies in the necessity for providing more nourishment
for the products of the egg cell, and this also explains the
(lositions of the sexual organs in monoecious plants.

The current number of Tropical Life (No. 9, vol. vi.)
contains several articles on cotton cultivation both in the
British Empire and the United States. In Egypt, Mr.
Foaden points out, cotton occupies from one-half to one-
third of the total acreage of cultivated land in those
provinces where the conditions are suited to its growth,
while the value of the crop is from 25,000,000/. to
30,000,000/. annually. Unfortunately, there has been a
gradual fall in \ield per acre during the past few years,

he cause of which has been variously attributed to a rise

1 the subsoil water brought about by increased irriga-
on, to an increase in insect pests, and to soil exhaustion.

I hough the fertility of the Nile Valley is proverbial, the
jils are usually deficient in nitrogen ; crops show re-

aarkable increases when nitrate of soda is applied or
when a crop of clover — berseem — is ploughed in.

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

In the current number of the Fortnightly Review Mr-
J. Sa.xon Mills writes on the production of sugar from
sugar beet, which he regards as one of the most hopefuf
schemes yet suggested for the benefit of rural districts.
All the arguments in favour of the crop are set out con-
cisely, and some very persuasive statistics are given. FielJ
trials in Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Essex, and at Newnham
Paddox have shown that crops varying from 15 to 20 tons
per acre can be obtained containing 16 to 18 per cent, of
sugar, while the Continental crops are lower both in
quantity and in sugar content. Indeed, sugar beet is
actually grown on a commercial scale in parts of the
eastern counties, but is shipped to Holland to be worked
up in the Dutch factories. It is contended that factories
would prove highly advantageous in English countrj' dis-
tricts, and would also prove a remunerative investment.
.As several factories are already being started in England,
it ought not to be long before very definite information is
forthcoming on this question.

The report on the Experiment Station, Tortola, Virgin
Islands, for 1909-10, is to hand, and records certain^
improvements and additions to the station in connection
with the sugar and cotton work and the water supply.
The export trade in sweet potatoes and limes shows signs
of increasing, while it has also been shown that a limited
quantity of cacao could be produced for export. The cotton
industry received a check owing partly to a fall in price
and partly to bad weather ; early planting is recommended
as an improvement in cultivation. The report on the
Botanic Station, Agricultural School and Experimentaf
Plots, St. Lucia, 1909-10, shows that continued and steadv
progress is being made. During the year no fewer than
77.557 plants were sent out for distribution from the
station, against 43,492 for the previous year. A scheme for
prize-holdings competitions has been introduced, and will,
it is hoped, raise the general level of cultivation.

In a paper read at the November evening meeting of the
Pharmaceutical Society, Prof. H. G. Greenish and Miss
D. M. Braithwaite described a method by which the
presence of the drug-room beetle (Sitodrepa panicea) mav
be readily detected in powdered drugs. The quantity- of
beetle present in an infested drug is so small that its direct
examination under the microscope is practically impossible,
and it is therefore necessary to separate the particles of
insect from the drug before they can be observed. The"
process of separation devised by the authors is dependent
upon the fact that the hardened parts of the mature beetle
are of such a highly chitinous character and so extremely
resistant to the action of acids, alkalies, and oxidising
mixtures that it is possible to destroy the organic matter
of the powdered drug without destroying the beetle. It is
possible by means of the process described to detect
particles of beetle in a powdered drug containing
oooooi gm. of beetle in 5 gms. of powder. By the use
of this method it can be shown whether a powdered drug
is prepared from " worm-eaten " or sound material. In
the course of their investigations the authors found that
while the larvae of the beetles undoubtedly ingest con-
siderable quantities of starch, only a small proportion of
this appears to be digested. It seems probable that the
substances chiefly utilised as nutriment by the lar\ae are
not carbohydrates, but nitrogenous substances, such as the
remains of protoplasm, &c.

Blackhead is a highly infectious disease of turkeys
prevalent wherefver they are domesticated, and causes great
financial loss each year. The symptoms are voluntary
isolation, Stupor, loss of appetite, drooping of the wings.

86

NATURE

[November 17, 1910

and emaciation ; the disease is characterised by patho-
logical changes in the ca^ca, intestines, and liver, while
there are invariably present in the organs encysted stages
of a coccidium, and also an amoeba known as A. mclea-
gridis. In a long Bulletin issued by the Agricultural
Experiment Station of the Rhode Island State College
Drs. Cole and Hadley give a detailed summary of the
work so far done on the disease, and add a number of
observations of their own. Although but little advance
is recorded in the methods of prevention and treatment,
the bulletin will be found very useful to those interested
in diseases of birds, both by reason of its completeness
and for the evidence it offers that the cause is a
coccidium.

The United States laws dealing with commercial
fertilisers go further than our own in that they require
the name of the firm to be published along with the
analytical data dealing with the manures and feeding-
stuffs supplied. Bulletin 141 of the Purdue University
Agricultural Experiment Station gives the results of
analysis of several hundred fertilisers and feeding-stuffs,
together with the guarantee and the name and address of
the manufacturer. Any case of fraud is thus at once
exposed. The law is fully explained in the bulletin, and
several illustrative ' cases are quoted. There are also
tables showing the average composition of normal feeding-
stuffs, and of the materials used as adulterants.
Altogether, the bulletin gives a very good idea of the
work of an agricultural analyst in the United States. A
smaller bulletin on the same lines is sent us by the West
Virginia University Agricultural Experiment Station.

In one of a series of papers on the foraminifera of the
shore-sands of Selsey Bill, Sussex, Messrs. E. Heron-
Allen and A. Earland have described the forms derived
from Cretaceous sources (Journ. R. Microscopical Soc,
1910, p. 401). In all cases these have been compared with
specimens obtained from the hollows of flints in the same
deposits ; 1 18 species are identified, some of which are
new to the records from the Upper Chalk. Mr. Heron-
Allen offers a copy of a privately issued paper on Chalk
foraminifera, printed in 1894, to any worker who may
apply for it (address : Large Acres, Selsey). This earlier
paper contains complete directions as to preparing material
from the Chalk, as well as records of a number of species
found at Twyford, many of which were previously known
only in Cainozoic strata. It is pleasant to see that the
veteran Mr. Joseph Wright, of Belfast, remains an active
adviser on the work published in 19 10.

Copies have reached us of the valuable meteorological
charts of the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans for
December, and of the South Atlantic and South Pacific for
the season December, 19 10 to February, 191 1, issued by
the U.S. Weather Bureau. In the North Atlantic chart
Prof. Moore continues the useful practice of exhibiting, by
daily synoptic weather charts, specimens of the typical
cyclonic storms which occur in that month. One of these
disturbances, which was central near the Azores on
December 18, 1909, moved quickly across Great Britain
to the North Sea. The synchronous chart of December 21
shows that another storm dominated the entire northern
part of the ocean, that typical cyclonic circulation prevailed
from the American to the European continent, and that its
disturbing influence was felt so far south as Madeira.

An interesting application of the dilatometric method to
th-; study of the polymorphism of the alkali nitrates is
described by Prof. Bellati and Dr. Tinazzi in the Atti
del Reale Istitnto Veneto. It is shown that ammonium

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

nitrate undergoes an abrupt expansion at 35°, a contrac-
tion at 86°, and a second expansion at 125°, correspond-
ing with the three transition-points of the four modifica-
tions of the nitrate. Potassium nitrate undergoes an
abrupt expansion at 127°, rubidium nitrate at 161°,
ca;siuni nitrate at 148°, and thallium nitrate at 73° and
142° C.

In reference to Dr. Baker's remarks on the Theory of
Numbers at the Sheffield meeting of the British Associa-
tion (Nature, October 20, p. 514), Dr. Vacca, of Genoa,
sends us the following quotation from Euler (Nov. Comm.
Petr., vol. xvii., 1772, p. 25) : —

" Non dubito fore plerosque, qui mirabuntur, me in
huiusmodi questionibus evolvendis, quas nunc quidem summi
geometrae aversari videntur, operam consumere ; veruni
equidem fateri cogor, me ex huiusmodi investigationibus
tantumdem fere voluptatis capere, quam ex profundissimi^
geometriae sublimioris speculationibus. Ac si plurimun
studii et laboris impendi in quaestionibus gravioribu-
evolvendis, huiusmodi variatio argumenti quamdam mihi
baud ingratam delectationem affere solet. "

We learn from the Engineer for November 11 that the
Metropolitan Water Board intend to instal a battery of
Humphrey gas pumps for the reservoir which is being
constructed in the Lea Valley, near Chingford. A total
pumping capacity of not fewer than 180 millions of gallons
in twenty-four hours is required, made up of one unit
of 20 and four units each of 40 million of gallons. It is
understood that the Pump and Power Company, Ltd.,
offered to supply and erect on foundations provided by the
Board five pumps of these capacities, together with a
Dowson producer gas plant and all accessories, including
two electrically driven compressors for starting purposes,
for the sum of 19,388/. The guaranteed fuel consumption
is not to exceed i-i lb. of anthracite coal fed into the
producers per actual horse-power hour when working at
the normal full load during an official trial of six hours'
duration. The head to be pumped against is 29 to 30 feet,
including friction. Thus a power of about 250 pump
horse-power is required in each of the larger units. The
conditions are ideal for the Humphrey gas pump, but as
the power is larger than anything yet attempted by Mr.
Humphrey, the results of the experiment will be awaited
with considerable interest. At any rate, the Water Board
cannot be accused of being behind the times.

An article in the Builder for November 12 deals with
a novel type of timber construction evolved by Mr. Otto
Hetzer, of Weinar. In this new method the cross-sections
of timber beams are adapted to actual stresses as in the
case of riveted iron structures, and this is carried out by
means of a composite beam with variable cross-sections in
each given portion. A special glue being required, capable
of forming an inseparable whole out of a number of
composite parts, Mr. Hetzer seems to have succeeded, after
many 3'ears of work, in producing one which possesses the
required rapidity of binding, resistance against atmospheric
influences, and the property of increasing hardening. The
Hetzer compound beams are composed of three longitudinal
layers, the uppermost of which is a wood characterised
by a particularly high ' compressive strength (such as red
beech), and the lowermost of a wood of great tractive
strength (such as pine) ; the central portion need not be
of any specially resisting material. An upward parabolic
curvature is imparted to the central wood, so that in the
central cross-section, submitted to the highest stresses, the
whole of the deflection thrust is dealt with by this para-
bolic core and the lowermost layer. Satisfactory tests of
these beams have been made at the Institute of Charlotten-

November 17, 19 10]

NATURE

87

burg. Photographs of a bridge and several large roofs
constructed under Hetzer's system are included in the
article.

One of the chapters in the latest volume of '* The Cam-
bridge Modern History " (to be published on December 8),
dealing with " The Scientific Age," is written by Mr.
W. C. D. Whetham, F.R.S., who has undertaken the
important and difficult task of surveying the trend of
modern science in all its various departments. In this
chapter will be found considerations of the Darwinian
hypothesis, of evolution and religion, of electrical inven-
tion, of bacteriological treatment of disease, and other
phases of modern scientific progress.

The October issue of The Central, the organ of the
Old Students' Association of the City and Guilds of
London Central Technical College, maintains the high
standard previously reached by this periodical. The
number is well illustrated, the frontispiece being an excel-
lently reproduced portrait of Prof. W. J. Pope, F.R.S.
Among articles contained in this issue may be mentioned
hose by Mr. H. Clififord Armstrong on steel making;
-Messrs. W. Gore and D. Halton Thomson on rainfall,
<team-flow, evaporation, and reservoir capacity ; Mr.
Howard Mayes on boiler management ; and Mr. .A. G. T,
Glaisby on birds and photography.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.
Discovery of a Comet. — A telegram from the Kiel
Centralstelle announces the discovery of a new comet by
Dr. Cerulli on November 9. Its position at 8h. 2oSm'.
I Rome M.T.) was R.A.=3h. 38m. 36s., dec. =8° 43' 20'
v., and its daily motion amounted to —8s., - iq'. The
nagnitude is given as 102, and the comet's position lavs
about half-way between, but slightly below the line join-
ing, ( and X Tauri.

Metcalf's Comet (1910b).— Dr. Ebell publishes a con-
tinuation of his ephemeris for comet 1910b in No. 44^2
f the Astronomische Nachrichten. This ephemeris
overs the period November 13 to January 4, and shows
:hat the comet is now moving slowlv, in a north-easterly
direction, through Serpens towards Corona ; on December 8
it will be about ^° north of 5 Coronae, and of the twelfth
magnitude.

Recev-t Fireballs.— .\ large number of fireballs have
been observed during the last few weeks. The records of
their appearance are not, however, sufficientlv full and
accurate to enable their real paths to be computed except
in the cases where the objects were seen bv capable
observers.

The majority of the brilliant meteors have evidently
belonged to a shower of Taurids, which is often very
active in the first half of November, and is notable for
the magnitude and conspicuous aspect of its members.

.At loh. 24m.. November 9, one of the most interesting
of the fine meteors recently seen was not a Taurid, but
directed from a radiant at 312°+ 11° in the western skv.
It passed from over a point east of Yeovil to west of
Horsham at heights of 62 to 32 miles. The motion was
unusually slow, viz. about 12 miles per second. The
meteor sailed through the air in an apparently serpentine
course, its sluggish, wriggling flight being specially noticed
by observers at Bristol and other places, who mention it
as quite an exceptional feature. There is no known
shower at 312°+ 11° in November, but on November 2,
i8qi. Mr. Denning recorded a brilliant meteor close to its
radiant, estimated at 311°+ xi°.

Solar Activity and Terrestrial Temperatures. — An
important paper on the effect of solar changes on terres-
trial temperatures is published by Mr. W. J. Humphreys
in No. 2, vol. xxxii., of the Astrophysical Journal.

Mr. Humphreys accepts the interrelation of magnetic,
and auroral, disturbances and sun-spot changes as estab-
lished, and points out that terrestrial temperatures and
NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

rainfall are observed with sufficient accuracy to justify an
e.xamination of their relation to solar activity. Further,
he considers rainfall dependent upon temperature, which is
more accurately measurable, and so considers only the
latter.

Taking Abbot and Fowle's conclusion that sun-spot
maxima are accompanied by terrestrial temperature
minima, and vice versa, the average range being 1° C,
he points out the practical importance of a fuller know-
ledge of the nexus between these phenomena.

His conclusions, stated briefly, are that at spot maxima
the solar atmosphere is more fully charged with " dust "
(i.e. any particles capable of reflecting and scattering
light), and therefore, owing to selective absorption, the
proportion of ultra-violet radiations finally escaping will be
diminished. Ultra-violet radiations acting on cold, dry
oxygen, such as exists in the earth's upper atmosphere,
produce ozone, therefore at spot maxima the amount of
ozone will be less.

Further, it has been shown that ozone absorbs a much
greater proportion of the earth-reflected radiations than of
the incident solar radiations. Thus at spot maxima, with
less ozone, more heat will escape, and a lower tempera-
ture ensue ; the converse explains the observed rise of
temperature at spot minima.

This process is complicated by many factors, such as the
increase of ozone-producing aurorae at spot maxima, but
Mr. Humphreys suggests that the observed change in
terrestrial temperatures may depend largely, if not wholly,
upon the selective absorption of the direct solar and the
terrestrially reflected thermal radiations by the changeable
amount of ozone in our upper atmosphere.

Stars having Peculiar Spectra, and New Variable
Stars. — Circulars 158 and 159 of the Harvard College
Observatory contains lists of newly discovered variable stars
and stars having peculiar spectra. In No. 158 thirty-eight
new variables, chiefly discovered by Mrs. Fleming, are
tabulated, and there is also a list giving the positions,
magnitudes, &c., of nineteen stars of which the spectra
exhibit various peculiarities. Ten of these are of type vi..
three are of type v. with bright lines, four are gaseous
nebulae, and in the remaining two Hj8 is bright. In the
spectrum of the ninth-magnitude star DM. — 14° 5265 thf»
bright line appears to be of slightly greater wave-length
than H/8. but is not the 5007 nebula line, and on a Liter
photograph there is a trace of a bright line on the less
refrangible edge of the dark H/3 ; it is suggested that in
this spectrum the bright line mav be variable.

No. 159 contains a list of fifteen new variables dis-
covered on Nos. 7. 10. 16, and 10 of the Harvard Map,
and the usual analytical table shows that osi of the
probable variables on map 19 yet remain to be discovered.
It is also stated that the very red star +46° 1817 appar-
ently varies very irregularly.

The Discovery of Neptune.— No. 19^4 of La Nature
contains the complete text of the letter in which Leverrier
sent to Dr. Galle the results which led to the visual dis-
covery of Neptune. It is stated that the first time the
whole of this historic document has been published is in a
recent article by Dr. See in Popular Astronomy, and it is
suggested that the proper place for the original would be
in the museum of the Paris Observatory.

Variable Stars in the Orion Nebula. — No. 4451 of
the Astronomische Nachrichten contains a list of eleven
more stars, in the nebula of Orion, which are apparently
variable. The number of known variables in this nebula
now amounts to 1^6.

T//E BANQUET TO JUBILEE PAST-PRESI-
DENTS OF THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY.

'T'HE council and fellows of the Chemical Society
■*■ honoured five of their past-presidents who had com-
pleted their jubilee as fellows by entertaining them at a
banquet at the Savoy Hotel on Friday, November 11. A
large gathering numbering 250, including the Duke of
Northumberland, the Postmaster-General, the presidents of
the French and German Chemical Societies, and no fewer
than eleven past-presidents, was presided over by Prof.
Harold B. Dixon, F.R.S., the president.

88

NATURE

[November 17, 19 10

The names of the past-presidents who were being
honoured were : —

Elected President
Prof. William Odling, F.R.S. ... 1848 1873-5
The Rt. Hon. Sir Henry E.

Roscoe, F.R.S 1855 1880-2

Sir William Crookes, O.M.,

F.R.S 1857 1887-9

Dr. Hugo Muller, F.R.S. ... 1859 1885-7
Dr. A. G. Vernon Harcourt,
F.R.S 1859 1895-7

Unfortunately, Sir Henry Roscoe was absent through
illness.

After the loyal toasts had been duly honoured, the presi-
<lent gave that of the " Past-presidents who have com-
pleted their Jubilee of Fellowship." He referred to the
personalities of the jubilee past-presidents, and to the par-
ticular work in which each was more especially dis-
tinguished : Sir Henry Roscoe, for his research on
vanadium and as a pioneer educationist ; Sir William
Crookes, for his discovery of thallium, his researches on
the rare earths, the genesis of matter and diamonds, and
his brilliant discoveries in physics ; Dr. Hugo Muller, for
his researches on cellulose and discoveries in connection
with printing; Dr. Vernon Harcourt, for his researches
•on the rate of chemical change and his work as an
enthusiastic teacher ; and Prof. William Odling, the doyen
of chemistry, to whom all chemists will find it difficult to
fathom their debt of gratitude.

In replying to the toast. Sir Henry Roscoe, whose speech
was read by the president, drew on his reminiscences of
the thirty-one past-presidents of the society, all of whom
with the exception of two he had known, and of his
association with the society.

Sir William Crookes sketched the steps by which he was
led to the discovery of radio-activity. He stated that no
law is more certain than the law of change. Radium has
shaken our belief in the conservation of substance,, the
stability of the chemical elements, the undulatory theory
of light, and the nature of electricity; it has revived the
dreams of alchemists, and has cast doubt upon the verj'
existence of matter itself. Physicists are beginning to say
that there is no such thing as matter ; that when we have
caught and tamed the elusive atom and have split it into
•700 little bits these residual particles will turn out to be
nothing more than superimposed layers of positive and
negative electricity. Speaking of the War Office Com-
mittee of which he was a member, he stated that what
our country now most urgently requires is " brain-craft,"
the master of " hand-craft," and researchers who will
cultivate chemistry for its own sake.

Dr. Miiller commented on his association with the
■Chemical Society, on its rapid growth and increasing
activity.

Dr. Harcourt referred to the influence of the growth of
chemistry upon the teaching of the science as a part of
general education, and to the importance in education of
a knowledge of the general results of scientific inquiry and
of some insight into the methods by which such knowledge
has been gained. He mentioned the difficulty which the
teacher of chemistry finds in keeping himself abreast of
his subject, and the danger of teaching the latest hypo-
theses to students who are only studying science as a
part of education and chemistry as a part of science, if it
mislead them into believing that, because they have gained
the latest lights, they have a thorough grasp of the science.

Prof. Odling referred to his connection with the four
■past-presidents who, with him, were being entertained,
and with many of the older chemists, and of the associa-
tion of Oxford University with the society.

Sir Edward Thorpe proposed the toast of the honorary
and foreign members, which was replied to by Prof.
Haller, president of the French Chemical Society, and Prof.
Wallach. president of the German Chemical Society. At
the conclusion of his speech Prof. Haller presented, on
behalf of his society, a silver medal of Lavoisier to each
of the jubilee presidents in honour of the occasion.

The last toast of the evening, that of " The Guests," was
prooosed by Sir William Tilden and acknowledged by the
Duke of Northumberland, president of the Roval Institu-
tion of Great Britain, Mr. H. L. Samuel, the Postmaster-
■General, and Herr Generaldirektor S. Eyde, of Christiania.
NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

THE INTERNATIONAL ACROGEOLOGICAL

CONGRESS AT STOCKHOLM.
A FEW months ago (August 4) we reviewed the pro-
ceedings of the first International Agrogeological
Congress, held at Budapest in 1909. The second was held
this year simultaneously with the International Geological
Congress at Stockholm, as an experiment. It was well
organised by the local committee and well attended, the
membership numbering about 160. The sessions were
arranged to allow the frequent attendance of members at
the geological meetings in which they were likely to be
interested. But it seems to have been recognised by most
that the bonds of association between the two congresses
were not so close as to render it necessary, or even desir-
able, that they should be held at the same place and time;-
and it was decided by the council that the next meeting
should take place independently at St. Petersburg four
years hence. "

A prominent feature in connection with the congress was
the very interesting exhibition of specimens, maps and
instruments illustrating the science of the soil, which was
brought together in the rooms of the Technical School,
44 Miistersamuelsgatan. The Swedish exhibits, \vhich
naturally formed the greater part of this collection,
included sample-sections of the typical soils and subsoils
down to the underlying strata from which they were
derived. The sections of peat-mosses which showed chang-
ing conditions of accumulation were particularly note-
worthy. Excursions were made, both during and after the
congress, through selected districts and to the chief agri-
cultural stations, thus enabling the visitors to appreciate
the local methods of practical research, as well as to gain
personal knowledge of Swedish agricultural conditions.

The papers read at the meetings were grouped together
by their subject-matter, so that each session was devoted
to the discussion of a separate problem. As was to be
expected from the earnestness which has been thrown into
the study of soils in Germany, most of the papers were
given in German. Indeed, hardly any other language
was used at the sessions. At the opening meeting on
the morning of August 17, Prof. Gunnar Andersson
delivered his instructive presidential address on " The
Swedish soil-types and their distribution," in which the
geological bearings of the soil-study were allowed a
prominence which they rarely attained in the subsequent dis-
cussions. At the afternoon session the 'leit-motif' was
"The mechanical analysis of soils," with illustrative
papers by Dr. A. Atterberg (Sweden), Prof. P. Vinassa
de Regny (Italy), and Dr. W. Beam (Egypt).

At the subsequent sessions, on August 18, 19, 20, 22,
and 24, the following were the principal subjects of dis-
cussion : — " Colloids of the soil," introduced by papers by
Prof. E. Ramann (Germany) and Dr. D. J. Hissink
(Holland) ; " Preparation of extracts of soils for chemical
analyses," after papers by Prof. A. de Sigmond (Hungary),
Prof. A. Vesterberg (Sweden), and Prof. A. Rindell (Fin-
land); "Nomenclature and classification of soils," with
papers by Prof. E. W. Hilgard and Prof. R. H. Lough-
bridge (California), Prof. P. Kossowitsch (Russia), M-
B^la de Inkey (Hungary), and Dr. B. Frosterus (Fin-
land) ; "Systematic soil-surveying," with papers by Dr.
K. O. Bjorlykke (Norway), Prof. K. Gorjanovic-Kram-
berger (Croatia), and Prof. F. Sandor (Croatia) ; " The
analyses of peat soils," with papers by Dr. E. Haglund
(Sweden) and Dr. H. von Feilitzen (Sweden). There
were a few other papers, chiefly on the chemical side of
the subject, which did not fall under the above headings,
among them being an interesting general account of the
soils of Egypt, by Dr. W. Eraser Hume.

.-Xs a merely personal- impression of the proceedings
from a geologist's point of view, it may be remarked
that, with the rapid advance of specialisation in the study
of soils, the connection of the subject with geology seems
to have become more remote. It was only in the papers
dealing with the mapping of soils that geological con-
siderations were brought into prominence, and even then
only as a basis for specialised classification. For the rest,
it was toward physics, chemistry and plant-physiology
that the new methods of research approximated. The
major part of the papers dealt with the laboratory treat-
ment of soils, mechanically and chemically, and with the

November 17, 19 10]

NATURE

89

:.sultants of the varied treatments. In the process of
dismemberment it must often happen that the true
:ndividualit>- of a soil is lost, so that schemes of labora-
tory classification sometimes arbitrarily separate agri-

ultural similars and unite agricultural discordants. This

vas recognised in several of the discussions, and the
-rudents of the soil are now fully aRve to the complexity

f the problems needing investigation. In the opportunity
afforded for comparing and criticising the diverse methods

>f research the congress was eminently successful ; and on
: he social, side it was wholly pleasurable.

EDUCATION AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

'T^HE presidential address this year was devoted to the
^ topic of university education. Readers of N.atcre
lave already had an opportunity- of reading Principal
Miers's suggestive discussion of the relations of teachers
nd pupils at school, and of the change of method which
hould differentiate university from school education,
hicidenrally, the address raised the very practical question
f the present overlapping of the two, and led to the
ippointment of a research committee, with the president
as chairman, to investigate the subject and to report at
Portsmouth next year.
The presentation of the reports of the Section L re-
■arch committee on mental and physical factors involved
n education, and of the committee of Section H on the
-tablishment of a system of measuring mental characters,
vas made the occasion for a joint session of the two
~ ctions for the discussion of research in education. In
he refHDrt of the committee of Section L the gradual
uegration of a science of education, drawing its data, as
Prof. Schuyten wrote, from hygiene, anthropology, physi-
logy, normal and abnormal psychology, pedagogy", and
ociolog}', and yet with a common centre of reference and
.n inner coherence which set it apart from each of these
lated sciences, was indicated. The work in psycho-
)-dagogy now carried on in this country was briefly re-
. iewed, and it was shown that, in spite of the lack of
jnds which was everywhere reported, researches were on
lot in at least ten university centres. Prof. Green in his
ntroductory remarks showed how poorly off we are in
lis respect in comparison with such countries as Belgium,
France, Germany-, the United States, and even with
Russia, where the War Office, in discharging its responsi-
■lity for the education of the children of officers, main-
■'lins a professor and a laboratory for research work
ione. He also urged the imj>ortance of training for re-
archers in this as in all other branches of specialised
-search, a point which was subsequently taken up by
Dr. C. S. Myers and other speakers. Prof. Findlay ex-
plained how the university departments were in this matter
="nt from pillar to post. Treasury grants being refused on
ne ground that the Board of Education always looked
^^11 after their own, while the Board, on the other hand,
•1 set terms disavowed all responsibility for research work.
I he position, as the president said, is " disgraceful."

A typical illustration of more purely pedagogical research
> as contributed by Dr. T. P. Nunn in his sketch of the
i.ethods of algebra teaching worked out in the demonstra-
on schools attached to the London Day Training College.
I he old theorv of algebra, associated with the name of
Euler, in which the symbols are regarded merely as
numbers — " a large number of numbers " — has given place
» the view of Chrystal and others, to whom algebra is a
stematic science capable of development from its own
axioms. The difficulty of adopting this view for school
purposes is precisely the difficulty which faces the new
school of geography teachers, namely, that the rational-
-ing motive, the desire to build up a system for its own
ake, does not develop in the English schoolbov much
fore his sixteenth or seventeenth year. Dr. Nunn has
herefore based his method on the utilitarian motive, and
aims at every stage to exhibit the value of the results for
application. At the same time he seeks to complv with
the schoolmaster's demand that the subject shall have
■ training value." Thus algebra for school purposes be-
omes an instrument the capabilities of which are through-
out expired, and so extended, a kind of linguistic for
the (expression of thought operations. A large audience
XO. 2142, VOL. 85]

foltowed with keen interest Dr. Xunn's application of the
theory in such crucial instances as the factorisation of
a- — b', and the explanation of the product of two nega-
tives. The processes under his hand revealed the
behaviour of realities, and no longer, as of old, came out
of the void.

As an illustration of research upon mental processes
Dr. Spearman gave an account of an inquiry into in-
dividual variations of memory among some 400 subjects.
His results showed that the correlation coefficient between
different ways of memorising was always positive, or. in
other words, that the powers of memory sfiowed some
tendency to correspond, however the material upon whicfr
they were exercised might vary, while the more like two
performances were the greater was the degree of corre-
spondence. The common view that people of quick
memory forget more rapidly than those to whom memor-
ising is a slow process was shown to be erroneous, the
correlation coefficient between the two remaining the same
after a lapse of time. It was also shown that the differ-
ence between the two types could he largely traced to the
method of recall, the quick memory being predominantly"
auditory and motor, the retentive memory visual and ideal.
Finally, a high correlation was established between
memory and teachers' estimates of general intelligence, iir
spite of the fact that the data upon which the latter were
based were often obscure and variable.

The remainder of the sitting was occupied by a series
of papers and discussions on the measurement of intelli-
gence, in which accounts were given of practically all the
researches on this subject hitherto conducted in this
country. Dr. Otto Lipmann discussed the methods of
Binet and Simon (Annee Psychologiqtie, 1908, xiv.,
pp. i-94> and of Bobertag (Zeitschrift fiir ange-wandte
Psychoiogie, iv.). His paper has been printed in full in
The School World (October), so that here it will suffice
to say that in his opinion their methods do not promise
any certain test of a high degree of intelligence. We
associate intelligence of this character with depth and"
power of self-criticism ; but these things must be neglected
in experimental tests, JFor results which would demonstrate
the absence of these may be due to bodily condition or
temporary inattention. On the other hand, the tests of
Binet and Shnon will establish with certainty whether a
child is of sufficiently normal intelligence to be equal to
the public-school course. The importance of this achieve-
ment will be seen when it is remembered that under
English law a scfvool medical officer may at any moment
find it necessary to satisfy a l)ench of magistrates that a
particular child ought to be sent to a special school for
mentally defective children.

Mr. Cyril Burt described a series of experiments per-
formed with a group of elementary-school children at
Oxford, the result of which was to cast doubt uoon the
view that there is an intimate correspondence between
power of sensory discrimination and general intelligence.
A series of experiments with girls of secondary-school aue
at Liverpool tended to show that, by comparison with
simple sensory and motor tests, tasks involving higher and
more complex processes are less liable to be vitiated by-
absence of special training in the experimenter, and also
have a more intimate relation with intelligence. Mr.
William Brown discussed the mathematical technique of
the evaluation of the results of intelligence tests, and"
maintained that the method of multiple correlation should
always be employed.

Mr. J. G. Gray- asserted the value of f>erseveration as
an index of the quality- of intelligence, explaining per-
severation as dependent upon an elemental brain property-
which determines the persistence of mental impressions.
He described a modification of Wiersma's colour disc
devised by himself in order that the luminosity of the two
colours the fusion of which at a certain rotation speed"
gives the index of perseveration might be regulated by the
experimenter.

Mr. H. S. Lawson described a series of tests, based"
upon Binet 's, to which the candidates for scholarships at
a Midland secondary school were submitted. The order
thus established was correlated with the official scholar-
ship order in two successive years, the coefficients being^
0-217 ^"<i 0-48^. The tests had also been used to checlc
the official order of merit obtained from a term's marks

90

NATURE

[November 17, 1910

in Certain forms. In every case the correlation coefficient
was high.

Miss Katharine L. Johnson read an interesting paper on
ihe results of the application of Binet's tests to 200 school-
i^irls in Sheffield. In her experience one of the chief
difficulties was the personal equation of the experimenter.
It is impossible to maintain the same tone and expression
throughout, and children are very susceptible to sugges-
tion. It is also difficult, sometimes, to estimate the results.
She had found cases in which girls failed in the tests for
their own age or for the age preceding, and yet satisfied
the tests for a superior age.

Dr. E. Neumann's paper was summarised by Dr. Lucy
Iloesch Ernst. He cast a doubt upon the possibility of
determining a normal standard of intelligence for each
year of school life which would be of general validity
because of the difficulty of excluding acquired knowledge.

Dr. C. S. Myers entered a caveat against the collection
of masses of psychological data by untrained observers.
He was of opinion that the personal equation of the
observer could not be got rid of, and that therefore com-
parison of results was only possible within very narrow
limits. Racial differences in correlation are bound to
vitiate the results of the examination of a sample of a
heterogeneous people. But the main source of error lies
in the neglect of the introspective element. A test of
mental fatigue may in different subjects involve the play
of such complicating factors as boredom, duty, ambition.
It is only by individual introspection that we can deter-
mine exactly what factors an experiment involves. The
result derived from the wholesale collections made by un-
trained observers can be nothing but a blur in the psycho-
logical aspect, though a sort of standard of productiveness
may be obtained from them whereb}' we can measure the
individual.

Dr. \V. H. R. Rivers summed up the long discussion.
In his opinion the work done was well worth doing, and
marked a great advance regarded from the point of view
of the scientific psychologist. But an enormous amount
would still have to be done before the results could be
applied practically in education. The work, so far, had
been work with mass results, whereas the teacher wanted
to test the individual. In spite of what had been said of
the need for training in the investigators, it was all to
the good that teachers were beginning to take up psycho-
pedagogy.

On the third day of the meeting there was a series of
papers on practical work in schools. The Board of Educa-
tion's recent Memorandum on Manual Instruction came in
for a good deal of praise. Sir Philip Magnus, as an old
fighter in the cause of handicraft, urged that we should
not fold our hands until the Board's four principles were
everywhere observed, that handwork should be taught to
all intending teachers, and that there should be a con-
tinuous course of it in every school taken by the ordinary
teachers of the school. The president of the association
spoke of the value of handwork as fostering self-help and
initiative. Mr. J. G. Legge suggested the establishment
of a type of school for boys from twelve to fourteen in
which half the curriculum should be given to constructive
work, and half the day should be spent in the workshop.
Such a school would lead directly to technical training as
the next stage in the education of the pupils. Mr. James
Tipping described the vacation courses of the Educational
Handwork Association, in which many teachers have
acquired the manipulative skill, and at the same time the
pedagogical knowledge, needed by teachers of handicraft ;
and Dr. G. H. Woollatt outlined a hundred-hour course
for teachers in the making of scientific apparatus. Miss
Cleghorn, in closing the discussion, warned the audience
that enthusiasm in the teacher was a sine qua non, and
hinted, at the same time, that it was difficult to be
enthusiastic over the introduction of more subjects into
the too short school life of the ordinary child.

Mr. Blair's paper on the relations of science with com-
merce and industry has already appeared in Nature
(September 15). The subject is usually treated on both
sides in a spirit of vague vituperation which profits
nothing. Mr. Blair's skilful marshalling of a mass of
■evidence from university graduates, professors, business
men, and manufacturers all the world over will be of
• service to combatants on both sides who desire composi-

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

tion and not strife. In the short discussion which followed
Principal E. H. Griffiths advocated bringing home to the
lay mind the value of such work as Earaday's and
Lister's. We should then hear less of the disinclination to
believe in the application of science to business life and
industry. He also advised scientific men to leave the
language of the laboratory behind them when they came
into the market-place, recalling Sir George Reid's words
in the tests of intelligence discussion : — " It will be a
grand thing when our men of science really do know every-
thing they talk about, because when they do they will be
able to tell us what it all means in plain English."

Dr. Beilby thought that things were improving ; the
great need was more cooperation between the two parties.
The difficulty was to get the scientific man and the men
of the markets together. In joint committees of professors
and business men each side educated the others

Sir William White also thought that there was no reason
for alarm. We did not compare so badly with other
countries. True, our rivals were better organised, but
then organisation may paralyse effort. The young trained
graduate of the technical college would not straightway
apply his knowledge in industry ; he had not the knowledge
of practical business conditions. Such men should go
through post-graduate courses, if possible, in works'
laboratories. We must be content to train many mediocri-
ties in order to catch the man of brilliant ability, and
fortunatelv it takes all sorts to make the worlds of com-
merce and of industry.

Dr. Stead said that in the steel industry the value of
research was recognised. The manufacturers had reached
the point of wanting a little too much from research, and
in too short a time.

Dr. H. E. Armstrong also advocated a two or three
years' course in a work's laboratory for the technical-
school graduate, and quoted the example of Sir Lothian
Bell. Our organisation was at fault ; when that defect
was remedied the nation would soon regain its former
commanding position in manufacture and commerce.

On the last day of the meeting an interesting series of
papers was read on outdoor studies in schools of norma!
type. Prof. Mark R. Wright described the summer camp
of the Durham Training College, Mr. G. G. Lewis showed
what could be done by means of school iournevs for
London elementary-school children, and Mr. J. E. Feasey
explained how much the interest and practicability of
ordinary school work could be heightened by adapting it
to the conditions of the open air.

In the afternoon there was a livelv. though inconclusive,
debate on voic^ production, in which Dr. Grav, Prof.
Wesley Mills, Dr. Hulbert, Mr. W. H. Griffiths, Miss
Ormay, Dr. Chichele Nourse, Prof. Silvanus Thompson,
and others took part.

THE PRODUCTION AND USE OF ELECTRIC

POWER}
HTHERE are few subjects more important to the people
-'- of this country than the question of the rapid and
ever-growing rate at which we are using up our coal
supplies. Many writers have dealt with this subject, .and
have suggested various remedies.

It may be said that the rate at which we can use coal
is a measure of our industrial activity and prosperity.
This would be true, perhaps, if we were using our coal
without waste, or at least with reasonable economy, but
it is certainly not true of what we are at present doing.

Taking all the uses for coal into consideration, I believe
that we are getting back an amount represented by useful
work of one kind or another of much less than 10 per
cent, of the energy in the coal. We can never, of course,
hope to get anything like the full value of the energy in
the coal, but, on the other hand, throwing away more
than 90 per cent, of the value of our coal in the process
of conversion is of the greatest possible concern to the
country. Moreover, there is a further waste involved in
our present methods of using coal which is only second in
importance to the one I have spoken of. We now dis-
sipate nearly the whole of the valuable by-products con-

1 From the Inaugural Ad'^re"; delivpr -d a' the Institution of ELctrical
Engineers on November 10 by Mr. S. Z. de Ferrant'.

November 17, 1910]

NATURE

91

rained in the coal, consisting principally of fixed
nitr<^en.

It IS in the process of transformation of coal into work
in the form of heat and power that the great loss occurs,
as this is always a most difficult process, and requires the
highest scientific and practical skill to carry out with even
very moderate economy.

It has been proposed, with the view of accomplishing
the above ends, to treat the coal at central stations and
turn it into gas and distribute the energ>' in this form,
but this process onh" goes a small way towards a solution
of the problem, as under it combustion — which is such a
difficult problem — would be taking place at numerous
points over the whole country, all tending to inefficiency,
and the conversion of the gas into power is by no means
easy, involving running machiner\- of the reciprocating
class, requiring special and skilled attendance.

It appears that with a problem such as we are dis-
cussing it is fundamental that the energ\- in the coal
-hould be converted at as few centres as possible into a
form in which it is most generally applicable to all pur-
poses without exception, and in which it is most easily
applied to all our wants, and is, at the same time, in a
form in which it is most difficult to waste or use
improperly.

U'e are therefore forced to the conclusion that the only
complete and final solution of the question is to be obtained
by the conversion of the whole of the coal which we use
for heat and power into electricity, and the recover}.' of
its by-products at a comparatively small number of great
f lectricity-producing stations. All our wants in the way of
light, power, heat, and chemical action would then be met
by a supply of electricity distributed all over the country.

It must, however, be remembered that the distribution of
energy in the form of etectricit>- instead of coal can onlv
be effectively carried out when it can be done in such a
way that it is available for all the purposes for which
coal is now used, and this can only be the case when the
conversion is effected at such an efficiency as will cause the
electric energy delivered to represent a high percentage of
the energy in the coal. Failing this, no scheme for con-
version at the pit's mouth and delivery of energv in the
form of electricity is sound. There is also another con-
trolling factor which must be satisfied in order to make
•his scheme possible. Both the conversion of the coal into
electricity and the distribution of the current must be
ffected at a k»w capital cost, so as not to overburden the
undertaking with capital charges.

Considering the various processes of conversion which
nre now available, or may be invented, and their
possible and probable efficiency, we first come to electric
ilenerators driven by reciprocating steam engines. Their
conomy, expressed in the form of energ>- in the coal to
■electric energ}-. may be taken as a maximum of lo to
12 per cent. This is, of course, far too low an efficiency
ta make any scheme such as I have already indicated
possible, besides which the capital expenditure and the
1 omplication involved are far too great and the size of the
units too small to be thought of for the punx)se in view.

-We next come to large steam turbines such as have been
constructed up to the present, and see that their maximum
tficiencv mav be put down at about 17 to 18 per cent.

Next in the list, in order of economv, comes the big
-ias engine fed from gas producers, with an elficiencv of
■ oal energv to electric energv of possiblv 25 per cent.

In the future we have to look towards two other means
of conversion — the gas-turbine-driven electric generator and
the production of electricity in some more direct wav from
the coal : but these two means of conversion, although
being capable of giving the most efficient results, are so
much in th° distance that they are quite bevond our
present consideration.

-After ver\- careful thought on the subject I have come

to the conclusion th.qt, in order to supplv electricitv for

ill purposes, it would be necessary, amongst other things.

> have n conversion efficiency of not less than 25 per cent.

For the purpose of looking into this question I have

taken the figures of production and consumption given in

the report of the Roval Commission on Coal, which clearlv

-ummarises the position as it stood a few vears ago. and

is the increase taking olace is fairlv regular these fiaures

have be«-n taken throughout. .According to this report 167

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

million tons of coal were being used in the country in
1903. Of this amount 2 million tons went to coasting
steamers and 15 million tons were used by the gas com-
panies. In order to simplify matters and make the figures
clear, I have left out of consideration the coal used on
these two items, and taken the balance — viz. 150 million
tons — as the annual coal consumption of the countr}". If
now, instead of using this coal for doing work, as at
present, we were to convert it into electricity, we should
use, instead of 150 million tons, 60 million tons of coal a
year. This coal, turned into electricity, would produce
131,400 million Board of Trade units, and the electricity
so produced would, after allowing for losses of transmission
and conversion into work of different kinds, be sufficient
to supply the whole of our requirements now being satisfied
by the use of the 150 million tons of coal which we now
burn.

Summarising the whole position, it may safely be said
that, wherever coal, gas, or power are now used, every-
thing for which they are used will be better done when
! electricity is the medium of application.
I Hardly less in importance in the all-electric scheme is
the question of the by-products which become available by
j the proper use of our coal. These consist principally of

fixed nitrogen, together with tar and oils.
I Fixed nitrogen in the forms of sulphate of ammonia,
[ nitrate of soda, and nitrate of lime are most valuable
I fertilisers, and enable land continually to produce the
j same crops with a greatly increased yield per acre. Much
i has been done in finding out how best to utilise thes»^
j artificial fertilisers, but no doubt a great deal more will
j be done in this direction, and fertilisers will be prepared.
I with fixed nitrogen as their principal constituent, which
! best suit the particular soils and crops that it is desired
i to deal with.

According to last j-ear's Board of Trade returns, we
now grow about 23 per cent, of the total wheat that we
use and import 77 per cent. Of the barley used we grow
59 per cent, and import 41 per cent., and of the oats used
78 per cent, is home grown and 22 per cent, imported.
Last year we devoted 7I million acres to the cultivation
of these crops.

Much is being done to improve the yield of corn crops,
j and it is probable that with scientific treatment in the
; production of the seed, in the sterilisation of the ground,
and in the application of fertiliser, we may look at no
j distant date to an increased yield of 50 per cent, in these
crops upon what is now being produced per acre. The
[ most vital feature, however, in bringing this about, once
i we have acquired sufficient knowledge, is an ample supplv
of fixed nitrogen to use as fertiliser, and it is when con-
sidered from this point of view that a scheme which sup-
plies this from our coal as the result of saving present
waste is most important.

With the increased yields which we have mentioned we

could produce corn crops sufficient to supply the whole of

our requirements upon 11 million acres. This would re-

: present 233 per cent, of our present cultivated area, and

would only be an addition of 3^ million acres to the land

j now used for the purpose of growing these same crops.

The value of these additional crops would be about 58

I millions sterling, based upon the prices which we paid

I last year, and to this would have to be added the value

of the straw and the other wheat by-products, which would

\ go a long way towards providing the food for growing

j the additional meat which we require to supply our demand

} at home.

I In order to fertilise the land we should have available.
I under the all-electric scheme, 3 million tons, or its nitrogen
equivalent, of sulphate of ammonia. This, if used over the
! whole of the 46I million acres now under cultivation,
would give 143 lb. per acre : but, of course, the fertiliser
would be distributed according to the nature of the land
and the crops being grown. It is probable that in these
circumstances the increased yield of" the land now culti-
vated would not only give us all the grain that we should
require for food, but also all the foodstuffs, partlv as
by-product from the grain and partly grown, that would
be required for raising the cattle, sheep, and other animals
necessary to suoplv the whole of our wants.

It is now beginning to be understood that intensive
farming of the land also involves intensive cattle raising.

92

NATURE

[November 17, 1910

and that it Is very advantageous greatly to reduce the
amount of grass land and instead to grow crops intensively
cultivated, as in this way a given amount of land can
be made to produce a much larger yield.

Sulphate of ammonia is a particularly good fertiliser for
the purpose of growing sugar beet, and here again it is
probable that the availability of large quantities of this
fertiliser at a very much lower price than at present pre-
vails would enable us to produce the whole of our sugar
at home, especially as the by-product, obtained in the
form of crushing* from the beet, is a very valuable food
for cattle raising, and also as the crop is a very suitable
one for growing alternately with wheat.

If it was found that a larger amount of fertiliser than
the 3 million tons of sulphate of ammonia, which would
be the principal by-product from 60 million tons of coal
turned into electricity, could be advantageously used, this
would be very economically produced from the electrical
station by the oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen, giving
a valuable fertiliser in the form of nitrate of lime. This
could be made intermittently by means of current filling
up the load curve, and would not necessitate the expendi-
ture of any more money on plant for generation or trans-
mission of the current. It would, however, require the
burning of additional coal, and this in itself would add to
the sulphate of ammonia available.

It is assumed by many people that the climate of this
country is largely unsuitable for the purpose of growing
food, and for this reason it is thought that we can never
grow the food which we require. This is largely a mis-
conception, as crops both large in quantity and of good
quality can be produced in this country. Nevertheless, it
would be a desirable thing if, instead of the dark weather
that we now often experience ow'ing to cloud obstruction,
we could have continuous sunshine at certain times of the
year. The amount of sunshine would, no doubt, be largely
increased by the abolition of all smoke in the air, as not
only does the smoke itself obscure the sun, but also it
seems to have the effect of assisting the formation of
■cloud, which greatly diminishes the light and heat which
we receive.

At present it is considered quite right and reasonable
to canalise rivers and make great works for adding to
the fertility of countries by means of irrigation, but I
believe that in the future the time will come when it will

be thought no more wonderful largely

to control our weather than it is now

thought wonderful to control the water

after it has fallen on the land. I think

that it will be possible to acquire know-
ledge which will enable us largely to

control by electrical means the sunshine

which reaches us, and, in a climate

which usually has ample moisture in the

atmosphere, to produce rainfall when

and where we require it.

It seems to me that it may be possible,

when we know a great deal more about

electricity than we do to-day, to set up

an electrical defence along our coasts by

which we could cause the moisture in

the clouds to fall in the form of rain,

and so prevent these clouds drifting over

the country between ourselves and the

sun which they now blot out. It also

seems to me that it will be possible,

when more water on the country is re-
quired, to cause the falling of rain from

the clouds passing over the highest part

of the country, and so produce an abund-
ance of water which, properly used,

would greatly add to the fertility of the

country.
Of course, it may seem that these are

only mad visions of the future, but I

think we can hardly consider these
results more improbable than anyone

would have considered wireless tele-
graphy or fiight in heavier-than-air machines fifty years

ago. My excuse for mentioning these matters here is that

they might constitute another great use of electricity, and

thtiT useful consummation would certainly be facilitated by

an abundant supply of electrical energy.

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

At piesent, although the using of our coal may mean
commercial activity, it certainly means the desolation of
the country in parts where it is largely used. Instead of
this harm being done to the country by our coal, we should
fertilise the lands by its means, and might even, as I
have indicated, use it in the future to increase our sun-
shine.

Of course there are many things which at present stand
in the way of realising such a scheme as I have outlined.
There are many technical details which nothing but an
immense amount of work can solve satisfactorily. There
are also political and legislative difficulties standing in the
way, but these, when the time arrived, would have to be
got rid of rather than allow them to handicap the advance
of the country. The more, however, that I have con-
sidered these ideas in detail, the more certain am I of the
fundamental soundness underlying them, and that it is
only a matter of time before such a scheme is carried out
in its entirety.

What interests us most, perhaps, is the question of how
long it is likely to be before the all-electric idea becomes
possible. At present there is so much required to be done
to make it workable in all its details that it seems as
though its realisation would be long deferred. It must,
however, be remembered that knowledge is continually
being acquired which brings us nearer to its realisation,
and that things engineering, and especially in electrical
engineering, now move very rapidly. It may therefore
come to pass that the all-electric idea, with its far-reaching
changes and great benefits, will become an accomplished
fact in the near future.

MATAVAl^l]: A NEW VOLCANO IN SAVAII
(GERMAN SAMOA).'

T^ HOUGH not the seat of government, Savaii is the
''- largest of the Samoan Islands in the Central Pacific
Ocean. It has a backbone of volcanic mountains, some
of which rise to a height of more than 4000 feet ; most
of them are extinct or dormant, but there have been
several small eruptions within the last 200 years, and one
as lately as 1902.

The volcano of Matavanu was formed in 1905 to the

Photo.\

Fig. I. — Steam Clouds from Lava falling into the Sea.

[■/'. Ande7Son.

north of the main ridge, and near the centre of the island.
The early part of the eruption was characterised by
explosions, and the ejecta were mainly solid, but later on
1 Abstract of a Di<course delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday,
April 29, by Dr. Tempest Anderson.

November 17, 19 10]

NATURE

93^

in enormous quantity of very fluid basic lava has been
Jischarged. This has flowed by a sinuous course of about
ten miles into the sea, devastated some of the most fertile
land in the island, and covered it up with lava fields
probably not less than twenty square miles in area.

The crater contains a lake, or rather river, of molten

Fig. 2. — Pit Crater in Lava Field, on the line of the Lava Tunnel to the Sea.

lava so fluid that it rises in incandescent fountains, beats
ii waves on the walls, and rushes with great velocity
iown into a gulf or tunnel at one end of the crater.
The lava, still liquid, runs in a passage, or perhaps system
f passages, under the surface of the lava field, its course
in<i traceable by a line of large fumaroles until, still

1

The term pillow lava, originally applied to the results
of a peculiar form of spheroidal weathering, is now-
extended to various smooth-surfaced lobular masses, which
have been considered by Teall, Cole, and Gregory to be
formed by lava flowing into water. This view has been
combated by others; but Dr. Anderson watched the process
actually going on, and photographed the.
results.

The fornSation of ordinary " cocded-
lava " or " pahoehoe " takes place by a
kxral quiet outflow of lava which forms
a pool or lobe. The surface, being
slowly cooled by the air, forms a more
or less tenacious, treacly scum, which is
pushed forward by the liquid mass under-
neath, and is puckered up into a cord or
festoon. While this is taking place the
new surface is becoming treacly, and in
its turn is pushed forwacd into another
fold, and so on until the whole surface is
solidified, often with a very regular
pattern.

Dr. Anderson said he had seen this
taking place on Vesuvius, and had
watched the same process going on at
the sea-level at Matavanu. The surface
of the lobes, however, being in that case
exposed to the waves, was rapidly chilled,
and solidified before it had time to be
pushed forward to form " corded struc-
ture." A photc^raph of a recent flow
into the lagoon showed corded structure
above high-water mark, while lower
down there was ever}- transition into
t>-pical pillow lava.

The surface of the lava field shows

several large pits along the line of

the lava-eonduit to the sea, out of which

steam and vapours escape. They are larger than ordinary

fumaroles, and appear to be formed by the remelting and

falling in of the crust owing to the heat of the lava which

flows beneath. The sections exposed in their walls show

the lava field to consist of numerous \tr\ thin beds, partly

surface flows, but probably in many cases intrusive sheets.

Ihis structure is very similar to that of

the " pit craters " in Hawaii, the mode

of formation of which is still unsettled.

Possibly they may have been formed in

the same way.

Other interesting points noticed were
the formation of moulds by lava flowing
round living tree trunks. The trees
were, of course, killed, and when they
decayed hollows were left corresponding
to their former shapes. Occasionally,
after the lava had solidified round a tree
the remainder had flowed away ; when
the tree decayed a sort of hollow pillar
was thus left, in which smaller plants
sometimes grew.

2

I'keto.]

Fig, 3. — Las a in 1 agjoa corteu aoov

jw i_a\ci

n a fluid condition, it reaches the sea, into which it flows
vith energetic explosions and the discharge of large
volumes of steam, black sand, and fragments of lava.
^\ here the action is less violent a structure resembling that

t some varieties of pillow lava is produced.

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

UN/VERSnV A\D EDi'CA-
IIONAL INTELLIGENCE.

BiRMiXGH.AM. — ^The Huxley lecture will
be delivered on November 23 by Prof.
Percy Gardner, professor of classical
archaeology in the University of Oxford.
The subject of the address is '* Rational-
ism and Science in Relation to Social
Movements. "

Bristol. — In connection with the
faculty of engineering provided and main-
tained in the Merchant Venturers'
Technical College, a course of five
monthly lectures on " .\viation " has been arranged. The
selected lecturers are Prof. \V. Morgan, Mr. .\. R. Low,
Mr. E. S. Bruce, Mr. L. Blin Desbleds, and Mr. Joseph
Clarkson.
.A new wing erected for the chemical and physiological

94

NATURE

[NOVF.MBER 17, 1910

departments of the University, at a cost of 50,000^., was
opened by Lord VVinterstoke on November 15.

Cambridge. — On Saturday last, November 12, a large
assembly of physicists from all parts of Great Britain, and
many members of the University, came together in the
Cavendish Laboratory on the occasion of the presentation
to Sir J. J. Thomson of a volume entitled " A History of
the Cavendish Laboratory, 1871-1910." The volume had
been prepared to commemorate the completion of the
twenty-fifth year of Sir Joseph Thomson's tenure of the
Cavendish professorship of experimental physics. The
presentation was made by Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, director
of the National Physical Laboratory, who was for many
years associated with the late and present Cavendish pro-
fessors. The volume begins by recording the fact that
perhaps no post in the world has held three men of such
supreme and varied genius as James Clerk-Maxwell, Lord
Rayleigh, and Joseph John Thomson. It contains a re-
markable record of work, and concludes with a list of the
memoirs which have been published in connection with
the Cavendish Laboratory, which extends over forty-two
pages, and a list of some two hundred men of science who
have researched in the laboratory. We hope to publish a
review of the volume in an early issue.

Mr. A. Hutchinson, of Pembroke College, has been
appointed chairman of the examiners, for the Natural
Sciences Tripos, iqii.

Mr. J. -S. Edkins, of Gonville and Caius College, has
been approved by the general board of studies for the
degree of Doctor in Science.

Liverpool. — On November 14 the honorary degree of
LL.D. was conferred by the University upon Sir Archibald
Geikie, K.C.B., president of the Royal Society.

Oxford. — The Herbert Spencer lecture on " Evolution,
Darwinian and Spencerian," will be delivered by Prof. R.
Meldola, F.R.S., on December 8 at 2.15 p.m.

It is announced in Science that the State legislature of
Arkansas has voted 70,000/. for the erection of four agri-
cultural schools, and 100,000/. additional has been raised
by the cities.

We learn from the Revue Scientifique that the buildings
of the medical faculty of the University of Toulouse were
•partially destroyed by fire on October 27. The library of
more than 60,000 volumes was burnt entirely, and also the
physiological lecture theatre and other rooms.

The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc-
tion for Ireland has issued a programme of the Irish
Training School of Domestic Economy for the session
191 1-2. The school is situated at St. Kevin's Park,
Kilmacud, Stillorgan, co. Dublin. The premises stand in
grounds of about three acres, and the house provides ample
accommodation for the staff and students, in addition to
class and recreation rooms. A large fruit and vegetable
garden is attached to the house. At the close of each
school year, the Department, on consideration of the results
of the examination held at the close of the course of
household management, and the reports of their inspectors
and of the teaching staff, selects for training as teachers
of domestic economy a limited number of students who
have shown themselves most capable of taking full advan-
tage of the course of training provided. The course of
training extends over at least two whole sessions, and
involves a complete course of domestic economy suitable
for teachers of this subject. It includes the principles of
practical elementary science involved in domestic work ;
cookery ; laundry ; dressmaking and home sewing ; house-
wifery (including household routine and the keeping of
accounts) ; and practice in the teaching of these subjects.
Practical instruction in home hygiene and sick nursing is
afforded, and instruction is given in the theory and practice
of education.

In a letter to the Yorkshire Observer of November 11
Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., urges the need for the pro-
vision in this country of a larger number of scholarships
for research. " Why, in the name of all that is sacred
to the industrial welfare of this country, are not some
of the vast sums now devoted to educational purposes
available for research scholarships in existing institu-
tions? " asks Prof. Meldola. Later in his letter he says,

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

everything is ripe for the movement. There are com-
petent teaching staffs ; there is always a supply of promis-
ing students ; there are funds from county councils and
from public and private endowments ; and there is the
Treasury behind the Board of Education. There are
scholarships given for all kinds of purposes other than for
the continuation of the education of the most promising
technical students in the institutions in which they re-
ceived their preliminary training so as to enable them to
add one or two years in learning to wield that most
powerful of all educational and industrial weapons — the
faculty of originality. And to crown all, the manufac-
turers and employers in this country are now beginning
to take a more enlightened view of the situation, and are
prepared to employ such men — when they can get them.
It seems preposterous that year after year we should see
ability, talent, and even genius slipping through our hands
for want of means, when educators on one hand and
employers on the other are both ready to play their part
in promoting the industrial development of the country.
We want, he concludes, a system of technical research
scholarships which will be looked upon as a distinction to '
gain, for none but the most competent would be allowed
to hold them. We want through such means to strengthen
and encourage the work of the teachers by filling their
laboratories with research students, and we want to
advance British industry by handing over to the manu-
facturers the picked material from our educational institu-
tions. As a leading article in our contemporary points
out, there is no reason why the success which has attended
the efforts of Prof. Arthur G. Green and his colleagues
at Leeds L'niversity in encouraging among the advanced
students of applied chemistry research in connection with
the art of dyeing should not follow similar efforts in other
centres.

In Dr. Muir's report on education in Cape Colony in
1909, which has come to hand, he shows that in 1891 there
were five colleges in the colony where students could
pursue courses of study for a university degree, viz. the
South African College, Cape Town, the Diocesan College,
Rondebosch, the Victoria College, Stellenbosch, St.
Andrew's College, Grahamstown, and the Gill College,
Somerset East. A large proportion of the teaching power,
however, in all these institutions was given to what
was, projierly speaking, school work, namely, the prepara-
tion of large classes for matriculation. Mathematics and
chemistr\-, too, were the only sciences for the teaching of
which provision was made. From its inauguration the
policy pursued by the Education Department kept three
aims in view. The first was the removal of the matricula-
tion classes from the colleges, so that professors might
have more time for advanced work, while the pupils of the
junior classes might in the public schools be under a
discipline more suitable to their years. The second was
the institution of new professorships, . more especially in
the sciences, until then unrepresented ; and the third was
a reduction in the number of colleges — a number which
seemed at the time excessive for the total number of
students. \'ictoria College, Stellenbosch, was the first
that agreed to part with its matriculation classes, the
junior class in 1896 and the senior in 1899. In the latter
year the South -African College was induced to follow the
example. Al present practically all the colleges have ceased
to retain matriculation classes. Since 1891 there have been
instituted in connection with the colleges professorships of
physics, applied mathematics, geology, botany, and zoology.
In addition to the then existing courses in arts, law, and
survey, there have been opened new courses in arts as
well as professional courses in mining, civil and electrical
ei;gineering, medicine (preliminary), and forestry. On the
literature side there has also been development, professor-
ships in history and lectureships in Hebrew having been
established in connection with the larger colleges. The
n;ovement towards greater concentration of effort in fewer
colleges has been brought to a successful issue in the
eastern province. The Gill College, .Somerset East, has
been closed, St. .Andrew's College has restricted itself to
school work, and in Grahamstown, by the happy union of
all interests, the Rhodes University College has taken
their places and become the centre of higher education for
the eastern province.

November 17, 1910]

NATURE

95

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
London.
Royal Society, November lo. — Sir Archibald Geikie,
K.C.B., president, in the chair. — Sir George Darwin :
<i) The tidal observations of the British Antarctic Expedi-
tion, 1907 ; (2) a mistake in the instructions for a certain
apparatus in tidal reductions. — F. Soddy and A. J.
Berry : Conduction of heat through rarefied gases. — II.
The thermal conductivities of argon, helium, and hydrogen
at very low pressure have been examined in greater detail
with new and improved apparatus. The hypothesis pro-
visionally put forward (Roy. Soc. Proc. A, vol. Ixxxiii.,
1910, p. 254), that the interchange of energy on impact
is imperfect in the lighter gases, has been tested and
found not to account for the smallness of the ratio (K/Q)
of the found to the calculated conductivities. The con-
ductivity of hydrogen using a palladium hot w^ire is the
same as that with a platinum wire. Change of tempera-
ture of the hot surface, that of the cold surface remain-
ing constant at room temperature, does not exert so much
influence on the value of K as was anticipated. The value
of K/Q tended to diminish as the difference of tempera-
ture increased, especially at high temperatures. At low
temperatures, attained by immersing the apparatus in
liquid air and in solid carbon dioxide and ether, the ratio
K/Q is diminished, whereas on the hypothesis of imperfect
interchange of energy an increase was expected. Jacket-
ing the apparatus with vapwurs up to 264° caused an
increase in the value of K/Q. It appears that, most prob-
ably, increase in the difference of temperature between the
surfaces tends to decrease the value of K/Q, whereas in-
crease in the temperature of both surfaces increases it.
Argon under some of the new conditions tried conforms
lo the theory hardly better than the other gases, and the
agreement found previously was probably fortuitous. The
general conclusion is that the conductivity at low pressures
varies less with the nature of the gas and with the tempera-
ture of the experiment than is to be expected from kinetic
considerations. The extreme values found for the con-
ductivities of the three gases over a range of about 450°
lay between 08 and 3-4, whereas the calculated values lie
between 095 and 16-2 (X 10- * calorie, per sq. cm. of hot
surface, per i° difference of temperature, per 001 mm.
pressure of gas). — W. H. Hatfield : The chemical physics
involved in the precipitation of free carbon from the alloys
of the iron-carbon system. The intention of the author
is to examine the conditions under which free carbon is
produced in iron and steel. Whereas it has been an open
question as to whether or not free carbon could be pro-
duced direct from the solid solution, the paper is intended
to prove the truth of the theory that free carbon can only
he produced by the dissociation of the free carbide. It is
hoped to demonstrate that this theory holds good through
the whole range of the alloys in which free carbon,
whether as graphite or annealing carbon, is found. After
the presentation of evidence in support of this view of the
production of graphite in and near the freezing range,
experiments, performed to determine the chemical physics
underlying the liberation of annealing carbon in white
cast iron, are described. By the electrolytic method of
analysis the cementite carbide was obtained from such
irons of varying composition, and it is shown how, by
varying the percentage of silicon, manganese, or sulphur
in the iron, the composition of the cementite is modied
and its degree of stability at varying temperatures deter-
mined. It is also shown that the size and structure of
the precipitated annealing carhop is largely due to the
size and structure of the original cementite. Experiments
performed to produce annealing carbon in blister steel
during the cementation process are then described, after
which an explanation of the phenomena of " black " steel
is discussed ; it is shown that the free carbon found in
'such steels may present one of two formations, each pro-
duced under different conditions. The author further
endeavours to demonstrate that whilst the free cementite
carbide is dissociated at high temperatures through the
whole range of the alloys, the carbide remaining in solid
solution does not dissociate until the resolution of the solid
solution into the carbide and iron of the pearlite, at the
carbon change point. — Dr. F. Norton : A spectroscopic
investigation of the nature of the carriers of positive elec-

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

tricity from heated aiuminium phosphate. The emission
of positive ions from substances heated in a vacuum has
been investigated by several experimenters, and it has
been found that the ratio of the charge to the mass of the
ions is the same for all the substances so far experimented
on. .Assuming that the charge is equal to that carried
by the hydrogen ion in electrolysis, the mass of the carriers
of positive electricity from heated substances must be
about twenty-six times that of the hydrogen atom. The
object of this research was to obtain the spectrum of these
ions. .Aluminium phosphate was chosen for investigation,
because of the very large positive ionisation produced on
heating this substance. -A calculation showed that, with
the apparatus used, it might be expected to collect a
sufficient quantity of the carriers to obtain their spectrum
in a small vacuum tube. The vessel used to collect the
carriers was cooled in liquid air during the passage of the
thermionic current from a strip of platinum covered with
aluminium phosphate to a surrounding platinum cylinder.
The material collected was then allowed to vaporise, and
its spectrum was obtained by rendering it luminous with
an electrodeless ring discharge. The spectrum of carbon
monoxide was always obtained, although precautions had
been taken to exclude this gas, or materials which might
give rise to it, from the apparatus. It is concluded, there-
fore, that the positive ions consist of carbon monoxide,
the molecular weight of which agrees fairly well with that
required by the results of the e/nt determinations. It is
considered improbable that this gas is evolved on heating
every substance which has been experimented on in the
determinations of the specific charge, but from the nature
of the apparatus used it must always have been present
during these determinations. In the paper reasons are
given for believing that molecules of carbon monoxide
readily act as carriers of positive electricity, and this gas
probablv diffuses into the hot metal or other substance
and is evolved in an ionised state.- — N. Bohr : The deter-
mination of the tension of a recently formed water-surface.
Arguments in further support of the author's previous con-
clusion, that the surface tension does not change sensibly
with the time that has elapsed since the surface was
formed. — Lord Rayleigrh : .Aerial plane waves of finite
amplitude. — -J. J. Manley : Observations on the anomalous
behaviour of delicate balances, and an account of devices
for increasing accuracy in weighings. — Prof. F. \A .
Dyson : The improbability of a random distribution of
the stars in space. — G. I. Taylor : The conditions
necessary for discontinuous motion in gases. — The Hon.
R. J. Strutt : (x) The radium content of basalt;
(2) measurements of the rate at which helium is produced
in thorianite and pitchblende, with a minimum estimate of
their antiquity-
Royal Microscopical Society, October 19.— Mr. E. T.
Spitta, vice-president, in the chair. — ^J. J. Simpson :
Hicksonella, a new gorgonellid genus. The genus is
established to include three species, all collected off South
Africa. One species was described by Prof. Hickson in
1904 under the name of Juncella spiralis, but the author
believes that a reference to the genus Juncella is
im.possible. The clearing up of the position of this
puzzling specimen was facilitated by recent work of the
author in his revision of the family of the Juncellids. In
addition to Hicksonella spiralis, g.n., he describes H.
flagellata, sp.n., and H. capensis, sp.n. — E. Heron-Allen
and A. Earland : Some varietal forms of Massilina
secans. After referring to several varietal forms that had
been previously described, the authors related the finding
of numerous specimens of three of these varieties in narrow
observation tanks where some gatherings of Foraminifera,
made off Selsey Bill, had been placed, and where they
multiplied. The conclusion arrived at was that the?e
variations were caused b}' the want of sufficient shell-
making material, the carbonate of lime in the tanks having
been used up, the sea water never having been renewed. —
E M. Nelson : A micrometric difficult},-. The author re-
ferred to the difficulty of counting correctly the number
of ruled lines, or diatomic striae, in a given space. The
trouble does not arise when the interspaces are relatively
wide compared with the breadth of the lines, but it does
so when the breadth of the interspaces approaches that of
the lines. It is the black and white dot image that is

96

NATURE

[November 17, 19 10

reiyjonsible for the trouble. When the focus is at a white-
dot image the white lines must be counted, and vice versd,
when the focus gives a black-dot image. — E. M. Nelson :
The resolution of new detail in a Coscinodiscus astcrom-
phalus. This paper has refeience to the resolution of
further detail obtained by a new one-eighth objective by
Zeiss, described in a previous communication. The new
detail discovered is a fine sieve covering the so-called eye-
spot in C. asteromphalus. As the size of the eye-spot is
only I '14,000th of an inch, it may be left to the imagina-
tion to estimate the size of the minute perforations form-
ing the sieve.

Physical Society, October 28.— Prof. H. L. Callendar,
F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Prof. Ernest Wilson and
\\". H. Wilson : A new method for producing high tension
discharges. According to this method energy is taken from
an alternating or continuous current source and stored in
a magnetic field by an inductance ; it is then permitted to
surge into a condenser which forms with the inductance a
lo'cv frequency- oscillating circuit. When the energy is
stored in the condenser the latter is mechanically bridged
across the primary winding of a spark-coil, with which it
forms a high frequency oscillatory circuit. The energy
is then transmitted by the secondary winding of the spark-
coil to the work circuit in the well-known manner. Briefly
the following are some of the advantages gained : — (i) For
X-ray work the inverse electromotive force at " make " is
eliminated, thereby leading to increased life of the tube and
to a more sharply defined radiograph. (2) Only a small
magnetising current is required as the inductance has a
nearly closed magnetic circuit. This gives rise to a very
small C'R loss and consequently higher efficiency. (3) On
account of the long periodic time of the system between
the periods of "break" and "short-circuit," the voltage
across the contact of the interrupter at " break " does not
rise to a high value, or rises so slowly that the contacts
are well separated before it is developed. Hence immunity
from sparking. (4) The method lends itself to few second-
ary turns and this keeps down the time constant. It also
makes the coil lighter, cheaper, and more compact.
(5) The method lends itself to low secondary resistance — a
point of great importance in connection with radio-tele-
graphy. (6) The iron of the spark-coil can be kept small
in amount, and special attention can be paid to its lamina-
tion and insulation, as it may have to be operated at
frequencies of three or four thousand per second. (7) The
elimination of sparking increases efficiency, and on board
ship where coal gas is not conveniently obtainable this is
an advantage. (8) The apparatus can be worked from
direct-current or alternating-current systems at usual
voltages, or from a portable battery of a few storage-cells.
(9) The oscillatory current at " break " does not pass
through the battery, and hence does not assist in its dis-
charge. (10) The iron in the magnetic circuit of the
external inductance has only to operate at low frequency,
and hence it has not to be finely laminated. (11) When
used on alternating-current systems, rectification, if
desired, is easily effected by employing two short-circuiting
brushes, one for each half-period, and allowing the second
brush to short-circuit at the moment when the condenser
is fully charged after allowing a second complete surge
of the energy between the condenser and the inductance
of the spark-coil. (12) The apparatus is light, efficient,
and cheap, and is suitable for radio-telegraphy. X-ray,
medical, and other work in which high-tension electricity
is f-mploved. — F. Rogers : The behaviour of steel under
combined static stress and shock. Attention is directed to
the importance of the time rate of increase of stress,
ds/dt, in the behaviour of materials under stress. The
. exact determination of this rate must usually present much
difficulty, but the indirect experimental method adopted
consisted in submitting specimens of steel to shock whilst
under static loading. The conclusion that steel is sub-
stantially less resistant to shock whilst it is under static
stress appears to be definitely established. In some cases
the effect of a large static stress was to diminish the
resistance to shock by as much as 30 per cent. The
correction for the work done upon the sample in applying
the static load is relatively small. Thus the energy
absorbed in breaking a sample of steel is greater when
entirely applied as shock than when applied partly as

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

shock and partly statically. This difference is considered
to be due chiefly to the difference in the rate of increase
of stress at the higher stresses in the two cases. The
actual values of the highest stresses are not necessarily
identical, but probably the higher the rate of increase of
stress the higher is the greatest stress reached before
rupture occurs, whilst, simultaneously, deformation is
diminished, and the intimate nature of the breakdown
suffers a corresponding variation. At the higher static
loads employed some portions of the test-pieces were
stressed beyond their elastic limits, and this may also help
to account for a part of the diminution in resistance to
shock.

Linnean Society, November 3.— Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S.,
president, in the chair. — Prof. W. A. Herdman : A com-
parison of the summer plankton on the west coast of
Scotland with that in the Irish Sea. This paper is the
result of a series of vertical plankton hauls taken with
the " Nansen " closing tow-net (made of No. 20 silk) from
the S.Y. Ladybird in July of the last four years, from
various deep hauls (eighteen of them being from more
than 100 fathoms) at various localities off the west coast
of Scotland. A comparison of the collection shows
(i) that there is a constancy year after year in the nature
of the plankton at certain localities ; and (2) that some of
the localities, not very far apart, differ considerably from
one another in the nature of their plankton at the same
time of year (July). Some of these deep hauls consist
markedly of zoo-plankton and others of phyto-plankton,
and the latter show a close resemblance to the phyto-
plankton hauls typical of the vernal maximum of diatoms
in the Irisli Sea. The complete disappearance of the
phyto-plankton, which is such a marked feature in the
summer (July and August) gatherings from the Irish Sea,
does not seem to take place in some localities off the west
coast of Scotland, and these phyto-plankton hauls are
obtained, not in the deep fiord-like lochs, but in the open
sea, e.g. off Ardnamurchan and off the islands of Rum
and Canna in the Sea of the Hebrides. — J. C. F. Fryer :
The structure and formation of Aldabra and neighbouring
islands, with notes on their flora and fauna. Aldabra,
situate 250 miles north-west of Cape Amber, is a large
atoll with an almost complete land-rim, a large shallow
lagoon, and a narrow fringing reef. The land-rim is
composed of coral-limestone, which gives definite evidence
that Aldabra was formed by elevation and once stood at
more than 40 feet above sea-level, though rain-water
denudation has reduced this to its present level of 15 feet.
A deposit of guano, by combination with the limestone,
has produced phosphatic rocks, interesting in that they
prove that the lagoon was once non-existant, and has
since been formed by erosion and denudation. The atoll
is still being washed away, but the loss is in part com-
pensated b}' the piling up of sand by wind and wave. The
fauna and flora, though peculiar, have been largely derived
from Madagascar, the flora being interesting in showing
four distinct types of jungle. Assumption, Cosmoledo,
Astove, are also islands and atolls of elevated coral-rock,
and form an interesting series showing the loss of rock-
land by erosion and its replacement by sand and clays.
Giant land-tortoises still exist on Aldabra, and fossil re-
mains were found on the three other islands visited ; in
this connection it is noteworthy that none of these islands
has ever been connected with continental land. — H. B.
Bigrelow : The Siphonophora of the Research Biscayan
plankton. The memoir forms the thirteenth report on
Biscayan plankton collected on board H.M.S. Research
in 1900. The collection consisted exclusively of Calyco-
phoridfe, with the exception of a single fragment from
another group. In his report of the Siphonophora of the
National, Prof. Chun noted a similar absence of Physo-
phoridaj during the North Atlantic summer, and suggested
that these latter forms must be at considerable depths at
that season, yet the numerous hauls of the Research with
closing nets down to really great depths failed altogether
to find them. On the other hand, it is only during
summer that these Physophoridae are found on the eastern
coasts of North America, at a time when the cold current
alongshore- is at its warmest : and further, they were not
uncommon in July and August during cruises of the
Research in the Fseroe Channel, in the cooler water of

November 17, 1910]

NATURE

97

more northern origin. AH these facts seem to point to
rather narrow limits, outside of which the Physophoridae
perhaps die down to a large extent seasonally, except for
a few specimens which will reproduce when the tempera-
re optimum is again reached. The second point of
iterest to which the author directs attention is that all
lie ten species captured — except one new genus and species
f^were also taken in the eastern Pacific expedition of the
XVbatross under the late Prof. .Alexander -Agassiz. The
}lIection included one new species of Diphyes and one
EW genus, Nectopyramis. apparently a monophyid. On
de question of vertical distribution, which was a main
bject of the cruise, the author has arrived at some con-
Jjflusicns of interest. The Calycophoridae were compara-
pvely rare at the surface, but most plentiful somewhere
elow 25 and above loo fathoms. The only species taken
jfficjently often to allow of discussion was Diphyes
kppendiculata. The diphyid or polygastric generation was
icommon at the surface, seemed to reach its plurimum
^bout 75-ioq fathoms, and below that was very seldom
jet with. The eudoxid or sexual generation, on the other
ind, presented a plurimum at the surface, was taken
often down to loo fathoms, and only once below that
>th, namely, between 400 and 500 fathoms. .Another
captured. Chiiiiiphyes niultidentata. has so far been
corded only from considerable depths ; the captures by
le Research fix it as low as between 2000-1000 fathoms,
it is. between nearly 3J miles and 2 miles deep. The
»hest caoture was in an open net hauled for an hour
250 fathoms, and thence to the surface : but as it was
iken in none of the ninety-five hauls above 250 fathoms,
is is probably about its upper limit.

Mathematical Society, November 11. — Sir \V. D Niven,
resident, and subsequently Dr. H. F. Baker, newly
:ted president, in the chair. — Sir W. D. Niven : The
tlations of mathematics to experimental science (presi-
enrial address). — G. T. Bennett : The double-six of lines.
Dr. W. H. Young: and Mrs. Young: : The existence of a
differential coefficient. — Dr. W. H. Young:: (i) Note on
.e property of being a differential coefficient ; (2) condi-
ons that a trigonometrical series may have the Fourier
form. — F. Tavani : .\ class of integral functions which
includes Riemann's Zeta-f unction. — ^T. W. Chaundy : The
geometrical representation of non-real point* in space of
two and three dimensions. — J. E. Litttewood : The
extension of Tauber's theorem. — F. B. Pidduck : The
-ability of rotating shafts. — J. E. Campl>ell : \ class of
rthogonal surfaces. — S. Chapman : Non-integral orders
of summabilit}- of series and integrals. — Dr. A. R.
Forsyth : Lineo-linear transformations, especiallv in two
variables. — Dr. W. F. Sheppard : Notes on terminating
hypergeometric series.— H. Bateman : The transformation
of a particular type of electromagnetic field and its phvsical
interpretation. — Dr. P. Mahio : Uber die Dimensionen-
typen des Herrn Frechet im Gebiete der linearen Mengen.
Manchester.
Literary and Philosophical Society, October 18 —Mr.
F- Jones, president, in the chair.— Prof. G. Elliot Smith:
The convolutions of the brain. The cortex is mapped out
into a great number of territories, differing in structure
and function, and varying in size in different mammals,
not only because the sense-organs themselves varv in size
and acuteness in different creatures, but also because in
diMerent orders and families a sense organ of a given size
will have a varying cortical representation. Thus, if one
were to take a dog and a baboon with eyes of the same
size, the monkey will be found to possess a much larger
cortical visual area than the dog. It is these differences
which determine the varied plans of cortical folding and
• /«"^''"^ varieties in the patterns of the convolutions
in different mammals. Folding occurs most often along
the boundary line between two areas of different structure
and function. The difference in the rate of e.xpansion of
two such areas is no doubt the reason for this type of
nssurc-formation— limiting sulci. In the second place a i
rapidly growing cortical territorv, meeting with obstruction '
ro Its expansion on all sides, may become buckled in. and
w !i""'r''' °^.^'-lops ak>ng its axis (i.e., within its area), :
mstead of at ,ts edges. This second class of furrow is I
much less frequent than the first class, and mav be distin- 1
fuished as the group of axial sulci. There is a third ]
XO. 2142, VOL. 85]

variety, which may be called the operculated sulcus, in,
which one lip projects over a submerged area. Sulci of
this type are produced by the submerging of a specialised-
fringing territory surrounding a main sens<Ky area. In
the fourth place various mechanical factors come into
operation to modify the form of furrows formed in one
of these three ways, or even to produce new sulci. By
the application of these principles it is possible to interpret
the meaning and the mode of formation of most of the
furrows which subdivide the higher types of cortex into
numerous convolutions.

November i. — Mr. Francis Jones, president, in thff
chair. — Dr. A. N. Meldrum : The devek)pment of the
I atomic theory, (ii) The various accounts of the origin of
I Dalton's theory, (iii) Newton's theory and its influence
I in the eighteenth century. There are numerous accounts
: of the genesis of Dalton's theory, one of which comes
j from W. C. Henr>-, another from Thomas Thomson, a
third from J. A. Ransome, and two come direct from
Dalton. .All the narratives come from Dalton originally,
for Henr)-, Thomson, and Ransome based theirs on con-
versations they had with him. The discrepancies between
these various accounts can be explained only on the sup-
position that Dalton was deficient in historical instinct,
and never appreciated the difference between describing the
•■ genesis of his theor\- and expounding the theory itself.
; The main conclusions of the second paper are (i) that
! Newton's contribution to the development of the atomic
theory was made under the influence of Descartes ; (2) that
Newton exerted an influence in the eighteenth centurv on
Br>an Higgins, and through him on William Higgins.
The atomic theory advanced by Bryan Higgins (1776) and
amplified by William Higgins (1789) can be understood
only when regarded as springing from Newton's theory
under the conditions of the time. Those conditions
were : — (a) the knowledge due to Priestley of different
kinds of gases, and (b) the new light which Lavoisier
threw on chemical composition, consequent on Priestlev's
discovery of oxygen.

Paris.
Academy of Sciences, November 7.— M. Emile Picard
in the chair. — M. Bassot : Halley's comet. Observations
of this comet were made at the Observatory of Nice on
November 2 and 3. It is visible in the morning a little
before sunrise. The sky was covered on the nights of
November 4 and 5, but in spite of the absence of a third
observation there is no doubt of the identity of the comet.
I — -A. Muntx : The struggle for water between the soil and
I the seed. For each specific kind of soil there is a definite
j percentage of moisture, below which the seed, instead of
I gaining moisture, actually loses it. For the seed to
i absorb sufficient water to be able to germinate, a higher
, percentage of moisture, fixed for each class of soil, is
j necessary. Thus in a sandy soil 05 per cent, of water is-
sufficient for germination ; with loams the required per-
centage of water is from 2^ to 7-7 per cent., according as
the proportion of clay increases ; with a garden soil con-
taining a large proportion of humus, nearly iq per cent, of
' water must be present before germination can take place
i — Charles Nordntann : A means of determining bv colour
photometry the parallaxes of a certain class of stars. First
application to two stars. The method applied to .Algol
; gives a distance of 59 years of light, or a parallax of
; 0055''. a figure in good agreement with the 0-051' given
, for this star by M. Bijourdan in his recent catalogue of
I stellar parallaxes. The same method applied to 5 Libra
gives a distance of 355 years of light and a parallax of
0-009*. — A. Demoulin : Certain couples of triple-orthogonal
systems. — ^^■. StekloffT : The development of an arbitrary
function in series of fundamental functions. — L. Fav^
and L. Driencourt : Observations of the tides made at
sea in the Channel and the North Sea. .A self-recording
instrument has been devised by the authors which, when
placed on the sea floor, measures pres<;ure variations
directly, from which the changes of level due to the tides
can be deduced. .An automatic differential arrangement
renders the sensibilit\- ver>- nearly independent of the depth.
.A diagram is given of obser\ations taken at a point
situated 52° 29' N.. 0° 47' E.. and the bearing of these
data upon Whewell's work on the tides of the North Sea
is discussed. — .A. Petot : L'nsymmetrical motors. — Eugene
Bloch : The action of a magnetic field on the electric

98

NATURE

[NOVEMIJER 17, 1 9 10

discharge. The author has repeated and confirmed some
experiments recently made by M. Gouy, and finds that
there is a particular strength of the magnetic field which
facilitates the maximum discharge. It is shown that this •
curious phenomenon is in general agreement with the
modern theory of disruptive discharge. — J. do Kowalski :
Progressive phosphorescence at low temperatures. — K.
Quntz and M. Qalliot : The preparation of crystallised
strontium. A mixture of strontia and aluminium powder
is placed in the lower half of a steel tube closed at one
end. This is enclosed in a porcelain tube, a high vacuum
being maintained in the latter. The temperature of the
mi.xture is gradually raised to 1000° C. ; after cooling, the
inside of the cool portion of the tube is covered with a
deposit of crystalline strontium. The yield is good, nearly
75 per cent, of the theoretical quantity, and the metal
contains only 05 per cent, of impurities. — E. Bergrer :
Tetranitromethane. This substance is obtained by the
action of pure nitric acid upon acetic anhydride in acetic
acid solution. The exact conditions necessary for a good
yield (50 per cent, of the theory) are given in detail. The
physical constants and the heat of combustion were deter-
mined.— E. Kayser : The influence of nitrates on alcoholic
ferments. Alcoholic fermentation is more complete in
presence of manganese nitrate, and for each strain of yeast
there is an optimum amount of salt, the addition of which
produces a maximum of diastatic activity. — G. Malfitano
and Mile. A. N. Mpschkoff : The purification of starch.
A I per cent, colloidal solution of starch is prepared, the
turbid liquid frozen and allowed to melt. The clear liquid
thus obtained holds in solution the greater part of the
mineral impurities and very little starch ; the bulk of the
latter deposits in flocculent form, and can be separated by
filtration or by centrifugation. After four or five repeti-
tions of this treatment a starch is obtained which gives
less than 0-02 per cent, of ash. The properties of starch
thus purified are compared with those of ordinary starch.
— M. Maragre : Subjective noises in the ear. A classifi-
cation of the various kinds of subjective noises in the ear
in accordance . with their pathological causes. — Henri
Labbd : The distribution of nitrogen . in the intestinal
excreta. The dried excreta were extracted successively with
various solvents, and the nitrogen determined in each
extract.— S. Lalou : The variations in the quantity and
composition of the pancreatic juice during secretions
brought about by secretin. Repeated injections of secretin
produce a regular secretion of pancreatic juice during a
long period. The juice thus obtained is not of strictly
constant Icomposition ; its alkalinity and diastatic activity
diminish, this diminution being especially marked as
regards the lipase. — P. Chausse : Latent mesenteric
tuberculosis produced experimentally in the dog. The
injection of tuberculous products in the normal dog pro-
duced no visible lesions after six months. Latent mesen-
teric tuberculosis was, however, easily shown to exist in
the majority of the dogs under experiment. — M. Fabre-
Domergrue : The food of the oyster and the mechanism
of its contamination in impure water. — R. Robinson :
Contribution to the study of the venous circulation in the
lower limbs. — Paul Marchal : Contribution to the bio-
logical study of Chermes. — A. Quidor : The evolution and
affinities of the Philichthydje. — O. Mongrel : Geology of
the primarv islet of La Guardia between Sfegre and
Noguera Pallaresa. — H. Mansuy : The stratigraphic
succession in the neighbourhood of Luang-Prabang. —
Maurice Leriche : The first fossil fishes met with in the
Belgian Congo in the Lualaba strata.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, November 17.
Royal Soctetv, at 4.30. — On the Effect of Hravity upon the Move-
ments and Aegregation of Eiiglena ■niridis, Ehrb., and other Micro-
orcanisms : Harold Wager. F.R.S. — The Pro'eolvtic Enzyme of Drosera:
Miss Jean White. — The Influenre of Bacterial Endotoxins on Phagocytosis
(including a rew method for the Differentiation of Ba'-teria'). (Second
Report) : L. S. Dudgeon, P. N. Panton, and H. A. F. Wilson.— On the
State of Aggregation of Matter. Part I. On the Action of Salts in
Heterogeneous Svstems, and on the Nature of the Globulins. Part II.
On the_ Action of Formaldehyde on Witte's Peptone. Part III. On the
Solubility of Phenol and certain Crystalline Substances in Salt Solutions :
Dr. S; B. Schryver. — A Method for isolating and Growing the
Leprosy Bacillus of Man : F. W. Twort.— The Oxidation of Phenol by
.certain Bacteria in Pure Culture ; G. J. Fowler, E. Ardern, and W. T.
Lockett.

NO. 2142, VOL. 85]

LiNNEAN Society, at 8.— (i) Theoretical Origin of Plantago maritima
and P. alpina, from /'. coronopus\ (2) Supplementary Observations on
the Theory of Monocotyledons being derived from .\quatic Dicotyle-
dons : Rev. George Henslow.

Royal Geographical Society, at 5.— Research Meeting. Origin of the
Present Geography of Northern Nigeria : Dr. J. D. Falconer.
FRIDAY, November 18.

Institution of_ Mechanical Engineers, at 8. — The Development of
Road Locomotion in Recent Years : L. A. Legros.

MONDAY, November 21.
Royal Geographical Society, at 8.30. — The Duke of Abruzii's Kara-

koram Expedition: Dr. Kilippo de Filippi.
Royal Society of Arts, at 8. — Industrial Pyrometry : C. B. Darling.

TUESDAY, November 22.
Royal Anthropological Institute, at 8.30.— The Arrival of Man in

Britain in the Pleistocene Age : Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S.
Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — Portland Cement, and the

Question of its Aeration : H. K. G. Bamber.

WEDNESDAY, November 23.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8. — Methods of Detecting Fire-damp in
Mines : Sir Henry H. Cunynghame, K.C.B.

Geological Society, at 8. — The Effects of Secular Oscillations in Egypt
during the Cretaceous and Eocene Periods: Dr. W. F. Hume. — Ihe
Origin of the British Trias : A. R. Horwood.

THURSDAY, November 24.

Royal Society, at 4.30. — Probable Papers : Colour-blindness and the Tri-
chromatic Theory. Part II. Incomplete Red or Green Blindness: Sir
W. de W. Abney, K.C.B., F.R.S. — On the Sequence of Chemical Forms
in Stellar Spectra: Sir N. Lockyer, K.C.B , F.R.S.— The Influence of
Viscosity on the Stability of the Flow of Fluids : A. Mallock, F. k.S.— .^n
Electrostat'c Voltmeter for Photographic Recording of the Atmospheric
Potential : G. W. Walker. — Optical Dispersion, an Analysis of its Actual
Dependence upon Physical Conditions : Dr. T. H. Havelock. — The
Spectrum of Halley's Comet : C. P. Butler.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Street Lighting by
Modern Electric Lamps : H. T. Harrison.

PR /DAY, November 25.

Physical Society, at 5. — The Electric Stress at which lonisation begins
in Air : Dr. A. Russell. — On the Measurement of a Flow of Water in a
Closed Circuit by a method involving little or no Statical Friction :
Dr. A. Griffith.s. — Exhibition of a Surface Brightness Photometer : I. S.
Dow. — The Approximate Solution of various Boundary Problems by
Surface Integration combined with Freehand Graphs: L. V. Richardson.
—The Aftev-glow produced in Gases by Electric Discharge : Prof. K. J.
Strutt, F.R.S.

CONTENTS*. PAGE

The Cellulose Age .67

Descriptive Meteorology 68

Theories and Physics of the Sun 68

Some Aspects of Physical Chemistry. By Dr. Arthur

harden, F.R.S 69

Chemistry for First-year Students 70

Out Book Shelf . 71

Letters to the Editof : —

The Limiting Line of Sedimentation in Wave-stirred

Area"!.— A. R. Hunt 72

Two Notes from India.— Capt. J. H. BarDour . . 73

Instruction in Methods of Research.— W. P. Dreaper 73

The Armour of Stegosaurus.—F. A. Lucas; R. L. . 73
The Carnegie Institution of Washington and its

Work. {Illustrated.) By Dr. R. S. Woodward 74
The Roosevelts in Africa. (Illustrated.) By Sir

H. H.Johnston, G. CM. G., K.C.B 77

Atmospheric Electricity and Rain. By Dr. C Chree,

F.R.S 80

The Prevention of Plague. By Dr. G. F. Petrie . . 81

Dr. Theodore Cooke 82

Notes 82

Our Astronomical Column : —

Discovery of a Comet 87

Metcalf's Comet (1910Z1) 87

Recent Fireballs .... • ... 87

Solar Activity and Terrestrial Temperatures ... 87

Stars having Peculiar Spectra, and New Variable Stars 87

The Discovery of Neptune 87

Variable Stars in the Orion Nebula 87

The Banquet to Jubilee Past-Presidents of the

Chemical Society .... 87

The International Agrogeological Congress at

btockholm 88

Education at the British Association 89

The Production and Use of Electric Power. By

S. Z. de Ferranti ... 90

Matavanu: A New Volcano in Savaii (German

bamoa). [Illustrated.) By Dr Tempest Anderson 92

University and Educational Intelligence 93

Societies and Academies 95 .

Diary of Societies 98

NA TURE

99

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1910.

HIGHER ASPECTS OF ELECTRICITY.
A Treatise on Electrical Theory and the Problem of
the Universe, considered from the Physical Point
of View, u'ith Mathematical Appendices. By
G. W. de Tunzelmann. Pp. xxxii + 654.
(London : Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1910.)
Price 15s. netl

THE partial success which has attended the recent
attempts of Einstein and' Minkowski to found
an electromag^netic system of mechanics has tended to
strengthen the popular idea that the solution of out-
standing problems and mysteries must be sought in
:he domain of electrical rather than other physical
phenomena. From being a disturbing element char-
acterised by unaccountable vagaries, the "electric fire" \
has come to be an all-pervading element,- closely
approaching the alchemist's idea of a primal sub-
stance. Mr. de Tunzelmann *s work is an ambitious
attempt to applv the Faraday-Maxwell theory- of elec-
tricitA', as modified by Larmor in the atomistic direc-
tion, to what he calls " the problem of the universe."
Incidentally, the book gives a great deal of informa-
tion with regard to recent work and speculation, and
although the titular object of the work has not been
ittained (it could hardly be otherwise in our present
state of knowledge), it will be valued on account of
the information given on such varied subjects as elec-
trolysis, radiation, radio-activit}-, the a^e of the earth,
the solar corona, and the place of mind in the
universe.

.As might have been expected in a book of this
kind, the interstellar ether plays a fundamental part \
in most of the ultimate speculations. That being
^o, it is to be regretted that no serious attempt was
made to present the modern aspects of the various
rher theories. Possibly the author may have con-
sidered the matter as too controversial. The electro- ,
magnetic principle of relativit}- (as distinguished from '
the mechanical or Newtonian one) is of such outstand- '•
ing importance that it is quite impossible to state !
modem electrical problems without at least acknow- !
ledging its existence. Yet, neither in chapters v. nor !
xxii., where some statement of the principle is urgently 1
called for, nor indeed in any other part of the work,
is it even mentioned. .\nd. although Le Sage's hypo-
thesis and its later variants are dealt with to a re-
markably full extent, there is no reference to H.
Witte and his proof that the only chance for a
mechanical explanation of electrical phenomena lies in ;
the assumption of an ether composed of discrete par- j
tides. i

Of minor blemishes we have "cathion" instead of
cation" (p. 19) evidently due to mistaken et>inolog>-.
'"* ^i^icroniillimetre described as 'a thousandth of a i
millimetre" (p. 321), "coronarium" instead of -
coronium ' (p. 371), and plain "Norman Lockver"
P- 644) beside the full titles of other savants. In
dealing with magnetism, Langevin's important and
successful theory-, based upon the Zeeman effect and
Curie's law, is not mentioned. In dealing whh light,
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

the author suggests calling the velocity of light in
space the "radiation constant" (a term already other-
wise appropriated), and (p. 271) makes out that an
absorbing' body absorbs less (instead of more) energy
in unit time on being moved in the direction from
which the light is coming^.

The chapter on "The* Place of Mind in the
L'niverse," is a fascinating one, though its connection
with the main work is not ven,' obvious. The author
aims at an all-embracing system or hierarchy of ulti-
mate realities, beginning at the absolute, or eternal
self-consciousness, and passing through mind, energy,
and ether down to matter. The chapter is well
written, and most suggestive. It is, of course, of>en
to criticism on rttany points, but as few physicists
have the courage to penetrate far into that borderland
on the confines of which they, more than others, are
wont to dwell, a spirited attempt like the present
deserves ever}- encouragement. .\t a time when the
ether is being tried for its very existence, it is unwise
to describe such a philosophic scheme as based uporr
a substance the properties of which, as the writer
somewhat hastily asserts, "are derived from empiricaf
obser\-ation." .And when that svstem is further
•' strengthened " by a reference to the discarded " N-
rays," and a single experiment in thought transfer-
ence unaccompanied by the elementary- safeguards
devised by the Psychical Research Society-, the system
put forward is placed at a disadvantage from the first.
Nor is that disadvantage removed by too great an
insistence on the principle of the conser\'ation of
energy, and its use to assign a time-limit to the
existence of the visible universe. ■ Such a time-limit
is really a negation of science and philosophy, as it
implies that deus ex machind from which all scien-
tific achievement has had to liberate itself or pjerish.

There are eighteen appendices on miscellaneous
electromagnetic and philosophical subjects. Manv of
these, especiallv that on astronomical anomalies, are
verv useful and valuable. E. E. F.

TECHNICAL DICTIONARIES.
The Deinhardt-Schlomann Series of Technical Dic-
tionaries in Six Languages. By .Alfred Schlomann.
Vol. v., Railway Construction and Operation. Pp.
xiii4-870. Price 125. net. Vol. vi.. Railway Roll-
ing Stock. Compiled by Dipl.-Ing. August Boshart.
Pp. xiii + 796. Price I05. 6d. net. (London: Con-
stable and Co.. Ltd.; Munich and Berlin: R.
Oldenbourg, 1909.)

THESE two volumes form part of a series of tech-
nical dictionaries in six languages — English,
Spanish, German, Russian. French, and Italian — of
which seven volumes have now appeared. Thev are
edited and compiled by Messrs. Deinhardt and Schlo-
mann, assisted by experts from all the leading
countries in each branch of the subject. The essen-
tial features of the scheme are that the six languages
are all on one page, and, wherever it is ptossible,
sketches are given so as to elucidate the text and
facilitate the use of the dictionar\-. .At the end of
each volume complete alphabetical indexes are given,

E

<>lQO

NATURE

[November 24, 1910

five of the languages under one alphabet, and the
Russian under another. The general arrangement,
.and the ground covered by each volume, leave nothing
• to be desired, and this dictionary will prove invaluable
to all those who are engaged in technical work.
Repeated tests of both volumes show that practically
nothing has been omitted, and the long lists of con-
tributors and revisers for the two volumes, embracing
-men eminent in the railway world in Europe and
^America, are a sufficient guarantee of the accuracy of
the work. The great difficulty which often arises of
finding a definition in one language which should have
its exact equivalent in another has been very satis-
factorily overcome, and the sketches render misunder-
standings almost impossible. .,

In the volume dealing with railway construction
and operation, only those terms are included which
are of general importance in such work ; such details
as earthworks, bridge-construction, &c., could only
be exhaustively treated in volumes specially re-
served for them. Nevertheless, the railway expert will
•find that such subjects have been quite adequately
treated so far as he is concerned in this volume. In
preparing this volume, the subject has been divided
into sections to facilitate reference ; these sections in-
clude track, permanent-way, connections between
tracks, stations, signalling, and safety appliances,
railway service, &c., and one special section has been
given to electric railway installations. Each section
is again divided into a large number of subsections,
and, as these are given fully in the table of contents,
•it will bfe realised how much care has been taken to
facilitate reference. It is essential to those who are
engaged in the work of translating or making ex-
tracts from foreign technical books and journals that
any technical dictionary should be so arranged that
no time should be lost in ascertaining the ordinary
English equivalents to any unknown foreign words
or expressions ; the alphabetical index at the end of
each volume ensures this, and the division of the
whole subject into sections and subsections still fur-
ther makes for simplicity and saving of time.

The sixth volume is given up entirely to the impor-
.tant subject of railway rolling stock. Here, again,
the. subject is divided up into a series of sections,
such as common equipment for locomotives and car-
riages, including such details as wheels, axles, draw-
.bar and buffer gear, brakes, &c. ; locomotives and
motor coaches ; carriages ; systems of lighting trains ;
rolling stock for electric railways; and, lastly, rail-
way workshops. This latter section is not, of course,
intended to cover the subject of machine tools gener-
ally, but only in so far as special methods and work-
ing are employed in railway workshops.

With the help of these two volumes, the railway
engineer, and all those who are concerned with the
various industries which are devoted to the manu-
facture of the machinery and plant required
for the working and upkeep of the railways of the
world, will find that the task of keeping abreast of
what is being done in other countries will be greatly
facilitated. It is essential that every manufacturing
firm should endeavour to learn from the technical
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

Press what is being done in other lands, and a
thoroughly trustworthy technical dictionary, such as
this series now in course of publication, is indispens-
able for this purpose. These volumes should be found
in the head office of every firm which aspires to keep
itself up to date in business methods. T. H. B.

PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY IN ITS GEOLOGICAL
APPLICATIONS.

Principles of Chemical Geology : a Review of the
Application of the Equilibrium Theory to Geological
Problems. By Dr. J. V. Elsden. Pp. viii + 222.
(London : Whittaker and Co., 1910.) Price 55. net.

ALTHOUGH it is generally recognised that the
new physical chemistry has far-reaching appli-
cations in geology, no less than in other branches of
science, little has yet been done to bring this home
directly, either to the working geologist or to the
student. In Van 't HofT's lectures on "Physical
Chemistry in the Service of the Sciences," the only
geological application discussed is that relating to the
crystallisation of salts from sea water. The results
of the chemist's beautiful investigation of this one
problem are the first-fruits of work on these lines,
and thev serve to show how wide a field still remains
to be harvested. Vogt and others have essayed to
apply the laws of solutions to igneous rock-magmas,
but in this much more difficult problem no more than
a beginning can yet be recorded. Meanwhile, we
suffer from that want of touch between workers in
different branches of science which is one of the less
happy consequences of specialisation. The chemist
has, in most cases, little acquaintance with geological
questions, while the geologist, of the older generation
at least, has not usually a working knowledge of
physical chemistry, or at best is unfamiliar with the
specific results, which have been obtained.

This gap Dr. Elsden has now endeavoured to fill.
The book before us is a compendium of physico-
chemical principles as applied to the more important
questions of chemical geology and petrology. In
accordance with this plan, the arrangement adopted
is primarily a chemical one, thus differing from the
older method of Bischof and others. Successive chap-
ters deal with the crystalline and amorphous states,
viscosity, diffusion, solution, surface-tension, vapour-
pressure, polvmorphism, and mix-crystals. Through-
out the author insists that the key to the many
problems here touched "lies in the determination of
the conditions of equilibrium," and indeed this last
word occurs in the heading of almost every chapter.
Unfortunately, as is duly recognised, many geological
phenomena (such, e.g. as the glass in volcanic rocks)
prove that the adjustment of equilibrium maj'' be
indefinitely delayed.

A surprising amount of matter is brought together
in the compass of these two hundred pages, and the
numerous references given in footnotes will be very
useful to the student. Sometimes, perhaps, this ful-
ness is gained rather at the expense of clearness of
treatment ; or it may be merely a wholesome caution
which makes the author content to cite conflicting
opinions and leave the question at issue open. Iq

November 24, 19 10]

NATURE

lOI

general, we are given an admirable, if condensed,
summary of the subjects dealt with, though in places
a critic may pick out a carelessly written sentence,
e.g. the dictum (p. 2) that "no substance can at once
possess both vectorial and scalar properties." Any
work treating of a new and rapidly developing sub-
ject must inevitably contain statements which have
become obsolete even before their publication, and in
a second edition Dr. Elsden will doubtless revise such
passages as those relating to quartz and tridymite
(p. 104), amphibole and pyroxene (pp. 11 1 et ^eq.),
and lime-olivine (p. 203). Meanwhile, the book, in
addition to its intrinsic value, will attain the author's
expressed desire to stimulate interest in this important
branch of geology. A. H.

THE MAKING OF GARDENS.
Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens. By Helen R.
Albee. Pp. vi + 309. (New York: Henry Holt and
Company.) Price 1.60 dollars net.

THIS volume forms part of the American Nature
Series : Group iv., Working with Nature. From
the title one would expect to find the work severely
technical and somewhat dull — "'dull and useful as
work clothes and garden boots," as the author herself
describes a certain chapter. But the title, though
appropriate for a section of the work, is to some
extent inadequate, as the book proves to be an essay
on garden-making, written in a light and racy stjie,
reminiscent of Charles Dudley Warner's delightful
"My Summer in a Garden."

The greater part of the volume is devoted to a
detailed account of the evolution of the author's gar-
den, through the various stages " In the beginning,"
•An incipient garden," "The garden grows," " My
ambition grows," and gliding on bv easy transition to
such apparentlv inconsequent subjects as " the vices
of plants " and " some gardeners I have known."
But though the author in her narrative of the six
years' labour involved in the formation of her garden
ranges over a wide field of horticultural economy, the
sequence is so easy and natural that the reader's
interest is not allowed to flag, and it is with regret
that one reaches the classified lists which occupy the
last 122 pages of the book.

These lists are conventional, and call for little com-
ment. The method of classification adopted, though
at first sight somewhat complex, will probably facili-
tate reference. The lists comprise a selection of
shrubs and perennials, with descriptions and brief
cultural directions, and are arranged primarily under
colour headings, and, secondarily, according to the
months in which the plants flower. A selection of
annuals arranged according to the same system fol-
lows. It may be pointed out that this might have
been incorporated with the shrubs and perennials,
thereby avoiding a somewhat bewildering multiplicity
of headings. The work is profusely illustrated with
views^ of the author's garden at various stages, and
a copious index is provided.

The author has not laid down hard and fast rules
for the formation of a flower garden. Nor does she
desire that others should follow slavishly the lines on
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

which she has worked. " It is not well to imitate
another's work, but to follow where your own condi-
tions lead." Her experiences are related with a view
to stimulating others who may have the opportunity
and the desire to create a garden after their own
heart, but who may lack the courage to break away
from the conventional or who are diffident as to their
ability to shape a new course for themselves. By
such the book will be found rich in suggestion. Above
all is it a plea for the free play of imagination in the
garden.

" No one should have a garden which grows nothing
but flowers, and yields no other recompense to the
gardener except successful plants. Over, beyond, and
above must hover the spirit of poetry, of wonder, of
mvster\'; otherwise there comes a day of disillusion
when you awaken to the weariness, anxiety, and
watchfulness, and begin to measure the reward. You
need a larger insight, something that connects your
efforts with the universal in nature, the ideal, the
soul of things. Into this you may lift the garden,
and at once drop the tired body and soiled hands, and
the whole material aspect of labour."

PHARMACEUTICAL PRACTICE.
The Extra Pharmacopoeia of Martindale and West-

cott. Revised by Dr. W. Harrison Martindale and

W. Wynn Westcott. Fourteenth edition. Pp.

xxvii + 1054. Price 12s. net. With supplement,

Organic Analysis Chart. By W. H. Martindale.

Pp. 80. (London : H. K. Lewis, 1910.) Price

3s. 6d. net.
HIS handbook, which is so familiar to medical
and pharmaceutical practitioners, appears in its
fourteenth edition in a slightly altered form, the size
of the pages having been enlarged so as to allow of
the inclusion of new matter without increasing the
thickness of the book. It will, however, still fit com-
fortably in the coat pocket, which is not an altogether
unimportant advantage.

The two years that have elapsed since the appear-
ance of the thirteenth edition have yielded an unusual
amount of valuable therapeutic literature, a judicious
condensation of which forms, for the most part, the
new matter of the fourteenth edition. There are new
chapters upon lactic acid bacilli therapy, organic
arsenic compounds, the electrical introduction into the
tissues of medicaments in the ionised condition, and
radiology. In addition, the most recent information
relating to a number of new pharmaceutical and
chemical preparations is incorporated, and recent pro-
gress in vaccine therapy, cancer research, trypano-
somiasis, and the treatment of tuberculosis is noted.
The results of the chemical and bacteriological in-
quiry into the value of disinfectants undertaken by
The Lancet commission are summarised.

The above is a brief outline of the extent of the
revision in so far as it is of direct interest to the
medical practitioner, but it may be added that
throughout the book there is evidence that the authors
have scrupulously followed the medical literature of
the past two years. Alterations which enhance the
usefulness of the book to pharmacists are by no means
inconspicuous. Details are given of about a hundred
more patent or proprietary medicines than in the last

T'

102

NATURE

[November 24, 19 10

edition. The authors have indicated b)' means of
signs the part of the poison schedule in which each
poison falls ; this is an innovation which will be wel-
comed by retail dealers in poisons, in view of the
exacting nature of the Poisons and Pharmacy Act,
1908. Since the last edition was published, new
issues of various foreign pharmacopoeias have ap-
peared, and these have been utilised where necessary
in the preparation of the fourteenth edition.

The " Organic Analysis Chart," which is published
as a supplement, is intended to assist the analyst in
the recognition of a number of organic chemicals, both
natural and synthetic, used therapeutically. This
chart gives the results of the examination of more than
three hundred substances, and is the outcome of work
conducted in Mr. Martindale's laboratory. It is a
useful addendum to a book which is indispensable to
practitioners of medicine and pharmacy.

A FISHERMAN'S TALES.
/In Open Creel. By H. T. Sheringham. Pp. xii +

305. (London : Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1910.)

Price 55. net.
1\/TR. SHERINGHAM'S contributions to angling
■^^-'- literature are always welcome, and we are glad
to find that he has published in book form — or, more
accurately, has worked up with other materials into
a book — some of his contributions to The Field. No
one -need hesitate to look, into the "Open Creel";
they will find plenty of fish, some hundredweight and
a half of trout, nearly as heavy a bag of salmon,
and chub, pike, and bream by the stone. In the pre-
face we are promised that we shall find no plethora
of fish in the succeeding essays, and Mr. Sheringham
would not have himself regarded as an over-successful
angler ; to the ordinary reader he certainly seems
successful bejond the wont of fisherman, but success
in angling, as in other walks of life, is seldom un-
deserved, and it is with interest that we look for its
explanation in our author's own account of his adven-
tures. This is to be found, we venture to think, in
his persistency, and his advice to others is to per-
severe ; he who would come home with a heavy basket
must needs set forth " with patience and perseverance
and a bottle of sweet Oil," as the snail went to Jeru-
salem. Yet it was his oil bottle that so tried Mr.
Sheringham 's patience that it came within a little of
ending an honourable career in the Coin at Bibury.

It would be invidious to select for praise any one
essay in the book. "The Float" is excellent, so, too,
are the accounts of "Some Kennet Days," , and the
obituary notice of "Two Colne Trout," and so are
many others. Perhaps it is when he fishes for coarse
fish that Mr. Sheringham is the best company ; such
fishing is a more leisurely pursuit, and leaves more
time for contemplation and for those digressions into
the byways of angling that show him at his best.
Sometimes when dry-fly fishing he tends to become a
mere compiler of lists of dates and waters, flies and
weights of fish, yet he is never wearisome, and has a
most amiable weakness for Wickam's Fancy. Did
fly fishing give hint leisure for contemplation, Mr.
Sheringham might meditate upon the problem thus
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

presented; we cannot help thinking that a man's char-
acter should be reflected in his taste in flies, and that
he who loves Wickam's Fancy must be a happy and
contented soul and a good companion at the water's
side. At any rate, we have found him good company
in print, and recommend others to see if they cannot
do likewise. L. W. B.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

The Photography of Moving Objects and Hana-
Camera Work for Advanced Workers. By A.
Abrahams. Pp. 153. (London : G. Routledge and
Sons, Ltd., and Dawbarn and Ward, Lid., n.d.)
Price IS. net.
Mj?. Abrahams has been known during the past few
years as a very successful photographer of moving
objects, especially those in rapid motion, and in this
volume he describes his methods freely and fully.
He illustrates his experiences with more than forty
pictures, which are well reproduced, and these, if
nothing else were known of Mr. Abraham's work,
would demonstrate his right to speak with authority.
After chapters on apparatus, exposure, development,
and so on, he deals with the photography of railway
trains, athletics, rowing, football, cricket, lawn tennis,
horses, divers and swimmers, golf, common objects,
winter sports, special subjects, and press photography,
giving apparently all the practical details that can
be given in a book.

It is of interest that Mr. Abrahams prefers pryo-
gallol with sodium carbonate and sulphite as de-
veloper, in spite of all the new reagents that have
been introduced, and that he actually blames metol as
the cause of a modified instead of a full success. He
advocates swinging the lens when necessary to get
better definition of details at various distances from
the camera, and justifies his advice by means of at
least one example. But when he says, "if you cannot
swing the back why not swing the lens," he appears
to support the common idea that the one is the equiva-
lent of the other. There is, of course, the radical
difference that swinging the lens moves the axis of
the lens to a different part of the plate, while swing-
ing the back does not. There is one other common
error to which the author appears to lend support,
when he says that the shutter-blind " should be really
in the focal plane " ; an obvious impossibility, because
the plate itself is there.

Der Sternenhimmel By Prof. J. D. Messer-
schmitt. Pp. 195 4- xiii 'plates. (Leipzig: Philipp
Reclam, Jun., n.d.) Price 1.75 marks.
This little book is another well-meant attempt to in-
terest the public in astronomical phenomena by de-
scribing in simple language some of the results
obtained by continued observation. The general
appearance of the sky and the changes produced by
the diurnal rotation and annual revolution of the earth
about the sun come under notice. Separate chapters
are added on parallax and aberration, the precessior.
and nutation of the earth's axis, and the variation of
latitude, which last seems a small matter to introduce
into a work that can onlv aim at presenting- the more
conspicuous features. The several planets are de-
scribed, their general appearance and motion, and a
few remarks are added on comets and meteors.

In the section devoted to the stellar system, the
usual information is given concerning double and
variable stars, clusters, and nebulae, proper motion
and the movement of the solar svstem in space. The
ground covered is that with which we have been rnade
familiar bv manv similar works, and it is not a little
difficult to justify the appearance of another treatise

I

November 24, 19 10]

NATURE

103

on popular astronomy, however accurate it may. be
in detail. No doubt it is always difficult to know
what to omit when space is severely limited, but if the
book is to attract the attention of those who are un-
acquainted with astroncMTiical literature, we suggest
that the object would be more" likely to be attained if
the author had devoted some space to the methods
and results of spectroscopic observation. By practic-
ally ignoring' this large section, he has negflected per-
haps the best means of exciting the scientific imagina-
tion and awakening an intelligent curiosity in celestial
phenomena.

Introduction to Physical Chemistry. By Prof. H. C.

Jones. Pp. XV + 279. (New York : The Macmillan

Companv ; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.,

1910.) Price 1.60 dollars net.
In this book the author gives a rapid sketch of what
is ordinarily known as physical chemistn*-. Compared
with other books of its kind, the result can scarcely
be described as satisfactory. The author has tried to
cover too much ground in the allotted space, with the
result that much of the information is of a frag-
mentary- character. The book is evidently intended
for junior students, but it is doubtful whether they
would really get any g^rasp of fundamental principles
from such a highly condensed account of physical
cheiTiistn,.

There are many places where the author's state-
ments are vague, if not erroneous. For example,
when discussing solids, he says, " The density of solids
is somewhat greater than that of liquids, and much
greater than that of gases. This is just what we
-hould expect, since the solid state represents matter
in its most condensed form." The second sentence is
quite misleading. Again, " Ozone seems to be stable
below 200° and above looo"." Prof. H. C. Jones is a
zealous and energetic worker in the field of physical
jhemistr}-, and the reviewer would like to have been
able to accord this book a hearty welcome. As it is,
he feels bound to say that, although it may serve a
useful purpose, there are. in his opinion, better works
of a similar character already in existence.

Preliminary Physiology. By W. Narramore. Pp.

xix + 220. (London : Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1910.J

Price 35. 6d.
This little book will be mainly useful to school
teachers and to junior students preparing for the first-
stage examinations of the Board of Education. This
class of reader has but little preliminar\- anatomical
knowledge, and the bulk of Mr. Narramore's book is
occupied with filling up this gap. There are manv
other excellent books of the same nature, but the chief
merits of the present volume are — (i) it is correct so
far as it goes, and it is admittedlv of the most elemen-
tar\- nature, and (2) it is provided with excellent illus-
trations. The author recognises that books and pic-
tures will never teach properlv even the elements of
an experimental science, and insists that practical
work must accompany the course. One can onlv hope
that this expression of opinion will bear fruit. So far
as one's experience of the schoolmaster goes, it is just
that practical element in his scientific training which
IS usuallv conspicuous bv ?ts absence.

W. D. H.
The Invicta Table Book. Bv J. W. Ladner. Pp. 18.

iLondon : George Philip and Son, Ltd., n.d.) Price

2d.

Graphic representations of the multiplication tables
[ind of the commoner weights and measures — includ-
ing the metric svstem— are provided, and these should
prove ver>- useful in schools where the compiler's
number scheme is adopted.

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

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 Jodrell Laboratory at Kew.

The award of a Royal medal to Prof. F. O. Bower

for his long-continued researches in the vascular crj-pto-

I gams suggests to me that it may not be inappropriate to

; put on record an anecdote in our scientific histon' in the

I last century.

I In the fourth report of the Commission on Scientific
I Instruction and the Advancement of Science it was recom-
• mended (paragraphs 57 and 154) " that opportunities for
I the pursuit of investigations in Physiological Botany should

be afforded in the Royal Gardens at Kew."
I To this the Government paid as little attention as it
usually does to the results of the labours of Royal Com-
i missions. But the recommendation was not wholly fruit-
less, for it induced the late T. J. Phillips Jodrell, a
personal friend of Sir Joseph Hooker, to offer to build
and equip, at an expense of 1500/., a modest laboratory'
for the purpose. As stated in the Kew report
for 1874, it was originally intended that this should be
associated with an extension of the herbarium building
which was contemplated at the time ; but in consideration
of the risk of fire it was decided to have an isolated build-
ing contiguous to the propagating department of the
establishment.

It was completed in 1876, and was first occupied by
Prof. Tyndall for work on the putrefactive changes pro-
duced by bacteria, the results of which were published in
the Phil. Trans, for the following year.

Since then the stream of research has continued steadily.
I " handed in " to the " Botanical Work Committee "
appKjinted by the Treasure* in 1900 a list of published
papers as the result of work done in the laboratory down
to and inclusive of that year, and compiled from copies
preser\ed in it.

The workers in the Jodrell Laborator>' are. of course,
independent. They are supplied with the material they
require, and are at liberty to make use of the Kew library
and to consult, if they care to do so, the scientific staff.
The nature of the work has therefore been of the most
varied kind, and does not represent the influence of any
particular school. In this respect the outcome differs
from that of an academic laboratory" in which research is
carried on under the direction, or at any rate with the
aid of, the professor.

What I think is worth noting is that, of those who
have worked in the Jodrell Laboratory- during the fifteen
years from 1876 to iqoo. no fewer than six have sub-
sequently received the Royal medal. I do not mean to say
that it has been in each case wholly earned at Kew. but
it is I think clear that the work done there has contributed
to the result.

The following are the names, with the general scope
of the research and the date of the award : — Burdon
Sanderson, electromoti\-e properties of Dionjea, 1883 ;
Marshall Ward, embr}olog\- and mycolog>-, 1893 ;
Gardiner, continuity- of protoplasm, i8q8 ; Horace Brown,
assimilation of carbon, 1903 ; Scott, fossil botany, 1906 ;
Bower, morphology of vascular cryptogams. 19 10. To
these may be added, making in all seven medallists, the
Davy medal awarded to Schunck in 1899, in part for his
researches on chlorophyll.

When one considers the names the results are not sur-,
nrising, and though Kew enjovs some measure of prestige
from being associated with them, that association is to.
a large extent accidental, at any rate limited to affording
facilities. But some conclusions may be drawn. In the
first place, the prevision of the Roval Commission is
amply justified. In the next place. Phillips Jodrell. were
he alive, would have every reason to be satisfied with the
outcome of his generosity. But there is a further and
more important point. I do not contend that the work
I have enumerated was necessarily bound up with the
Jodrell Laboratory in the sense that it could not have

I04

NATURE

[November 24, 1910

been accomplished elsewhere, as, indeed, much of it has
been continued. Of course, the medallists were all picked
men, who did not lightly embark on research demanding
much time and labour without a good deal of previous
consideration. I think it may be fairly concluded that
the provision of facilities with a sympathetic atmosphere
may h^ve operated as a determining influence. The final
moral of the story may be summed up as the " open
door."

And this applies elsewhere. The mathematician only
requires his study. The physicist and the chemist are
rarely at a loss for opportunity of research. But the posi-
tion of the biologist is different. He must go to his
material. Such institutions, therefore, as the Rothamsted
Experimental Station,, the Plymouth Laboratory of the
Marine Biological Association, and the Biological Station
at Naples, are peculiarly deserving of public support. And

the recognition it deserves. Fortunately, the utility of the
laboratory as a necessary element in the Kew establish-
ment has become sufficiently evident, and the keeper is
now a member of the paid staff.
Witcombe. VV. T. Thiselton-Dyer.

Eel-larvse {Leptocephalus brevirostris) from the Cetitral
Noith Atlantic ^

In a previous article in Nature (November lo) I have
given some information about the expedition executed
by the steamer Michael Sars in the North Atlantic, from
April to August this year, under the superintendence of
Sir John Murray and myself. As would be seen from that
article, the expedition crossed the Atlantic twice, first
from the Canaries to Newfoundland, and then from New-
foundland to Ireland. During this cruise many hauls were

Fig. I. — Chart showing places where eel-larvx were found, and the number caught.

I think the story of the Jodrell Laboratory affords toler-
able ground for the presumption, if, indeed, other experi-
ence did not afford it, that the generosity of those who
have money to spare will not be fruitless in results if
extended to institutions of the kind.

I cannot, however, omit to notice one piece of devoted
service to the interests of the laboratory which, of its
kind, is almost unique. A quarter of a century ago the
Government looked with more indifference on research
than happily it does at present. It merely acquiesced,
with little interest, in a laboratory being provided at Kew
from private funds. It was hopeless at the time to obtain
for it any public financial support. Posterity will almost
think it incredible that from 1892 to 1906 Kew should have
had to owe to the present president of the Linnean Society,
Dr. Dukinfield Scott, the unpaid performance of the duties
of keeper. Such unrequited devotion has scarcely received

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

made with pelagic tow-nets and trawls. It is character-
istic of the manner of work that many nets and trawls
— as many as ten — were towed simultaneously during
several hours at each station. The nets and trawls were
fixed on the wire as .follows: one at the surface, the
others at 100, 200, 300, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, and
3000 metres. The very considerable number of pelagic
forms captured is now being examined. The material
includes several hundred Leptocephali belonging to many
different species. Among these are forty-four larvae of the
common eel (Leptocephalus brevirostris). The localities
where these were found are so interesting that a pre-
liminary note may be useful, as suggestive for further
investigation.

The accompanying chart (Fig. i) shows the stations at

1 Communication from the Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-sea Expe-
dition, 1910.

November 24, 19 10]

NATURE

\0'

which eel-larvae Were found, the figures indicating the
number of larvae caught at each place. The chart shows
the existence of eel-larvae over the greater part of the
Korth Atlantic between North Africa and North America.
The excellent Danish irtvestigations planned by Dr. C. G.
Joh. Petersen, and carried out by Dr. Johannes Schmidt,
succeeded with Dr. Petersen's young-fish trawl in catching
eel-larvae over depths mostly of looo metres along the
continental slope from Shetland to Gibraltar. On the
American side, larvae of the American eel (^XnguiXla
chrysypa) have already been found over the continental
slope off the United States. The catches made by the
Michael Sars now have this particular interest, that they
prove the distribution of the larvae, not only on the slopes,
but also in mid-ocean over the greatest depths, both over
the deep eastern and western basins and over the Azores
ridge separating them.

.\ccording to their length, the larvae may be divided into
two distinct groups, one including specimens of 41 to
60 mm. in length, the other those of 66 to 82 mm. (see
Fig. 2). All the specimens belonging to the first group,
twenty-one altogether, were found at the stations south of
the Azores, marked by a cross, and all those belonging

Length

m mm.

40

-«■

iO-

5S

«0

60-

70-

70-

80

85

Number of individuals

Southern Group
21 dndividuQls

Northern 6roup
25 c3ndividuQl5

Fig. 2.

to the group of larger individuals were caught at the
stations north of the Azores, marked by a circle. In order
to control the determination of the larvae, my assistant,
Mr. Einar Lea, has counted the myomers of all the
lan,aE, and the results are given, for both groups
separately, in Fig. 3. All the individuals — of either group

have a number of myomers not exceeding the limits,
HI to 119, given by Dr. Schmidt as characteristic of the
larvae of the common eel (Leptocephalus brevirostris).
They are thereby distinguished from the larvae of the
A.merican eel iAnguilla chrysypa). For the larvae of the
latter Eigenmann and Kennedv give the number of
myomers as 105 and 108, and Dr. Schmidt has, by count-
ing the vertebrae, fixed the limits at 104 and no.

The larvae of the common European eel previously found
by Dr. Schmidt in the North .Atlantic were all either full-
grown leptocephalic larvae or in subsequent stages of trans-
A^i'i'"^''^"" ^^- ^chrn'<^t describes five different stages.
All the larvae found by the Michael Sars north of the
Azores belong to one or other of these stages. Outside
the continental slope no larvae of the transformation stages
were found, but only full-grown leptocephalic larv^ corre-
spondmg to Dr. Schmidt's stage i. This holds good both
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

for the lar\-a found in April in the Bay of Biscaj: and for
the larvae found in July between Newfoundland and
Ireland. On the continental slope off the British Isles,
however, larva in transformation stages (Schmidt's stages
2 and 3J were found.

The lar\ae found by the Michael Sars south of the
.Azores are all smaller than the full-grown leptocephalic

3ndividua

.i

from fhe

.Tnd

ivi duals

^OTt

Myomerj

Northern

Section

the

5ouir)€rn ^clwn

»i* .

0

0

m .

0

0 0

0

000

0

MS .

0

0 0

0

0 0

0

000

0 0

n* .

0

0 0

0

0

tv .

0

0 0

0

0

000

00000

*<• .

0

119 .

0

0

0

Fig.

larva. I understand them to be stages in the develop-
ment from the ovum to the full-grown larva. All have
teeth which in everA' essential correspond to those charac-
terising stage I, as described by Dr. Schmidt. I must
therefore consider the larvae caught south of the .Azores to
be younger than any before found.

So far, no other stages have been discovered among
the materials secured by the Michael Sars. More material
is therefore needed to give a full explanation of the facts
stated above. As, in the numerous Danish investigations
and in all the hauls made by the Michael Sars, no single
specimen belonging to the youngest stages has been found
in the area north of the Azores, the conclusion seems
natural that the spawning area of the eel must be sought
in the southern central part of the North Atlantic. How-
ever, the spawning^ area can only be located by the evidence

jU

Jtr

X>.

d.

Fig. 4. — Eel-larvae found by Mkkatl Sars ; a-c, caught south of the
Azores ; d, north of the .\zores ; a, the smallest larva found ; d, a fuil-
gro«n larva as the youngest previously found. .\11 the figures are
copied from photographs. Nat. size.

of ova. So long as the eggs have not yet been discovered
the spawning area must also be considered as unknown ;
but it is natural to look for it in the neighbourhood of
those localities where the youngest stages have been found.
The discovery of the ova would not only give information
about the geographical position of the spawning area, but
also about the ages of the different lar\3e hitherto found.
It may then be possible to understand the distribution of
the different stages — the youngest south and the eldest

io6

NATURE

[November 24, 1910

north — as a drift with the currents. The negative fact
that none of the smaller larvae have appeared north of the
Azores, and none of the larger ones south, seems to favour
such an explanation. The further fact that none of the
transformation stages, previously found so abundantly on
the continental slope, were found in mid-ocean supports the
same view. Nevertheless, I consider it dangerous to form
any definite opinion from negative facts concerning such
vast ocean expanses, where so few investigations have as
yet been made.

As a provisional working hypothesis I should be inclined
to regard the continental slope as the area where the
transformation of the larvae takes place, and the southern
central part of the North Atlantic ocean as the probable
spawning area of the eel.

Fig. 5 gives information as to the depths at which the
Michael Sars caught the eel-larvae. The youngest speci-
mens were mainly found by towing a net with loo metres

Depths
In mrttr

300.

o Jndividuds from Ihe Northern Section
+ Jndividuals from the Southern Section

■•• + ■♦■+♦•♦•♦ + + + + + + + 00

++++0000000000

4 00000000

500. +00

Fig. s-

of wire out, or in a depth of about 50 metres. The
eldest stages were found in nets towed with 200 metres of
wire out, or at a depth of about 100 metres. The Michael
Sars employed for these depths mostly silk nets with
mouths of I m. in diameter, and no trawls. Otherwise
larger catches of eel-larvae might have been procured. I
should recommend that future investigators look for the
eggs and the smallest larvae from the surface down to
100 metres, say between the Azores and Bermudas, in
winter. I hope that this information will in this way be
found useful. Johan Hjort.

Bergen, November 7.

Are Mules Fertile ?

In the Nuevo Mundo of Madrid for October 27 it is
stated that a mule, belonging to Don Carlos Gimenez, of
Argamasella de Calatrava, recently gave birth to a foal.
From India, South Africa, and America reports have
reached the writer about fertile mules, but in no single
instance has the evidence of fertility been altogether satis-
factory. In the present case the information thus far
submitted is very meagre. Nothing is said about the
breeding of the reputed parent of the foal. She may be
a she-ass with the conformation of a mule, or a mule in
milk which succeeded in stealing a mule foal from a
mare. A Przewalsky-horse hybrid bred at Penycuik
proved fertile, but all the ass and zebra hybrids experi-
mented with during the last twelve j-ears proved sterile.
The male zebra-horse hybrids were sterile because they
never succeeded in maturing perfect sperms. The hybrid
" Romulus," e.g., had all the instincts of a pony stallion,
and, so far as one could judge with the naked eye, he
was capable of getting foals. When, however, a micro-
scopic examination was made, it was ascertained that the
sperms were quite or almost tailless: — at the most the
length of the flagellum was, never more than three or four
times the diameter of the head, and it was immobile.
Why female mules are infertile has not yet been deter-
mined.

Sterility in birds seems sometimes to be due to struc-
tural changes in the germ cells induced by in-and-in-breed-
ing. It is conceivable that similar changes may sometimes
result from intercrossing. It must be admitted that the

photograph reproduced in the Nuevo Mundo supports the
view that the Calatrava foal is a mule, and that the
reputed mother is also a mule.

But further and more definite information is wanted
before a decision can be arrived at.

J. C. EWART.

The Origin of Dun Horses.

The cases quoted by Prof. Cossar Ewart from Mr,
J. B. Robertson in Nature of November 10 would be
good evidence against the theory that every dun horse
must have at least one parent dun or grey if the data
in the Thoroughbred Stud-book were absolutely trust-
worthy. This they are not, and all the cases quoted by
Prof. Ewart have in them a very considerable element of
doubt. Let me indicate these elements by placing the
cases quoted in one column, in reversed chronological
order, and the necessary remarks in another column
parallel.

Remarks.

This filly is registered
" b. or dun."

This colt is registered
" b. or dun."

In vol. xvii. Cellulites*
foal of 1892 was said to
have died, but in vol. xviii.
the alleged dead foal be-
comes Sarah Curran.

This filly is registered
"bay."

The breeder had doubts
as to this filly's colour.

This filly died when two
days old.

This filly had eight foals
the colours of which were
registered, and not one was
dun.

This colt's sire was grey,

Cases Quoted.

Bay-dun filly, foaled
1907, dam. Unexpected.

Dun colt, foaled 1897,
dam, Lobelia.

Dun filly, Sarah Curran,
foaled 1892, dam, Cellu-
lites.

Light dun filly, foaled
1886, dam, Danseuse.

Dun or chestnut
Saneta, foaled 1884.

Dun filly, foaled
dam, Octavia.

Dun filly, foaled
dam, Miss Thigh.

filly,
1829,
1763.

i

Dun colt, foaled 1730
dam, Young Kitty Burdett.

The last case quoted is the mare Silverlocks, from which""
nearly all the duns in the Stud-book are descended.
Silverlocks is credited with five foals, the first of which
was foaled in 1738, and four of these were dun. Three
of these four were by a bay or brown horse. So Silver-
locks herself was presumably a dun. The Stud-book
assumes that this mare Silverlocks was identical with a
chestnut mare Silverlocks foaled in 1825. Either the 1825
Silverlocks was a dun, not a chestnut, or the two mares
were different animals. James Wilson.

Royal College of Science, Dublin, November 15.

The Cocos-Keeling Atoll.

In stating the depths to which the bores in the Funafuti
lagoon were carried, and in drawing his deductions from
them, the reviewer (Nature, November 10) has fallen into
a very curious error. He states that the first bore was
driven to a depth of 41 fathoms, and the second to nearly
36 fathoms, but he overlooks the fact that he is giving
the measurements from the surface of the lagoon water,
and not from the lagoon floor.

The bores were started in loi feet of water at low-water
spring tide, and therefore, of the 41 and 36 fathoms men-
tioned by the reviewer, the top 17 fathoms in each case
consist of nothing but lagoon water. The actual bores
made into the lagoon bed penetrated no more than 24 and
19 fathoms respectively, or, as I pointed out in my last
communication, a maximum of 144 feet.

F. Wood-Jones.

My depths of 41 and 36 fathoms were not intended in
any way as a correction of Mr. Wood-Jones's letter. The
important point is that lagoon debris only occurred above
27 fathoms; there was 10 fathoms of it. Below this depth
we get coral rock.

It is a long time since any discussion has been held in
this country on coral-reef formation, while much work

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

November 24, 19 10]

NATURE

107

has-been done during the last decade. I suggest that a
public discussion, such as. that on "The Origin of Verte-
brate?," held at the Liiinean Society last session, would
be valuable. The Reviewer.

In our work in Challenger Office in connection with
deep-sea deposits, we are very much impressed with the
fact that solution of calcium carbonate is going on in the
ocean, not only at great depths, but at all depths from
the surface to the bottom wherever dead organisms which
secrete carbonate of lime are exposed to the action of the
sea water, as was recognised and insisted on by Semper,
Murray, Agassiz, and others. We are therefore much
interested in the discussion going on in Nature regarding
solution in the lagoons of atolls.

Mr. Wood-Jones considers that there are no actual proofs
of solution in the lagoons of atolls, but, at the same time,
admits the deposition of calcium carbonate.

The quantity of calcium carbonate present in solution
in normal sea water is very small — only 012 gram per
litre for water of specific gravity 1026 — and no precipitate
is obtained on allowing it to stand for any length of time.
When, however, sea water has remained for some period
in contact with calcium carbonate it may take up a greater
amount (up to 0-649 gram per litre). The solution is then
supersaturated, and, on being allowed to stand, calcium
carbonate is deposited in the crystalline form, and the
deposition may go on until the solution contains less
than is normally present in sea water.

The first condition, therefore, for precipitation is that
more calcium carbonate than is normally present should
pass into solution, and this can only occur when the sea
water is in contact with a calcareous deposit for some
time.

Would Mr. Wood-Jones say where the calcium carbonate
which is precipitated in the crystalline form in the inter-
stices of the massive corals in the lagoons comes from, for
it is certainly not from the normal sea water which
reaches the reefs from the open ocean ?

It would appear that Mr. Wood-Jones's arguments
against Sir John Murray's theory go rather in support
of it. Madge W. Drlmmond.

Challenger Office, Villa Medusa, Boswell Road,
Edinburgh, November 17.

The Plight of Birds against the Wind.

In an interesting article (Nature, November 10) upon
bird migration and Mr. Power's recently published
" Ornithological Notes," Sir T, Digby Pigott expresses
surprise at the latter 's conclusions that in the large
autumnal migrations the birds invariably fly " almost
directly against the wind even when it approaches a stiff
breeze."

My observations on the flight of gulls during south-west
gales off this coast lead to the conclusion that these birds
during their aerial gyrations either face the wind or fly
obliquely across the current. They very rarely fly, and, I
believe, never soar, with the wind behind them. Perhaps
less muscular energy is necessary in the former than in
the latter case. Fish in rapid rivers, when not actively
moving, according to my e.xperience remain with their
heads upstream. W. Ainslie Hollis.

Hove, November 15.

lUE ACCURATE MACGILLIVRAY,
ORNITHOLOGISTS

"T^HE accurate MacGillivray " is Darwin's designa-
*■ tion of the subject of this notice, and "ornith-
ologist " is the title which, when twentv-three years of
age, he himself presaging his own powers, declared
i* would go hard with him if he did not merit.

Who MacGillivray was does not require to be told
to the ornithologist conversant with the literature of

1 " Ufe of William MacGillivTay, M.A.. LL.D., F.R.S.E., Ornithologist
^rofe^sor of Natural History-, Marischal College and University, Aberdeen.
By William MacGillivray, W.S. With a Scientific Appreciation byPnf.
J. Arthur Thomson. Pp. xv+2»2. (London : John Murray, iqio.) Price
loi. 6rf. net.

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

his subject ; but the general reader and the superficial
bird-man have probably never heard his name. Yet
that he was " the greatest and most original ornith-
ological genius save one . . that this island has pro-
duced," is the verdict of so distinguished an ornith-
ologist of our day as Newton. Why MacGillivray's
biography should have tarried until his ashes had been
fifty-eight years in the tomb is hard to understand,
except probably that, born before his time, his con-
temporaries failed to perceive the genius of the man,
or realise the pioneer he was. ..

William MacGillivray, born in Aberdeen in 1796,
was the son of a military- surgeon who died on the
field of Corunna. The storj- of his self-denying life is
that of not a few Scottish students, who, scantily
provided with means, have yet bv their indomitable
will-power and love of learning achieved distinction,
honour, and lasting fame. The future ornithologist's
boyhood, from the age of three, was spent in Harris,
in the Hebrides, where nature is wild and presents
herself in many changing and impressive aspects. In
the parish school a few miles from his home, he
obtained, "under dull scholastic rule," a good elemen-
tary education, but his chief and unconscious pre-
ceptors were " the solitudes of nature " and " the
moaning voice of streams and winds." At the age
of eleven he <-et out for Aberdeen, to prepare, under
more advanced tutors, for his entrance the following
year into the University there, with a view to his
father's profession. He probably on this occasion, as
he invariably did at the beginning and end of the
various college sessions, walked all the way athwart
Scotland from his landing place on the west coast.
When twelve years old he entered King's College, at
that time the University of old Aberdeen (as then
known), which (until i8i6o) was distinct from Mari-
schal College, the University' (junior bv a centur\-) of
new Aberdeen. Having graduated M.A., when four
years older, he proceeded at once to the study of
medicine, of which one of the courses was botany, and
with it, as he has recorded, he first began the studv
of nature "which has been particularly fascinating."
.\ year later he took up zoology. His vacations were
thenceforth spent in pedestrian excursions over the
Highlands an/i islands, collecting plants and animals,
keenly observing and carefully recording every aspect
of nature.

It was during this period that MacGillivray acquired
his great dexterity with the scalpel, and became so
accomplished an anatomist that he was appointed
dissector to the lecturer on anatomy in Marischal
College. Unable, however, to resist the call
of natural history, he relinquished this not un-
congenial post in order to devote himself exclusively
to his mistress. .\s one of the means to " further his
cognition of these things," he set out on foot from
-Aberdeen for London via Fortwilliam and Ben Nevis
— hardlv the direct route — to visit the British and
other Metropolitan museums, and observe life by the
w-ay. Drenched or dry, tired or otherwise, he never
neglected at the close of the day to record fully in
his journal the valuable notes he had made. After an-
837 mile tramp, full of extraordinary experiences, he
reached the caoital, "satisfied." as he says, "with my
conduct"; and not unjustly so, for his expedition had
gone far to mature the youthful enthusiast. His study
of the various zoological collections in London con-
vinced him that the methods of classification of
modern ornithologists were such as he could not
accept. Before he returned to Aberdeen he had formed
the resolve "to become the author of a new system,"
which formed the aim of his life thenceforward. In
i8iq or 1820, MacGillivray migrated from Aberdeen
to Edinburgh, and as he had recently married, it

io8

NATURE

[November 24, 1910

became for financial reasons necessary to accept the
post of assistant to Prof. Jameson, who then held the
chair of natural history in that city. His beloved
birds, however, enticed him away again to the fields
for a few years, until in 1831 he received the entirely
congenial appointment of conservator of the Museum
of the CoUej^e of Surgeons in Edinburgh. Here he
accomplished splendid curatorial and research work —
among much else replacing, through his accurate
knowledg^e of living nature, the taxidermal monstrosi-
ties he found there by lifelike specimens — wherby his
great scientific attainments became very widely recog-
nised. His numerous anatomical investigations were
continually supplying material for his new system of
classification of birds, which, it was his peculiar merit
to perceive, should not, as hitherto, be based on their
external characters alone, but on their internal
organisation as well. He specially devoted his atten-
tion to their digestive organs, undoubtedly too exclu-
sivelv ; but still, his was unquestionably a distinct ad-

labour for eleven years to this end that he found no
opportunity until early in 1852 to issue the fourth
volume of his great history. It was published during
his stay at Torquay, whither he had retreated " from
the blasts of the North Sea," in the hope, which
proved vain, of recovering his health, "assailed by
disease." In July of the same year, within six weeks
after the appearance of the concluding volume, this
gifted naturalist and most lovable man passed away,
amid the esteem of his scientific contemporaries and
the special regard and affection of his former pupils,
of whom a small remnant only now survives.

The above personal details are summarised from
the first five chapters of this welcome " Life," in which
all the available information about his distinguished
relative has been brought together by a namesake.
The succeeding chapter contains a warm appreciation
of MacGillivrav's scientific work by the present occu-
pant— the fourth in succession — of the Aberdeen chair,
Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, himself an ardent naturalist

vancc on an}' method previously attempted. At this
juncture he became associated as joint author with
Audubon, the American ornithologist, in his "Ornith-
ological Biographies."

In this great work all the technical and anatomical
descriptions, and even some of the plates, are Mac-
Gillivray's, while Audubon's are the drawings and
field notes on the species, of which he had an intimate
acquaintance. During this period MacGillivray wrote
many other books, but he was busy also with his
projected " History of British Birds," the first three
volumes of which appeared between 1837 and 1840.
The wide reputation he had acquired in Edinburgh
won for him early in 1841 the natural history chair in
Marischal College, Aberdeen. Into his new duties
there he entered with all the enthusiasm and energy
of his nature, and with the ardent desire — not un-
realised-y-that through his endeavours "the city might
obtain a' rank among those distinguished for the cul-
fivatiotJ of natural history." So strenuously did he

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

William MacGillivray.

of the MacGillivray t\'pe. The final chapter is devoted
to a series of delightful and characteristic descriptive
passages from MacGillivray 's writings, while a selec-
tion of his lifelike drawings from those in the British
Museum illustrate the volume, one of which, by the
courtesy of the publishers, is here reproduced. A
volume on the "Natural History of Deeside and Brae-
mar," found in MS. after his death, was purchased
and published privately by Queen Victoria. Ornith-
ologists everywhere will echo the regret expressed by
Ladv Geddes — whose personal recollections of the pro-
fessor will be read with special interest — that no por-
trait of MacGillivray is in existence.

It has been peculiarlv gratifying to the present
writer to have been requested to bring this biography
of MacGillivray under the notice of the readers of
Nature. The deepest pleasures of his own life have
been derived from natural history pursuits in many
parts of the globe, and he may perhaps be permitted
to sav that his love for nature was awakened in

November 24, 1910]

NATURE

109

<;arly childhood bv his father, who imbibed his own
interest in zoology and botanv as a pupil of Mac-
Gillivray, and throughout his life never referred
to his old professor without some term of affection.
The writer, therefore, has always regarded himself as
a grandchild of MacGillivray's influence. It was his
fortune afterwards to receive in the same class-room
his own zoological training, and to engage in cura-
torial work in the museum in which many of the
specimens were labelled in MacGillivray's handwrii-
ing, and some vears still later to follow closely the
track of the Rattlesnake, the naturalist of which was
John MacGillivray, the professor's eldest son, and its
surgeon Huxley, also the writer's revered master. As
familiar to the reviewer, too, is MacGillivray's beauti-
ful handwriting — of which a specimen is reproduced
on p. 68 of the ■" Life " — as if it were that of a member
of his own family ; for, by a strange chance, one of his
brothers had the good fortune, while a student, per-
haps about 1865, to rescue for a few pence from a
butterer's mean uses a large bundle of SlacGillivrav's
journals. Sad to say, only a few pages ran consecu-
tively, but they were perused with something
approaching to veneration. These contained, if
memory serves, descriptions of some new species of
mollusca ; notes of excursions, with zoological and
botanical observations — pages, perchance, of the
second volume of "A Year's Residence and Travels
in the Hebrides," which the "Life" records as lost;
memoranda o'n the conduct and concentration of his
pupils, while sitting for their class examination ; the
names tabulated according to " nations " (natal re-
gions), and to harmony and disharmony in colour of
their hair and eyes, with the proportion of successes
or failures in these categories. Alas ! it is to be feared
that these pages have now also gone the way of all
things.

It is gratifying, especially to Aberdonians, to find
MacGillivray's memory so sympathetically revivified
in this volume, and to feel that it will be kept green
therebv for the future among his successors in the
title of ornithologist.

M'

THE MAORIS OF NEW ZEALAND.^
R. JAMES COWAN has done the student as well
■'■*-*■ as the general reader a service in publishing the
material he has personally collected from the kau-
matuas, the old and learned men of many Maori
tribes, for the time is rapidly approaching when verv
little more can be gathered from the natives. The
book is by no means of the monographic kind, but
consists of what are virtually a series of essays on
different subjects, based entirely on first-hand infor-
mation and the experiences of a lifetime of sympathetic
intercourse with the Maoris.

The subject-matter may be grouped as follows: —
The origin and migrations of the Maori and the settling
of New Zealand; religion, tapu, omens, and the like;
social customs, houses, canoes, tattooing; nature lore,
folk-tales, poetr>- ; while the last third is mainlv
devoted to the Maori in war, intertribal and with
Europeans, and to cannibalism.

^ Comparatively early in the book we find it stated
"that the Maori-Polvnesian is a brand, though a
distant one, of the Caucasian race is now generallv
accepted." It may be granted that the main stock
of the Polynesians had, in the remote past, some
relationship with the ancestors of certain peoples now
living in Europe, but since then mixture has taken
place with other races, A few students of Maori and

;il.V/T^*^^^°"^°^..^^* ^f^'^"*^-" By James Cowan. With numerous
ri^,.^ M 7'^'T P>o'^?j;^ohs and drawings. Pp. xxiv+356. (Christ-
church, N.Z. ; London : Whucombe and Tombs, Ltd., 191a) Pr ce 155.

other Oceanic languages have endeavoured to trace
I them to a Semitic origin, but there is no likeness
between the grammar, and Polynesian and Semitic
words are made in an absolutely different way, and
there is no sort of likeness in the changes they
undergo. The so-called evidence of connection is
based only on the resemblances of certain words, but
this is a method that could be adopted to prove any
other theor}-. It comes therefore as a shock to read,
"Certainly there seems to be adequate evidence to
justifv us in arriving at these general conclusions :
that it was on or near the shores of the Persian Gulf
and of .\rabia that the ancestors of the Maori-Poly-
nesian lived ; that they had racial affinities with the
ancient Chaldeans, from whom they gained most of
their astronomical knowledge ; that they also were
blood relations of the Phoenicians, who were the most
adventurous of ancient mariners ; that they had affinity
with the Egyptians, some of whose religious tradi-
tions they absorbed" (p. 31). "The coastal [)eople of
south-western Asia were from ancient times navi-
gators with a knowledge of the stars ; they, and prob-
ably the early Egyptians, were amongst the earliest
sailors " — [what evidence is there that the Egyptians
were ever a seafaring people?] "Thev coasted down
the eastern shores of the African continent, at any
rate as far as the Zambesi, and they also visited, and
probably partly colonised. Madagascar; this would-
account for the resemblances between the Maori-Poly-
nesian language and the Malagasy " (p. 35).
The sole evidence for this south-westerly migration

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

The Korotangu From " The Maoris of New Zealand.'

of the ancestors of the Polynesians is the undoubted
relationship of Malagasy with Austronesian languages.
Malagasy is definitely related to the Indonesian group
of languages, especially the Batta of Sumatra,
Ngadju Dayak of Borneo, Sangir, and certain Philip-
pine languages (e.g. Tagal), which must be regarded
as more primitive than the Melanesian languages or
the later Polynesian; but there is nothing Semitic
about any of them, and we cannot at present profit-
ably trace the Indonesian-Polynesian stock further
back than to the supposed " Gangetic Race " of J. H.
Logan, a conclusion to which S. Percy Smith evidently
subscribes in his valuable little book, " Hawaiki."
Mr. Cowan fortunately deals ven,' little with such
problematical questions, and we can feel more at ease
when he confines himself to purely Maori ethnology.

There is an interesting account of the several
voyages of the historic canoes to New Zealand, and
an illustration is given of a carved stone bird, the
korotangi, or "eying dove," which was brought in
the Tainui canoe from the ancient home of the race.
Mr. Cowan asserts, and we can well believe him, " it
is not of Maori manufacture " ; it is loj inches long,
and "carved with high artistic finish out of a ven,'
hard and heavy dark-green metallic stone." Of
especial value are the numerous translations of Maori
invocations, charms, and poems. The chapter on
social life is superficial, and tells us nothing about
the real social organisajtion of the people. The account

I lO

NATURE

[November 24, 1910

of the whare-whakairo , or large communal assembly
hall, is of considerable interest. The book is well illus-
trated, and the note on Maori pronunciation is wel-
come, but an index is lacking. The get-up of the
book is a credit to the New Zealand firm which pub-
lishes it.

THE ATTITUDE OF DIPLODOCUS.^

vJINCE Mr. Carnegie gave a plaster cast of the
•^ skeleton of Diplodocus to the British Museum in
1905, he has distributed other copies of this remarkable
Dinosaur to the museums of Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and
Bologna. A large part of an actual skeleton was also
given by the late Mr. Morris K. Jessup to the Sencken-
berg Museum in Frankfurt. A widespread interest
has thus been aroused in the gigantic Sauropodous
Dinosauria, and there have been many discussions
as to their original form and mode of life.

When the late Profs. Marsh and Cope first obtained
nearly complete skeletons of these reptiles, they com-
pared the limbs with those of an elephant, and decided
that the creatures must have walked in a quadrupedal
manner, with the body well raised above the ground.
Considering their immense weight, the position of
their nostrils on the highest point of the head, and
the feebleness of their dentition, which seems to imply
a succulent food, the professors were agreed that the
animals must have spent much of their lite under water.
Prof. Cope also supposed that the long neck, which
characterises all the Sauropoda, would enable them to
reach the surface to breathe while browsing on water-
weeds in a considerable depth of water. It is now
generally admitted that the theory of their semi-
aquatic mode of life is well founded, and it has been
observed that the feeble teeth are not placed in close
series, but separated by small gaps, as if they formed
a strainer for the food which was taken in. Much
difference of opinion, however, has arisen as to the
attitude of the limbs.

Messrs. Hatcher and Holland, who prepared the
cast of Diplodocus, and Prof. H. F. Osborn, who
mounted a skeleton of Brontosaurus in the American
Museum at New York, followed Marsh and Cope in
arranging the limbs for a quadrupedal walking gait.
Dr. O. P. Hay, of Washington, on the other hand,
subsequently maintained that the limbs must have
been bent, like those of a crocodile, for crawling, and
last year Mr. Gustav Tornier, of Berlin, elaborated
this theory, publishing a somewhat fantastic sketch
of the skeleton as he would arrange it. Prof. O.
Abel, of Vienna, has now prepared an interesting
summary of all these discussions, and finally concludes
that the attitude of Diplodocus and its allies, with
■which the restorations have made us familiar, is really
the correct one.

Prof. Abel begins his paper by deploring the fact
that most museums restore the skeletons of extinct
animals, partly by hypothetical plaster-work, partly
by using the bones of more than one individual, with-
out any clear explanation on the labels. He has,
therefore, taken the trouble to state exactly the nature
of the materials from which the well-known cast of
Diplodocus carnegii was made, and he has no serious
fault to find with its general composition. It is pos-
sible that two or three vertebrae are lacking, and part
of the tail may not be sufficiently stout, otherwise
there is little to criticise. He thinks that the axis of
the head is in direct line with that of the neck, as
usual in reptiles, and that the browsing attitude is due
to the natural curvature of the end of the neck. He

1 " Die RekonstruVtInn des Diplodocus." By O. Abel. Abhand'. k.V.
7O0l.-botan. Ges. in Wfen. Bd. v., Heft 3. Pp. 60+Tafel 3. (Jena:
C Fischer, 1910.) Price 2.40 marks.

NO. 2143, VOL'. 85]

points to the deeply ovate cross-section of the trunk
as showing that it is not adapted for crawling ailong
the grouncl,^ but must have been lifted during locomo-
tion. He then discusses the structure of the feet in
detail, and demonstrates that they are digitigrade, the
fore feet more so than the hind feet. As in Iguanodon
(of which footprints show the impressions) there must
have been elastic pads beneath the toes, and most of
the weig^ht of the body .seems to have been supported
by those below the reduced outer toes. The structure
of the digitigrade feet necessitates nearly upright
limbs, which would support the trunk and give the
reptile a true walking gait. There would be a slight
outward bend of the elbow, but otherwise no sprawl-
ing attitude. The Sauropoda, therefore, form no excep-
tion to the rule, that the extinct Dinosaurs resembled
mammals and birds in their habits and movements.

THE PROTECTION OF NATURES.
" T T is the first time a verv comprehensive attempt

■■• has been made to do important public service
of this character on purely non-partisan lines. . . .
It is indeed a great work. We have here the first
Commission of the kind ever established bv a National
Government. . . ." Thus the Hon. Clifford Sifton,
chairman of the Commission for the Conservation of
the Natural Resources of Canada, at the conclusion
of the Commission's first annual meeting, held in
January of this year.

The establishment of this Commission is a note-
worthy departure, and is actually a method of insur-
ing the future prosperity of the country. Canada is
peculiarly amenable to such a step, as large areas of
her land are in the hands of the Government, and
also peculiarly in need of it. The latter point is
obvious when it is remembered that owners of timber
property are only just beginning to assimilate the idea
of afforestation, that lumbermen are constitutionally
destructive, and that forest fires are not an occasional
catastrophe, but seasonally recurring and accepted
phenomena. In England we hardly realise this last
fact, or the destruction produced by a forest fire. The
following statement gives a glimpse of the reality : —
"The spring fires are not, as a rule, so dangerous to
the forests, as they are what we call leaf fires, while
the fall fires are soil fires. The leaf fire will run
through the woods, and while it destroys a lot of
timber, it does not have the same effect as a fire in
the fall, because that not only takes the leaves and
wood, but it takes the soil as well, and burns down
five feet, so that for a thousand years nothing li'ili
grow on that land." (My italics.) It appears that
railvvav locomotives cause the majority of these devas-
tating conflagrations.

Destruction without perpetuation has been carried
on in other departments. "In the Yukon there are,'
says Mr. Congdon, "hundreds of square miles where
I do not think vou could now find a single fur-bearinc;

1 First Annual Report of the Commission of Corserva'ion, Canada. Bv
courtesy of tbe High Commissioner for Canada, 17 Victoria Street, London.
(Ottawa • The Mortimer Co.. 1910.)

Mitteilungen des Provinzialkomitees fiir Naturdenkm^lpflege. Schleswig-
Holsteinischen, No. i (1909) ; Pommerschen, No. 2 (1910) ; Pachsische",
No. I (1908); Westpreussischen, Nos. i, 2, 3(1908-10); und des Rezirks-
komitees Regierungsbezirk Sigmaringen, No i (1909); Cassel undWaldeck,
Nos. I, 2 (1908-9)

Naturdenkmalpflege und Aquarienkunde. By R. Hermann and W.
Wolterstorff. (Brunswick. 1909.)

Naturdenkmalpflege. By Prof. Guricb. (Sorderabdruck aus der Zeit-
sch.'ift der Landwirtschaftskammer fiir die Provinz Schlesien, 1909.)

ijher Zeil u. Methode der Naturdenkmalpflege. By Prof. Dr. B.
Sc^aefer-Cassel. (Schmalkalden, 1909.)

Uber das Tierleben in dem von der Staatsforstverw.Tltung geschutzten
Zwergbirken-Moor in Neulinum. By Dr. Th. KuHlgatz. (Sonderabdruck
aus dem 32, Bericht des Westpreussischen Botanisch-Zoologischen Vereins,
Danzig, 1910 )

Neues aus der Naturdenkmalpflege. By Dr. W. Gunther. (Naturwis-
senschaftliche Wochenschrift, August 7, 1910 ; Jena.)

November 24, 1910J

NATURE

III

animal. They have been absolutely exterminated by
hunting, trapping, or by the decrease of the food-
supply which occurred in the years 1904-5." An in-
teresting cause is the disappearance of the rabbit.
In 1904-5. "some disease smote the rabbits, and they
died off by thousands." "In consequence of their dis-
appearance, the animals which fed on, them^the fox
(the wolf, which need not be counted), the marten,
the chief food of which, however, is. mice, and other
animals — died from absolutely no other, cause than
starvation." The problem of the conservation of the
water supplv is curiouslv bound up with afforestation.
For instance, it has been found necessary to conserve
the timber on the east slopes of the Rockies in order
to conserve the river-heads. "It was. shown that the
destruction of the timber meant the disappearance of
the regular water supply of those provinces, the agri-
cultural production of which is the pride and the hope
of Canada."

A list of the committees shows the scope of the
Commission. They are seven, in number, viz. : —
Fisheries, game, and fur-bearing animals; forests;
lands; minerals; waters and water powers; public
health ; press and cooperating organisations. Their
reports on the first year's work, the chairman's speech,
and the discussions are of unusual interest. Recom-
mendations to Government have already commenced.
Such a scheme for the scientific control of the ultimate
natural resources of a country must inevitably be
adopted elsewhere.

It has, however, one serious deficiency as yet, the
absence of any organisation for the preservation of
those sites and objects that have no commercial value,
but the scientific and artistic importance of which is
verv great. Such conservation could easily be worked
in with the main business. The latest reports of the
committees for this special purpose in Germany are
to hand. There are official directions giving the
least injurious method of picking flowers. Every dis-
trict seems to be thoroughlv looked after and studied
bv its committee. There are verv interesting maps
of the habitats of rare plants, and studies of typical
fauna, such as that by Dr. Kuhlgatz, on the animal
life of the moors in 'Neulinum. Reference to maps
shows that the districts preserved are remarkably
numerous. The movement is not merely govern-
mental, but aims at enlisting the sympathetic coopera-
tion of the people. The propaganda is now being
extended to the schools, and Prof. Schaefer-Cassel has
an eloquent address on the subject. Cases for the
"pillory " are recorded, as, for instance, that of a man
who in a few vears annexed qoo specimens of Cypri-
Peditim calceoliis. This flower, once found near
Settle, in Yorkshire, and perhaps in one or two other
sites, has now, I understand, disappeared from this
country. The same fate will attend many a rare
plant, butterfly, or bird, unless we. too. adopt some
svstem of preservation. The Wild Birds' Protection
Act, it is to be feared, is a dead-letter.

If we had a national commission for the protection of
all " monuments of nature," including beauty spots,
places interesting for historic or geological reasons,
woods, vallevs, and hills remarkable for some species
of plant, animal, or insect, we should not be a "nation
of shopkeeoers." But is the United Kingdom too far
exploited for a commission for the protection of its
/latural resources, including its natural history? There
would be difficulties in the way, but surmountable
difficulties. One very obvious fact presents itself at
once — these places of beauty, these habitats of species
(bv no means useless for the ends of commerce, since
thev subserve the ends of science), are precisely those
which defv culture and would never make it worth
while. To make them into natural museums would
be a work for which future trenerations would be more
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

grateful than we can realise. The museum of brick
and stone has its uses ; zoos and botanical gardens are
of no little value ; but neither can compare, either for
interest or for scientific study, with a reservation.
Not only Geirnany, but .\ustralia, is setting an ex-
ample here. Dr. Conwentz's book, recently published
in England, and an excellent article by Dr. Giinther
in the .\' aturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift of August
7 last, give a luminous exposition of the principle and
its results.

In time perhaps the world will be full of such spots,
where nature may have her Sabbaths and preserve
her most interesting children, among whom, last but
not least, will be aboriginal varieties of man himself.
Is there not a reservation for the tribes of Central
Australia? A. E. Crawley.

AGRICULTURE IN THE DRY REGIONS OF
THE BRITISH EMPIRE.^

THE ordinary farm crops on which the supply of
food-stuffs depends seem to be produced best in
regions where the rainfall varies between 20 and 35
inches per annum. Where the upper limit is exceeded
in the British Islands, a good deal of pasture is
found ; on the other hand it is notable that the great
wheat-producing districts, the eastern counties, are
regions where the rainfall comes nearer to the lower
limit. Special agricultural methods become necessary
where there is less than 20 inches of rain, as is the
case over large areas in Canada, Australia, India and
South Africa. These methods fall into two groups :
irrigation is required if there is less than io inches
of rain, while special cultural operations, collectively-
known as "dry farming," are used when there is
as much as 15 or more inches. Between 10 to 15
inches, sometimes the one and sometimes the other
method proves the more economical. ;

" Dry-farming " methods are of great interest to. the
student of soil phvsics. Their object is to keep the rain
water near the surface of the soil and to prevent loss,
bv evaporation, bv surface drainage, arid, if possible,
bv percolation. A remarkable degree of success-
appears to be attained. An examination of the
methods in vogue in different parts of the world shows
that all have certain features in common. The land
is ploughed up in a roup^h state and the subsoil com-
pacted directly after harvest' or before the rainy
season, if there is one; in countries where the raiir
is unevenlv distributed and torrential downpours
occur, rather elaborate terracing is arranged to pre-
vent any loss by running off the surface; any streams
that form having to follow a sinuous course over the
whole field, so that absorption may be as complete
as possible. Directlv the rain is over, the surface soil
is thoroughly stirred, thereby losing a little water by
evaporation, but forming a loose layer. The water
is thus imprisoned between the compacted subsoil and
the thin loose layer of surface soil. The greatest
importance is everywhere attached to the maintenance
of this loose laver on the top ; cultivation is repeated
as often as rain" has fallen, or whenever for any other
reason it is considered the layer has become compact.
Incidentallv this repeated cultivation has the effect of
keeping down weeds, which, if unchecked, would use
up a good deal of the water.

In the drv parts of Canada and the United States,
where these methods are most highly developed, it is
customarv to take a crop — usuallv wheat — once in two
years onlv. leaving the land fallow in the alternate
year. It is considered that two-thirds or even more

1 Transvaal Agricultural Jovrnal, vol. vir., igio.
Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope, vol. xxxvi., igio.
"Water Requirements of Crops in InHia." By J. W. Leather. (Memoirs
of the Department of Agriculture in India.)

I 12

NATURE

[November 24, 1910

of the year's rainfall may, under favourable condi-
tions, be stored in the soil for the next year ; thus, if
only 15 inches fell each year, making a total of 30
inches in the two years, the wheat crop grown during
the second year should have moisture available equiva-
lent to 25 inches or more, on which, of course, it
should do very well. Unfortunately, the rainfall does
not necessarily remain near its average, but fluc-
tuates considerably, and records are not available for
many districts ; it has occurred in districts where dry
farming was considered a great success that the rain-
fall was, after all, about 20 inches, and ordinary
cultivation would have been equally good.

However, the interesting problem is this : What is
function of the compact subsoil and the loose surface
layer? It is usual to suppose that the compactness
of the subsoil facilitates the upward lift by surface
tension of water from the permanent water table, but
it would seem equally rational to suppose that the
compact subsoil retards the percolation of the water.
So far as the writer is aware, no crucial experiments
have been made that show beyond doubt how far the
upward movernent of water by surface tension is a
factor in ministering to the needs of the plant. That
it takes place, of course, is not disputed, but its rela-
tive importance is unknown. The function of the
loose layer on top, the "mulch," is not settled. It is
commonly regarded as a break in the structure of the
soil leading to a rupture of the "capillary films" of
water. It may equally be a non-condticting layer
shielding the mass of the soil from the sun's heat,
and therefore lessening evaporation.

Until these problems are solved, little advance can
be expected from the scientific point of view, although
the practical man continues to effect improvements.
The fundamental need seems to be a mathematical
analysis showing how water will distribute itself over
a mass of particles varying in diameter from below
0002 mm. up to o"i mm., the bulk being below o'oi
mm., and how rapidly any disturbance in equilibriuni
will readjust itself. The pressing need of work in this
direction may be gauged from a perusal of the Trans-
vaal, the Cape, or the South Australian Agricultural
Journals ; in South Africa alone a considerable part
of Cape Colony, the western halves of the Orange
Free State and the Transvaal, the whole of the
Bechuanaland Protectorate and a considerable por-
tion of southern Rhodesia fall within the "dry lands"
area. Some useful practical work may be expected
from the newly established dry-land experiment
station, but that will onlv intensify the necessity for a
scientific studv of the problem.

There is also need of work bv the plant physiologist
on the effect of insufficient water supply on plant
growth. In Dr. Leather's paper data are given
showing how much water is transpired by a plant in
the production of one pound of dry matter, and on
the basis of these figures a table is made out showing
how much irrigation or rain water is needed to obtain
crops of certain sizes. The values depend on the
amount of food-stuff available ; less water is needed
per pound of dry matter produced in a rich soil than
in a poor one. Although there is no direct causal
relationship between transpiration and assimilation,
the ratios obtained bv different observers in various
parts of the world are roughly of the same order ; thus
for barley the number of pounds of water transpired
per pound of dry matter produced are : —

Lawes and Gilbert (Rothamsted, 1850) 257

Wollny 774

King (Wisconsin, 1894) 30-?

Leather (Pusa, 1910) on manured soil 480

,, ,, on unmanured soil ... ... 680

E. J. Russell.
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

IHE CAVENDISH LABORATORY.

'T'HERE is no more pleasant way of spending a

-*- week-end than by re-visiting the University
Town of Cambridge in term time to meet the old
friends and comrades of years gone by, and it was
a happy thought that induced the writer of the " His-
tory of the Cavendish Laboratory " to choose a
Saturday for presenting an edition de luxe of the
book to the Cavendish Professor of Experimental
Physics.

Saturday, November 12, was a red letter day for all
who are interested in the Cavendish Laboratory, for
it was the occasion of the assembling of a number of
distinguished persons to do honour to the "boy pro-
fessor " of a quarter of a century ago, who has so
amply justified the confidence of the Board of electors
in appointing so young a man to a post of such
importance. Clerk Maxwell and Rayleigh were not
easy men to follow ; the standard they had set was a
high one, the Cavendish Laboratory had become a
prominent institution dependent for maintaining its
position and for its further development not only on
the scientific reputation of its Director, but on
his power to attract the ablest j'oung men of the
day.

How far Sir J. J. Thomson has done this was
evidenced by the number of distinguished visitors to
Saturday's ceremony, among whom we noted : Lady
Thomson and her little daughter Joan, Mrs. Sidgwick,
the Vice-Chancellor, the Bishop of Ely, the President
of Oueens' and many Masters of Colleges, Sir T.
Clifford Allbutt, Sir Robert Ball, Profs. P. V. Bevan,
R. H. Biffen, F. C. Burkitt, Sir George Darwin,
Prof. Ewing, Dr. Wm, Garnett, Profs. W. M. Hicks,
F. G. Hopkins, B. Hopkinson, Dr. J. N. Keynes, Sir
Joseph Larmor, Profs. Liveing, Leahy, Alexander
Macalister, Dr. J. E. Marr, Profs. H.' F. Newall.
W. J. Pope, J. H. Poynting, E. Rutherford, Dr. J. E.
Sandvs, Mr. Sidney Skinner, the Hon. R. J. Strutt-
Mr. H. M. Tavlor, Mr. W. C. D. Whetham, Prof
L. R. Wilberf6rce, Mr. C. T. R. Wilson, Prof. G.
Sims Woodhead, and Prof. A. M. Worthington.

In the unavoidable absence of the Chancellor, the
Vice-Chancellor presided, and declared his position
a sinecure in that the speakers needed no intro-
duction.

Dr. Glazebrook, in making the presentation, began
by reading a message, contained in a letter to him-
self, from Lord Rayleigh, Chancellor of the Univer-
sity : —

My interest in the Cavendish Laboratory began with —
indeed preceded — its inception, and I had the privilege of
the acquaintance of that great genius, the first professor,
on whom fell, of course, a vast amount of work in con-
nection with the building and equipment. The laboratory
had hardly more than got to work when British science
sustained an irreparable loss by the death of Maxwell.
My interest then became a responsibility. During the five
years from 1879 to 1884 the educational work was greatly
developed under yourself and Dr. Shaw, and in research
some good work was done. But I must not dwell upon
what, no doubt, most of the present students look upon
as the dark ages. For six-and-tvventy years Sir Joseph
Thomson has had the direction, and under him the
Cavendish Laboratory has assumed the first place among
physical laboratories. By his own researches, pursued
with astonishing ardour and success, he has opened up a
new world, and, what is in some respects a task even
more difficult, he has inspired and trained a number of
followers, among whom I am pleased to reckon my own
son. Cambridge has every right to be proud of the
Cavendish Laboratory, its professor, and his staff.

I will ask you to convey my congratulations to Sir
J. J. Thomson. For the future one can wish nothing
better than that it should resemble the past.

November 24, 19 10]

NATURE

113

Dr. Glazebrook, continuing, briefly sketched the
history of the Laboratory as contained in the book,
which he said was written by men who took part
in the events they described.

The book has been written partly in the hope of enabling
educated Englishmen who are not physicists to under-
stand the meaning of the work done at the Cavendish
Laboraton,-. ... It covers a wide range of intellectual
qualification from that of the M.B. student to that of the
brilliant band Rutherford, Wilson, Townsend, McLellan,
Langevin, Richardson, Zeleny, and the others who were
research students ten years ago. The Master of Trinity
in an eloquent speech a few months ago told his audience
he was a dreamer of dreams, and in one dream he
pictured a larger university with its portals opened wide
and men of many nations and kindred flocking in from
all lands to reap the rich harvest of ancient learning or
modern science which only Cambridge can furnish, and to
carry back to their distant homes the garnered sheaves to
feed and fertilise the world. Sir J. J. Thomson has
realised such a dream. The new regulations for advanced
students passed in 1895 were accepted in large measure
through his advocacy, and since that time an ever-
increasing stream of men coming from ever\- land has been
directed towards Cambridge ; the list of those who have
carried on researches in the Cavendish Laborator}- during
the last forty years contains some 250 names ; the list of
published memoirs covers fortv' pages. Former students
hold important posts in almost every great university ; the
fact that of the professorships of physics in the colleges
of university rank in England all but one are held by
Cambridge men shows the wide influence of the laboratorj'
at home. Go where you will, not only in English-speak-
ing lands, to any centre of physical study and you will
find one or more who is proud to say he was a research
student of the Cavendish Laboratory and a pupil of Sir
J. J. Thomson-

As representing those pupils and in the name of the
large assembly here present, in the name of the scientific
world, I am here to express to you our high appreciation
of the services you have rendered to science and to the
Universit}', to assure you of the affectionate regard for
you personally of all your pupils, and to wish for you
and Lady Thomson many years of fruitful activity- and
continued happiness. Can I do better than repeat the
Chancellor's wish — that the future mav resemble the
past?
I ^ It is my privilege to ask you to accept this volume with
j Its record of your great work as some slight recognition
of all you have done.

>ir J, J. Thomson responded in a characteristic

-<Mcech. There was no mention of his own work further

' than the expression of the wish, which raised a smile

on all faces, that he had done more. His speech was

I an acknowledgment of all he owed to his College,

i his Ujiiversity, and those personal friends from whom,

j he said, he had received help without which there

i would have been no such celebration. He referred to

I the triumvirate Rutherford, McLellan, and Langevin,

; and meiitioned that one of them had received the

{ Nobel prize. Xo one was forgotten in the expression

jhis thanks; the demonstrators, the students, the assis-

jtants in the Laboratory-, were all remembered and

I many of them mentioned by name. To evervone full

I appreciation was accorded,' and the one person not

I mentioned, whose work and influence were not alluded

^'^ was the Director of the Laboratory-, the Professor

whom all else was due.

The Vice-Chancellor briefly declared the proceedings
jended, and passed, "as a business man," to the next
litem of the agenda, " Cavendish Laboratorv Afternoon
jTea," an institution of Sir J. J. Thomsonj which has
accompanied Cambridge Physicists to all parts of the
■world and, conversation becoming general, the after-
noon ended most pleasantlv.

S. J. D. S.

::o. 2143, VOL. 85]

MR. ir. R. FISHER.

A S announced with regret last week, Mr. \V. R.
**• Fisher, assistant professor of forestry at Oxford,
died on November 13, after an operation. He h^d not
been in good health for some time past, but his death
occurred rather suddenly.

Mr. Fisher was born in 1846, at Sydney, New South
Wales, where his father was Crown Solicitor, but
became afterwards the first Attorney-General of New-
Zealand. He caine to England quite young, and was
educated at Cambridge, the home of his father and
grandfather, the latter having been a banker in Petty
Cury. He joined St. John's College, and toc^c his
degree in 1^7, being placed 17 senior optime. Soon
afterwards he became a mathematical master at
^epton School.

In 1869 Mr. Fisher competed for an appointment in
the Indian Forest Service, being bracketed first. After
the necessan.' training in forestry', chiefly at Nancy,
and partly in Scotland, he joined the Bengal Forest
' Department in 1872. On the establishment of the
' Assam Chief Commissionership, in 1874, he was
transferred to that administration and remained there
until 1878. During that time he started the Charduar
Rubber Plantation (Ficus elastica), which was ex-
tended to an area of about 1000 acres. Mr. Fisher
was thus one of the pioneers of artificial rubber
plantations. In 1878 he was specially selected for the
appointment of deputy-director of the newly-estab-
lished School of Forestry- at Dehra Dun, and he rose
subsequently to become the director of the school and
conser\-ator of forests of the school circle.

In the year 1889 he came home on furlough, and
in 1890 he joined the staff of the School of Forestry
at Coopers Hill College. In the year 1905 he w-ent
with that school to Oxford, where he became a mem-
ber of Brasenose College.

Mr. Fisher has left his mark uptm forest science
and practice. .\t Dehra Dun he taught chiefly- forest
botany, and he brought out a volume on plant physio-
logy. After he joined at Coopers Hill, he taught
silviculture, forest protection, and utilisation. He
joined Sir W. Schlich in bringing out the latter's
" Manual of Forestry," of which he undertook the
preparation of vol. iv. on "Forest Protection," and of
vol. v., on '■ Forest Utilisation," now in their second
edition. Although these two volumes are adaptations
of Hess's work on protection and Gayers's book on
utilisation, Fisher's books are more than the original
works, since he adapted the material to British and
Indian conditions. They may be considered the
standard wcwks on the two subjects.

Throughout his life Fisher was an active w-riter,
and it would be difficult even to enumerate the many-
articles on forestry- which he published. He was an
active member, and president for two y-ears, of the
Royal English Arboricultural Society-, and editor of
the society's Journal. After his arrival at Oxford, he
started an arbcwetum of indigenous and exotic trees
on land belonging to Magdalen College.

During his leisure time he advised many- British
proprietors on the management of their woods, and
thus helped forward the question of forestry- and
afforestation in these islands. He was, in 1907. a
member of the Departmental Committee of the Board
of Agriculture in Ireland on afforestation, and lately
of the committee sitting in London, dealing with
agricultural and forestal education in Britain.

Mr. Fisher was a man of very- simple character,

with a w-arm heart, and he was universally- liked,

not only by the students, but also by a large host of

friends. He conducted the annual excursion to

i France, and it was quite touching to see how French

114

NATURE

[NOVEMIJER 24, 1940

forest officers and subordinates, admired and honoured
him.

He married, in 1876, Mary, eldest dau^^hter of the
late Dr. Briscoe, civil surgeon of Cooch Behar, in
Bengal, and leaves one son, a lieutenant in a Ghurka
regiment, and two daughters. By his death the
Empire loses an enthusiastic forester, who can ill be
spared at the present time.

NOTES.
We regret to see the announcement of the death on
November 11, at sixty-two years of age, of Prof. Jules
Tannery, the distinguished French mathematician.

Councillor Wieiil has just bequeathed, says the Revue
scientifique, the whole of his fortune, of about a milliorf
crowns, to the Bohemian .\cademy of Sciences at Prague
to encourage scientific and technical research.

A short time ago it was suggested that the Eiffel
Tower should . be used as a station for the daily trans-
mission of time-signals to ocean-going vessels by means
of wireless telegraphy. The Paris correspondent of the
Times reports that this service was inaugurated on
November 21 with satisfactory results. In future, time-
signals will be sent out twice dally, at' 11 a.m. and
12 midnight. Three signals will be made on each occasion
at two-minute intervals. The morning transmission will
not, however, take place on Sundays and holidays.

The Earl of Stair has accepted the presidency of the
Royal Scottish Geographical Society in succession to
Prof. James Geikie, F.R.S., who has held the office of
president for the last six years. The anniversary meeting
of the society was held on November 11, and was addressed
by Sir John Murray, K.C.B., F.R.S., who chose for his
subject "The Deep Sea." Before the address Prof.
Geikie was presented with the society's gold medal in
recognition of his distinguished services to geographical
science, and Sir John Murray with the Livingstone medal
in recognition, not merely of his prolonged and valuable
oceanographical research, but also in commemoration of
the completion of the great national work " The Bathy-
metrical Survey of the Fresh-water Lx>chs of Scotland."

In the interests of precision in scientific diction, a corre-
spondent asks that the familiar expression " thunder and
lightning " should be inverted in accordance with the
natural sequence of cause, and effect, and become
" lightning and thunder." He adds : — " I never could
grasp how the confusion originated, considering that, in
agreement with the transmission of light and sound, the
flash is seen before the thunder is heard."

The eighty-fifth Christmas course of experimentally
illustrated lectures adapted to a juvenile auditory, to be
given at the Royal Institution by Prof. Silvanus P.
Thompson, F.R.S., promises to be of exceptional interest.
The subject is " Sound, Musical and Non-musical." The
dates and subjects of individual lectures are : — 1910,
December 29, production of sound; December 31, trans-
mission of sound; 1911, January 3, reception of sound;
January 5, combination of sounds ; January 7, registration
of sounds ; January 10, reproduction of sound.

At a meeting of the executive committee of the British
Science Guild, held on November 16, on the motion of
Mr. A. Moseley, C.M.G., it was decided to form a special
combined education committee to deal, in the first instance,
with education of the governing classes of England. It
Was resolved to defer the circulation of the synchronisa-
tion report until a later date. It was decided to consider

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

further the reduction of the rate of postage on scientific
literature. It was also suggested that the annual meeting
should in future be held in the month of .April, and that
the annual dinner should, if convenient, be held on the
same day.

We regret to announce the death, at sea, at the age of
thirty-one, of Mr. Richard Froude Tucker, Archaeological
Surveyor of the Northern Circle, India. Mr. Tucker held
the post of curator of the Delhi Museum, and the cata-
logue of the archaeological collections deposited there was
recently prepared by him in collaboration with Dr. J. Ph.
\'ogel. Appended to this catalogue is a memoir by Mr.
Tucker on the elephant statues at the Delhi Gate of the
Delhi Fort. The untimely death, of this promising
archaeologist is a severe loss to antiquarian research in
India.

During the summer of this jear excavations were
carried on, under the superintendence of Dr. Felix Oswald,
at the site of the Roman station of Margidunum on the
Fosse Way, midway between Leicester and Lincoln. Some
local pottery, Samian ware, coins of Victorinus, Carausius,
Constans, and Eugenius, dated between 265 and 395 a.d.,
have been discovered. The main feature of the finds was
the relative abundance of iron objects, such as swords,
knives, a bolt of a spring-lock, rings, and nails. A
skeleton of an old man and three infants was associated
with bones of the Celtic ox (Bos longifrons) and other
domesticated animals. These antiquities have been
deposited in the museum at Nottingham Castle, where it
is hoped they may form the nucleus of a Romano-British
section.

The Rome correspondent of the Times announces that
a decree was published on November 20 creating a com-
mission to examine the view that pellagra is produced by
a protozoal infection conveyed by an insect, and to formu-
late any changes in the existing law of protection that
may be considered desirable. The commission consists of
nine members, all doctors with the exception of Prince
Teano, deputy, who was chiefly instrumental in directing
the attention of the Italian Government to the work of
the English Pellagra Investigation Committee. An article
upon the investigations made by Dr. Sambon for this,
committee appeared in Nature of October 27.

On November 12 an extension of the natural history
section of the Hull Public Museums was opened by Mr.
T. S. Taylor, Mayor of Hull. In the ornithological
section of the museum there is an unusually extensive
collection of British birds. The extension rr>nsists of three
large rooms, the largest of which is occupied by a collec-
tion of British birds containing more than goo specimen*.
In the second room is a collection of local mammali|«
including the group of otters, badgers, stoats, weasel*,
and so on. The third room contains a collection of skele-
tons— animals and birds. The museum is fortunate
having been presented with the collection of birds formi
by the late Sir Henry Boynton. This collection consiM|
of about 200 cases containing 450 birds.

Attention has already been directed in Nature to
scheme of the British Empire League for the erectk)n
London of a memorial to Captain Cook. We are
to notice that the secretaries of the Royal Society ha
written to Lord Brassey, the honorary treasurer of th-
fund, expressing, on behalf of the Royal Society, approval
of the scheme, and enclosing a subscription of twenty-fiv
guineas from the society. Their letter includes the follow
ing paragraph : — "We are instructed to express the grati
fication of the Royal Society that public opinion has ;r

November 24, 19 10]

NATURE

w

length taken form in this direction, to the extent that
there is now a prospect of a memorial which shall be not
inadequate to the merits and renown of this great explorer.
As the circular issued by your committee states, the Royal
Society was closely connected with the initiation of these
famous voyages, with the selection of Captain Cook to
the command, and with the working up and publication
of the results of the expeditions. Many of its Fellows,
including Sir Joseph Banks, one of Cook's companions
in his first voyage, afterwards for many years president of
the Royal Society, took, a prominent part in that work ;
•lid the society still retains in its possession memorials
of this connection."

Under the heading " Earthquakes in the Pacific," the
Times of November 17 published a statement by Mr. J. J.
Shaw, of West Bromwich, that there was evidence the
ocean depths of the Pacific are in a state of great unrest.
Mr. Shaw said that his seismograph recorded shocks at
.8 a.m. on Monday, November 14, and at midnight and
between 2 and 3 p.m. on Tuesday, November 15, all at
a great distance. In reply to an inquiry as to these re-
ported disturbances, Prof. Milne has sent us from Shide
the following records of earthquakes in October and
November : — " Although a few small earthquakes were
recorded in October, the month was one of earth rest.
During the first two weeks of November seismic activity
was somewhat pronounced. The dates on which records
were obtained, followed by the times of commencement
and maximum movement in hours and minutes, were as
follows: — November 6, 19.18 and 21.23; November 9,
6.16 and 7.50 or 8.5; November 14, 7.35 and 8.34;
November 14, 19.58 and 20.27; November 15, 0.31 and
10.45, 6.1 and 6.21, 7.42 and 7.46, 9.16 a maximum, and,
lastly, 14.35 3nd 15.21. The second of these was the
largest, having an amplitude of 7 mm., which means that
tiltings of 2-2* occurred. The time employed is G.M.T.
civil, or midnight = o or 24h."

.\t the first Optical Convention, held in 1905, a per-
manent committee was app>ointed, to which was entrusted
the task of deciding upon a suitable date for the holding
of a second convention, and of taking the necessary steps
to initiate it. A general meeting of the committee and of
members of the optical industry, representatives of optical
bodies and societies, and others interested in optical ques-
tions, win be held on Tuesday, November 29, to consider
and discuss proposals for the organisation of a second
convention. The chair will be taken by Dr. R. T. Glaze-
brook, C.B., F.R.S., director of the National Physical
Laboratory, as chairman of the permanent committee, and
all interested are invited to be present at the meeting. The
main features of the scheme which the members of the
existing executive committee have in view, and the prin-
cipal questions on which it seems necessary, at this
general meeting, specially to invite discussion, are in broad
outlines as follows : — (i) an exhibition of optical and allied
instruments ; (2) the preparation of a catalogue of optical
and allied instruments of British manufacture to serve as a
convenient work of reference for all users of optical and
scientific instruments, not necessarily to be limited to
mstruments actually exhibited ; (3) the holding of meetings
; for the reading of papers and for discussions and demon-
• strations on optical subjects ; (4) the publication of a
I volume of Proceedings, in which these papers will be
■collected together.

We regret to see the announcement of the death, on
vember 16, of Dr. J. F. Payne, emeritus librarian to
Royal College of Physicians, and the author of valu-
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

able medical works and many other contributions to
science. From an obituary notice in the Times we learn
that Dr. Payne was born on January 10, 1840, and- took
his degree at Oxford in 1862 with first-class honours in
natural science. In 1863 he obtained the Burdett-Coutts
scholarship in geology, and in 1865 the Radcliffe travelling
scholarship. In accordance with the regulations of the
Radcliffe scholarship he went abroad, spending some time
in Paris and in Berlin, and proceeding later to Vienna.
On his return to this country Dr. Payne was appointed
examiner in natural science at Oxford, demonstrator of
morbid anatomy and curator of the museum to St. Mary's
Hospital. It was about this time that he revised, enlarged,
and edited Jones and Sieveking's " Manual of Pathology."
In 1871 he went to St. Thomas's Hospital, being appointed
lecturer successively in general pathology, materia medica,
forensic medicine, and finally on the principles and practice
of medicine. About nine years ago he was appointed con-
sulting physician to this hospital. In 1873 Dr. Payne was
appointed to deliver the Gulstonian lecture of the Royal
College of Physicians, and in later years he gave the
Lumleian and the FitzPatrick lectures. In 1879, when the
plague was prevalent in Russia, and the college was con-
sulted by the British Government, they appointed Dr.
Paine to accompany Surgeon-Major Colvill as com-
missioners to investigate and report on the disease. He
became a Fellow of the Pathological Societj- in 1869, and
was afterwards a councillor, a member of the morbid
growth committee, secretary from 1880-2, vice-president
from 1888-9, ^nd president in 1897. He was twice presi-
dent of the Epidemiological Society, choosing for his first
inaugural address the subject of " Tuberculosis as an
Endemic Disease," and on the second occasion ''The
History of Epidemiology in England." He was also presi-
dent of the Dermatological Society, and was vice-president
of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1906.
Dr. Payne was the author of " .A Manual of Pathological
Anatomy " and " Observations on some Rare Diseases of
the Skin," and the life of Thomas Sydenham in the
" Masters of Medicine " series.

The Eugenics Education Society has distributed a special
"Poor Law number" of the Eugenics Review, which is
devoted to the eugenic aspect of Poor Law reform. The
number contains a report of a committee of the society
appointed to considei- the reform of the Poor Law from
this particular point of view ; reviews by Dr. C. S. Loch
and Mr. Sidney Webb, respectively, of the majority and
minority reports of the Poor Law Commission ; and a
most valuable article, by Mr. E. J. Lidbetter, the General
Relieving Officer of the Bethnal Green Union, on some
examples of Poor Law eugenics. Of the report of the
committee, the third section is the most important.
Through the kindness of various 'ooards of guardians, the
committee has been allowed access to workhouse records,
and, where necessary, personal interviews with paupers ;
three extensive pedigrees of pauperised families are in
course of construction, and the most complete of these is
now published, the chart being supplemented by a key
giving detailed particulars of the cases included. The
chart covers five generations, and indicates the inter-
marriage of five pauper families. Mr. Lidbetter 's investi-
gation supplements this report of the committee by some
thirteen charts of pedigrees based on his personal investi-
gation. The society and Mr. Lidbetter deserve unreserved
commendation for carrying out such researches, which
must have required much prolonged and laborious work.
It is no reflection on the work if we add that it still
remains a most difficult problem to determine, on the

ii6

NATURE

[November 24, 19 ro

basis of such data, the relative parts played by heredity in
the strict sense of the term, continuity of environment, and
-example. We gather from an accompanying letter that
the society finds it impossible, from lack of funds, to
proceed with such investigations on any sufficient scale,
and urges the formation of a Departmental Committee
with power to examine records.

At the recent conversazione of the Geologists' Associa-
tion, held at University College, Gower Street, a series of
worked flints from the Ipswich district was exhibited. The
circumstances in which they were unearthed indicate that
"they are probably the oldest works of man yet discovered
in this country. They are well chipped, deep brown and
cream in colour, and several show scratches which may
be the glacial striae imprinted when they formed part of
the gravel at the base of a glacier. Technically speaking,
they are of pre-Crag age, that is to say, they long precede
the Glacial period. Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., who
mapped the district for the Geological Survey, is satisfied
that they come from undisturbed beds, and that the gravel
from which the flints were obtained is of pre-Crag Age.
This discovery, if it stands the criticism to which it will
certainly be exposed, marks a memorable advance in the
prehistoric anthropology of this country.

In the October issue of Man Mr. D. Alexander gives
an account of a performance of a Nigerian Punch and
Judy show, which in some ways resembles the drama
which is familiar to us. A forked stick is thrust into
the ground, the performer kneels, and, taking off his
black gown, throws it over the stick, the opening for the
head of the wearer serving to provide a space for the dis-
play and withdrawal of the figures. The conversation
between the puppets is carried on, as in the European
performance, in a squeaky tone. The place of origin of
this play is somewhat uncertain, but there seems to be
no doubt that it is an indigenous invention. In the same
issue of Man Captain A. J. N. Tremearne cfiscusses the
system of bull-fighting among the Fulani, a race of cattle
breeders in northern Nigeria, who seem to be of Berber
origin. In contrast to the conditions of the sport in Spain
or Portugal, the Nigerian variety is comparatively tame,
no horses being used, the performers being unarmed, and
the bulls escaping any kind of injury.

To the Irish Naturalist for November Dr. Scharff com-
municates an article on the whale-fishery which has been
carried on by Norwegians during the last three years at
Inishkea, and for a rather shorter period at Ely Point, on
the Mayo coast. At the former station 124 whales have
been taken during the last two seasons, most of these
being rorquals, although five black right-whales, of an
estimated value of between 1500Z. and 3000L, were cap-
tured in 1908. A single blade of the whalebone of this
species is worth about two guineas, and the total yield of
this substance may be as much as a quarter of a ton, with
a value of about 400Z.

In a pamphlet on the distribution and migration of
North American shore-birds, issued by the U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture as Bulletin No. 35, Mr. W. W. Cooke
emphasises the economic importance of this group. For
many years the abundance of larger birds, such as swans,
geese, and ducks, caused the waders to be neglected, but
with the killing off of the former gunners directed their
attention to the latter, which now stand in need of
immediate protection. In addition to their value as food,
the plovers and some others do valuable service as
'destroyers of noxious insects, while all the members of the

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

group are of special interest from an aesthetic point ol
view. Details of the distribution and migrations 'Of the
various species form the bulk of the pamphlet.

In the October issue of the Irish Naturalist Mr. .A.
Williams directs attention to the presence of sanderlings
during the last three years on the shores of Dublin Bav
throughout July, a month when these birds are generally
supposed to be residing in the far north for the purpose
of breeding. These July birds are evidently non-bfeeders —
either old or barren — but it has yet to be determined
whether they remained in Ireland when the bulk of their
kind winged their way northwards, or whether they were
the first of the main body to return south. During their
sojourn in Ireland these non-breeders undergo a consider-
able change in plumage. " They have been found with
the red colouring entirely absent, and also the soft grey
margins of the feathers, which conceal the nuptial plumage
in spring, completely worn away, and in some instances
the ruddy coloration faded out, causing the birds to pre-
sent a totally changed and misleading appearance."

The Manchester Museum is one of the most flourishing
of the provincial museums in this country, and its report
for the year 1909-10 is good evidence that there has been
no falling off in its usefulness and no disposition to inter-
fere with its healthy and regular growth. During the
year Mr. W. M. Tattersall has succeeded Dr. Hoyle as
keeper of the museum. The number of additions to the
collections has been large in ever}' department, and the
library has been considerably strengthened during the
year.

The first issue of the Naturalist, the journal of the
Natal Scientific Society, has been received. We under-
stand that this scientific periodical is the only one of its
kind published in South Africa. It is edited by Mr. R.
Denley James, and, in addition to containing the society's
transactions and proceedings, includes several ■ articles.
Among the latter may be mentioned notes on the life-
history of the Pseudacraea by Mr. A. D. Millar, and a
short note on the Ixodidae by the editor. The syllabus of
work which the society hopes to accomplish during the
present session shows that most branches of science are
to receive attention, and that already the society has
received gratifying support.

The decay of building stones was discussed by Dr.
Tempest Anderson at the recent Museum Conference at
York, and his address is published in the October number
of the Museums Journal. After showing that stone-decay
is not due to wind action, the opinion is expressed that
" it is not a surface action at all, but, I believe, a decay
or rot affecting the substance of the "stone, and, like other
decays and rots, is in every probability caused by the
action of some low organism, like the moulds and fungi
which rot wood, canvas, and other vegetable materials.
About two years ago, to test this view and endeavour to
find a cure, as all efforts based on the abrasion or chemical
theories had failed, I had affected stones treated with
various germicides, and. the stones which have since best
resisted the decay were those treated with sulphate of
copper (5 per cent, solution), bichloride of mercury, and
creosote."

The specimens of beaked whales (Ziphiidae) in the collec-
tion of the United States National Museum form the
subject of a profusely illustrated monograph, by Mr. F. W.
True, published by the Smithsonian Institute as Bulletin
No. 73. On account of the rarity of these cetaceans--
exclusive, of course, of the bottle-nosed whale— the memoir

November 24, 1910]

NATURE

1 1

has an exceptional value to the students of the group,
more particularly since the U.S. National Museum
possesses, so far as the author could ascertain, about one-
fourth of the whole available material. Of the genera
"' =oplodon, Ziphius, and Berardius, Mr. True could find
rds of only about one hundred specimens in collections,
01 which more than half belong to the first genus,
Berardius being known only by about fourteen examples.
The most important addition to our knowledge of the
group in recent years was the discovery of representatives
of all three genera at Bering Island by Dr. Stejneger,
two of these being regarded as distinct species, one of
which was named in 1883 and the other in 1885. About
six vears ago it was ascertained that the range of the
Bering Sea forms extends to the eastern North Pacific.
After a descriptive catalogue of the specimens in the
Washington Museum, with notices of some examples in
other American collections, the author concludes his
memoir with a list of the recognisable existing species of
the group. Inclusive of the two representatives of
Hvperoodon, this list embraces thirteen species.

The November number of the Quarterly Journal of
Microscopical Science (vol. Iv., part iv.) contains a very
interesting paper by Miss Muriel Robertson and Prof.
E. A. Minchin on the division of the collar-cells of the
calcareous sponge Clathrina coriacea. It appears that
these cells multiply by longitudinal fission, the division of
the nucleus being accompanied by a typical mitosis. The
chief interest attaches to the behaviour of the " blepharo-
plast " in this process. In the resting cell this organ
appears as a " basal granule " in connection with the
flagellum ; in mitosis it behaves as a typical " centro-
some," dividing into two parts, which cave to lie at
opposite poles of the nuclear spindle. Each of these
daughter centrosomes becomes the blepharoplast of one of
the daughter cells, and a new flagellum grows out from it.
Around each new flagellum a new collar develops, the old
collar and flagellum of the mother cell completely dis-
appearing. The authors discuss the bearing of these facts
upon the vexed question of the interpretation of the
" kinetonucleus " in trjpanosomes, and conclude that the
latter is a true nuclear body, and not a blepharoplast or
centrosome.

The destruction of agricultural plant pests by chemical
means is reviewed by Mr. H. C. Long in Knowledge
I (November). The practice is based on direct experiment,
as plants differ considerably in their resistance to chemical
solutions ; thus charlock and dandelions are readily attacked
] by a copper sulphate solution, while Cnicus an-ensis and
I clover are much more resistant. According to BoUey,
, shepherd's purse, Camellina saliva, chickweed, corn-cockle,
! bindweed, and plantain are all amenable to chemical treat-
ment, whereas sow-thistle, Bromus secalinus, wild oats,
; and couch grass cannot be effectively controlled. The
I author directs attention to the desirability- of carrying out
I systematised experiments in different parts of the country.

•An account of the Arnold Arboretum, well known by

name to British botanists, is contributed by Mr. W. J.

Bean to the Kew Bulletin (No. 8). Situated in a suburb

of Boston, U.S.A., and extending over 200 acres, it is

noted for the large collection of trees and shrubs in which

north-east American and north Asiatic species predominate.

marked feature in the arboretum is the ground cover of

nrubs in place of grass around the trees; various species

j of Vaccinium, Aster, Rubus, and other native shrubs are

grown in this way. Mr. Bean pays a warm tribute to

e energetic director. Prof. C. S. Sargent, for the excel-

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

lent work that is being carried on; one of his greatest
tasks has been the elucidation of North American species
of Crataegus, of which specimens from type plants occupy
15 acres. A monumental work was provided by the " Silva
of North America," in fourteen volumes, and another
massive publication that will shortly appear is a biblio-
graphy of trees and shrubs of the world. Incidentally, the
Bulletin contains evidence of cordial cooperation between
Prof. Sargent and Kew in the publication of a list of new
species of Impatiens from China, forwarded to Sir Joseph
Hooker by Prof. Sargent for description.

The report of the chief inspector of mines of the
native State of Mysore for the year 1908 has just been
issued, and affords satisfactory evidence that mining opera-
tions are being conducted here with energy and skill as
well as with due attention to the safety of those engaged
in the work. A small amount of manganese and chrome
ore is being raised, but the principal mining operations
are, as heretofore, confined to the Kolar goldfield. The
report shows that there were ten companies at work, of
which seven were producing gold, the value of the bullion
produced being just over 2,000,000/. sterling, or almost
exactly the same as in the previous year. The quartz
raised contains gold to the value of just about 3/. per ton,
the working costs amounting to about one-half of this
figure. Elaborate tables are attached to the report, those re-
lating to Occidents being especially interesting. The accident
death-rate is given as 4-70 per 1000 persons employed^
below ground, a figure which, though necessarily varying
a good deal from year to year, shows upon the whole ar
downward tendenc}-. A comparison with the similar figure
for the Transvaal goldfields is decidedly in favour, of the
Kolar field, although in the Transvaal the accident death-
rate per 100,000 tons of quartz treated is less than in-
Mysore, due to the greater efficiency of the Kaffir as com-
pared to the Indian miner. In the Mysore there are
about 4000 persons employed for each ton of quartz
crushed, as against about 1000 in the Transvaal. A good
deal of space in the report is devoted to a discussion of
the " air-blasts and quakes," or violent bumps of ground,
due apparently to the sudden relief of the strains in the
ground as mining proceeds. These bumps have caused a
good many serious accidents, and up to the present no
means of preventing them has yet been suggested. It is
to be hoped that a further study of this intricate question
may lead at any rate to a determination of the conditions
under which they are likely to occur, this being the first
step towards taking measures to minimise the dangers
resulting from them.

O.v assuming his extraordinary professorship at the
National University at Utrecht, Dr. E. van Everdingen
delivered an interesting address, on October 17, upon
" The Third Dimension in Meteorology." The establish-
ment of a separate chair for meteorology was, he thought,
an admission that it was now considered worthy of taking
a place among the older sciences. If we inquired in what
direction it had developed in the last twenty years, the
answer undoubtedly was, in the third dimension : height.
After glancing at the history of meteorology from the
earliest times, he referred to the great importance of Buys
Ballot's work in investigating simultaneous weather con-
ditions and in formulating his law of the relation of wind
to air-pressure, which is still the corner-stone of practical
meteorology-, and had infused new life into the subject.
He discussed in considerable detail the various methods
employed, and the valuable results obtained in the investi-
gation of the upper air by (i) manned balloons ; (2) kites ;
(3) captive balloons ; (4) registering balloons (with instru-

ii8

.^NATURE

[November 24, 1910

-.1^^

j\-^

merits) ; and (5) pilot balloons (without instruments). The
use of Assmann's aspirating-psjchrometer in manned
balloons, and his employment of rubber both in registering
dnd pilot balloons in lieu of paper, have proved of the
greatest value. The author shows that much new light has
been thrown upon questions relating to the general circula-
tion of the atmosphere by the' important discovery of the
inversions of temperature at great heights and the exist-
ence of the isothermal layer, not only in our latitudes, but
also in polar and tropical regions. At moderate heights
these inversions play an active part in thunderstorm
phenoniena.

The October number of Himmel und Erde contains an
account of a popular lecture on the present position of
wireless telegraphy, delivered six months ago by Dr. Karl
Strecker, of the Imperial Post Office, Berlin. The account
is well illustrated by diagrams, and is one of the best
popular introductions to the subject we have seen. The
author commences with the up-and-down oscillations of a
weight supported by a spring, and the property such an
arrangement has of setting in oscillation a sirriilar arrange-
ment suspended from the same beam as the first. By
simple steps he passes to the oscillations of electricity in
two conducting rods separated by a spark-gap, and to the
way in which a duplicate apparatus at a distance will
pick up the oscillations. The defects of the earlier
apparatus are explained, and it is shown how in succession
the means of detection of the oscillations and the means
of producing them have been improved by the introduc-
tion of the coherer and by the utilisation of the oscilla-
tions produced by a cooled electric arc. Even the problem
of privacy is not overlooked, and it seems the author
considers rapid and prearranged changes of frequency of
the oscillations as the future solution of the difficulty.

The discovery by Messrs. Cotton and Mouton three
years ago that a liquid may be rendered double refracting
by the action of a magnetic field redirected attention to
the Kerr, effect, and as a result we now have theories
which attempt to explain, both effects. Prof. Voigt in his
" Magneto- und Elektro-Optik " traces them to a direct
effect of the electric or magnetic field on the electro-
magnetic oscillations which constitute light, while Prof.
I.. Natanson, in Ihe June number of the Bulletin of the
Academy of Sciences of Cracow, treats them as due to
the directive action of the field on the electrons oscillating
within the molecules. In the September number of Le
Radium Prof. Langevin extends his theory of magnetisa-
tion so as to cover the two effects. According to him, the
molecules of the liquid have axes along which the polari-
sation is an electric, and the magnetic moment in a
magnetic field have values which differ from those in
diicctions at right angles, ^olopropy of the molecule
once secured, either on Prof. Natanson 's or Piof.
Langevin 's theory, the investigation of the effects proceed
along lines similar to those of Dr. T. H. Havelock's
Royal Society paper of 1907, and leads to results in agree-
ment with observation — that the amount of the double
refraction is proportional to the square of the field, and
the dispersion is expressed by Cauchy's formula.

An interesting paper on the development of road loco-
motion in recent years was read by Mr. L. A. Legros at
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on Friday,
November 18, It is difficult to realise the enormous in-
crease in the use of the cycle both for pleasure and busi-
ness purposes. It is estimated that about one person in
every fifteen of the entire population of the United
Kingdom is a cyclist. Post Office cycles cover a distance
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

of 10,000 miles per annum per machine. The total number
in use for postal purposes is 11,400. It is notewoFthy. that
in the total mileage which has been run since the servicf-
was instituted, viz. about 600,000,000 miles, no fatal
accident has occurred by the failure of any portion of a
bicycle. The author estimates that the various publii
service horsed vehicles in London, will become extinct a>
follows: — the horse-tramcar at the end of 1912 ; the horse-
orhnibus at the end of 1913 ; the hansom cab at the end
of 1913 ; the four-wheel horse-cab before the end of 192 1.
The paper contains many useful suggestions regarding the
management of traffic in London streets.

An illustrated article on the removing of the wreck of
the Quebec Bridge appears in the Engineer for
November 18. The contract for clearing the site was
awarded last December to Messrs. Charles Koenig and
Co., of Quebec, and about half the quantity, viz. 5000
tons, has now been removed. A large amount of cutting
has had to be done, and the choice of either dynamite or
o.xyacetylene for cutting a member is governed very largely
by local conditions. Where the latter method has been
used to greatest advantage has been in cutting up the
heavy chords and posts into pieces that could be handled
by the derricks, which have a capacity of not more than
10 tons. One web, 4 feet 6 inches deep, with a section of
190 square inches, was cut in 205 minutes with a consump-
tion of 112 cubic feet of gas. In cutting eyebars it was
found that with a stream of pure oxygen gas one square
inch of metal could be cut, on an average, in 5I seconds,
with a consumption of 0-4 cubic foot of gas, at a cost of
1-2 cents for the ox3'gen gas. Since the beginning of
operations some 50,000 cubic feet of gas have been con-
sumed, or an average of 10 cubic feet per ton of material
removed.

Messrs. Schott and Gen, of Jena, have sent us a copy
of a well-illustrated catalogue of the new Jena glass
laboratory requisites they are now in a position to supply.
Extracts are published in the catalogue from a report from
the Imperial Physico-Technical Institute, Charlottenburg,
made after subjecting the new ware .to various tests, and
they indicate that these requisites, in comparison with
older Jena glasses, have an increased power of resistance
to sudden changes of temperature combined with a. reduc-
tion of the amount of alkali given off into aqueous fluids.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

The Tot.\l Eclipse of the Moon, November 16. — Not
for man}' years have the conditions for observing a total
eclipse of the moon been so generally favourable as they
were on November 16. Reports from all over the country
show how generally they were taken advantage of and
appreciated, although, of course, " no details of special
scientific interest are yet published. Several meteors were
observed before and during the eclipse, Mr. E. A. Martin
having observed one at 6h. 55m. p.m. from South Nor-
wood. Its path was from north-west to south-east, its
colour reddish-yellow, and it was especially noticeable by
reason of its extremely leisurely movement. Two faint
meteors travelling in the same direction were seen from.
Gunnersbury during the eclipse. Madam de Robeck,
writing from Naas, Ireland, states that the eclipse was
a beautiful spectacle, and that she saw three meteors.
One of these was a fine specimen, which travelled in a
south-westerly direction from an apparent radiant just
below the eclipsed moon. The penumbral shadow was
barely discernible until after 10 p.m., when the relative
darkening of the south-east limb could be detected. A
slight flattening of the limb appeared to take place some
minutes before the actual shadow could be seen on the
disc, and throughout the eclipse the various prominent-

NoVKMCEk 24, 1910]

NATURE

119

lunar features were readily distinguishable through the
deep copper-coloured shade. During totality the relative
brightness of the limb was also noticeable, a thin ring
appearing to encircle the darkened disc. The beauty of
the phenomenon was considerably increased by the appari-
tion of previously unseen stars, notably the Pleiades,
when the extreme brightness of the moon was reduced.
It is gratifying to notice that the new 8-inch equatorial
of the Birmingham University Observatory was employed
by Mr. F"ournier in taking some fifteen photographs of
the eclipsed moon during the various phases of the eclipse ;
exposures of from one to thirty seconds were given.

Cerulli's Comet, 1910^. — Numerous observations of
the comet discovered by Dr. CeruUi on November 9 appear
in the supplement to No. 4454 of the AsXrononusche
S'achrichten. As seen by Prof. Hartwig at Bamberg on
November 1 1 the comet was of the tenth magnitude,
round, 2' diameter, and had a faint condensation.

From observations made on November 9, 10, and 11,
Dr. Ebell has calculated a set of elements and an
ephemeris, and from the former it appears that perihelion
passage took place on September 15 ; at present the comet
is about 95 million miles from the earth, and is receding
at the rate of 720,000 miles daily. .Apparently it is travel-
ling nearly due south through the southern limits of
Taurus, as shown by the following extract from the
ephemeris : —

Ephemeris 12/1. ^[.T. Berlin.

a (true) S (truej I a (inie) S (true)

1910 h. m o / ■ 19:0 h. ni. , J

Nov. 23 ... 3 373 ... +5 37-4 I Dtc. I ... 3 369 ... +4 245
„ 27 ... 3 370 .. +4 580 ! „ 5 ... 3 369 ... +3 573

Seleniu-m Photometry of Stars. — .\ paper of more than
usual interest, in which the author discusses at length
his measures of -Algol, made with his selenium photo-
meter, is contributed by Dr. Joel Stebbins to No. 3,
vol. xx.xii., of the Astrophysical Journal. The photometer
was attached to a 12-inch refractor, and was kept at a
uniform temperature of 0° C. or lower ; the galvanometer
current was kept working continuously, and &tween each
ten seconds' exposure to a star the cell was rested for
about a minute in order to recover ; a and 5 Persei were
used as comparisons.

Under these necessary conditions very careful observa-
tions were made, and Dr. Stebbins considers that the
results show the method to be capable of greater accuracv
than is attained in visual observations. Among manv
interesting results accruing from the work, the following
call for special mention. The companion gives more light
than the sun, and is much brighter on the side turned
towards .Algol. .A secondary minimum, some thirty-five
hours after the principal minimum, was detected, the
variation being only o-o6 magnitude. The discussion

ndicates thiit the radius of the companion is 1-14 that of
Algol, while the limiting densities are 0-12 and 0-18 of
the sun's density respectively. The total period comes out
as 68-8i6h., and the duration of the eclipse as 9-8h. The
f^reater luminosity of the one side of the companion, which
appears to rotate and revolve in the same time, mav be
accounted for by supposing that it is intensely heated by
radiations from the priman,- ; this is in general agree-
ment with Dr. Nordmann's suggestion that the tempera-
ture of .Algol, as measured by his method, is great enough
to raise the surface of the satellite to incandescence.
Taking the parallax of the system as 4-007'' and the
-^un's magnitude as -26-6. the total light of .Algol is 26:
:he total light of the faint hemisphere of companion is
1-7, and of the bright side 30 ; this would give stellar
magnitudes of 22, 52, and 4-6 respectivelv. But if
Kapteyn's adopted value for the parallax, 4-0029'', and
his magnitude of the sun, -26-1, be emploved. these
brightnesses become, respectively, 240, 16, and 28 times
^hat of the sun.

-Many other points, such as the densitv. magnitude, and

>rm of the system of Algol, are also' discussed in Dr.
^tebbins's paper.

The Secclar .Acceleration- of the Moon's Mean-
Motion.— In No. 4454 of the Astronomische Nachrichten
Ur. Robert Bryant advances the tentative suggestion that
the secular acceleration of the moon's mean motion mav
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

be due to the accretion of " dust " from interplanetary
space by the moon and the earth. He finds that a deposit
of 2 mm. of " dust " per century on the lunar surface
would, if the density of the " dust " were equal to the
mean density of the moon, account for about 6* per
century in the moon's longitude ; a deposit on the earth
would also be reflected in the longitude of the satellite.

It is also suggested that uniform distribution of the
" dust " is improbable, hence irregularities would accrue.
If the earth does collect sufficient '* dust " in this way, its
rotation period would be affected irregularly, and
astronomy of precision would obviously be confronted by
a serious difficulty.

Photographic Magnitudes of Seventy-one Pleiades
Stars. — From the extra-focal images impressed upon thir-
teen plates taken early in March last, Herr .Adolf Hnatek
has determined the photographic magnitudes of seventy-one
stars in the Pleiades group, and now- publishes the results
in No. 4449 of the Astronomische S'achrichten. The
photographs were taken with the 14-inch photographic re-
fractor of the Vienna Observatory, 10 mm. inside the
focus, and the author publishes an interesting discussion
of the results and the method whereby they were derived ;
an especially interesting point discussed is the effect on
the apparent magnitude caused by the distance from the
centre of the plate.

Elements and Numbers of Recently Discovered
Minor Planets. — ^Prof. Neugebauer publishes, in No.
4454 of the Astronomische Nachrichten the elements and
permanent numbers of eighteen minor planets discovered
during 1900; the last number allotted is 691, so that the
total number of discoveries must, by now, be well above

A NEW THEORY OF THE D ESC EXT
OF MAN.'

T^HE first of the memoirs referred to below relates to
-*■ the discovery of a new Palaeolithic skeleton, and
contains a careful report by Hauser on the excavation,
along w-ith a critical description of the skeleton and a
comparison of the same with other known types, more
especially with the Neanderthal man, from the pen of
Prof. Kiaatsch.

The conclusion arrived at is that the Neanderthal man
and the .Aurignac man represent two entirely different
types of mankind.

.According to Hauser 's report, the skeleton of the
.Aurignac man was found early in 1909, at the Palaeolithic
site of Combe-Capelle, not far from Montferrand (Peri-
gord), at a depth of 1-54 m. in a typical Aurignacian
stratum, as was clearly proved by the artefacts found
with the skeleton. The skeleton lay under a rock shelter,
and was almost complete, the only imf)erfections being
due to the displacement of certain parts by overturned
masses of rock. .As to the position of the body, the knees
were strongly bent and drawn towards the head ; the feet
were also drawn together in a way which suggested a
squatting position. .After the whole skeleton had been
removed, it was evident that the ground had been artifici-
ally prepared for the burial of the dead. There were
found in the grave, typical .Aurignacian artefacts of beau-
tiful form, and perforated specimens of Nassa reticulata,
a small marine snail, these articles being evidently intended
for grave finery. The mode of burial showed the high
state of culture of the .Aurignac man.

.A glance at diagrams of the Neanderthal and Aurignac
skulls is sufficient to show the smaller breadth and more
considerable height of the latter as compared with the
former. Kiaatsch directs attention to the stronger arch-
ing of the forehead of the Aurignac man, the greater
bregma angle and calottic height, both according to
Schwalbe's system as w-ell as his own ; the calottic height
measurement of the Neanderthal skull is 40-4, w-hile that

_ ^_H. Klaatsrh und O. Hauser, " Homo aurienacnsu! Hanseri, ein ralaco-
lithi'Cher >;ke1ettfund aus dem unteren .Aurignacian der Station Clombe-
capelle bei Montferrand (Pcrigo'd)." Praehistorische Zcitschri/t, 1910,
Heft ^4, pp. 273-3-33, TafeJ xxv-xxxv und drei B^ilasen. (Berlin, 1910.)
H. Klaatich, '' Die Aurignac-Ras.se und ihre Stellung im Stammbaum
der Menschheit. " Zeitschrift fur F.thnologie, Jahrgang, loio, Heft 3-4,
PP- 5' 3-5771 Mit Tafel ii-iv und 46 Figuren im Text. (Berlin, 1910.)

I2P

NATURE

[November 24, 19-to

•of the Aurignac skull is 54-45- The excessive promin-
■ence of the Neanderthal skull in the frontal region is
absent in the Aurignac skull, in which there is no develop-
ment of an undivided torus supraorbitalis. Corresponding
■differences between the Aurignac and the Neanderthal
skulls are found in the posterior region. The marked
separation of the torus occipitalis transversus into a right
and left half, which characterises the Neanderthal skull, is
■completely wanting in the Aurignac skull, of which the pos-
terior region exhibits a quite remarkable conical extension.
'Ihe place corresponding to the transverse inion prominence
of the Neanderthal type is occupied by a sharp transverse
ridge. The region of the planum nuchale lying below this
shows a slightly hollowed surface.

\i\ adults of primitive types of men, the sinus trans-
versus does not coincide with the linea nuchae superior,
as in modern Europeans. This condition is found both
in the Neanderthal and in the Aurignac skull ; it is, how-
ever, not to be regarded as evidence of an affinity between
these two races, but merely as a character preserved from
a common primitive condition.

In the temporal bone there is, in the case of the
Aurignac man, a considerable protuberance of the conical-
shaped mastoid, which contrasts strongly with the broad,
(ow mastoid of the Neanderthal skull.

The cavity for the origin of the posterior belly of the
digastric muscle is, in the case of the Neanderthal skulls

vergence phenomenon. It is to be regarded as such be-
cause It is essentially a superficial resemblance, and
exhibits great differences in its mode of origin Fo-

, - , -- origin. Eor

example, the temporal muscles have left their impriir
on quite different parts of the sides of the skull, from
which It IS to b? inferred that before the beginning of
this process the two skull forms were undoubfedlv
different, the orang having a higher forehead and a
smaller supraorbital prominence than the gorilla

On the other hand, Klaatsch finds in the ratio of the
longitudinal and transverse diameters of the head of tho
humerus a morphological character which is important
for the determination of affinities. We can here select
only a few of the numerous details which serve as
vouchers for the affinity between the orang and th^
Aurignac man on one hand, and between the gorill.i
and the Neanderthal man on the other.

The spina tuberculi maioris and the sulcus inter-
tubcrcularis of the humerus in the case of Aurignac man
and the orang run almost straight down, while in the
case of Neanderthal man and the gorilla thev both describe
a medial convex curve. The peculiar rough insertion of
he pectoral muscle is common to the Neanderthal and
the gorilla. ^On the tibia, the relief of the posterior
the malleolus— the grooves for the flexor

surface of

NeamUrthaL ^"T^"^'

Macro -
Jiegroids

AICA

\
{Jorilloids

Gorilla

PUhecanJhropus

South Sea
:»' islanders

Vropiihecunttirop

Tasmcuti/tns

^Spy, Moustier), wide and fiat, and makes its appearance
behind the mastoid. In the Aurignac skull the digastric
groove is narrow and slight.

The tympanicum is, in the Aurignac skull, of remark-
able delicacy, but is of considerable thickness both in the
Moustier and Spy remains (Neanderthal type).

The formation of the facial bones also shows quite
fundamental differences in the two types.

A fuller discussion of the anatomical details of the
*:keletons is outside the scope of a short article, and for
this the reader is referred, especially as regards the
anatomy of the extremities, to the original memoir.

The second memoir lays claim to the widest interest,
especially as regards its conclusions about the general
biology of man, and promises to open up new paths for
the stiudy of the morphological details of the skeletons of
the primates. A series of special morphological results
leads to th* discovery of a parallel between the differ-
ences of the Aurignac and Neanderthal men, and the
differences of the gorilla £::d orang-utan.

These considerations demand especially a rigid separa-
tion of accidental convergence phenomena from such
characteristics of morphological details which must have
been conserved by heredity alone, since they have no
demonstrable connection with functional adaptations.

The external resemblance of the orang, of the gorilla,
and of man in the sagittal and occipital crests is a con-

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

muscles-is deeper in the case of the orang than in the
case of the gorilla; the same distinction holds between
the Aurignac and the Neanderthal. On
the femur, the trochanter minor in the
case of the Neanderthal and gorilla is
further down the shaft, and projects
more inwards, while in the case of the
.'Xurignac and the orang it projects
backwards. The .Aurignac-orang type
exhibits also in the distal part a dis-
tinctly projecting, obliquely descending,
crista intertrochanterica ; in the
Neanderthal-gorilla type there occurs
that weakening of the ridge above the
trochanter minor to which Klaatsch
has already directed attention in the
Neanderthal femur.

The shaft of the Aurignac femur is
remarkable for its extraordinary
straightness, and we find the same
character in general with the orang.
In contradistinction to this is the for-
ward convex bend of the Neanderthal
and gorilla femurs.

Klaatsch supports his theory by
many more morphological details. Of
special interest are the congruence
phenomena which are shown by the
curve diagrams of the tibia to exist
between Aurignac and the orang and the gorilla and
Neanderthal, as well as the similarity of the shaft pro-
portions of the tibia of Spy and the gorilla.

All these details show that there exists an affinity in
important morphological details between the Aurignac man
and the orang-utan and between the Neanderthal man
and the gorilla, and that this does not rest only on the
general impression produced by the graceful and slender
appearance of many of the parts of the orang and
Aurignac as contrasted with the rough and thick-set build
of the gorilla and Neanderthal.

These considerations unfold to us promising views of
the coming problems of anthropology, and throw new
light on our present conceptions of the phylogeny of the
human race. From a study of the osteological details
we are driven to the conclusion that at a very early epoch
there branched off from the primeval common mass of
our forerunners — Propithecanthropi, as Klaatsch calls
them — a great western stream and a great eastern stream.
Inside each of these groups new segregations occurred
which led partly to the formation of races of anthropoid
apes and partly to the formation of races of men.

The anthropoid apes are to be regarded as representing
the unsuccessful attempts and dashes forward towards the
goal of the definite creation of the human racei — sub-
merged branches of the primeval humanity which, in
adapting themselves to special conditions of life, were

November 24, 1910]

NATURE

121

compelled in the struggle for existence to sacrifice
important parts of their organisation, while a more
favoured collateral branch, in quiet progressive evolution,

i-^veloped into a human race.

By a new kind of diagram Klaatsch endeavours to
-elucidate the distribution of the human races and the
anthropoid apes. The femur of Pithecanthropus fixes its
position in the neighbourhood of the eastern group. The

himpanse is in many respects further removed from the
:orilla than from the Neanderthal man. The African

ices exhibit some affinities with the Neanderthal t\-pe.
\s to the eastern people, the similarities between the

<ulls of young orangs and the skulls of Javanese, which

npressed certain authors, require further investigation.
With the help of his new theor>", Klaatsch promises us
a new interpretation of single pieces of the diluvial find
of Krapina, some of these apparently belonging to the
Aurignac t>pe and others the Neanderthal type.

Of all earlier finds, the skeletal remains from Galley
Hill, Kent, have the greatest affinity- with the Aurignac
man. Less certain are the affinities of the skull from
Engis. .A new comparison of the other diluvial and early

-ehistoric finds from the point of view of the new theory

jpears to be highly desirable.

Richard N. Wegner.

MINERAL PRODUCTION OF INDIA.^

'T'HIS quinquennial review of the mineral output of
India is probably the last official publication of Sir
Thomas Holland in his capacity as Director of the Geo-
logical Survey of India, and it is especially appropriate
that this should be so, seeing not only that he originated
this most useful form of publishing the records of Indian
mineral production, but that he has been the first of all
the directors of the Survey to recognise that the chief
dut>' of this survey is to assist and encourage the develop-
ment of the mineral resources of the country. It is an
undoubted fact, to which the present report bears eloquent
witness, that the mineral production of India increased
during Sir Thomas Holland's directorship at a rate with
which no previous similar period of Indian history can

'jw any comparison.

-A glance at the records before us shows that the last
five years have continued the energetic de\-elopment of the
mineral resources of the peninsula ; as pointed out by the
authors, it is practically impossible to set up any un-
exceptional standard of valuation, so that accurate com-
parisons cannot well be looked for; yet, even alkiwing
for this fact, an increase in the estimated value of the
output from 3.455,565^. in 1898 to 5,047,201/. in 1903, and
from this figure, again, to 7*880,832/. in 1908, is a clear
proof of a steady rise in the exploitation of these important
resources of our Indian Empire. Of the total value thus
assigned to the production, about two-thirds are made
up of two items, gold and coal, the latter being now bv
far the more important ; in 1903 the value of the gold was
nearly twice that assigned to the coal, whereas in 1908
the latter figure was about 50 per cent, greater than the
former. The gold output has, in fact, remained just
about stationary during the period under review, the great

tI*''-'* coming, as hitherto, from the Mysore mines.

The important increase in the coal production is perh.ips
one of the most satisfactory features indicated in this
report; from li million tons in 1884, the output rose
steadily to 8^ millions in 1905, and then more rapidlv to
nearly 13 millions in 1908. About 90 per cent, of' the
entire output comes from Bengal, and about 50 per cent,
from a single coalfield, namelv, Jherria, which is now
the leading coalfield, having gone ahead of Ranigunj
since 1906. A very interesting statement is here published
concerning the geological age of these Bengal coalfields;
they occur in the Damuda series of the Gondwana system,
which has always been looked upon as of Mesozoic age.
the Lower Gondwanas being classed as probably of

^ "Q"inquennial Review of the Mineral Pr.-dnction of India dnrine the
Years 1904 to 1008. ■ By Sir Thomas H. Holland, K.CI.E.. FRSTand
Ln. L. Leigh Fermor. Records of the Geoloeiral Survey of India vol

pluI^nJ^ '^"rti ^^"\ <^!™"=' '■ Geological Survey : London: Kegan
raui and Co., Ltd., igto.) Price 2 rupe«>s.

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

j Triassic and the Upper Gondwanas as probably of Jurassic
! age, thus making the coal-bearing formations much younger
' than those of Europe. On palaeontological evidence, it is
now possible to assert that the Lower Gondwanas are
! Palseozoic, and " certainly not younger than the Upper
Carboniferous. Thus the Indian Coal-measures are not
j much younger than, and may even be of the same age as,

those of Europe."
j The only other point of especial importance is, in
I contradistinction to the first one, a purely economic one,,
i namely, the fact that within the period under review the
j first battery of bye-product coke ovens has been erected on
j an Indian coalfield, namely, at Giridih.
I During the five years to which this report refers the
i number of persons engaged in coal-mining has increased
; from 92,740 to 129,173, the numbers of those at work
underground being respectively 64,969 and 83,164. The
) output has thus risen more rapidly than the number of
; persons employed, showing an increase in efficiency in the
! workers. The output per person employed has risen from
88-6 tons in 1904 to 98-8 tons in 1908, and per worker
underground from 126-4 tons in 1904 to 1535 tons in 1908.^
j The efficiency of the Indian worker is thus approximately
I one-third of that of the worker in the United Kingdom;
' as is correctly pointed out in the report, this figure does
not properly represent the ratio of labour efficiency, because
in India a great deal of work is done by hand which in
the L'nited Kingdom is done by machinery, simply on-
account of the cheapness and abundance of labour in the
peninsula. The death-rate from accidents has shown a
marked tendency to increase during the last five years,
but it is not possible to say whether this fact is due to
the increasing depth of the mines or to accidental circum-
stances ; its average over the five \-ears 1904-S is 0-98
per 1000 persons employed, or 10-2 per 1,000,000 tons of
coal raised ; the corresponding figures for the United
! Kingdom in 1906 were 1-29 and 437 respectively.
! .Another mineral that now bulks largely in the mineraF
i production of India is manganese ore. the output of which
shows a very marked increase, namely, from 150.190 tons
in 1904 to 674,315 tons in 1908. The output in this Litter
} year was about 228.000 tons less than that of the previous
' 3'ear, the falling off being due to market conditions, and"
i in no wise indicating that the productive capacity has
reached its zenith and is commencing to decline ; on the
contrary, it may be confidentlv anticipated that the generaF
■ expansion above indicated will continue. The interesting
! economic question is raised whether it would not be pre-
j ferable to smelt a considerable proportion of this ore on
I the spot, and thus export ferro-manganese instead of
I manganese ore ; seeing that about one-fourth of the sell-
ing price of the ore represents the cost of freight, it is
1 obvious that the possibilit)' exists of effecting a very con-
! siderable saving, and the question should well merit
investigation at the hands of the producers of manganese
I ore.

I India is of great importance as a producer of mica,
! the Indian output being well over one-half of the world's
j total production. Here again a great increase is to be
i noted, namely, from 22,164 '^^'^- •" *904 *<> 53t543 cwt.
i in 1908.

The production of petroleum, still almost entirely from

Burma, has also shown an increase, namely, from

I 118,491,382 gallons in 1904 to 176.646.320 gallons in 1908;

i even this latter figure is insufficient to supplv the needs

of the country, which imported about 70 million gallons

in 1908.

It may be fairly said that the above comprise the
mineral products of most importance ; there are, of course,
numerous others, and in most cases these show a marked
increase in output. It is gratifying to find that the exer-
tions of a scientific institution like the Geological Survey
are having such a beneficial effect upon the economic
development of the peninsula ; and whilst congratulating
Sir Thomas Holland upon the success in this direction that
has attended his tenure of the directorship of the Geo-
k)gical Survev. we may express the hope that this ex-
pansion of the material interests of the country will
continue to be the first care of his successors, with the
same gratifying results.

H. Louis.

122

NATURE

[NOVFMBER 24, 1 9 10

iiCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.
A T a meeting of the Junior Institution of Engineers on
■^ November 15, Sir J. J. Tliomson, F.R.S., president
of the association, delivered an address on the relations
between, pure science and engineering. The distinction
between them, he said, is one of airn, not of method.
The methods employed by the physicist and the qualities
of mind called into play in his investigations are to a
large extent the same as those used by the engineer in
the higher branches of engineering. It is not the business
of the physicist in his researches to concern himself at all
with utility. Almost every advance in pure physics has
been turned to account by the engineer, the manufacturer,
or the doctor. But nothing would be more disastrous to
the progress of engineering than that the workers in pure
.science should hamper themselves by considerations as to
the utilitv of their work, or confine their attention to
points which have an obvious practical application.

The province of engineering is to survey the facts known
to science, and to select those which seem to have in them
the possibilities of industrial application, and then to study
and develop them from this point of view. This can often
best be done in laboratories attached to works engaged
in active trade. The success of works' laboratories in
Germany and the United States, and to a growing extent
in this country, is one of the most striking features in
modern industrial development. A closer connection with
pure science would be of the greatest service to engineer-
ing and commerce in this country, and though strides
have been m.-ide in this direction in recent years, Sir J. J.
Thomson pointed out we are still behind Germany in the
importance we attach to pure science and in the eager-
ness with which new discoveries are applied to industrial
purposes. As an instance, to judge from the number of
" Thermos flasks " met with, the manufacture of these
flasks must constitute a large and profitable business. It
is sard, however, that none of these flasks is made in
England. Yet the Thermos flask is an English invention,
being nothing but what is known to physicists as the
" Dewar vessel," which was invented by Sir James Devvar
for the purpose of storing liquid air without evaporation,
and was described by him some years ago. Although the
discovery was made and first published in England, no
English manufacturer took it up, but left it to foreign
rivals to make it the basis of an important trade.

It is, he continued, the object of applied science to keep
theory and practice at the same level. Theory and practice
do better work when they are driven abreast rather than in
tandem. The more intimate the relation between the.
workers in pure science and those engaged. in the applica-
tion of science, the greater will be the opportunities of
deepening the faith in science of the practical man. Faith
in the results of pure science is more robust in Germany
and the United States than in this country ; here we
cultivate more exclusively things which ripen quicklv and
yield an immediate return upon the capital invested, and
are inclined to turn aside from projects which, though
more profitable in the long run, will, so to speak, take a
long time before they corne into bearing.

ZOOLOGY IN THE INDIAN EMPIRE.

''PO the September number of Spolia Zeylaniea Prof.
Punnett contributes an imjX)rtant paper, illustrated
by two double coloured plates, on mimicry in Ceylon
butterflies, with a suggestion as to the nature of poly-
morphism. After, giving a list of the hitherto recorded
instances,- which are- relatively numerous in comparison
with the- extent of the fauna, the author points out that
this mimicry is far less striking among the living insects
than in. museum specimens.- Not only is this difference
apparent on the under surface of the wings when the
insects are at rest, but it is still more noticeable in the
mode of-flight, so that with very little experience the eye
learns to distinguish between the mimic and the mimicked.
In the well-known case of Papilio polyotes, with its three
phases of females, one of which closely resembles the
male of the same species, while the second mimics the
male of P. aristolochiae, and the third that of P. hector —
both the two latter being inedible, while the first is edible

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

— the author observes " that though model and mimic may
be readily distinguished at rest, whether with wings ex-
panded or closed, yet the resemblance between them may
be sufficient to deceive such enemies as attack them when
flying. Such, however, is certainly not the case. The
mode of flight of P. polyotes is similar for all three forms,
and is totally distinct from that of P. hector and P.
aristolochiae.

After referring to the distribution of the three species
and the relative numbers of the males and females of the
different forms in various localities, the author states that
the facts " are far from lending support to the view thai
the polymorphic females of P. polyotes have owed their
origin to natural selection in the way that the upholders
of the theory of mimicry would have us believe."

For Prof. Punnett 's suggestion as to the origin of poly-
morphic females our readers may be referred to thf
original paper, as it is too long to quote, but it may be
m.entioned that Mendelism plays a part in the explanation.
Mimicry in other species, together with the natural
enemies of butterflies in Ceylon, is likewise discussed.

In the same issue Mr. George Duncker, after mention-
ing that although the group is common in the fresh waters
of India and East Africa, none has been hitherto recorded
from those of Ceylon, states that during the summer of
1909 he succeeded in obtaining examples of four species —
one of which is new — of pipe-fishes of the famih
Syngnathid.-E from the rivers of that island.

With the exception of one devoted to a South African
frog allied to Rana corrugata of Ceylon, the articles in
part iii. of the fifth volume of the Records of the Indian
Museum deal with invertebrates of various groups. Among
these papers is one by Dr. Annandale on a new genus of
psychodid Diptera from the Himalaya and Travancore.
based on a minute species from Darjiling, described
earlier in the present year by Dr. Annandale as Diplonema
superstes ; this now becomes Brunettia superstes, while
the new Travancore species is to be known as R. travan-
corica. In a second paper the same writer discusses the
Indian scalpelloid barnacles of the subgenus Smilium,
while in a third Mr. S. Kemp describes three new Indian
species of the marine decapod ff»nus Gennadas. Most
interesting of all is an article by Mr. C. A. Pavia on the
larvae of a common Calcutta mosquito, known as Toxo-
rhynchites immisericors. It was suspected that these larva-
feed on the larvae of another mosquito, Stegorjiyia fasciata.
frequently found in water contained in earthen vessels, and
experiment has proved the surmise to be true. The larva-
of T. immisericors feed, in fact, greedily on those of
Stegomyia, " and as S. fasciata, the yellow-fever mosquito,
is very common in earthern pots round Calcutta, one i>
iustified in assuming that T. immisericors plays an
important part in its destruction, in a manner which
would be of great moment in the event of yellow fever
being introduced into the country." R. L.

THE ARRIVAL OF MAN IN BRITAIN.^

THE address dealt with the antiquity of man as revealed
in the geological record, and with the^ conditions
under which Palaeolithic man arrived in Britain. In the
Tertiary period the higher (Eutherian) Mammalia appear,
en pleine evolution, and afford the means of classifying
it into the following well-marked divisions : — (i) Thi-
Eocene, in which living families and orders appear and
there are no living genera. (2) The Miocene, in which
there are living genera and no living species. (3) Th.
Pliocene, in which the extinct species are preponderam
and living species appear. (4) The Pleistocene, in which
the living species are preponderant, and the extinct are
few in number ; Palaeolithic man appears. (5) The Pre-
historic, in which there are no extinct species of land
Mammalia, and man is in the stages of culture marked
by the use of Neolithic, bronze, and prehistoric iron imple-
ments. (6) The Historic period, in which the events are
recorded in history.

In this classification the evolution of the Tertiary
Mammalia takes the shape of a genealogical tree with

1 Abstract of the Huxley Memorial Lecture ''elivrreH before the Koval
Anthropological Inslitute on November 22 by Prof. W. Eoyd Dawkins,
F.R.S.

November 24, 19 10]

NATURE

123

its trunk hidden in the Secondary period and its branches
and twigs passing upwards through all the stages — a tree
>t life with the living forms as its fruit, the extinct species
filling up the intervals between the living forms, and
approximating to them in proportion as they approach
nearer to the present day. In our search for the first
haces of man on the earth, it is obvious that we cannot
xpect to find the most highly organised of the Mammalia
n any portion of the geological record where there are
■10 other living mammalian species, or, in other words, in
;he two earlier stages of the Tertiary period — in the
Hocene, where there are no living Eutherian genera, and
in the Miocene, where there are no living species. We
nay search for him in the Pliocene stage, when the living
-pecies come in, with some small chance of success, but
our main efTorts must be directed to the Pleistocene stage,
when the living Kutherian forms were dominant and the
face of nature as a whole was almost as it is to-day. If
the doctrine of evolution be true there was no place for
man in nature in the Eocene and Miocene stages, and if
he had then been on the earth it is incredible that he
should not,- like all the other Mammalia then alive, either
have become extinct or changed into a form that is no
longer what it was before. As the evidence stands at
present, man first appears on the earth in the Pleistocene
age in that phase of the evolution of nature to which he
belongs. The view of the higher antiquity of man based
by M. Rutot on the presence of "eoliths." or chipped
flints simulating the work of man in Eocene, Miocene,
and Pliocene strata, is rendered untenable by the researches
of Mr. Warren in this country and of MM. Boule and
H. Breuil in France, who have proved that these forms
can be, and in many cases have been, made bv natural
causes. These eoliths, therefore, cannot be used as
nthropolc^ical documents in our inquiry.
The first starting point for our inquiry is presented bv
the discovery in i8q4 of a skull and femur bv M. Dubois
in a Pleistocene river-deposit at Trinil, in Java, assigned
by him to Pithecanthropus erectus, a form intermediate
between the higher apes and man. and closelv linked to
. the latter by the large brain and the erect gait. It is a
veritable precursor of man. not only appearing at the
point in the geological record where he might be ex-
pected, but in a tropical region . taken by Lord Aveburv
and others to have been the birthplace of the human race.
In Europe the implements and weapons of the Palaeolithic
hunter, associated with the bones and teeth of the animals
that he hunted, afford ample proof of his presence in the
caverns and in the river valley of the Pleistocene age over
the whole region between the Mediterranean and the
Baltic. The Palaeolithic hunter presents two distinct
phases of culture, those of the river-drift man and of
the cave man, the former being the ruder and also the
older, and the latter culminating in the wonderful artistic
dcyelooments shown in the encjravings, carvings, and
oainted frescoes of the caves of France and north-western
Spain.

The conditions under which man found his wav into
Pleistocene Europe were strangelv unlike those of to-dav.
The continent then extended southwards over the Mediter-
ranean region, offering fre^ oassage to mit^ration from
northern Africa bv wav of Gibraltar and Sicilv, and from
Asia Minor bv the elevation of the yEf<ean Sea and the
Hellespont. On the Atlantic side the British Isles wre
united to France and German v by the elevation of the
beds of the intervening seas. On 'the east, too, a route
of migration hitherto closed bv a barrier of sea was
offered to the Siberian fauna." The hi^jher mountains
vyere crowned with glaciers, and the climate was con-
tinental in character, with cold winters and hot summers.
L-nder these geographical conditions the Pleistocene
Mammalia invaded Europe both from the south and from
the east and north-east at the close of the Pliocene age.
and gradually took possession of the feeding grounds of
the Pliocene fauna.

^ The invading forms may be divided into groups accord-
ing to their present range, those that are now livin<* (i)
in temperate regions, (2) in northern, and (3) in soutTiern
climates. The first croun. which includes most of the
wild animals now living in middle and southern Europe,
probaibJv came from west central Asia. The second
including such Arctic species as the reindeer, musk sheep,
NO. 2143, VOL, 85]

and Arctic fox, came from the Siberian regions, and the
third, represented by the lion, leopard, spotted hyaena,
hippopotamus, caffer cat and others, came from the
warmer regions, probably from northern Africa and
perhaps Asia Minor. The e.xtinct invading species, such
as the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, the cave-bear and
the rest, also fall into one or other of these three groups.
These animals ranged over the great Pleistocene continent,
the northern so far to the south as the Alps and Pyrenees,
and the southern over Spain and Italy, France and
Ciermany. so far to the north as Yorkshire and Ireland,
and both are found together in the caves and river deposits
of the whole of central Europe and the British Isles. ' *
There were, therefore, three distinct zones in Pleistocene
Europe : the northern, into which no southern animal
penetrated ; the southern, in which no northern species
is found ; and the middle, extending from the Alps and
Pyrenees over France, Germany, and the British Isles so
far north as Yorkshire. In this the northern and southern
forms were so mingled together that there can be no doubt
that they lived at the same time. The spotted hyaena, for
example, in the caves preyed upon the reindeer as well
as the hippopotamus. This mixture of animals can only
be explained by the migrating of these animals at different
seasons in a continental climate with hot summers and
cold winters, coupled with the secular changes in climate
indicated by the development of an ice-sheet in the north
and the spread of the glaciers over the lower valleys of
the mountains.

The place of the river-drift man in these great migra-
tions is clearly marked by his range. He came from the
south, and his implements occur throughout the southern
and middle zone so far to the north as Yorkshire. He
also ranged in the Pleistocene age throughout northern
Africa. Palestine, and Arabia into India, where he used
the same implements as in Europe. He appeared and
vanished along with the southern animals, and he lived in
Europe during the time that the ice covered the higher
grounds in the British Isles, as well as after the retreat
of the ice from the districts which were covered during
the maximum cold of the period.

The discoveries in the caves of Belgium, France,, and
Gibraltar establish the fact that the low type of river-
drift man found in the Neanderthal cave ranged over
those regions, and more recently Dr. Keith has noted it
in the caves of Gibraltar. The river-drift man in Britain
probably belonged to this primitive race.

The range of the cave man contrasts in every respect
with that of the river-drift man. It is confined, with the
solitary exception of the frescoed cave of Altamira, near
-Santander, to the region north of the .Alps and Pyrenees,
occupied bv the northern group of M.ammalia, the imple-
ments and weapons being met with in France, Belgium,
Germany, and so far to the east as Moravia, and to the
north as southern Yorkshire. They were successors of
the river-drift men, and lived in the latest phase of the
Pleistocene period.

L'nfortunately, the caves of Great Britain throw no
light on their physique. Nor are we helped in solving
the problem by the caves of the Continent, because even
if all the alleged discoveries be accepted, it does not follow
that the same tribes lived in Britain. From the identity
of their culture with that of the Eskimos, and from the
fact that at various places in Siberia there are old camp-
ing grounds containing implements and the remains of
the animals, both living and extinct, that are found in
the caves of Britain and France, it is probable that the
cave men have in remote times been in touch with the
latter in northern Asia. The phvsical relations of the two
peoples can only be decided by further discoveries in
Europe, and especially bv the archaeological survey of
Siberia. As the case stands now, the cave man probably
came into Europe with the northern Mammalia from, and
retreated with them into, northern ^sia at the close of
the Pleistocene period.

The Pleistocene period was undoubtediv of vast duration,
and the antiquity of man is corresj>ondingly great. It is
to be measured bv the sequence of geological events, by
the changes in animal life, and by ♦^he advance in culture
of successive races of mankind. It cannot be measured
in years, because there are no chronometers in nature
that record so small a unit of time. Outside historv we

124

NATURE

[November 24, 19 10

get a simple sequence of events following one another in
due order, and with intervals of varying length, and these
we are tempted to look upon without allowing for the
perspective. The more minutely the events that have
taken place since man appeared in Europe are examined,
the more profound is the impression of the vastness of
his antiquity and the futility of any attempt to compute
it in terms of vears.

THE DUKE OF THE ABRUZZPS EXPEDITION
TO THE KARAKORAM HIM ALA YAS}

T^HE expedition undertaken in the summer of iqot) bv
■*• the Duke of the Abruzzi to the head of the Baltoro
and the Godwin Austen glaciers in the Karakoram was
essentially a mountaineering expedition. On the way out
the longer summer route was followed across the Punjab
Himalayas over the Zoji-La (11,230 feet), and down the
valleys of the Dras and of the Indus, to Skardu, the
capital of Baltistan. Here the route quits the Indus to
ascend the Shigar and Braldoh valleys up to Askoley, the
last inhabited spot, after which the glacier region is
entered. While traversing Baltistan the expedition had
the opportunity of seeing much of the Balti population
and of photographing several groups of them. There can
be no doubt that the great majority of the Baltis belong
to the Aryan stock, and not to the Mongol-Thibetan, as
has been stated by all English writers on the subject.
The distinguished Hungarian anthropologist Uifalvv had
already demonstrated their close affinity to the Dards bv
comparative anthropometrical measurements.

A few miles above Askoley the Braldoh valley is inter-
sected by the snout of the Biafo glacier. This glacier has
undergone considerable variations in a recent period. In
i86r, when Colonel Godwin Austen first visited it, it was
wedged against the opposite or left bank of the Braldoh
valley in such a way that the emissary stream of the
Baltoro flowed through a tunnel underneath it. In 1892
Sir Martin Conway noted that it had withdrawn to such
an extent as to leave free more than half of the valley,
upon which it had deposited a deep layer of moraine.
Since then the movement has again been forward, and in
1909 there were only from 200 to 300 yards between the
snout and the rocks of the left wall of the valley.

On May 18 the expedition climbed up on to the Baltoro
glacier. The snout of this glacier still corresponds abso-
lutely with the description of it given by Conway in 1892.
It may possibly be stationary, but certainly shows no sign
of shrinking. All the tributary glaciers appear to be on
the increase, and stretch out for a long distance on the
top of the Baltoro, the surface of which they strew with
broken seracs. Here angular measurements were taken,
which were repeated two months later on the return
journey, and established that the rate of motion of the
centre of the glacier is on the average 5J feet a day
during the months of June and July.

Later on the rate of the upper Godwin Austen glacier
was observed. In the course of seven years the move-
ment gave an average daily rate of barely 2 feet — con-
siderably less than that of the lower Baltoro, although
the grade is much steeper.

Near Rdokass were noticed on the glacier the strange
pyramids of pure white ice which were first observed by
Colonel Godwin Austen in 1861. At this point they appear
as i.solated cones, from jo to 20 feet high ; next as sharp
pinnacles ; and at last, higher up, as huge blocks from
100 to 150 feet in height, shaped like irregular prisms, and
getting- nearer and nearer together until they seem to be
arranged in longitudinal rows.

The Karakoram range does not seem likely to offer an
opportunity of solving the problem of the highest altitude
attainable by man. The greater portion of the chain
looks absolutely inaccessible. The difficulties of the ice
and the rock are in most places so great that not even
European alpine porters could carry up a load without
the help of fixed ropes. This prevents the establishment
of. high camps, and was the obstacle which frustrated the
Duke's one attempt to ascend K, by the rocky south-
eastern arete.

1 Abstract of a lecture delivered before the Royal Geographical Society
on November 21 by Dr. F. De Filippi.

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

The exploration of the Godwin Austen glacier was com-
pleted by the end of June, and the Duke now decided to
attempt the Bride peak (Karakoram No. 8 of T.S. of
India, 25,110 feet), as being the highest and offering the
additional advantage of having been trigonometrically
fi.xed by the T.S. of India.

The Duke succeeded in establishing a camp on the
Chogolisa saddle (20,778 feet), between the Golden Throne
and the Bride peak. F"rom this camp, an altitude of
24,600 feet, a little more than 500 feet below the summit,
was reached on July 18.

The calculation of the altitude reached is based upon a
barometric reading (12/j inches) referred to those taken
on the same day at Skardu, Lch, Srinagar, and Gilgit.

The result of the survey is a map which comprises the
upper basin of the Baltoro glacier, the whole of the
Godwin Austen glacier, with its tributaries, which encircle
three-fourths of K^, and the mountain chains which enclose
them. A number of new altitudes are given on the map.
Of these, the most important is the one which assigns to
the Broad peak an altitude of 27,133 feet. This altitude,
added to that of Teram Kangri (27,610 feet), at the head
of the Siachen glacier, brings up to seven the number of
peaks now known to be above 27,000 feet. The other five
are Mount Everest, K,, the two peaks of Kanchenjunga,
and Makalu.

The experience of this journey agrees with that of the
Ruwenzori expedition in showing that the aneroid baro-
meter is too delicate an instrument for mountain expedi-
tions, and must be regarded as quite untrustworthy.

There is every reason to believe that the high regions of
the Karakoram have a climate of their own which differs
from that of the lower valleys, notwithstanding the short-
ness of distance as the crow flies. This experience con-
firms the observation recorded by previous explorers as to
the absence of all electric phenomena in the atmosphere.

The expedition has recorded that the great chain of
mountains comprising the Broad peak, the four Gasher-
brums, and the Golden Throne, is composed of limestone
and sedimentary rocks, whereas the opposite ranges, com-
prising the Staircase peak, K^, and Bride peak, consist
of crystalline rocks.

AHREN'S BI LIQUID PRISM.

TV/J R. C. D. AHRENS, the veteran prism-cutter, has
lately devised a new type of liquid prism, which
seems to have some advantages in optical work, both for
direct-vision and for ordinary patterns of spectroscope. It
is more than fifteen years since Wernicke proposed to
employ in a direct-vision combination the highly dispersive
liquid cinnamic ether. He found amongst modern sorts of
optical glass one kind, a baryta crown, having the same
mean refractive index, namely, 1-56, but having only
about one-fifth as much relative dispersion. He was there-
fore able to make a flat-ended direct-vision prism by
enclosing a glass prism of from 120° to 130° of refracting
angle in a cell filled with the cinnamic ether, which thus
constituted a triple combination, the glass prism being
flanked by two reversed prisms of the ether. Several
varieties of Wernicke's prism came into favour; but it had
the drawback that cinnamic ether- is expensive, and for
some reason becomes cloudy after standing for a year or
two in the containing cell.

More recently another highly dispersive organic liquid,
also named by Wernicke, has found favour, viz. methyl
salicylate. This substance has a mean refractive index of
1-5319, and its constringency (the reciprocal of its relative
dispersion) is 24-7, as against ii-o for cinnamic ether.
Mr. F. Cheshire and others have used methyl salicylate
with great success, in combi^nation with reversed glass
prisms, in apparatus that may be regarded as an improve-
m.ent upon the prism of Wernicke. Methyl salicylate is,
however, much cheaper than cinnamic ether, and does not
become cloudy with lapse of time.

Mr. .Ahrens has now produced a new type, the biliquid
prism. It consists of a glass container divided by oblique
partitions of thin plate glass into three triangular cells,
one of which is filled with methyl salicylate, the other two
with another liquid having a small dispersion relatively ta

November 24, 19 10]

NATURE

1:25

its refractive power. For the second liquid Mr. Ahrens
has succeeded in finding in the paraffin series a white oil
which is a suitable material in its mechanical as well as
in its optical properties. It has not, however, the same
mean refractive index as methyl salicylate, so therefore, for
1 direct-vision prism, the end faces cannot be square to
le principal axis of the transmitted light. Their obliquity,
iiowever, is not great — not more than 15° if the refracting
angle of the middle prismatic cell is from 120° to 125°.
The dispersion of these prisms is ver>" good, and there is
nuch less absorption of the blue end of the spectrum than
> usually found with a bisulphide or flint-glass prism.
The writer, in a rough comparison of one of the Ahrens
biliquid prisms with a Wernicke prism and a 60° bisulphide
prism, found the following angular dispersions between

Ahrcns's Biliquid Direct-vision Prism.

" le C and F hydrogen lines : — bisulphide of carbon prism,
.' 27 ; Wernicke prism, 3^ 6'; Ahrens prism, 3° 12'.

If direct-vision is not desired, a prism of high dispersion

can be made on the same biliquid plan by constructing a

class cell with the end faces at about 30° to the line of

ght, and with internal oblique partitions at from 20° to

-4° to the line of sight, dividing the whole into three

prismatic chambers, the two outer of which are filled with

methyl salicylate and the middle one with the white oil.

This prism has marked superiority over a flint-glass prism

f equal size. It must not, of course, be forgotten that

'.\ liquid prisms are unsuitable for fine definition of the

jectral lines owing to the change of refractive index in

le liquid when the temperature rises.

The biliquid prism is being put on the market by Mr.
nilischer.

THE REFORM OF MATHEMATICAL AND

SCIENCE TEACHING IN GERMANY>

TTHE revolt against formal culture which characterised

mathematical instruction has within the last decade

, produced a large bibliography in English, French, and

] <Jerman, and inspired systematic inquiry into possible and

needful reform. The movement has been assisted in

<iermany by an extension of the privileges of the

'iymnasium to the Realgxmnasiura and the Oberreal-

:hule, which in time may share the prestige of the

'Vmnasium and win for the exact sciences a place

.enburtig with the classics.

V\ hen the Reformschulen were founded to provide a

• ommon foundation for all pupils in nine-class schools

between the ages of nine and twelve, engineers were

pronouncedly favourable, thinking that the exact sciences

ould benefit, and that an Einheitsmiitelschule (secondarv

hool with uniform curriculum) was in sight. But thev

ere doubly disappointed ; the classics have benefited, and

-.e Einheitsmittelschule is condemned for svstematic per-

rction.

Reform of mathematical and science teaching depends

losely on the inexorable demands of civilisation, and for

ie understanding of modern culture a proper grasp of

le meaning of a function is considered indispensable. On

as account it is proposed to include analvtical geometrv

id the calculus in the work of the nine-class schools'.

^s no more time can be allotted to mathematics, anv relief

'ust come from further pruning of the svUabus. Hence

^ementary mathematics must be relieved 'of its lumber,

tne desire to achieve systematic perfection must be left

unfulfilled, pedantic thoroughness must be killed bv

ridicule, and the exclusively deductive form abandoned,

lore value being attached to intuition than to a cunning

-e of the syllogism. Though mathematicians attack the

^olation of their subject, thev do not advocate Fach-

dung (professional studies) in secondary schools. Pro-

Sori^f^M"^"^?!"^ w'^'l meeting of the Edinburgh Matbcmatical
=ociety on November 11 by Mr. A. J. Prcs^land.

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

! fessional bodies have always protested against it, and the

protest has been taken to indicate the attitude of Trade

Unions also. Nevertheless, German universities are try-

' ing to give the teacher an acquaintance with practical

I applications and arrange courses in applied mathematics

or recognise attendance at technical high schools. The

i courses include descriptive geometry, mathematical

i methods of technical mechanics, sur\-eying, life assurance,

; and laboratory- work.

I The introduction of practical work in the teaching of
' physics is urgently needed. It is provided in the best
Prussian schools and in South Germany, notably at
I Munich, it forms part of the primary syllabus during the
last two years. .\ statistical inquiry showed that 75 per
cent., at least, of Prussian secondary- schools desired facili-
ties for experimental work, whilst only about thirty
possessed them.

The minimum amount of time demanded is se\-en hours
per week for science — physics, chemistry, biology, and
geography — and four for mathematics. If proposals for
introducing specialisation in the last three years are enter-
tained, further hours may fall to the lot of the exact
sciences.

The reintroduction of biolog}', which disappeared in
1879 as a result of the writings of Darwin and Haeckel,
is being advocated as a training of the powers of obser%'a-
tion, in which the German freshman is said to be woefully
deficient, and as an exercise in the use of the microscope.
Geography comprises economic geology, Erdkunde, and
astronomy, as well as commercial products. To bring it
into organic connection with mathematics, courses of
lectures on the interconnection of mathematics are being
projected.

Matters are still in an indefinite position, but there are
indications that the Cambridge Congress of 19 12 will mark
the beginning of a new era. It is to be hoped, for our
sakes. that the results of this congress can be laid before
the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education to
be recommended for adoption throughout the Empire.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

BiRMixGHAM. — Mr. John Dale has been awarded the
Walter Myers studentship for a further period of one
year, having proved himself a student of exceptional merit.
An award of the same studentship for the present year
has been made to Mr. Cranston Walker. The value of
the studentship is 150/. per annum, and it must be used
for research in pathology or clinical medicine at some
German university. Mr. Dale, the first holder, is working
at Hamburg, and Mr. Cranston Walker is at the Uni-
versity of Freiburg, in Baden. The holder must possess
a degree in science in addition to degrees in medicine and
surgery.

Ca-MBRIDGE. — .An election to an Isaac Newton student-
ship will be held in the Lent term, 191 1. It will be the
duty of the student to devote himself during the tenure
of his studentship to study or research in some branch
of astronomy or of physical optics, according to a course
profx>sed by himself and approved by the electors. The
student's course of study or research must be pursued at
j Cambridge. The studentship will be tenable for the term
I of three years from .April 15, 191 1. The emolument of
i the student will be 200/. per annum. Candidates for the
i studentship are invited to send in their applications to the
I \'ice-Chancellor between January 16 and 26, 191 1, together
j with testimonials and such other evidence as to their
j qualifications and their proposed course of study or re-
search as they may think fit.

Mr. A. E. Shipley, F.R.S., master of Christ's College,
; has been nominated by the general board of studies as a
member of the board of electors to the professorship of
zoologv and comparative anatomv in succession to the
i late Mr. J. W. Clark; and Prof. W. J. Pope, F.R.S.,
I has been nominated by the council of the Senate a member
I of the board of electors to the Allen scholarship..

Oxford. — On November 22 another stage was reached

in the discussion of the changes jM-oposed by the

I Hebdomadal Council at the instance of the Chancellor of

126

NATURE

[November 24, 1910

the University. The preamble of a statute providing that
, Greek should no longer be a compulsory subject in
Responsions was promulgated in Congregation, and on a
division was rejected by 188 to 152. The form of statute
was introduced on behalf of council by Mr. Matheson
and opposed by Dr. James, president of St. John's
College, and formerly headmaster of Rugby. Sir \V.
Anson, warden of All Souls', though not opposed to
making Greek optional in certain cases, spoke against
the proposal in its present form, a course which was also
taken, on similar grounds, by Dr. Gilbert Murray, regius
professor of Greek, and Mr. J. W. Mackail, professor of
poetry. Mr. Cookson advocated the passing of the
statute, and Prof. J. A. Smith argued on the same side.
Mr. E. M. Walker opposed it. There is no doubt that
the rejection of the preamble, which involves the loss of
the statute, was largely due to the objection taken by
Prof. Murray and the " moderate " party to the particular
way in which the proposal had been framed. Rightly or
wrongly, it was considered that no proper opportunity
had been allowed for a fair discussion of possible limita-
tions and alternatives, and the majority shrank from a
measure that appeared to them unnecessarily drastic.
Though for the present excluded by the vote of Congre-
gation from the programme of university reform, it " is
not likely that the Greek question will be allowed to rest.
But it must be remembered that, even if presented in a
form acceptable to Congregation, the measure of relief
has still to run the gauntlet of Convocation before be-
coming part of the statute law of the University.

It is announced that an Imperial Conference on Educa-
tion is to be held in London next year, probably in .\pril.
The conference is, it is said, to take place at the invita-
tion of the Imperial Government, and is to be regarded
as an outcome of the congress held in 1907 under the
auspices of the League of the Empire. Delegates are
expected from Canada, .Australia, New Zealand, South
.Africa, India; and the Crown Colonies.

The U.S. General Education Board, says Science, has
made conditional appropriations amounting to 145,000/.,
distributed as follows : — Baylor L'niversity, Waco, Tex.,
40,oooi. ; Trinity College, Durham, N.C., 30,000/. ; Uni-
versity of Chattanooga, Tenn., 30,000/. ; Meredith College,
Raleigh, N.C., 10,000/. ; Wesleyan Female College,
Macon, Ga., 20,000/. ; and .Amherst College, .Amherst,
Mass., 15,000/. From the same source we learn that
Wooster L niversity has received 20,000/. from Mrs. J. S.
Kennedy, of New York.

As has been stated in these columns, a Congress of the
Universities of the Empire is to be held in London in
1912. On November 19 a meeting was held at the Uni-
versity of London, at which the Vice-Chancellors and
other representatives of the universities of the United
Kingdom were present for the purp>ose primarily of draw-
ing up a paper of subjects for discussion at the congress.
The subjects fell under the following heads : — (i) uni-
versity organisation ; (2) universities in their relation to
teachers and undergraduate students ; (3) universities in
their relation to post-graduate and research work ;
(4) universities in their relation to schools and to other
agencies for higher education. The draft agenda paper
is to be sent at once to the various universities in the
colonies and in India for comments and suggestions.
The representatives of the Home universities will meet
again early next summer to consider any representations
made by the Colonial and Indian universities, and to
select speakers to introduce the different topics to be
discussed at the congress. It has been decided to hold the
congress during the first week of July, 1912. We are
glad to know that most of the universities throughout the
Empire have accepted already the invitation to take part
in what should prove an important and historic gathering.
The secretary of the congress is Dr. R. D. Roberts, who
may be addressed at the Congress Office, University of
London, South Kensington, London, S.W.

Last April Sir Henry Roscoe, F.R.S., as chairman of
the Appeal Committee, made a public appeal for 70,000/.
for providing new chemical laboratories at University
College, London, including the purchase of the proposed

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

site in Gower Place. The death of King Edward led to
the postponement of the Mansion House meeting arranged,
and this necessity gave a check to the work of the com-
mittee. Sir Henry Roscoe has now made a second urgent
appeal, which has two objects : the first is to raise a sum
of 25,000/. for the acquisition of the proposed site, the
second to raise 45,000/. to erect the laboratories. The
sum of 25,000/. must be raised before December 25 next
if the Senate of the University is to be in a position to
exercise the option which it holds to purchase the site.
Towards this sum the committee has collected more than
9000/., leaving a balance of 16,000/. to be raised forth-
with. The appeal is addressed especially to all those who
realise the national importance of scientific research and
its bearing upon the commercial prosperity of the country,
to Ix)ndoners who desire to see university teaching in
London developed in accordance with the needs of the
nation, and also to the friends and admirers of Sir William
Ramsay, the professor of general and inorganic chemistry
at University College, to assist in this attempt to provide
new chemical laboratories by gifts which will insure the
acquisition of the site. It is earnestly to be hoped that
the comparatively small sum of 16,000/. will be forth-
coming before Christmas Day, so that the site adjoining
the college, and eminently suitable for the proposed labora-
tories, may be secured. It may be pointed out that iln
number of students of chemistry at University College
has increased greatly in recent years, and that the
accommodation available has long been inadequate. The
present laboratories were built in 1871, and to keep
pace with modern requirements and to compete on
something like equal terms with Continental universi-
ties a new building is required with up-to-date con-
veniences both for teaching and research. Donations
should be addressed to Sir Henry E. Roscoe, F.R.S.,"at
University College, Gower Street, London.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
London.
Roval Society, Novetiber 17. — Sir ^rch'bald Geikie,
K.C.B., president, followed by Mr. .A. B. Kempe, vice-
president, in the chair. — Harold Wager : The effect of
gravity upon the movements and aggregation of Eiiglena
viridis, Ehrb., and other micro-organisms. Euglena viridis
and some other micro-organisms, when placed in shallow
vessels or narrow tubes in the dark, become aggregated
into peculiar network-like patterns or more or less well-
defined groups. In a narrow tube, placed horizontally in
the dark, the aggregation takes the form of a series of
groups which look like green bands crossing the tube from
one side to the other. (Each group shows a constant cyclic
up and down movement, the denser central region moving
downwards under the influence of gravity, and a lighter
peripheral area consisting of organisms moving upwards,
mainly by their own activity. The aggregation depends
upon the number of organisms present, their activity, and
the depth of the vessel in which they are contained, and
may persist with its regular cyclic movements for several
days. The downward movement appears to be a purely
mechanical one, dependent upon the spyecific gravity of the
organism, and is not due to a stimulus which evokes a
physiological response, as in geotropism or geotaxis. The
upward movement is, on the other hand, due partly to the
activity of the organisms themselves, partly, no doubt, to
the upward currents set up in the liquid by the friction of
the downward-moving stream. The upward movement of
Euglena is more or less vertical, and appears to be con-
trolled, so far as the orientation of its elongate body is
concerned, by the action of gravity. The aggregation
resembles the cohesion figures produced when fine sedi-
ments are allowed, under certain conditions, to settle down
slowly in a liquid, and are probably brought about much
in the same way. The movements of certain micro-
organisms are apparently controlled, therefore, in a purely
mechanical fashion by gravity, combined with cohesiv
forces, and this is of advantage, to species which. Ilk
Euglena, are often found in large numbers in a confin<d
space, in that it prevents their accumulation in such den><
masses as would be likely to interfere with their assimila-
tory and respiratory functions. — Miss Jean White : 1 he

November 24, 1910]

NATURE

127

ii

proteolytic enzyme of drosera. — L. S. Dudgreon, P. N.
Panton, and H. A. F. Wilson : The influence of bacterial
endotoxins on phagocytosis (including a new method for
the 'differentiation of bacteria). Second report. The
authors have failed to demonstrate in any of their experi-
ments an action of the endotoxic substances on the leuco-
cytes, and experiments leading to similar results were
obtained by allowing bacteria to be exposed to the action
of the specific endotoxic substances. They confirm the
results published in the first communication, that the
phagocytic result is dependent upon the interaction of
endotoxin of serum. They have shown in the case of
normal serum that the amount of phagocytosis permitted
when bacteria and endotoxin interact is not related to the
amount of haemolytic complement present. The action of
endotoxin appears to be specific even with bacteria so
closely related as the typhoid and paratyphoid family.
These results strongly suggest that this method can be
employed for the differentiation of bacteria. The amount
of endotoxin has been shown to be strongly thermo-
stable.— S. B. Schryver : Some investigations on the
state of aggregation of matter. Parts I. -III. Fart I.
The action of salts in heterogeneous systems and the
nature of the globulins. — When complex substances, such
as those which form colloidal solutions, enter into chemical
reaction, the ordinary laws of chemical mass action are
not always obeyed, the deviations therefrom depending
upon the medium in which the reaction takes place.
These are due' to the adsorption of molecules from the
medium on the surface of the large molecules of the
colloid, which sterically inhibit chemical reaction. These
conclusions were deduced chiefly by the study of the action
of formaldeh3'de on Witte's peptone, whereby a methylene-
imino derivative is formed, which readily, either by poly-
merisation or condensation between two molecules, forms
an insoluble complex. The formation of this complex is

hibited by the presence of salts, the inhibitory action of
. series of which has been quantitatively measured. The
degree of inhifcition was found to depend, in the case of
monobasic sodium salts, on the physical properties of their
aqueous solutions. The lower the surface tension and the
lower the viscosity of the solutions, the greater the
Inhibitory action. The effect of surface tension could be
deduced from the general study of adsorption phenomena,
whilst the effect of viscosity could be deduced by the
extension of the generalisations of Whitney and Noyes,
and of Xernst as to the reaction rates in heterogeneous
systems. The globulins, which are insoluble in water but
soluble in salt solutions, are assumed to be complexes
formed by the action of a basic group in one molecule
with an acid group in another, by means of which a salt
is formed, which undergoes slight but definite hydrolytic
dissociation in the presence of water. In the presence of
most salts, owing to adsorption by the dissociated globulin
molecules, hydrolysis proceeds further than in presence of
water alone, with the consequence that more globulin is
dissociated and "dissolved." The solvent action of the
salts here again depends upon the surface tensions of the
solutions. Salts exert also a similar action in other
heterogeneous systems in bringing about disaggregation,
and the differences of solubility of various crystalline sub-
stances in salt solutions can be thereby explained. The

hysical constants of the salt solutions employed, and the
-olubilities of edestin and serum globulin in these solu-
tions, are given. Part II. The action of formaldehyde
on Witte's peptone. — The experimental details of this
investigation are given. It is shown that the insoluble
precipitate, formed by the interaction of the solutions, is
derived chiefly from the more complex polypeptides.
Part III. The solubility of phenol and certain crystal-
line substances in salt solutions.— The deductions as to the
action of salts in heterogeneous systems are illustrated by
the determination of the critical solution temperatures of
phenol and salt solutions, which is a function chiefly of
the surface tensions of the latter, and of the solubilitv
of 'the following substances in salt solutions: — d-Weucine,
d-Z-phenylalanine, caffeine, benzamide, and />-toluidine.
The solubilities are affected by both the surface tensions
and viscosities of the solutions. — F. W. Twort : A method
for isolating and growing the lepra bacillus of man.
Experiments were undertaken to obtain a method whereby
the lepra bacillus of man and allied bacilli might be

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

cultivated ' outside the body on artificial media. The
material tested was obtained from a typical leper. Culti-
vations were made on ordinary laboratory media and on
media containing extracts from animal organs and tissues ;
these gave negative results. In view of the close relation-
ship between the tubercle bacillus and the lepra bacillus,
it appeared highly probable that these two micro-organisms
would require the same chemical substances for building
up ■ their protoplasm which could be elaborated from the
ordinary media only by the- tubercle bacillus. It was
thought that if these substances could be supplied already
formed to the lepra bacillus it might grow, and the easiest
method of supplying these substances would be by adding
to some good medium the ground-up bodies of the tubercle
bacilli containing them ; accordingly a medium was made
as follows : — egg three parts, o-8 per cent, sodium chloride
one part, ground tubercle bacilli i per cent., and glycerine
5 per cent, or less, mixed, placed in tubes, sterilised, and
set in slopes. Leprosy material was placed in 2 per cent,
ericolin to kill contaminating micro-organisms, and then
inoculated on the tubercle medium. On this the lepra
bacillus grew very slowly as a delicate, colourless streak
along the inoculated track, and showed the typical morpho-
logical and staining characters of the lepra bacillus ; the
bacillus could be sub-cultured only on the tubercle
medium. Experiments will be made to prepare a lepra
vaccine and to grow the lepra bacillus of rat. In con-
junction with Mr. Ingram, the author has also succeeded
in growing the bacillus found in Johne's disease of cows.
It grows on the same medium, much like lepra bacillus,
but somewhat faster. It is hoped soon to prepare a
diagnostic vaccine for Johne's disease. — G. J. Fowler,
E. Ardern, and W. T. Lockett : The oxidation of phenol
by certain bacteria in pure culture. The investigation
described in the paper arose out of a detailed examination
of the effect of various antiseptic substances, including
phenol, in bacterial sewage filters. It was found that the
phenol apparently exerted a selective action on the
bacteria present in the filter, only very few types
appearing in the filtrate, more especially a liquefying
organism (B. liquefaciens fluorescens) and a chromogenic
organism. Pure cultures of these organisms were made,
the medium generally used being ordinary peptone broUi.
The general method of experiment was - to bubble air,
under sterile conditions, through an aqueous solution of
phenol to which a few c.c. of the culture were added.
The strengths of phenol solution used varied from 8-4 to
16-5 parts phenol per 100,000 of water, and were deter-
mined by the oxygen absorbed from standard acid per-
manganate solution in three minutes. It was found that
B. liquefaciens had no action, or only a very slight one,
on phenol, even after exposure of a month or more, while
on introduction of the chromogenic organism the phenol
content diminished, slowly at first, and then, in two or
three days, completely disappeared. In a final experi-
ment, a solution was made use of containing 10 parts
per 100,000 of phenol, together with the following in-
gredients : —

Ammonium sulphate o*i grm."|

Potassium phosphate O"! ,, Ip^ ^ y^^p^

Magnesium carbonate ... ^-I ,, j '^
in suspension. j

.After careful sterilisation this was inoculated with the
organism, and incubated. After nine days the phenol had
practically disapf>eared. Plate cultures were also made at
the expiration ol this time, and showed no evidence of
the presence of more than one species of organism. The
organism has been examined by Dr. Sidebotham, who
concludes that it most nearly resembles B. helvoTus
(Zimmermann).

Mineralogical Society, November 15.— Prof. W.J. Lewis,
F.R.S., president, in the chair. — J. H. Collins: Further
notes on wood-tin. It is concluded that wood-tin, which
always contains a good deal of iron oxkie, and is much
more opaque and more soluble than ordinary cassiterite,
is the chalcedonic form, the shot-tin having had a con-
cretionarv, and the botryoidal form a stalagmatic, origin.
— J. M. Coon : The alteration of the felspar of granites
to china-clay. The action has taken place from within the
earth towards the surface below the underground water-

128

NATURE

[November 24, 19 10

level, the water outlets being generally indicated by schorl
and quartz veins. The nature of the products" of the
alteration was discussed. — Prof. W, J. Lewis : Wilt-
shireite, a new mineral from the Binnenthal. The crystals
were tin-white in colour, russet-brown when tarnished ;
small, but aggregated in parallel position, with mono-
clinic symmetry a -.h : c= 1-587 : i : 1070 ; 3= 100° 44'.
Paucity of material prevented a chemical analysis, but no
doubt it is a lead sulpharsenite. Named after the late
Rev. Prof. T. Wiltshire. — Arthur Russell : A new locality
of phenakite in Cornwall. A single specimen showing
numerous colourless prismatic crystals of phenakite was
found by the author at Wheal Gorland, Gwennap, Corn-
wall, this year. The specimen was obtained from a lode
at present worked for wolfram and traversing the granite
close to its junction with the killas.

Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, November 16. —
Mr. Edgar Taylor, president, in the chair. — A. MoncriefT
Finlayson : Secondary enrichment in the copper deposits
of Huelva, Spain. This paper embodies the results of an
investigation of variations in the ore-content of the lodes
in the mining district named, with subsequent microscopic
examination of the ores, with the view of determining the
paragenesis of the minerals and the nature and extent of
alteration. The following general conclusions were arrived
at : — that the copper in the pyrites occurs primarily as a
definite mineral (chalcopyrite), and is not chemically com-
bined with the pyrite ; that the order of deposition of the
primary minerals was pyrites, chalcopyrite, blende, galena ;
that the processes of secondary enrichment consist, in lean
ores, in a change from chalcopyrite to chalcocite, and in
richer ores in a gradual aggregation of secondary chalco-
pyrite accompanied by chalcocite ; that the preliminary
changes due to enrichment extend to considerably greater
depths than is indicated by the percentage composition of
the ore. The characteristic process is undoubtedly the
formation of chalcocite from chalcopyrite, chalcocite being
formed, in part at least, during the oxidation of the leached
heaps. — J. Bowie Wilson : Notes on the Mount Morgan
ore deposits, Queensland. This paper is a brief account
of the development of these deposits, brought up to date,
the latest of previous technical papers on the subject being
at least ten years old. Considerable space is devoted to a
consideration of the geology of the deposit. The author
considers that the deposit was formed in an area of country
rock much shattered by intrusive dykes, which has allowed
free circulation of ascending mineral-bearing solutions, the
mineralisation occurring simultaneously with meta-
morphism of the original sedimentary rocks forming a
background to the deposit. He admits, however, that
there are several phenomena which do not absolutely fit
in with his theory. — D. M. Levy : The successive stages
in the bessemerising of copper mattes as indicated by the
converter flame. This paper, which is accompanied by
four coloured plates reproduced from Lumi^re photographs,
deals with the two main stages in the process of bessemer-
ising copper mattes, the "slagging" stage, during which
the iron-sulphide is eliminated, and the second stage,
during which the sulphur is finally eliminated, the slag
being poured off and the white metal blown up to blister
copper. The colours of the flames at these two stages
are characteristic, and there are other points, at first
blowing and at the end of the slagging stage, when the
flame colour is equally indicative of the stages reached in
the complete operation. The author follows out the process
in detail, and appends observations made during a typical
"blow." S -H

Roval Meteorological Society. November t6.— Mr. H.
Mellish, president, in the chair.— Miss M. White : Results
of the hourly balloon ascents made from the Meteorological
Department of the Manchester University. March 18-19,
1910. Twenty-eight small rubber balloons carrying
Dines 's meteorographs were liberated hourly, and of these
twenty have been recovered. The balloons left Manchester
going^ at first in a southerly, and later south-easterly,
direction, and were found in the Worcester, Hereford, and
Monrnouth districts, one reaching North Devon. The
direction of the upper wind was constant during the period
over which the ascents extended, and did not vary with
height. The average height of the stratosphere was

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

107 km. Whereas at the ground level the temperature
was remarkably constant throughout the course of the
experiments, showing a maximum variation of fewer than
2° from the mean, the isothermals at the higher levels
show a well-marked rise throughout the first fifteen hours ;
e.g. a temperature of -40° C. was at first encountered at
a height of 6 km., but continued to recede, until at the
end of twelve hours it was not met with until 8 km.
height. — W. H. Dines : Results obtained from the
registering balloon ascents carried out during the two
international weeks, December 6-1 1, 1909, and August
8-13, 1910. Balloons on each occasion were sent up from
Manchester, Pyrton Hill, Ditcham Park, Crinan in Scot-
land, and also in the west of Ireland. Seventeen records
were secured in the December ascents, and these show
that the value for the height of the isothermal column or
stratosphere are some of the lowest ever observed, and
the temperatures are perhaps the lowest ever recorded, at
a height of 5 miles. Of the balloons sent up in thr
August week seventeen were found. The average height
attained was about 10 miles. The inversion of tempera-
ture at the commencement of the isothermal layer was
larger than usual. — C. J. P. Cave : Pilot balloon observa-
tions made in Barbados during the international week,
December 6-1 1, 1909. These observations, which were
undertaken at the request of the Royal Meteorological
Society, were carried out by Mr. Radcliffe Hall and several
other gentlemen associated with him. The prevalence of
clouds during the daytime interfered with the ascents,
many of the balloons being lost to sight after a few
minutes. It seems that the wind behaves like an east
wind in this country, increasing to a maximum and then
falling off above. — W. Marriott : Three registering
balloon ascents carried out at the Royal Agricultural
Society's Show at Liverpool on June 21-23. — Captain
C. H. Ley : The irregularities of the wind at mooerate
altitudes.

Cambridge.
Philosophical Society, October 31. — Prof. Hobson, vice-
president, in the chair. — Sir J. J. Thomson : A new
method of investigating the positive rays. In this method
the rays are received on a photographic plate inserted
inside the discharge tube, and placed in a light-tight case
until it is wished to photograph the rays, when the plate
is lifted from its case by a mechanism worked from the
outside, and the rays are allowed to fall upon it. It is
found that a photographic plate is very sensitive to the
rays ; a pencil of these only one-third of a millimetre in
diameter gave a good photograph in less than five minutes.
The photographic plate, besides being much more sensitive
than the willemite screen hitherto used by the author, has
the advantage of giving a permanent record and allows
of greater accuracy of measurement. Using this method,
the author has detected in the positive rays, in addition to
the atom and molecules described in his paper in ^ the
October number of the Philosophical Magazine, positive
rays of a secondary nature having values of mle, 1-5,
2-5, &c., that for tlie hydrogen atom. Photographs taken
by this method were exhibited at the meeting. — R.
Whiddingrton : Preliminary note on the properties of
easily absorbed Rontgen radiation. — R. T. Beatty : The
ionisation of heavy gases by X-rays. When X-rays pass
through matter their energy is absorbed in the production
of 5, jS, and y rays. X-rays the absorption of which in
aluminium ranged from A. = 230 to X = 4 Were passed
through AsH, and SeH,, and the absorptions in these gases
were measured. It was found that ;3 and 7 rays occurred
together when the characteristic y radiation of SeH, was
excited. On subtracting the increase in ionisation due to
these rays, the ionisation due to the direct formation of
5 rays, relatively to the ionisation in air, remained con-
stant for all the radiations used. It thus appears that the
processes which go on when the characteristic radiation
is produced do not alter the rate at which direct ionisation
takes place in the gas. Incidentally, Lenard's law of
absorption of corpuscular rays is confirmed to a few per
cent. — S. G. Lusby : The mobility of the positive ion in
flames. The mobility of the positive ions due to salt
vapours in a flame was determined in these experiments.
It was found that for all salts of all metals of the alkali
and the alkaline earth groups this mobility was a constant

November 24, 1910]

NATURE

129

quantity, and at a temperature of 1500° absolute was
290 cm. per second. From a theoretical formula it was
further deduced that the ion at this temperature had the
mass of a hydrogen atom. Experiments are proceeding to
test further this latter result. — G. W. Todd : Mobility of
the positive ions in gases at low pressures. By an adapta-
tion of Rutherford's alternating field method, the mobili-
ties of the positive ions produced in gases by means of
X-rays have been measured between pressures of i and 25
millimetres of mercury*. Unlike the negative ions, no
change was observed in the law that the product of the
pressure and the mobility is constant for the same gas.
Further experiments are in progress with the positive ions
given off from aluminium phosphate. — G. H. Hardy :
Fourier's double integral and the theory of divergent
integrals.

P.ARIS.

Academy of Sciences, November 14. — M. Emile Picard
in the chair. — The president announced the death of M.
Tannery, free member of the academy.- — M. L. Teisserenc
de Bort was elected a member in the place of M. E.
Rouch^. — A. Perot : The spectroscopic measurement of
the rotation of stars possessing an atmosphere, with
special reference to the sun. A mathematical investiga-
tion showing that, in the absence of knowledge as to the
true direction of the light ray at the point where it meets
the reversing layer and of its propagation in the layers
through which it then passes, caution is needed in trans-
lating radial velocities into velocities of rotation. — M.
•lavelle ; Observations of Halley's comet made at the
' Nice Observatory" with the Gautier equatorial of 76 cm.
! aperture. Observations are given for November 3. 8, 10,
n, and 12, together with the positions of the comparison
stars. The comet was extremely faint, being reduced on
November 3 to a vague white spot about i' in extent,
' without visible condensation. — P. Chofardet : Observa-
tions of Cerulli's comet (1910c) made at the Observatory
of Besangon with the bent equatorial. Data are given
for November 10, 11, and 12. The comet appeared as a
round nebulosity 30* to 40' in diameter, and was estimated
to be of the eleventh magnitude. — M. Cogrgria : Observa-
tion of Cerulli's comet made at the Observatory of
Marseilles with the Eichens equatorial of 26 cm. aperture.
Data given for November 11. — Louis Bachelier : The
movement of a point or material system submitted to the
, action of chance forces. — M. Arnodin : The bridge at La
i Cassagne (Gisclard system). .An account of a suspension
( bridge of a new type constructed on the electric railwav
over the Pyrenees between Villefranche and Bourg.-^
Madame M. Dussaud : Discontinuous sources of light.
\ commutator is fixed on to the mechanism of a kinemato-
graph in such a manner that the lamp is extinguished
I during the time that a forward step is made by the film,
! the latter being only illuminated when stationary. The
advantages of this arrangement are enumerated. — Jean
Becquerel : Polarised phosphorescence and the correla-
tion between the polychroism of phosphorescence and the
polychroism of absorption. An account of experiments on
the phosphorescence of rubies at low temperatures (the
j boiling point of nitrogen). A change in the orientation of
' the exciting rays results, not in a change in the state of
polarisation of each line, but a variation in the intensity
emitted, and this variation may vary from one line in the
spectrum to another. These results necessitate a modifi-
\ cation of the views previously admitted. — A. Cotton and
; y- **outon : The absolute measurement of the magnetic
; double refraction of nitrobenzene. Comparing the method
previously described by the authors and that of Skinner on
same subject, a source of error has been discovered
the latter, and, allowing for this, both sets of measure-
^■•rnts are in good agreement. — Edmond Bauer and
i Marcel Moulin : The blue colour of the skv and the
constant of Av<^adro. According to a theorA- of Lord
Rayleigh, the blue colour of the skv is due to the dis-
persion of sunlight by the molecules of the air, and from
- theory an expression is deduced giving the Avogadro
-tant N (the number of molecules in the gram-
.uolecule), in terms of the ratio c/E (brightness of the
jsky to that of the sun), the dielectric constant of the air,
the apparent diameter of the sun, and other measurable
"T. The measurement of the ratio c/E is the most
NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

difficult, too large a value being found in the presence
of large particles. An account is given of determinations
of this ratio carried out in August, 1910, at the V'allot
Observaton,- at the summit of Mt. Blanc. The weather
was unfortunately unfavourable, but the figures obtained
were of the same order as those of Rutherford and
J. Perrin, based on different considerations. The results
are favourable to Lord Rayleigh 's theory. — A. Laf ay :
The inversion of the Magnus phenomenon. — F. Michaud :
A capillarimeter for the measurement of the surface
tension of viscous liquids. The capillary tube is bent at
right angles, and the horizontal portion placed just under
the surface of the liquid. The liquid is brought to a fixed
mark on the horizontal portion by the pressure of an
indiarubber ball, and the hydrostatic pressure then
measured. — L. Grenet : The tempering of bronze. — M.
Barre : The double sulphates formed by the sulphates of
lanthanum and cerium with the alkaline sulphates. —
J. Taffanei : Safety explosives employed in mines. An
account of experiments carried out at the testing station
of the Central Committee of French Collieries. The
results obtained showed the importance of freeing the
hole from coal-dust before fixing in the cartridge ; that
paraffined paper as an envelope for the cartridge produced
injurious effects was also made clear by these experi-
ments.— A. Besson and L. Fournier : The reduction of
phosphoryl chloride by hydrogen under the influence of the
silent discharge. The main reaction is the formation of
the oxide P,0, hydrochloric acid, and water. — Marcel
Deldpine : The action of pyridine upon the irido-
disulphates. — G. Quillemin and B. Delachanal : Re-
search on the gases occluded in the copper alloys. The
metals examined included various kinds of brass, bronze,
phosphor bronze, and tin, and the gases were only given
up after fusion in a vacuum. Carbon dioxide and
hydrogen were present in all the metals examined, methane
and carbon monoxide being also present in the majority
of cases. — G. Darzens : A new method for the prepara-
tion of the glycidic esters. Ethyl dichloroacetate and
acetone react readily in benzene solution with magnesium,
a-chIor-/3-oxyisovalerianic ethyl ester being formed. From
this the theoretical yield of dimethylglycidic ethyl ester is
readily prepared in theoretical yield by treatment with
sodium ethylate. — Gabriel Bertrand and G. Weisvweiller :
The constitution of vicianose and vicianine. — Ch.
Maugruin : Liquid crystals in convergent light. — Med.
Gard : A hydrid of Fuscus platycorpus and F. ceranoides.
— Lucien Daniel : A perennial bean. — Jules Amar : The
working of the human machine. — -A. Fernbach and
M. Schcen : The influence exerted by the reaction upon
certain properties of malt extracts. The extracts were
made neutral to different indicators, and the resistance to
the effect of a rise of temperature and the increase in
diastatic activity after keeping were measured. — L.
Launoy : The toxicity of some mineral and organic com-
pounds of arsenic : effect of repeated non-toxic doses. —
Louis Legrer : The muddy taste in certain fresh-water
fish. — J. Deprat : The tectonic of Yun-nan. — Th.
Glangreaud : The western edge of the Montbrison basin.
— F. Qrandjean : A measure of the lamination of sedi-
ments (limestones and schists) by means of the tourma-
line crystals.

New SoirtH W.ales.

Royal Society, June i. — Mr. H. D. Walsh, presi-
dent, in the chair. — G. H. Knibbs : Note on the influence
of infantile mortality on birth-rate. — L. Cohen : The
determination of alkali in arsenical dip-fluids. — Prof.
A. C. Haddon : Note on Mr. L. Hargrave's paper, " Lope
de Vega." — T. Harvey Johnston: Australian avian
entozoa. — T. W. Keele : The great weather cycle.

July 6. — Prof. T. W. E. David, F.R.S., president, in the
chair. — A. Duckwworth : The respective limits of Federal
and State legislation in regard to companies. — J. H.
Maiden : Records of the earlier French botanists, as re-
gards Australian botany. — Dr. W. G. Wooinougrh : Stone
rolls, in the Bulli coal seam of N.S. Wales. — Dr. J. Bur-
ton Cleland and T. Harvey Johnston : Worm-nests in
-Australian cattle due to Filaria (Onchocerca) gibsont, with
notes on similar structure in camels. — T. Harvey John-
ston and Dr. J. Burton Cleland : The anatomy and
possible mode' of transmission of Filaria (Onchocerca)

130

NATURE

[November 24, 1910

gibsoni. — C. F. Laseron : Palaeontology of the Lower
Shoalhaven River.

August 3. — Prof. David, F.R.S., president, in the
chair. — A. Duckworth : White Australia. — Dr. J. Burton
Cleland and T. Harvey Johnston : The hsematozoa of
Australian batrachians. No. i. In this paper the authors
give a list of frogs which were searched for the presence
of haematozoa. In ten species, represented by thirty-four
specimens examined, the results were negative, while in
three species, represented by seven specimens, blood para-
sites were detected. A haemogregarine, Haemogregarina
(Lankesterella) hylae, infesting Hyla caerulea is described
as new, and a trypanosome from Lytnnodynastes tasniani-
ensis and L. ornatus? is regarded as being similar to,
though probably not identical with, Trypatiosoma rota-
toriutn. — E. C. Andrevtfs : An excursion to the Yosemite,
or studies in the formation of Alpine cirques, steps, and
valley treads. In a previous report (corrosion by gravity
streams) the writer gave a general account of stream
corrosion. In the present paper a more detailed account
is given of the origin of the cirque, and the " steps " and
" treads " of Alpine Valley. A special application of the
principle put forward is made to the case of the Yosemite
and associated valleys in California. — T. Harvey Johnston
and Dr. J. Burton Cleland : A note on the occurrence
of pentastomes in Australian cattle. In a short note the
authors deal with the finding of larval pentastomes
(Linguatula serrata) in the mesenteric glands of a number
of cows in the Illawarra district. The hosts were all
affected with endemic haematuria, and the discovery of
these parasites suggests that they may perhaps play a
r61e of much economic importance. — H. G. A. Harding^e :
The condition of the atmosphere during the recent
proximity of Halley's comet. Analyses were made of the
atmosphere collected at an elevated locality in the neigh-
bourhood of Hornsby about a week previous to the sup-
posed date of contact (May 19) until a week following
that event. There were no appreciable differences noted
in the composition of the air during the whole of this
time, neither did spectroscopic examination reveal any
peculiarities.

Calcutta.

Asiatic Society of Bengal, November 2. — Panchanan
Neogi and Birendra Bhusan Adhicary : Reactions in
presence of nickel, (a) Inability of nitrogen and hydrogen
to combine in presence of iron and nickel, (b) Reduc-
tion of the oxides of nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus in
presence of nickel. Johnson showed that nitrogen and
hydrogen combine directly to form ammonia in presence of
heated spongy platinum. This was contradicted by
Wright, who showed that the ammonia obtained by John-
son was due to the reduction of traces of nitric oxide
contained in nitrogen. Ramsay and Young showed that
traces of ammonia are formed by the direct combination
of nitrogen and hydrogen in presence of red-hot iron
filings. The authors show, however, that the two gases
dc not combine at all, provided the nitrogen is rendered
absolutely free from nitric oxide and iron from carbon.
It has also been shown that ammonia is not formed by
passing the mixed gases over heated nickel. It is further
shown that nitric oxide, sulphur dioxide, and phosphorus
pentoxide are reduced to the corresponding hydrides by
means of hydrogen in presence of reduced nickel. The
mechanism of the reactions has also been studied.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

T//l/RSDAy, November 24. ^

Royal Society, at 4.30. — On the Sequence of Chemical Forms in Stellar
Spectra: Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S.— The Influence of
Viscosity on the Stability of the Flow of Fluids : A. Mallock, F.R.S. —
On Atmospheric Oscillations: Prof. Horace Lamb, F.R.S.— A Theory
of the Chemical Action of the Electric Discharge in Electrolytic Gas and
other Gases : Rev. P. J. Kirkby. — An Electrostatic Voltmeter for Photo-
graphic Recording of the Atmospheric Potential : G. W. Walker. —
Optical Dispersion, an Analysis of its Actual Dependence upon Physical
Conditions : Dr. T. H. Havelock.— The Spectrum of Halley's Comet :
C. P. Butler. — A Geometrical Proof of the Theorem of a Double Six of
Straight Lines : Dr. H. F. Baker, F.R.S.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Street Lighting by
Modern Electric Lamps : H. T. Harrison.

FRIDAY, November 25.

Physical Society, at 5.— The Electric Stress at which lonisation begins
in Air : Dr. A. Russell. — The After -glow produced in Gases by Electric
Discharge : Prof, the Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S.— Exhibition of a Surface-

NO. 2143, VOL. 85]

brightness Photometer : J. S. Dow.— The Approximate Solution of variou";

Boundary Problems by Surface Integration combined with Freehand

Graphs : L. F. Richardson.

MONDAY, November 28.
Royal Society of Arts, at 8.— Industrial Pyrometry : C. R. Darling.
Institute of Actuaries, at 5.— Inaugural Address by the President :

G. H. Ryan.

TUESDAY, November 29.
Royal Anthropological Institute, at 8.15.— Certain Physical Charac-
ters of the Negroes of the Congo Free State and Nigeria : Dr. A. Keith.

— The Search for the Original Home of the Maori : A. W. Newman.
Zoological Society, at 8.30. — On a Possible Cause of Pneumo-enteritis

in the Red Grouse iLagopus scoticns) : Dr. H. B. Fantham and H.

Hammond Smith.— On the Alimentary Tract of certain Birds, and on

the Mesenteric Relations of the Intestinal Loops: F. E. Beddard, F.R.S.

— On the Specimens of Spotted Hyaenas in the British Museum (Natural

History): Prof. A. Cabrera.— The Development of Solaster endeca

Forbes : Dr. J. F. Gemmili.
Royal Society of Arts, at 4.30.— The Progress and Prospects of Mining

in Western Australia : A. Montgomery.
Institution of Civil Engineers, at i.—Furtlur discussion: Portland

Cement, and the Question of its Aeration : H. K. G. Bamber.
WEDNESDAY, November 30.
Royal Society of Arts, at 8.— Argentina from a British Point of View :

Campbell P. Ogilvie.
British Astronomical Association, at 5.

THURSDAY, December i.
LiNNEAN Society, at 8. — Spermatogenesis in Stenobothrus : Capt.

C. F. U. Meek. — Reports on the International Botanical Congress at

Brussels, 1910 : Dr. Otto Stapf and others.
Rontgen Society, at 8.15. — Osmotic Growths : Dr. Deane Butcher.

CONTENTS. PAGE

Higher Aspects of Electricity. By E. E. F. ... 99

Technical Dictionaries. By T. H. B 99

Physical Chemistry in its Geological Applications.

By A. H IOC

The Making of Gardens . loi

Pharmaceutical Practice loi

A Fisherman's Tales. By L. W, B 102

Our Book Shelf 102

Letters to the Editor: —

The Jodrell Laboratory at Kew.— Sir W. T.

Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S 103

Eel-Iarvse [Leptocephalus brevirostris) from the Central

North Atlantic, (////^//-ai'^i/.)— Dr. Johan Hjort 104

Are Mules Fertile ?— Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S. . 106

The Origin of Dun Horses. — Prof. James Wilson . 106
The Cocos-Keeling Atoll.— Dr. F. Wood-Jones ;

The Reviewer ; Madge W. Drummond . 106
The Flight of Birds against the Wind.— Dr. W,

Ainslie Hollis 107

The Accurate MacGillivray, Ornithologist. {Illus-
trated.) 107

The Maoris of New Zealand. {Illustrated.) .... 109

The Attitude of Diplodocus no

The Protection of Nature. By A. E. Crawley . . no
Agriculture in the Dry Regions of the British

Empire. By Dr. E. J. Russell in

The Cavendish Laboratory. By S. J. D, S 112

Mr. W. R. Fisher 113

Notes 114

Our Astronomical Column : —

The Total Eclipse of the Moon, November 16 ... 118

Cerulli's Comet, i9iO£ 119

Selenium Photometry of Stars 119

The Secular Acceleration of the Moon's Mean Motion 119
Photographic Magnitudes of Seventy-one Pleiades

Stars 119

Elements and Numbers of Recently Discovered Minor

Planets I19

A New Theory of the Descent of Man. (Illus-
trated.) By Richard N. Wegner 119

Mineral Production of India. By Prof. H. Louis . 121

Science and Engineering 122

Zoology in the Indian Empire. By R. L. . . . 122
The Arrival of Man in Britain. By Prof. W. Boyd

Dawkins, F.R.S 122

The Duke of the Abruzzi's Expedition to the

Karakoram Himalayas 124

Ahren's Biliquid Prism. {With Diagram.) .... 124
The Reform of Mathematical and Science Teach-
ing in Germany 125

University and Educational Intelligence 125

Societies and Academies 126

Diary of Societies 13°

NA TURE

131

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1,1910.

HISTORY IX BRITISH PLACE-NAMES.

^,ritish Place-names in their Historical Setting. By
Edmund .McClure. Pp. 349. (London : Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, 19 10.) Price 55.

THE loving labour of an average lifetime, "studies
in leisure hours extending over some thirtj*
^ ears and more," this work is an eloquent testimony
' the value of the science of philology in the elucida-
on of historical materials. It is both a history and
valuable guide to the philology of British place-
names "as they occur chronologically in authentic
historical documents from 54 B.C. until .a.d. 1154." In
his last paragraph, the author explains why he draws
a line at Stephen's death.

"The consideration of later records containing place-
names is not worth pursuing, as the forms therein
presented vary but little from those now in use, and
the new terms introduced by the continental monastic
■ lers, such as Beaulieu, Rievaulx, Jervaiilx, &c.,
\plain themselves " (p. 304).

The phrase "not worth pursuing" surely needs
^me qualification, and the explanation offered implies
that the author is satisfied that later documents con-
tain no material additions to his list of historical
place-names.
Ver}- appropriately, "a short summary of the modern
ethods employed in linguistic research" is given at
the beginning, to " illustrate the statement in the text
and show the truly scientific character of comparative
philology" (p. 13J. The text is mainly a historj- of
Britain with the place-names worked in, the latter
iborately discussed in " notes " and footnotes. The
■iroughness, as well as the duration, of the author's
adies are well attested by the numerous catenae of
name- forms. The best authorities on place-names are
cited. Yet the author exhibits throughout a com-
mendable critical independence, as well as personal
detachment from pet theories, or theories one would
have liked to press from personal conviction. \\'hen
he discusses rival theories, as in the case of the Picts
and their language, he gives a clear idea of the
situation.

Considering the great advance made in philology
and historical criticism in the last thirty years, such
j a work as this is must have been periodically revised
to a large extent. Specialists in certain lines of in-
quiry' would have expected further revision of some
.of the information given. The author betravs a sus-
jpicion of the genuineness of Gildas's "Destruction of
Britain," the spuriousness of which has recently been
demonstrated by Mr. Wade Evans and others. In the
•iiscussion of sites of battles fought by Arthur, no
reference is made to Mr. Anscombe's clever elucida-
tion of the place-names. Sir John Rhys is, of course,
the most frequent witness in the author's court, but
vhile the latest edition of the classic "Celtic Britain "
las -been consulted, no reference is made to that
^'nment scholar's contributions to the British
ademy and the Cymmrodorion Society within the
t seven years or so. The author's remark that
the nucleus of the work has already appeared in a
NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

serial " sufficiently accounts for the belatedness, in
these expeditious days, of some sections of the work.
Finality in a work of such a comprehensive design is
out of the question, and such omissions as those noted
above affect only very slightly the unquestioned use-
fulness of the work as it is.

The author seems to have a very firm grip of the
Scandinavian element in British place-names, a sub-
ject which is coming more and more to the fore. In
his discussion of the place-names of Shetland and
the Orkneys, which are "almost exclusively Scan-
dinavian " (p. 227), the author leaves an impression
that he is unwilling to go as far as his evidence goes,
and one's attention is arrested by a doubtful deduc-
tion.

" As Orkn in Norse means a seal, Orkn-eyjar would
seem a natural designation for these islands, but the
term Ore in Orcades goes back to classical times, long
before a Northman had put his foot upon them, and
its meaning must be sought in the language of the
earliest inhabitants " (p. 225).

The facts cited favour a theory of a very early
occupation of the Orkneys by Scandinavians, and
other evidence may be adduced to the same effect, but
all that evidence must be laid aside, because the
author is satisfied with some late date for such occu-
pation, and with "classical" spellings of place-names
in Britain. On general grounds, alleged dates of the
beginnings of great racial migrations are open to a
reasonable suspicion, and "classical" references to
places in Britain cannot be accepted as final as against
overwhelming local evidence.

The perusal of this scholarly, yet readable, book, in
which history and philology are made to eludicate each
other, opens up a vast field of inquirj', in which
archaeology, anthropology, and astronomy should also
be requisitioned. We have given us an estimate of
the value of documentary place-names. A companion
volume on the documentar\- value of place-names in
current use, or unrecorded in the documents examined
by the author, would be ven,- acceptable. The book is
a marvel of compression, and an index of fortv-five
pages makes it a most welcome work of reference.

John Griffith.

THE CHEMISTRY OF THE ALKALOIDS.
Die Alkaloide. By Prof. E. Winterstein and Dr.
G. Trier. Pp. vii 4-340. (Berlin : Gebriider Born-
traeger, 1910.) Price 11 marks.

SINCE Derosne and Sertiirner isolated morphine,
the crystalline principle of opium, about a
century ago, the separation of the natural bases from
plants has always taken a prominent place in chemical
research. To-day the number of these substances ex-
ceeds two hundred, and the list is probably far from
complete. The process of their isolation is usually
accompanied bv a study of their therapeutic value and
by the more difficult and fascinating task of discover-
intr their structure. Of the pioneers in this branch
of chemistry, A. \V. Hofmann stands in the forefront.
Following the earlier discoveries of Gerhardt on the
relation of the pyridine bases to the alkaloids, he was
able by the aid of new and ingenious methods of dis-

'32

NATURE

[December i, 1910

integration, to identify many of the products with
derivatives of these bases. But, as the authors of
the above monograph state : —

"The constitution of an alkaloid cannot be re-
garded as definitely ascertained until it has been
artificiallv prepared in accordance with the formula
and identified with the natural product."

It is this last synthetic process which calls for the
utmost resource and skill of the e-xperimenter. The
success which accompanied Hofmann's researches
only serv-ed to emphasise the difficulties of the final
synthetic stage. In spite of the magnitude of the task,
Ladenburg accomplished the complete synthesis of
coniine (the active principle of hemlock) in 1886. This
was followed by Hantzsch's synthesis of trigonelline
in the same year, and of piperine by Ladenburg in
1894. Perhaps the most brilliant of recent achieve-
ments in this region of research are the syntheses of
the tropine alkaloids (atropine, cocaine, tropacocaine)
by Willstatter, laudanosine, papaverine, and nicotine,
b}' Pictet, and the purine bases by E. Fischer.

As it is improbable that anv known alkaloid exceeds
in complexity those the synthesis of which has been
accomplished, it may be safely predicted that sooner or
later all will be produced artificially. Interesting as
this record is of past results and future promise, the
real significance of these discoveries is much more
far-reaching ; for the peculiar physiological proper-
ties of the alkaloids has led directly to the study of the
relation of atomic grouping to physiological action.
The ceaseless activity which has been displayed in this
direction, especially in the German laboratories, has
thrown so much light on the subject that new drugs
are constantly produced the therapeutic action of
which closely imitates that of the natural product.
This vast and ever-increasing mass of new observa-
tions has already been carefully compiled in a treatise
by Pictet, and in several monographs by Schmidt.

With the exception of one chapter on the source
and significance of the alkaloids in plant-life, to which
reference is made below, there is nothing in the pre-
sent volume which can be said to supersede those
named. Like the latter, it is a compilation of the
more important facts systematically arranged and
brought up to date ; but there is no attempt at literary
embellishment, which renders Pictet 's book so read-
able, nor are those full references given, which are
indispensable in a book of this nature, and form
so important a feature in its predecessors. The con-
cluding chapter on the origin of the alkaloids in the
plant is the most interesting in the book, not because
it throws much new light on the problem, but rather
because it reveals the enormous difficulties which sur-
round it. The authors rely on the proteins for their
raw material, which, it is well known, contain no
pyridine, quinoline, or isoquinoline constituent. For
these nuclei they have recourse to such protein pro-
ducts as lysine and arginine, which can conceivabh'
be fused into rings and bring to their aid formalde-
hyde, and its reduction and oxidation products, methyl
alcohol, and formic acid for further elaborating these
simpler ring compounds. Theorising is a necessary
part of every progressive science, and no fault need
NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

be found with the authors if they like to exert their
ingenuity on so fascinating a theme. At the same
time, it mav be pointed out that, if protein materials
are to be taken as the starting point, the origin of
such compounds as tyrosine and tryptophane affords
difficulties quite as great as those which surround the
natural synthesis of the alkaloids. J. B. C.

PRACTICAL GARDENING.
Manual of Gardening. A Practical Guide to the Mak-
ing of Home Grounds, and the Growing of Flowers,
Fruits, and Vegetables for Home Use. By L. H.
Bailey. Pp. xvi + 539, (New York: The Mac-
millan Company; London: Macmillati and Co.,
Ltd., 1910.) Price 8s. 6d. net.

PROF. B.\ILEY is already very well known to
readers in this country as the author of
numerous works upon various branches of scientific
horticulture. His greatest work is a '"Cyclopaedia of
American Horticulture," in several large volumes, and
containing an immense amount of information on
American garden plants, contributed by a large num-
ber of specialists. The present work, though far less
ambitious, will be found extremely useful to gardeners
in the States, even to those with very little experience,
for the author, specialist as he is, finds no difficulty in
writing upon garden subjects in a manner easily
understandable by amateurs.

In a large measure the work is a combination and
revision of two former volumes, " Garden Making "
and "Practical Garden Book," and it constitutes a
guide to the making of home grounds, and the grow-
ing of flowers, fruits, and vegetables for home use.

Gardening in the States is not so general or tech-
nical as it is in our own country, and most of those
who attempt to practise it find a great difficulty
at the very outset, for they have few good models
available to inspire them with correct ideas. In a
large number of instances the formal method of design
and planting is given preference, and the ordinary
formal garden in America has most of the blemishes
such gardens possess at home, but few of the virtues
that characterise this system of landscape gardening
at its best. There are certain instances of first-rate
formal gardening in America, but, as the author of
"The American Flower Garden " pointed out recently,
the public has seldom the opportunity to inspect them.

Prof. Bailey's advice on the formation of gardens
is therefore very opportune, for whilst he does not
show himself as a partisan of either of the opposed
methods, he explains carefully and in great detail how
to make the best use of both by adopting them to the
special circumstances of site, aspect, altitude, soil, and
climate. Having discussed the "point of view" with
regard to laying out the garden and planting it, the
author proceeds to relate in detail the treatment of
the more important species of plants. The chapter
on the protection of plants from things that prey upon
them (pests) is unusually valuable, for Prof. Bailey
has a rare experience of the subject. Chapters ix.
and X. deal respectively with fruit and vegetables, and
on these subjects cultural details are supplied on
almost every crop. The crops are much the same as

December i, 1910]

NATURE

133

uur own; indeed, the fruit crops are identical, whilst
.11 our well-known vegetables are included amongst
those cultivated in America, but there are some which
are not familiar to us, including such as the sweet-
potato. Rutabaga (a kind of turnip), watermelon,
pepper, and okra. The okra is a plant belonging to
the cotton family, and the green pods are used for
making the well-known gumbo soup common in the
southern States. The pods are also used for stews,
and they are preserved by dr}-ing for use in winter.

The book concludes with a chapter containing cul-
tural reminders for every month in the year, both for
the northern and southern States, the requirements
differing somewhat widely owing to the great differ-
ences in the climate.

The volume is freely illustrated, and it contains
twenty-five plates which are reproductions from
photographs. Beyond these there are numerous
illustrations in the text, most of them from sketches,
and, taking them generally, they are very inferior, the
figures of apples and other fruits being particularly
inadequate and disappointing.

.4 TREATISE ON BRITISH NUDIBRANCHIATE
MOLLUSC A.

A Monograph of the British Xiidibranchiate Molhisca,
with Figures of the Species. Text by Sir Charles
Eliot, K.C.M.G. Figures by the late Joshua Alder
and the late Albany Hancock and others. Part viii.
(Supplementary). Pp. vi+ 197 + 8 plates. (London:
The Ray Society and Dulau and Co., 1910.) Price
255. net.

THIS "'supplement " to a work issued half-a-century
ago has been admirably conceived and written
by the Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University. Alder
and Hancock's classfc monograph is known to every

narine zoologist, and fifty years of research and

riticism have found scarcely one weak place or error
in that accurate and beautiful treatise. The authors,
however, had accumulated certain addenda which they
would probably have eventually published in the pre-
;sent form of a supplement. They knew that certain
of their descriptions were not sufficientlv full or were
not based on a sufficiently large number of specimens

'^ be final. Moreover, two generations of zoologists
could scarcely fail to add new forms to a fauna that
was published between 1845 ^nd 1855. or to discover
new points in the natural history and anatomy of
these attractive moUusca. Hence the need for the
present volume, and hence its matter. The illustra-
tions are largelv drawn by Alder and Hancock, and
have been kept, in the long interval since they were
made, in the Hancock Museum at Newcastle-on-Tvne.
Sir Charles Eliot has had them reproduced and added
to. His long and extensive acquaintance with the
subjects and its literature in many lands has qualified
him to write a text that shall worthily compare with
that of the seven previous parts. The result is one
upon which the author and the Ray Societv may be
warmly congratulated.

Few occurrences make such a pleasurable impres-

ion upon a zoologist as one's first encounter with a
member of this group of animals. On turning over
NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

a stone from the heap that lies covered by laminarian
fronds, a grey, slimy object disengages itself from
the rich animal undergrowth, and on transference to
a vessel of water, straightens out its foot, erects its
sensitive "feelers," and waves its serried "cerata."
The slimy blob has become a superbly coloured
eolis, or an Aegirus punctilucens , with coloured light
emanating from the sparkles on its mantle. Such a
transformation is not readily forgotten, and when
the attraction of nudibranchs has once been felt, it is
not easy to resist the temptation to investigate so
many of these creatures as can be examined in a
state of nature. The search for them takes one into
the rich pastures of the sea, and here they must be
found only by acquaintance with the special haunts
of each several kind. The sea, like the land, has its
seasons of plenty and of poverty. In winter and
early spring few nudibranchs are to be found in the
laminarian beds, where later they will abound. A
few Doris, perhaps, no two alike in colouring, and
an Eolidia papulosa, may be found gnawing the base
of a sea-anemone or winding that pink gelatinous
band of eggs which is to people the water with quaint
free-swimming larvae. But as spring comes, the
nudibranchs increase in number, and proceed at once
with the great business of procreation. The hydroids,
sponges, or alcyonium are the special resorts of Doto,
Doris, and Tritonia. Others affect sea-weeds, and
are scarcely to be detected in the axils of their food-
plant. One kind, a glutton, is found only on the
eggs of certain fish. Another eats out the soft parts
of a sea-squirt, and then lies buried in the eviscerated
tunic. Altogether in the British area there are more
than a hundred species, a synopsis of which forms the
last portion of this work.

The mode of treatment may be shortly summarised.
First comes a chapter on variation and distribution.
In colour particularly nudibranchs offer a consider-
able range of variation, in part due to food, in larger
part to light-factors that have as yet not been
examined. Age differences between individuals of
the same species introduce another source of diversity',
and the phenomena of autotomy among Eolids is a
further cause of discrepancy. With regard to distri-
bution. Sir Charles Eliot summarises a great mass of
evidence in a few pages. The most salient facts are
the similarity of the nudibranch faunas in the northern
and southern parts of the Atlantic, the similarity of
the nudibranchs in the .North Atlantic and North
Pacific Oceans, and the distinctness of a tropical
fauna in the intennediate zone.

" It is interesting to see that the waters of the
South Atlantic bevond the tropics contain forms very
similar to those found in the north, if not identical
with them " (p. 1 1).

Eolids appear to be preponderant in Arctic and
Antarctic waters, Doris in tropical waters. With
regard to the vexed question of nomenclature, Sir
Charles takes up a position intermediate between the
" lumpers," such as Alder and Hancock, and the
" splitters," such as Bergh, and he has many valuable
remarks on the synonymy of the more difficult species.
Two interesting chapters follow on the bionomics and

134

NATURE

[December i, 1910

development of the group and on the anatomy of
Doris and of ^^olidia ; jvhilst the questions of classi-
fication, affinities, and descriptions of species occupy
the latter half of the work. On these sections, the
author's intimate knowledge of his subject confers a
philosophic caution and breadth of treatment. Atten-
tion may be directed especially to the discussion of
the relations existing between nudibranch and tecti-
branch mollusca (pp 89-92), and to the descriptions
of fifteen species not described in the monograph.
Malacologists are under a great debt to Sir Charles
for this fine work, which is worthy of the classic
that it supplements. F. W. G.

WILT> FLOWERS.

Wild Flowers of the British Isles. Illustrated and
written by H. Isabel Adams. Revised by James E.
Bagnall. Vol. ii., order xlii., Campanulaceae to
order Ixxxvi., Araceae, completing the British Wild
Flowers with the exception of Water Plants and
Trees. Pp. xi+199. (London: W. Heinemann,
1910.) Price 30s. net.
' I "HE talented author of the volume under review
'- has made the fatal mistake of attempting to
serve two masters, and with the inevitable result.
From the artistic point of view the plates are for the
most part very good, and they combine accuracy of
detail with beauty of arrangement. No doubt they
have suffered somewhat in the process of reproduction
by the three-colour process, especially as regards the
green tints, but the original drawings must be excel-
lent. An attempt has been made to produce a British
flora of an up-to-date character, based on the last
edition (loth) of the- London catalogue, and also to
produce an illustrated flora. The work before us is
incomplete from both points of view.

As a flora the omission of trees, referred to on the
title-page, is a great mistake, but the complete neglect
of Juncaceas, Cyperaceae, Gramineae, and other mono-
cotyledonous natural orders, without a word of ex-
planation, deprives the book of any real scientific
value. "Water plants" are also said to be excepted,
as well as trees, but the definition of a water plant
adopted by the writer must be individual and peculiar
since Hottonia palustris, Nymphoides (Villarsia) pelta-
tutn, Lobelia Dortmdnna, and others are not only
included but illustrated. It is not easy to suggest any
reason for the omission of other natural orders not
specifically referred to, such as Elaeagnaceae and Lor-
anthaceae. There can be no question that both sea
buckthorn and mistletoe are " wild flowers of the
British Isles " ; the former might be ruled out of
court as a tree, but its claim to inclusion is a strong
one when the non-British Lycium chinense forms the
subject of a well-executed drawing. The common
privet, too, is scarcely a tree. Plantains also, wild
flowers par excellence and decorative also, fail to find
a place in the volume, and one is tempted to conclude
that certain plants do not find favour with the writer.
It is not a case apparently of the weakest going to
the wall or of suffering minorities, since other natural
orders with only one or two genera are to be found
in their proper place.

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

The descriptions of the various species are on the
whole well drawn up, and some interesting general
information is given under each natural order. An
attempt is made in some orders to make a slight key
to the genera and species, but unfortunately for the
unlearned student the keys are not very helpful. In
the Labiatae, for instance, the contrasted heads of the
key have no logical sequence. They run as follows : —

Corolla, 2-lipped, and usually 5-lobed.

Stamens 4, 2 outer longer.

Stamens 4; calyx-tube with 10-13 ribs.

Calyx 2-lipped, closed in fruit; stamens included

in upper corolla-lip.
Corolla bell-shaped, with 4 nearly equal lobes ;

cal3'x with 5 equal teeth.

There appears to be no reason from such a key why
one genus should be placed under one heading rather
than under another.

Enough has been said to show that this book cannot
rank as a valuable contribution to the science of
botany, and it is all the more to be regretted when
the excellence of the drawings is considered. Although
in some of the plates there is unnecessary crowding,
vet the draughtsmanship throughout is of a high
order, and the plates of Convolvulus and Tamils com-
munis, to mention two only, are beautiful works of
art. A complete series of plant pictures of our British
flora by Mrs. Adams would be of considerable value,
and it is a matter for regret that so much skill and
labour should have been expended on a book so pre-
tentious and incomplete, which, with all its accuracy
of drawing, unfortunately can only be regarded as a
work for the drawing-room table.

SHALLOW-WATER STARFISHES.
Echinoderma of the Indian Museum. By Prof. Ren^
Koehler. Part vi., Asteroidea (ii). An Account of
the Shallow-water Asteroidea. Pp. 191 +xx plates.
(Calcutta : Printed by order of the Trustees of the
Indian Museum.) Price 20 rupees.

IN this carefully executed and copiously illustrated
memoir the starfishes of the Indian littoral are
for the first time regimented, from material collected,
between the Persian Gulf and the Malay Peninsula,
during thirty years of steady work, by the Royal
Indian marine survey-ship Investigator, supplemented
by local contributions from the recently commissioned
Bengal Government Fisheries' steamer. Golden
Crown.

Sixty-seven species are enumerated, of which twenty-
eight are described as new. Among the novelties, j
though there is nothing very surprising, the species
of Astropecten, Anthenea, Goniodiscus, Nardoa,
Luidia, and Ophidiaster predominate.

Of old-established species several that were in-
sufficiently characterised by their authors, or that have
never been figured, are here re-described with infinite
care, or interpreted by wonderfully lucid photographs,
according to the requirements of each case, the author
having taken the trouble to rivet attention on nothing
less authentic than the very "types." This method
of work, together with the fact that certain genera —

December i, 1910]

NATURE

135

particularly the by no means easy genus Pentaceros —
are practically revised, within set geographical limits,
adds enormously to the value of this conscientious
monograph.

Though the work is for the most part descriptive —
almost commendably so in an age of easy speculation
— the author takes pains to set all his species in their
due relations. Of Falmipes sarasini he observes that
its differences from its congeners are almost of generic
value, and of Valvaster that its peculiarities are almost
sufficiently exclusiv-e to give it rank as an independent
family. He also discusses the position of the irre-
concilable genus Metrodira, which he has no hesitation
in establishing among the Linckiidae. Nor has he
forgotten to notice the small parasitic mollusca found
on species of Stellaster and Palmipes.

This is Prof. Koehler's sixth memoir of the fine col-
lection of Echinoderms of the Indian Museum, and,
as India is still meta incognita so far as the Echinoidea
are concerned, we trust that it is not the last.

One criticism, however, may be offered of this
memoir, as of its precursors of the series, namely,
that it is too exclusively addressed to the specialist.
Species are examined and described with acumen, but
there are none of those synoptical tables, of educa-
tional value, which the student has almost a right to
expect in a museum publication that treats in its
entirety one large component of a fauna. If the
author would crown his labours in this field by pub-
lishing synopses of the families, genera, and species
of Indian Echinoderma, he would " thereby highly
oblige " many to whom, though they are not experts,
whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas is of
interest.

EXPERIMENTAL ELECTRICITY AND
MAGNETISM.
(i) Practical Electrical Engineering for Elementary
Students: An Elementary Laboratory Course for
Students of Electrical Engineering in Trade and
Technical Schools. By W. S. Ibbetson. Pp. xii +
155. (London: E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd.; New
York : Spon and Chamberlain, 1910.) Price 3s. 6d.
net.

(2) Practical Electricity and Magnetism: A First
Year's Course. By R. Elliott Steel. Pp. viii+175.
(London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s.

(3) Elementary Experimental Electricity and Mag-
netism. By W. T. Clough. Pp. viii + 255. (London:
Methuen and Co., Ltd., 19 10.) Price 2^. 6d.

'T'HE first two books are intended to cover first-year
-L laboratory courses, in the one case for technical
students, in the other for beginners in science at a
school or college. The usual differences are to be
noted between them, the second being far more
theoretical than the first, and also containing sections
on magnetism and electrostatics, which the other does
not touch.

(i) The system employed by Mr. Ibbetson is excel-
lent, and could with advantage be adopted in any
technical schools in which a similar scheme is not
already in operation. It is perhaps to be regretted
NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

that no experiments with magnets are included, un-
less the student is intended to have taken a pre-
liminary course in electricity and magnetism under
the heading of physics.

Slight alterations in the experiments will have to
be introduced in different laboratories to suit diverse
conditions, as the book has evidently been written to
fit the apparatus employed in one particular school.
This defect shows itself most prominently in the too
narrow specification of the instruments to be used
in the experiments, instead of general advice to
enable students to select instruments and resistances
suitable in their range and capacity.

The connection diagrams are, on the whole, very
good, the boldness of their drawing being a valuable
feature. They could be improved, however, especially
in the cases of more complicated experiments, by
simplification of the drawings of instruments and
switches and the avoidance of cross-overs wherever
possible.

In experiment xxxv. the use of a standard resist-
ance in connection with the calibration of a voltmeter
seems quite unnecessary-, and confuses the experiment
with the calibration of an amperemeter.

" Shunt dynamo, separately excited," is a ven,- con-
tradictory term, which appears on p. 144; moreover,
the experiment can be performed just as well with a
generator with a low-resistance field winding.

The complete lack of any reference to the error
due to the voltmeter current when measuring resist-
ance by the ammeter-voltmeter method is a serious
defect. When measuring efficiency in the photometry
experiment, the connections are made so as to avoid
this error, but no reason is given. On the whole,
however, the experiments are detailed with the care
and exactness so essential when dealing with elemen-
tary classes.

(2) Mr. Steel's book contains instructions for carrv-
ing out a great many experiments, but the language
is hardly concise enough for scientific work. The use
of supply mains and accumulators is avoided, which
renders the book suitable for some few laboratories
but unsuitable for many others. The comparative
absence of diagrams of connections is a great draw-
back, and the few which appear are not good
examples for students to copy from.

(3) Mr. Clouch's book is intended to act as a
theoretical text-book, as well as a practical guide in
the laboratory, for students preparing for the elemen-
tary examinations in the subject.

Magnetism and statical electricitv together occupy
the first one hundred and fifty pages of the book, and
voltaic electricity- the remaining one hundred. Voltaic •
work is explained from a statical point of view in a
method somewhat unusual at the present day.

The diagrams and illustrations are plentiful, and
the type is varied so as to call into prominence the
most important passages. Numerous exercises are
given, chiefly drawn from recent examination papers,
which should be very helpful for intending candidates.

A few omissions are noticeable, e.g. no reference
is made to the moving-coil type of galvanometer,
which is more frequently used than the suspended-
magnet tvpe.

1^6

NATURE

[December i, 1910

OVR BOOK SHELF.

The Calculus for Beginners. By J. W. Mercer. Pp.

xiv + 440. (Cambridge: University Press.) Price

6s.
Students of ordinary endowment form the habit of
observing things before words. The author of this
work has therefore wisely begun with the notions of
velocity and gradient of a curve before introducing
dy/dx as the instrument for measuring them. The
purely mathematical aspect of a limit is not omitted,
but it is subordinated; the need for it precedes its
introduction. For many purposes, and at any rate
for initial study, this course is quite satisfactory; and
the author will find most teachers in agreement with
him in thinking it is also wise even for those who are
to proceed to the more severe and formal study of
the calculus. While he doubtless recognises that
physicists, engineers, and chemists would benefit by
finally surmounting the difficulties of the notion of a
limit, he does not make it his business in this book
to give the first importance to the difiiculties of analysis
presented by his subject.

The ground is covered slowly at first; some 250
pages are devoted to the case of x" in all its bearings
before sin x, cos x, a", log x, &c. , are discussed, even
the rules for the differentiation of a product and
quotient being postponed until the student is well on
with the subject. Those who think that this is a
large allowance of pages to the earlier part of the
calculus should remember that the shortest account
of a mathematical doctrine is not necessarily the one
which occupies the fewest pages. An excellent feature
of the treatment is the introduction of integration
under the heading, '" Given dv/dx, find y." The
student cannot have it impressed upon him too soon
that the determination of a function is often most
easily carried out by first finding the rate of variation
of the function. In his graphical work he has prob-
ably often observed this rate of variation, so that
the notion has more chance of appearing exact than
that of the limit of a sum, and he has at the same
t'me the advantage of getting the most out of the
newer ideas with which he has become acquainted.
The introduction of c^ graphically is the necessary
outcome of the author's whole method, and will give
a conviction that seldom if ever results at first from
the complete algebraic treatment.

The work, which is well supplied with diagrams,
is certain to be used bv many teachers, who will find
it well adapted to meet the requirements of those for
whom it is written.

A Text-Book of Organic Chemistry. By Prof. A. F.

HoUeman. Edited by Dr. A. Jamieson Walker,

assisted by Owen E. Mott. Third English edition,

partly rewritten. Pp. xx4-.S99- (New York : John

Wiley and Sons; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd.,

1910.) Price 2.50 dollars.

The first edition of this book was reviewed in the

columns of Nature in 1903, and we were impressed

with it as being a most useful addition to the books

in English on organic chemistry. Since then we have

recommended it to students, who have found its study

both interesting and useful. Evidently the book has

filled a want in the country, as a second edition was

. published in 1907, and now we have before us the

third edition.

Considerable additions have been made in this issue
owing to the advances in organic chemistry which
have taken place. The chapter on proteins has, for
example, been rewritten, and is now incorporated with
the general scheme of the book, whereas in the first
two editions the proteins were placed in the appendix.
Furthermore, the translator has introduced the protein

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

classification adopted by the Chemical Society, which,
of course, is a great advantage to English readers.
Another chapter which has been enlarged and com-
pletely rewritten is that on pyrrole.

In reading through the book one continually comes
across small alterations, sometimes considerable altera-
tions, where recent advances have shown the neces-
sity for revision or additions. For the purpose of
review, it is not necessary to direct attention to each
alteration or addition; it is more to the point to
remark that the book has been carefully revised and
brought up-to-date, and that the high standard of the
work has been maintained in the third edition. It is
to be thoroughly recommended as putting in a suc-
cinct and readable manner the salient facts of organic
chemistry. The book is not exhaustive, _ but the
student who has carefully studied it will be in a posi-
tion to read with understanding and discrimination
larger works on the subject, which, without the pre-
vious knowledge obtained from this work would be
beyond him. F- ^I- P-

A Popular Guide to the Heavens. By Sir Robert S.

Ball, F.R.S. Pp. xii + 96 + 83 plates. (London:

G. Philip and Son, Ltd., 1910.) Price 15s. net.
There appears to be little difference between the pre-
sent book and the second edition, issued in 1905, and
reviewed in Nature of March 9 of that year (vol. Ixxi.,
p. 437). The number of plates and descriptive text is
the same, but a frontispiece has been added, giving
reproductions of drawings of the miner's comet (1910a)
and Hallev's comet.

We must express astonishment that this '• Popular
Guide to the Heavens" should contain no reproduc-
tions of the remarkable photographs of solar facute
and flocculi taken bv Hale, Deslandres, and others in
recent years. These pictures are among the most
striking' illustrations of celestial phenomena ever pro-
duced ; vet no notice is taken of them in plate or text.
The sun is represented bv two plates, one showing a
large sun-spot and the other some great prominences.
We suggest that it would be far better not to illustrate
solar phenomena at all than to let these two plates be
considered to represent the most interesting pictures of
modern solar phvsics. ,

The book contains many beautiful pictures and
valuable maps, and is altogether an attractive volume,
but there is no reason whv people who possess the
second edition should purchase the new issue with
the view of finding further illustrations of astronomical
progress.

Catalogue of Hardv Trees and Shrubs Growing in the
Grounds of Svon House, Brentford. By A. B.
Jackson. Pp^ x + 38. (London: West Newman
and Co., 1910.)
The unique collection of trees and shrubs in the
grounds of Svon House, Brentford, the Middlesex seat
of the Duke' of Northumberland, has not been cata-
logued within the last sixty years, during which time
there have been many changes, as specimens have
died off and new species have been introduced. The
chief interest lies in the fine old trees, some of which
are the best representatives of their kind in the king-
dom. Two black poplars, estimated to be 128 feet
high, are the tallest, and an elm is about 9 feet shorter.
More unique are a specimen of Liquidambar styraci-^
flua that exceeds qi feet, and a Catalpa kaempfen
approximating to ^8 feet in height. The collection of
deciduous cypresses, Taxodium distichum, showmg
the so-called" knees, are famous, and have been fre-
quently described; some fine specimens oi Zelkova
crenata (Urticaceae) are remarkable. The items of
information consist, so far as is possible, of popular

December i, 19 io]

NATURE

^Z7

name, family, situation in the garden, country of
origin, and date of introduction; interleaved blank
pages are provided for notes and additions. The
author is to be complimented on the accuracy of his
work.

Ihe Essentials of Histologv, Descriptive and Prac-
tical, for the Use of Students. By Prof. E. A.
Schafer, F.R.S. Eighth edition. Pp. xi + 571.
(London : Longsmans, Green and Co., 1910.) Price
105. 6d. net.
When Prof. Schafer's " Essentials " made its first
appearance some years ago it was at once recognised
that here was the book which had long been wanted,
and it has since then continued to occupy the foremost
place in the estimation of both teachers and students.
Every successive edition has kept the work fuUv up
to date in regard to practical methods, descriptive
letterpress, and last, but not least, illustrations. Any
extended notice of such a well-known text-book is
quite unnecessarv; all one need say of the eighth
edition is that it fully maintains the high standard
of previous editions, and the author is to be con-
gratulated on the continued and
well-deserved popularitv which it has
obtained. ' \V. D. H.

The Charm of the Road. England

and Wales. By James J. Hissev.

Pp. xviii + 426.' (London: Ma'c-

millan and Co., Ltd., 1910.)

Price 10s. net.
Ix his latest book, Mr. Hissey is as
successful as ever in painting the
charms of travel in one's own coun-
tr)'. The journey described in the
present volume was begun without
a premeditated plan ; the author
says : — " To us the destination was
a trivial detail, left to settle itself
each day; the joy of the journey
was the thing, therein our pleasure
lay." Certainly Mr. Hissey's gos-
sipy description of the places and
scenes they met with, and the quaint
experiences they were fortunate
enough to have, is more than
sufficient to convince the reader
that the fortunate possessor of a motor-car, a pleasant
companion, and plenty of leisure, can have an excel-
lent holiday indeed in straving from one shire to
another, as fancy dictates.

The excellent photographs which illustrate this in-
teresting travel book are good testimonv to Mr.
Hissey's keen eve for the beautiful and picturesque.

likely to be uncertain, except when very close to a berg,
it was some time before I could arrange for the necessary
trials.

In the meantime I had devised a practical form of
electrical microthermometer, which was given a thorough'
test on board the Canadian Government ice-breakers
during the experiments made last winter to keep the river
clear of ice above Quebec. So sensitive and precise did
this instrument prove, that a uniform temperature gradient
in the water of one-tenth of a degree per mile could be
determined from the ship, approaching an ice field from
open water, to an accuracy of a thousandth of a degree.

The interesting experiments of Prof. Otto Pettersson on
the influence of ice on oceanic circulation, described in the
Geographical Journal for 1904 and 1907, made it appear
highly probable that the experiments I wished to try would
prove successful. Dr. Pettersson showed that ice melt-
ing in salt water produced two cold currents, one of fresh
water which flowed out on all sides over the surface of the
sea, and one of salt water which sank down by the
ordinary laws of convection. .'\ third current of warmer
sea water flowed in towards the ice, under the surface, and
produced the melting of the ice.

Through the kindness of the Hon. L. P. Brodeur,
Canadian Minister of Marine, passage was secured on the

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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
rrmnuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature.
^o notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

Marine Microthermograms and the Influence of Ice-
bergs on the Temperature of the Sea.
*u^"f application of precise temperature measurements to
the determmation of the formation and disintegration of
ice m the St. Lawrence River suggested to me the possi-
bility of usmg very delicate electrical thermometers on
stiipboard to determine the proximitv of icebergs On
account of the difiicult>- of the experiments, and the fact
Ttiat well-known authorities on navigation (including Lord
J^elvin) had reported that temperature measurements were
NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

Fig. I. — Temperature Gradient near an Iceberg.

C.G.S. Stanley for the trip to Hudsons Bay last July.
As other duties prevented me from being absent from
Montreal for so long a time, I was fortunate in being
able to send Mr. L. V. King, who had so ably assisted
me during the previous winter in ice studies, and who had
gained great facility in using the microthermometer.

In addition to the ordinary- wire bridge which we used
in our river experiments, having a scale nearly 2 feet
long for one degree, we adapted a Callendar recording
mechanism to our needs, which gave us a scale of 1° C,
equal to 8 inches. The automatic recorder could be
switched on to the microthermometer at any time, and
records accurate to one-hundredth of a degree obtained at
any part of the temperature scale. They were obtained
while the ship steamed at full speed through heavy seas,
and were unaff^ected by the motion.

I venture to show tw^o diagrams from the many Mr.
King obtained, which illustrate the disturbing effect of ice
on the temperature of the sea in summer. Fig. i shows
the temperature gradient approaching and receding from
a large iceberg passed within a half-mile from the ship in
the open sea off the Labrador coast. The ship's course
is shown relative to the iceberg. Fig. 2 shows a micro-
thermogram of sea temperature traced directly from the
charts. The proximity of ice is at once shown by a
movement of the pen of the recorder off the scale, to
return again to approximately the same position after the

138

NATURE

[December i, 1910

iceberg is passed. In nearly every record we have there
is a small rise of temperature above the surrounding sea
temperature before the fall occurs, which seems charac-
teristic of an iceberg effect.

In the light of the microthermograms we have obtained,
the usual method of taking temperatures at sea seems
decidedly inadequate. Thus, even if temperatures are
taken over the side of a moving ship every fifteen minutes,
readings are obtained at about two- to three-mile intervals,
which obviously cannot be of much value in determining
the temperature gradient characteristic of an iceberg.
They might easily, as some of our charts show, indicate
a rising rather than a falling temperature. The ordinary
marine thermometer, with a degree one-eighth of an inch
long, would miss entirely temperature effects made per-
fectly plain by the microthermometer. The persistence of
a temperature gradient in the direction of a ship's^ course
is one thing which I think can be relied on to give ice-
berg warnings, but when the whole temperature drop is

temperatures show no diurnal variation, except in the
former case when near land. It seems to be well knowi>
to biologists that small temperature variations in the sea
may be set up by the existence of marine life, and it is
difficult to think of any other cause for what we have
observed. It is interesting as indicating how important
a part marine life probably plays in the conservation of
solar energy. H. T. Barnes.

McGill University, October 27.

Fig. 2. — Microthermogram of the Temperature of the Sea.

fewer than two degrees in six miles it is evident that very
sensitive thermometers must be used to detect it.

Besides the disturbing influence of ice, the proximity of
land within a few miles produces effects of great magni-
tude as compared with the remarkably small variations
of temperature in the open sea. In our case this was, no
doubt, caused by the cold under-currents being turned up
by the shoals and shore line of the Labrador coast.

For hydrographic work, the determination of current
boundaries could be made with great exactness from a
comparison of the temperature traces and the determination
of ship's position.

The small inequalities in the temperature of the sea
stand out in strong contrast to the uniform temperature
of the St. Lawrence River just after the ice has moved
out in the spring. These inequalities of temperature
suggest at once the possibility of a vertical circulation set
up by convection currents, which must be an important
factor in the retention of the solar energy absorbed by
the sea. It explains why our records of air and sea

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

Dun Coat Colour in the Horse.

My attention has been directed to a letter in Nature
of November 24 over the signature of Prof. J. Wilson.
He disputes the accuracy of certain extractions from " The
General Stud Book," which originally appeared \n The
Veterinary Record, in my paper on the inheritance of dun
coat-colour. Prof. Wilson also states that in the Stud
Book entries there is a considerable
element of doubt. This would appear
to be the usual attitude of his mind in
relation to data which do not exactly
fall in with his own theories.

Let me first take the case of the
mare Silverlocks (foaled 1725). I most
emphatically deny that " the Stud
Book assumes " that this mare, which
is described as a chestnut on p. i,
vol. i., is identical with a mythical
chestnut mare which Prof. Wilson says
was foaled exactly a hundred years
later. The animal to which he prob-
ably alludes was foaled in 1824, and is
entered in the third volume as a " bay
colt Silverlock," by Blacklock out of
Sheba's Queen. I would direct Prof.
Wilson's attention to the fact that the '
chestnut mare Silverlocks (1725) is the
only mare of that name in the first
four volumes of the Stud Book, and
that the Stud Book entry is perfectly
authentic, since it was extracted from
an early Racing Calendar which de-
scribes Silverlocks as a chestnut mare
by The Bald Galloway, out of a sister
to Chaunter. This mare was raced for
some years, and there is no room for
doubt that she was the dam of the dun
colt Buffcoat, foaled 1742, and of his
two dun sisters, foaled in 1738 and
1739 respectively, all three being by
The Godolphin Arabian (brown or bay).
Does Prof. Wilson mean to imply that
Lord Godolphin was so dishonourable
as to run Buffcoat under a false pedi-
gree, for that in effect is what he would
have us believe? I have already
directed his attention in a private
letter to the circumstance that I
have a portrait of Silverlocks (1725)
which shows her an unmistakable chestnut, and not a dun.
In regard to the dun filly Sarah Curran (1892), by
Robert Emmett (bay or brown), out of Cellulites (black).
Prof. Wilson is certainly misleading, for he fails to
disclose the fact that Messrs. Weatherby distinctly state
in vol. xviii., p. 727, that "this mare erroneously
appeared in the last volume as dead." Now, whether
Prof. Wilson likes it or not, the breeder of Sarah Curran,
Mr. J. T. Hartigan, returned this mare as a dun. I
judge he was in a better position to form an opinion con-
cerning her pedigree and colour than my critic, who never
saw her.

Prof. Wilson says that the filly (1886) by Lord Gough
(bay) out of Danseuse (brown) is described as a bay.
Here again he does not state the whole truth. As a matter
of fact, this filly was returned as bay when a foal, but
her breeder specially altered the colour to light dun in
vol. xix. She had then reached maturity, and was a
brood mare.

I do not wish to take up your space in quibbling as

December i, 1910]

NATURE

139

to whether bay-dun or bay or dun better describes the filly
(1907) by Ash (chestnut) out of Unexpected (bay). Here,
however, is another instance of reversion to dun which
has come under mj' personal notice, viz. bay-dun hackney
filly (foaled 1898), bred by the late Dr. \V. Wingate Saul.
She was by General Gordon, brown (gametic composition
brown-chestnut) ; her dam, Fanny Gordon, a light yellow
bay with black dorsal band. Fanny Gordon was by
General Gordon out of Lancaster Fanny, dark liver-
chestnut. J. B. Robertson.
Lancaster.

Lower Cretaceous Angiosperms.

In the course of my work at the British Museum on
Cretaceous plants, I have examined a number of more or
less perfectly petrified " woods." Such specimens have
generally been classed together as " Gymnosperms," so
that they have received little attention from palaeobotanists.
.As I am undertaking an exhaustive study of the Cretaceous
plants, the keeper of geology has had sections made of all
the likely specimens of woods.

.Among those sectioned are Nos. V. 115 17, V- 5654, and
V. 5452. These are of exceptional interest, because they
prove to be, not Gymnosperms, but Angiosperms. One of
them is further notable in having its phloem and cortex
petrified, as well as the wood ; the majority of silicified
woods having lost these soft tissues. The specimens were
collected at different times, which minimises the chances
of error in referring them to the Lower Greensand ; and
from geological and petrological evidence there is no reason
to doubt that they are, as labelled, of Lower Greensand
age {i.e. the .Aptian of the Continent).

I hope shortly to publish a complete and illustrated
account of these specimens, but I make the discovery
public now in the hope of obtaining further evidence.
Hitherto the floras between the Wealden and Tertiary ages
in Britain have not received much attention, owing to
the very scanty and imperfect nature of the fossils re-
presenting them. Nevertheless, many collectors may have
laid aside " wood " from the Greensands, Gault, or Chalk,
and, if so, might be willing to lend them to me for
examination.

So far as I am aw^are, the specimens, the nature of
which I have recently determined, are not only the oldest
Angiosperms from the north of Europe, but are the oldest
from any locality with petrified structure. From the
succeeding .Albian, Fliche described an angiospermic wood
— Laurinoxylon albiense — which he remarked was then
(1905) the earliest known petrified .Angiosperm. The
numerous Angiosperms described from the United States
and elsewhere from the Potomac and succeeding forma-
tions are leaf impressions only.

The existence of .Angiosperms in northern Europe at so
early a horizon as the .Aptian is a fact which will necessi-
tate revision in some current views as to the early dis-
tribution of the most important group of plants.

Manchester Universitv. ^L C. Stopes.

The Cocos-Keeling Atoll.

As a contribution from a frank supporter of Sir John
Murray's theory of the formation of the lagoons of atolls
by solution, I welcome the criticism of Miss Drummond
(Nature, November 24).

I must, however, point out that the discussion does not
concern the question of the power of sea water to dis-
solve calcium carbonate, a fact which, so far as I know,
is not doubted, but deals with the more special problem
of whether this power for solution is the factor which
has caused the development of atoll lagoons.

She has asked me a question, and I think that she
has herself given the answer to it.

Taking the case which Miss Drummond presents, and
accepting all her figures, we have the following facts.
Normal sea water contains 01 2 gram of calcium carbonate
per litre, and will form no precipitate on standing for any
length of time. Sea water that contains more than this
quantity (i.e. 0-649 gram per litre) will deposit calcium
carbonate " in the crystalline form, and the deposition
may go on until the solution contains less than is normally
present in sea water."

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

In this last case, the saturation of the solution, in fall-
ing from 0649 gram per litre to less than that of normal
sea water, has passed through a stage at which it is
represented by the normal 0-12. Therefore, in this case,
sea water containing 0-12 gram of calcium carbonate per
litre will precipitate calcium carbonate, and go on pre-
cipitating it until it contains " less than is normally present
in sea water." This fact therefore negatives the first
statement that sea water containing 0-12 gram per litre
will not precipitate. What is the factor that determines
the precipitation from normal (0-12) saturation in this case
when, as Miss Drummond says, sea water when allowed
to stand will not precipitate? I would suggest that it is
the presence in the solution of the already formed crystals
of calcium carbonate — a condition which is also present
" in th° interstices of the massive corals in the lagoons."

F. Wood-Jones.

Conflicting Dates of International Congresses.

.At the request of the Swedish geologists, the Inter-
national Geological Congress took place this year instead
of in 1909. This year was also that in which the Inter-
national Zoological Congress naturally fell to be held.
Since, for the convenience of university workers, these
congresses are usually held at the same time of year, and
since they, with their excursions, now extend over a con-
siderable period, especially in the case of the Geological
Congress, it was almost inevitable that the times of the
meetings should clash. This may not aflfect a large
number of participants, but it is rather hard on palaeonto-
logists, whose interests lie in both camps, and who, even
with the aid of the aeroplane, cannot be in two places
at once.

I should not trouble 30U with a complaint about what
appeared to be inevitable this year were there not signs
of the same difficulty recurring in perpetuity unless pro-
test is at once raised. As a matter of fact, the committee
of " Palaeontologia Universalis," when it met at Stock-
holm, forwarded to the council of the congress a request
that this interference should be avoided in future. That
protest seems to have been without result. If so, in 1913
the palaeontologist will again find himself summoned
either by duty or desire to opposite quarters of the globe.

F. .A. Bather.

The Megalospheric Form of Ammodiscus uuertus.

The interesting discovery of the megalospheric form of
the above species in some abundance in the North Pacific
Ocean, as described by Mr. J. .A. Cushman in Bulletin
No. 71, U.S. National Museum, 1910, pp. 73—5, and
noticed in Nature of September i, brings to mind the
remarkable occurrence of the megalospheric form only
{A. tenuis, Brady) in some dredgings off Great Barrier
Island, New Zealand, which I described in the Trans-
actions of the New Zealand Institute in 1905 (1906).
Curiously, the microspheric form was there entirely absent,
although Dr. H. B. Brady had previously recorded it from
a neighbouring Challenger station, No. 169. The latter
author regarded A. tenuis as perhaps a local variety of
the better known .4. incertus. Rhumbler suggested that
the form was possibly the megalospheric stage of the
species, whilst the present writer, noting a large amount
of variation in the initial chamber, suggested that a
microsphere might be present in forms otherwise to be
regarded as .4. tenuis, giving the diameter of the initial
chamber in the New Zealand specimens as 100 ^ to 50 fi.
Mr. Cushman 's published figure shows an approximate
internal diameter of the proloculum as 250 fi, which is
nearer to Brady's published figures than to the examples
from the Great Barrier Island. I am now convinced that
the specimens from the latter locality had abnormally
small megalospheres, giving the minima of measurements
so far as known.

A question here arises how to account for the remark-
able abundance of Ammodiscus incertus, clearlv of micro-
spheric relationship, in fossiliferous strata from the Upper
Silurian to the late Tertiarv". With that problem as a
suggestion for observant rhizopodists I conclude this note.

F. Chap-man.

National Museum, Melbourne, October 20.

NATURE

[December i, 1910

THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF NEBULA.

SINCE the year 1880, when Henry Draper, of New-
York, achieved the first success in pliotograplimg
nebula;, namely, the great nebula in the constellation
ot Orion, the progress made in this branch of astro-
nomy has been botli rapid and secure. In this country
Common and Isaac Roberts, in France Janssen and
the brothers Henry, in Uermany Max Wolf, and in
the United States W. H. Pickering, Barnard, and
Keeler, all have helped to obtain the high standard
of excellence which prevails to-day.

Both refracting and reflecting telescopes have been
rivalling each other to obtain the mastery in this
particular branch, and I think that it is generally
conceded to-day that the latter have won the day. The
great success achieved is no doubt partly due to the
important progress made in the preparation of the
photographic dry plate, but a closer scrutiny of the
whole situation brings into the light the peculiar skill
of the man at the telescope. Isaac Roberts, for in-
stance, had not a very large reflector to work with,
one of only 20 inches aperture, yet his skill in tuning
up his instrument and his very careful "following"
were rewarded by the magnificent set of wonderful
photographs which he was able to secure.

Again, Keeler, with the Crossley three-foot re-
flector, an instrument made in 1879 by Dr. Common,
which only reached the United States in 1895,
achieved his success only by making a very careful
study of and alterations in the telescope and its
accessories. While the changes he made were small,
they had, as he said, "greatly increased the practical
efficiency of the instrument, and therefore, small as
they are, they are important." Unfortunately, Keeler
died soon after he had commenced his photographic
study of the nebulae, but the handsome volume pub-
lished as a tribute to his memory (" Publications of
the Lick Observatory, vol. iii., 1908"), and containing
splendid reproductions from his negatives, will give
the reader some impression of the fineness of his
work.

Beautiful as the photographs which up to the pre-
sent time have been secured are, there was inherent in
them some defects which it might have seemed im-
possible to eliminate. There is little doubt but that
all these photographs must now be consigned to the
second position, to be replaced by those that are the
work of Prof. G. W. Ritchey, of the Mount Wilson
Observatory.

Prof. Ritchey is one of the band of valuable men
which Prof. George E. Hale was fortunate enough to
surround himself with in the establishment of the
Mount Wilson Solar Observatory. Prof. Ritchey was
previously one of the staff of the Yerkes Observatory,
and was in charge of the instrument shop at that
observatory, and this shop was regarded of very
great importance, since it alone rendered possible the
construction and frequent improvement of instruments
of new type or special design ; provision was also made
for optical work on a large scale. At the Mount
Wilson Observatory the instrument shop was naturally
of fundamental importance, and it was not long
before the figuring and mounting of a 5-foot re-
flector was undertaken. This instrument was first
tested visually in December of the year 1908, and the
first celestial photograph was secured in the same
month of that year. The instrument, mounting,
dome, building, and accessories were all carried out
from the plans of Prof. Ritchey, and it is with this
powerful instrument of research and close attention to
refinements that he has been able to make this pro-
gress in the photography of nebulae.

In the efficient working of a reflecting telescope it
is of great importance to secure as far as possible

NO. 2144, VOL. 85I

equal temperature conditions for the telescope, dome,
and inside and outside air. Thus the telescope and
mirror must not be allowed to be heated up during
the daytime because change of temperature causes a
deformation of the reflecting surface of the mirror
and an alteration in the length of the telescope itself.
Again, bright sunshine on the dome causes the build-
ing to become heaicd, and this in turn affects the
telescope and mirror and produces temperature errors.
It is chiefly the elimination or practically the almost
complete elimination of such temperature changes that
has allowed Prof. Ritchey to secure his admirable
photographs, and a brief account of the way he has
achieved success will be of interest. In the first place,
tests were carried on in the optical shop to determine
how large a daily variation of temperature was per-
missible without seriously affecting the figure of so
large and thick (194 cm. at edge, ly^ cm. at centre)
a mirror. By allowing the air temperature about the
mirror to rise and fall uniformlv for twelve hours

i

Fig. I. — The 6o-inch reflector mounting in dome.

respectively through 0° F. to 10° F., the most marked
effect on the mirror was a decided disturbance of the
figure on the outer zones of the surface for a distance
of 3'5 or 4 inches in from the edge, these zones be-
coming too high as the temperature rose, and reced-
ing and even becoming too low when the temperature
fell. The remaining zones were only slightly affected
and the change of focal length of the mirror was
small. It was finally decided that a daily variation
of the large mirror of 2° F. was the maximum varia-
tion that could be permitted without perceptible injury
to the sharpness of photographic star-images. When
it is mentioned that the daily variation of the tem-
perature in the unprotected dome in clear weather
in the latter half of June, 1909, at Mount Wilson
averaged 20° F., it will be gathered that the mirror
must have altered its figure very considerably. The
contraction of the steel skeleton tube was also very
noticeable, for the apparent change of focal length
found during the night frequently amounted to o"o4
inch.

December i, 1910]

NATURE

141

To maintain a nearly constant temperature, Prof,
Ritchev now encloses the greater part of the telescope
during' the daytime in a light, removable room or
chamber, with' insulating walls, which he calls the
•canopv." The walls of this consist of four thick-
nesses of fine woollen blankets quilted between covers
of white canvas, while the floor is of mats two inches
thick, made of cheap woven hair, sewed between
covers of heavv canvas. At the upper south portion
of the canopy' the head end of the skeleton tube
projects, and this opening is closed airtight by a
folding wooden cover lined with wool felt. In addi-
tion to these precautions the large mirror is protected
bv a short cast-iron tube, and by the airtight covers
^vhich protect its surface. Arrangements are made
for moving the canopy easily and entirely out of the
wav of the telescope when in use, and replacing it
when observing is completed. While the telescope
was protected in the above manner, a sun shield was
used to reduce the daily variation of the dome. This
consists of gores of heavy white canvas laced to a

Fig. 2. — The new photographic plate carrier on the 6o-inch reflector.

strong framework of steel pipe. T he canvas was
thus retained two feet from the steel covering ^of the
dome, due provision being made for the free "circula-
tion of the air beneath the canvas. In this way*the
daily variation in the dome was decreased to jo^. F.
in July, while the change in focus of the mirror was
reduced to o"02 inch.

By the combination of shield and canopy, the in-
side daily variation of temperature in the latter was
only 3'8° F. in August and September, and the
apparent alteration of focus reduced to 0*005 inch.
Prof. Ritchey proposes, in future, two improvements
when he still further hopes to reduce this daily ampli-
tude of variation, first to place in the canopy a small
refrigerating apparatus with a controlling thermostat,
and, second, to enclose the complete telescope in the
canopy.

With these refinements in controlling temperature
changes, he adopts the knife-edge method of focussing
the stellar imatjes, a most important consideration in
stellar or nebular photography. By this means he is
able to locate the focal plane to within 0001 inch.
AA'ith the help of his new olate-carrier, the focal plane

XO. 2144, VOL. 85]

and the plane of the film of the photographic plate
can with certainty be made to agree within 00003 inch
While making an exposure he has occasionall}- to re-
move the plate to check the position of the focal plane
of the mirror. Since the adoption of the canopy and
shield he has found that re-focussing about ever)' half-
hour in the early part of the night, and about every
three-quarters of an hour after 11 p.m., is sufficient
for accurate working.

The efficiency of the whole instrument is such that
Prof. Ritchey states : —

" .All of the uncertainties which usually occur in making
long exposures with very large instruments are eliminated.
A plate can be exposed night after night, if desired, with
the assurance that no error in focus greater than one or
two-thousandths of an inch can occur, and that no rotation
of field can take place without immediately being detected
and corrected. Both of these conditions are absolutely
necessary for the finest results with an instrument so

powerful and sensitive as the 60-inch On the best

of these negatives, with exposures of eleven hours, the
smallest star-images are 1-03 seconds in diameter."

To ensure the finest of final products. Prof. Ritchey
lastly abandons the use of rapid plates, which, as is
well known, are always associated with coarseness of
grain, and employs Seed "23" plates almost exclu-
sively. • ■

A close examination of the reproductions of some
of the nebulae which he publishes with his latest com-
munication indicates in a striking manner the wonder-
ful sharpness and richness in detail of his photographs.
It is interesting in this respect to compare Ritchey 's
photograph of the spiral nebula Messier 51 Canum
V'enaticorum, with that of Keeler, reproduced in
vol. viii. of the •" Publications, of the. Lick Observa-
tory " (plate 47), those of Isaac Roberts, in vojs. i. and
ii. of his " Photographs of Stars, Star Clusters, and
Nebulae " (plates 30 and 15 respectively), and, lastly,
that by Ritchey himself, taken with the 2-foot reflector
of the Yerkes Observatory, and published in vol. ii.
of the ■■ Publication of the Yerkes Observatory "
(plate 29).

Bearing in mind the differences in quality of the
reproductions to which references above are given, the;
superiority of Ritchey 's latest achievement is well
marked.

In a more recent announcement (Monthl\ Notices,
R.A.S., vol. Ixx., Supplementary Number, No. 9), and'
dated September 17, Prof. Ritchey directs attention to
verv important conclusions which he is able to arrive
at -from his recent photographs. These are that the'
spiral nebulae are not only distinguished by ^many^
sharply-marked characteristics from all other classes
of nebulae, but that the spirals themselves exhibit
marked differences from each other in regard to the
distribution of the nebulous stars, differences which,
as he states, possibly correspond to successive stages
of development.

It is in the presence of such photographs as these,_
and more especially those where the nebulae are of a,
spiral nature, that one's attention is directed to the
question of the origin of stars themselves.

" All self-luminous bodies," as Sir Norman Lockyer
states in the first of his General Conclusions at the end
of his work 'The Meteoritic Hypothesis,' "in the
celestial spaces are composed either of swarms of
meteorites or of masses of meteoritic vapour produced by
heat. The heat is brought about by the condensation of
meteor swarms due to gravity, the vapour being finally
condensed into a solid globe."

Such a photograph as that of Messier 51 seems to
represent the above words in picture form. Prof.
Ritchev, in commenting on these spirals, which he
has most recently photographed, says, that they all
" contain great numbers of soft star-like condensations
which I shall call nebulous stars. They are possibly stars

142

NATURE

[December i, 1910

in process of formation. In general they lie in streams
which follow the curvature of the convolutions. Together
with the smooth nebulous material in which they are
apparently floating, and out of which they are apparently
forming, they constitute the convolutions."

While a detailed study of individual nebulae endorses
the meieoritic hypothesis regarding the formation of
stars, the hypothesis itself requires the presence of a
considerable quantity of self-luminous or non-luminous
matter scattered throughout space. The recent ad-
vances in the photography of nebulae have, however,
very considerably altered the. g^enerally conceived
notions regarding the amount'6f nebulous matter dis-
tributed in the heavens. After Keeler turned his
attention towards photographing nebulae, he soon
found that he was able considerably to increase the
number of known nebulae with the aid of the Crosslej
reflector. In this research he reached
two important conclusions : —

(i) " Many thousands of unrecorded
nebulae exist in the sky. A conservative
estimate places the number within reach of
the Crossley reflector at about 120,000.
The number of nebulae in our catalogues is
but a small fraction of this!" (2) " Most
of these nebulae have a spiral structure."

In the preface to the volume contain-
ing Keeler 's photographs it is stated :—

" The number already discovered and
catalogued did not exceed 13,000. Later
observations with the Crossley reflector, with
longer exposure-times and more sensitive
plates, render it probable that the number
of nebulae discoverable with this powerful
instrument is of the order of half a
million."

While the above estimate relates to the
capacity of the Crossley reflector, what
number of additional nebulae should be
added when the very much greater
efTficiency and aperture of the Mount
Wilson Observatory's reflector is taken
into account? Prof. Ritchey, as has
been shown above, has demonstrated the
far-reaching capacity of this instrument
and its enormously improved efficiency
for ne'Bular photography. Further, when
the loo-inch reflector of the same
observatory is brought into use, what
will then be the approximate number of
known nebulae?

Again, while all these instruments can
onlv record the existence of self-
luniinous matter in space, what estimate
should be made for the number of re-
gions in the sky in which matter which
is not luminous is present? The only
conclusion that can at present be drawn
IS that amount of matter distributed in
space is really enormous compared to
that which is generally conceded to be
the case. If, as very probably is the
case, this non-luminous matter is as fre-
quently distributed as that w-hich is
luminous, then any hypothesis to explain
inorganic evolution must be founded on
a meteoritic basis.

The work of modern large reflecting telescopes in
adding to our knowledge of the probable amount of
nebulous matter in space is of verv great importance,
and the magnificent success of Prof. Ritchey in his
latest achievement forms another opportunity for the
hearty congratulations of all astronomers to be ex-

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

tended to him. Prof. Ritchey is to be envied, not only
for working in a country where astronomy in all its
branches is so well fostered, but for being one of tiie
members of the staff of the Solar Observatory on
Mount Wilson, an observatory which is so magnifi-
cently endowed. On that mountain, when it is.
decided that a spectroheliograph, which we in this
country would consider of very large dimensions^
would be capable of accomplishing better research,
if another of double its size were instituted, then
promptly the necessary funds are forthcoming, and
the instrument is taken in hand, built, and brought
into use. Again, no sooner is a 60-inch mirror found'
to be a very great advance in celestial photograph}'
than one of 100 inches in diameter is immediately pro-
jected, and all necessary arrangements for its com-
pletion and erection are made. With such facilities

Y\G. 3. — Spiral Nebula Messier 51 Canum Venaticorum. Photographed with the 60-inch
reflertor and the new plate carrier. Exposure 3h. 55m., February 7 and 8, 1910. Notice
the roundness of the star images.

for research, so incentive to those who are employed
in the investigations, no wonder that work of the
highest quality and importance can be turned out;
for this reason this country, like many others, is being
left far behind.

William J. S. Lockver.

December i, 1910]

NATURE

M3

ANKIYERSARY MEETING OF THE ROYAL
SOCIETY.

THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Society was
held as usual on St. Andrew's Day, November
30, when the report of the council was presented, and
the president, Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., delivered
an address. Most of the matters mentioned in the
council's report have been referred to already in the
columns of Nature, and others are of domestic, rather
than of general scientific, interest. The council has
decided "'that the surplus annual income of the Dar-
win Fund, after providing for the silver medal and
money gift prescribed by existing regulations, be
devoted, not to the provision of scholarships or
medals, but to the furtherance of biological research
in the Darwinian field."

Upon the recommendation of the president and
council of the society, the Government has agreed to
continue its subscription to the International Associa-
tion of Seismology for six years more, up to the end
of March. 1916. In alluding to this decision in his
address, the president took the opportunity to refer
to Dr. John Milne's extensive work in modern
observational seismologv. •"The valuable service
which he has thus rendered to the study of earth-
quakes has been universally recognised, and there is
a widespread conviction' that the system of observing
stations which he has created is worthy of being made
a national undertaking."

It is proposed to publish a collected editic»i of the
works of Sir William Herschel, under the editorial
supervision of Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer. The cost will be
shared with the Royal Astronomical Society.

A number of facts of importance relating to sleeping
sickness in Uganda have been described by Sir David
Briice and his- colleagues in papers presented to the
societv. The council reports as follows: —

. Research on Tropical Diseases.

The work of the commission in Uganda has confirmed
the conclusions, mentioned in the council's report of last
year, that the Glossina palpalis is capable of conveying
the infection of sleeping sickness for a much longer period-
than was' thought to be the case at first, and- that this
tly "may act as a carrier Of other trypanbsome diseases,
such as those animal diseases that are produced by
Trypanosoma dimorphon, T. viva x,- and T. naiium'.

One of the most important results of the last 3'ear's
work of the commission is the discovery that the flies of
the lake shore are still capable of transmitting the infec-
tion of sleejping sickness, although two years have now
elapsed since the population was removed.' The' cause of
this has not yet been ascertained with certainty, but
further work is being done to determine, if possible,
whether there is an animal reservoir- for the T. gambiense,
and especially whether cattle and antelope harbour the
parasite of the disease, as laboratory experiments made
at -Mpumu suggest. This is a question of great import-
ance with regard to the means to be adopted to control
the malady.' •' " ' ' • ■ > '■

The commission has not only done a great deal of work
on sleeping sickness, but a number of researches on other
maladies, human and animal, have also been carried out.
Thus a disease affecting the natives in the- province of
Ankole, and known as " muhinyo, " was investigated by
Sir David Bruce and his colleagues, and the very interest-
ing discovery was made that this malady was reallv Malta
fever, and affected both men and goats in Central Africa.

In his presidential address. Sir Archibald Geikie
Referred to the losses by death sustained by the societv
during the year. These include the patron. King
Edward VII. ; foreign members: Alexander .Agassiz,
Stariislao Cannizzaro, Giovanni SchiaparelH, Robert
Koch, Friedrich Wilhelm Kohlrausch, and Melchior

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

Treub; and fellows. Sir William Huggins, Dr. Lud-
wig Mond, Dr. Shelford Bidwell, Sir Robert Giffen,
Rev. Robert Harley, Mr. J. B. N. Hennessey, Mr.
Edward Saunders, Sir Charles Todd, and Mr. C.
Greville Williams.

The work of the medallists for this year was
described by the president in the following words : —

Copley Medal.

The award of the Copley medal has this year been
made to one of our own countrymen, who has been more
than fifty years a Fellow of the Royal Society. Sir
Francis Galton's life has been one of ceaseless activity in
many varied departments of intellectual effort. Few of
us can remember how he began as an enthusiastic explorer
and geographer, " urged," as he confessed, " by an
excessive fondness for a wild life," and with " the love of
adventure " as his chief motive. He chose south-western
.Africa as the theatre of his exploration, penetrated into
regions where no European foot had preceded him, and
brought back with him a vivid impression of the scenery,
physical geography, natural history, and ethnol(^y of
Damaraland and South Ovampoland. He embodied his
observations in an interesting volume of travel published
in 1853. That work showed that he was no mere hunter
after game or seeker of adventure, but a shrewd and
observant traveller, with his eyes open to every distinctive
natural feature in the countries and their inhabitants. His
experience in these African journeys led him to plan and
to publish in 1854 his well-known and admirable hand-
book, " The Art of Travel," which, as a pioneering
treatise in the practical methods of scientific exploration,
has proved of inestimable service to the travellers of the
last half-centur}\

Sir Fraiicis at an early period of his career was led
to interest himself in meteorology, which, as a science of
observation, was then in its earliest infancy. With much
labour and skill he constructed weather charts, and dis-
cussed meteorological statistics. His zeal and success in
these, studies! led to his being chosen a member of the
Meteorological Council at its origin, and he remained in
that position until the council was superseded in 1901 by
the Sleteorological Office. He likewise acted as chair-
man of the Royal Society's Committee of Management of
Kew ■ Observatory from 1888 until 1900, when the work
of this committee became merged in that of the National
Physical . Laboratory.

But it was not only in geography and meteorology that
Sfr Francis Galton manifested his versatile energies. He
was much interested likewise in biological studies, especi-
! ally in regard to questions of relationship and heredity.
So far back as 1871 he began what has proved to be a^
voluminous and important series of contributions to these-
subjects. . From his first paper, "Experiments in Pan>-
genesis," down to his last volume on " Eugenics," his
successive papers have shown a continuous development
of . ideas and conclusions. He was led from his earfy
: ethnological ' inquiries into the mental peculiarities of.
different races to discuss the problems of heredity genius
from the' fundamental postulate that "a man's natural"
abilities are derived by inheritance under exactly the same
limitations as are the form and physical features of the
I whole organic world." To obtain further data for the
discussion of this subject he carried out the elaborate
statistical inquiries embodied in his "English Men of
Science." Confident in the results of these researches, he-
proceeded after the manner of " the surveyor of a new
country who endeavours to fix, in the first instance, as
truly as he can. the position of several cardinal points."
His results in this quest were given in his " Inquiries
into Human Faculty and its Development," published in
1883. A further contribution was made by him in 1889,
when his work on " Natural Inheritance " appeared. His
subsequent papers and essays on " Eugenics " have still
further stimulated inquiry into a subject of such deep
interest and transcendant importance in all efforts to
improve the physical and mental condition of the human-
race. It has seemed to the council fitting that a man-
who has devoted his life with unwearied enthusiasm to*

144

NATURE

[December i, 1910

the study and improvement of many departments of
natural knowledge, whose career has been distinguished
by the singleness and breadth of its aims and by the
generosity with which he has sought to further them,
should receive from the Royal Society its highest award
in the Copley medal.

RuMFORD Medal.

The Rumford medal has been awarded to Prof. Hein-
rich Rubens, in recognition of the value of his researches
in radiation. For many years he has been engaged in the
experimental investigation of optical radiations of very
long wave-length. In the course of this work he
elaborated, in conjunction with Prof. E. F. Nichols, a
method of isolating pencils of nearly homogeneous rays,
using the fact that a non-metallic substance reflects very
copiously waves of the same length as those to which it
is opaque. If, then, a pencil of rays of mixed wave-
lengths is reflected several times to and fro between
mirrors of the same kind of substance, the rays finally
emerging (the " Ri'ststrahlen ") have the wave-lengths of
the kinds of light which the substance refuses to transmit.
The light of other wave-lengths has been transmitted
freely at each incidence, and by a sufficient number of
reflections is ultimately removed from the pencil. By
using different substances as reflectors. Prof. Rubens has
isolated infra-red light of various wave-lengths up to as
much as 96 fi, or about o-i of a millimetre; while, on
the other hand, purely electric waves have been produced
of wave-lengths as small as 2 millimetres. He has thus
enormously extended our knowledge of the infra-red spec-
trum. Moreover, in conjunction with colleagues, he has
investigated the .absorbing and reflecting powers of sub-
stances for these long wave-length rays. He has shown
that, for radiation of wave-length even fewer than ten
times the wave-lengths" in' the visible spectrum, the reflect-
ing and absorbing powers of metals and alloys are deter-
mined by their electric conductivities alone, in accordance
with Maxwell's theory. It followed from Maxwell's own
observations on the absorption of gold-leaf for visible light
that agencies more complex than conductivity must be
involved for these shorter wave-lengths.

Prof. Rubens has recenth' applied to the measurement
of the long infra-red wave-lengths a quartz interferometer,
and among other results he has found that the refractive
index of water, for waves of length about 82 fi, is of the
same order as for waves in the visible spectrum, while
for the shortest Hertzian waves yet examined, about
2000 fi, it is as high as 9.

These examples will serve to illustrate how much Prof.
Rubens has already done to bridge the gap between optical
radiations and electric waves produced by direct electric
agency, and how much more is to be expected from him
in the investigation of the interval still remaining in which
such fundamental changes of properties take place.

Royal Medals.

The awards of the two Royal medals given annually by
our Patron the King have received his Majesty's approval.

One of these medals has been assigned to Prof. Frederick
Orpen Bower, in recognition of the great merit of his
contributions to morphological botany, of which depart-
ment of science he is the acknowledged leader in Great
Britain. Prof. Bower's early studies in this field (1880-2),
on the genera Welwitschia and Gnetum, were marked by
the discovery of the true nature of the two persistent
leaves in Welwitschia. The next period of his work was
given to a study of the morphology of the leaf. He
developed in 1884 the idea of the phyllopodium or leaf-
axis, and discussed in 1885 the apex of the leaf in
Osmunda and Todea. This latter study was cognate to
subsequent researches, the results of which were given in
1886 in a review of " Apospory and Allied Phenomena."
This work, of much intrinsic interest, is important as
having led its author to formulate the views advanced in
1890 in a memoir on " Antithetic as distinguished from
Homologous Alternation [of Generation] in Plants."
Another memoir, published in 1889, on " The Comparative
Exarnination of the Meristems of Ferns as a Ph^'logenetic
Study," prepared in the light of the then received 1>elief

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

that the leptosporangiate ferns are the more primitive, was
followed in 1891 by a discussion of this question, in which
Prof. Bower advanced morphological reasons for reversing
the hitherto accepted phylogenetic order. The new con-
clusion has proved to be in accord with pala;obotanical
results, and marked another distinct step in the advance-
ment of botanical science. During the third period of his
work, 1892-1903, Prof. Bower's papers, including an
important series on the spore-producing members, have
resourcefully maintained the antithetic doctrine, and have
afforded a striking instance of the advantage of a well-
considered working hypothesis as a guide to investiga-
tion. The career of morphological research here outlined
has been recently crowned by the publication (1908) of a
book on " The Origin of a Land Flora," which is one
of the " most important contributions to the advancement
of natural knowledge, published originally in his Majesty's
dominions," within the period prescribed in respect of the
award of Royal medals.

The other Royal medal has been adjudged to Prof.
John Joly, who is eminent in two branches of science,
geology and physics. This combination of studies has
proved to be reciprocally fruitful to both departments. It
was from his mineralogical interests that he was led to
devise the steam calorimeter, which has enriched physics
with an apparatus of high refinement. The use of this
method was extended by him to the direct determination
of the specific heats of gases at constant volume, a
measurement dealing with minute quantities of heat in
circumstances quite bej^ond the capabilities of the usual
forms of calorimeter. Among many contributions to
standard physical data, which are accepted and in use,
may be instanced his determination of the density of
saturation of steam. His meldometer, primarily intended
for determining the melting points of mineralogical and
geological specimens, has been the means of providing data
for use in thermometry. He has devised and applied a
method of determining the change of volume of rocks and
other substances on fusion, which is a datum of primary
importance for cosmical theories. He has carried out a
refined research, with negative results, on the possibility
of minute change of mass (as distinguished from weight)
accompanying 'chemical combination. His recent extended
investigations of the occurrence of radio-active substances
in materials from various strata have been utilised for'
fundamental geological discussions. Of other useful inven-
tions which he has introduced, one of the best known is
the translucent block photometer.

Prof. Joly has made important contributions to the
subject of colour photography, and devised some years ago
a three-colour system in which all three colours are present
on the same plate in the form of fine parallel Hnes or
small dots.

He has also contributed substantially to the theory of
biological processes, such as the ascent of sap in vegeta-
tion. Reference may likewise be made to his suggestive
memoir on the age of the earth, based upon a discussion
of the chemical constitution of the ocean.

Davy Medal.

The Davy medal has been assigned this year to Prof.
Theodore W. Richards, as a mark of appreciation of the
value of his work in the determination of the atomic
weights of the elements. His researches on this subject
have not been surpassed in comprehensiveness by those of
any other chemist. He has himself determined the atomic
weights of no fewer than fourteen elements, and many
other atomic weight determinations have been made under
his direction and superintendence. The accuracy of the
numbers obtained is certainly much higher than that which
has been attained by any previous series of researches, and
it is impossible to speak in too high terms of the ingenuity,
the unremitting labour, and the masterly manipulation
which Prof. Richards has brought to bear on his investi-
gations.

In addition to this work on atomic weights. Prof.
Richards has made many important contributions to
phvsical chemistry, and it is probably no exaggeration to '
say that he has done more to raise the standard ^ of
accuracy in physico-chemical work than any other living

December i, 1910]

NATURE

145

lemist. Theoretical contributions to this branch of
>rience are comprised in a series of papers on " The
Possible Significance of Changing Atomic Volume," in
which he suggests a relation between the energy of the
atoms and their compressibilities. In order to test his
hypothesis, he has made a long series of investigations on
the compressibility of elements and compounds. He has
determined this constant for nearly all the solid and liquid
' ments, and he has shown that the compressibility is a
. riodic function of the atomic weights. In electro-
chemistry Prof. Richards has made important determina-
tions of the electro-chemical equivalent of silver, and he
has supplied some of the most rigorous proofs of the
universality of Faraday's law.

Darwin Med.al.

To Mr. Roland Trimen, who was for many years
rator of the South .African Museum in Cape Town, the
I irwin medal has been awarded. His official position,
.d the duties it involved, enabled him to do admirable
irk in African zoolog\\ His name will always stand
with those of Bates and Wallace in the establishment and
illustration of the theory of mimicry. In addition to his
researches on that subject, he has done admirable
^tematic work, his descriptions of insects, especially the
■pidoptera rhopalocera, being models of accuracy and
•;-rary style. He, furthermore, rendered the . greatest
distance to Charles Darwin, especially in his work on
orchids — assistance the high value of which is acknow-
ledged in a long series of that great naturalist's published
letters.

Sylvester Med.al.

The medal which perpetuates the name and mathe-
matical prowess of James Joseph Sylvester has this year
been assigned to Dr. Henry Frederick Baker, in recogni-
•in of his work in the theory of functions, wherein he
IS shown himself to be a profound analyst. His book
on the Abelian functions, published in 1897, is a classic,
and probably no better guide to the analytical develop-
ment of pure mathematics has appeared during the last
three-quarters of ^ century. While basing the argument
of the work on the methods of Riemann, he never loses
sight of the arithmetical ideas which w'e owe to Kronecker,
Dedekind, and Weber, or of the geometrical notions
l)rought to light by the labours of Clebsch, Gordan,
Noether, and Klein. The critical insight which was thus
In evidence marked him out a few years ago as the editor
of " Sylvester's Collected Papers." This work, which,
with the approaching issue of the fourth and last volume,
may be said to be complete, has been necessarily a difficult
task, which, besides making demands upon the resources
of an accomplished mathematician, has entailed no little
editorial labour. Dr. Baker, by explanatory and critical
'^^>servations, and by frequent ameliorations of the text,
iS done much to assist mathematical students. His
holariy work has resulted in a faithful record of the
urse of Sylvester's thought. It seems eminently fitting
at the Sylvester medal should be given to one who has
^cted so lasting a memorial to the great mathematician.

Hughes Medal.

To Prof. John Ambrose Fleming the Hughes medal has

'^^en awarded. For thirty years he has been actively

igaged in researches in experimental physics, chiefly in

•; technical applications of electricity. He was an early

vestigator of the properties of the glow lamp, and

ucidated the unilateral conductivity presented in its

partial vacuum between glowing carbon and adjacent

metal, a phenomenon which has been linked up recentiv

^vith the important subject of the specific discharges of

-ctrons by different materials. He has published in the

ientific and technical Press, and in technical text-books,

any admirable experimental investigations and valuable

xpositions in the applications of electricity, as, for

ample, to electric transformers and wireless telegraphy.

': special interest and value for theory were the important

^ults concerning the alterations in the physical proper-

s of matter, such as the remarkable increase in the

ctric conductivity of metals when subjected to very low

mperatures, which flowed from his earlv collaboration

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

with Sir James Dewar in investigating this domain. In
recent years he has taken a prominent part in the scientific
development of telegraphy by free electric waves.

In the evening the fellows and their guests dined
together at the Whitehall Rooms, Hotel Metropole.

ENTERIC FEVER CARRIERS.'

'X' HE frequent difficulty in accounting for the source
■•• of iniection of enteric fever once led to the
theory that this disease could arise de novo, that is to
say, that certain organisms in human dejecta were
capable of developing, in favourable circumstances,
into enteric fever organisms. It has also been main-
tained more recently that the specific organism of
this disease was capable of living and multiplying in
water and soil, for considerable periods. But the bac-
teriological work of the past few years has discredited
both these hypotheses; and the "carrier" case of
enteric fever or the mild, unrecognised case of infec-
tion generally, explain the transmission of the disease
in those cases in which the disease crops up in the
absence of any recognised sufferer from the disease.

A "carrier" of enteric fever is" a person who,"
although he may be in good health, carries the in-
fectious material in his body, from which it may pass
out. He is not merely a passive transmitter of infec-
tion ; he is also a breeding-ground and storehouse of
these specific organisms ; and it appears that not only
those sick with the fever, but also healthy persons
who happen to be "carriers" of the infection, offer
the best explanation for the maintenance of the in-
fection in communities.

The subject has naturally attracted much attention
and led to many investigations, the results of which
are to be found in numerous recent publications,' and
Dr. Ledingham has done a great service in preparing
for publication a summan.- of the more important
investigations that have hitherto been made of this
subject. He gives the history of a large number of
occurrences of enteric fever in domestic life, in insti-
tutions, and in militar\- populations, in which the
source of infection has been traced more or less con-
vincingly to a "carrier." In many of these cases the
evidence is conclusive that the infection was conveyed
by food or milk. The recorded instances go to prove
that the female sex is more liable to carry the infec-
tion than the male, and that of both sexes some 2 to 4
per cent, of previous sufferers may continue to harbour
the germ, and become "carriers," who intermittently
discharge the germ, for periods extending maybe for
many years.

As Dr. Theodore Thomson, who writes an intro-
duction to this report, states, the difficult\- of dealing
with "carriers" is ver\- great indeed, having regard
more particularly to the long periods durinof which
people may harbour the infection and to the fact that
it has hitherto proved ven,- difficult to free them from
the infection. The chief available measures include :
all possible efforts to detect "carriers" in the com-
munit\% and to endeavour to secure on the part of a
" carrier " those precautions of strict personal cleanli-
ness and of disposal of dejecta that will minimise the
risk of infecting others ; an endeavour must also be
made to prevent such "carriers" from taking anv
part in the milk trade or in the preparation or hand-
ling of food.

In this interesting report. Dr. Ledingham also dis-
cusses the diagnostic methods employed in the search
for "carriers" and the immunitv question in "car-
riers." .\ useful bibliography is appended.

1 Dr. J. C. G. Ledingham's Rexwrt to the Local Government Board on
the Enteric Fever "Carrier" ; being a Review of current knowledge on this
subject. Pp. 138. (London : Wyman and Sons, igio.) Price is.

146

NATURE

[December i, 1910

NOTES.
Lord Avebury has been elected a corresponding member
for the section of anatomy and zoology of the Paris
Academy of Sciences.

We regret to see the announcement of the death, on
November 24, at sixty-four years of age, of Prof. Angelo
Mosso, professor of physiology in the University of Turin.

We learn from the Revue scientifique that the new
astronomical observatory in the gardens of the Vatican
was opened on November 17.

The Terra Nova, with the members of Captain Scott's
Antarctic expedition on board, left Port Chalmers on
November 29 on her way south.

Prof. R. A. Sampson, F.R.S., professor of mathematics
and astronomy in the University of Durham, has been
appointed Astronomer Royal for Scotland and professor of
practical astronomy in the University of Edinburgh, in
succession to Mr. F. W. Dyson, F.R.S.

On account of the General Election, the annual dinner
of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (originally fixed
for December 6) has been postponed to Thursday,
February 2, 1911.

The French Society of Biology has, sajs the Revue
scientifique, awarded the Godard prize to Mile. Anna
Drzewina. The prize is awarded every other year for the
best biological work.

The Emperor Francis Joseph has conferred the Austrian
great gold medal of science and literature upon Mr. E.
Torday, the leader of the scientific expedition sent out by
the British Museum to study the native tribes in the
Kasai basin of the Congo.

The Scientific American announces that Prof. Frank H.
Bigelow, who recently resigned from the United States
Weather Bureau, has joined the staff of the Argentine
Meteorological Office.

We learn from the Times that, owing to ill-health, Mr.
Goodfellow, the leader of the British expedition to Dutch
New Guinea, has been compelled to return home, and that
the committee of the British Ornithologists' Union has
appointed in his place Captain C. G. Rawling, who repre-
sents the Ro\al Geographical Society on the expedition.

The death is announced, at fifty-three years of age, of
Mr. F. Howard Collins, the author of " An Epitome of
the Synthetic Philosophy of Herbert Spencer " and
' Author and Printer : • a Guide to Authors, Editors,
Printers, Correctors of the Press, Compositors, and
Typists." Mr. Collins was awarded a medal at the
Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 for his " Simplified
Mariner's Compass Card."

Dr. Henry Wurtz died recently at Brooklyn in his
eighty-third year. At the beginning of the Civil War he
was chemical examiner in the U.S. Patent Office, as well
as professor of chemistry in the National Medical College
at Washington. He was the author of numerous scientific
treatises, and for some time editor of the New York
Gas Light Journal. The mineral wurtzilite was named
after him, and he was also the discoverer of the minerals
huntilite and animikite.

A recent issue of Science gives. an interesting account
of the development of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical
Research. The establishment of the institute is the
culmination of a series of gifts, each one based on a

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

demonstration of actual needs and on evidence of a wise
use of previously available funds. The initial gift was
made in 190 1, when 40,000/. was provided to be used in
a limited number of years in the form of grants to sup-
port research. In 1902 a donation of 200,000/. was re-
ceived to cover the erection of a laboratory and the cost
of current expenses for a few years. When the plans
were being prepared for the future organisation of the
institute, the necessity for having a hospital under the
control of the institute was felt very much. Mr. Rocke-
feller decided to erect a hospital, and provided a further
124,000/. for the purpose. In 1907, while the plans of
the hospital were being prepared, Mr. Rockefeller gave
520,000/. to be used solely for the endowment of the
institute. This year the trustees of the institute assumed
possession of 764,000/., the generous patron's latest gift.
Up to the present time the work of the institute has been
confined to laboratory studies of physiological and
chemical aspects of diseases and to surgical and other
problems that could be studied on animals. The need
for the direct study of diseases under conditions that
would permit accurate observations with the aid of com-
prehensive equipment led to the foundation of the hospital.
Instead of being compelled to treat almost every kind
of disease, as in a general hospital, the physicians will
concentrate on a few ailments. The hospital will have
physiological, chemical and biological laboratories to sup-
plement those in the institute. The laboratories of the
hospital will be devoted to investigations bearing on the
diseases under treatment, while the laboratories of the
institute will continue their investigations as conducted at
present.

At the last meeting of the Cotteswold Field Club Mr.
L. Richardson pointed out that the so-called " stone
circle " on Shurdington Hill, near Cheltenham, was really
of natural origin. A slipping forward of the Upper Lias
Clay was accompanied by undermining of the basal
Inferior Oolite limestone, .and some blocks rolling down
the slope had assumed the appearance of a stone circle,
which is so recorded in the Ordnance Survey. The site-
being under the cold shadow of a northward-facing cliff is
not the position likely to have been selected for an inter-
ment.

.An interesting part of the work of the Brooklyn Insti-
tute of Arts and Sciences is the arrangement of a special
museum and library for the use of children, of which an
account is given in the report for 1909. The institution
contains rooms devoted to exhibits of historical interest,
geography, birds, insects, and similar objects. The library
is • provided with special literature on these subjects suit-
able to the needs of its students, and interest in the study
of nature is excited by the issue of picture bulletins and
the exhibit throughout the year of specimens of trees in
bud, flowers, and fruits. The museum is said to b'
widely used by children in elementary schools, and it
offers facilities for training of teachers, who are thu-
enabled to collect materials for study by their pupils.
The practical system thus organised deserves the attention
of school authorities in this country.

Captain A. J. N. Tremearne is busily engaged in un-
loading the stores of ethnological material which he has
brought from Hausaland. He contributes to a recent
number of the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts a series
of folk-tales dealing with the relations of Hausa parents
and children, which from these specimens seem to be far
from satisfactory, these tales being devoted to the themes of
unnatural parents and disobedient children. One is some-.

December i, 1910]

NATURE

147

what of the Sampson-Delilah type, in which a strong man
loses his power through love of a woman. She, however,
atones for this by allowing herself to be buried with his
corpse, by which means she and her lover revive, and the
grave becomes an iron house in which they live happily
ever after.

So much discussion has arisen on the subject of eoliths
that it is refreshing to find the case reviewed with good
sense, knowledge of the conditions under which natural
cleavage of flint may simulate the work of primitive man,
and the provision of such a complete series of illustra-
tions in the paper contributed to vol. xxi. of U Anihro-
pologie by L'Abbe H. Breuil, entitled " Sur la presence
d'telithes a la base de 1 'Eocene Parisien." We can only
direct attention to this admirable essay, a study of which
may be commended to certain enthusiasts on this side of
the Channel. The same remarks apply to another con-
tribution to the same magazine by M. G. H. Luquet,
entitled " Sur les caract^res des figures humaines dans
I'art paleolithique," where the styles of this primitive art
are illustrated by numerous well-selected sketches. The
author is, on the whole, inclined to question the theory
that a magical intention underlies the treatment of the
sexual characteristics which are so prominent in the cave
drawings.

Dr. Friederici, in describing the distribution of the
sling in America (Globus, xcviii., p. 287), finds that it
I occurs practically everywhere if stones can be found. He
I seems to have misrepresented Peschel, who does not state
(at all events in the English edition) that " slings cannot
j be used in tropical virgin forest," but that they " could
not be used in the forest country of the Amazon," because,
as he had previously stated, " no shingle is to be found."
Slings could only be employed on the narrow paths, in
clearings, or by rivers, but in such a country the bow is
better than the sling ; the spear-thrower is impracticable,
as it requires so much elbow-room. He comes to the
fairly obvious conclusion that the sling has been independ-
ently invented in various parts of the world.

In the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for
November (xxi.. No. 236) Dr. Harvey Cushing surveys
the present status of neurological surgery, and shows how
much has been accomplished during the last few years.
Incidentally, Dr. Cushing deals with the value of ex-
perimentation on the lower animals. He says : — " There
j is no question but that a training for neurological surgery
must come through laboratory experiences, and just as we
I are indebted to experimentation on the lower animals for
j almost every fact of importance which has made for the
j advance of this particular department, so also must we
I call upon them for the mere practice of hand essential to

i success in their clinical applications. Those who oppose
the employmgnt of animals for such purposes would leave
us the only alternative of subjecting our fellow-man, as a
, lesser creature, to our first crude manipulations."

Ever since it was first discovered that sleeping sick-

, ness in Uganda was disseminated by the dusky tsetse-flv,

I Glossina palpalis, it has been a moot point whether or

i not other species of tsetse-flies are capable of transmitting

')^Try^anosoma gambiense. The question is one of the

I greatest practical importance, since upon the answer it

I depends whether sleeping sickness is confined necessarily

to those regions where G. palpalis is found, or whether

It may spread over a vastly wider extent of the -African

icontinent into regions in which other species of tsetses

joccur. Prof. Kleine in German East Africa carried out

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

some experiments with G. morsitans which led him to
the conclusion that T. gambiense was unable to go through
its development in, or be transmitted by, this species of
tsetse (vide Sleeping Sickness Bureau Bulletin, No. 11,
Appendix, and No. 18, p. 197). Recently, however, several
cases of sleeping sickness have been reported from north-
eastern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, from regions far south
of the most southerly point at which G. palpalis is known
to occur. It is believed that in these cases the trans-
mitting agent is G. morsitans, and, if so, it is an extremely
serious matter. It is to be hoped that the question will
be thoroughly investigated without delay.

The seventy-fourth Bulletin of the United States
National Museum consists of an account of some West
Indian Echinoids, by Mr. Theodor Mortensen, of the
Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen. The
memoir is a short one, extending only to thirty-one pages,
but it contains a revised list of North American, Atlantic,
and West Indian Echinoids, amounting to eighty-two
species, which should be of great value to the systematist.
The work is illustrated by seventeen plates of remarkable
beauty.

As we learn from a recently published guide-book, by
the curator, the exhibited series of British birds in the
Hull Municipal Museum is of unusual extent and interest.
It includes, for instance, a large collection made by the
late Sir Henry Boynton, a second formed by the late Mr.
H. J. R. Pease, and a third known as the Riley-Fortune
collection. Two at least of these collections were found
to supplement one another, and all three are rich in York-
shire specimens. The guide is illustrated by reproductions
from photographs of some of the groups.

Bird-marking is being carried on as energeticallv in the
United States as in Europe, and, according to an article
by Mr. L. J. Cole in the .4ufe for April, with equally
satisfactory results. Open aluminium bands are now
employed in place of closed rings, but these, owing to
their hardness, are not altogether suitable for the purpose.
Up to December i, 1909, there were recovered 911 banded
birds. Special interest attaches to a number of night-
herons banded at Barnstable, Mass., of which a consider-
able proportion was recovered. After leaving the heronries
these birds scattered in a northerly direction, this direc-
tion being largely due to the circumstance that there is no
land to the south. The movement indicates, however, a
tendency on the part of all young birds to disperse from
the neighbourhood of the nests in which they were reared,
owing to food-supplies having been rendered scarce.

The question whether bees are capable of distinguishing
different colours has been much discussed, one observer
maintaining that the varied hue of Alpine flowers is for
the purpose of enabling bees to remain constant to a
particular species of plant, so that pollination is effected
to the mutual advantage of the bees and the flowers. On
the other hand it has been argued that flowers might be
as green as leaves without any hindrance to pollination by
insects. To test the question, Mr. J. H. Lovell conducted
a series of experiments with glass slides of different colours,
rendered attractive by patches of honey, to see which par-
ticular kind bees would visit, a blue slide being, for
instance, offered first, then a red one placed alongside,
and, finally, the positions of the two exchanged. As the
result of these experiments the observer states, at the con-
clusion of a paper in the November number of the
American Naturalist, that " bees easily distinguish colours,
whether they are artificial (paints, dyes, &c.) or natural
(' chlorophyl ') colours. They are more strongly in-

148

NATURE

[December i, 1910

■fluenced b}' a coloured slide than by one without colour.

Bees which have been accustomed to visit a certain colour
tend to return to it habitually — they exhibit colour-fidelity.

But this habit does not become obsessional, since they
•quickly learn not to discriminate between colours when
this is for their advantage."

In his report on marine biology, included in the adminis-
tration reports of Ceylon for 1909, Dr. A. Willey states
that hopes have been entertained of rendering the southern
division of the Mannar pearl-oyster fishery — more especi-
ally the so-called " Chilaw paars," which were the head-
quarters of the industry during the sixteenth century —
once more productive. The results of recent observation
tend to confirm Prof. Herdman's suggestion that most of
the Mannar oysters are not bred in situ, but are carried
by currents from the coasts of southern India — a con-
clusion which is of the most far-reaching importance in
regard to the future of the pearl-fisheries. " Many years
may elapse before anything like complete knowledge can
"be acquired concerning the physiology of the pearl banks.
The great question which compels attention at the present
juncture is that of the forced production and preservation
of pearl oysters as against their natural propagation when
left to themselves. It is felt that something must be
<ione, and, from the rather misleading analogy of the
edible oysters, that something can be done. And this
■conviction is fortified by the fact that something is being
done with the same species in Japan, although it is prob-
ably a distinct local race adapted to a different environ-
ment. It still remains to be seen whether interference
■with the natural sequence of events will prove useful or
profitable under the very special conditions that prevail in
the Gulf of Mannar. It is only within the last few years
that any attempt has been made to fathom the mystery
by the accumulation of facts."

The question of utilising wind power in country districts
is so imfKDrtant that special interest attaches to the collec-
tion of statistics showing the frequency of winds of given
velocities. In the Agricultural Journal of the Cape of
Good Hope (No. 3) Dr. Sutton gives such a table for East
London, and compares it with a similar table previously
■drawn up for Kimberley. It appears that at East London
the wind is commonly too strong for the ordinary type of
windmill ; there is a vast amount of energy in the winds
■of the south-east coast of South Africa awaiting exploita-
tion, but the mechanical difficulties appear to be great.

A NUMBER of determinations of the amount of arsenic
present in soil, plants,, fruits, and animals are recorded
in a paper by Dr. Headden in the Proceedings of the
Colorado Scientific Society, vol. ix. In the virgin soils
examined no fewer than 2-5 to 5 parts per million were
found, whilst the subsoils contained even more, sometimes
as much as 15 parts per million. Orchard soils where
arsenical sprays have long been in use may contain 10 to
28 times these quantities, and yield appreciable amounts of
arsenic compounds to water. Crops grown on these soils
and fruits from the trees all contained arsenic, and it was
also readily detected in the urine of three persons who had
■eaten quantities of these fruits.

The United States Department of Agriculture has of
late been carrying out careful investigations on food and
nutrition. Bulletin 227 deals with calcium, magnesium,
and phosphorus in food and nutrition. It appears that a
healthy man accustomed to a full, mixed diet requires for
maintenance of phosphorus equilibrium about 1-5 grams of
phosphorus, or nearly 3-5 grams of phosphoric acid, per

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

diem, and the organic combinations of phosphorus seem to
be best adapted for the purpose. The calcium require-
ment is equivalent to about 07 gram of calcium oxide per
diem. Reference is made to the value of milk in supply-
ing these requirements. The work has been carried out
by Prof. Sherman and Messrs. Mettler and Sinclair, of the
Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, and full
details are given of the analytical methods and of the
metabolism experiments. Circular 102 gives a list of the
bulletins, &c., dealing with the subject issued by the
Department.

Capt. M. PisciCELLi contributes a well-illustrated article
on Lake Bangueolo to the October BoUettino della Societa
Geografica Italiana, in the form of a letter .to the secre-
tary, dated at Abercorn, May i, 19 10. The hydrographical
conditions of this great complicated maze of water, marsh
and islands are described, with notes on the natives and
on the fauna of the region.

Mr. Ellsworth Huntington continues his investiga-
tions on the lines of his fascinating " Pulse of Asia." In
the September number of the Bulletin of the American
Geographical Society he analyses the data collected by Mr.
H. J. L. Beadnell respecting the Libyan oasis of Kharga,
and claims that they indicate a succession of climatical
changes during the last 2500 years that are in close agree-
ment with the hypothetical " pulsations " of climate in
eastern and central Asia during the same period.

The Liverpool Geological Society may be congratulated
on the opening number of the eleventh volume of its
Proceedings, which contains a spirited address by Prof.
J. W. Judd, F.R.S., on " The Triumph of Evolution : a
Retrospect of Fifty Years." Prof. Judd has always
brought his personal knowledge of the pioneers of geolotjy
to aid him in stimulating research in newer generations.
He has systematically upheld the claims of Lyell as an
original observer, and as one of the masters who paved,
the way for the general acceptance of evolution in the
natural world. In the present address the relations of
Lyell and Darwin, and the final " triumph of evolution "
resulting from the work of Darwin and Wallace, are
pointed out with vigour and characteristic' clearness. This
part of the Proceedings also contains papers that maintain',
the high standard set by the society in the explanation of:
local geological features.

The scientific investigation of the German colonial
possessions in Africa proceeds steadily, and in the Mitteil-
ungen aiis den deiitschen Schutzgebieten results "are being
regularly published. The last number (Heft. 3, Band 23) ij

contains five articles dealing with German South-West
Africa. One deals especially with the Auin, a Bushman
tribe of the Middle Kalahari Desert, which occupy a dis-
trict in the eastern boundary of the territory on the border
of Bechuanaland. Their habits and customs, weapons,
modes of hunting, games, and other information relating
to this small tribe, which are said to number some 3000,
are described and illustrated. A map. on a large scale
attached to the same number shows the position to the
south of Kilimanjaro which has been set aside as a re-
served territory for those of the Masai tribe who are on
the German side of the Anglo-German boundary line. The
reserve contains some 2500 square miles, and lies to the
west of the Pangani River.

The results of the magnetic observations made at tli
Central Meteorological Observatory of Japan during 1907
appear, and are discussed, in part ii. of the annual reporf
now published. The observatory is situated at an altitud

December i, 1910J

NATURE

149

of 21 metres in long. 139° 45' E., lat. 35° 41' N., and was
rebuilt in July, 1897, great care being taken to exclude
magnetic ingredients from the materials employed. The
present valuable report gives a brief description of the
building and apparatus, and also describes the methods
employed in registering the different variations of the
magnets. A number of tables give the hourly values, for
the whole year, of the three elements, with remarks as
to the nature of the variations, indicating storms, &c. A

evere storm " was registered during the morning of

bruarv 10, 1907, the magnets having been agitated
during the preceding three days. The principal disturb-
ances are shown on fourteen large-scale charts given at
the end of the report.

The first part of vol. ii. of the Transactions of the
Royal Society of South Africa includes a paper by Dr.
.A. W. Roberts on a preliminary determination of the
absorption of light by the earth's atmosphere. The paper
is a brief statement of a single determination of the
coefficient of atmospheric absorption made on the summit
of one of the hills of the Winterberg Range, of an altitude
of about 4000 feet. More than 500 observations were
made, and it was hoped at first that these observations
would yield both the coefficient of absorption and the
height of the atmosphere, but a variety of solutions con-
firmed Dr. Roberts in the view that a more refined series
of observations would be necessary before any trustworthy
value of the height of the atmosphere would emerge from
the equations. Dr. Roberts obtained as a final value for
the coefficient of atmospheric absorption at sea-level
0-19 m, where ni is the apparent magnitude of a star.
The mean of the results obtained by Seidel, Langley,
Pritchard, Muller, and Pickering is 021 w. Taking
0-20 m as a mean result. Dr. Roberts points out that
this signifies that 17 per cent, of all rays that strike the
atmosphere perpendicularly are absorbed by the atmo-
sphere. On the horizon the brightness of a star is reduced
so that it shines with only about one-fortieth of its zenith
•brightness.

Prof. Edgar Bcckingham contributes to the Bulletin
of the Bureau of Standards, vi., 3, a short note on the
definition of an ideal gas, embodying a brief statement
of the main principles of thermodynamics associated with
fhe definition in question.

On February 21, 191 1, the well-known firm of publishers
iuunded by Benedikt Gotthelf Teubner will celebrate its
centenary. In this connection a catalogue has been issued
of recent works published by Messrs. Teubner dealing with
scientific subjects, which affords a striking example of the
influence which private enterprise can bring into play in
the advancement of learning. Moreover, the list only
deals with a small portion of the Teubner publications,
separate catalogues being issued for literary and other
subjects.

In the Rendiconto of the Naples Academy, 5, 6 (May
and June), Dr. Paolo Rossi describes observations on the
double refraction induced by strain in caoutchouc. The
principal conclusions appear to be that the difference of
the principal indices of refraction is proportional to the
tension, that the results are pretty much the same for
vulcanised and unvulcanised caoutchouc, and that when the
elongation is maintained constant the double refraction
maintains its proportionality to the tension, even though
the latter gradually decreases.

The action of light on plants forms the subject of a
note in La Nature for October 20 by M. H. Rousset,
dealing with some recent experiments by M. Combes.
The author points out that the effects of light vary accord-

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

ing to the age and nature of the plant, a strong light
favouring the development of large stores of reserve
material, as in the tubers of the potato and in the beet,
while a weaker light favours the growth of vegetative
organs. The effect of light on the ova of trout is studied"
by Prof. Felice Supino in the Rendiconti del R. Istitut(y
Lombardo, whose experiences tend to show that blue light
is more favourable to the hatching and development of the
ova than red.

In the Rassegna contemporanea for October (a journal
which, by the way, has during the past few months con-
tained a number of well-written articles dealing with
English national movements), Signor Gino Cucchetti
publishes an article dealing, as the author claims, with a
suggestion by the geologist, Venturino Sabatini, accord-
ing to which a remedy for the disastrous effects of earth-
quakes in Messina and southern Italy should be sought
in an efficient scheme of afforestation. It is pointed out
that the cutting down of trees in such districts may fre-
quently result in a loosening of the subsoil, which is
largely argillaceous or sandy in character, thus giving rise
to faults and lessening the resistance to the effects of
seismic disturbances. The cutting down of woods receives
further mention in an article by the deputy Giovanni
Posadi dealing with the preservation of natural beauties,
while an article by Signor Arnoldo Faustini dealing with
changes that have occurred on the earth's surface in recent
times, with special reference to the subsidence of the
island of Bogoslaw, in .Alaska, possesses collateral interest
in the same connection.

The report on the work of the Government Laboratories,
Johannesburg, for the year 1908-9, has recently reached
us. Whilst pointing to excellent services in the past, it
gives evidence of the need for further inquiry into and
control over the food and water supply of the district.
The total population of the colony is about one and a
quarter millions, including 300,000 persons of European
descent ; but only 158 samples of foodstuffs other than
milk were examined during the year. This, as the
analyst remarks, is very inadequate surveillance. As
regards the water supply, that of Johannesburg was well
looked after both chemically and bacteriologically ; and
that of Pretoria, where excellent water is obtainable, was
also examined, though by bacteriological methods alone.
But spasmodic attempts only have been made to control
the condition of any of the other supplies of the colony
by scientific means, and no proper systematic water survey
has yet been made. Among other matters, it is noted that
out, of a total of 8526 samples examined, more than three
thousand, mostly rats, were dealt with in connection with
plague investigations.

The contradictory results which have been obtained as
to the effect of a magnetic field on the potential difference
necessary to cause a discharge to pass between two elec-
trodes in a rarefied gas are explained in a paper by Prof.
Righi communicated to the Academy of Science at
Bologna in May, and reproduced in the October number
of Le Radium. The electrodes were about 2 square cm.
in area and from 0-5 to 8 mm. apart, the gas having a
pressure of a few tenths of a mm. of mercury. The
difference of potential was provided by small storage
cells, and the current transmitted measured by a galvano-
meter. The magnetic field in which the discharge tube
was placed could be raised to 9000 units. Prof. Righi
finds that the effect of the field, for strengths up to about
1000 units, is to diminish the required potential, but for
greater strengths to increase it, and in the case of trans-

I^O

NATURE

[December i, 1910

verse fields of still greater intensities again to diminish it.
He considers these results point to the existence in the
gas of neutral doublets, each consisting of a positively
charged ion with a negative electron as satellite.

In an offprint from the At\i del Reale Istituio Veneto
for 1909-10 Drs. R. Alpago and G. Silva discuss hourly
observations of magnetic declination and dissipation of
electric charge which they made at Padua on May 14-21.
The magnetic observations agree with the more complete
results from magnetographs in various parts of Europe in
showing a small disturbance on the morning of May 19
about the time of the supposed passage of the earth
through the tail of Halley's comet. But the coincidence
might well be accidental, as magnetic conditions were dis-
turbed for several days before and after. Electrical dis-
sipation on May 19 was in no way outstanding. A very
unusual feature throughout the observations is the absence
of any decided difference between the rates of loss of
positive and negative charges. For both the mean per-
centage loss observed per minute was 3-5, which is
exceptionally high for the Elster and Geitel apparatus
employed. There was a well-marked diurnal variation,
again nearly the same for positive and negative charges.
It showed a double oscillation. The two maxima, about
1.30 a.m. and 4 p.m., respectively, were not far from
equal, and were more than double the principal minimum,
which occurred about 8 a.m.

An illustrated catalogue of optical lanterns and accessory
apparatus, and of an extensive series of lantern-slides to
illustrate scientific and educational subjects, has been
issued by Messrs. Reynolds and Branson, Ltd., of Leeds.
Many of the slides may be hired as well as purchased.
The catalogue shows that this firm has some 10,000 slides
for sale or hire, and a list of 30,000 slides for sale only
will be sent on application. In addition to slides illus-
trating most branches of science, we notice in the cata-
logue particulars of a very complete series of slides to
illustrate school lessons in geography.

Messrs. W. and J. George, Ltd., of Birmingham, are
issuing their latest illustrated catalogue of scientific
apparatus in sections, each dealing with a specific group
of science subjects. We have received sections 1—4 bound
in one volume and sections 5-7 in a second. Copies of
the catalogue will be sent on application to teachers and
lecturers in charge of laboratories, and to other purchasers
of apparatus. The lists are profusely illustrated, and so
arranged that reference is easy. The information provided
is thoroughly practical, and will assist the teacher greatly
in the choice of instruments.

Mr. W. H. Harling, Finsbury Pavement, London, is
issuing in parts the fourteenth edition of his catalogue of
mathematical drawing instruments and materials. Sec-
tion A, forming the first part of the full list, has reached
us, and gives particulars of the drawing pens, half sets
of compasses, bow compasses, spring bows, and propor-
tional, beam, and pencil compasses which are manu-
factured by this firm. We have also received from Mr.
Harling a specimen of the set-square guide he has just
produced. It is a simple contrivance in pearwood for
guiding a set-square from any edge of a drawing board
or sketch block. The guide should be convenient for rapid
field sketch work and useful for section lining and cross-
hatching. The price of the guide is is. 6d.

The report of the council of the Natural History Society
of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne
for 1909-10 shows that the membership has suffered a net

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

loss of eighteen during the year, having fallen to 395.
The society's work, especially in connection with the main-
tenance of its museum, has been helped greatly by the
Crawhall bequest of 6000/., which has been so invested
that it yields an annual income of 200Z. Without this
timely aid the position of the society would be serious,
and it is difficult to see how some such exceptional source
of income could have been dispensed with, for in some
respects the society is not so flourishing as the council
wishes to see it. An issue of the Transactions of the
society has been published during the year, and the con-
cluding part of the third volume of the new series is nearly
ready. The usual series of winter lectures and summer
field meetings have been held. The average attendance
at the evening lectures was 85, at the children's lectures
164, and at the curator's " talks "53.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

Recent F"ireballs. — There was a brilliant meteor seen
on Sunday, November 20, by Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, of
Cheshunt, Herts, and by Mr. C. B. Pennington, of.
Newark. It passed over the North Sea east of Spurn
Head at heights of from 73 to 33 miles. Its motion was
exceedingly slow, being about 12 miles per second.

On Friday, November 25, about 7.30, a fine meteor
vi^as seen at Weston-super-Mare by Mr. J. Hicks. He
was using a telescope at the moment, but a bright light
caused him to look upwards, when he saw a fireball
travelling in the direction from Saturn to two degrees
above Altair. Near the end of its luminous flight it
broke up into a string of fragments like first-magnitude
stars, and went some distance farther. The same meteor
was seen at Bristol travelling from between Saturn and
a Arietis through the stars of Pegasus. It threw off a
brilliant train ol yellow sparks, and the nucleus distributed
itself into a stream of particles at the end. The height
of the object seems to have been from 88 to 41 miles from
Portland Bill to Launceston, and its path about 93 miles
at a velocity of 23 miles per second. The radiant was
at about 64° -1-21°. Another but smaller Taurid was
observed on November 25 at 6.52 at normal heights above
Somerset, and it moved with great slowness, the speed
being about 14 miles i>er second.

During the progress of the eclipse on November 16, at
about i2h. 24m., a splendid meteor was observed from
Ireland and Scotland. It had a long and rapid flight, and
left a bright streak for several minutes. According to an
observer near Glasgow, the meteor was apparently a-
large as the moon. The descriptions prove that this fire-
ball was a late Leonid. It passed from over a point a
few miles west of Glasgow to over the sea north of the
Irish coast in a direction almost east to west. The
heights were about 89 to 48 miles, and the length of path
145 miles.

Saturn's Rings. — Circular No. 129 from the Kiel
Centralstelle contains a telegram from M. Jonckheere, of
the Hem Observatory, stating that, on several evenings,
he has observed a nebulous degradation of the exterior,
edge of the Saturnian ring A.

Cerulli's Comet (igioe) identified with Faye's Short-
period Comet. — In a communication to the Astro-
nomische Nachrichten (No. 4456) Prof. Pickering gives
the elements, and an ephemeris, calculated by Mr. Meyer
Lewy, for Cerulli's comet, and points out the probah!"
identity of this object and Faye's periodical comet ; sui
identity was also suggested by Prof. Berberich.

Dr. Ebell, having investigated the subject, finds th;
the observed place on November 12 differs from the caki:
lated place of Faye's comet by only —4s., —4-1', whilst ^
the present apparition is the most favourable and brightest |
since the object was discovered by Faye, at Paris, in !
November, 1843 ; he considers the identity is assured. A |
later telegram Prof. Pickering gives improved elements ;
and ephemeris by Mr. Lewy, and states that the identity
with Faye's comet is confirmed.

Faye's comet has a period of 7-44 years, and was re-

December i, 1910]

NATURE

1=^1

discovered in 1850, 1858, 1866, 1873, 1880, 1888, and
1895, although it was missed in 1903. Its orbital eccen-
tricity is exceptionally small, and its perihelion distance
(i/) great. It is also remarkable as being the first comet
of which the periodicity was determined, by Goldschmidt,
directly, by calculation, without comparison with the
elements of earlier comets.

A number of observations are also published, the magni-
tude being generally estimated as about 10. Dr. Schiller
recorded it at Bothkamp on November 10 as diffused,
having a suspicion of a tail, in p. a. 300°, and a granu-
lated nucleus of magnitude 98. Dr. Ristenpart, on
November 11, saw no tail, but an eleventh-magnitude
round nebulosity of i' diameter with a central condensa-
tion. Dr. Cerulli announces that he discovered the comet
on a plate taken on November 8.

A System of Standard Wave-lengths. — No. 3, vol.
xxxii., of the Astrophysical Journal contains a list of
forty-nine secondary standard wave-lengths published under
the auspices of the International Union for Solar Research.

The increased accuracy of modern research necessitated
the measurement and adoption of a standard system, and
to this end three independent observers were asked to
determine the wave-lengths of the forty-nine iron lines now
published. From the results secured for each line a mean
value has been adopted, and will in future be used in
solar work ; the wave-lengths range from A ^282-408 to
X 6494-993, and wave-lengths measured in this system
should be designated in future by using the symbol
"I. .A." The primary standard is the wave-length of the
red cadmium line adopted at a previous conference.

In the same journal Prof. Kayser publishes standards
of third order of wave-length on the international system,
determined from the arc spectrum of iron between AA. 41 18
and 6494 ; he intends extending the measurements to
A 7900. He finds that some of the secondary standards
still contain errors of from 0004 to 0-005 -^- -^ com-
parison with Rowland's wave-lengths of the solar spectrum
gives differences varying irregularly between 0-15 and
0-22 A., but by subtracting about 0-19 A. from Rowland
all measurements can be reduced to the international
system with sufficient accuracy. Prof. Kayser tabulates
I about 370 wave-lengths, and gives the intensity, the prob-

'- error, and the respective differences from Rowland
' the observers who made the measurements for the
^-londary standards, viz. Fabry and Buisson, Eversheim,
I and Pfund.

j The Radial Velocity of Sirius. — .A most exhaustive

i discussion of the radial velocity of Sirius is published bv

Ht-rr W. Miinch in No. 4455 of the Asirotiomische Nach-

■ten. Herr Miinch measured a large number of plates

rn at Potsdam during the period 1901-10, and his

•ough discussion takes up the whole of a double number

the journal. It includes, inter alia, the errors intro-

uuced by the measuring screw, by the different widths of

1 the measured Mnes, by the possible uncertainty as to the

Durity and wave-lengths of some of the lines, &c. Besides

ral lines of yet unknown origin, he finds in the spec-

;n of Sirius those due to Cr, Fe, H, Mg, Ni, Sc, Ti,

^ V, and Zr, and, possibly. La and Mn.

For the mean velocity of the centre of the Sirian svstem

' rred to the sun he tabulates a series of seventeen values

^ing from —80 (March 17, 1907) to —14-1 (April 4,

1). the mean value being —10-3 km., with a mean

bable error of ±0-4 km. Omitting the observations of

6 and 1908, which gave abnormally large values, the

.mean radial velocity becomes —9-8 km., with a mean

! probable error of ±0-3 km.

" -Annuaire du Bcreau des Longitudes, 1911." — The
Aimuaire for 19 11 published by the Bureau des Longitudes
contains the usual astronomical tables, ephemerides, &c.,
: and also tables relative to metrolc^y, moneys, geography,
j meteorology, and statistics; this year the tables of chemical
and physical data are omitted, as also are matters refer-
|ring to the sundial, solar physics, and the minor planets.
I The special articles, four in number, are verv interest-
|ing; the first deals with the sixteenth conference of the
'International Geodetic .Association, which was held in
jLondon, and in the second M. Bigourdan publishes a great
di^-al of interesting information concerning the total eclipse

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

of the sun which will take place on April 17, 1912, and
will be visible in France for a few seconds.

M.agmtude of Nova Sagittarii, No. 2.— .A telegram
from Dr. Ristenpart, Santiago, announces that on
November 7 the magnitude of Nova Sagittarii (96.1910}
was 9-9 (Astronomisch^. Nachrichten, No. 4456).

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN JAPAN.^

THE Japanese have entered the field of agricultural
investigation with characteristic energy and thorough-
ness, and have shown a lively appreciation of the fact,
not alwavs realised elsewhere, that the principles under-
Iving an agricultural problem must first be studied before
the problem itself can be solved. Some of the special
features of Japanese agriculture present highly important
problems, the development of which will be awaited with
much interest.

The present volume of the Journal of the College of
.Agriculture contains, in the two parts already published,
four papers, of which three deal with silkworm problems.
Mr. K. Toyama reports studies on the red worms occasion-
allv appearing among the progeny of the normal black
worms, and hitherto regarded in a general way as sports.
In 1905 he obtained some red worms, and studied their
behaviour on crossing. The results showed that the
phenomena are really Mendelian, black being dominant
over red ; the red worms uniformly yielded red offspring,
while the matings of the blacks resulted in the production
of one red to three blacks. Prof. C. Sasaki deals \vith
jaundice of the silkworm, a disease prevalent in all silk-
worm countries, and frequently found in Japan. The
worms lose their appetite, weaken, and finally die ; the
skin loses its firmness and becomes soft and weak, while
polvhedral bodies appear in the blood and various tissues.
Evidence is adduced that the disease is caused by a
streptothrix found in the blood of effected worms. The
polvhedral bodies may, however, arise from other causes
such as a small dose of formalin, interruption of respira-
tion, or attacks of maggots, and are probably to be ascribed
to the degeneration of the contents of the nucleus. The
same author has also solved an interesting problem that
has hitherto been overlooked. Silk fishing lines, commonly
known as " Tegusu," are largely employed by the Japanese
fishermen, but no one has up to the present found out
anv more about their origin than that they are imported
from southern China. The Chinese writers say that some
wild silkworms found in A'oko on the leaves of camphor
trees and Foushu (Liquidambar formosana) are the source.
In April, when the worms are mature, they are dipped
in vinegar, and then filaments 7 or 8 feet long and golden-
vellow in colour are taken from their bodies. Prof.
Sasaki made a journey in southern China, found the
worm, and determined it as the larva of Saturnia
pyretorum, Westwood. He has also introduced it into
Formosa.

Mr. S. Kusano has a paper on chemotactic and similar
reactions of the swarm spores of myxomycetes, ^thalium,
Stemonitis and Comatricha being investigated. In
general, these organisms feed mostly on rotten wood or
leaves, and there is evidence that they can digest bacteria.
It appears also that they can themselves be devoured by
infusoria. \\'ood attacked bv them was found to be acid.
The swarm spores showed marked chemotaxis, being
attracte4 by acids, repelled by alkalis, and unaffected by
neutral, non-poisonous substances. A consideration of the
phenomena from the dissociation hypothesis indicates that
the H- and OH-ions are in all cases the stimulating com-
ponents, the OH being much the more effective, and active
even at a dilution of N/ 10,000. The attraction of the
H-ion reaches a maximum at N/600; in higher concentra-
tion the acid repels and injures the organism. H-ions
act beneficially in several ways ; they promote germina-
tion of the spores, and then attract them to the place
where food material occurs. -An interesting physiological
point was noticed. The spores germinate much more
readily in contact with moist air than when thrown on
to water ; in the latter case they do not appear to be
wetted very quickly.

1 J' umal of t><e College of Agriculture, Imperial University of Tokyo,
vol. ii. , Nos. I and 2.

152

NATURE

[December i, 1910

STOCKHOLM TO SPITSBERGEN: THE
GEOLOGISTS' PILGRIMAGE.

AX7E geologists who were privileged to take part in the
'^* journey to Spitsbergen before the meeting of the
'Geological Congress in Stockholm had good reason to
.count ourselves fortunate. Perfect weather, genial com-
panionship, comfortable surroundings, admirable organisa-
tion and guidance, and a route through the strongholds
of Thor of the Hammer, in which intense scientific interest
was constantly united with entrancing beauty of scene —
surely the combination would have roused enthusiasm
among much more stolid folk than the impressionable race
of hammerers !

We started by special train from Stockholm, about
seventy strong, an agglomerate of fifteen nationalities, on
the evening of July 25, and at once left behind us the
broken weather that has encircled Western Europe this
summer, entering a northern region of brightness and
calm in which we continued until our return. Those of
us who were in Stockholm the previous day had been
called together to see a fine exhibition illustrative of
Spitsbergen geology, temporarily shown in rooms attached
to the museum of the Swedish Geological Survey, and to
hear lucid demonstrations on the exhibits by Prof. A. G.
Nathorst and by the Director of our excursion. Prof. G.
De Geer. Here we had already an opportunity to begin
or to renew friendships that were cemented during the
journey. Owing to the care and forethought with which
every detail of the expedition had been planned, our start
was made promptly, and we settled without confusion
into our allotted places.

„ The night's train journey brought us to Ragunda in
Angermanland, where our first halt was made. During
four hours of the morning we visited sections splendidly
illustrating the evidence from which Prof. De Geer has
worked out the chronology of post-Glacial time in Sweden.
By a catastrophe in 1795, the great lake of Ragunda was
suddenly drained and its bed laid bare ; and the ravines
■subsequently eroded through its sediments now reveal
the whole succession deposited since the melting of the
Glacial ice-sheet. In these sediments Prof. De Geer
recognises and counts the annual bands of the " seasonal
clays," much as one may count the annual bands in a
tree trunk. By the extension of the same method over
various other parts of the country, he has attained results
by which the recession of the ice-sheet and all its incidents
may be actually dated, as he showed us later in field
■demonstrations near Stockholm during the sitting of the
congress.

Northward again for the rest of the day and through
a night of twilight, during which the Arctic circle was
crossed, our train brought us to breakfast on July 27 at
the bright town of Kiruna, which has newly sprung up in
the Lapland wilderness under the famous mountain of iron
ore. Here we remained until the afternoon, visiting the
great iron quarries under the guidance of Director Hj.
Lundbohm, who instructed us by a preliminary address
in the geology of the district and the history of its rapid
development. After a banquet to which we" were
invited by the mining company we took train again at
4 p.m., and ran shortly into view of the beautiful Lake
Tornetrask, in a region of jjowerful overthrust faults and
of Glacial lake-shores. Making several short halts in this
wild country to examine points of especial interest within
easy reach of the railway, under the guidance of Dr. O.
Sjogren, we reached Abisko in the evening. Iftre our
train remained for the night, affording us opportunity to
appreciate the picturesque surroundings of Abiskojokk,
now a much visited tourist resort.

On the morning of July 28 the Norwegian frontier was
reached at 11 a.m. Thereafter followed a marvellous
descent to the coast, along the rim of a great fiord the
blue waters of which shone gloriously in the depths below
us. At Narvik, our port of embarkation, we were shown
the methods of treating the iron ore from Kiruna and
the facilities afforded for its shipment, being thereby still
further impressed with the enterprise which has been shown
in the development of this great Swedish mining industry.

Our ship was the ALolus, Captain S. de Klinteberg, a
comfortable Stockholm passenger boat of 870 tons register.
Sailing from Narvik at 5 p.m., we were held up for a

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

few hours of the night by fog in the narrow passages
leading northward from the Ofoten Fiord; but this was
our only delay in the charming voyage to Tromso, which
was reached next evening.

There had been rumours of unusual ice conditions in the
Spitsbergen seas before we left Stockholm, and at Tromso
these rumours were partly confirmed. Our Director, there-
fore, learning that a French ship was due to arrive next
day from the north, decided to await her coming in order
to gain definite information. So we spent a calm, sunnv
day pleasantly at Tromso, first visiting the museum with it-
excellent collection of Arctic animals and birds, and after-
wards crossing to the mainland to see the Lapp summer
camp or to climb the nearer mountains. Meantime the
lie de France had arrived, and reported that while floe-ice
from Barents Sea had drifted in quantity round the south
and south-west coast of Spitsbergen, the inner fiords of
the island were free, so that the only difficulty was to
obtain access to them, for which purpose it might be
necessary to go far to the westward. With this intelli-
gence we steamed ahead again on the evening of July 30.

As we passed northward in the shadow of the fiords a
red glow of wonderful brilliancy shone on all the higher
peaks and glaciers, and never faded ; until, at midnight,
as we passed out into the open ocean under the majestic
Fugle Rock, we saw the disc of the sun just cut by the
sea-line ; from which it rose with seeming effort, like a
heavy seabird, as night grew into morning. It was thus
that most of us gained the midnight sun for the first
time, not to lose it again until our approach to Norway
in returning.

During the last day of July we pounded northward under
a cloudy sky, with a touch of ice in the air ; but in the
evening we ran into sunshine again, and there, ahead of
us, lay Bear Island miraged on the horizon. This was
indeed good fortune, for in his eleven previous voyages
past the island our Director had seen it only twice, so
frequent are fogs in these seas. Our course was altered
that we might run in under its eastern face. The placid
sea around us was furrowed by its myriad sea-fowl, and
from II p.m. until 2 a.m. we coasted its lonely
cliffs and sea-stacks closely enough to distinguish the
main features of their geological structure, and to catch
glimpses of its desolate interior with all features accen-
tuated by the light and shade of the low sun.

In its stratigraphy Bear Island is akin to Spitsbergen,
though with a more restricted range of formations. To
all geologists these far northern islands are of great
interest, but peculiarly so to the geologists of Scandi-
navia, inasmuch as they contain a great sequence of the
later Palaeozoic. Mesozoic, and Tertiary sediments which
are lacking within the Scandinavian ' shield.' To the
Swedish explorers, and especially to Prof. J. G. Andersson,
we owe most of our knowledge of the geology of Bear
Island. At its -southern extremity is a ridge of crushed
and altered ' Heklahoek ' rocks, which include fossil-
iferous Lower Silurian limestones. The rest of the land
is built up of Devonian, Carboniferous, and marine
Triassic strata, all in some parts very fossiliferous, and
with coal seams in the Devonian. The sequence is inter-
rupted by strong unconformities and broken by faults, some
of which we could see plainly from our steamer.

Now it became difficult to chop up the Arctic day into
conventional night and morning, and we counted by events
— particularly by meal-times, for we were a hungry crew
— rather than by the clock. Not many hours after sinking
Bear Island in the southward, on August i, we began to
meet floe-ice ; which soon thickened, so that we had to
slow down and eventually to turn southward and west-
ward for more open water. Again and again during the j
day was this experience repeated, a chilly ice-blink j
always paling the hazy sky to the north and east as j
we threaded our zigzag course amid the floes, on which I
inquisitive seals shifted uneasily, doubtful whether to re- !
gard us as dangerous or not. Usually at this season the j
voyage to Spitsbergen lies entirely in open water ; but most j
of us were glad of the chance which gave us this touch of ;
the true Arctic colour. Still, to the anxious captain^ of i
our ship the prospect must have been decidedly less enjoy- j
able. Thus we steamed cautiously all day and all night '
among the floes or along the broad water-lanes between
the great white streaks drawn out by the north-flowing

December i, 19 io]

NATURE

153

current, until we had been shouldered off 70 or 80 miles
to the westward of Spitsbergen. On August 2, however,
we got an easterly course, picking our way across the
ice-streams where they were thinnest, and by evening the
lead showed that we were approaching land. So we lay
to, in a light haze, to await clear weather.

Soon, very gently, the haze thinned away ; the northern
sun shimmered again over the smooth olive sea, burnishing
the floes into silver ; and then, gradually, an exquisite
panorama of peaks and glaciers was unveiled in front of
us, lengthening northward and southward into a far per-
spective, and we knew that this was Spits-bergen, and
worthy of its name. Due north of us rose the angular
ridges of Prince Charles Foreland, and right ahead lay
the gap of our haven. Ice Fiord ; so we moved quietly for-
ward, through a scene of dreamy splendour, to our
anchorage after midnight in Safe Bay. Surely never was
there a more impressive revelation of this sflent land !

From this time onw^ard our days were busy days,
thionged with scientific interests and impressions that
shifted all too rapidlv. Within the great Ice Fiord, which

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-Index-map of Ice Fiord, Spitsbergen. The course of the ss. Molus is shown approximately
by the dotted hne.

runs for 60 miles eastward, crossing the strike of the
rocks and almost bisecting the island, we found open
water, and our ship was able to pass into all its branches
without impediment. During the ensuing week we pene-
trated most of its recesses, landing at the best points for
investigating its several formations, and gaining a clear
idea of their structures from the barren craggy outcrops
f'^at rose high above all the waterways. (See Fig. i.)
1 hough complex in detail, the geology of central Spits-
igen is simple in its main outlines. Earth-movements
of intensity, repeated at intervals down to Tertiarv times,
have ridged up the western margin of the island, iaringing
to light the oldest rocks and crumpling them along with
the newer formations. These earth-waves, with their
faults, folds and overthrusts, subside eastward, leaving a
high plateau of regular stratigraphy and gentle dips, which

The high jagged outer ridge, at the entranc3 to Ice Fiord,
consists of crumpled Heklahoek rocks, succeeded eastward
in the next ridges by sharply folded and broken Carbon-
iferous strata. But in the interior, the long northern
branches of the fiord reveal a great mass of red Devcnian
rocks, very similar to our British Devonian, upon which
the Carboniferous strata rest with strong unconformity and
overlap. In upward succession, the Carboniferous lime-
stones and cherts are followed by a belt of sandstones and
shales, to which, on the somewhat scanty fossil evidence,
a Permian age is assigned ; and above these come the
Triassic strata, chiefly shales or clays, with thin lime-
stones, sandstones, and phosphate-bands, often rich in well-
preserved marine fossils. The outcrops of the three last-
mentioned formations are narrowed to strips in the outer
folded belt, but expand into wide tracts around the interior
fiord. Then follow thick masses of the Jurassic and
Tertiary sediments, for the most part gently dipping and
in apparent, but unreal, conformity, which build up the
high picturesque plateaus on the south side of the inner
fiord. These consist mainly of sandstones and shales of
fresh-water or estuarine origin, but
with occasional bands containing
marine fossils. Both formations
yield abundant well-developed plant-
remains, in striking contrast with
the present diminutive Arctic flora ;
and both include coal-seams, at least
one of which, in the Tertiary rocks,
is likely to be of economic conse-
quence.

To resume the recital of our
doings in this land. We were astir
early on the morning of August 3,
anxious to take our first steps ini
Spitsbergen, and before breakfast
many of us were ashore among the
mixture of rocks, moraines, glaciers
and raised beaches that forms the
west shore of Safe Bay. Leaving
this anchorage at breakfast time, our
ship went east across Ice Fiord and
ran close in under the bold pre-
cipices of Jurassic and Tertiary
rocks bounding the plateau around
Mount Nordenskiold, until Advent
Bay was reached, before noon.
This has recently become a place of
permanent habitation — the only one
in the ownerless land. Most of us
were surprised at the display of
engineering activity in such a re-
mote corner, brought about by
American enterprise in the develop-
ment of a mine in the Tertiary coal.
A shipping wharf has been erected,
to which the coal is brought from
the mine high up on the hill-side by
skips travelling overhead on a cable.
At the mine, which we visited later,
a seam of good quality, 4 feet thick,
is worked by means of an adit. It was singular to see
the walls of the workings all thickly encrusted with a
sparkling layer of hoar-frost from the condensation of
moisture on rock-surfaces that are permanently below
freezing point. .\ pure white coal-mine !

For the afternoon in Advent Bay we divided into two
parties. Those who wished to study the Jurassic plant-
beds crossed with the ship to the north-east side of the
inlet under the guidance of our Director. The rest of us
landed at the wharf and went inland towards Mt. Nordens-
kiold, led by Mr. B. Hogbom, who had been already for
some weeks in the island on geological work under
Prof. De Geer's instructions, and who here awaited us.
With him we went to the glacier-filled head of the valley
south of the coal-mine and ascended the plateau on the
westward to an upper moraine where Tertiary plant-fossils
occurred in profusion. On this moraine, at an elevation

is sharply trenched by the branching fiord and its tribu

tary valleys. On the north side of the fiord most of the j of about 1500 feet, most of us were content to stay, bask-

valleys contain glaciers which reach the sea; but on the i ing in the sunshine and enjoying the glorious view over

j south side, owing to difference of aspect and other causes,
jthe land-valleys are often empty nearly to their heads.

NO. 2144, VOL. 85''i

fiords, plateaus, and snow-fields ; but certain of the more
energetic elder mem.bers of our party continued upward

154

NATURE

[December i, 1910

over the snow to the very summit of Mt. Nordenskiold
(3460 feet), not reaching Advent Bay again until near
midnight. The plateau which we traversed in returning
to the ship was tesselated in places with fine examples of
the singular " gardens " due to soil-creep — round or poly-
gonal patches of clayey soil, up to 15 feet in diameter,
bordered by slabs of stone, often on edge — which are
remarkable in the Spitsbergen tundras at all levels, as in
those of other Arctic lands.

Leaving Advent Bay at noon on August 4, our course
was shaped eastward under the cliffs to Sassen Bay, where
we made a short landing near Mt. Marmier to collect
the abundant Triassic fossils and to examine the diabase
which is here intruded conspicuously in sheets among the
sed.iments. It was instructive to see how the shaly '1 rias,
very like our Lias in composition, was creeping down the
slopes in big partly frozen mud-flows, mixed with ice and
with blocks of diabase, providing a mass ready to be
worked up by any advancing glacier into the semblance of
our darker boulder-clays. This, indeed, is the particular
value of the Spitsbergen phenomena to the English
glacialist, that the country rocks are analogous in structure
and texture to those of England, and are rarely of the
hard type prevalent in nearly all other accessible regions of
present-day glaciation.

, Crossing Sassen Bay, we landed our palaeontologists at
Cape Bjona, under the fluted cliffs of Mt. Temple, for
the collection of Carboniferous fossils from the in-
exhaustible stores of the limestones. The glacialists then
went on with the ship to the head of Temple Bay, where
the Von Post Glacier conies down to the sea with a front
of ice-cliffs three miles . broad. This glacier is now in
retreat, and lateral moraines of its former extension line
the .fiord on both sides for' a' distance of more than a mile
from the present front. Ice-falls from the glacier into the
sea 'cause waves that have carved out cliffs 30 or 40 feet
high, in places, clearly, revealing the composition of the
moraines. These cliffs were strikingly similar to those
of some English boulder-clays ; indeed, but for' the gleam
of the neighbouring ice, one might. have imagined oneself
under a- sea-cliff of north-east Yorkshire. ■ The red loamy-
clay of the sections was studded, not too abundantly, with
well-striated , boulders , of igneous and metamorphic rocks
(from ' some _ unknown source beneath the glacier) along
with others, more numerous, of grey and red sandstones,
conglomerate, chert. Carboniferous limestone, and other
sedimentary rocks. . Both moraines formed broad hum-
mocky- ridges, with troughs of lower ground behind them.

A party of . five -German' explorers, under the leadership
of Lieut. W. Filchner, who were intent upon a journev
into the interior of Spitsbergen, had been with us up to
this point, interesting us. greatly by the preparation of
their outfit during the voyage. Now, with a heartening
cheer, we left them to begin their adventures, our ship
returning in the. quiet evening sunlight for the night's
anchorage at . Bjona Harbour, where the impatient
palaeontologists hungrily declared that we were trying to
starve them into glacialism !

Next day we coasted eastward to Klaas Billen Bay, and
then northward up this deep inlet nearly to its head. A
new phase in the stratigraphy of the island was here most
instructively displayed in its bare brightly tinted slopes.
Red Devonian strata rose up in strong force on its western
side until unconformably overlain by the " Culm," which
is believed to be of Lower Carboniferous age, while the
limestones and cherts of the LTpper Carboniferous rested
in still bolder unconformity on both. A great fault cuts
out the Devonian at the head of the bay ; and east of it
the Carboniferous rocks are known to rest directly upon
bosses of an ancient complex group assigned to the
Archaean, which we had not time to reach. Under the
instruction of our leader these complicated features were
made plain to us from the ship, and we realised how great
was our advantage in gaining so comfortably in an hour
the knowledge that would have cost many laborious days
to gather without such guidance. Most of the day was
spent on shore at the western side of the fiord ; then, after
a late dinner on the ship, we went to land again at
10 p.m. on the eastern arm, for a midnight stroll to the
Nordenskiold Glacier, which breaks off with a sea-front
of three miles in water reaching nearly 500 feet in depth.

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

Under an overcast sky, which intensified the cold blue-
ness of the ice, we crossed the tesselated tundra with its
shelly terraces of raised beach to the southern moraine
of tne glacier, and saw how the grey shelly mud had
been incorporated with the moraine. This was our coldest
night, witn no sun; but we were fortified by a camp-fire
on the beach, and hot coffee, before returning to the
.Eolus at 2 a.m.

An incident of navigation had rendered it necessary that
our ship should return to Advent Bay for a further supply
of coal, so now she went southward across Ice Fiord to
the coaling wharf, and lay there during August 6. Here,
tor the day, our party broke up into independent groups,
some climbing the high plateaus, others going up the coal-
mine valley to the glaciers, and the palaeontologists work-
ing assiduously along the Jurassic and Tertiary outcrops
on the slopes above the bay. Next morning we left Advent
Bay again for the North Branch of Ice Fiord, passing from
cloud and breeze into bright still sunlight, with that local
incidence of weather which appears to be characteristic
of Spitsbergen, for all day we could see the cloud-banks
pouring in like great glaciers from the ocean and welling
up against the southern shore of the fiord.

Entering Ekman Bay, we passed along under the ice-
cliffs of the Sefstrom Glacier, and anchored at a spot
which quite recently was beneath the glacier. Above us,
on opposite sides of the bay, rose the exquisitely fretted
edges of Mt. Colosseum (i960 feet) and Mt. Capitolium
(2790 feet), built up of nearly level Carboniferous rocks in
tier after tier of belted crags, separated by high-pitched
slopes and notched with amazing regularity by gullies and
talus-cones (Fig. 2). We had seen similar features again
and agaii during previous days, but here the sculpturing
attained its greatest beauty, and the rhythm of light and
shadow under the low sun gave a well-nigh perfect impres-
sion of architectural design'. It was just the typical
sculpturing of an arid climate, reminding us of scenes in
the ' Bad Lands ' and canons of ■ western America. In
Spitsbergen, also, there is not sufficient precipitation to
maintain permanent streams except those, that have their
source in melting snow, and ice, so that the cones of frost-
riven talus everywhere accumulate on the bare slopes
above the over-deepened main valleys.

As for the Sefstrom Glacier, it afforded us a series of
lessons of surpassing interest. 'When first mapped by
Prof. De Geer in 1882, the sea-front of this glacier lay
tw6 or three miles back within its side-valle}', and was
flanked on both sides by fluvio-glacial outwash plains.
Between that time and 1896, when it was again examined
by our Director, it had advanced about four miles, bury-
ing the outwash plains, filling its valley up to the moun-
tain slopes, and bulging out into Ekman I3ay in a broad
lobe that reached across to Cora Island, hardly a mile
fnjm the opposite shore of the bay. But its spurt was
over ; already in 1896 it was sinking back ; and when
visited in 1908, though its detached snout still hung
grounded on Cora Island amid huge masses of morainic
material, the main front had so far receded that there
was again a sea-passage between it and the island, and a
narrow strait, with ice-cliffs to right and left, between
the new front and the detached portion affixed to the
island. Since then there has been further recession, so
that we found a wider passage ; but a remnant of the
melting snout still shone up conspicuously amid the red
moraine on Cora Island.

We spent most of the day on the island, and I know
that there was at least one glacialist of the party who
felt that the time of the whole journey would have been
well spent for the sake of this day alone ! In its original
condition Cora Island was a low spit about two miles long
and half a mile or more wide, composed of Carboniferous
limestoie partly covered with raised beach ; but it has
been increased to more than twice its size by the moraine
banked upon its western side during its invasion by the
glacier. This moraine, which for the greater part must
have been actually under the ice at its maximum, has
been thrown in a tumultuous succession of ridges and
hollows across the flank of the island, forming a curved
belt about three miles long, nearly half a mile wide at its
broadest, rising in places to 50 or 60 feet above sea-level,
and ending sharply, where it touches the original island.

December i, 1910]

NATURE

^y^

against the lower bare ground, with hardly any ' out-
wash ' (see Fig. 3). It consists almost entirely of streaky
red clay containing a few scratched boulders, and crowded
with marine shells, some broken, but mostly perfect and
the bivalves united. The clay has evidently been derived in
the first place from the red Devonian rocks into which
the fiord is cut : but its more immediate origin was the
neighbouring sea-bottom, which has undoubtedly been
dragged up in some way by the glacier in its advance.
The existing remnant of the glacier was seen to be
curiously entangled among the clay ; and the presence of
-mailer masses of ice buried under the moraine was
ndicated by the crater-like hollows of subsidence bj' which
;:s surface was pitted.

But the story of Cora Island is too long for our space
— we must leave it regretfully, in the same mood thai we
left it on the late evening of August 7, to hasten back to
our ship* On August 8 the /Eolus carefully threaded the

different temperament ; the Svea, smooth, worn, and re-
tiring ; the Wahlenberg, known to have been recently
aroused into activity, and jagged, fissured, and tumbling
in the rapidity of its advance. On this coast, also, our
Director pointed out to us the crumpled structure of the
rocky ridges separating the glacier-basins — huge wrinkles
on the fringe of the western belt of disturbance. Cross-
ing Ice Fiord once more, we found anchorage for the
night in Green Bay, but not too near the malodorous
whaling station, where the carcases of a dozen unshapely
monsters awaited dismemberment.

On the morning of August 8 we landed on the west
shore of Green Bay, and went inland up a transverse valley
which cuts the mountainous ridge and very clearly reveals
its structure — a steeply dipping succession of Carboniferous,
Permian and Trias, with Jurassic on the shores of the
bay, and Tertiary, comparatively undisturbed, above the
j eastern side. Mist, w^ith a splutter of rain, hung around

Fig. 2. — Mount Capitolium (2790 feel), Ekmaa Bay. Carboniferous rocks (with underlying Devonian concealed by tains), shoiring frcued form

developed by weathering.

inner recesses of Dickson Bay, where her farthest north,
"'^^ 5o'> was reached, and where the glowing redness of

he Devonian rocks — in the distance like heather in bloom
—gave warmth to the .Arctic wilderness. Many of us,

•owever, chose the alternative of a landing under Cape
\\ ijk, at the entrance to the fiord, and a long climb up

he shaly slopes of Permian and richly fossiliferous Trias

J the plateau at about 2000 feet, formed by an intrusive
-ill of diabase. There, in bright sunshine, we gained a
view from which not all the promised reptiles of the Trias
could drag us — fiords, glaciers, and valley-trenches every-
where around ; away in the north-east, snowfields and
peaks above the head of VVijde Bay ; and our ship a speck
on the blue floor of the nearer recess. Nevertheless, it
would be a desolate land to be alone in with no such
speck !
That same evening, in going southward, we steamed

lose in under the ice-clififs of the Svea and Wahlenberg
glaciers — contiguous neighbours, but at present of very

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

the peaks all day, but the valley was dr>-. Later, a flving
visit was made to the whaling station by those who could
face the ordeal ; and in this manner was our programme
for Ice Fiord brought to its appointed end. As our ship
swung westward into the floes at the mouth of the fiord
the evening sunlight glittered on the land, just as it had
done at our approaching ; so it chanced that our last view
of Spitsbergen was like our first.

It had been planned that we should visit Hornsund next
day in returning southward. But the ice-floes drove us
westward even farther than before, and there would have
been much risk in pushing landward through them again.
Our journey to the lonely island was done. So, after a
few hours of devious sailing, we emerged from the tangle
into the open ocean, and there rolled uncomfortably south-
ward under a cold thick sky for the next two days, gain-
ing the welcome shelter of the Norwegian coast on the
morning of August 12. It was on the previous night; that
we had reached into sunset again.

i=;6

NATURE

[December i, 1910

Being now a few hours ahead of time, our captain took
us up the lovely Lyngen Fiord, in glorious weather, wiih
a sprinkle of new snow on all the peaks. Thus were
we reconciled to the loss of Hornsund. And at Tromso
in the afternoon we returned to the world of telegrams,
letters and newspapers.

Of the after-voyage through the fiords to Trondhjem it
is enough to say that the weather remained perfect ; and
that Dr. Hans Reusch, the Director of the Norwegian
Survey, was of our company, so that we missed nothing
that could be learnt in passing. At Trondhjem, moreover,
on August 14, we had time, under Dr. Reusch 's guidance,
to visit the high strand-lines near the city and to examine
the scientific and artistic collections in its museums, finish-
ing the day with a pleasant reunion at one of the hotels.
Here we left our ship, taking train on the morning of
August 15 up the fine valley that leads across the Swedish
frontier. \\'e reached Are in Jjimtland in the afternoon,

went eastward until evening across the ground we had
seen from the summit of Areskutan, past the great Lake
Storjon, and reached Stockholm, exactly on time, before
breakfast on the morning of Wednesday, August 17. The
initial reception of the members of the congress was held
in .Stockholm on the evening of that day.

To those who did not share in the pilgrimage this recital
of our itinerary can at the best convey only a feeble idea
of its advantages. Not the new country alone and the
new experiences, but above all, the constant association
and intercourse of men of different nationahties and out-
looks, with interests in common which- they were ever
ready to discuss together — this it was that gave peculiar
value to the journey, as to all journeys of the same type.
Deeply indeed were we indebted to our leader, Prof. G.
De Geer, and to the accomplished lady, his wife, for the
whole-hearted enthusiasm which they threw into the
difficult task of planning, guiding, and demonstrating in

Photo, by Oscar Halldin, Stockhelm.\ [Reproduced by kind permission 0/ Prof. G. de Gccr.

Fig. 3.— North end of Cora Island, Ekman Bay ; showing the Sefstrom moraine of shelly clay, to theteftof the inlet, and a portion of the original

island to the right.

in time to make the ascent of Mt. Areskutan (4620 feet)
for the sake of the view from its summit over an immense
range of lower lake-country to the eastward. The glacial
phenomena of this region are like those of Tornetrask
on a grander scale ; the same evidence for a succession of
glacier-dammed lakes, at first discharging westward over
the watershed into Norway ; the same shrinkage of the
ice-sheet from the western mountain-rim to the lower
eastern country ; the same westward transport of the
boulders. On the lop of Areskutan there are boulders
which have come from places far away to the eastward at
much lower altitudes.

In the evening Prof. C. Wiman joined us at Are ; and
next morning, under his leadership, we visited sections
near the Are Lake, which show the fossiliferous Lower
Palaeozoic succession. We were able also to appreciate
the evidence for a gigantic overthrust of the metamorphic
rocks from the westward over the unaltered Palaeozoics.
Leaving Are by train in the afternoon of August 16, we
NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

varied languages so that the time at our disposal should
always be profitably spent ; and even still more for the
happ}' spirit of friendliness and geniality which they
imparted to the whole expedition. Much also we owed to
Mr. B. Hogbom for his share in the direction of our party
in Spitsbergen, and to Dr. Hj. Lundbohm, Prof. C.
Wiman, and Dr. O. Sjogren for their aid in Sweden, whili
Mr. C. Carlzon and Mr. H. Ahlmann were our ever-
obliging helpers and interpreters. In our admiration for
the extraordinary skill • with which every stage of the
journey was arranged, we could not fail to recognise the
thoughtful solicitude of our physician and treasurer, Dr.
J. W. Nordenson, of whose high qualities as an organiser
we had daily proof.

Brief must be our reference to the constitution of the
party. The British geologists were lamentably few —
G. A. J. Cole, A. P. Coleman, A. Strahan, and the writer
— but, for the occasion, we will count with us n'so the
U.S. Americans, R. S. Tarr, Miss F. Bascom, Miss Z.
Baber, and Miss E. Rice. The German and Austrian

December i, 1910]

NATURE

0/

contingent was predominant, including (titles omitted)
H. Credner, G. Giirich, K. Keilhack, A. Penck, A. Roth-
pletz, W. Salomon, K. Sapper, F. Wahnschaffe, and other
well-known names. Among those from France were
L. Carez, L. de Lamothe, E. de Margerie, and A. Offret ;
from Italy, S. CeruUi-Irelli and E. Mattirolo ; from
Portugal, J. Mendez-Guerreiro ; from Switzerland, M.
Allorge, J. Brunhes, ?nd P. Mercanton. From Denmark,
among others, came V. E. Hintze, \'. Madsen, and J. P. J.
Ravn ; from Holland, J. I. J. M. Schmutzer and Mile. A.
Grutterink ; from Norway, H. Reusch ; from Hungary,
E. de Cholnoky and E. de Maros ; and Japan was repre-
sented by K. Inouye and H. Yabe. Broadcast now is the
gathering that went with the good ship _ /Eolus on this
memorable voyage to Spitsbergen I

G. W. Lamplugh.

A FOURTH RECALESCEXCE IX STEEL.
TX 1868 the late Dr. George Gore, F.R.S., discovered
■*• the recalescence points now known as Ar, and Ar^,
and in 1872 Prof. W. F. Barrett, F.R.S., discovered the

Photo-micrograph of nearly Pure Iron containing 021 per cent. Carbon. Rapidly quenched
between the two peaks of Ar.i. Magnified 450 diameters.

point Ar„ which is now known as the carbon change
I)oint. Prof. Barrett gave the phenomena the generic title
f "recalescence," by which thev have been known ever
-ince.

At the recent meeting of the British .Association, Prof.

J- O. Arnold described to the section of chemistrv

he result of accumulated thermal and micrographic

/oservations upon this subject extending over twenty years.

'- "^rst described the recalescence apparatus used at

id University, in which the tape results can be

i either as a time-temperature or as an inverse-rate

curve. The latter is more delicate, its coordinates being

units of temperature and time in seconds, for units rise or

fall in temperature.

made possible bv a gift of chemically pure iron from Dr.
Hicks and Prof. O'Shea, of Sheffield University. The
recalescence data registered in vacuo on placing the
thermocouple between two small plates of this iron show
that the maximum of Ar, appears at 854^* C, and the
set-back between the two peaks of Ar, is registered at

750° C.

The Recalescence of Iron containing about 0-2 per cent.
Carbon.
On cooling unsaturated steels containing about 0-2 per
cent, carbon it was noticed that there was along the range
of temperature between Ar, and .\r, some thermal evolu-
tion which prevented the curve crossing the radiation line
after recalescence, and also kept it well to the right of
that line. Careful investigation of this phenomena re-
vealed the fact that whilst with iron containing 0-38 per
cent, carbon this new and prolonged recalescence was very
much augmented, as compared with a 02 per cent, carbon
steel, that iron containing 0-63 per cent, carbon gives out
during this fourth phase of recalescence much less heat
than the 038 per cent, carbon steel. Therefore it would
appear that the maximum of heat of the
fourth phase of recalescence is evolved from
a semi-saturated steel, namely, an iron con-
taining 0-45 per cent, carbon, and having
in the cold a micro-structure consisting of
50 per cent, ferrite and 50 per cent, pearlite.
The recalescence data and curves of all
these steels were shown on the screen and
minutely described.

The Cause of the Fourth Phase of
Recalescence.

By micro-thermal investigations Prof.
Arnold has satisfied himself that the fourth
phase of recalescence is due to constitutional
segregation, namely, the falling out between
-Ar, and Arj of the ferrite and hardenite
from their state of mutual interpenetration
or solid solution into microscopically in-
visible masses. A method was adopted for
rapidly quenching from nitrogen in iced
brine 0-2 per cent, carbon steel at various
temperatures. The temperatures were : —
(i) 995° C. (well above Ar,) ; (2) just below
Ar, ; (3) just after first peak of .Ar, ; (4) just
above Ar, ; (5) 15" (normalised or cooled in
air).

The micrograph here reproduced is a
section quenched between the two peaks of
Ar,. The segregation is obvioush' proceed-
ing verv' quickly, and the ferrite is strongly
electro-negative to the dark etching areas
of hardenite still containing in solution
large quantities of iron. The micrographs
indicate that the critical range Ar, has no
influence on the segregation of hardenite
and ferrite. In Prof. Arnold's view these
five photomicrographs, when correlated with
the recalescence curves of the steel experi-
mented upon, prove that the fourth phase of
recalescence is due to the heat evolved
during the segregation of the ultimate micrographic con-
stituents of steel, which began at Ar, and incomplete at
Ar,, during the cooling of unsaturated steels at a moderate
rate, say 0-5° per second.

The Recalescence of Chemically Pure Iron.
From many observations it appears that before even a
rough quantitative measurement of recalescence in steel
an be made it is very desirable to obtain a standard cooi-
ng curve of iron absolutely free from carbon ; this was
NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

REPORTS ON IMPERIAL FOODSTUFFS.

"\VrE have received No. 63 (" Gums and Resins ") and
No. 71 ("Foodstuffs") of the "Colonial Rejjorts :
Miscellaneous," comprising selected reports from the
Scientific and Technical Department of the Imperial
Institute. They refer to products, from British possessions,
examined at the institute with regard generally to the
possibility of their profitable cultivation or preparation in
the districts concerned. The first report is a useful little
monograph on gums and resins from the commercial and
analytical point of view, with particulars of the colonial
specimens examined. The chief matter of scientific interest
in the paper on foodstuffs, namely, a summarv of the

158

NATURE

[December i, 1910

facts relating to cyanogenesis in plants, has already been
published elsewhere.

Among points of general interest we note that Yebb (or
Yeheb) nuts from Somaliland, which grow in arid dis-
tricts and have formed the principal food of many destitute
refugees, were found to contain about 12 per cent, of
albuminoids, 11 per cent, of oil, 24 per cent, of sugars,
and 37 per cent, of other carbohydrates. They thus show
high nutritive value as a foodstuff ; and it is recommended
that the cultivation of the plant (Cordeaux'xa edtilis) pro-
ducing the nuts should be tried in other countries, especi-
ally where a foodstuff is needed which can be grown in
arid places. Tea from the Nyasaland Protectorate was
found to be analytically of good quality, though on account
of its having been packed with tobacco no opinion could
be given on its flavour. Nevertheless, it is considered
that the cultivation of tea in the Protectorate might well
be extended. Some Natal tea, too, appears to be very
satisfactory. Its proportion of caffeine is only slightly
less than that of Indian tea examined, and as regards
tannin it is intermediate between Indian and China teas.
In the opinion of the department the cultivation and pre-
paration of tea in Natal deserves very full study, with a
view to the production of tea of characteristic quality.

Cocoa grown experimentally in Uganda gave very
promising results. So also did some specimens cultivated
by the Botanical Department of the Gold Coast Colony,
though it was pointed out that more attention was re-
(^uired in the fermentation of the beans, since it is on
this that the aroma and colour largely depend. Small
consignments subsequently sent for actual sale realised
fair prices, and from the knowledge gained it was possible
to indicate the directions in which further improvement of
the cocoa could be effected. Some useful memoranda on
miscellaneous matters, such as the constituents of food and
their functions, and the harvesting and shipment of maize,
are also included in this report on foodstuffs.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

Cambridge. — The special board for medicine has elected
Prof. Marsh, Master of Downing College, as its repre-
sentative on the general board of studies for four years,
and the special board for economics and politics has elected
Mr. G. L. Dickinson as its representative on the same
board for the same period.

Prof. Hughes states that he has received a very valuable
gift of fossils, &-c., from the widow of the Rev. G. F.
Whidborne, who had previously presented to the Sedgwick
Memorial Museum the collection of Devonian fossils which
he had described in the Transactions of the Pala?onto-
graphical Society. Mrs. Whidborne has now given to the
museum the remainder of his collection, with all his
scientific books and manuscripts, together with a valuable
series of photographs and other illustrations, and has
included in her gift the cabinets in which some of the
specimens were kept and were being arranged.

The Vice-Chancellor publishes the following extract from
the will of the late John Willis Clark, formerly Registrary
of the University : — " I bequeath also to the Chancellor,
Masters, and Scholars of the University of Cambridge my
Collection of Voyages and Travels as recorded in a special
catalogue, forming part of the collection, to be placed
under the charge of the Museums and Lectuie Rooms
Syndicate. And I request the said Syndicate to deposit
the same wherever in their judgment it is likely to be
most useful."

The board of anthropological studies desires the
establishment of a special examination in anthropology
for the ordinary B.A. degree. The board reports as
follows : — " As anthropology is a subject that is rapidly
growing in imjxirtance, the board is of opinion that the
time has arrived when it is desirable that a specinl
examination in anthropology should be held. Anthropology
is a science that demands extensive and precise study,
and at the same time bears upon other branches of learn-
ing, for example, history, economics, psychology, biology,
and geography. It may now be considered as a mental
discipline not inferior to other subjects comprised in the
various special examinations."

Oxford. — On November 29 Congregation took into con-
sideration some of the amendments that had been pro-
posed to the statute concerning the. faculties and boards
of faculties, of which the preamble was approved on
November 8. Exception had been taken in some quarters
to certain provisions of the statute which appeared to. dis-
qualify the college tutors as such for membership of the
faculties. .An amendment proposed by the Master of
Balliol providing that the head of any college or similar
society within the University might certify any member
of Convocation authorised by his society as a member of
the faculty in which his teaching is given was carried
without a division. Another amendment, proposed by the
Master of University College, to the effect that a number
of the members of the general board of the faculties should
be elected from and by the whole body of members instead
of from and by each faculty acting separately, was opposed
by the President of Magdalen, Prof. Gotch, F.R.S., and
Prof. Oman, and rejected on a division.

As was generally anticipated, the question of compulsory
Greek is not to be allowed to rest in the position to
which it was relegated by the division on November 22.
A petition to council is being prepared, asking that a
short statute may be framed relieving honour students in
the schools of natural science and mathematics " from the
necessity of taking two ancient languages in Responsions."
This movement has the support, amongst others, of Sir
W. Anson, Profs. Gilbert Murrav, Mvres, Poulton,
F.R.S., H. H. Turner, F.R.S., and Osle'r, F.R.S., the
latter of whom, however, has stated " that he is strongly
in favour of retaining Greek in the case of candidates for
the degrees in medicine."

Mr. James A. Patten, of Chicago, says Science, has
given 40,000^ to endow a chair of experimental pathology
in the medical school of Northwestern University. Specinl
attention is to be directed to the study of tuberrulc-'^ n"d
pneumonia. By the will of the late Mr. S. W'. Bowne,
bequests in stocks and bonds of considerable value are
made to Wesleyan University and Dickinson College.
Radcliffe College, we learn from the same source, has re-
ceived from Mrs. Martha T. Fiske Collard a bequest
amounting to about 20,000?.

M. Maurice Leriche has been appointed professor of
geology at the University of Brussels. M. Leriche has
been until recently " Maitre de Conf(^rences " at Lille
University. He has recently issued an important mono-
graph on the Oligoccne fish of Belgium, published in the
Memoires du Musee Royal d'Historie Naturelle de
lielgique, v. Prof. Dollo retains the chair of palaeonto-
logy at Brussels University and conservator of the depart-
ment of vertebrate remains of the Brussels Museum, and
thus will continue in charge of the important collections
which his work has rendered famous.

Prinxe Arthur of Connaught has accepted the position
of president of the appeal committee appointed to secure
the sum of 70,000?. for the purchase of the site in Gower
Place and for the erection thereon of new chemical labora-
tories for University College, London. We are glad to
notice that the new president in a fyrther appeal through
the Press emphasises the national aspect of the appeal
committee's object, and asks for a national response. As
we have pointed out already, 25,000?. must be raised before
December 25 next if the new site is to be secured, and
towards this amount upwards of 10,000?. has been raised.
It should not be difficult to secure the remaining 15,000?.
during the next few weeks.

The German Emperor opened a new technical
university at Breslau on Tuesday, November 29, and
delivered an address, in which he referred to the great
importance of such institutions for the industrial progress
of the Empire. There are now eleven technical universi-
ties in Germany, five of which are in Prussia, namely, at
Charlottenburg,' Aachen, Hanover, Danzig, and Breslau.
The Berlin correspondent of the Morning Post reports that
in the course of his remarks at the dedication of this
the second technical university founded in his reign — the
German Emperor said :— " The close connection between

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

December i, 1910]

NATURE

159

technical science and industry becomes year by year more

manifest, and it is not by chance that the immense advance

made by our industrial life is contemporaneous with the

progressive development of the technical university system

in Ger^nany. The times are past in which a school of

practice sufficed for the engineer. Whoever wishes to be

equal to the demands made by technics in our time must

so into the battle of life equipped with a solid scientific

d technical education." His Majesty also remarked that

lesia had gained for itself an eminent position through

e assiduity and spirit of enterprise which had enabled it

• develop its coal and iron and its spinning and weaving
•:idustries, and he expressed the opinion that the
inhabitants were perfectly justified in desiring to have a
technical university- in their capital. Dr. von Trott zu
Solz, Prussian Minister of Ecclesiastical .Affairs, address-
ing the Emperor, recalled the fact that it was King
Frederick the Great who laid the foundation of the great-
ness of the Silesian industries, in that he encouraged the
employment of Silesian coal in other industrial districts
and overcame the prejudice against Silesian iron.

.\ CONFERENCE Organised by the Joint Committee for the
Abolition of Half-time Labour was held on November 23

- the Church House, Westminster, with the Bishop of
rmingham in the chair. The meeting was called to
nsider the question of the employment of children in
lis and factories, and of securing the passage of a Bill

iiough Parliament raising the age of " half-timers " to
thirteen. Prof. Sadler, in a letter expressing inability to
attend, said it is a drag upon the economic welfare of
the country that more than 200,000 children between twelve
and fourteen years of age have left the day school for
good, and that more than 40,000 more only attend school
half time. There is no reason in the nature of things
why the number of boys and girls under fourteen who are
wholly or partial!}- exempt from day-school attendance
should be proportionately six times as numerous in
England and Wales as in Scotland. The chairman insisted
that it is a ludicrous waste of energy and money to let
education stop at the age of fourteen, thirteen, or twelve.
The evil is increased by the system of half-time attend-
ance. Two things, he said, are necessary to stop this
wastage of education — to abolish the half-time system,
except possibly in some very extreme and exceptional
circumstances, and to press forward in the matter of con-
tinuation schools. If continuation schools are to be made
a real force, the hours of work in shops must be restricted.
It is physiologically certain that it is impossible to get
real good out of education so long as the bodies and minds

■'• children are in the main occupied in getting a living.

Aentually the following resolution, which was proposed

Lord Sheffield, was carried :— " That this meeting

aoproves of the recommendations of the Departmental

Crrmmittee on partial exemption, and trusts that legislation.

- promised by the Board of Education and unanimously

• proved by resolution bv the House of Lords, may be
rried into effect in the first session of the coming Parlia-

nt."

Iv consequence of a suggestion of the Chancellor of the

Exchequer made last March to a large deputation from

' iglish universities and colleges, a committee of repre-

itati%e? from these educational institutions was appointed

place before the Chancellor suggestions as to the prin-

iles of distribution on which, in its opinion, an additional

mt to university Colleges might be utilised most

■ctively. The committee consisted of Mr. \. H. D.

land. Sir Alfred Hopkinson, F.R.S., Sir Oliver Lodge,

R.S.. Sir Isambard Owen, and the Rev. Dr. A. C.

• adlam. Conferences between the Chancellor of the
-xchequer and the President of the Board of Educ.ition

with the committee were held on November 16 and 17.

The committee expressed the view that the Treasury- Com-

'ttee, on the advice of which grants are distributed,

ould take into consideration : — (1) Output. — ^That is, the

xrent and character of the work being done, including

number of students, the nature of the instruction

ven. and research and other work undertaken. (2) Needs

order to carry on the work efficiently : (a) staff, and the

Tiuneration of its members : (b) accommodation and

iiipment. (3) Development. — The development of work

NO. 2144. VOL. 85]

which the several universities and colleges desire, and
would be in a position to undertake effectively with further
financial assistance, and having regard to provision already
made from private benefactions, or other local support,
or which may be obtained for such objects. The com-
mittee also pointed out it is essential for the universities
and colleges to have freedom as to the mode of expendi-
ture of grants to secure the greatest return from them
and to meet constantly varying conditions. Great import-
ance was attached to the grants being certain, and not
liable to diminution, so long as the extent and character
of the work are maintained. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer expressed himself willing to grant an additional
sum to the colleges to be allocated on the lines laid down
by the committee, but subject to the condition that
sufficient additional local support is forthcoming in each
case, not only to maintain tiie existing activities of the
college in conjunction with its existing Treasur}" grant
and to place it on a secure footing in regard to its capital
liabilities and requirements, but to meet a suitable propor-
tion of the cost of maintenance of the new developments
adopted. He w-as prepared to increase the total grant
by 50,000/., and promised (subject, of course, to com-
pliance with the minimum conditions as to character,
efficiency, &c., which any college is already required to
fulfil in order to participate in the grant at all) not to
reduce the existing grants to the several colleges.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

London.

Geological Society, November 9. — Prof. W. W. Watts,
I F.R.S., president, in the chair. — L. Richardson : The
I Rhaetic and contiguous deposits of west, mid, and part
I of east Somerset. This paper contains an account of the
i Rhaetic strata of Somerset. The sections at Blue Anchor
! and Lilstock are described and correlated with those on
i the Glamorgan coast. The record by Prof. Boyd Dawkins
of Rhaetic mollusca in the top portion of the Grey Marls
is confirmed, and their recognition as Rhaetic is sub-
stantiated. The deposit between the top of the fossiliferous
I Grev Marls or " Sully beds " and the main bone-bed at
Blue Anchor measures 22 feet, and teems with Rhaetic
! fossils. The beds above the bone-bed agree well with
^ those occupying the same stratigraphical position in
Glamorgan. The now obscured sections, that were
to be seen in the railway-cuttings at Langport and
Charlton Mackrell, noticed by Mr. H. B. Woodward, are
described. Huge boulder-like masses of rock were noted
at the top of the Black Shales, and the White Lias proper,
with a well-marked coral-bed, totalled 25 feet in thick-
ness. The classic sections of Snake Lane, Dunball
(Puriton), Sparkford Hill (Queen Camel). Shepton Mallet,
and Milton (Wells), have been reinvestigated, and the
thin Rhaetic deposits in Vallis Vale, at Upper Vobster.
and sections in the Radstock district, and on the Nemp-
nett and neighbouring outliers, are described. This
investigation has shown that the Microlestes Marls are
equivalent to the Sully beds ; that the W^edmore Stone
occurs well below the bone-bed ; that Moore's " flinty
bed " at Beer Crowcombe is probably on the horizon of
the Pleurophorus bed (No. 13) : that the Upper Rhaetic
is as persistent as usual ; that the W'hite Lias proper is of
restricted gec^raphical extent ; and that on the Bristol
Channel littoral are marls, " Watchet beds," above the
White Lias, .\round Queen Camel. Moore's " insect and
crustacean beds " appear to come in at a horizon which
lies between the Watchet beds and the Ostrea Limestone.
.\ classification of the Rhaetic series is suggested. The
fauna of the Rhaetian is Swabian in facies. and the con-
clusion to be derived from the study of the beds is in
agreement with Suess's view, that while the dominant
movement was one of subsidence and not local but ex-
tended, it was, nevertheless, "oscillatory and slow." —
Rev. G. J. Lane : Jurassic plants from the Marske
quarrv. The Marske quarn,- is situated on the northern
side of the Upleatham outlier in the Cleveland district of
Yorkshire. In the quarn.' several varieties of rock are

i6o

NATURE

[December i, 1910

exposed, namely, shales, small coal-seams, sandstones, and
a ferruginous bed. The beds are of Lower Oolite age,
and belong to the Lower Estuarine series. From this
quarry Dictyozamites was recorded for the first time in
England. The writer has obtained nearly forty species
from the quarry, among which are many characteristic
Wealden plants.

Physical Society, November ii. — Prof. H. L. Callendar,
F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. C. Chree : The
supposed propagation of equatorial magnetic disturbances
with velocities of the order of loo miles per second. The
question of the simultaneity of magnetic disturbances re-
corded at different stations has recently been discussed by
Dr. Bauer and Mr. Paris. A good many magnetic storms
have so-called " sudden commencements." As regards
these " sudden " changes, three things are conceivable :
they may be absolutely simultaneous at different stations ;
there may be a very small difference of time corresponding
to the rate of propagation of electromagnetic waves ; or,
finally, there may be, as Dr. Bauer concludes, longer
intervals, amounting to several minutes, for stations re-
mote from one another. Dr. Bauer concludes that Mr.
Faris's figures demonstrate the truth of his theory that
disturbances normally are propagated round the earth,
sometimes eastwards, sometimes westward, the time of a
complete revolution averaging about 3I minutes. The
author of the present paper discusses the weaknesses of
Dr. Bauer's theory. He points out that the theory could
be adequately tested by a careful comparison of curves
from selected stations fairly encircling the globe, choosing,
if possible, stations the time-measurements of which are
specially trustworthy. — Prof. W. B. Morton : Cusped
waves of light and the theory of the rainbow. Diagrams
were shown of the forms assumed by a plane wave of
light falling on a spherical raindrop and twice reflected
from the interior of the drop, as well as the waves emerg-
ing from the drop. The waves in general have cuspidal
edges, which run along the caustic surfaces. This rela-
tion between the caustic and the cusps on the waves was
pointed out by Wood in connection with the similar waves
produced by reflection at a spherical surface. It had been
noticed earlier by Pol'ter, Jamin, and Mac^ de Lepinay.
The phase over a wave of this type is not constant, the
two portions on opposite sides of a cusp differing in
general by a quarter period. Attention was directed to
the advantage of regarding the distribution of light in the
rainbow as the consequence of the interference of the
cusped waves which run down to the observer's eye along
the direction of minimum deviation. This way of looking
at the matter is shown to be equivalent to Mascart's
approximate method of explanation of the formation of the
supernumerary bows by interference of disturbances
coming from the two poles on the special wave-form used
by Airy.

Zoological Society, November 15. — Dr. S. F. Harmer,
F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — J. Lewis Bonhote :
Experiments on the occurrence of the web-foot character
in pigeons. After referring to Mr. R. Staples Browne's
paper on the subject in the Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1905, in
which the web-foot was shown to be a simple Mendelian
recessive, Mr. Bonhote instanced further cases from the
lofts of Mr. F. W. Smalley that bore out Mr. Staples
Browne's conclusions. Both these gentlemen, however,
gave the author birds from their strains, and in the first
instance when webbed birds from the different strains
were crossed an irregular result — namely, four normal and
one webbed — was obtained. Matings from these birds
were continued, and the results were, in almost every
case, contrary to Mendelian expectations, normals throw-
ing webs and webs throwing normals. After discussing
various suggestions, Mr. Bonhote came to the conclusion
that no really satisfactory explanation was forthcoming.
The Mendelian inheritance was apparently there, but
dominated and modified by some other agency. — E.
Degren : Notes on the little known lizard Lacerta jacksoni,
Blgr., with special reference to its cranial characters. —
G. A. Boulengrer : Lacerta peloponnesiaca, Bibr. A new
description of this little known lizard, made from living

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

specimens in the society's gardens, with the view of fixing
its correct position in the genus Lacerta. — E. G.
Boulengrer : Remarks on two species of fishes of the
genus Gobius, from observations made at Roscoff. The
paper dealt with the specific distinction of Gobius minulus
and G. microps.

Linnean Society, November 17. — Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S.»
president, in the chair. — Prof. G. Henslow : A theoretical
origin of Plantago maritima, L., and P. alpina, L., from
P. Coronopus, L. Vars. This suggestion arose from the
presence of P. maritima around the erection of faggots for
condensing the brine of the salt-spring of Bad Nauheim,
which is some 240 miles from the nearest coast, for M.
Lesage proved that fleshiness of maritime plants was the
direct result of the presence of salt. P. Coronopus has
many varieties, and all the characters upon which they
are based are very variable ; forms approximating the
above species are already named. — Prof. G. Henslow :
A theoretical origin of Monocotyledons from aquatic
Dicotyledons through self-adaptation to an aquatic habit,
being supplementary observations to a previous paper
(Journ. Linn. Soc, Bot. xxix.. [1892], p. 485). The con-
clusions arrived at are : — (i) Coincidences are innumerable
in all parts of monocotyledonous plants with aquatic
Dicotyledons. (2) Experimental verification now covers
and explains a large proportion of these coincidences.
(3) Terrestrial Monocotyledons retain by heredity many of
the aquatic characters acquired by their ancestors when
living a hydrophytic life, but they are now readapted to
a life in air.

Melbourne.

Royal Society of Victoria, October. — Prof. E. W. Skeats
in the chair. — ^T. S. Hall : The systematic position of the
species of Squalodon and Zeuglodon described from
Australia and New Zealand. Squalodon ivilkinsoni,
McCoy, Zeuglodon harwoodi, Sanger, Kekenodon
onamata, Hector ; and Prosqualodon australis, Lydekker.
agree in having the molar roots fused, as distinct from
the northern hemisphere forms. New genera based on the
proportion of crown to fang are proposed, namely, Para-
squalodon (ivilkinsoni) and Metasqualodon (harwoodi). —
C. M. Maplestone : Further descriptions of the Tertiary
polyzoa of Victoria, part xi. A new family, Synapti-
cellidae, with n.g. Synapticella (6 spp.), is founded. The
family is allied to Catenicellidae and Eucratidae, but the
zoaria are free and rigid, and the zocecia in single series.
In all, 38 new species are described. — F. Chapman : A
trilobite fauna of Upper Cambrian age (Olenus series) in
N.E. Gippsland, Victoria. E. O. Thiele found a lime-
stone near Mt. Wellington which he, Skeats, and Dunn
hold to be interbedded in slates which on graptolite
evidence are Upper Ordovician. The author records
Agnostus, Crepicephalus, and Ptychoparia, besides brachio-
pods and a few other forms, all of which are held to show
Cambrian affinities. — A. J. Ewart, Jean White, and
Bertha Wood : Contributions to the flora of Australia,
No. 16. The authors described a new grass, Sarga. n.g.,
from N.W. Australia, a new Linum from Tasmania, and
others.

Cambridge.

Philosophical Society, November 14. — Prof. Wood in the
chair. — Prof. BifTen : Some crosses with Rivet wheat.
Cases of coupling of roughness of the chaff with grey
colour were described from several crosses between sub-
s{>ecies of Triticum sativum, and also a case where two
varieties normally immune to the attacks of Claviceps
purpurea gave rise to an F^ generation containing
susceptible individuals. — Mrs. D. Thoday and D.
Thoday : The inheritance of the yellow tinge in sweet-
pea colouring. The yellow tinge in scarlet, salmon, and
deep cream sweet peas is found to be very complex in
character. In the deepest tinged flowers examined, Queen
Alexandra and St. George, the yellow colouring is pro-
duced by at least three coincident recessive factors. The
three are all independent of one another ; two tinge_ the
sap and affect the whole flower, while the third is a
plastid character, especially affecting the standard and pro-

December i, 19 io]

NATURE

161

ducing marked bicoloured forms. In the absence of yellow
plastids the flowers do not " burn," unlike most known
salmon or scarlet varieties. — Dr. R. N. Salaman :
Demonstration of Mendelian laws of heredity in the
potato. — Prof. Wood : The feeding value of mangels.
Reference was made to a former communication on the
composition of thi five types of mangels. The present
paper describes a series of feeding trials designed to ascer-
tain if the percentage of dr}* matter is a fair index of
feeding value. Nine experiments are discussed, and the
result arrived at is that the percentage of dry matter does
indicate the feeding value. — F. H. A. Marshall : Some
causes of sterility in cattle. Sterility in some cases was
shown to be probably due to a deposition of lipochrome
in the ovarian interstitial tissue, associated with follicular
degeneration. — F. H. A. Marshall and K. J. J.
Mackenzie : Caponising. It was shown that in a case
of incomplete caponisation, where pieces of testis of vary-
ing sizes had become transplanted on to the intestine and
in other abnormal positions, spermatozoa were formed in
the testicular grafts in spite of the fact that they were
virtually ductless glands ; also that the development of the
secondary male characters and sexual desire were
almost normal, as in the cases described by Foges
and Shattock and Seligmann.— F. W. Foreman : Notes
on protein hydrolysis. During the hydrolysis of the pro-
tein of Linseed the following points worthy of special
mention were noted : — (i) By a modification of the ordinan,'
method it was found possible to separate practically the
whole of the glutaminic acid as the hydrochloride in the
early stages of the hydrolysis. (2) The very high content
of valin compared with leucin. (3) The low percentage of
tyrosin. C4) The discovery of a basic lead salt of tyrosin,
and the possibility of introducing a trustworthy method
for the estimation of tyrosin in a mixture of amino-acids
obtained from a protein by hydrolysis by precipitating it
as this basic lead salt. — K. R. Lewvin : Nuclear relations
of Tarameciunx caudatum during the asexual jieriod. The
micronucleus of Paramecium caudatum is not necessary to
continued multiplication by fission. By merotomy an
amicronucleate race was obtained which maintained itself
for seven weeks. This result was not due to fusion of
mega- and micronuclei under the stimulus of operation.

Dublin.

Royal Dublin Society, November 22. — Prof. T. Johnson
in the chair. — Prof. VV. Bro«wn : Mechanical stress and
magnetisation of nickel. The author gave the results of
experiments on magnetism and torsion of nickel wires
when the wires were of different degrees of magnetic soft-
ness and of different lengths and diameters, which show
several peculiarities in the behaviour of nickel as com-
pared with iron when tested under the same conditions. —
Prof. T. Johnson : A seed-bearing Irish pteridosperm —
Lyginodendron Oldhamium, Willm. The author records
the presence in Ireland of the Pteridospermeae, and gives
an account of S{>ecimens of Sphenopteris Hoeninghausi,
Brgt., in the botanical division of the National Museum,
Dublin, and especially of one specimen of this in the
Geological Survey collection. This specimen shows not
not only the connection of S. Hoeninghausi with the stem
of Lyginodendron, but also the direct continuit>- of the
fossil known as Calymmatotheca Stangeri with Lygino-
dendron rachis. In addition the author describes the
presence of a Lagenostoma seed in one of the cupular
rosettes of Calymmatotheca. The specimen furnishes the
evidence of direct continuity in support of the views of
Oliver and Scott on the synthetic reconstruction of the
Palaeozoic pteridosperm Lyginodendron Oldhamium.

Paris.

Academy of Sciences, November 21. — M. Einile Picard
m the chair. — M. Francotte was elected a correspondant
n the section of anatomy and zoology in the place of the
ite M. Van Beneden. — J. Guillaume : Observations of
erulli's comet made at the Observatory of Lyons. Data
re given for November 12 and 16. The comet is of about
he tenth magnitude ; a small tail was visible on

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

November 16th. — M. Luixet, J. Guillaume, and J.

Merlin : Occultations observed during the total eclipse of
the moon of November 16, 19 10, at the Observatory of
Lyons. — L. Montangrerand : Observation of the total
eclipse of the moon of November 16, 1910, made at the
Observatory of Toulouse. — M. Lebeuf : The total eclipse
of the moon of November 16, 1910, observed at the
Observatory of Besan^on by MM. Chofardet and Goudey.
— M. Bourget : Observations of the total eclipse of the
moon of November 16, 1910, made at the Observatory of
Marseilles. — Robert Jonckheere : The total eclipse of the
moon of November 16-17, 1910, at the Obervatory of
Hem. — E. Cartan : Isotropes capable of development and
the method of the mobile trihedron. Eugfene Fabry :
Order of the singular points of a Taylor's series. — A.
Chatelet : The theory of numbers. — T. Lalesco :
Resolving nuclei. — Marcel Brillouin : The discontinuous
movement of Helmholtz. Curved obstacles. — M. Villat :
The resistance of fluids limited by a fixed indefinite wall.
— MM. Claude, Ferrie, and Driencourt : Telephonic and
radio-telegraphic comparisons of chronometers by the
method of coincidences between Paris and Brest. The
difference between the two sets of comparisons by tele-
phone and by wireless telegraphy is less than o-oi sec. ;
if necessary, the accuracy could be increased. — G. A.
Hemsalech : The modifications undergone by the lines of
the spark spectrum in a magnetic field. A development of
work described in a previous paper. Three classes of
phenomena are shown to exist : a general effect in-
dependent of the direction of the lines of force of the
magnetic field ; a longitudinal effect, produced when a
spark is parallel to the lines of force ; and a transversal
effect, produced only with very slow discharges, when the
spark is perpendicular to the lines of force. In the present
paper observations on the first two of these effects are
described and discussed. — G. A. Andrault : A rapid
graphical method for measuring the slipping of induction
motors. — Francisque Grenet : Study of the porosity of
Chamberland filters. The dry filter, placed vertically, is
completely filled with mercury, and a fine steel tube passed
through a close-fitting stopper is connected with a cali-
brated glass capillary tube. On plunging the filter into
distilled water, the air in the capillaries of the porous pot
is driven inwards, causing a rise of the mercury in the
glass capillar}'. Filter tubes of different makes showed
large differences in the pressures thus measured, varying
from 18 cm. to 2 metres of mercury. These pressures
measure the diameters of the pores of the filter. —
J. de Kowralski and J. de Dzierzbicki : The progressive
phosphorescent spectrum of organic compounds at low
temperatures. Figures are given for the bands of benzene
and nine of its homologues, for phenol, cresols, and
xylenols and benzyl alcohol. The results show that pro-
gressive phosphorescence is a property which depends
essentially on the constitution. — Charles Moureu and
J. Ch. Bong^rand : Propiolic compounds. Cyanacetylene.
Methyl propiolate, CH'C.COXHj, was converted into
propiolamide, CH:C.CO.(NH,). By the action of phos-
phorus pentoxide upon this amide, cyanacetylene,
HC -C — CN, is obtained. This forms a mobile liquid
boiling at 425° C, solidifying in ice to a mass of crystals
melting at 5° C. The physical and chemical properties of
this compound are given in detail. — Casimir C^p^de : An
improvement of the binocular microscope, increasing the
illumination of the objects under observation. — Marcel
Mirande : The effects of tarred roads on vegetation. It
has been found experimentally that the vapours given off
by tar such as is used for treating roads act injuriously
on green plants. In the open country the vapours given
off by a tarred road would be insufficient to damage
vegetation, but in shut-in streets damage to trees planted
on the edge of the pavement may be expected. — ^Jules
Amar : Respiratory exchanges after work has been done.
The amount of oxygen used by a human subject was
measured, first, when at rest, then during work, and
finally at regular intervals after cessation of the work.
The original vconsumption of oxygen was reached in from
six to eight minutes after the work was stopped. The
rate of decrease of oxygen absorption varied with each
subject. — Ch. Gravier : The battle for existence in the

l62

NATURE

[December i, 1910

madrepores of coral reefs. The forms which succumb in
the struggle are those which are large and globular; the
arborescent forms have more resisting power. — E.
Roubaud : The evolution and history of Roubandia
rufescens, a parasite of the social African wasps, genera
Icaria and Belonogaster.— P. Fabre-Domergfuo and
R. Lesrendre : The search for Bacterium coli in sea
water by the methods employed for fresh water. All the
usual tests for coli in fresh water are retarded in their
action by the presence of common salt. Certain modifica-
tions of technique necessitated by .this fact are suggested.
The question has arisen in connection with the control of
oyster beds. — J. Couyat and P. H. Fritel : The presence
of plant impressions in the Nubian grit in the neighbour-
hood of Assouan.

Cape Town.
Roval Society of South Africa, October iq. — Mr. S. S.
Hough, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — A. G. Howard :
An investigation into the land and sea breezes conditions
at Port Elizabeth. A second contribution to the meteor-
ology of .South Africa.— E. T. Littlewood : Graphical
representation of some of the simpler analytic functions of
a complex variable. The modulus of the function corre-
sponding to each point of the (horizontal) xy plane was
represented by the length of a vertical line erected at that
point, the upper extremities of these lines forming a
(" modular ") surface, while the argument was represented
by a family of curves (" stream lines ") drawn in the xy
plane. Certain general results were established and
methods given. In the models, the surface was suggested
by a wire framework, which usually illustrated contour
lines and vertical sections, while the stream lines, drawn
on the horizontal base of the model, were visible through
the framework. The simpler algebraic, circular, ex-
ponential, and logarithmic functions were thus treated.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, December i.

LiNNEAN Society, at 8. — Spermatogonesis in Stenobothrus : Capt.
C. F. U. Meek. — Reports on the International Botanical Congress at
Brussels, 1910 : Dr. Otto Stapf and others.

RoNTGEN Society, at 8.15. — Osmo'.ic Growths : Dr. Deane Butcher.

FRIDAY, December 2.

Geologists' Association, at 8.— The Geology of Natal : Dr. F. H.

Hatch.
Institution of Civii, Engineers, at 8. — The Scherzer Rolling-lift

Bridge over the River Tawe, at Swansea : J. H. Morris.

MONDAY, December 5.

Royal Geographical Society, at 8.30. — The Geograph'cal Aspects of
the Problem of Empire Cotton Growing: J. Howard Reed.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8. — Industrial Pyrometry : C. R. Darling.
Aristotelian Society, at 8. — A Defect in the Current Logical Formu-
lation of the Basis of Induction : Bernard Bosanquet.

Victoria Institute, at 4.30. — The Theory of Jurisprudence : Judge
G. H. Smith.

Society of Chemical Industry, at 8. — The Analytical Constants of
Shellac, Lac-resin and Lac-wax : Puian Singh. — Theory of Dyeing :
Resolution after Treatment with Acids, &c. : W. P. Dreaper and A.
Wilson. — Some Indian Oils and Fats : A. Kesava Menon.

TUESDAY, December 6.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at %.— Further discussion: Portland
Cement, and the Question of its Aeration : H. K. G. Baraber.

WEDNESDAY, December 7.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8. — The Panama Canal in 1910 : Dr.
Vaughan Cornish.

Society of Public Analysts, at 8. — On Fischer's Modification of
Volhard's Method for the Estimation of Manganese, and its Comparison
with other well known Methods : E. Cahen and H. F. V. Little.— Note
on the Composition of British Wines : E. Russell and T. R. Hodgson. —
A New Volumetric Process for the Estimatinn of Tungsten: Dr. E.
Knecht and E. Hibbert. — A New Volumetric Process for the Estimation
of Molybdenum : Dr. E. Knecht and F. W. Atack.— The Degree of
Accuracy with which the Proteins of Milk can be Estimated by the
Aldehyde Method : H. D. Richmond. — Note on Gorgonzola Cheese :
E. Hinks. — Tests for Cocaine and certain Cocaine Substitutes : Dr. E. H.
Hankin.

Entomological Society, at 8.

THURSDAY, December 8.

Royal Society, at ^.-yi.— Probable Papers: Colour-biindness and the
Trichromatic "Theory. Part II. Incomplete Red or Green Blindness:
Sir W. de W. Abney, K.C.B., F.R.S.— On the Sensibility of the Eye to
Variations of Wave-length in the Yellow Region of the Spectrum : Lord
Rayleigh, O. M., F.K.S. — (i) Trypanosome Diseases of Domestic Animals
in Uganda. IV. Trypayiosmna uni/oriiie, sp. nov. ; (2) Trj'panosome
Diseases of Domestic Animals in Uganda. V. Trypanosoma nanuiii.
(Laveran): Colonel Sir D. Bruce, C.B., F.R.S., and others.— Some
Enumerative Studie-i'on Malarial Fever: Major R. Ross, C.B., F R.S.,
and D. Thomson.— On Haemoglobin Metabolism in Malarial Fever ;
G. C. E. Simpson.— A Case of Sleeping Sickness studied by precise
Enumerative Methods. Further Observations: Major R. Ross, C.B.,

F. tt.S., and D. Thomson. — Enumerative Studies on Trypanosotita
gatiibiense and Trypanosoma 7-lwdienst' in Rats, Guinea-pigs, and
Rabbits ; Periodic Variations disclosed : Dr. H. B. Fantham and J. G.
Thomson. — The Life History of Tfypanosoma gatnbiense and Trypano-
soma rhodiensc as seen in Rats and Guinea-pips : Dr. H. B. Fantham. —
Experiments on the Treatment of Animals infected with Trypanosomes,
by means of Atoxyl, Vaccines, Cold, X-rays, and Leucocytic Extract;
Enumerative Methods employed: Major R. Ross, C.B., F.R.S., and

J. G.Thomson.

Mathematical Society, at 5.30. — (1) Properties of Logarithmico-
exponential Functions ; (2) Some Results concerning the Increase of
Functions defined by an Algebraic Differential Equation of the First
Degree: G. H. Hardy.— Optical Geometry of Motion: A. A. Robb. —
(r) Note on the Pcllian Equation ; (2) A Property of the Number 7 :
T. C. Lewis.— On the Arithmetical Theory of Binary Cubic Forms :

G. B. Mathews.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8.— The Magnetic Properties
of Iron and its Alloys in Intense Fields: Sir R. Hadfield, F.R.S., and
Prof B. Hopkinson, F.R.S.

FRIDAY, December 9.
Royal Astronomical Society, at 5.

Illuminating Engineering Society, at 8.— Recent Prog>-ess in Electri
Lighting : Prof E. W. Marchant.

NO. 2144, VOL. 85]

CONTENTS. PAGE

History in British Place-names. By Rev. John

Griffith 131

The Chemistry of the Alkaloids. By J. B, C. . . 131

Practical Gardening 132

A Treatise on British Nudibranchiate Mollusca.

By F. W. G 133

Wild Flowers . 134

Shallow-water Starfishes 134

Experimental Electricity and Magnetism 135

Our Book Shelf 136

Letters to the Editor: —

Marine Microthermograms and the Influence of Ice-
bergs on the Temperature of the Sea. ( With

Dia^-ams.)— 'Prof. H. T. Barnes 137

Dun Coat Colour in the Horse.— J. B. Robertson . 138

Lower Cretaceous Angiosperms. — Dr. M. C. Stopes 139

The Cocos-Keeling Atoll.— Dr. F. Wood-Jones . 139
Conflicting Dates of International Congresses. — Dr.

F. A. Bather I39

The Megalospheric Form of Ammodiscus iucertiis. —

F. Chapman ... 139

The Photography of Nebulae. [Illustrated.) By

Dr. William J. S. Lockyer 14°

Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society .... 143

Enteric Fever Carriers MS

Notes . 146

Our Astronomical Column: —

Recent Fireballs 15°

Saturn's Rings 15°

Cerulli's Comet (l9io«) identified with Faye's Short-
period Comet 15°

A System of Standard Wave-lengths IS^

The Radial Velocity of Sitius . _ • • ■ IS'

"Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, 1911." ... 151

Magnitude of Nova Sagittarii, No. 2 15^

Agricultural Research in Japan 151

Stockholm to Spitsbergen : the Geologists' Pil-
grimage. {Illustrated.) By G. W. Lamplugh.

F.R.S 152

A Fourth Recalescence in Steel. (Illustrated.) . . 157

Reports on Imperial Foodstuffs I57

University and Educational Intelligence 158

Societies and Academies '55

Diary of Societies ^^^

NA TURE

i6

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1910.

FRESH-WATER FISH-CULTVRE IN FRANCE.

Eticvclopedie agricole. Pisciculture. By Georges
Gu^naux. Introduction by Dr. P. Regnard. Pre-
face by M. Charles Deloncle. Pp. xii + 489. (Paris :
Bailliere et Fils.) Price 5 francs.

THIS is a comprehensive, compact, and eminently
practical handbook on all matters relating to
fresh-water pisciculture. Much of the information
and criticism which it contains applies almost equally
to England as to France, since most of the fishes dealt
with are found in our islands, and the almost
complete neglect of fresh-water pisciculture—
except in the case of the Salmonidae — is as
characteristic of this country as of that. What
is true of the depopulation of the French
watercourses is partly true of our own. In France the
depqjulation and its neglect were due partly to obvious
causes inseparable from industrial progress, such as
the opening of canals, the development of navigation,
and the establishment of manufacturing works and
chemical factories on the river banks, and partly to
lack of enthusiasm following on historical events.
The means adopted to arrest the depopulation, much
less to restock the waters, have been, and continue to
be, utterly disproportionate to the extent of the waters
and to the magnitude of the task.

The results of this neglect are : — (i) That France
consumes extremely little fresh-water fish, either abso-
lutely, or relatively to the consumption of marine
species; and (2) that the great bulk of what little she
does consume is derived from adjacent countries, prin-
cipally Germany, where the rearing of carp especially
has been developed into a paying industry by long
years of experience and the application of scientific
methods. While- it is possible, as hinted by the
author, that a protective tariff might do a little to
obviate this unsatisfactory state of affairs, the only
complete solution of the problem is for France to grow
her own fish. These French watercourses (our own
rivers and broads also to some extent) are capable of
producing an abundance of highly nutritious food. In
both countries there are numerous fresh-water species
the chair e of which, M. Guenaux assures us, is excel-
IcHte, and would form a pleasing variant to the
marine species which at present more or less
flood the fish markets and almost exclusively appear
on our tables. Clearly something should be done to
develop this branch of food production, and to some
extent M. Guenaux's practical text-book points the
way.

But although fresh-water fish-culture is in the main
neglected in France, there are a few salmon- and
trout-hatching establishments, which seem to cost verj-
little and pay remarkably well ; also several labora-
tories connected with schools of agriculture, which con-
tribute to the repopulation of the waters. Finally,
attached to the Universities of Grenoble, Clermont-
Ferrand, Toulouse, and Dijon are scientific labora-
tories for the study of fresh-water biology which
pursue a double aim, scientific and practical. The
NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

University of Toulouse in particular has a large in-
stitution, started in 1903, devoted entirely to fresh-
water pisciculture and hydrobiology, with museums,
aquarium, and laboratories. In this matter England
has something to learn from France, since, to the
best of the reviewer's knowledge, the only station
devoted to fresh-water hydrobiology in this country is
a small private one on a Norfolk broad.

In writing a book on the whole subject it has been
necessary for its author to combine the knowledge and
qualities of a naturalist with those of an engineer and
"practical man." This unusual demand on one's
capacity and versatility has been met by M. Guenaux
with conspicuous success. A critical inspection of the
text of this book shows that its author is almost
equally familiar with the morphological character-
istics, taxonomic relations, and bionomical reactions
(including feeding and spawning habits and require-
ments) of each species of fresh-water fish as he is
with the merits and demerits of different kinds of
salmon ladders, or the latest devices connected with
egg-hatching apparatus, while he is evidently
thoroughly an fait with the French laws relating to
fresh-water fisheries, the weaknesses of which legisla-
tion he criticises in a characteristically practical
manner.

The book opens with a brief account of the general
anatomy of fishes, proceeding to take up each group
in its natural order, explaining their taxonomic rela-
tions, and then giving a concise description (with
good figures) of the distinguishing features and
natural history of all the principal species, the most
important features, namely, the feeding and spawning
peculiarities of each, receiving particular attention.
Then follows the subject of pisciculture proper, which
forms the bulk of the volume. There are two kinds
of pisciculture— natural and artificial. The object of
natural pisciculture is to multiply the more valuable
species by favouring their conditions of existence.
Under this heading come such matters as the effects
of navigation, canal-making, and industrial works,
and the methods of combating these effects, and of
restoring natural conditions, the planting of canals
and dvkes with plants on which the useful species
mav deposit their eggs, or seek shelter, the erection
of ladders, and the construction of ponds. &c. By
"artificial pisciculture," on the other hand, is meant
the artificial fertilisation and hatching of the ova and
the subsequent rearing of the fr>-. With the principal
technical details of both kinds of pisciculture M.
Guenaux deals exhaustively in a methodical and dis-
criminating manner. As has been said, this is a
thoroughlv practical handbook, abounding in figures
from statistics, measurements, and the critical com-
ments of one who has had much first-hand experience
of every branch of the business. There are plenty of
good wood-cuts to illustrate construction of apparatus,
&c. A succinct but fairly comprehensive account of
aquatic invertebrate fauna and the flora next follows,
and there is, finally, an excellent section on the para-
sitic diseases of fresh-water fishes and of injurious
insects, reptiles, birds, and mammals. These chapters
are also amply illustrated.

But even >I. Guenaux's knowledge and versatility

G

i64

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

have their limitations, and when he passes from fresh
to salt water (metaphorically speaking) he appears
somewhat "out of his element." Otherwise he would
not have quoted antiquated and rejected notions re-
garding the growth of salmon after its migration to
the sea in the face of the well-ascertained results of a
vast amount of more recent research. Again, the
author's account of the life-history of the eel is not
abreast of current knowledge, since he makes no men-
tion of the most iinportant and not so very recent
discovery of the breeding-grounds of this species all
along the eastern shelf of the Atlantic basin. Read-
ing M. Gudnaux's account, one would suppose that
the latest word on the subject of the eel had been said
by Signors Grassi and Calandruccio, which is not so.
Then, again, the fear (casually expressed, it is true)
lest certain species of pelagic sea fishes, such as the
pilchards (sardines) off the west coast of France, be
in danger of extermination through over-fishing is
probably unwarranted, and argues a lack of know-
ledge of the conditions of life in the sea. Finally,
returning to the salmon, it will surely surprise anyone
who has some knowledge of the Highlands of Scot-
land and of the rigorous restrictions to which salmon-
fishing is subjected in this region at the present day,
to be told that :—

" Aujourd'hui, c'est dans ce pays [viz., Scotland]
que les domestiques sont obliges de stipules k I'avance
que le saumon no paraitra trop fr^quemment dans leur
ordinaire ! "

These happy days are almost ancient history. But
such matters are, after all, quite on the fringe of
M. Gu^naux's subject. Enough has been said to
indicate that the book is a small mine of information,
and should be consulted by all whose business or
pleasure brings them face to face with any of the
difficult problems connected with fresh-water pisci-
culture. William Wallace.

.4 CYCLOPEDIA OF AGRICULTURAL
CHEMISTRY.
Kleines Handworterbuch der Agrikulturchemie. By
Dr. Max Passon. Two vols. Erster Teil, Aadl-
kynurensaure. Pp. iv + 454. Zweiter Teil, Lab-
zymogen. Pp. 415. (Leipzig : Verlag von Wilhelm
Engelmann, 1910.) Price 22 marks.
'T^HESE two volumes bear striking testimony to the
-L enormous strides made during the last twenty
years in agricultural chemistry. Only within very
recent times has the need for a cyclopaedia been felt;
previously the chemist could always pull through if
he possessed one of the larger analytical treatises and
had access to a set of the Jahresberichte for agricul-
tural chemistry. Rapid progress set in when the sub-
ject was emancipated from the analytical stage ; when
the chemist, instead of being confronted with an inter-
minable succession of analyses of manures, feeding-
stuffs, and soils, was free to study the numerous
problems presented by the plant in its relation to the
soil, on the one hand, and the animal on the other.
To the popular mind the agricultural chemist is
still an analyst, and beyond doubt the analyst is more
necessary than ever he was; but the distinction be-
NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

tween the two is fast becoming as sharp as in pure
chemistry. This process of segregation is going even
further, and already men are specialising in the
various branches of agricultural chemistry itself.
Hence the need of reference books like the present
volumes.

One of the features of the book is the treatment of
laboratory operations. The ordinary methods are
dealt with in some detail, there are numerous illus-
trations, and, where necessary, tables of figures. Even
such minor but important processes as the recovery of
platinum, silver, &c., from their residues find a place.
In addition, a number of tests are given, and methods
for finding whether nitrogen is present as an amide
group, an amino-acid, or an ammonium salt.
Although these are probably the fullest articles in the
volumes they are rather restricted in their scope, atten-
tion is devoted almost exclusively to German methods,
little space being given to those in use elsewhere. In
several instances the book suffers in consequence.
Thus we find the methods for the mechanical analysis
of soils are very incomplete ; the separations are car-
ried only far enough to include material more than
02 mm. in diameter, all below this limit being
grouped together as fine sand, &c. This is very un-
fortunate, because it is now known that the finer
fractions — those falling between o"2 and 0*04 mm.,
between 004 and o'oi mm., between 001 and o'oo2
mm., and below 0002 mm. — really play a controlling
part in soil fertility; indeed, no soil analysis can be
fully interpreted without knowing them.

The book is, however, more than a laboratory
manual, and space is found for some of the great
generalisations and theories that have played a part
in the development of the subject. The treatment is
all too brief, especially when one remembers the im-
portance rightly attached in Germany to theoretical
considerations. Liebig's famous "law of the mini-
mum " is stated, but its modern developments are not
mentioned. "The growth of the plant is governed by
the quantity in the soil of that food constituent which
is present in the smallest amount." This generalisa-
tion has proved of great value in agriculture, but it
is now merged in the wider conception of limiting
factors, which we should like to have seen discussed
in the book. It is now recognised that certain re-
quirements must be fulfilled before plants will grow
well — there must be ample water, air, warmth, food,
light, and no injurious substance must be present.
Any increase in one of these factors may lead to an
increased crop production, but the increase is soon
limited by the insufficiency of some one or more of the
other necessary factors. If all are increased, the limit
is finally set by the plant itself. In general, however,
modern hypotheses are not given ; we have been un-
able to find any mention of the well-known toxin-
excretion theory of Whitney, which supposes that
infertility arises through the excretion of toxic sub-
stances by plant roots. Whether it ultimately turns
out correct or not, this theory has led to so much
investigation that it deserved a place.

A critic could easily point out much more that has
been omitted. But he would find it difficult to see
how it could be otherwise within the limits of two

December 8, 1910]

NATURE

165

volumes, the available space of which has been still
further reduced by the numerous good illustrations
the editor gives us. There are, however, cases where
the really important information is not given. Take,
for instance, the note on Molinia coerulea. We are
told that it has the power of absorbing considerable
quantities of the salts of heavy metals, and a case is
quoted where the ash contained 2041 per cent, of lead
oxide, 0266 per cent, of copper oxide, and 0*265 per
cent, of zinc oxide ; further, we are told that it is
regarded as a bad pasture grass. Now molinia is a
weed and not a cultivated crop, and the things the
chemist wants to know about it are these : What soil
conditions does the presence of molinia indicate? and
has molinia ever been observed to produce any ill-
effect on animals? if so, what is the harmful con-
stituent? Information could have been given on the
first point that would have been valuable, for molinia
is a useful " indicator " plant. Again, we are given
analyses of animal excreta, but no mention is made of
the fact that the composition is very variable, nor are
we told whether the figures represent means of manj*
analyses or only one or two determinations.

A more serious defect, however, is the omission of
references. The student is rarely told where to go for
fuller information, and it is practically impossible for
him to check the data given in the article unless he
knows his way about the literature of the subject.
It is inevitable that dictionary notes should be short
and should omit much ; their great value ought to be
the guidance they afford to the man who wants to
learn more. But even with this defect the volumes
are very useful, and will prove a distinct acquisition
to the agricultural chemist. E. J. Russell.

RADIO-CHEMISTRY.
Radio chemistry. By A. T. Cameron. Pp. viii +
174. (London : J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1910.)
Price 25, 6d. net.

THIS book purports to be an "exact account of
our present knowledge of the chemical properties
of the radioactive substances and their chemical
effects," and in the preface much stress is laid on the
"accuracy" of the facts and theories here presented.
It is further stated that the subject is " treated from
a chemical standpoint," while "the physical side is
introduced only so far as is necessary to explain the
special experimental methods." As to how well the
author has attained the latter object can be best judged
from two examples, one a description (quite in-
correctly asserted to be "that in Rutherford's ' Radio-
activity,' p. 86") of a Wilson type of electroscope
(p. 10), where, in addition to a very extraordinary
earth connection, the movement of the aluminium leaf
is observed by a "telescope" which "carries a scale,"
a distinctly inconvenient and unusual arrangement ;
and the other a description of a Dolszalek electrometer
(p. 13) having "one pair of quadrants connected to
earth, the other to an insulated metallic plate facing
a second which carries the radioactive matter to be
tested." "Through action similar to that in the case
of an electroscope an electric stress is set up between
the two pairs," and "the needle, previously charged
NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

to a very high potential, is repelled from one pair of
electrodes towards the other " !

The chapter on the "Classification of the Radio-
active Elements — their Physical and Chemical Pro-
perties " might be expected to justify the title chosen
for the book, but it is disappointing to an extreme
extent; the chemical properties of uranium, for ex-
ample, being, dismissed with the bare statement that
"it belongs to the iron group of elements and is
precipitated by ammonium carbonate." The discussion
of the identification of ionium is quite misleading,
and the account of the chemical properties of the
other radio-elements of a very superficial character.
The statement that thorium " occurs chiefly in Ceylon "
is certainly surprising. It is doubtful whether anyone
not already somewhat familiar with the subject could
separate or identify a single radio-element from the
directions which are given.

Errors and misleading statements are not un-
common. Thus (p. 17) the simple exponential equa-
tion I,= Io^~^' is given in an inverted and incorrect
form, which again appears later (p. 90). Further
examples are the statements (pp. 56, 141) that radio-
thorium "is precipitated with barium," "resembles
radium in every respect," and has an activity "several
hundred thousand times that of radium " ; that in the
separation of uranium X by treatment with a mixture
of ether and water (p. 39) " the ether layer contains
most of the photographic or i3-ray activity " ; that the
active deposit from the radium emanation (p. 51)
"decays to half value in twenty-eight minutes, but
the decay curve is very irregular"; and that "the
actinium products have all extremely short lives so
that the maximum activity is quickly reached (p. 56).
The mention of the "decay curve of a radioactive
child " (p. 17) certainly suggests the most gruesome
possibilities !

B. B. Bolt WOOD.

EGYPTOLOGICAL RESEARCHES.
Egyptological Researches. By W. Max Miiller.
Vol. ii.. Results of a Journey in 1909. Pp. v-f 188+
47 plates. (Washington : Carnegie Institution,
1910.)

FOUR years ago Herr W. M. Miiller, now of Phila-
delphia, published a first volume of " Egypto-
logical Researches," brought out at the expense of
the Carnegie Institution of Washington, which had
borne the expense of the journey to Egypt in 1904
the results of which were thus published by Herr
Miiller. In 1906 Herr Miiller undertook a second
journey to Egypt, and now publishes a second volume
of these "Researches."

Herr Miiller 's chief aim on both journeys was to
pick up as much as possible of the hitherto unedited
and badly edited historical material which still is to
be found in the inscriptions of Thebes, notwithstanding
the labours of many Egyptologists. In his first
volume he published in colour the extant remains of
the famous pictures of Minoan Cretan ambassadors
in the tomb of Senmut, the prime minister of Queen
Hatshepsut, which are so important to the Greek
archaeologists. These pictures had already been pub-

1 66

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

lished long ago, in colour, by the French scholar
Prisse d'Avennes. The tomb was then lost sight of
until re-discovered by Prof. Newberry some years" ago.
No new publication of the tomb was made, though it
is understood that Mr. Howard Carter made a line
coloured drawing for one, until Mr. H. R. Hall pub-
lished some rough sketches, correcting Prisse's errors,
in the "Annual of the British School at Athens"
(vol. viii., pp. 172-3), following this up with a photo-
graph of the whole important scene, in the same pub-
lication (vol. X., p. 154). Herr Miiller then followed
with a coloured reproduction on a larger scale in the
first volume of " Egyptological Researches." This is
very useful, though naturally it is not likely to be
so good as Mr. Carter's drawing, which so unaccount-
ably remains unpublished still. Herr Miiller's colours
were too crude.

In the present volume of " Researches," Herr
Miiller provides us with similar (and too
crudely) coloured reproductions of the scenes
painted on the walls of the tomb of Menkhe-
perra-senb, which also include representations of
Minoans. The figures and features of the Cretan
ambassadors to the court of Thothmes HI. are here
represented more clearly than in the tomb of Senmut,
though the vases which they carry are not so well or
so carefully portrayed. The best of all these repre-
sentations is probably that in the tomb of. Puamra,
also at Thebes, which will, we hope, shortly be pub-
lished with a coloured drawing made on the spot by
a most competent artist, Mr. de Garis Davies.

Herr Miiller publishes a great many other scenes from
tombs and temples at Thebes, with explanations, which
are naturally comprehensible only to Egyptological
experts, though the subjects of which they treat are
of great interest to the general historian, anthro-
pologist, and archaeologist. Herr Miiller is too tech-
nical, is insufficiently explicit, and assumes too much
knowledge on the part of his readers, since he is not
now writing exclusively for the edification of his
engeren Fachgenossen. His style also is too note-
t)ooky, too much mere jotting down, too staccato,
though we must .congratulate him on his command of
English. It is true that he would have done well had
he submitted his text for revision to an American col-
league before publication, as there remain in it many
clumsy phrases and strong Teutonisms. Such forms
as " Merenptahtext," " Kahunpapyrus," are German,
not English ; we always insert a hyphen between the
elements of such combinations. We mav also quote
a very weird phrase on p. 76, " not doest thou look at
the mountains " for "thou dost not look at the moun-
tains " ; and the quaintly unintelligible sentence,
"strange that Duemichen's uncritical credulity
toward the plays of the latest time has been
revived recently ! " (p. 39), needs an Egypt-
ologist with a knowledge of German as interpreter.
Herr Miiller is not talking about Schauspiele, as one
might suppose. It is not clear to us what, or rather
whom, he is here talking about, or rather, at ; this
writer seems somewhat given to cryptic " digs " at
other men of science, which are apt to fall flat if in-
comprehensibly phrased !

Though the coloured plates might sometimes be
NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

more carefully printed {e.g. plate xii. in our copy), the
photographic illustrations of the battle-scenes of
Rameses II. at Karnak and Luxor are very fine, and
the whole book reflects credit on its author and great
credit on the Carnegie Institution.

UNPROGRESSIVE PETROLOGY.
Les Roches et leurs Elements mindralogiques ; De-
scriptions, Analyses Microscopiques, Structures,
Gisements. By Ed. Jannettaz. Fourth edition,
revised and enlarged. Pp. 704. (Paris : A. Her-
mann et Fils, 1910.) Price 8 francs.

MOST of those who were students of petrology in
the later years of the nineteenth century were
familiar with a modest volume, published by the late
M. Jannettaz, under the title of ; " Les Roches." It
had a special interest for English readers, as it enabled
them to realise the lines on which the teaching of
the subject was carried on in France. Amongst other
matters, it comprised a readable account of the Haiiy
system of crystal notation long forgotten in this
country, a short section on crystal optics, and a de-
scription of the chief rock-forming minerals and rock
types.

It was considerably enlarged but hardly improved
in the third edition published, after a long interval,
in 1900, and still to be found in some of
our reference libraries. More than a hundred
pages are devoted to the optical characters of crystals,
but the treatment is at once ambitious and incom-
plete, and whatever merits it possesses are obscured
by the innumerable misprints and blunders, which are
found in its pages, and must render them almost un-
intelligible to anyone who resorts to them for informa-
tion. It is difficult, indeed, to believe that the proofs
ever passed through the author's hands. We find,
for instance, "E^/2" for E^/o^, "cos^irt/T" for
cos 2 TT f /T, and are startled to learn that "cosr = 2."
The description of the rock-forming minerals is ex-
panded into a treatise on the entire niineral kingdom
and little used terms like newjanskite and sysserskite
are included, while we look in vain for the refractive
indices and birefringence of the commoner rock-form-
ing minerals. The classification and nomenclature of
the igneous rocks is open to serious criticism, and is
based to a considerable extent on chronological prin-
ciples, for we are told : — " Les geologues repugneront
longtemps k confondre sous le meme nom des roches
qui sont arrivees au jour h des epoques si differentes."
It would have been a work of supererogation to
enumerate the defects of a book published ten years
ago, if the fourth edition, which bears the date 1910,
had not proved on careful examination to be identical
with its predecessor. It is not merely that the ad-
vances of science in the interval have been ignored,
but that every inaccuracy in the third edition, however
obvious to the most casual reader, is faithfully repro-
duced. A hiatus in a reference, represented by a line
of points, is left still unfilled, and even the table of
errata, which corrected only a fraction of the mis-
prints, and added more of its own, remains word for
word the same. Yet we are told that this is a new
edition, "revue et augmentee." The revision consists.

December 8, 1910]

NATURE

167

it would seem, in the substitution of a fresh title-
page, with a later date and the name of a diflerent
publisher, and the enlargement in the addition of eight
reproductions of photographs, some at least of which

1 not appear for the first time.

Anv value the book once possessed has now been
greatly diminished by simple lapse of time, and the
appearance of this reprint under the false colours of

other edition can only be regarded as a breach of
,.;rh on the part of those who are responsible for it.

J. W. E.

ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS.

(i) The Public School Geometry. By F. J. VV.
Whipple. Pp. xii+154. (London: J. M. Dent and
Sons, Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. net.
_i The Sttidcfit's Mafriculation Geometry. By S.
( iangopadhyaya. Second edition, revised and im-
proved. Pp. xviii + 348. (Calcutta: The Students'
Library, n.d.) Price 1.4 rupees.

(3) First Stage Mathematics. Edited by W. Briggs.
Pp. vii+194. (London: \V. B. Clive, 1910.) Price

25.

:i Second Stage Mathematics (with Modern Geo-
metry). Edited by \\'. Briggs. Pp. viii+i28 +
102+ 186+ 14 (answers) + 2i (exam, papers). (Lon-
don : W. B. Clive, 1910.) Price 3s. 6d.
(5) Conic Sections. By S. Gangopadhyaya. Pp.
vui + 97. (Calcutta : The Students' Library, 1909.)
Price 8 annas.
ih) Public School Arithmetic. By W. M. Baker and
.\. A. Bourne. Pp. xii + 386 + 2. (London: G. Bell
and Sons, Ltd., 1910.) Price, with answers, 45. 6d.,
without answers, 3s. 6J.
-1 .4 School Algebra. By H. S. Hall. Part L Pp.
xi + 299 + xxxvii. (London : Macmillan and Co.,
Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s. 6d.
^1 Elements of .Algebra. By A. Schultze. Pp. xii4-
309. (New York : The Macmillan Company ; Lon-
don : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 19 10.) Price 4s. 6d.
I The Theory of Elementary Trigonometry. By
Prof. b. K. Picken. Pp. vii4-48. (Wellington,
N.Z., and London : Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.,
1910.^ Price 2s. 6d. net.
: ) TZJ* REE use is made in this volume of inductive
X methods in establishing the fundamental
facts of geometry — the conditions for congruency and
parallelism. The opening chapters deal with the
measurement of lines an^ angles and with a few
nple constructions. Then follow the elementary pro-
pt rties of the triangle and parallelogram, the usual
theorems on inequalities, and a short account of areas,
ihe principles of similar figures are then discussed, and
are employed to prove Pythagoras's theorem. And
the book closes with the angle and metrical properties
of the circle. The author has succeeded in giving in a
\ery concise form a useful summary of the subject-
master of the first six books of Euclid. W'e regret the
introduction of two new terms — new at least so far as
elementary text-books are concerned — the use of the
word "stretch " for a segment of a straight line, and
of the word "cognate" for "corresponding"; while
the definition of » on p. 16 is not merely misleading
NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

but is incorrect. It is most important that the student
should understand that x is a pure number and not an
angle. There are a very large number of numerical
examples, but most teachers will consider the supply
of riders inadequate.

(2) The plan of this book conforms very closely to
the syllabus for the matriculation examination at Cal-
cutta, which is practically identical with the Cam-
bridge schedule for the previous examination, the sec-
tion on proportion being omitted. While due atten-
tion is paid to experimental and numerical work, the
author has ver}- wisely given chief place to the
theoretical developments of the subject. We welcome
the presence of a certain number of historical allu-
sions, which might with advantage be increased in a
future edition. Those who use this book will find
that it answers with uniform success the purpose for
which it was written. From its general workman-
ship it is evident that this volume comes from the
hand of an experienced teacher.

(3 and 4) The two parts of this treatise are designed
to meet the requirements of the Board of Education
examinations in first- and second-stage mathematics.
The first part therefore contains the substance of
Euclid, book i., and the elementary algebraic pro-
cesses as far as simultaneous and literal equations.
In the second part will be found the substance of
Euclid, books ii.-iv., the section on algebra including
quadratics, indices, and proportion ; the remainder of
the volume provides the requisite course of trigono-
metrv up to and including the solution of triangles by
logarithms. We have no hesitation in saying that this
text-book is admirably suited to the needs of those
students who are reading by themselves for this
examination, or any other of a similar character. The
authors have made good use of their experience in
anticipating the nature of the difficulties which the
reader is likely to meet with, and in resolving them
in a lucid and accurate fashion ; and further, what is
equallv valuable, attention is directed to many points
of logical importance which a student is apt to over-
look, if working without any supervision. There is a
rich supply of well-graded e'xamples and a large
number of examination papers, which furnish the
student with opportunities for testing his progress.

(5) This book falls into three sections. There is
first an introduction containing several preliminary
lemmas, together with a few remarks of a general
character bearing on geometrical procedure, the
second part relates to the parabola, and the concluding
chapter to the ellipse. The author has not aimed at
giving a complete account of the geometrical proper-
ties of conies, but rather a selection of the more useful
theorems, his objective being the syllabus for the
Calcutta intermediate examination. This leads to
some regrettable omissions ; there is, for example, no
mention of the auxiliary or director circle. Each pro-
position is followed by a number of simple applica-
tions and a few riders of a somewhat harder type
are given at the end of each chapter. The book will
serve as an admirable introduction to the subject.
Among other good features we note the introduction
of analysis at several stages, which is calculated 10
enlarge the outlook of the reader.

i6S'

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

(6) There is little that differentiates this from the
other numerous text-books on arithmetic which have
appeared during the last few years. The supply of
examples for oral and written purposes is plentiful,
and a large number of test papers are provided.
Although it is probable that those who use this
book will find it thoroughly satisfactory, yet we do
not consider that it marks any real advance on other
recent publications of a similar nature.

(7) The present work is far more than a mere re-
vision of Hall and Knight's " Elementary Algebra."
Although some of the features of this book, first pub-
lished twenty-five years ag'o, have been retained, yet
the organic changes in method of late years demand
alterations so considerable that the volume before us
is to all intents and purposes a new book. It is
marked throughout by the same clearness of style and
thoroughness of treatment which characterised the
author's earlier work. Graphical methods are em-
ploved, but it is satisfactory to note that they have
been kept within reasonable limits. The tendency to
allow it to expand into an elementary course of
analytical geometry is a fatal error, for it overlooks
the fact that the student is not sufficiently mature at
that stage to be able to appreciate the significance of
the theoretical aspect of the subject. We hope that
this book will be widely used, for it is both sound and
comprehensive. Part i. carries the reader as far as
simultaneous quadratics. We understand that part ii.
is to be published very shortly.

(8) It has often been pointed out that one significant
feature of the influence of examining bodies on the
educational curriculum is the tendency to standardise
into distinct types, and to collect under separate head-
ings, applications of general principles which the
student should be so educated as to work out for him-
self, when required to do so. The old-fashioned text-
books on arithmetic bear emphatic witness to this de-
plorable result ; and it is of some importance to con-
sider whether works on algebra are not similarly
affected. This is not the place, however, to develop
this theme ; but in England it is satisfactory
to note that the principles which have actuated those
educational bodies which are responsible for the leav-
ing certificate and Army qualifying- examinations do
much to minimise a very real danger. The author of
the present volume attempts to meet the sitaution by
focussing attention on the central facts and encourag-
ing the reader to make the requisite applications for
himself. By avoiding multiplication of detail, he is
able to cover a wider range and prepare the student
for more advanced work, in a shorter time than would
otherwise be possible, without any sacrifice of prin-
ciple. The explanatory matter is both full and clear,
and there are many useful hints, particularly in con-
nection with the solution of problems. We are, how-
ever, inclined to regret that the method of undeter-
mined coefficients is omitted, and that the chapter on
the binomial theorem is not prefaced by some quite
•short account of permutations and combinations,
treated numerically. There is at the end of the book
a useful collection of more than a thousand examples
for revision purposes, which are rather harder than

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

those given in the text. The author has done his work
well, and his book deserves a good reception.

(9) There is much that is novel in the plan of thi~
book. Broadly speaking, there are two types of text-
books. In one the subject is presented in as simple
and elementary a fashion as possible, with no attempt
at investigating the fundamental axioms and principk -
on which the theory is based, and in the other a sub-
stantial knowledge of the actual analytical results i-
assumed and attention is concentrated on the formal
concepts. Both of these are beneficial, when properI\
used. In the study of elliptic functions, for example,
it is customary to approach the subject by considering
such cases of integration which do not lead to an\
known elementary function; but when the student ha-
acquired a knowledge of the general results, it is ver\
valuable to start again and take as the base the theor\
of a doubly-periodic function.' Prof. Picken has sei
himself the task of compiling a book for those who
are actually starting trigonometry during their univer-
sity course. His contention is that such students will
have attained a maturity of mind which will be fulh
capable of appreciating the theoretical principles of
this subject, and his object is therefore to supplement
the ordinary school treatises which refer almost exclu-
sively to numerical applications. We have little doubt
that the class of students the author has in view will
materially benefit by his work, which, although brief-
is both lucid and scholarlv.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Milch und Molkereiprodiikte, ihre Eigenschaftcu,
Zusamtnensetziing und Gezt'innung. By Dr. Paul
Sommerfeld. Pp. 140. (Leipzig : Quelle and Meyer,.
1910.) Price 1.25 marks.

This little book forms one of a series entitled "Wissen-
schaft und Bildung," the object of which is to pre-
sent the intelligent reader with brief accounts of par-
ticular subjects. It is rather more technical than
our own popular books of the same size would be,
and naturallv it lacks the completeness of a mono-
graph. But it would prove distinctly useful for a large
class of readers, including students and lecturers at
agricultural colleges, and farmers who take more
than a conimercial interest in their work. It seems,
indeed, to be a verv useful method of dealing with a
complex subject like agriculture.

The first chapter describes the constituents of milk,
giving a clear and concise account of the protein,
carbohydrates, fats, and mineral matter present, and-
then follows a section on the characteristics of milk
from various animals. In discussing human milk
some interesting statistics are given that show
how difficult it is to supply any artificial food to-
infants that shall take the place of the mother's milk.
In Berlin during iqo^ the total number of infants
dving under twelve months of age was 10,170. The
method of feeding 7738 of these was known ; 7064
had been fed on cow's milk and onlv 674 on human
milk. The figures for other years are similar.

The chapter devoted to the bacteriology of milk i?
subdivided into three portions, dealing respectively
with fermentation organisms, with organisms produc-
ing: disease in man, and with organisms producing
taints or defects in milk, such as ropiness. As all
this is compressed into less than twenty pages the
treatment is necessarilv verv brief.

December 8, 19 lo]

NATURE

169

Lastly, there comes a well-illustrated section on
milk products and the methods of working them up
for market. So important is cleanliness in working
that several pictures are given of modern cow-sheds
built on the best possible principles ; in one, indeed,
the cowman is shown cleansing the cow with a special
vacuum cleaner ! This section will probably prove
most interescinir to English readers, as it gives fairly
full outlines of the German factory methods.

A few misprints are inevitable, but how did this
wonderful piece of Greek on p. 12 pass the proof-
reader *■ kohlenhydrate (von A-yfiop hydor = griechisch
wasser) "? E. J. R.

fheorettcal Mechanics. By P. F. Smith and W. R.

Longley. (Ginn.) Price 105. 6d.
L'ntil the student has acquired a certain manipula-
tive dexterity, it is impossible to preserve a proper
continuity of thought in the development of the appli-
cation of infinitesimal theory of mechanics or any
other applied science. The authors are therefore justi-
fied in assuming that the reader comes to this subject
equipped with a thorough working knowledge of the
methods of the calculus. In the opening chapter a
_;ood account is given of the means for obtaining
■f-ntres of gravity and moments of inertia of plane
nd solid figures ; no mention is made, however, of
he application of orthogonal projection to the theory
f the centroid. Chapters ii.-iv. deal with the prin-
Jples of rectilinear and curvilinear motion in a most
attractive fashion ; as an example, the motion t\'pified
by .v = acosfef is considered, the equation d'x'dt^ =
— k^.x is deduced, and the properties of harmonic
motion are then obtained in a simple fashion ; a
similar treatment is applied to damped vibrations.
This is followed by an exposition of work, energv,
and impulse. Chapters vi.-ix. discuss the motion of
a particle under constant forces, central forces, in a
harmonic field, and against a resisting medium. The
volume closes with a brief account of the equations of
rigid dynamics and the principles of equiliSrium of a
coplanar system of forces with special reference to
the catenar^^

The examples, which are very numerous, are mainlv
numerical and practical, and so chosen as to require
; minimum of analytical power. This feature renders
lie book eminently suitable for the senior divisions of
secondary schools, where the true understanding of
the ideas of mechanics is the chief object. It is to
be regretted that practically no English text-book has
treated the subject on these lines, a fact which is due
mainlv to the action of the universities in excluding
the simoler applications of particle and rigid dynamics
from their entrance scholarship examinations. We
hope that the time is not far distant when this re-
'-triction will be removed.

The Anatomy of the Honey Bee. By R. E. Snod-

grass. (U.S. Departrrtent of Agriculture, Bureau of

Entomolog}-, Technical Series, No. 18.) Pp. 162.

(Washington : 19 10.)

In this modest pamphlet the author has given to

t-ntomologists an original, trustworthy, and excellentiv

illustrated account of the structure of the honev bee,

and another instance has been furnished of the scien-

fic thoroughness that characterises the publications

if the United States Department of .Agriculture.

Many volumes have been written on the honey bee,

yet no surprise can be felt that Mr. Snodgras's has

been able to add new points to our knowledge and

to correct errors in the work of his predecessors. A

feature of value to the serious student is the general

-uryey of the external structure of a typical insect

which the author has wisely given as an' introduction

to his account of the highly specialised modifications

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

to be found in the bee. He expresses scepticism as to
certain positive statements that have been made on
controverted details of physiology and reproduction ;
for example, " concerning the origin of the royal
jelly or of any of the larval food paste . . . we do
not know anything about it." There is a present-day
tendency unduly to disparage the results obtained by
former workers, and such a statement will strike
many readers as extreme. Mr. Snodgrass's sceptic-
ism as to the parthenogenetic nature of " drone " eggs
seems also unwarranted after the support which
Weismann's researches, published ten years ago,
afford to the generally accepted view. G. H. C.

Practical Physiological Chemistry : a Book designed
for Use in Courses in Practical Physiological
Chernistry in Schools of Medicine and of Science.
By Philip B. Hawk. Third edition, revised and
enlarged. Pp. xviii + 440. (London : J. and A.
Churchill, 1910.) Price 165. net
Both the first and second editions of Prof. Hawk's
volume have been reviewed in these columns ; the
former in our issue of July 18, 1907 (vol. Ixxvi., p. 268),
and the latter in that of July 15, 1909 (vol. Ixxxi.,
p. 67). The present edition has been brought up to
date by the insertion of various additions and correc-
tions, as well as by the inclusion of a number of
qualitative tests and quantitative methods.

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.]

Simulium Flies and Pellagra.

In reference to Mr. Shelford's letter in Nature of
November 10, in which he directs attention to the difficul-
ties in controlling and eradicating the flies of the genus
Simulium, known generally as sand flies and black flies,
it may be of interest to direct attention to certain experi-
ments carried out in New Hampshire by Dr. C. M. Weed
and Prof. E. Dwight Sanderson and their assistants in
the control of these insects. The southern buffalo gnat,
Simulium pecuarum, Riley, which attacks and kills many
animals, such as horses, cattle, mules, sheep, poultr}',
dogs, &c., is well known. In certain parts of the United
States, but especially in Canada, " black flies," generally
S. hirtipes. Fries, and S. venustum, Say, make life far
more intolerable than mosquitoes, and they are specially
annoying when they occur in such resorts as the White
Mountains.

In 1903 Dr. Weed and his assistant, Mr. A. F. Conradi,
showed that the Simulium larvae, although they live on
the stones in running water, could be killed by the appli-
cation of Phinotas oil. The destruction was so complete
that the flies were practically eradicated in the locality
in which the experiments were carried out (see " Experi-
ments in Destroying Black Flies," Bull. No. 112 New
Hampshire .Agric. Exp. Sta., 1904). A floating oil such
as kerosene is manifestly useless for the destruction of
larvae having such habits as Simulium, and the efficacy
of Phinotas oil is due to the fact that it has the property
of sinking to the bottom in water, thus destroying the
larva? which are stationary on the stones. Further experi-
ments have been carried on more recently in the White
Mountains bv Prof. E. Dwight Sanderson, and he also
found that Phinotas oil applied to the running streams
was eff^ectual in the destruction of the Simulium larvae
(see " Controlling the Black Fly in the White Mountains,"
E. D. Sanderson, Journal Economic Entomology, vol. iii.,
p. 27, iqio). There still remains, however, much experi-
mental work to be done with regard to the effect of the
oil upon the fish, the details of the life-histories of the
species of Simulium, and the practical methods to be used
in applying the oil.

If Dr. Sanbon's results are confirmed, and the Simulium

170

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

theor_v is certain to form the basis of a careful and com-
plete series of investigations, not only in Europe, but also
in those regions in Africa and America where pellagra
also occurs, these experiments and results on the destruc-
tion of the Simulium larva; will be of no little practical
importance in the prophylaxis of the disease, whether a
definite pathogenic organism is discovered, or the case
proves to be analogous to that of Stegomyia or yellow
fever. C. Gordon Hewitt.

Division of Entomology, Ottawa, November 21.

The Song of the Siamang Gibbon.

The Zoological Society has recently received on loan an
almost adult example of the siamang {Symphalangus
syndactylus) ; and since I can find no adequate description
of the voice of this ape in the books I have consulted, I
think the following description may be interesting to
readers of Nature.

The siamang differs from all other gibbons in having
a pair of laryngeal vocal sacs visible externally on the
throat as an undivided pouch of loose skin. When the
animal is in full song the pouch becomes inflated into an
immense oblate spheroid much wider from side to side
than from above downwards, and comparable in size to
the entire head of the gibbon. A feeble imitation can be
made of the booming that comes from this pouch by
uttering a guttural monosyllabic " 000 " with cheeks in-
flated and lips compressed. It is not unlike the sound
produced by a large bubble of air bursting on the surface
of water confined in a narrow space like a rain-water
pipe. In addition to this there are two very distinct cries
apparently quite independent of the vocal sac and uttered
with the mouth open. One is a shrill, piercing bark, like
the monosyllable " haow," cut off sharply by the abrupt
closing of the lips. The other is a prolonged, unearthly
wailing shriek — " ahh — o " — resembling more than any
familiar sound to which I can compare it the " miaou "
of a cat multiplied ten times in volume. It starts on a
high pitched note with the mouth widely astretch, and
gradually descends the scale as the jaws are closed.
There are two variations of this shriek, one being a note
or two higher and more piercing than the other.

The song usually begins with a low and gentle booming
punctuated by an occasional staccato bark. As the excite-
ment rises the ape starts to move, and swings round the
cage barking vigorously and repeatedly, and now and again
uttering the wailing shriek, the loud booming from the
now fully expanded vocal sac going on all the while like
a resonant bass accompaniment. The noise is deafening
and terrific, and I shall not easily forget the consternation
of the chimpanzees and the look of mild surprise that
pervaded the usually expressionless faces of the orang-
utans when they heard it for the first time in the apes'
house.

The voices of Mammalia have never, I believe, been
carefully studied and compared ; yet they are worthy of
the closest attention as a criterion of specific relationships.
The cry of the siamang, for instance, is quite different
from that of the Hainan, Hoolock, and Wau-wau gibbons,
and each of these species has its characteristic song. I
have elsewhere pointed out that the bray of Gravy's zebra
betrays pronounced asinine affinities, and equally forcibly
attests remoteness of kinship between that species and the
quaggine Equidai ; that the likeness between the roar of
the lion and the tiger on one hand and of the jaguar and
the leopard on the other confirms the conclusion that these
species are respectively closely allied, and that these four
great cats form, with the probable inclusion of the ounce,
a special group of Felis characterised by a roaring voice
correlated with a peculiarly modified hyoidean apparatus ;
that the friendly purr practised by the puma, cheetah,
caracal, common cat, and other species which, be it noted,
never roar, distinguishes them from lions, tigers, and
leopards, which never purr. To the casual observer the
Cape hunting dog (Lycaon) is more like a hyaena than a
wolf, but the moment he barks and growls it is needless
to look at his teeth and skull to detect his cousinship to
Canis ; and I have recently noticed identity in all essential
respects between the raucous growl of a frightened cervine
wallaroo (Macropus) and that of a nervous Tasmanian
wolf (Thylacinus). In this last instance we have vocal

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

likeness associated with deep-seated ordinal resemblances,
and apparently persisting despite great divergences in
other structural features and in habits.

Zoological Society. R. I. PococK.

On the Simultaneity of "Abruptly-beginning"
Magnetic Storms.

In the first number of Terrestrial Magnetism and
Atmospheric Electricity for the present year, Dr. Bauer
has written two papers, in which he believes he can prove
the following (p. 20) : —

" Magnetic storms do not begin at precisely the same
instant all over the earth. The abruptly beginning ones,
in which the effects are in general small, are propagated
over the earth more often eastwardly, though also at times
westwardly, at a speed of about 7000 miles per minute,
so that a complete circuit of the earth would be made in
32 or 4 minutes."

Dr. Bauer bases this result upon an investigation of two
magnetic storms of Birkeland's " positive equatorial "
type, namely, the storms of May 8, 1902, and January 26,
1903. In the latter he makes use of a table in Birkeland's
" The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition, 1902-3."

In the following number Dr. Faris made a mori:'
thorough investigation of this circumstance, taking fifteen
different abruptly beginning storms, recorded at the Coast
and Geodetic Survey magnetic observatories, in which he
considers that he found Dr. Bauer's result confirmed.

Upon this foundation Bauer then develops the *' Ionic
Theory of Magnetic Disturbances" (loc. cit., p. iii), of
which the principal advantage over Birkeland's corpuscular
theory is supposed to consist in the being able to give a
natural explanation to time differences such as these, which
Birkeland's theory, in his opinion, cannot do.

Notices of these papers appeared in Nature of August 1 1

.A.S it appears that a number of the perturbatior
described by Dr. Faris are some that I studied las
summer when making an investigation of magnetic equa-
torial storms at the magnetic observatory in Potsdam, a
comparison may be of some interest. I determined also
the time of the commencement of a number of positive
equatorial storms as accurately as possible for another
purpose, and without any knowledge of Dr. Faris 's work,
so that the measuring of the time was entirely independent
of it, a circumstance which may be worthy of note.

It may be remarked with regard to the exactness with
which the time can be determined by the Potsdam curves
that the length of an hour upon the magnetograms is about
20 mm., and that thus one minute answers to about 5 mm.
If we then take into consideration all the errors that may
creep in because the curves, the time-marks, and the points
considered are not so sharply defined as might be wished,
and further all the errors that may be due to changes
in the paper in developing, owing to the fact that the 1
paper has perhaps not laid quite straight on the roller.
Sec, it will be evident that where there are no exact
automatic time-marks upon the curve itself, one minute
will at any rate be the lowest limit for the accuracy that '
under favourable conditions can be counted upon.

There might very easily be an uncertainty of severa,
minutes if, for instance, the base-line is not exactly l
straight, but is slightly curved, if the parallax cannot be r
determined exactly, and so forth. Unfortunately, neith' -
Dr. Bauer nor Dr. Faris has stated anything as to ho-
the time in the various cases can be given exactly, a pois
upon which, it would be thought, it was highly importai
to be clear.

In the equatorial storms that I have studied, aivl
especially those that are also found in Dr. Faris 's Table 1.
(loc. cit., p. loi), the point at which they commenced is ;
especially clear in H. • The deflections in D and Z, on the
other hand, are very slight, and in consequence th''
beginning there is far less clearly defined.

It is therefore the beginning in H that is espccial!-
suitable for employment in a comparison such as this, and
this was what I especially investigated. It will a priori
be perceived that the results obtained by employing th>-
other two components must be far more uncertain. I'
the table below I have compared the means of the value-
found by Faris for the five American stations that he has
considered with those I measured out bv the aid of thf

December 8, 19 lo]

NATURE

171

Potsdam curves. Finally, I have also given the difference
{dy) between the greatest and the smallest time given in
iris's Table I. for the commencement in H at the
lerican stations (Greenwich mean time is employed).

Date

America

Potsdam

Diff.

dt

h. m.

h. m.

m.

m.

1906. July 29

19 5612

.. 19 57

. -088 .

• 37

1907. .. 10

14 22*92

.. 14 225 ..

+ 042 .

• 3«

„ Oct. 13

7 42-36

•• 7 425 •

-0-14 .

■ 39

J008, Sept. II

7 20 82

.. 7 203 ..

■ +0-52 .

• 13

„ 28

8 42 00

.. 8 42

O'OO .

• 23

., 29

I 31 -68

.. I 31 -8 ..

-0'12 .

• 34

Mean

-0-03

Mean of numerical values

0-3S

307

It will be observed that all the differences are consider-
rably below the error-limit which, according to the above,
must be reckoned upon, and the difference is as frequently
one way as the other. ■"

These figures seem to'me to show clearly that in these
cases the magnetic impulse occurs, at any rate, very nearly
simultaneously ; in any case there cannot be time-differ-
ences of such a magnitude as in Dr. Faris's opinion there
are— for July lo, 1907, he even assumes that the storm
would take ii-6 minutes to encircle the earth. Further,
we see that the greatest difference between Potsdam and
the mean of the American stations, o-88m., is only about
two-thirds of the smallest difference, oV, between the times
■at the American stations, i-3m. This circumstance, and
the fact that the relation between the numerical means
of these time-differences is as 035 : 3-07, would seem dis-
tinctly enough to show that the great time-differences
observed by Dr. Faris can only be due to inaccuracy in
the determination of the time, and that the error-limit
must be considerable.

Further, if we consider the foundation that Dr. Bauer
has employed for the determination of the rate of propa-
gation in the case of the storm of January 26, 1903, it
must, I think, be deemed as weak and uncertain as the
above-mentioned, which I was able to control. Birkeland,
5n speaking of the table employed (loc. cit., p. 63), says : — •

" The table shows that the time varies so little with
the geographical position that it would be premature to
draw conclusions from it. The slight differences may be
ascribed to inaccuracies in the determinations of time on
the magnetograms ; for we see that if a difference in time
for a certain point appears between two places, this differ-
ence is maintained for all the points, a circumstance which
seems best to be explained by an inaccuracy in the state-
I nient of the time. We may conclude from this that the
serrations appear simultaneously, or rather, the differences
in time are less than the amount that can be detected by
1 these registerings. . . . The above question, which is of
:oat importance, cannot be definitely decided until we are
possession of rapid registerings."

Bauer holds, however, that by taking groups of means
can demonstrate, clearly and surely, time-differences

at would prove that the cause of the perturbation was
transmitted eastwards at a rate of 6400 miles per minute.

I also last summer determined the commencement in

H of this perturbation in Potsdam, and found the time

I to be 8h. 53m. Greenwich mean time. I moreover had

i;he opportunity of going through the curves upon which

rkeland's table was based. From these it appeared that
times for the comparative correctness of which there
■vas some guarantee were from the five following places : —
Toronto, Kaafjord, Potsdam, Dehra Dun, and Bombay.
As regards the other stations, it may be remarked that
, ;from Honolulu, Baldwin, and Cheltenham there were only
received Indian-ink copies without hourly or two-hourlv
automatic time-marks. The parallax there could not be
ci':'termined accurately, and the uncertaintj- in the time-
termination must be considered to be relativelv very

--at.

In the copy of the curve for San Fernando the base-
le was a little curved. In that for Batavia the curve
id the base-line were very faint ; the parallax could not
determined with sufficient precision, and the time-marks
^re also rather indistinct. A new determination of the

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

time of beginning which I have just made gives as the
result 8h. 52-4m. for San Fernando and 8h. 52-Sm. for
Batavia. In the table these times are given as 8h. 54-3m.
and 8h. 54-9m. respectively, a fact that demonstrates the
uncertainty which attaches to these hours. At Christ-
church it seems from the D and Z magnetograms as if
the clock on that day was about i-5 minutes too fast, so
that the value 8h. 54-8m. given in the table probably should
be reduced to about 8h. 53-3m. Further, the beginning of
the base-line and the time-marks for the H curve were
rather unsharp.

In addition, it may be remarked that the thickness of
the curve at Bombay was considerable, about 09 mm.,
thus causing the commencement of the storm to be some-
what less clear ; but, on the other hand, there were two-
hourly automatic time-marks upon the curve itself, a
circumstance which is of great importance in exact deter-
minations of time.

If we now omit those that we already know to be very
uncertain, we find the following times of beginning,
putting Dehra Dun and Bombay together : —

Toronto

8 52-6

Kaafjord
52 6

Potsdam

S3

Diflf.

Dehra Dun
and Bombay

• 53-3 •■• 07

Thus the greatest difference is considerably lower than
the error-limit, and this would be still less if, as would
indeed be best, we attach more weight to Dehra Dun,
where the curve is exceedingly clear, than to Bombay. If
we attach double the importance to the former, we find
53" im. instead of 53-3m., and the difference will then be
reduced to o-5m.

It seems to me, also, that this last method, where the
conditions are as they are here, must give a far more
certain result than that which Bauer has employed.

The remaining characteristic points on the curve seem
to me to be too indistinctly defined to allow of being
employed in cases where the differences are as small as
they are here.

Of the storm of May 8, 1902, I have no special observa-
tions that could serve to control Bauer's result. As regards
Potsdam, however, I have a determination of its beginning
in H, which I also made last summer before reading
Bauer's paper. I found the time to be iih. 58m. Green-
wich mean time. Bauer, however, in his table gives it as
i2h. om. It seems to me that this difference of two
minutes is characteristic of the uncertainty that attaches
to these statements. When Bauer finds that the weighted
mean of all European stations is iih. 58-24m., it looks
as if my determination were the best. When such great
differences can be found in the measurement of the same
curve, and the Potsdam curves must, I supp>ose, be con-
sidered to be among the most trustworthy of all. how
great must be the uncertainty that attaches to the others?

There seems from this, at any rate, to be by no means
sufficient data to justify the conclusion that the magnetic
storms are generally propagated round the earth in from
about 35 to 4 minutes, and the theory that Bauer mainly
bases upon this we must be allowed to regard with corre-
sponding scepticism.

But even if there are no such great time-displacements
in these " abruptly beginning storms " as Bauer thinks,
there is, of course, a possibility that small time-displace-
ments might exist. This question, which is of such great
importance for a full comprehension of the nature of the
magnetic storms, can only, however, in my opinion, be
solved, as Birkeland has suggested, by rapid registerings.
It would be comparatively easy, moreover, to carry some
such arrangement into effect by means of a number of
stations — at least three — where a short or long period was
registered continuously with very sensitive apparatus and
with frequent and exact automatic time-marks upon the
curve itself. This was the more easy of accomplishment
from the fact that, for the solution of the present ques-
tion, it was only necessary to register H in this manner.
It would then be possible to obtain a sure foundation for
reflections of the kind that Bauer makes in his last paper,
reflections that, however interesting they may be, must,
from what I can understand, be said to be in no small
degree premature. O. Krogness.

Universitetets fysiske Institut, Kristiania.

172

NATURE

[DECEMBEii 8', igio

THE NEGRO IN THE NEW WORLD.'

WHEN, more than four centuries ago, the Portu-
guese obtained the sanction of the Roman
Pontiff to engage in the African slave trade, and,
some years later (Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494), Pope
Alexander VI. assigned to Portugal the west coast of
Africa and to Spain the New World (of which Portu-
gal claimed Brazil, in accordance with the terms of
the treaty), it could not have been foreseen that these
acts were the first steps in the vastest anthropological
experiment the world has ever witnessed, the effects
of which for manv ages to come are likely to confound
and confuse the politics of the Americas. In Portugal
itself the population has been transformed into
Africanised mongrels, who at the present moment are
busily engaged in casting out the repre-
sentatives of the church that permitted
them to begin the process of wholesale
racial admixture four hundred years ago.

Negro slavery and the breeding of a
mulatto population were by no means
novel phenomena in 1494, for even then
Egypt had been familiar with them for
forty-five centuries; and, in less remote
times, Arabia and western Asia, Greece,
and Rome, Tunis and Morocco were only
too familiar with the black slave and the
half-caste. But the coincidence of the in-
troduction of negro slaves into Portugal
and the opening up of the New World by
the two peninsular kingdoms makes the
beginning of the sixteenth century — for
the experiment of sending negroes to the
West Indies began in 15 16 — a landmark
in the history of the world.

Sir Harry Johnston has given a very
complete history, without sparing us any
of its appalling horrors, of the iniquitous
traffic in black slaves, which ultimately
led to the transference from one side of
the globe to the other, and that a new con-
tinent, of a population (whose descendants
now number twenty-five millions), which
had grown up in the seclusion of the heart
of Africa and had there become divergently
specialised from the rest of mankind in
bodily structure and mental and moral
qualities. He has drawn a most graphic
picture of how these negro people behaved
in their new home, as they came into con-
tact successively with the aboriginal
Americans, and also the Iberians and the
northern Europeans, who had settled in
the New World.

Nothing has surprised the "lay" re-
viewers of this book in the newspaper
press more than the revelation of the gross
inhumanity of the representatives of the
north European race (the English and
the Dutch) towards the negro slave, when
contrasted with the more generous behaviour
of the Iberian and other Mediterranean peoples.
Lamentable and indisputable as is the fact, the ex-
planation is simple enough. The Mediterranean race
was evolved and fashioned in an environment sirnilar
to, and perhaps in the same continent as, the African
negro, and not only developed mental and moral quali^
ties in many respects closely resembling those^ of the
negro, which explains their mutual understanding the
one of the other; but also the black and the brunet
race had been in contact for many ages, had inter-

1 " The Negro in the New World." 'By Sir Harry H. Johnston,
G.C.M.G., K.C.B. Pp. xxix+499. (London : Methuen and Co., Ltd.,
1910.) Price 21s. net.

bred, and had come to give equal rights to the off-
spring of mixed unions.

The blond people of the north, the representatives
of a more austere civilisation, had nothing in common
with the lazy, lascivious negro, and had no knowledge
of or sympathy with him. Thus they came to treat
him and his offspring, whether pure or mixed, as an
inferior being of low intelligence and dirty habits.

When Mr. Roosevelt (at the time President of the
United States) invited Sir Harry Johnston to under-
take an investigation of the problems of the negro
in the New World, he could not have chosen anyone
to accomplish this task better fitted by personal know-
ledge and exceptionally wide experience of the negro
in his native haunts.

Others may possibly have had equal opportunities

Fig. I. — Type of the Virginian Negro of Slavery Days.. From " The Negro in the New

World."

of Studying the negro in Africa, but certainly no one
has made such excellent use of them as Sir Harry
Johnston, who has already written eleven volumes on
the subject.

With such an intimate knowledge of the essential
negro, Sir Harry Johnston was well equipped for the
examination of his behaviour under the influence of
his altered surroundings in the New World.

In this book he has given us a detailed account,
illustrated by maps and hundreds of excellent photo-
graphs, of the nature of each territory in the New
World occupied by negroes or negroids, its commer-
cial resources and social conditions, the place occupied
in it by the black man, and especially the half-caste,
and the degree of success and the possibilities for the

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

December 8, 19 lo]

NATURE

173

future in ameliorating the lot and uplifting the
coloured people, socially and morally.

Although no one is more fully aware than Sir Harry
Johnston of the failings and moral weaknesses of the
negro, he takes a very hopeful view — which many
persons with a less intimate knowledge of the black
man may think unreasonably sanguine— of his future,
and especially of the hybrid's prospects, in the New
World, provided only that he follows the example and
teaching of his great and wise leader, Dr. Booker
Washington, who "'wants the negro to become the
most industrious race in the United States " (p. 407).
because only work will exhaust his energies and keep
him out of mischief.

The book starts with a statement of Sir Harry
Johnston's views on the negro's place in nature, which
for the most part are well known to readers of his
>cher books.

It is unfortunate, however, that on the very slender
basis of the evidence apfforded by the skeletons in the
Grimaldi caves (see p. 26) he extends the habitat of

Fig. 2. — lype of Modern Xegro ; an electrical engineer trained
at Tuskegee. From " Ihe Negro in the New World."

he negro over half the continent of Europe and the
whole of the British Isles !

It is not as a work of science, however, that this
Avork, with its introductory vulgarisation of anthro-
pology, is to be judged, but as a book of exceptional
interest, and as the reasoned judgment of a man of
wide experience on one of the most difficult socio-
logical problems of the present time.

G. Elliot Smith.

GEOLOGICAL CHRONOLOGY.^

T^HE vexed question of the age of the earth has
*• passed through several distinct phases. Lyell
arid his contemporaries, accustomed to dwell on the
extreme slowness of geological processes, considered
themselves free to make unlimited "drafts on the

1 ■' A Preliminary Study of Chemical Denudation." By F. W. Clarke.
Pp. 19. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. Ivi., No. 5. (Wash-
ington, 1910.)

"The Age of the Earth." By G. F. Becker. Pp.28. /W</., vol. Ivi.,
No. 6. (Washington, 1910.)

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

Dank of lime"; but, since 1862, this position has been
seriously challenged from the physical side. The
chief argument brought against it was that, granting
the globe to have cooled from a molten state, it would
attain its assumed present thermal condition in a few
scores of millions of years, only a fraction of which
time would be available for the stratigraphical record.
If the general body of geologists, influenced by the
high authority of Lord Kelvin, have tried to adapt
themselves to this narrow limitation, it has not been
without reluctance, and some sturdy dissentients have
refused any such coercion. To these, during the last
few years, welcome support has come from unexpected
quarters. The nebular hypothesis of the earth's
origin, upon which the estimates of Kelvin and King
were tacitly based, has been shaken by Moulton's
calculations and other arguments put forward by
Chamberlin. Moreover, the remarkable discoveries in
the domain of radio-activity have compelled a recon-
sideration of the thermal state of the globe. Estimates
of the earth's age deduced from its supposed rate of
cooling clearly become futile if we have no good reason
for believing that the earth is a cooling body. On
the other hand, from the radio-active properties of
various minerals Strutt has deduced geological ages
liberal enough for the most extreme uniformitarian.

The debate concerning the age of the earth is thus
no longer an issue between geologists and physicists,
since the newer school of physics has declared on the
side of the ampler chronology. Meanwhile, there has
arisen within the body of geologists a formidable
minoritv who contend, on geological grounds, for an
estimate of geological time no more elastic than that
imposed bv the old argument from refrigeration. The
discussion has followed two distinct lines, starting on
one hand from the rate of accumulation of sedi-
ments, and on the other from the rate at which
sodium is carried down bv rivers into the sea. The
interesting memoirs by Mr. Clarke and Dr. Becker,
recently published by the Smithsonian Institution,
deal mainly with the second mode of approaching the
problem, but Becker offers also a revised estimate of
the earth's age as calculated from the rate of cooling.

In 1899 Prof. Joly made estimates, first, of the
total amount of sodium contained in the ocean, and,
secondly, of the amount annuallv carried down by
rivers, and, dividing the one by the other, obtained
the quotient 97,600,000 3ears as the age of the ocean,
supposed to be initially of fresh water. If the sea
contained some salt from the beginning", this figure
must be reduced accordingly. The choice of sodium
is dictated bv the consideration that this constituent is
less removed from sea-water than any other. A
relatively small correction is made for salt carried
inland by the wind, and it is assumed that there is no
other process of importance by which sodium is being
continually removed from the oceanic waters. We
mav note in passing that certain observed facts, such
as the evident chemical action of sea-water upon
potash-granites, throw some doubt upon this assump-
tion.

The data at Joly's command were very defective,
and the main object of Clarke's memoir is to revise
the calculation in the light of more recent information.
In particular he has drawn upon the large mass of
observations relative to the discharge, drainage-areas,
and salinity of American rivers contained in the Water-
Supplv Papers of the United States Geological Survey.
He has brought tosfether the available information on
the same points for other parts of the world, and
indicated where additional observations are especially
desirable. The "denudation factor," i.e. the number
of metric tons annually removed in solution from
each square mile of a drainage-basin, varies from
105 for the St. Lawrence to 16 for the Nile, and the

174

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

relative amounts of the different dissolved salts also
vary widely, these variations being related to climatic
and lithological differences. Clarke computes the
amount of sodium annually carried down by rivers
to be 175,040,000 metric tons, and the total amount
of sodium in the sea 14,130x10'^ tons, which gives
as a quotient 80,726,000 years. He apparently con-
siders possible corrections to be unimportant, or to
balance one another, for he believes this crude quotient
to be "as probable as any other value that might be
chosen." As representing the age of the ocean, he
considers this figure, for reasons set forth in Becker's
memoir, to be "certainly a maximum."

The fundamental weakness of all such calculations,
whether based on sedimentation or on solvent erosion,
lies in the assumption that the present annual rate
represents with sufficient approximation the mean rate
throughout geological time. To the present writer this
consideration deprives the conclusions of even a re-
mote relevance to the actual problem. We know, for
instance, that, even during the accumulation of a
single formation at a given spot, the rate of deposition
mav vary widely, and in a shallow-water formation
mav be at one time positive and at another negative.
To accept the thickness of a formation as a measure
of its time of accumulation, with whatever qualifica-
tions and allowances, must inevitablv lead to error,
and probably to a greatly exaggerated estimate of the
rate of sedimentation. Like reasoning applies to all
processes of chemical as well as mechanical erosion
and deposition, which are necessarily controlled by
varying conditions. Even if we could eliminate the
effects of relatively rapid and local variations, we have
still to consider probable secular changes and others
of a broadlv periodic kind.

A partial recognition of this side of the problem
has led Dr. Becker to discard Joly's assumption of a
constant rate of increment of sodium in the sea, and
to adopt instead a secular change of rate. He lays
stress on the fact that at present the felspathic rocks
are, over great areas, covered with a blanket of
rotten rock in place, which contains onlv a negligible
amount of sodium ; and he pictures a distant future,
when all massive rocks may be decayed down to sea-
level, and addition of sodium to the ocean will prac-
ticallv cease. He thus reaches the remarkable con-
clusion that the rate of increment of sodium in the
sea is progressively declining, and he accordingly re-
presents it by a descending exponential expression.
The age of the ocean is calculated, according to
different hypotheses, as from 74*4 millions of years.
The argument is not one which is likely to convince
geologists. A decayed crust covering large continen-
tal areas must certainly have existed at many past
epochs, and, indeed, the present time seems to be
peculiarly favoured, in that extensive tracts have been
recently scoured by ice. Further, stratified deposits
yield more sodium, per square mile, than crystalline
rocks, and, throughout geological time as a whole,
the sediments have certainly made an increasing pro-
portion . of the whole land-surface. Most geologists
believe, moreover, that the total area of land-surface
has, on the whole, been growing. It would be pos-
sible, therefore, to make out a strong case for a
secular acceleration of the rate of addition of sodium
to the sea. There is another consideration of even
more weif^ht. The larger vicissitudes of the earth's
history indicate a certain rough periodicity, and there
is good reason to believe that we are living" in a time
of geological activity above the average. The author
himself remarks that the continents stand at present
above their average level, which, of course, greatly
promotes erosion ; and he also recognises that the
recentlv glaciated regions of the globe are contribut- j

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

ing soduim to the ocean at a rate which must raise
the average. Unfortunately, he is content to leave
these important considerations without discussion,
assuming that they are sufficiently offset by an in-
creased marine erosion.

The second part of Dr. Becker's paper, in which he
revises Kelvin's refrigeration argument, we must pass
over very briefly. It is ingenious in treatment, but
involves too many precarious hypotheses to carry
much weight. The special feature is that no assump-
tion is made relative to the present superficial tem-
perature-gradient. This is eliminated by making us(;
of Hayford's "level of isostatic compensation," which
is computed to lie at a depth (71 miles) beyond any
disturbance from radio-activit}\ Of several special
cases considered, the author prefers one which gives
sixty million years since the consistentior status, and
leads to a present temperature-gradient of 1° F. in
77 feet. We may take this latter value as a crux of
the whole argument. Dr. Becker remarks that it is
low as compared with observation, but he fails to see
that, for the gradient due to refrigeration, it must
certainly be far too high. Here at least radio-activity
cannot be left out of consideration, and, indeed, Strutt
has maintained that the observed gradient can be
wholly accounted for by heat generated in the outer
crust of the earth. If we allow some fraction of th-'
annual loss of heat to represent secular cooling, it still
appears that the age of the earth must be enormously
greater than any estimate included in Becker's sup-
posititious cases. A. H.

PROF. ANGELO MOSSO.

n""HE School of Physiology in Leipzig was the
-•■ Mecca that attracted young men from all quar-^
ters of the globe to study physiology under that grea^
master, teacher, and experimenter, Carl Ludwig.
steady stream of young, ardent, able, and talented
students crossed the Alps from Italy to prosecute re4
search and acquire a knowledge of the methods ir
use in the Leipzig School. Amongst the earliest oi
these Transalpine scholars was L. Luciani — happiljj
still amongst us — and a little later came Angel?
Mosso, one of the most illustrious of Italian physic
legists, whose death at the age of sixty-four the whole'
physiological world to-day deplores. He was born
on May 31, 1846, in Turin. After studying at his
native university — with no advantages of wealth, for-
tune, or high social position — he, by the exercise of
his own high intellectual and brilliant gifts, soon be-
came distinguished amongst his compeers, and he was
selected by Moleschott to be his assistant in the
university. He also acted as assistant to Prof. M.
Schiff in Florence.

Before coming to study under Ludwig in the early
'seventies of last century, Mosso had already pub-
lished his well-known researches on the movements
of the CEsophagus, and determined in the dog the
weight that could be lifted in the process of swallow-
ing an olive-shaped ball (1872). In fact, the study of
movements of all kinds always proved to him a fas-
cinating and fertile subject of study. At an
early period of his career he made observations
on the movements of the Iris, and he attributed
part of the change in size of the pupil to the filling o\
the blood-vessels of the membrane itself. Ludwig set
him the problem to study the peculiarities of the move-
ments of the vascular wall as they can be inferred
from the results of the perfusion of blood through an
excised organ, such as the kidney, a method which
already had yielded such brilliant results in other
organs. His results were published in 1874.

December 8, 1910]

NATURE

/ 0

Another subject of study was plethysmography. A.
Kick previously had used a pletnysmograph lo study
variations in uie volume of an organ, .\losso, under
Ludwig's direction, modified this apparatus, and made
an elaborate study on the alterations of the volume of
the human limbs under various conditions, mental and
physical, or with intellectual work, for the volume of
a iimb does vary with mental work, as Mosso con-
clusivelv snowed. Later on, years after his return to
Italv, in 1884, he published his famous paper on
application of the balance to the study of the circula-
tion in man. He constructed a balance so subtle that
when a person was extended on it and delicately
poised, mental work caused the head end to descend
from an afHux of blood towards the brain.

In 1876, after his return to Italy, Mosso became
professor of pharmacology in Turin. In 1880, when
-Moleschott was called to fill the chair of physiology in
Rome, Mosso succeeded his old teacher as professor
of physiology in Tyrin, a post he held with the highest
distinction until his death. During the last few
years illness incapacitated him from working in his
laboratory, a matter of the acutest mental anguish to
one whose untiring brain had ever new problems to
investigate and solve.

The fact that in search after health he was able to
devote his enforced leisure to the study of the result
of excavations made in Sicily, and, above all, in Crete,
was some compensation. He has left behind him a
standard work on prehistoric anthropologv in his
■' Palaces of Crete," published in English in 1907.
His first laboracorj- was in a convent, but his bound-
less activity, productiveness, and the increase in the
number of scholars, as well as the growing import-
ance of his subject, led the Government to provide him
with a palatial laboraton,-, one of the finest, most
artistic, and aesthetic and best equipped in Europe.
In 1882, along with Prof. Emery, he founded the well-
known ".Archives italiennes de Biologic," in which
many of his now classical investigations were pub-
lished. The first volume contains, Bizzozero's article
on the blood platelets, and that of Mosso and Pella-
cani on the movements of the bladder. His unrivalled
activity found vent in many directions in physiologv ;
nor was this all. He was elected a senator, and often
travelled to Rome to Monte Citorio to attend to his
parliamentary duties, returning at night to undertake
his more academic duties in Turin next morning.

The physiology of respiration early, and indeed con-
stantly, occupied his attention. He studied the rela-
tions between abdominal and thoracic movements in
1878, periodic respiration, Cheyne-Stokes breathing in
1886. He had a special laboratorv in the Regina
Margherita hut on the top of Alonte Rosa, j;;6o
metres above sea level, for the study of life at high
altitudes, and the results of his prolonged and arduous
labours he published in his " Life of Man on the High
Alps," which was translated into English in 1898.
As human beings cannot live much more than two
months ar a time in these altitudes, he had a fully-
equipped laboratory erected on Cold'olen at 3000
metres, where much phvsiological, phvsical, and
biological work was done.

In his "Diagnostik des Pulses" (1879) he made a
careful study of the pulse, and in 1895 he invented
his sphygmo-manometer for the study of the blood
pressure in man. Amongst the most interesting of
his studies on the circulation are those on that oif the
brain. The temperature and psvchical activities of
this organ he studied in 1894, and the researches
formed part of the subject of his Croonian lectures in
1892.

Perhaps his work best known in this country is that
on fatigue— translated into French, German, and
NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

English — as studied by the use of his ergograph, a
most valuable contribution, written with a charm of
diction that one rarely finds in physiological memoirs.
Mosso was a master of style, happy in his phraseology,
wide and catholic in his literal tastes, a keen and
loyal admirer of the poets of his beloved Italy. The
bust of Dante was always present on his laboratory
writing-table. His interesting work on " La Paura "
(" Fear ") was also translated into English. Amongst
his other popular writings are " L'Education physiquf
de la jeunesse," '" Les E.xercises physiques et k
developpement intellectuel," and " Materialismo et
Misticismo."

.\mongst his chemical investigations the best known
are those on ptomaines (with Guaresche, in 1882). and
the discovery of the fluorescent serum and the power-
ful toxic venin — which he called ichthyotoxin — which-
occurs in the blood of the Murinideae, such as the
conger eel.

In Angelo Mosso the world loses a great and dis-
tinguished physiologist, who was beloved by all who
knew him, was venerated by his pupils, and'
by his work, both in its theoretical and its prac-
tical applications, secured for himself a reputation as
an investigator and expositor such as to place him
alongside that illustrious galaxy of his countrvmen
who have added so much to the domain of natural
knowledge.

JULES TANNERY.

T^HE unexpected death of M. Jules Tannery on.
■■■ November 11, at the age of seventy-two, will be
sincerely regretted by a much larger circle of admirers
than he would have anticipated. He belonged to a.
type of mathematician which is not too common, be-
cause he was at the same time an original thinker, a.
successful teacher, and a writer endowed with an un-
usually clear, brilliant, and attractive stvle.

In England, at any rate, he is probably best known
by his mathematical text-books. Of these, tht
"Lemons sur I'Arithmetique " is a masterpiece in it-
way, combining rigour of method with a charming
lucidity and ease; the "Traite sur la theorie des
fonctions elliptiques " (written in conjunction with M.
Molk), is one of the best works on the subject suited
for a beginner; while the value of his '•Introduction
a la theorie des fonctions " is shown by the fact that
a second and revised edition has recentlv appeared.
Tannery was essentially an arithmetician, and one
main object of his work on function-theory is to show
that (as Dirichht asserted) all its results are deducibi ■
from the notion of a whole number. A more philo-
sophical work, dealing with the same class of ideas,
is his '■ Role du nombre dans les sciences." which he
appears to have regarded as his greatest work. A-
might be expected, he took a part in the controversies
aroused by Cantor's invention of transfinite numbers.
M. Picard, in announcing the death of their col-
league to the Academy of Sciences, referred in appre-
ciative terms to the notices of mathematical works
and memoirs contributed by Tannery to the Bulletin
des Sciences matheniatiques. He said :— " Elles ne
sont pas toutes signees, mais on ne peut s'v tromper,
car elles portent sa marque si personnelle.' En le^
reunissant, on aurait un tableau fidele d'une partie
importante du mouvement mathematique dans ces
vingt-cinq dernieres annees."

Tannery's last official post was that of vice-principal
of the Higher Normal School, and he was elected an
.Academician in 1907. M. Picard bears witness to his
amiable, witty, and engaging character in private life

G. B. M.

176

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

HOTES.

Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S., has been elected a corre-
sponding member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences.

The principal trustees of the British Museum have
appointed Mr. Walter Campbell Smith, of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge, to an assistantship in the mineral
department.

Prof. E. P. di Sessa (Rome), Prof. E. G. Warburg
(Charlottenburg), Prof. J. H. Poincaf^ (Paris), Prof.
Alexander Graham Bell (Washington), and Prof. P. N.
Lebedew (Moscow), have been elected honorary members of
the Royal Institution.

The sixth annual exhibition of electrical, optical, and
other physical apparatus, arranged by the Physical Society,
will be held at the Imperial College of Science,
Imperial Institute Road, South Kensington, on Tuesday,
December 20.

At the request of the council of the Roj-al Society of
Arts, Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, authorised the transmission of the society's Albert
medal to his Majesty's Ambassador at Paris for its
presentation to Madame Curie. Sir Francis Bertie re-
ceived Madame Curie at the British Embassy on
November 25, and handed to her the Albert medal, tell-
ing her that he had been instructed by the Secretary of
State to present it to her on the part of the Royal Society
of Arts in recognition of the services rendered to the
world by her discovery of radium, and adding that it gave
him great pleasure to be the medium of carrying out the
wishes of the society.

In view of the candidature of Madame Curie for
membership of the Paris Academy of Sciences, great
interest attaches to the discussion at the last monthly meet-
ing of the central administrative committee of the five
French academies, on the admission of women as members
of the Institut de France. .According to the Paris corre-
spondent of the Times, the committee was unable to agree,
and it was decided, finally, that the question should be
remitted to the administrative committees of the various
academies, that their decisions should be considered at the
next sitting on December 28, and that the whole question
should be then transferred to the plenary trimestral united
sitting of all the academies on January 4. It may be
mentioned here that Madame Curie has just been elected
an honorary foreign member of the Stockholm Academy
of Sciences.

The Vienna correspondent of the Times states that Mr.
Alton, of the Radium Institute in London, has bought
from the Austrian Ministry of Works, on behalf of Sir
Ernest Cassel, i gram of radium for the sum of nearly
15,000/. The radium is a gift by Sir Ernest Cassel to the
institute, and is intended for use in cancer research. One
half of the gram is now being tested at the Vienna Radium
Institute, and will be sent to England next month. The
other half is being extracted from the pitchblende at
Joachimsthal, and will be available in three or four
months. Mr. J. W. Gifford, of Chard, Somerset, has
announced to Prince Alexander of Teck, chairman of the
Weekly Board of the Middlesex Hospital, his intention of
presenting 40 milligrams of radium to the cancef research
laboratories of that institution for the prosecution of their
investigations. At current rates this quantity of radium,
weighing approximately one seven-hundredth of an ounce,
is worth about 600Z.

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

The following are among the lecture arrangements at
the Royal Institution before Easter : — Prof. Siivanus P.
Thompson, a Christmas course of six illustrated lectures
on sound, musical and non-musical, a course of experi-
mental acoustics, adapted to a juvenile auditory ; Prof.
F. W. Mott, six lectures on heredity; Dr. A. E. H. Tutton,
three lectures on crystalline structure : mineral, chemical,
and liquid ; Dr. M. Aurel Stein, three lectures on explora-
tions of desert sites in Central Asia ; the Astronomer Royal,
Mr. F. W. Dyson, three lectures on recent progress in
astronomy ; Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, three lectures on
problems of animals in captivity ; Prof. Arthur Keith, two
lectures on giants and pygmies; Prof. W. A. Bone, two
lectures on surface combustion and its industrial applica-
tions ; Sir J. J. Thomson, six lectures on radiant energy
and matter. The Friday evening meetings will commence
on January 20, when Sir James Dewar will deliver a dis-
course on chemical change at low temperatures. Succeed-
ing discourses will probably be given by Prof. W. H.
Bragg, Mr. A. E. Shipley, Prof. H. E. Armstrong, Prof.
Jean Perrin, Prof. Karl Pearson, Mr. J. H. Balfour-
Browne, Sir David Gill, Prof. H. S. Hele-Shaw, Sir J. J.
Thomson, and other gentlemen.

An important question with regard to the distribution
and occurrence of the various species of tsetse-flies in
Africa is to what extent the areas infested by them re-
main constant. It has long been known that in a given
tract of country certain parts harbour tsetse-flies, while
from other parts they are absent ; but of late years an
impression has grown up that these areas are liable to
change, and that the fly is spreading. Sir Alfred Sharpe.
in a memoir on the habits of Glossina morsitans in
Nyasaland (Bulletin of Entomological Research, vol. i.,
part iii.), is of opinion that fly-areas do not alter their
limits to any appreciable extent. He states, however,
that within the area, fly may sometimes be found in one
part, sometimes in another, and in very variable quantity
at different times. He believes that the numbers of the
fly depend largely on the season of the year, but also on
other causes impossible as yet to define. On the other
hand, Mr. P. E. Hall communicates to the same journal
some notes on the m.ovements of G. morsitans in N.E.
Rhodesia, and indicates on a map a number of areas
which, to the best of his knowledge, were clear of fly
up to 1906, but are now fly-infested. This conflict of
opinion (perhaps more apparent than real) shows how
urgent is the need of systematic investigations by expert
entomologists upon these and other questions relating to
the bionomics of tsetse-flies.

In the Philippine Journal of Science for June Dr. R. B.
Bean, of the Anatomical Laboratory, Manila, reports the
discovery of a living specimen in the island of Luzon
which he believes to bear close relationship to the Palaeo-
lithic type represented by the Neanderthal skull. The
massive lower jaw with its square ramus and receding
chin, the low cephalic index (73-68), heavy brow ridges,
rounded orbits, large nasal apertures and high nasal index
(102-2), combined with small stature (156-8 cm.), muscular
frame and short femur, all approximate to a form similar
to that of the antediluvian man of Europe, Homo heidel-
bergensis. Dr. Bean in the same issue of the Journal
continues his study of the racial anatomy of the people
of Taytay, dealing here with the women, whom he finds
to be more primitive than the men, and closely resembling
the women of Siberia. The Blend type is largely primitive
in character, and the Austroloid variety comes between the
Iberian and the primitive. >

December 8, 1910J

NATURE

177

In the first part of the Journal of the Royal Anthropo-
logical Institute Mr. W. Crooke discusses the origin of
the Rajputs and Mahrattas, the warrior tribes of India.
He identifies among the former a considerable intermixture
of Central Asian blood derived from the Hun invasions,
and he holds that they. constitute a status group developed
from a stock of which the lower grades are now repre-
sented by the Jats and Gujars of the Punjab. The
Mahrattas he also considers to be a status group developed
from the Kunbi tribe, and now claiming affinity with the
Rajputs. He questions the validity of the suggestion that
the brachycephalic element in southern India is the result
of emigration of Huns or Scythians under pressure from
the Aryans. It may be more reasonably accounted for
by a prehistoric movement of races from the west either
by the land route or in the course of commerce which
existed with the Euphrates valley from a very early
period.

Our note in Nature of November 24 (p. 114) upon the
suggested inversion of the expression " thunder and
lightning " leads another correspondent to point out that
the phrase "animals and birds," inadvertently used on
the same page, is open to the objection that it suggests
that birds are not animals. He proposes the term " beasts,
birds and fishes " as comprehensive and sufficiently
distinctive.

Dr. R. Horst has favoured us with a copy of an
account of a new species of peripatus (Paraperipatiis
lorentzi) from Dutch New Guinea, published in vol. xxxii.
(pp. 217-8) of Notes from the Leyden Museum. The
species, which is fortunately represented by a male and a
female, is of interest as filling a gap in the distribution
of the group. The two specimens were discovered in
moss on Mount Wichmann, at a height of between 9000
and 10,000 feet. In colour the new spepies is dark
greenish-blue, becoming somewhat paler on the under side,
and with a median central row of small whitish spots.

When Dr. J. Huber succeeded Prof. E. A. Goeldi as

; director of the Museu Goeldi (Museu Paraense) in March,

I 1907, the opportunity was taken of reorganising the staff

I of that institution on a new and improved footing. These

j changes, as well as the general progress of the museum,

are recorded in the reports for 1907 and 1908, which

form the first portion of vol. vi. of the Boletim do Museu

Goeldi, which, although relating to the year 1909, has

only just been published. The zoological gardens attached

to the museum, which are largely devoted to the exhibition

of the animals of the country, appear to be in a thriving

condition, having received a large number of accessions

during the period under review.

The pharyngeal teeth of fishes form the subject of an
iclei, by Colonel C. E. Shepherd, in the November
number of the Zoologist. These organs, except in the
case of the wrasse and carp groups, have, according to the
author, received but scant attention at the hands of
naturalists. After referring to their different structural
types, Colonel Shepherd expresses the opinion that pharyn-
geal teeth are probably the chief masticating organs, as
they are undoubtedly in carp and wrasse. Fish-eating
species, which swallow their prey whole, would have the
action of the gastric juice facilitated if the bodies of the
fishes swallowed had the scaly coat broken by means of the
iDharyngeal teeth. These teeth also assist in working the
ood down into the oesophagus.

The local pearl and pearl-shell fishery forms the sub-
t of an article by Mr. A. Scale in the July number
1. v., No. 2) of the Philippine Journal of Science. Two
NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

species of pearl-oyster are found in Philippine waters, the
valuable gold-lip, Margaritifera maxima, and the less
precious black-lip, M. margaritifera. With the exception
of those used in a factory at Manila, which is capable of
turning out about 6000 gross of buttons per month, and
consumes about 300 tons per annum, all the shells are
exported to Singapore or Europe. Although almost the
whole area from Sibutu Passage to Basilan Strait and the
south shore of Mendanao is a potential pearl-bank ; most
of the banks have been over-fished, and it is now difficult
to find productive ones. One bank was recently found in
which all the shells were dead, and so corroded as to be
valueless. The fisheries afford a fair yield of pearls,
although much less than the Ceylon output, which comes
from a smaller species, with shells of little value. On
the other hand, some of the finest known pearls are the
product of the Sulu fishery. The Japanese are producing
pearls, although not of good shape, by introducing foreign
objects into the oysters, and the author states that within
the next few years it will be possible to produce perfectly
spherical pearls of good lustre.

To tlie Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum,
No. 1778, Messrs. Everman and Latimer communicate the
first complete list of the fishes of the Lake of the W'oods
and neighbouring waters, so far as at present known.
Although the Lake of the Woods, which forms the re-
ceptacle for the waters of Rainy River, lies mainly in
Ontario, its southern border is situated on the northern
frontier of Minnesota, and therefore belongs to the United
States. On account of the recent treaty between Great
Britain and the United States, which provides for the
federal control of the fisheries in these waters, an account
of their fish-fauna is a matter of some importance at the
present time. The fisheries in the Lake of the Woods,
which are carried on by means of nets, are of very large
economical value, having yielded in 1909 a total sum of
42,193 dollars, of which 28,051 pertained to the United
States and 14,142 to Canada. In 1894 the total value was,
however, as much as 81,337 dollars. The most valuable
product is the great lakes sturgeon (Acipenser rubicundus),
which formerly swarmed in Lake of the W^oods, and in
1893 yielded no fewer than 26,000 dollars, although of
late, like that of the rest of the fishery, the yield has been
much less. During the last few years a slight increase in
the catch is, however, reported, but this may be due to
closer fishing.

In connection with the preservation of localities where
rare plants or special plant associations are found, atten-
tion is directed to a paper, by Mr. A. R. Horwood, on
the extinction of cryptogamic plants, published in the
Transactions of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific
Societies (1910). The author discusses the numerous
factors that lead to the extinction of plants, and presents
the results of special inquiry with regard to Ireland,
where perhaps the most destructive factor is the collector,
who in the south-west counties raids the ferns Trichomanes
radicans and Osmunda regalis.

In the Victorian Naturalist (vol. xxvii., No. 6) is pub-
lished a report by Mr. J. W. Audas on a botanical expedi-
tion in the Victorian Alps, and a list of plants recorded
from the district that has been compiled by Dr. A. J.
Ewart. Out of 334 species, one-third belong to the three
families Compositae, Leguminosae, and Myrtaceae, while
the families Saxifragaceae and Ericaceae are only repre-
sented by Bauera rubiginosa and Gaultheria hispida ; a
single gentian, Gentiana saxosa, is found. The one
endemic plant is a bushy labiate, Wesfringia senifolia.

178

NATURE

[December 8, 19 lo

Among the plants observed by Mr. Audas about an altitude
of 5000 feet were the shrubs Eriostemon niyoporoidcs,
Helichrysum rosmarinifolium, and Kunzea Muelleri ; near
the summit of Mt. Hotham he found the grass-like
umbellifer, Aciphylla glacialis, and a tufted carophvll,
Scleranthus biflorus.

Mr. E. p. Stebbing presents in Forest Pamphlet No. 15,
published by the Government of India, a note on the
preservation of bamboos from the attacks of the bamboo
beetle or " shot-borer." The destructiveness of this insect,
Dinoderus minuhis, may be gauged from the fact that
bamboos generally last in India only for a year or eighteen
months. Cooperation between the author and the Indian
Telegraph Department has resulted in the evolution of an
•'ffectual method of treatment, which consists in soaking
the bamboos for five days in water, when they exude a
gelatinous substance, and then immersing in Rangoon
oil for forty-eight hours. The object of the bulletin is to
record the e.xperiments undertaken and the results, show-
ing that the oil has effectually preserved bamboos treated
in 1904 up to the time of writing in 1909.

The Agricultural Journal of British East Africa, recently
to hand (vol. iii., part i.), contains a short article by Dr.
Bodeker on native methods of fishing in relation to the
incidence and dissemination of sleeping sickness. Fish-
ing is attended with grave danger to all natives in the
vicinity wherever Glossina palpalis is found. Several dis-
tricts where formerly a large population of fishermen dwelt
are now uninhabited as a result of the disease. Among
remedial measures, the destruction of the thin strip of
bamboo canes along the whole coast-line is recommended.
In another article Mr. MacDonald urges the advantages
of maize as a crop for export. It can be grown readily
and at comparatively low cost over a large area of the
country, and, so far, it has not been infested by any
seriously destructive pest. Railway rates to the coast
being now much reduced, it becomes possible to send the
maize to Great Britain or to the Continent, where the
demand is practically unlimited.

A TABLE is given in a recent issue of the Journal of
Agriculture of South Australia (vol. xiv., No. i) showing
how the use of fertilisers for cereals has increased during
the past thirteen years. From 1898, the first year given
in the table, to the current year the increase has been
continuous ; some of the figures are as follows : —

Quantity of Area of cereal

•ear manure used crop manured

Tons Acres

1898 12,500 250,000

i8q9 16.500 350-000

I0O7 61,000 I 366,400

1908 6s,ooo 1,456,000

1909 76,500 2,100000

1910 87,000 2,320,000

A few soil analyses are recorded in another article, from
which it appears that the soils are very different from our
own. The nitrogen varied from 0-026 to 0-091 per cent.,
the phosphoric acid from o-oio to 0-045 P^r cent., and the
potash from 0-044 to 0-82 per cent. All these values are
much lower than in ordinary English arable soils.

The Natal Museum has issued a catalogue of a collec-
tion of rocks and minerals from Natal and Zululand
arranged stratigraphically by Dr. F. H. Hatch. The
specimens were collected by Dr. Hatch during the winter
months of 1909. Beginning with the oldest rocks, the
order of arrangement is : — (i) metamorphic rocks, Swazi-
land system ; (2) granites intrusive in the metamorphic
rocks of the Swaziland system; (3) Waterberg or Table
NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

Mountain sandstone; (4) rocks of the Karroo system;
(5) surface deposits. The collection of specimens is -i
duplicate of one which Dr. Hatch proposes to present to a
London museum.

In a paragraph upon the recently discovered ice-cav<
near Obertraun, Upper Austria, which appeared in
Nature of October 13 (p. 469), Prof. E. Fugger was
described as one of the explorers of the cave. Prof. Fuggi 1
asks us to state that he has not yet personally exaniind
the cave, and that the information he kindly sent at our
request was provided by Herr Alexander von Mork, who
took part in the exploration of it. The discoverers and
first explorers of the cave were, according to reports in the
Linz newspapers, Herren J. Lahner and Kling (Linz),
J. Pollak (Wels), I. Bock (Graz), A. v. Mork (Salzburg),
and L. Kranl (Budapest).

Messrs. Outes and Bucking have added notably to the
discussion of the tierras cocidas of the Pampas beds of
Argentina by publishing photographs of thin sections of
the debatable materials (" Sur la structure des scories et
' terres cuites,' " Revista del Museo de la Plata, vol.
xvii., p. 78, September). Scoriae are figured from Mont*'
Hermoso which are undoubtedly of volcanic origin.
These are contrasted with the fragmental earths, which
contain, however, volcanic particles. When these earths
are subjected to the action of fire, they show fluidal struc-
tures and a glassy ground between the surviving fr;i^
ments, and certainly do not resemble the alle^
"terres cuites" selected for comparison. True burni
earths are formed during agricultural operations near L:i
Plata when the settlers wish to clear their ground by
burning the surface-vegetation, and these are of the glas>y
type. It is urged, therefore, that the andesitic scori.i?
which occur in the earths of the Pampas beds cannot be
regarded as products of superficial burning. The petro-
graphic argument is immensely strengthened by the
illustrations, and their production, if we may judge from
a quotation made by the authors, seems due to certain
remarks published in Nature in 1909 (vol. Ixxxi., p. 535).

In the September Bulletin of the American Geographical
Society, under the title of " Notes on the Description of
Land Forms.— I.," Prof. W. M. Davis returns to his
attack on the " empirical " method of description in a
criticism of three recent geographical papers (German, j
Italian, and English). He urges that it is " ultra-con-
servative " to adhere to the empirical method wlien " the
whole trend of modern physical geography is toward the
use of explanatory description." It may be replied, how- '
ever, that while the new " terms of origin " can be some-
times used with good effect by a physiographer of Prof.
Davis's experience and confidence, they might be more
misleading than any empirical description if employed
wrongly or applied without sufficient warrant. It is not
every traveller who could be trusted with the use of
"mature insequent ravines," &c., as desired by Prof. (
Davis in his " Notes."

The November issue of the National Geograpl
Magazine contains thirty-nine photographs in colour, \yh;
is the largest number of coloured pictures ever publisii
in a single number of the magazine. These illustratu ;
all deal with life and scenes in Korea and China, :i
together provide an excellent means of picturing the hab
and customs of these Eastern peoples. The article whi
is illustrated by these pictures is by Mr. William ^'
Chaplin, who shows an intimate acquaintance with \-
countries he descri;)es, and he also took the photograph-

December 8, 1910]

NATURE

179

from which the pictures were made. Mr. Guy E. Mitchell
contributes a well-illustrated paper on a " New Source of
Power," in which he deals with the extensive beds of
lignite in the United States. The State geologists have
stimated that the lignite deposits in the United States,
• xclusive of Alaska, amount to 740X10' tons, of which
fully one-third belongs to the public lands. The total area
underlain by lignite and sub-bituminous coal — coal mostly
>f little, if any, value in steam plants, but of great effici-
ncy in gas producers — is 246,245 square miles. The U.S.
(ieological Survey fuel tests have showed that when coal
is made into producer gas and then used in a gas engine, it
has from two to three times the efficiency that it has
when burned under a steam boiler in the ordinan.' way.
Moreover, the experiments showed that lignite, which is
useless for steaming purposes, can be used most success-
fully in the gas producer. Other articles in this issue of
the magazine are " Kboo, a Liberian Game," by Mr.
G. N. Collins; the " Pest of English Sparrows," by Mr.
\. Dearborn; and "The Mistletoe," by Mr. W. L. Bray.

The remarkable series of earthquakes that occurred in
Alaska in September, 1899, is described in a valuable paper
by Mr. Lawrence Martin (Bulletin of the Geol. Soc. of
America, vol. xxi., 1910, pp. 339-406). The first known
>hock occurred on September 3, the last on September 29.
In these four weeks there were four, possibly five, world-
-haking earthquakes, and several hundred minor shocks.

The strongest of all was the second ■ great shock of
September 10. It disturbed an area of probably not fewer
than 432,000 square miles, and produced water-waves in
Lake Chelan, Washington, which is nearly 1200 miles
from the origin. Shore-lines were raised as much as
47j feet, and depressed 5 feet or more in Yakutat Bay,
and new reefs were uplifted. Sea-waves 20 or 30 feet
high swept the shores. The Muir Glacier subsequently
-''treated eight miles in as many years, while other glaciers
were subject to brief spasmodic advances. But, though
the earthquake ranks among the greatest that have visited
:he American continent, there was no recorded loss of life

imong the twenty thousand inhabitants of the disturbed

irea, while the destruction of property was insignificant.

This immunity was, no doubt, due to the fact that the
people lived in tents, log cabins, or low frame buildings.

In Bergens Museums Skrifter. Ny Raekke., Bd. i..
No. I, Dr. A. Appellof, of the Bergen Museum, describes
the investigations on the life-history of the common
lobster, upon which he has for a number of years been
' ngaged. The monograph (" Untersuchungen iiber den
Hummer ") contains also a summary of previous work on
the subject, and, as a whole, gives the best account of our
knowledge of the natural history of the lobster which is

>t present available. With regard to the migrations of the
mimal. Dr. Appellof, basing his opinion chiefly on the

esults of marking experiments, concludes that the lobster

s a stationary animal, and remains in a very restricted
area for many years, undertaking only short migrations,
a conclusion which is of great importance when possible
Mhemes for stocking a fishery by means of artificial rear-

ng of lobster larvae are under consideration. The author
considers that the probability of increasing the supply of
lobsters on the fishing grounds by means of artificial
hatching, combined with the rearing of the larvae until
they reach the bottom-haunting stages, is very great, and
refers to the successful rearing experiments carried out by
Mead in the United States. The monograph is illustrated
by a series of plates showing the various stages of develop-
ment of lobster larvae.

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

We have received from Mr. ' A. Ghose a letter with
reference to the review in Nature of September 29 (p.
406) of his paper on "Manganese-ore Deposits of the
Sandur State." Mr. Ghose points out that the Indian
outputs of manganese ore were quoted incorrectly ; our
reviewer regrets the error, and supplies the correct figures
as follows : — Production of manganese ore in the State of
Sandur during 1908, 23,413 tons ; during the quinquennial
period 1904-8 (four \ears), 50,872 tons. Production of
manganese ore in the Presidency of Madras during 1908,
118,089 tons; in the quinquennial period 1904-8, 513.845
tons. Production of manganese ore in the whole of India
during 1908, 685,135 tons; in the quinquennial period
1904-8, 2,545,718 tons. The production of Sandur is
therefore a little more than 3 per cent, of the whole out-
put of India.

The meteorological chart of the North Atlantic for
December (first issue), published by the Meteorological
Committee, has some interesting details of the two West
India hurricanes experienced during October last. .A
cablegram from Havana on October 13 stated that the
barometer was then falling, and later on a destructive
cyclone passed over the south of Cuba, and was central
between there and Cay West on October 15. On
October 17 another storm of greater intensity (referred to
in London newspapers on October 19) passed over Havana,
and the island of Cuba is reported to have sustained the
greatest material damage in its history. Several steam-
ships were driven ashore by one or other of these hurri-
canes. Interesting synoptic weather charts are also given
for the period November 10-16. These and the useful ex-
planatory text indicate the existence of three high-pressure
areas, one over the western American States, another to
the north of Iceland, and a third which was gradually
transferred from Europe to the region of the Azores. Over
Europe as a whole the weather was dominated by de-
pressions developed over the upper portion of the Atlantic,
between the Icelandic and Azores high-pressure systems.

We have received from the Abb^ T. Moreux, director
of the Bourges Observatory (Cher), a revised edition of
his pamphlet entitled " Introduction to the Meteorology of
the Future : the Sun and the Prediction of Weather."
The Abbe is dissatisfied with the present method of fore-
casting weather for a day or two in advance. He points
to the changes in the sun, which seem to have some con-
nection with those on the earth, and asks whether this is
not something more than a simple coincidence. He quotes
step by step the progress made in tracing this connection
from the time that Sir W. Herschel discussed the ques-
tion of sun-spots (Phil. Trans., 1801, p. 265), and rapidlv
passes in review the labours of Schwabe, Wolf, and sub-
sequent investigators down to the present day, and manv
references are given to the discussions which have appeared
in our columns and elsewhere. The spectroscopic re-
searches and discoveries of Sir Norman Lockyer and M.
Janssen, and the establishment of the Solar Physics
Observatory at South Kensington, are referred to as of
prime importance ; the former marked the epoch of ex-
tended observations on the simultaneity of solar and
terrestrial changes, and the latter formed a base for
similar inquiries in other parts of the world. The author
observes that we have now an important groundwork of
operations, and it must be maintained at any price.

In two notes published in the Bulletin International of
the Academy of Sciences of Cracow (March and April)
Dr. Const. Zakrzewski communicates the results of
measurements made by him on the dispersion of metallic

i8o

NATURE

[December 8, 19 lo

Ijodies in the visible spectrum. Two experimental methods
were used : — (i) The author's " elliptic analyser," described
by Dr. Zakrzewski in 1907, and used since with success
•by Herr Volke ; as shown in the paper, this arrangement
provides a comparatively exact way for the determina-
tion of the refractive index v and of the index of extinc-
tion K for a metallic body. (2) A new scheme depending
-on the use, for the observation of ellipticity, of a con-
vergent pencil of light ; the results thus obtained are
estimated to be correct within 5 per cent, of their values.
Illustrative results for platinum, cobalt, and graphite are
adduced. Maxwell's simple equation »/- - /c' = const., now
given up on theoretical grounds, is found to hold true for
^graphite. The second correlative equation, however,
asserting the proportionality of the product vk with the
period of vibration in the incident beam of light, does not
agree with, the observations.

An interesting address on " Comets and Electrons " was
•delivered by Prof. Augusto Righi to the Bologna Academy
on June 22, and is published as No. 13 of Altualitd
scientifiche (Bologna : Nicola Zanichelli, 1910, price 2.50
lire). In the paper Prof. Righi traces the growth and
■development of ideas regarding radiation-pressure, the
successive proofs, disproofs, and reproofs of its existence
for finite bodies, for minute solid particles such as are
believed to exist in comets' tails, and for gaseous mole-
cules, the theory of formation of the tails themselves, the
electrical phenomena accompanying them, the escape of
gases from planetary atmospheres, the nature of sun-spots
and allied astrophysical phenomena. Prof. Righi, in con-
clusion, refers to the experiments conducted during the
passage of the earth through Halley's comet, a large pro-
portion of which gave rise to no definite conclusions. The
following suggestive remark occurs in the paper : —
"" In this connection of the action of radiations on the
individual molecules of a gas, and hence on the presence
of gases in comets' tails, there has been once more verified
the not uncommon fact that conclusions which are just,
or regarded as such, are reached only by an asymptotic
method, that is, after a series of successive corrections,
and often, as in the present case, after having completed
a series of successive oscillations, fortunately of decreasing
amplitude, from one side to the other of the truth."

A COMMITTEE was appointed about two years ago by the
Institution of Civil Engineers to investigate and report on
questions connected with the use of reinforced concrete. A
preliminary and interim report has now been issued giving
information regarding the conditions under which rein-
forced concrete has been employed in engineering work in
various countries, and the views of engineers having special
experience in its use. The committee does not accept any
responsibility for any of the statements contained in the
report, and reserves its own views and recommendations
until later. Hence the designer will still have to depend
largely on the excellent report presented some time ago
by the Royal Institution of British Architects, more
especially as he will find difficulty in extracting definite
information from the present report. The reader is ex-
pected to compare for himself the various statements of
opinions contained in 262 pages of letterpress. The com-
mittee is now engaged upon tests and investigations in
order to enlarge the knowledge at present available, and
no doubt more definite information and conclusions will
appear in a subsequent report.

Messrs. Newton and Co. have been granted a warrant
of appointment as opticians to the King. They have held
Royal warrants for more than sixty years.
NO. 2145, "^OL. 85]

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.
EpheAeris for Faye's Comet, iQioe. — Dr. Ebell pub-
lishes a continuation of the ephemeris for Faye's comet in
No. 4457 of the Astronomische Nachrichten ; the following
is an extract : —

Ephemeris i2h. (Berlin M.T.).

6 (true)

log r

log A

1910 o (true)

h. m.

Dec. 6 ... 3 37*1 ... +3 44-0 ... 02270 ... 9'87i7 ... 10-3
„ 10 ... 3 37-6 ... +3 25-0 ... 0-2292 .. 9 8«45 ••• '0-3
,, 14 ... 3 38-5 ... +3 12-8 ... 0-2316 ... 9-8985 ... 10-4
,, 18 ... 3 39'S ••• +3 7*1 ••• 02342 ... 9-9134 ... 105
„ 22 ... 3 41-6 ... +3 7-5 .. 0-2371 ... 99290 ... 10-6
,, 26 ... 3 43-7 ... +3 13-3 ... o 2401 ... y-9453 .-. io7
„ 30 ... 3 46-3 ... +3 24-t ... 0-2433 • •■ 9'962i ... IO-8
This ephemeris is calculated from Prof. Stromgren's
elements with a correction AM., and the time of peri-
helion is brought forward by about +S-gi days, to
November 1-647 (Berlin M.T.) ; an observation at Teramo
on November 23-4 gave a correction of —9s., —2-1', to the
ephemeris position.

Recent Helwan Photographs of Halley's Comet.- —
Halley's comet was again photographed with the
Reynold's reflector at the Helwan Observatory on
November 7, 9, and 11, and the plates indicate a correc-
tion of +o-2m., o', to the ephemeris published in No. 4450
of the Astronomische Nachrichten ; the magnitude is esti-
mated at about 14-5.

A telegram from Prof. Frost announces that Prof.
Barnard observed the comet (presumably with the 40-inch
refractor) at the Yerkes Observatory on November 11 at
i7h. i7-8m. (M.T. Yerkes), and found its magnitude to
be about ii-o; the observed position was

R.A. = i2h. 4m. 2I-3S., dec. = — 14° 54' 15*.

From these observations it would appear that there is
a marked difference between the photographic and visual
magnitudes, and, curiously enough, it seems that the visual
brightness is the greater (Astronomische Nachrichten,
>>'o- 4457)-

The Total Eclipse of the Moon on November 16. —
Some interesting notes dealing with observations made
during the recent eclipse of the moon appear in No. 21 of
the Comptes rendus (November 21). MM. Luizet,
Guillaume and Merlin, at the Lyons Observatory, observed
the occultations of several stars, and found that in some
cases the disappearances were not instantaneous. In two
cases the star appeared to be projected on the disc before
disappearing, and in one case contact with the limb pre-
ceded disappearance by three seconds. On the other hand
several well-observed occultations and reappearances were
quite sudden.

M. Montangerand, Toulouse Observatory, noted that 1p
one case the extinction took an appreciable time, but ii:
two others it was instantaneous ; he also directs attentior
to the apparent unevenness of the shaded disc. M. Lebeuf,
at Besan^on, also noted this phenomenon, and describes
the apparent rotation of the deeper coloration as the eclipse
proceeded. The general transparency of the shadow, as
compared with earlier eclipses, notably that of April 11,
1903, also attracted his attention.

M. Jonckheere, at the Hem Observatory, was able to
see the penumbral shadow, with the naked eye, at
loh. 32m., and observed first contact with the shadow at
loh. 57m. 5s. (M.T. Hem). He also records that the
meteorological observations, presumably delicate, indicated
a sensible lowering of temperature during totality.

The Probable Errors of Radial-velocity Determine
TIONS. — The radial velocities of stars are now bein;_
measured by many observers, not always with concordar
results, and it becomes important that the probable error-
of such observations should be investigated and define'
with every care. In a paper in No. 3, vol. xxxii., of th-
Astrophysical Journal (p. 230), Mr. Plaskett deals with
this subject, basing his discussion on exhaustive experi-
ments he has made at the Ottawa Observatory. Man}
factors enter the problem, and one of the most importair
is the effect of dispersion. Mr. Plaskett finds that, con-
trary to expectation, the accuracy is not inversely propor-
tional to the dispersion of the spectrograph used, only a

December 8, 19 lo]

NATURE

181

small increase of probable error, say 40 per cent., appear-
ing when the dispersion is divided by three.

In the early-type stars the diffuseness of the available
lines in the spectrum increases the probable error very
rapidly, and Mr. Plaskett is convinced that physical causes
in the star's atmosphere are contributory to this increase.

For solar-type stars it would appear that the average
probable error of a good three-prism determination need
not exceed ' ±0-5 km. per sec, while with one prism
±0-70 km. might be expected in good work. If stars of
in earlier-t}pe spectrum are dealt with, ±2 to ±11 km.
i)er sec. is a moderate estimate of the probable error.
Finally, Mr. Plaskett suggests that with solar . stars the
i^reater part of the error accrues from instrumental causes,
the errors of measurement only accounting for about one-
third or less.

The Photogr.aphic Magnitudes of Stars. — In Circular
No. 160 of the Harvard College Observatory Prof. E. C.
Pickering discusses the progress made, to July, in the
-tablishment of a method for determining photographic
nagnitudes and of a scale for recording them.

Three methods have been found to give satisfactory
results. The first depends upon the law that stars of the
~ame spectral class have the same colour and has been
sted with concordant results ; the following values are
interesting as giving the constants necessary to reduce
photometric to photographic magnitudes according to
spectral class : —

B A F G K M

-0*31 000 +0-32 +071 +1-17 +1-68

Thus if the visual magnitude of a star is 500 and the
spectrum is of type B, the photographic magnitude is
4-69, but if the spectrum is of the G type the photographic
magnitude is 5-71.

The second method, in which a standard " polar
--quence " of stars is photographed on the same plate
and under similar conditions as the stars to be measured,
has been already described in these columns, but it is
interesting to note that the work has been extended to
stars so faint as the twentieth magnitude, and it is hoped,
ere long, to publish definitive magnitudes for a great
number of stars in both hemispheres. About 11,000
measures of 200 photographs have already been made ; for
stars fainter than magnitude 14, for which long exposures
are necessary, it has been found that this method is not
so suitable. For such stars it has been found that the
third method, in which a small circular prism of very
small angle is attached to the centre of the objective, is
better ; the small prism diverts a known proportion of the
light from each image into a secondary image, and so
provides a ratio scale. Prof. Pickering discusses the
difficulties presented by the problem, and states that
although the results already attained are very hopeful,
uich remains yet to be done.

The same problem is also attacked by Herr E. Hertz-
jrung in No. 4452 of the Astronomische Nachrichten,

ho proposes a tried method in which the density of a
direct image is compared with an image, on the same
plate, produced when a grating is placed before the
objective.

Proper Motion of the Star B. 0.4-33° 99- — Whilst
making observations of the minor planet 19 10 KU, Dr.
Abetti was led to suspect that one of his comparison stars,
^■D-+33° 99 (.AG. Lei. 226), has a large proper motion.
Subsequent investigation and calculations show that this
proper motion amounts to —0027 + 00045. and — o-34±

•oo". The magnitude of this star is 8-5 (Astronomische

^ achrichten. No. 4453).

o

THE NEW METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE.
N Thursday, December i, a large party assembled at
- the new Meteorological Office at 'the corner of
'xhibition Road and Imperial Institute Road on the invita-
jn of the Meteorological Committee.

The committee was originally appointed by H.M.

■ reasury in 1905 to control the administration of the

Parliamentary grant for meteorology. Its inexpressive

title gives little indication of its responsibility to the

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

country and, indirectly, to the world at large. It consists
of the director of the office, Dr. W. N. Shaw, who is
ex officio chairman ; the hydrographer of the Navv, Rear-
.Admiral H. E. Purey Cust ; Mr. G. L. Barstow', of the
Treasury; Captain J. M. Harvey, of the Board of Trade;
Mr. T. H. Middleton, of the Board of Agriculture and
Fisheries; with Sir G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., and Prof.
Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., the nominees of the Royal
Society.

The work of the office goes back, in continuity, to the
original establishment of a Meteorological Department of
the Board of Trade for the joint service of the Navy and
the mercantile marine under the superintendence of
Admiral FitzRoy, the naval officer who, as captain of the
Beagle, had carried Charles Darwin round the world.
The motive power for the establishment of a special depart-
ment for meteorology came from a maritime conference
held in Brussels in 1853, in which Lieut. Maury, of the
Lnited States Navy, a well-known geographer and meteor-
ologist, took a leading part. The primary object of the
office was the collection and discussion on an organised
plan of meteorological observations made at sea ; but when
Leverrier began collecting daily observations by telegraph
in France, FitzRoy associated himself wnth the idea', and
in i860 he introduced a system of weather telegraphy with
storm warnings and forecasts which in 1861 were pub-
lished in the newspaf>ers.

• This line of action evoked a great deal of criticism on
the part of scientific authorities, and it is doubtful whether
meteorology, at that time a bashful debuiante among the
sciences, has ever been forgiven for so shocking a faux
pas. It is true that the system of warnings was continued
after FitzRoy 's death at the instance of the Board of
Trade, influenced by several memorials to Parliament, and
that in 1879, after the issue of forecasts had been dutifuUv
suppressed for twelve years, in a report of the council
then in control of the office, appointed bv the Roval Society
and made up of the great names of Henry J.'S, Smith,
Warren De la Rue, Frederic J. O. Evans, Francis Galton,
George Gabriel Stokes, and Richard Strachey, the foUow^-
ing paragraph appears : — " For several years" forecasts not
intended for publication had been daily prepared in the
office, and the experience thus gained' by the staff has
emboldened the council to announce their readiness to com-
mence in April, 1879, the issue to the public of forecasts
for the different parts of the United Kingdom," and that
the issue has been continued ever since; but the natural
hesitation which men of science fee! about publishing their
conclusions before they have had an opportunity of verify-
ing them has always overshadowed that side of the office
work. To that circumstance, combined with the frigidity
with which the young science has been treated bv her elder
sisters, it is probably due that, while prolonged effort has
been devoted to the preparation of forecasts twice, or even
three times a day, for a whole generation, and while the
rule that no forecast shall be formulated without first
setting out the data and the grounds for the inference has
been rigorously enforced, yet the issue of the forecasts has
been left practically to the newspapers. It seems other-
wise inexplicable that no general system of distribution of
forecasts by telegraph should have been adopted in this
country.

FitzRoy died in 1865, and the office became the subject
of inquiry by a Government committee, with the result
that in 1867 the control of the Parliamentary grant was
handed over to a committee of the Royal Societv-, with
Sir E. Sabine, the president of the Royal Society, as
chairman. At the same time provision was made for
marine meteorology and w^eather telegraphy to be
associated with the work of fully equipped meteorological
observatories of the first order, six of which were forth-
with established, namely, Falmouth, Stonvhurst, .Aber-
deen, Glasgow, Armagh, and Valencia, in addition to Kew,
which had become the central observatory of the system.

Continuity between FitzRoy 's depa'rtment and the
Meteorological Office was maintained bv the transfer of
all the duties of the department and a number of members
of the staff to the new committee. Mr. T. H. Babington,
however, who took over the management of the department
on FitzRoy's death, was not transferred; Mr. R. H Scott
was appointed director of the new establishment with-

l82

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

Captain H. Toynbee as marine superintendent. Jhe
office occupied the quarters at i and 2 Parliament Street,
belonging to the Board of Trade, which accommodated
FitzRoy's department; but to its chagrin it was dis-
possessed in 1869, and the ejected committee hired
accommodation for itself in the form of a residential flat
over a shop at 116 Victoria Street.

In 1875 another Government committee of inquiry was
constituted, with the result that in 1877 the direction of
the office became vested in a council appointed by the
Royal Society. This constitution lasted until 1905, when,
as the result of a third committee of inquiry, the present
system was adopted, under which the office is managed by
a director with an advisory committee appointed by the
Treasury. Throughout the period of the council the office
occupied the premises at 116 Victoria Street, which during
its tenure was renumbered 63.

It cannot be said that the council regarded the suite of
offices which they occupied as ideal accommodation for
the Office ; but it was generally hampered for want of
funds, and, as a matter of practical politics, the idea of
new accommodation may be attributed to Sir H. Maxwell's
committee of 1903, which pronounced the accommodation
at Victoria Street to be unsuitable. The advantage of
housing the office under the same roof as a post office
had long been recognised, and the wish of the Post Office
to have a permanent structure at South Kensington on
land which formed part of the estate of the Commission
for the Exhibition of 185 1 led, at the suggestion of a
member of the Meteorological Committee, to an arrange-
ment by the Treasury for the committee to rent from
H.M. Office of Works more spacious accommodation than
they had at Victoria Street at practically the same rent.
The arrangement was concluded in May, 1907, and the
transfer of the work to the new premises was completed on
November 15, 1910. The party on December i was intended
to give those interested in the work of the office an oppor-
tunity of seeing the new premises newly equipped.

This long introduction is necessary, because the office
has now fifty-six years of history behind it, passed in a
habitation chosen with a view to the collection and dis-
cussion of observations from sea and land. During
that time it has been responsible for supplying meteor-
ological instruments to the Navy, the mercantile marine,
its own stations, and recently to colonial Governments,
and it has become the controlling centre of more than 500
stations of various kinds in these islands and in various
colonies, while it has instruments on more than 200 ships
afloat, and is in direct communication with nearly all
liners crossing the Atlantic. It has made a vast collection
of observations from ships in the form of log books which
fill 500 feet of shelving. It deals with about 50,000 tele-
grams a year in its telegraphic branch. The independent
existence of the British Rainfall Organisation, founded as
a private enterprise by Mr. G. J. Symons, a member of
FitzRoy's staff, exonerates it from dealing fully with the
statistics of rainfall, but for more than forty years it has
aided the meteorological societies of London and Edin-
burgh in the collection of climatological data for the
British Isles, and has gradually become itself a centre for
the compilation of returns from volunteer observers all
over the country and from some of the colonies. To this
collection is added the published meteorological data of all
the countries of the world, forming a library almost unique
of its kind. It has issued publications to the number of
about 250 volumes, which, being in the form of Blue-
books or of unwieldy atlases or charts, are little read. So
far as the general public is concerned, it appeals to them
only through the forecasts which the newspapers are kind
enough to issue for it, through the storm signals which
are occasionally visible on the coasts, and through certain
fishery barometers supplied to coast stations, which are,
however, mostly marked with the initials B.T., because
the official in charge was unwilling to recognise as de jure
the dissociation de facto of the office from the Board of
Trade.

Until quite recently, partly on account of the apathetic
attitude of the universities, partly because meteorology
deals with British units and other sciences use metric
units, the education of the people in the new science had
not ever been begun. The meteorology of Daniell and

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

Herschel had been, in fact, allowed to fall out of the
educational curriculum, and its place was taken by sciences
with which the teachers were themselves acquainted.

In moving their home from N'ictoria Street to South
Kensington the Meteorological Committee has set itself
to change all this. They have sought to secure, with
what success the public may now judge, space in which
their collection of books and records can be reasonably
well housed, and which at the same time affords an oppor-
tunity to display, for the information of the public, a
series of exhibits which show what the work of the
Meteorological Office has been in the last fifty years, what
its work is now, how it does it, and what its purpose is
in doing it. Those who have visited the office will agree
that the idea of combining a library with a museum has
elicited very generous sympathy from the Office of Works, '
and that the architect of the new building, Sir. H. Tanner,'
has dealt with the problem, which is not without difficulty,
in a manner for which admiration is not too strong a
term to use. The space is perhaps a little over full, as
the library has even now to accommodate part of the
working staff of the office in addition to its other require-
ments ; but when it is remembered that rent is still a
consideration to be reckoned with by the committee, there'
is, after all, little to complain of.

The office premises are mainly on the first and second
floors of the new building at the corner of Exhibition Road-.
and Imperial Institute Road. These two floors provide,*
besides the library and its ante-room, a room for the
director and rooms for the four superintendents and for
the director's secretary, a large room for the clerical stafT-
and another for the forecast staff, three rooms for the
marine staff, and two for the instruments staff. To judge •
by external appearances, the whole building might be re--
garded as a post office, but it is not so. The ground floor .
and the greater part of the basement is assigned to the
post office, but in the basement the Meteorological Office •
has space which it is hoped may provide for a printing
office as well as a workshop. A small physical laboratory
is provided on the third floor, the remainder of which ia
temporarily occupied by the staff of the Science Museum^
Access is given thereby to a large flat roof, which provides
invaluable opportunity for the exposure of instruments fo^
the purposes of trial and investigation.

The manner in which the committee have utilised thi
space at their dis{x>sal and have kept in view the educa4
tional purposes which have been indicated will be evidenf
from the list of exhibits prepared for the party
December i.

In a case outside the doorway is exhibited the mos^
recent information about the current weather, based on
the telegrams received. In the outer lobby, opposite th<
door of the post office, is a case containing a barographJ
the recording apparatus of a Callendar thermograph, anc
of a Dines pressgre-tube anemograph, exhibiting the coni
tinuous record of pressure, temperature, and wind velocityj
On the walls of the inner lobby and the staircase leadins
to the first floor are a series of frames showing the cours^
«f the seasons in the British Isles as determined by th^
weekly averages since 1878. The relation thereto of th«
weekly values of the current season for four divisions
the country is shown upon transparent paper, which covers
the diagrams of average variation. " These diagrams lead
up to one which shows how the meteorological elements
at the several stations in the same district may vary under
similar types of weather. Four frames show the monthly
meteorological charts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans,
and further on is a diagram showing the variation of
temperature in the upper air on various occasions in 190?
up to 15 miles or more, in juxtaposition with a series of
photographs of clouds presented to the office by Dr.
W. J. S. Lockyer.

The catalogue of exhibits makes reference to a series
of three cases on the first-floor hall intended to illustrate
the work of the office under FitzRoy at the Board of
Trade, under Sabine and Scott, of the Meteorological Com-
mittee of the Royal Society, and under the Meteorological
Council, with Smith and Strachey, successively, as chair-
man, but for reasons not given in the programme the
cases are not yet there ; some of the exhibits are to be
found compressed into a single case in the upper corridor.

December 8, 19 lo]

NATURE

183

The hall accommodates, however, a radiation recorder by
Callendar and a hyetograph or rain recorder of Negretti
and Zambra's most recent pattern.

From the hall we pass to an ante-room provided with a
counter for the supply of information of various kinds,
and leading to the library and museum on the one side
and to the headquarters of the clerical and inquiry staff
on the other. This room, with the library and the stair-
case, are finished throughout with ornamental woodwork
in Austrian oak. Round the ante-room are glass cases
for the display of barograms from ships and land stations,
anemograms and other records of importance to aero-
nauts, and also cases devoted for the present to diagrams
prepared in the office to show results deduced from data
for the whole globe or for British observatories or stations,
including the relationships of meteorology and agriculture.
A diagram, newly prepared, showing the distribution of
rainfall throughout the day for the several months of the
year at Kew and Valencia, is specially noticeable. In the
same room is the Kelvin harmonic analyser constructed for
the council to be used for the analysis of barograms and
thermograms. A relief map of the British Isles on the
scale of one-millionth, intended for the central space,
being unfinished, was represented by a cast of the English
- ction.

On either side of the entrance to the library and museum
are square kiosks for envelopes, the faces of which are
framed in glass and used for displaying the weekly sets
of records from observatories, the records of sunshine at
ninety-two stations for a single day of last summer, and
the winter sunshine records of 1909-10 in London, Cam-
bridge, and Eastbourne. Within the library, in four cases,
are displayed a series of exhibits in connection with marine
meteorology, the daily service of forecasts and storm-
warnings, climatological statistics, and the investigation
of the upper air. Another and larger case is devoted to
the observatories at Kew and Eskdalemuir. Four small
cases show a new method of representing data for the
whole world on what is called a developable globe. The
current daily weather charts of all countries and the latest
climatological reports from the British Dominions are
collected together in special cabinets. Two glass cases
face one as one enters the museum : one contains speci-
mens of the normal instruments adopted by the office, the
other such examples as the office possesses of the corre-
sponding instruments of other countries.

The library is divided into six compartments by book-
cases extending from the side walls. In four of the com-
partments the books of published data are grouped accord-
ing to countries, the remainder being occupied by
periodicals, text-books, &c. The recesses of three of the
bays are used by the working staff of the statistical and

iirary division of the office; two are furnished with tables

r students, and on the book-cabinets near by the latest
additions to the library are displayed. A few educational
exhibits, lantern-slides, photographs, &c., including some
valuable stereophotographs of clouds from a long base, by
Mr. J. Tennant, were set on Thursday on one of the
tables.

The library is not large enough to contain all the books
and documents belonging to the office. Accordingly, the
-nanuscript records of observations at stations of various

nds find a place in the room of the superintendent of

atistics. The original working charts of the Daily
Weather Service are housed with the files of daily synchro-
nous charts of all kinds in the forecast room, a spacious
room on the second floor in direct connection by means of
pneumatic tube with ■ the instrument room of the post
office. The series of meteorological logs from ships, now
exceeding 13,000 in number, is housed in the working
rooms of the marine staff ; the books of data extracted
from them are in the marine superintendent's room or in
the passage near by. The stock of instruments is housed
in the rooms of the instruments staff, while separate store
roonis are set apart for publications and for observatory
'■"(-brds. These latter are already too numerous for the

' ommodation provided. The bound volumes of anemo-
grams are therefore stored on shelves elsewhere, and for
the time being the sunshine cards are in the basement,
where it is proposed to construct with them a 13-inch wall
50 feet in length and 10 feet high.

One of the main difficulties connected with the removal

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

has been the housing of the enormous collection of records
and documents, the accumulation of upwards of fifty-six
years. The problem of the ultimate fate of these accumu-
lations is one which has now to be faced.

The new arrangement of the office, which is open to
the public, has chiefly in view the educational advantages
which a library and museum can afford ; but it has another
object. One often hears a distinction drawn between
routine and research, sometimes to the disparagement of
the work of an office. Routine work in meteorotogy is
really and truly cooperative research ; if not it ought to be
discontinued, for it has ceased to have any object. Re-
search in the more restricted sense means personal research
upon a subject selected by the individual taste. In co-
operative research one cannot choose one's subject ; it has
been chosen for us by international agreement, by confer-
ences and congresses, by committees perhaps, or by other
circumstances over which we have no immediate control.
What is still left to our free choice is whether the co-
operative research shall be manifestly our research or other
people's research. Routine becomes sterile when it is a
listless contribution to other people's research. To keep
cooperative research alive we need to keep very close up
to the working face of the bore into the unknown. It
may take a generation or more to carry the whole work
through, and premature publication may be worse than
routine. To put the record of our progress in a shape in
which it can be seen by those who appreciate it, as well
as those who do not, gives us a place in the ranks of
conscious workers for a definite, even if a distant, object.

W. N. Sh.aw.

THE CLAIMS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.
''PHE anniversary dinner of the Royal Society was held as
we went to press last week. Lord Robson proposed
the toast of " The Royal Society," and it was replied to by
Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., president of the society.
In the course of his remarks. Lord Robson pointed out
that in nearly every direction the labour and research of
science, however remote they may sometimes seem from
the affairs of the workshop or the office, are opening up
new and almost illimitable sources of wealth and new
avenues of profitable employment. It is the man of science
who is to decide the fate of the tropics ; not the soldier,
or the statesman with his programmes and perorations,
but the quiet entomologist. He is the man of science who
of all others strikes popular imagination the least, and
gets less of popular prestige ; but he has begun a fascin-
ating campaign for the sanitary conquest of those
enormous tracts of the earth, and before long he will have
added their intensely fertile soil, almost as a free gift, to
the productive resources of the human race. The report in
the Times states that Lord Robson continued as follows : —
" Not long ago it was my duty to consider legislation
in reference to the most complicated problems of over-
crowding in cities. That is essentially a problem for
statesmen, but not for statesmen alone. Perhaps the most
hopeful attack on overcrowding is being unconsciously
made by those men of science who have lately done so
much to improve the transmission of electric power. They
are on the way to make it possible and profitable for
factories to establish themselves away from cities and coal-
pits, and yet have the exact amount of power they want
each day for their machinery sent down to them every
morning by wire at a trivial cost. Some day manu-
facturers will begin to go back to the land, and we shall
regard engine-building or soap-boiling as rural occupations.
We look to you, the men of science, and almost to you
alone, to ensure, not only that our centres of population
shall not be congested, but also that our cities, now smoke-
laden and devitalised, shall not be polluted. I have
spoken of a sanitary conquest of the tropics. Give us also
a sanitary conquest of the air of England. What a pro-
gramme of social reform the Royal Society has got ! Yet
I have not heard that you are making any claims on the
Development Fund. In all seriousness and earnestness, I
contend that you ought to be the most favoured, as you
would certainly be the most meritorious, of all claimants
on that reservoir of national generosity. The various
sections and interests who are on the wav to absorb it all

1 84

NATURE

[December 8, 19 lo

are seeking, I believe, without exception, to advance the
material interests of those whom they represent. The
claims which you put forward on behalf of experimental
research would be wholly unselfish. They would be for
work in the common interest, in the interest of mankind.
In the report for the year there is a very long list of work
<ione in different departments of scientific research with
small sums like lol. or so given out of your small Govern-
ment grant to meet expenses. It is a list capable of in-
■definite expansion, and indicates work that might be done
on a larger and more fruitful scale. Undertakings like
the Research Commission to Uganda may well return
their cost a hundred-fold, and I venture to suggest that an
appeal should be made to those in charge of the Develop-
ment Fund to give a wider scope to your disinterested and
most beneficent activities."

COTTON GROWING WITHIN THE BRITISH
EMPIRE.

'T'HE British Cotton Growing Association was inaugu-
"*■ rated in 1902 with the object of extending the culti-
'vation of cotton throughout parts of the British Empire
where conditions should prove suitable. During the eight
years that have elapsed, valuable information has been
acquired by means of pioneering expeditions and experi-
mental cultivation in more remote parts of the Empire
and from the results yielded by private undertakings that
have been liberally assisted with technical advice and
financial means. As it was announced a year ago, the
inquiry stage is practically completed, and it has been
<lecided to concentrate the main efforts of the association
>on the work in Nigeria, Uganda, Nyasaland, and the
West Indies. The present state and future outlook of the
cotton industry are therefore opportunely summarised in
the address delivered by Mr. J. H. Reed before the Royal
'Geographical Society on Monday, December 5.

The principal supply of raw material from the United
States of America has increased during the last quarter
of a century from seven to thirteen million bales per
annum ; the output of India may reach a total of five
million bales, but most of it is short-stapled, and Egypt
supplies somewhat more than a million bales. Against
this has to be placed the demand for cotton, which in this
country has remained nearly stationary, at a total of three
million bales, while the United States of America now
require nearly five million bales, and the countries of
Europe absorb six million bales. With regard to other
-sources of supply, the class of cotton grown in the West
Indies is of good quality, but owing to . the limited area
the amount produced can never be large, so that the most
hopeful fields for the labours of the association lie in
West and Central Africa. The colony of Lagos bids fair
to produce an appreciable quantity of cotton ; the extension
of the industry in Nyasaland, where a superior type of
upland is a prominent variety, is distinctly encouraging,
and the late High Commissioner of Uganda has reported
ilfKjn the favourable climate and conditions, as well as the
■eagerness of the natives in that Protectorate for taking up
■cotton cultivation. In the Sudan there are large areas of
suitable land near the junctions of the Atbara and the
Blue Nile with the main stream, in the province of Berber,
and on the plains between the converging courses of the
Blue and White Nile. Of the prospects in Rhodesia it is
too early to pronounce a definite opinion, but the experi-
mental work gives promise of the possibility of a native
industry being developed under European guidance.

PESTS OF FRUIT TREES.

A

FRUIT-GROWERS' conference was held, in conjunc-
tion with the National Fruit-growers' Federation, at
Wye College, Kent, on December 2. Nearly six hundred
persons, mostly fruit-growers in Kent, attended. The
papers of scientific interest were read by Mr. F. V. Theo-
bald, vice-principal and entomologist at the college, and
by Mr. E. S. Salmon, mycologist.

Mr. Theobald dealt with the damage done to fruit trees
by Thrips. At least three species of Thrips damage fruit
trees and bushes, the commonest, apparently, being
Euthrips pyri, Daniel. This species is found on apple,

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

pear, plum, raspberry, loganberry, and strawberry. The
winged adult females first enter the opening buds, and
then by means of their conical mouths so lacerate the
young tissue that the buds die soon after opening. Leaves
and blossoms are also attacked. The ova are laid in slits
cut by the female in the young leaves and strigs. The
pale, wingless larvaj attack the young fruitlets, which
either crack and drop off prematurely, or, if less injury
is done on somewhat larger fruitlets, the abrasions lead
to the formation of areas or scars, which disfigure or even
entirely ruin the fruit. The larvae when mature enter the
soil, and there produce a pupal stage with long wing buds,
and the winged Thrips appear again. The winter is passed
in the larval stage in the earth. Treatment with soil
fungicides appears to be the only practicable method of
dealing with this fruit pest.

Mr. E. S. Salmon dealt with the epidemic outbreak of
Eutypella prunastri, which during the past fev/ years has
destroyed thousands of young fruit trees in certain districts
in Kent, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. In one casr
near Canterbury 1200 " Victoria " plums, 300 " Czars,'"
and 50 " Monarchs " were attacked and killed. Th<'
variety of plum called " Rivers Early Prolific " appears t<
possess powers of resistance to Eutypella. Young appl-
and cherry trees have also been destroyed by this disease.

The life-history of the apple " scab " fungus (Venturia
inaequalis) was dealt with, and instances were given which
showed that this disease can be successfully prevented by
the use of the fungicide known as " Bordeaux mixture."
The statement sometimes made by growers that the
" scab " fungus can infect and spread on stored apples is
due to an error of identification. Recent investigations
made by Mr. Salmon show that we have in this country
a species of Leptothyrium, not hitherto reported, which
attacks apples both on the tree and in the fruit-room, and
forms sooty-looking spots on them. It is probably the
species L. pomi, well known in America as the cause of
the " sooty blotch " and " fly speck " diseases.

Evidence was adduced as to the different degrees of
susceptibility to injurv from Bordeaux mixture shown by
different varieties of English apples.

THE DISCOVERY OF NEPTUNE.

LEVERRIER'S LETTER TO GALLE.

"V^HILE so much has been written about the dramatic

* discovery of the outermost known planet, it is
strange that until quite recently the full text of the letter
in which Leverrier announced to Galle the results of his
wonderful investigations appears not to have been
published.

A copy of this historic document was communicated by
its recipient to Dr. See about five years ago, for use in a
work on the planetary system which the latter was then
preparing. But the death of Galle in July last has
prompted Dr. See to anticipate the issue of his work by
publishing the letter by itself in No. 8, vol. xviii., of
Popular Astronomy (October, p. 475). The ostensible
reason for writing to Galle was to acknowledge the receipt
of the memoir which the latter had prepared, and in
which he had reduced and critically discussed Roemer's
synopsis of three days' work, which alone escaped the
conflagration of 1728, under the title " O. Roemer's
Triduum Observatorium Astronomicarum a. 1706 Institu-
torum " (Berlin, 1845). The letter runs as follows : —

" Paris, le 18 septembre 1846.
" Monsieur

"J'ai lu avec beaucoup d'int^ret et d'attention la reduc-
tion des^ observations de Roemer, dont Vous avez bien
voulu m'envoyer un exemplaire. La parfaite lucidity de
Vos explications, la complete rigueur des r^sultats que Vous
nous donnez, sont au niveau de ce que nous devions
attendre d'un aussi habile astronome._ Plus tard, _ Mon-
sieur, je Vous demanderai la permission de revenir sur
plusieurs points qui m'ont int^resse, et en particulier sur
les observations de Mercure qui y sont renferm^es.
.Aujourd'hui, je voudrais obtenir de i'infatigable observa-
teur qu'il voulut bien consacrer quelques instants a
I'examen d'une region du Ciel, ou il peut rester une
Plan^te k d^couvrir. C'est la theorie d'Uranus qui m a

December 8, 19 lo]

NATURE

185

THE NEW ZEALAND SURVEY.

I

N a report which has recently been published, the
Surveyor-General of New Zealand describes the work
of his department during the year 1909-10. A large area
of country has been surveyed, but the urgency for push-
ing forward the topographical and settlement surveys, and
the survey of native lands, leaves little opportunity for
dealing with the major triangulation of the country. It
is satisfactory, however, to see that besides some 320
square miles of minor triangulation, a commencement of
a secondary triangulation has been made, and a base-line
some eight miles in length has been measured. There
is said to be a pressing need for this form of control,
hich may " bring into harmony different groups of prac-
ally uncontrolled minor work with their different
indards of length, &c. " The experience of many other
^ions goes to show that not only is such control in-
-pensable. but adequate expenditure on it is the best
onomy, and ver\- soon repays itself.

As the report is arranged by districts, it is difficult to

appreciate fully the character of work done ; but the

demand for land surveys on large scales is very large,

d the want of ample and accurate triangulation of

ond- as well as the present third-order series is no

-uubt a real one.

The measurement of a base of the secondary triangu-
'ation at Wairarapa was carried out with two five-chain
var tapes; a third of greater width, a quarter of an
ch instead of an eighth, was also used for the first
two sections only. The tension was determined by a
Salter spring balance, and not by weights, as is now the
mofe usual method. The tapes were supported at intervals
of fifty linksjby special stands. Four measurements were
made of all sections, two with each tajje, and of the first
four two additional measurements were made : the prob-
able error of the final value adopted for the base is
-■ven as i part in 2,962,000. The standard of length for

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

conduit a ce r^sultat. II va paraitre un extrait de mes
recherches dans les .45/. Nach. J 'aurais done pu. Mon-
sieur, me dispenser de Vous en ^crire, si je n'avais eu a
remplir le devoir de \'ous remercier pour I'int^ressant
ouvrage que \'ous m'avez adress^.

" Vous verrez, Monsieur, que je d^montre qu'on ne
peut satisfaire aux observations d'Uranus qu'en introdui-
>ant Taction d'une nouvelle Plan^te, jusqu'ici inconnue :
: ce qui est remarquable, il n'y a dans I'ecliptique qu'une
ule position qui puisse etre attribute a cette Planfete
perturbatrice. Voici les Elements de lorbite que j'assigne
a cet astre :

Demi-grand axe de I'orbite ... ... ... ... 36,154

Duree de la revolution siderale ... ... ... 217305,387

Excentricite 0.10761

Longitude du perihelia ... ... ... 284^ 45'

Longitude moyenne : 1*='" Janvier 1847 ... ... 318" 47'

Masse ... .. ... .. ... ...

9joo

Longitude heliocentrique vraie au i^r jmvier 1847 326° 32'

Distance au Soleil ... ... ... ... ... 33. 06

" La position actuelle de cet astre montre que nous
sommes actuellement, et que nous serons encore, pen- .
dant plusieurs mois, dans des conditions favorables pour |
le d^ouvrir.

" D'ailleurs, la grandeur de sa masse permet de con-
clure que la grandeur de son diametre apparent est de
plus de 3" sexag^simales. Ce diametre est tout-i-fait de !
nature a etre distingue, dans les bonnes lunettes, du dia- ;
metre fictif que diverses aberrations donnent aux ^toiles.

" Recevez, Monsieur, 1 'assurance de la haute conside- ;
ration de Votre d^vou^ serviteur

" U.-J. Le Verrier.

" Veuillez faire agr^er a Mr. Encke, bien que je n'aye [

pas I'honneur d'etre connu de lui, I'hommage de mon !

profond respect. '

" A Monsieur J. G.alle, '■.

" Astronome a I'Observatoire Royal de '

" Berlin, k Berlin." !

controlling the invar tapes was a steel loo-link tape, of
which the true length was known at 62° F. and under
a tension of 15 lb., but not its coefficient of expansion and
modulus of elasticity. .A second base is now in hand, and
with the increase of this important high-grade work
greater facilities for comparison and verification of base
apparatus will doubtless be introduced. The work of the
department also includes the harmonic analysis of the tidaL
observations of the Dominion for the New Zealand
Nautical Almanac, and arrangements have been made tcv
furnish advance proofs to the Admiralty.

The work of the magnetic observator>- has provided an
unbroken series of magnetograms from the Adie instru-
ments, and also a large number of seismograms from the
Milne seismographs. .

THE JAPAN MAGAZINE."^
T^HE great development of Western education in Japan
has naturally led to the extensive publication of
newspapers and magazines of a verj- varied kind, and
many of them are of a high literary, scientific, or philo-
sophical quality. The Japan Magazine is one of the most
recent additions, and although its editor seems to be a
European, almost all the writers are Japanese. The issue
for October, which has just come to hand, is a very good
combination of readable matter, which at the same time
is of great interest to all who know Japan.

The first article is on " Torii," the characteristic and
picturesque gateways to be found at the entrance to every
Shinto shrine. It is one of the best which we have
seen, and is illustrated by some of the most striking;
examples in the country. Mr. Seiichi Tejima, the director
of the Higher Technological School in Tokyo, gives an
interesting description of the organisation and work of his-
school which will be read with advantage by those
engaged in similar work in this country. In addition to
the technical part of the curriculum, the importance which-
is given to the training of character should be specially
noted. Mr. Tejima points out that a person engaged in
any occupation may be tempted to bargain his honour for
venal purposes if the basis of his morals is not sound, and
thereby lose the credit of an expert, and it is therefore
the school's principal line of policy in education to give
moral training on one hand and engineering practice on
the other. Mr. Tejima was recently in London in con-
nection with the Japan-British Exhibition, and no doubt
some of our readers made his acquaintance and admired
the exhibit shown by his school and other educational
institutions in Japan. Viscount Taneko, the well-known
statesman and writer, gives some readable reminiscences
of American statesmen which throw interesting sidelights
on some of the problems arising between America and the
Far East.

The chief city engineer of Tokyo, Mr. Benjiro Kusa-
kabe. has a descriptive article on " The New Tokyo, '^
which gives a good idea of the transformation which has
taken place and almost made the city unrecognisable by
those who knew it in former times. Of course this magic
transformation is, after all, not so marvellous as it appears,
for the reconstruction of a city of wood cannot be re-
garded as so colossal a task as would be the rebuilding of
a stone city like London or Berlin. But the ston.- of the
modernisation of Tokyo is none the less interesting as an
indication of the tact, skill, and expedition with which
the Japanese attempt and achieve great things, and Mr.
Kusakabe thinks that when all the new buildings now
either in course of construction or contemplated in the
near future are completed, and the city's plan of public
improvements carried out, Tokyo will be, both in appear-
ance and reality-, one of the finest capitals in the world.

Mr. Yaichi Haga tells " How Western Civilisation
rame to Japan," and Mr. Yoso Kubo, of the Investigation
Bureau, has an important article on " The Remaking of
Manchuria," which explains Japanese policy and methods
in that part of the world. There are very good articles
on " The Art of Judo." or of physical training, with
special relation to its ethical aspects, on the " Silk Indus-

t Published by the Japan ^fasazine Co., Tokyo. Subscription, in
Japanese Empire, per year in advance, 4.50 yen, in foreign countries 6.100
yen.

1 86

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

try," on " Fruit Culture in Japan," and on "The Art of
l-'lower Arrangement," as well as others of special interest
to all who study things Japanese. Altogether, the
magazine makes very good reading, and if it maintains
the standard of the issue which we have been considering
it will take a high place among publications on the Far
East. H. D.

RADIATION FROM HEATED GASES.'
On the Radiation from Gases.

T N the first and second reports of the committee reference
was made to the part played by radiation in the cool-
ing of the products of an explosion, and to its bearing on
the measurements of volumetric and specific heat with
which those reports were principally concerned. The
general question of radiation from heated gases has, how-
ever, from the point of view of the committee, an interest
and importance of its own which are sufficient to justify
a detailed study of it in its wider aspects. Radiation
plays a part comparable with that of conduction in deter-
mining the heat-flow from the gas to the cylinder walls in
the gas engine, and it is this flow of heat which is the
most important peculiarity of the gas engine, and to which
are chiefly due the leading characteristics of its design.
Even to the uninstructed eye the most obvious features
about large internal-combustion engines are the arrange-
ments for cooling, and the great size and weight for a
given power which is necessitated mainly by those arrange-
ments. The difficulties which the designer has to meet are
due in the main to the stresses set up by the temperature
gradients which are necessary to sustain the flow of heat.
In the present state of the art it is probable that the most
Important service which science could render to the gas-
engine constructor would be to establish definitely the
principles upon which depends the heat-flow from hot gases
into cold metal with which they are in contact, and thus
to enable him to predict the effect upon heat-flow of
changes in the temperature, densitv, or composition of the
charge, and in the state of the cylinder walls.

The committee does not propose in this report to deal
with the whole of this large question, but will confine its
attention to one important factor in heat-flow, namely,
radiation. The subject is a wide one. which has excited
much attention among physicists and chemists, and on
several important points agreement has not yet been
reached. No attempt will therefore be made to do more
than state shortly the experimental facts, and to define the
issues which have been raised in regard to the explanation
of these facts.

Practical Effects of Radiation.

It is believed that the first instance in which radiation
from a flame was used in an industrial process, with
knowledge of its importance, was the regenerative glass
furnace of Frederick Siemens, which he described at the
Iron and Steel Institute in 1884. Here the combustible
gas was burnt in a separate chamber, and the hot pro-
ducts of combustion were led into the furnace. The
objects to be heated were placed on the floor of the furnace
out of contact with the stream of flame which flowed
above them. They would therefore receive heat only by
radiation, and it was supposed that this r.-adiation came
in a large measure from the flame. Siemens, however,
was of opinion (in 1884) that the radiation was due to
incandescent particles of carbon, and that there was little
radiation from a non-luminous flame. ^

In 1890 Robert von Helmholtz measured the radiation
from a non-luminous coal-gas flame 6 mm. diameter, and
found it to be about 5 per cent, of the heat of combustion.'
The radiation from a luminous flame was greater, but not

1 From the Third Remrt of the British Assf^ciation Committee, cons-sting
of Sir W. H. Preece (Cha-Vman), Mr. Dugald Cleric and Prof. Bertram
"onkmson (Joint Secretaries), Profs. Bone, B'lrstall. Callendar, Coker.
Dalby, and Dixon, D . Gla^ehrook. Profs. Petavel, Smithells, and Watson,
T)T. HarkT, Lient.-Col. Holden, Capt. Sankev and Mr. D. L. Chapman,
appointed for the Investigation of Gaseous Kxplosions, with special reference
to Temperature. Presented at the Sheffield meeting of the Association,
19T0

2 Capt. Sankey has prepared an abstract of papers relating to the Siemens
furnace.

3 "XJie Licht- und Warmestrahlung verbrennender Case," Robert von
Helmholt7. (Berlin, 1890.)

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

very much greater — rising to a maximum of iij per cent.
for an ethylene flame. Discussing the Siemens furnace in
the light of these results, R. von Helmholtz calculated thai
radiation from the flame in the furnace could only account
for a small fraction of the actual heat transmission. He
pointed out, however, that a large flame would probablv
radiate energy at a greater rate than a small one. Ikit
while admitting that for this reason gaseous radiation
might play a part in the heat transmission, he suggested
that a more important agent was radiation from the rcKif
of the furnace, which received heat by direct contact with
the hot gas, and so reached a very high temperature. Hi-
showed by calculation that a comparatively small excess
of temperature in the roof over that of the floor would
cause a sufficient flow of heat.

But though the discussions on the Siemens furnace and
the work of Helmholtz show that the idea that a flame,
even if non-luminous, might radiate large amounts of
heat, was a familiar one to many people twenty years ago,
its possible importance in causing loss of heat during and
after a gaseous explosion, and in determining the heat-
flow in a gas engine, does not appear to have been
appreciated until quite recently. Prof. Callendar was
probably the first to direct attention to its significance in
this connection. In the discussion on a paper about
explosions, read before the Royal Society in 1906, he said
that he had found a non-luminous Bunsen flame to radiate-
15 to 20 per cent, of its heat of combustion, and expressed
the opinion that the loss from this cause in a closed-vessel
explosion would be of the same order.'

There are, in fact, several points about the behaviour
of gas engines which suggest the importance of radiation^
as a cooling agent. The particular matter which attracted
Callendar 's attention was the effect of speed on thermal
efficiency. His experiments showed that a part of the loss"
of efficiency in an internal-combustion motor, as compared'
with the corresp>onding air-cycle, was independent of the
speed at which the engine was run. The loss of heat per
cycle could, to a first approximation, be represented by
an expression of the type A-|-B/n, where n is the number
of revolutions per minute and A and B are constants.
The term A represents a constant loss of heat per ex-
plosion, and among the many causes contributing to this'
constant loss of heat, radiation from the flame is probably
important.^

Another phenomenon which is difficult to explain, except;
as the result of radiation, is the effect of strength of^
mixture on heat-loss. The following table shows some'
results which were obtained by Hopkinson upon a 40I
horse-power gas engine ' : — '

Percentage of gas in cylinder contents 8"^ ifo percent.

Total h^at-loss per minute 1510 230oB.Th.U.

Total heat-loss as percentage of total

heat-eupply 29 34 ner cent.

Temperature of piston 300° C. 430° C.

It will be observed that the proportion of heat-loss
the walls increases very materially as the strength
mixture is increased. If the transfer of heat were wholt
due to conduction it might be expected, apart from til
disturbing influence of speed of ignition, which in thi
case was not very important, that the percentage of heat
loss would rather diminish with increase of charge, becaus
the temperature with the stronger mixture should
relatively less on account of the increase of volumetrir
heat. The increased temperature of piston and valve-
would work in the same direction. The existence ol
radiation, however, which increases more rapidly in pro-
portion to the temperature, would account for the increasnl
heat-flow. The practical importance of questions of thi-
kind is illustrated by these figures, from which it appear-
that the piston is 50 per cent, hotter, though the charge of
gas is onlv increased 30 per cent.

More direct evidence of the importance of radiation is
furnished by experiments on the effect of the surface of
the walls. In the second report of the committee refer-
ence was made to the belief, which is widely spread amon-i
those who are concerned with the practical design and
operation of gas engines that pKjlishing the interior of th'^

1 Hopkinson, Proc Rov. Soc, A. vol. Ixxvii., p. 400.

2 I'roc. Inst. Automobile Eng. , Tune, 1907.

3 Proc. Inst. C.E., v.,1. clxxvii. (1909).

December 8, 1910]

NATURE

187

combustion chamber tends to increase efficiency. Some
experiments were also quoted in which it was found that
lining an explosion vessel with bright tinfoil perceptibly
retarded the cooling of the products. More recently an
e.xplosion vessel has been plated with silver on the inner
surface, and the results have been compared after exploding
identical mixtures, first when the lining was highly
polished, and secondly when it was blackened over with
lamp-black. It was found that by highly polishing the
interior of the vessel the maximum pressure reached could
be inci eased 3 per cent., and the subsequent rate of cool-
ing during its earlier stages reduced by about one-third.
These experiments leave no doubt of the reality and of the
practical importance of radiation as a factor in determining
i the heat-loss in the gas engine.^

Reference may also be made to the part played by radia-
tion in determining the heat-flow in a boiler. Attention
was directed to this by Dalby in a recent report to the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers.^ The circumstances
in this case are widely different from those usually obtain-
j in the gas engine, but the instance serves to emphasise
importance to the engineer of the questions which will
discussed in this report.

Amount of the Radiation fioni Flame.

I R. von Helmholtz appears to have been the first to

ntrempt the accurate measurement of the radiation emitted

a flame. He found that a " solid " flame 6 mm.

;neter, burning coal-gas, radiated about 5 per cent, of

;i. total heat of combustion. A carbon monoxide flame

radiated about 8 per cent., and a hydrogen flame about

i--r cent. On account of the smallness of the flame his

riments have not much application to the problem of

gas engine. The size of the flame affects the matter

rwo ways. In the first place, a large flame radiates

■■>• per unit of area than a small one, because a flame

■ J a great extent transparent even to its own radiation,

hat radiation is received, not only from molecules at

surface of the flame, but also from those at a depth

lin it. This matter will be further dealt with in

rher section of the report. The second point is that

cooling of the gas is slower in a large flame than in

-Tiall one. The radiation originates in the vibration of

CO. and steam molecules, and the life of one of these

!-cules as a radiating body extends from the moment

;rs formation to the time when its vibrational energv

been destroyed by radiation and by collision with colder

•cules. such as those of the air surrounding the flame.

smaller the flame the more rapid will be the extinc-

of the vibrations, and the less, therefore, the total

unt of radiation per molecule. The products of

lesion in a closed vessel or in a gas engine differ

-iderably in this respect from any open flame, how-

• large, which it is possible to produce, for they are

subject to cooling by mixture with the outside air.

Mnreover, the density of the gas is very much greater.

f'allendar has repeated some of Helmholtz 's experiments

a larger scale, and has found that the radiation in a

-luminous coal-gas flame 30 mm. in diameter may

unt 10 15 per cent, of the whole heat of combustion.

;her reference will be made to Callendar's work under

heading of "transparency."

lopkinson has recently made measurements of the

ation emitted in the course of an explosion in a closed

-el and subsequent cooling. .A bolometer made of

kened platinum strip was placed outside a window

fluorite in the walls of the explosion vessel. The

I trical resistance of this bolometer was recorded by

ins of a reflecting galvanometer throwing a spot of

t on a revolving drum, and an optical indicator traced

ultanpously a record of the pressure on the same drum.

found that the total heat radiated during an explosion

t 15 per cent, mixture of coal-gas and air, and the

-equent cooling, amounted to more than 22 per cent.

the whole heat of combustion. The radiation which

! been received at the moment of maximum pressure

lunted. to 3 per cent., and it continued, though at a

inishing rate, for a long period. Radiation was still

' Hopkin^on, Proc. Rry. Soc, A., vol. Ixxxiv. (1910), p. 155.
- Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng , October (1909).

XO. 2145, VOL. 85]

perceptible half a second after maximum pressure, when
the gas-temperature had. fallen to 1000° C

Nature and Origin of the Radiation from Flames.

In the gas-engine cylinder and in explosion experiments
we are usually concerned with flames in which there is
some excess of air. A mixture of similar composition
burnt at atmospheric pressure would give an almost non-
luminous flame ; in the gas engine there is more luminosity
on account of the greater density. There is, however, no
reason to suppose that the radiation in the gas-engine
cylinder differs materially as regards its quality or origin
from that emitted by an open flame.

A very complete analysis of the radiation from different
kinds of flame was made by Julius, and his experiments
leave no doubt that the radiation is almost wholly due to
the CO, and steam molecules. He examined the spec-
trum of the flame by means of a rock-salt prism, and he
found that in all flames producing both COj and steam
most of the radiation was concentrated into two bands,
the wave-lengths of which are, respectively, 44 /i and
2-8 fi.. In a pure hydrogen flame the 44 band disappears
completely, but the other remains ; and in the pure CO
flame the 2-8 band disapj>ears, the other remaining.
These results are independent of the nature of the com-
bustible gas, the spectrum depending solely on the pro-
ducts of combustion."

A confirmation of the statement that the radiation from
these flames originates in the CO, and H,0 molecules
only was furnished in the course of the work by R. von
Helmholtz, to which reference has been made above. He
measured the amount of radiation per litre of gas con-
sumed, emitted by flames of given size burning, re-
spectively, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and certain com-
pound gases, such as methane, giving both CO, and
steam. The supply of air was adjusted in each case so
that the flame was just non-luminous. His results are
best given in his own words, but it should be stated that
he worked with a small flame about 6 mm. diameter
and measured the radiation with a bolometer, taking the
steady change of its resistance as a measure of the amount
of radiation falling upon it : —

" According to the experiments of Julius described in
the first chapter, the quality of the radiation of flames
depends only on the nature of the burnt and not on that
of the burning gases. It is relevant to inquire whether
the quantity of radiation is also dependent on the mass
of the products of combustion. I have calculated in the
second and third columns below how many litres of
H,0 and CO,, respectively, arise theoretically from each
litre of combustible gas. I then assume that for every
litre of water produced as much radiation is sent out as
corresponds to the radiating power of a hydrogen flame —
for this gas yields one litre of H,0 per litre of combustile
— and that in a corresponding way the radiation from one
litre of carbonic acid would be determined by the radiating
power of the carbonic oxide flame, and I can then calculate
the radiation from the non-luminous flames of methane,
ethylene, and coal-gas.

Litres F

-' 2

Ob>erved

Calculated

0

74

—

I

.. 177

—

I

327

325

2

.. 510

.. 502

05 •

.. iSl

179

H20

Hydrogen i

Carbon monoxide .. o

Mar.sh gas 2

Ethylene 2

Coal gas... .« ... I'2

" The correspondence between the calculated numbers
with the radiation from a flame which has just been
rendered non-luminous surprised me the more since the
latter is conditioned, in some measure, by the volume of
air mixed with the gas, and this is very different for the
three non-luminous flames. On this account it cannot be
asserted that this agreement is not accidental. Moreover,
the number of observations is much too small. Neverthe-
less, the experiment seems worthy of record and will be
followed up further."

• Proc. Key. Soc., A., vol. l.vxxiv. (igio), p. 155.

2 " Die Licht- und Warmestrahlung verbrannter Case," Dr. W. H.
Julius. (Berlin, i8go.)

1 88

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

With regard to the last remarks, it is to be noted that
the fact that the flame was just rendered non-luminous
shows that the air was in each case in approximately the
proportion required for complete combustion. The heat-
ing value of such a mixture is much the same for all the
gases in the above table, and the temperatures of the
flames would be still more nearly the same, the higher
heating value of a CO mixture being partly neutralised
by the high specific heat of the products. The agreement
is certainly more than a coincidence. W. T. David, from
a comparison of the radiation emitted in the steam and
CO bands, respectively, in a coal-gas and air explosion,
infers that CO, radiates about 2\ times as much as steam
per unit of volume. This result, which was obtained in
ignorance of Helmholtz's estimate, agrees with it almost
exactly.

Cold COj shows a strong absorption band at the same
point of the spectrum as the emission band given by a
flame in which CO, is produced, and water vapour power-
fully absorbs the radiation from a hydrogen flame.

As stated above, it is most probable that the radiation
in an explosion also consists almost entirely of the same
two bands as are emitted by the Bunsen flame. A com-
plete analysis of the radiation from an explosion has not
been made, but Hopkinson and David found, using a
recording bolometer, that the radiation is almost com-
pletely stopped by a water-cell, and that it is largely
stopped by a glass plate. It follows that the luminosity of
the flame in an explosion or in a gas engine accounts for
but little of the energy which it radiates.

Molecular Theory of Radiation from Gases.

Much difference of opinion exists as to the physical
interpretation of the facts described in the preceding
sections. The issues in this controversy can conveniently
be stated in terms of the molecular theory, and it is there-
fore desirable to give a short account of this theory. But
it will be apparent that the issues are not merely of
theoretical interest, but are in large measure issues of
tact capable of being tested by experiment, and that the
answers to important practical questions may depend on
the manner in which they are settled.

According to the kinetic theory, the energy of a gas
m.ust be referred partly to translational motion of the
molecules as a whole and partly to motions of some sort
internal to the molecules. The translational motion is that
which causes the pressure of the gas, and in the case of
gases for which pv/d is constant (with which alone we
are concerned in this discussion), the translational energy
per unit of volume is equal in absolute measure to I3 times
the pressure. This part of the energy may conveniently
be called " pressure energy." It amounts to nearly
3 calories per gram molecule, or to 12 feet lb. per cubic
foot per degree centigrade.

The other part of the energy produces no external
physical effect except radiation, and at ordinary tempera-
tures, when there is no radiation, its existence and amount
are inferred from the fact that when work is done or
heat put into the gas the corresponding increase in pressure
energy amounts to only a fraction of the whole. The
internal motions to which this suppressed energy corre-
sponds may be pictured as of a mechanical nature, such
as the vibrations of spring-connected masses or as rotation
about the centre of gravity of the molecule, but there is
not the same reason as exists in the case of the transi-
tional energy for supposing that they are really of this
character. They may be, and indeed probably are, elec-
trical phenomena, at any rate in part. Any radiation
from the gas must take its origin in this internal motion,
and so much of that motion as gives rise to radiation
must be of a periodic character and have a frequency
equal to that of the radiation emitted. It will be con-
venient to call the whole energy which is internal to the
molecule " atomic energy," and that part of it which
gives rise to radiation may be called " vibrational
energy." The vibrational energy may be imagined as due
to high-frequency vibrations within the molecule, and the
rest of the atomic energy as due to slower movements — •
perhaps rotations of the molecule as a whole — which do
not produce any disturbance in the aether. This remain-
ing energy may conveniently be called " rotational," it

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

being understood that the motion to which it corresponds
is not necessarily a physical rotation, but is some internal
motion which gives no external physical effects.

When the gas is in a steady state the ^various kinds
of energy will bear definite ratios to one another, dependent
on the temperature and pressure. It may be expected,
however, that after any sudden change of temperature <
pressure the gas will not at once reach the steady sla
of equilibrium corresponding to the new conditions. F"or
instance, it may be that in the rapid compression of a
gas the work done goes at first mainly to inoreasing the
translational energy. If in such case the compression be
arrested, and if there be no loss of heat, this form of
energy will be found in excess ; and a certain time, though
possibly a very short time, will elapse before the excess
is transformed by collisions into atomic energy and the
state of equilibrium attained. This change would be
manifest as a fall of temperature or of pressure without
any change of energy.

If, on the other hand, the gas be heated by combustion,
the first effect is undoubtedly an increase in the energy of
those molecules, and of those only which have been formed
as the result of the combustion ; and it is probable that in
the first instance the energy of the newly formed molecules
is mainly in the atomic form. Before equilibrium can be
attained there must be a process of adjustment, in the
course of which the energy of the new molecules will be
shared in part, with inert molecules, e.g. the nitrogen in
an air-gas explosion, while the translational form of
energy will increase at the expense of the atomic energy.
The final state of equilibrium reached will be the same at
the same temperature, whether the gas was heated in the
first instance by combustion or by compression ; the
assumption that this is the case is involved in any state-
ment of volumetric heat as a definite physical quantity.
The pressure energy in the final state of equilibrium is
certainly shared equally between the different kinds of
molecules, but the atomic energy is not necessarily equally
shared. It is known, for example, that the steam mole-
cules, after an explosion of hydrogen and air, carry, on
the average, more energy than the nitrogen molecules,,
though the pressure energy is the same.

The process of attaining equilibrium after an explosion,
which has just been described, would (if heat loss were
arrested) result in a rise of temperature, and in the
ordinary case of rapid cooling it would retard the cooling.
It would, therefore, be indistinguishable as regards
pressure or temperature effects from continued combustion
or after-burning.

Stated in terms of the molecular theory, the first ques-
tion as to which there is difference of opinion is whether
the radiation from a flame arises from gas which is in
equilibrium or whether it comes from molecules which
still possess a larger share than they will ultimately (in
the equilibrium state) be entitled to of the atomic energy
v^rhich resulted from their formation. If the products of
combustion of a non-luminous Bunsen flame were heated,
say, by passing through a hot tube — to the average
temperature of the flame (taken to be equal to that of a j:
solid body of moderate extent immersed in it), would thpv
emit substantially the same amount of radiation? T
order to clear the ground for the discussion of this qu- ~
tion it will be convenient, first, to state two or three .
points about which there will probably be general agree- j
ment. First, there is here no question of the origin of i
luminosity, for the luminous part of the radiation from j
the flame possesses practically no energy. Secondly, the 1
radiation, whether in the heated gas or in the flame, arises
almost entirely from the compound constituents CO, and
H2O ; in neither case does any come from the molecul;
of nitrogen or of excess oxygen. And, thirdly, t
powerful absorption of cold CO^ for the radiation from a
CO flame, and of water vapour for that from a hydrogen ;
flame, will probably lead all to admit that these gases '
when heated will emit some radiation of the same typ
The only question is, how much?

R. von Helmholtz was of opinion that the radiation in
a flame comes mainly from molecules which have just 1
been formed, and which are, therefore, still in a state of |
vigorous vibration. Pringsheim, Smithells, and others
take the same view. This is practically equivalent to j
saying that this radiation, like the radiation of higher

December 8, 1910]

NATURE

189

frequency which gives luminosity, is due to chemical action
and not to purely thermal causes. On the other hand,
Paschen and some others have maintained that the radia-
tion from a flame is purely thermal, or that it arises from
gas which has attained the normal or equilibrium state,
and is substantially the same as that which would be
emitted if the products of combustion were heated.

It will readily be seen that the difference between the
two opinions really turns on the question of the time
taken by a gas which is not initially in, or has been
disturbed from, the equilibrium state to attain that state.
All will concede that the CO, or steam molecule will
radiate more powerfully just after its formation than at
any other time. If, as R. von Helmholtz contended, the
greater part of the radiation which it gives out in the
course of its life is to be ascribed to this early period of
its history, we must suppose that that period is sufficiently
extended to give time for the emission of a considerable
amount of energy with a rate of radiation which, though
greater than that of the gas in its ultimate equilibrium
state, is at least of the same order of magnitude. In other
words, we must suppose that the process, which may
indifferently be called attainment of equilibrium or con-
tinued chemical action, must go on in the gases as they
pass through the flame for a time of the order perhaps
of one-tenth of a second. For if it be supposed that
€quihbrium is reached in an excessively short time, say
in i-iooo second or less, then the radiation, if ascribed
to that short period, must be supposed to be of correspond-
ing intensity — there must be a sudden and violent flow of
energy by radiation just while combustion is going on,
and very little radiation after it is complete. This is,
however, negatived by the bolometer measurements made
during an explosion, which show that radiation goes on
' • something like half a second after maximum pressure.
ose who hold that the radiation emitted by CO, and
^-jam is mainly due to continued combustion must be
prepared to admit that such combustion goes on for a
long period after the attainment of maximum pressure in
explosion. The issue involved here is, in fact, the same
that in the controversy about " after-burning."
The principal argument advanced by R. von Helmholtz
in support of his view is the experimental fact discovered
''• him that the radiation of a flame is diminished by
iting the gas and air before they enter the burner, in
te of the fact that the temperature of the flame must
be raised. This he explains by the acceleration of the
■ approach to the state of equilibrium which would be
I brought about by the more frequent collisions between the
I newly formed compound molecules and their neighbours.
The question of the velocity with which a gas approaches
normal state after a disturbance has been much dis-
-sed in connection with the kinetic theory. Immediately
er an explosion we have an extreme case of such a dis-
bance, the atomic energy being, at any point which
flame has just reached, in considerable excess. The
nsformation of this energy into the pressure form will
f.uceed at a rate diminishing with the amount remaining
I to be transformed and, in the final- stages of the process
at all events, proportional thereto. The slowness of
proach to the state of equilibrium may be measured by
time required for the reduction of the untransformed
energy in any specified ratio. It is usual to take i/e as
i this ratio, and, following Maxwell, the corresponding time
j may be called the " time of relaxation." Estimates of
I this time, based on the kinetic theory of gases, may be
' made in various ways, but they all involve hypotheses as
the nature of the action between the molecules, and
1st be regarded as little more than speculation. It will
LIP well, however, to indicate the general character of the
j arguments on which they are based. By methods which
need not be considered in detail here, it is possible to
calculate the number of collisions with its neighbours
[ which the average molecule undergoes per second. This
1 calculation can be approached in various ways, based on
j different kinds of data, but they all lead to the' same result,
I at any rate as regards order of magnitude, namely, that
I a molecule of air at normal temperature and pressure
j collides, on the average, 3 x 10 times per second with other
I molecules.^ At every collision the energy distribution in
I the colliding molecules is modified, both as regards the
manner in which it is shared between the two and the
NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

relative proportions due to vibration and translation in
either. It is argued that after every molecule has suffered
a few thousand collisions, which will happen in a millionth
of a second, the gas must have reached a steady average
state. This argument would, however, be upset if the
interchange of energy as between vibration and translation
at each collision were sufficiently small. It is only neces-
sary to suppose that a vibrating molecule loses less than
one-thousand millionth part of its vibratory energy at each
collision to raise the time of relaxation to something of
the order of a second. Any objection to this supposition
must be founded on some hypothesis, which cannot be
other than entirely speculative, as to the mechanism of
a collision. The kinetic theory, therefore, can give no
information about the absolute value of the time of relaxa-
tion, though it provides valuable suggestions as to the
way in which that time is affected by the temperature and
density of the gas.

There is plenty of physical evidence, however, that in
ordinary circumstances the time of relaxation is ex-
cessively short. The phenomena of the propagation of
sound shows that compressions and rarefactions of atmo-
spheric air may take place many thousands of times in
a second without the gas departing appreciablv at any
instant from the state of equilibrium. The experiments of
Tyndali, in which an intermittent beam of radiant energy
directed through the gas caused variations of pressure
sufficientlv rapid to give sounds, show that the transforma-
tion of vibrational into pressure energy under the condi-
tions of his experiments is a process far more rapid than
any with which we are accustomed to deal in the gas
engine or in the study of gaseous explosions. The
departure from equilibrium which follows combustion is,
however, of a special kind, and it may be that the gas
is slower in recovering from it than when the disturbance
is that produced by the propagation of sound at ordinary
temperatures.

Transparency.

The radiation from hot gas is complicated by the fact
that the gas is to a considerable extent transparent to its
own radiation. The radiation emitted, therefore, depends
upon the thickness of the layer of gas, instead of being
purely a surface phenomenon, as in the case of a solid
body. This property, besides being of great physical
interest, is important from the point of view of the com-
mittee because upon it depends, or may depend, the
relative magnitude of radiation losses in engines or
explosion vessels of different sizes.

The transparency of flames is well illustrated by some
experiments which Prof. Callendar has been making, and
which he showed to the committee. The radiation from a
Meker burner (which gives a " solid " flame without inner
cone) was measured by means of a Fery pyrometer, the
reading of which gives a measure of the radiation trans-
mitted through a small cone intersecting the flame and
^aving its vertex at this point of observation (see Fig. i).
Callendar proposes to give the name " intrinsic radiance "
to the radiation of a flame measured in this way, divided
by the solid angle of the cone. When a second similar
flame was placed behind the first in the line of sight, it
was found that the reading recorded by the pyrometer
was considerably increased, but not doubled ; the first
flame appeared to be partly, but not completely, trans-
parent to the radiation emitted by the second. A third
flame placed behind the first two contributed a further
but smaller addition to the radiation, and as the number
of flames in the row was increased the radiation received
from each fell off according to an exponential law. The
total radiation from the whole row (which is that recorded
on the pyrometer) tends to a finite limit as the number of
flames is increased. The radiation from a depth of 12 cm.
is about half, and that from a depth of 100 cm. is within
half per cent, of that emitted by an infinitely great depth.

The general result of Callendar's experiments is to show
that flames of a diameter of 3 centimetres or less burn-
ing at atmospheric pressure emit radiation approximately
in proportion to the volume. If the diameter be increased
beyond that figure the radiation will also increase, but not
in proportion to the volume of the flame. The radiation
from very large flames would tend to become proportional
to the surface, but no certain inference as to the diameter

I90

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

of flame for which this would be substantially true can be
drawn from Callendar's experiments, because he was look-
ing along a thin row of flames in which there was but
little lateral extension.

The flames met with in a gas-engine cylinder or in
explosion vessels differ from open flames such as can
readily be produced in the laboratory, both in respect of
the lateral extension which has just been mentioned and
also in respect of density. In both these particulars the
difference is rather great, the least dimension of the mass
of flame in a gas-engine cylinder being only in the smallest
sizes comparable with the diameter of the Meker burner
flame, while the density of the gas just after firing in the
gas engine is from twenty to thirty times that of the
burner flame gases. It does not seem possible from
theoretical considerations to determine the effect of these
two factors with sufficient accuracy to enable any quanti-
tative inference as to radiation in the gas engine to be
drawn from laboratory experiments on flames, but it is
useful to discuss their probable qualitative effects.

In Fig. 1, P is the point of observation at which the
pyrometer is placed, as in Callendar's experiments, and
the portion of the flame from which the radiation is
measured is that intercepted by the small cone. If a
second similar flame B is placed behind h at a consider-
able distance, but so that it is intersected by the cone,
then the radiation recorded by the pyrometer will be
increased, say, by 50 per cent., showing that of the radia-
tion emitted by B and falling on A 50 per cent, is absorbed
and the remainder is transmitted to the pyrometer. The
absorbed energy is, of course, not lost, but must result

in ' slightly increased radiation from A in all directions.
The flame .\ appears to be a little hotter because of the
proximity of B. Thus the increase of radiation absorbed
at the pyrometer is due, not only to the radiation trans-
mitted from B, but also to an increase in the intrinsic
radiance of A. If the two flames are a considerable
distance apart, the latter part is negligibly small, since
the flame A does not then receive much radiation from
B, and what it does receive is dissipated in every direc-
tion. But when flame B is pushed close up to A into the
position of B' (Fig. 2) this effect may be considerable,
and it is obvious that it will be greatly enhanced if the
two flames are extended laterally as in Fig. 3. For in
such case flame A must get rid of the energy which it
is receiving by radiation from B', mainly by an enhanced
radiation in the direction of P. It may therefore be
expected that the effect of lateral extension will be to
make the flame apparently more transparent.

To a first approximation it may be expected that the
radiating and absorptive powers of a gas at a given
temperature will be proportional to its density. That is
to say, two geometrically similar masses of flame, in
which the temperatures at corresponding points are the
same, and the densitties in inverse proportion to the
volumes (so that the total masses are the same), will
radiate in the same way and to the same total amount.
\t would seem that this must be so, so long as the vibra-
tions of the radiating molecules are the same in character
and amplitude in the two cases. For there will then be
the same number of molecules vibrating in exactly the
same way and arranged in the same way in the two cases.

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

The only difference is in the scale of the arrangement, and
this can only affect the matter if the distance between
molecules is comparable with the wave-lengths of thp
radiation emitted, which is not the case. It is only, how
ever, within moderate limits that the molecular vibratio:
are independent of density. Angstrom found that tl
absorption of the radiation from a given source in a tiii
of COj at ordinary temperature and atmospheric pressm
was reduced by increasing the length and diminishing th.
pressure ' in the same proportion so as to keep the mas>.
of gas constant. Schafer found that on increasing the
pressure the absorption bands of this gas were widened,
so that the curve connecting intensity of radiation ant
wave-length did not remain of the same shape. ^ Th'
experiments were made at low temperatures, and at tl
higher temperatures, in which the committee are more
particularly interested, there has been but little work.
There is no reason to doubt, however, that the charact'
and amount of the radiation from CO, and steam
high temperatures will change with the density.

From the point of view of the molecular theory, such
a change might be anticipated from either of two causes.
An increase of density implies a proportionate increase in
the frequency of molecular collisions, and this wou]<l
result in greater facility of interchange between the trans-
lational and atomic types of energy. It is possible thai
the equilibrium proportion of the two types might b'-
different in consequence. The denser gas may conceivabl\
possess, with a given amount of translational enerfjv .
more atomic energy, and therefore radiate more stronj:'
at a given temperature. It is certain that there would 1
a more rapid attainment of equilibrium in the gas aft' -
an explosion or a rapid expansion. Another pKjssible cau'-'-
is a direct interaction between the molecules, apart from
collisions. Two molecules at a sufficient distance apart
will vibrate practically independently, each behaving as
though the other was not there, except that there will be
a tendency for them to vibrate in the same phase. But
if the two are close together they react on one another
so that the natural period or periods of the two together
will not be the same as those which each would have if
it were isolated.

Such direct measurements as have been made of the
radiation after a closed-vessel explosion suggest that the
flame is more transparent than might be inferred from
the experiments on open flames. According to information
given to the committee by Prof. Hopkinson, \V. T. David
has found that the radiation received by a bolometer placed
outside a fluorite window in the cover of a cylindrical
explosion vessel 30 cm.x^o cm. is greatly increased bv
highlv polishing that portion of the oooosite cover which
can be " seen " by the bolometer. This implies that a
thickness of 30 cm. of flame in these circumstances cart'
transmit much of the radiation which it emits. The
density of the gas in this case was atmosphpric, and the
30 cm. thickness in the explosion vessel would be equiva-
lent to perhaps 150 cm. of open flame if absorntion were
simplv proportional to density. .According to Callendar's
experiment, such a thickness would be almost completely
opaque. It is possible that the lateral extension is
sufficient to account for this result. The open flame
should be a cylindrical mass of dimensions 150 cm.X
150 cm., instead of a long strip with a cross-section of
3 cm., in order to make the two cases strictlv comnarable.
It will be remembered that in the discussion above it
appeared that the laterally extended flame would seem to
be more transparent.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

CAMBRIDGE. — The Walsingham medal for iqio has beeh
awarded to A. V. Hill, of Trinity College. A second me«j
has been awarded to J. C. F. Fryer, of Gonville and Ca
College.

The followinef have been elected to the Clerk Max\
scholarship : — R. D. Kleeman and R. T. Beatty, both
Emmanuel College.

At a meeting of the Fitzwilliam Museums syndicate,

' Ark. for Mat. Astron. oc^ Fys^V. StocUho'.rr, vol. iv., No. 30, p. i.
2 Ann. der Physik, vol. xvi. (1905), p. 93.

December 8, 1910]

NATURE

191

on November 29, F. W. Green, of Jesus College, was
appointed honorary keeper of the Egyptian antiquities.

Oxford. — ^At a Convocation held on December 6, the Vice-
Chancellor (Dr. Heberden, Principal of Brasenose) pre-
siding, the honorary degree of doctor of science was con-
ferred on Prof. Meidola, F.R.S., professor of chemistry in
the Finsbury Technical College (City and Guilds of London
Institute), in anticipation of the Herbert Spencer lecture to
be delivered by him on December 8. In making the pre-
sentation, the Sedelian professor natural philosophy, Prof.
A. E. H. Lowe, F.R.S., delivered the following oration: —

" Adest vir quern omnes, qui scientiae et imprimis Chemiae
et Biologiae student, ornare gaudent, Societatis Regalis
Sodalis, Societatum Entomologiae, Chemiae, Chemicorum
idustriae, operam dantium Praeses emeritus, Raphael
tldola. Qui vir cum prima aetate Carolo Darwin
liunctissimus esset, ita de Natura formarum novarum
trice quaesivit ut plurimis eodem studio incensis illud
ilogiae genus quod ipse excoluerat nostratium fere
»prium fieret. Posteriora eius studia partim in Physice,
partim in Chemia versata sunt, quo e numero si pauca
quaedam momenti maximi commemorare liceat, et eligerem
quae de Chemia Photographiae inserviente, de chemicis car-
bonis dementis, de chemica umorum corporalium composi-
tione commentus est. Multos iam annos in hoc Chemiae
genere principem habitum atque latissimo in campo
evagatum nescio an nemo hunc virum laude superavit."

The annual prize distribution and students' conversazione
of the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, Clerkenwell,
E.C., is to be held this evening, December 8. The Right
Hon. Lord Alverstone, G.C.M.G., P.C, Lord Chief Justice
of England, will distribute the prizes and certificates.
Lecturettes will be given by Mr. F. M. Denton on com-
mercial uses of electro-magnets, and Mr. F. Handley
Page on how to fly.

Dr. Edgar F. Smith has been appointed to succeed Dr.
C. C. Harrison as provost of the University of Pennsyl-
vania, in which institution he has held a chair of chemistry
since 1888. His chief work has been done in electro-
chemistry, as a list of his principal publications would
show. He is a past-president of the American Chemical
Society and of the American Philosophical Society. He
has also been a member of the U.S. Assay Commission
and adviser in chemistry to the Carnegie Institution.

The annual conversazione of the Royal College of Science
and Royal School of Mines will be held on Wednesday,
December 21. Both the new and old buildings will be
open in Imperial Institute and Exhibition Roads, South
Kensington, S.W., and many interesting exhibits will be
shown in chemistry, physics, mechanics, metallurgy,
mining, botany, and zoology, arranged by the respective
scientific societies. During the evening Dr. C. Gilbert
Cullis will give a lecture on " Coral Islands."

It is announced, says Science, that Mr. Andrew
Carnegie has given a further sum of 300,000/. for the
construction of buildings of the Carnegie Technical Schools
at Pittsburgh. From the same source we learn that bv
the will of Prof. A. Marshall Elliott the Johns Hopkins
University receives his library, and the sum of 400Z. for
the establishment of a scholarship for graduate students ;
and that the American Museum of Natural History receives
SoooZ. by the will of the late Mr. Charles E. Tilford, of
New York City.

Steps are being taken to inaugurate a Students' Union
in connection with Sheffield University. .An influential
committee, representative of all faculties, has been elected
from amongst the members of the Students' Representative
Council to proceed with the formation of the union.
Sheffield University stands alone amongst the universities
of the United Kingdom in not possessing such an institu-
tion, and we feel sure that the committee's appeal to
members of the University and their friends for contribu-
tions to the fund to provide premises where students mav
be united in the bonds of social intercourse will meet with
a generous response. Cheques may be made payable to
Mr. H. Khalifa, honorarv secretary and treasurer to the
jbtudents' Union Committee, The University, Sheffield.

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, founded in
1845 and reorganised in 1908, is now definitely associated
with the University of Bristol for the purpose of instruc-
tion in agriculture, forestry, estate management, land
surveying, veterinary science, natural history, agricultural
chemistry, botany, zoology, and geology, to which other
allied subjects may subsequently be added. Instruction
given at the college in these subjects to undergraduates
will be deemed to be instruction given in and by the
University for the purpose of degrees and diplomas in
agriculture and forestry. The present principal, Mr.
Ainsworth-Davis, is recognised as professor of natural
history in the University, and Mr. Drysdale Turner as
professor of agriculture, this recognition carrying with it
membership of the University Senate. While the associa-
tion will in no way interfere with the primary work of
the Royal Agricultural College, which will still retain its
distinctive and time-honoured diploma, a new class of
students will come into existence, and an important
advance be made in the correlation of agricultural educa-
tion in the west of England.

Under the auspices of the London County Council,
another conference of teachers will be held on three days,
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, January 5, 6, and 7, 191 1,
at Birkbeck College, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane,
E.C. The programme includes the following subjects,
among others : — Thursday, January 5, Specialisation in
Schools : Addresses by Mrs. Sophie Bryant on the value of
specialisation in secondary schools, and F. Bulley on an
experiment in specialisation in elementary schools. Memory :
Addresses by Dr. C. Spearman on the relation of the
memory to the will. Dr. E. O. Lewis on some interesting
investigations on memory, and Dr. F. H. Hayward on the
cultivation of memory. Friday, January 6, The Teaching of
Geography : Addresses by B. C. Wallis on the teaching of
geography in secondary schools, J. Fairgrieve on a practical
room for the teaching of geography, and C. J. Rose on
open air teaching in geography. Saturday Januau-y 7,
Education Experiments in Schools : Addresses by B. Lewis
on a combined scheme of history and geography teaching,
E. Thomas on pictorial aids for the teaching of geography
and history, A. G. Gawler on how to secure individual work
in large classes, J. Greer on an experiment in number
teaching, A. E. D. Lowden on stencilling — a valuable form
of handwork, and Mrs. Sandford on animals in infants'
schools. No charge will be made for admission to the
conference. Application for tickets of admission should be
made to the Chief Inspector, London County Council,
Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, W.C.

By the passing of the Education (Choice of Employment)
Bill into law on the day of dissolution of Parliament, the
English and Welsh local education authorities have after
a keen controversy been accorded statutory powers to
" give boys and girls information, advice, and assistance
with respect to the choice of employment." The School
Boards of Scotland were put in possession of these powers
by the Education (Scotland) Act, 1908, and the School
Board of Edinburgh took the lead in making the powers
operative. The originator of the conception of a national
system of school information and employment bureaux was
Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon, D.Sc, who first placed her scheme
before the public at the annual meeting of the Glasgow
Union of Women Workers, held in March, 1904. The full
draft of her scheme was submitted to the President of the
Board of Education and to the Secretary for Scotland, and
was supported by numerous resolutions passed in its favour
at public meetings. It was afterwards published in Mrs.
Ogilvie Gordon's " Handbook of Employments " (.Aber-
deen : Rosemount Press). The aim of the scheme is to
bring the teachers' knowledge of the individual boy and
girl effectively to bear upon their choice of a future career,
and it is based upon the sound economic principle that
work on ^such lines ought to be nationally organised in
order to make sure that it should reach every child, and
that the work ought to cover all the openings and occupa-
tions for our youth — skilled or unskilled, mercantile or
personal. By the measure which has at last become law,
there is now a prospect of an effective advisory service
being organised throughout the country, administered by
committees formed under the education authorities, and
there should be no difficulty in arrangements being made

192

NATURE

[December 8, 19 lo Q

locally between the labour exchanges and the education
authority, so that no actual overlapping of work shall take
place, but each be helpful to the other.

The annual prize distribution of the Sir John Cass
Technical Institute was held on Tuesday, November 29,
when Sir William Tilden distributed the priies and
delivered an address ; the chair was taken by Sir Owen
Roberts, chairman of the governing body. Sir William
Tilden, after contrasting the conditions available for
obtaining scientific instruction now, in such institutions as
that of the Sir John Cass, as compared with his own
student days, referred especially to the improved character
of the teaching, but pointed out that the responsibility for
gaining the full benefit of these advantages rested still,
as it did in former years, far more with the students than
with the teachers. Whilst the business of the teachers
was to be regarded as being concerned with the selection
of the subjects to be studied rather than their exposition,
the real responsibility for progress must always rest with
the student. The assimilation cf knowledge is the busi-
ness of the student, and the greatest inducement and
stimulus for such assimilation is the desire for knowledge,
a desire which is most advantageously associated with a
conviction of ignorance. Sir William Tilden further urged
the necessity of the thorough understanding of the sub-
jects taught at each stage of progress, and pointed out
that students should not look to their teachers for recipes
for doing things, but to their own efforts, as the means
of acquiring a full understanding of their work, and that
they should not omit becoming fully conversant with the
history and meaning of the expressions and words employed
in their studies. In conclusion, it was pointed out that
with every student there are times when the mind should
be allowed to relax a little from the pages of their text-
books, and that of the many forms of relaxation it was
most desirable that all young English men and women
should devote some attention and interest to the history
of their own country. The exceptional advantages of
London, and especially of the City of London, as a stimu-
lant to such study was particularly referred to, for there
is nothing more interesting, more absorbing, or more
enchanting than the study of the history of mankind,
especially that particular variety of mankind which is
represented by the Anglo-Saxon race. Sir William Tilden
subsequently opened the new chemistry laboratory which
has recently been equipped by the governors of the
institute.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
London.
Royal Society, November 24. — Sir Archibald Geikie,
K.C.B., president, followed by Mr. A. B. Kempe, vice-
president, in the chair. — -Sir Norman Lockyer : The
sequence of chemical forms in stellar spectra. — A.
Mallock : Influence of viscosity on the stability of
the flow of fluids. The effect of this paper is to
direct attention to an observation made by the
late Mr. W. Froude, F.R.S., with regard to an ex-
periment on fluid jets, and to its application in
explaining some of the phenomena presented by the flow
of viscous fluids. The experiment referred to was shown
by Froude at the British meeting of the British Associa-
tion in 1875, and one of the deductions drawn from it was
that in a viscous flow the character of the stream differed
according as to whether the flow was towards decreasing
or increasing pressure.— Horace Lamb : Atmospheric
oscillations. The paper treats of the free oscillations of
an atmosphere, the temperature being a function of the
altitude, and the adiabatic laws of expansion being
assumed. In particular, the case of a uniform temperature
gradient is discussed in some detail. The possible oscilla-
tions are of various types, of which the most important
is of the character of a longitudinal wave. The results
are simplest when the equilibrium state is one of con-
vective equilibrium, and the velocity of the longitudinal
wave is then equal to the Newtonian velocity of sound,
\/(gH), corresponding to the temperature of the lowest
stratum. The bearing of the results on Kelvin's theory of
the semi-diurnal barometric oscillation is examined, and it
appears that the existence of a free period of the earth's
atmosphere, of somewhat less than twelve mean solar

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

hours, is highly probable. Other types of oscillation
depend for their frequency on the degree of stability of the
atmosphere, and may in circumstances be comparatively
slow. It is possible that these may account for some of
the minor fluctuations of the barometer. The paper
includes also an examination of the theory of waves at a
surface of discontinuity. — P. J. Kirkby : A theory of the
chemical action of the electric discharge in electrolytic
gas and other gases. The complicated results attending
the passage of an electric discharge through electrolytic
gas, described in previous papers, and in particular the
chemical effects observed in the positive columns of long
discharges, were explained by the theory that the chemical
action is due to molecular dissociation effected by the
collisions of gaseous ions constituting the current with
the molecules of the gas, the atoms of which are thus set
free to enter into new combinations. In this paper an
account is given of experiments designed to determine both
the number of molecules of water (w) formed by the
passage of the atomic charge through i cm. of the positive
columns of various discharges passed through electrolytic
gas (aH^-nOj), and also the electric force (Y) within these
columns, the results providing data for testing and develop-
ing the theory. The chemical effects of the positive column
are attributed to the motion of the electrons alone. The
number of atoms of oxygen set free bj' the collisions of an
electron moving through i cm. in electrolytic gas at p mm.
pressure under the electric force Y is of the form
cpe-tpl"^ , whtre c, h are certain constants. Hence, if an
atom of oxygen can unite directly with a molecule of
hydrogen, w is proportional to cpe-i^fV. All the experi-
mental results satisfy this condition within error-limits in
the particular form w[p = y-g e-^^'ipiy , and thus support
the above theory as well as the hypothesis that water-
vapour is formed by the collision of an atom of oxygen
with a molecule of hydrogen. This equation involves that
the energy of formation of an oxygen molecule is less
than, and probably nearly equal to, 6-Xio-'^ ergs; and
experiments of Berthelot upon the heat of transformation
of ozone into oxygen are shown to be in fair agreement.
An estimate, 7X10-'^ ergs, is also given for the energy
of formation of a molecule of water vapour. These experi-
ments also prove, independently of theory, that dissociated
atoms of oxygen are not charged electrically. Similar
experiments were made with the gaseous mixture CO 4- H,.
The chemical effects observed in the positive column repro-
duce the main features observed with electrolytic gas, and
are explainable by a similar theory. — G. W. Walker : An
electrostatic voltmeter for photographic recording of the
atmospheric potential. The paper describes some experi-
ments made at Eskdalemuir Observatory with the object
of obtaining a simple and efficient voltmeter for continuous
photographic registration of the electrical potential at a
fixed point in the atmosphere. Experience has shown that
occasionally the instrument would require to register up
to fully 1000 volts -(- or — . Satisfactory results have
been obtained by means of a Dolezalek electrometer. The
usual sensitiveness was greatly reduced by using a
phosphor-bronze suspension, while the needle was loaded
to prevent tilting. A fixed difference of potential is applied
between the quadrants by means of one or two standard
cadmium cells, while the potential to be measured is
applied to the needle. The needle can now carry iioo volts
with perfect safety and stability,, while the scale value on
the paper is constant to within a few per cent, over a
range from —900 to -(-900 volts. Trial has been made of
a voltmeter (made in the workshop) similar in general
design to the Dolezalek, but in which the fixed difference
of potential between the quadrants is provided by making
the quadrants alternately of copper and zinc soldered
together and not insulated. Uniformity of scale value
has been obtained from about —500 to +500 volts, but
for higher potentials only approximate uniformity was
secured. This defect arises from want of mechanical
perfection of the quadrants and needle, and should dis-
appear in an instrument made with the same accuracy as
the Dolezalek. At present, also, the damping of the needle
during very rapid changes of potential is insufficient
Reference is made to certain points in the manipulatior
of sulphur for insulating, which have been found essentia
to secure good results. — Dr. T. H. Havelock : Optica
dispersion : an analysis of its actual dependence upor

December 8, 1910]

NATURE

193

physical conditions. The paper is based upon a generalised
dispersion formula

a + i/(/»2 - I ) P X- - A -,

where P is the densitj- of the medium. The quantities
i, and X, refer to natural vibrations inherent in the mole-
cule, and it is assumed that these are not changed by
varying physical conditions, such as temperature, pressure,
or density ; thus an attempt is made to express these con-
ditions in their optical effect by two variables, P and a.
The scheme is tested first by a relation deduced from the
above formula, namely, the difference in value of
P/(n'— 1) for any two physical conditions of the same
substance is constant in regard to wave-length. From an
examination of available data this appears to be satisfied
approximately for gases and liquids and for changes from
gas to liquid. Numerical values of a for various sub-
stances in different conditions are obtained by assigning
it zero value for the gaseous condition at normal pressure
and temperature. Artificial double refraction is included
in the same formal scheme by allowing anisotropic changes
of the quantity .'. Finally, for dispersion formulae of the
above tj'pe an observed maximum of absorption (or of
selective reflection) is identified, not with A,, but with a
wave-length X',, differing from A, by a term involving P
and ir; numerical examples are given for rock-salt and
fluorite. The wave-lengths A', are calculated under various
conditions for certain substances : experimental data are
analysed to show the pressure-displacement for air and
the temperature-displacement of absorption maxima for
water and carbon disulphide. — C. P. Butler : The spec-
trum of Halley's comet. Provision was made for photo-
graphing the comet and its spectrum from the beginning
of May at Fosterdown, Caterham. Exceptionally bad
weather prevented observations until the end of the month,
when photographs and visual observations of the spectrum
were obtained on May 23 and 26. The photographs of
the comet taken with a Dallmeyer lens, 6 inches aperture,
50 inches focus, show that the nucleus was at times
multiple. Visual observations of the nucleus showed strong
continuous spectrum with three bands in the yellow-green,
green, and greenish-blue, having approximate wave-lengths
5635 (int. 7), 5165 (int. 10). 4737 (int. 7). The spectrum
of the coma surrounding the nucleus consisted of these
same three bands, without any indication of continuous
radiation. The photographic spectra show only the
brightest spectra features of the spectrum of the nucleus,
the relative intensities differing widely from the visual
intensities owing to the selective sensitiveness of the plates.
The two most conspicuous bands are near A 4737 (int. 10)
and 3884 (int. 6), with fainter bands near AA 4050, 4360,
5165, and 5635. Photographs obtained elsewhere at
different times show differences in the relative intensities
of the component bands. This has been ascribed to varia-
tions of atmospheric absorption. It may be noted, how-
ever, that before and after the transit of May 19 the
aspect of the head would vari- quicklv ; at one time the
hotter side facing the sun would be best seen, at others
the cooler portions away from the sun would be more
prominent. Preliminarv experiments show that by van.'ing
conditions of vaporisation the relative intensities of the
carbon or hvdrogen bands may be considerably modified,
and it would appear that the changes observed in the
cometary spectrum might be produced bv some such differ-
ence of condition. — Dr. H. F. Baker : A geometrical proof
of the theorem of a double six of straight lines.

Edinburgh.
Roval Society, November 7. — Pmf. Cram Brown, vice-
president, in the chair. — J. D. Hamilton Dickson : .A
thermoelectric diagram from —200° to +100° C, based
on the experiments of Sir James Dewar and Prof.
Fleming. The platinum temperatures were first reduced
to absolute scale. The observations of the electromotive
fbrce of each metal-lead couple were plotted against
temperature, and the curves were drawn freehand with
the greatest care through them. By finding the locus of
the middle points of parallel chords, Mr. Dickson proved
that the cur\'es were all, with one exception, parabolas.
The exception was in the case of antimony-lead, for which

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

the curve was a hyperbola. In the majority of cases the
parabolas differed from those obtained by Tait through
the more limited range of temperature used by him and
his students in the main fact that their axes were not
perpendicular to the temperature axis. The " Tait lines,"
as it was convenient to name the lines of thermoelectric
power, were not in these straight, although limited por-
tions of them might be very nearly so. .As was easily
proved from the geometry of the parabola with inclined
axis, each Tait line was a curve with two asymptotes
perpendicular to one another. Of the metals investigated,
gold, silver, zinc, and German silver followed Tait's rule,
the thermoelectric powers referred to the lead line giving
straight lines ; but platinum, copper, cadmium, nickel,
manganese, palladium, and aluminium gave for their
electr<Mnotive-force curves parabolas with inclined axes.
Similar results were obtained from recent observations
published by Holborn and Wien, Barus, and from early
observations by J. Murray and J. C. Young, working
under Tait's directions. — Profs. -Alex. Smith and .A. W. C.
Menzies : A dynamic method for measuring vapour
pressures, with its application to benzene and ammonium
chloride. .A modified form of the isoteniscope, previously
described, was used in determining the vapour pressures
of these substances. The advantages of the new form of
apparatus were that it could be used for high pressures,
that the confining fluid could be reduced in amount, and
that the thermometer was inserted directly in the bath
with its bulb no longer in a region of varying pressure. —
Profs. Alex. Smith and W. C. IMenzies : A quantitative
study of the constitution of calomel vapour. The object
of the investigation was to find to what extent the vapour
of calomel was dissociated, and the method was to
measure the vapour pressures by means of the iscK
teniscope at various temperatures from 360° C. to
400° C. The results showed (i) that the vapour of
calomel was composed wholly of mercury and corrosive
sublimate, HgCl and HgCl being alike absent ; (2) that
calomel dissolves in mercury with a molecular weight
corresponding to the formula HgCl ; (3) that the isoteni-
scope may be used in the quantitative investigation of
chemical problems. — Dr. R. .A. Houston : The efficiency
of metallic filament lamps. The results were obtained by
means of a new method involving the examination with
a thermopile and ver\- sensitive galvanometer of the spec-
trum of the radiation transmitted by a water filter. The
values obtained for the efficiencies of carbon, osmium,
tantalum, and tungsten lamps as energy transformers were
respectively 29, 52, 6-5, and 75 per cent.

Paris.
Academy of Sciences, November 21. — M. Emile Picard
in the chair. — H. Lorentz was elected a foreign associate
in the place of the late Prof. Schiaparelli. — Lord Avebury
was elected a correspondant for the section of anatomy
and zoology, in the place of Sir Ray Lankester, elected
foreign associate. — G. Fayet : The identity of the Cerulli
comet with the Faye comet. The elements calculated for
the two comets are nearly identical, the slight difference
noted being probably due to the fact that the considerable
disturbance of the orbit of the Faye comet caused by
Jupiter in 1899 was only approximately allowed for. — C.
Popovici : Observation of the Cerulli-Faye comet. Data
are given for November 22. — G. Tzitzeica : .A theorem of
M. Darboux. — W. SteklofT : A new application of the
method of development of fundamental functions. — Paul
L6vy : The integrabilit>- of the equations defining line
functions. — G. Eiffel : The resistance of rectangular planes
struck obliquely by the wind. Experiments were carried
out with a suction fan, using a 70 horse-power motor,
giving an air current of 10 to 20 metres per second in a
tube of 1-5 metres diameter. The results are given
graphically in a series of curves. — ^Jean Becquerel : The
reversal of the phosphorescence bands. Rubies and an
emerald were used for these experiments at the temperature
of liquid air. The reversal establishes a qualitative rela-
tion betw-een the emission and absorption, and some
quantitative relations are worked out. — R. Jouaust : The
magnetic properties of iron at high frequencies. The iron
was used in sheet form, the alternating current, produced
by a Poulsen arc, having a frequency of 150,000 per

194

NATURE

[December 8, 1910

second. The losses observed are 20 per cent, higher than
those calculated from J. J. Thomson's formula. —
Fr6d6ric Reverdin and Armand de Luc : The comparative
nitration of mono- and dialkylated amines. — L. H.
Philippe : The glucodeconic acids. The author has ex-
tended E. Fischer's synthesis of gluconose to the next
higher homologue, glucodecose. In the present paper the
preparation and properties of the glucodeconic acids are
described. — G. Friedel and F. Grandjean : Anisotropic
liquids. A discussion of the meaning of some experi-
ments recently described by M. Mauguin on the optical
properties of azoxyphenetol. The authors regard the
term anisotropic liquids as being preferable to liquid
crystals. Marin Moliiard : The mode of action of the
intensity of illumination in the formation of cleistomamic
flowers. — P. A. Dang^eard : A marine alga from the
Concarneau Laboratory, — M. Rinselmann : Experiments
on the yield of juice from the cider press. — Armand
Dehorne : The coexistence of division and a subdivision
of chromosomes in a quiescent state. — Paul de Beau-
champ : A new gregarian of the genus Porospora. — A.
Gruvei : The lampreys of the western coast of Africa and
their commercial possibilities. — J. Chatanay : A remark-
able anomaly of Zonabris variabilis v. Sturmi. — A. Fern-
bach : The biological degradation of the carbohydrates.
Macerations of Tyrothrix tenuis act upon starch, maltose,
dextrose, or saccharine, and dioxyacetone, glyceric alde-
hyde, and methylglyoxal have been recognised among the
products of the reaction. Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde
are also produced by this organism, — J, Effront : The
action of the Bulgarian ferment upon proteid and amido
substances. The Bulgarian ferment rapidly destroys
albuminoid material, removing the nitrogen in the form
of ammonia, and it is possible that the favourable action
of the ferment in gastro-intestinal affections is due to this
action instead of to the production of lactic acid. — P.
Chaussee : The production of primitive thoracic tubercu-
losis in cattle by the inhalation of infinitesimal amounts
of bovine tuberculous material. These experiments prove
the possibility of direct infection of the lungs by the
inhalation of minute proportions of tuberculous material.
In all the cases the mesenteric and cervical ganglia were
examined for tubercular infection with negative results.- —
Jacques Deprat : Seismic activity in southern Yun-nan in
^909-

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDA y, December 8.
Royal Society, at 4.30. — Colour-blindness and the Trichromatic Theory,
Part II. Incomplete Red or Green Blindness : Sir W. de W. Abney,
K.C.B., F.R.S.— On the Sensibility of the Eye to Variations of Wave-
length in the Yellow Region of the Spectrum: Lord Rayleigh. O.M.,

F. k.S. — (i) Trypanosome Diseases of Domestic Animals in Uganda.
IV. Trypanosoma uni/oriiie, sp. nov, ; (2) Trypanosome Diseases of
Domestic Animals in Uganda. V. Trypanosoma nanum. (Laveran) :
Colonel Sir D. Bruce, C.B., F.R.S., and others. — Some Enumerative
Studies on Malarial Fever: Major R. Ross, C.B., F.R.S., and D.
Thomson. — On Haemoelobin Metabolism in Malarial Fever : O. C. E.
Simpson. — A Case of Sleeping Sickness studied by precise Enumerative
Methods. Further Observations : Major R. Ross, C.B., F.R.S., and
D, Thomson. — Enumerative Studies on Trypanosoma gambiense and
Trypanosoma rhodiense in Rats, Guinea-pigs, and Rabbits ; Periodic
Variations disclosed : Dr. H. B. Fantham and J. G, Thomson. — The
Life History of Trypanosoma gambietise and Trypanosoma rhodiense
as seen in Rats and Guinea-pigs : Dr. H. B. Fantham. — Experiments
on the Treatment of Animals infected with Trypanosomes, by means of
Atoxyl, Vaccines, Cold, X-rays, and Leucocytic Extract; Enumerative
Methods employed : Major R, Ross, C.B., F.R.S., and J. G. Thomson.

Mathematical Society, at 5.30. — (i) Properties of I,ogarithmico-
exponential Functions ; (2) Some Results concerning the Increai^e of
Functions defined by an Algebraic Differential Equation of the First
Degree: G. H. Hardy. — Optical Geometry of Motion: A. A. Robb, —
(i) Note on the Pcllian Equation ; (2) A Property of the Number 7 :
T. C. Lewis. — On the Arithmetical Theory of Binary Cubic Forms :

G. B. Mathews.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — The Magnetic Properties
of Iron and its Alloys in Intense Fields: Sir R, Hadfield, F.R.S., and
Prof, B, Hopkinson, F.R.S,

FRIDAY, December 9, '

Royal Astronomical Society, at 5. — The Determination of Seleno-
graphic Pos'tions and the Measurement of Lunar Photographs. Fifth
Paper : Results of the Measurement of Two Yerkes Negatives : S. A.
Saunders. — Note on an Erroneous Formula employed in the Tables of
the Four Great Satellites of Jupiter : R, A. Sampson. — On the Accuracy
of the Positions of the Star Images in ihe " Harvard Sky " : H. H.
Turner, — On Multiple Solutions in the Determination of Orbits from
Three Observations : C, V, L, Charlier. — Occultations of Stars observed
during the Eclipse of the Moon, Nov. 16, 1910: Cambridge Observatory.
— The Equatorial Current of Jupiter in 1886 : A. Stanley Williams. —
O) Photographic and Visual Observations of Halley's Comet (1909c),
Daniel's Comet (1909^), and Comet igioa, made at the Radcliffe Observa-

tory, Oxford ; (2) Observations of Stars Occulted by the Moon during the
Eclipse of Nov, 16, 1910, at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford : A. A.
Rambant.

Illuminating Engineering Society, at 8. — Recent Progress in Electric
Lighting : Prof. E, W, Marchant.

MONDAY, December 12,

Royal Society of Arts, at 8.— Industrial Pyrometry : C. R. Darling.
TUESDAY, December 13.

Royal Anthropological Institute, at 8.15.— Some Unexplored Routes
between Angora and Eregli : R. Campbell Thompson.

Zoological Society, at 8.30. — Repoit of the International Commission
on Zoological Nomenclature presented to the Graz Meeting of the
International Zoological Congress, 1910: Dr. W. E. Hoyle. — On the
Segmentation of the Occipital Region of the Head in the Batrachia
Urodela : E. S. Goodrich, F.R.S. — On the Structure and Function of the
Gas-glands and Retia Mirabilia associated with the Gas-bladder of some
Teleostean Fishes, with notes on the Teleost Pancreas : Dr. W. N. F.
Woodland — The Mammals of the Tenth Edition of Linnseus : an attempt
to fix the Types of the Genera and the exact Bases and Localities of the
Species: Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at i.— Further discussion : Portland
Cement, and the Question of its Aeration : H. K. G. Bamber.

Faraday Society, at 8. — Separation of Oxygen by Cold : J. Swinburns,
F.R.S. — New Apparatus for the Rapid Electro-analytical Determination
of Metals : Dr. H. J. S. Sand and W, M. Smalley.

lYEDNESDAY, December 14.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8. — A New View of Roman London :
Reginald A. Smith.

Junior Institution of Engineers, at 7.30. — Some Recent Develop-
ments in Condensing Plant : G. L. Kothny.

THURSDAY, December 15.

Linnean Society, at 8. — Reports on the International Botanical Congress
at Brussels, 1910: Dr. Otto Stapf, F.R.S., and others. — Non-calcareous
Sponges from the Red Sea, collected by Mr. Cyril Cro.ssland : R. W. H.
Row. — Comparative Anatomy of Leaves of Veronica : R. S. Adamson.

Royal Society of Arts, at 4.30. — The Taj Mahal and its Relation to
Indian Architecture : R. F. Chisholm.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Submarine Cables for
Long Distance Telephone Circuits : Major W. A, J, O'Meara, C.M.G,
FRIDAY, December 16,

Institution of Mechanical Engineers, at 8. — The Production of
Castings to withstand High Pressures : Prof H. C. H, Carpenter and
C. A. Edwards, — Ihe Con.stitution of Troostite and the Tempering of
Steel : Andrew McCance.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8, — Mathematical Deduction of
the most Econpraical watio of Reinforcement for Reinforced-concrete
Structures : R, N, Mirza. •

CONTENTS, PAGE

Fresh-water Fish-culture in France. By Dr.

William Wallace i6i

A Cyclopaedia of Agricultural Chemistry. By Dr.

E, J, Russell .'A 164

Radio-chemistry, By Dr. B, B. Boltwocd , , . . 165

Egyptological Researches 165

Unprogressive Petrology, ByJ. W. E 166

Elementary Mathematics 167

Our Book Shelf 168

Letters to the Editor:—

Simulium Flies and Pellagra. — Dr. C. Gordon

Hewitt .' 169

The S^ngof the Siamang Gibbon,— R. I, Pocock . 170
On the Simultaneity of " Abruptly-beginning " Mag-
netic Storms, — O, Krogness 170

The Negro in the New World, {Illustrated.) By

Prof. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S 172

Geological Chronology, By A. H 173

Prof. Angelo Mosso 174

Jules Tannery, By G. B. M 175

Notes 176

Our Astronomical Column : —

Ephemeris for Faye's Comet, igiOi? 180

Recent Helwan Photographs of Halley's Comet , , , 180
The Total Eclipse of the Moon on November 16 . . 180
The Probable Errors of Radial-velocity Determina-
tions 180

The Phdtographic Magnitudes of Stars l8i

Proper Motion of the Star B.D,-f 33° 99 181

The New Meteorological Office, By Dr, W. N,

Shaw, F,R.S i8i

The Claims of Scientific Research 183

Cotton Growing within the British Empire . , . 184

Pests of Fruit Trees 184

The Discovery of Neptune. Leverrier's Letter to

Galle 184

The New Zealand Survey 185

The Japan Magazine. By H. D 185

Radiation from Heated Gases, [With Diagram.) . 186

University and Educational Intelligence 190

Societies and Academies 192

Diary of Societies ^94

NO. 2145, VOL. 85]

NA TURE

'95

in

i

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1910.

THE CAVENDISH LABORATORY.

A History of the Cavendish Laboratory, 1871-1910.
Pp. xi + 342. (London : Longmans, Green and Co.,
1910.) Price 75. 6d. net.

THE occasion of this book is the fact that on
December 22, 1909, Sir J. J. Thomson completed
the twenty-fifth year of his tenure of the Cavendish
professorship of experimental physics in the Univer-
sity of Cambridge. As the editors state in their pre-
face, the suggestion was made by some of the prcv-
fessor's immediate colleagues that the event should be
celebrated in some way which would commemorate a
tenure so long and so full of achievement. Hence
this history of the laboratory over which Thomson has
presided for the greater part of its existence.

The general plan has been to divide the time covered
by the history into periods, each of which has been
treated by an author intimately acquainted with its
events. The result is a marvellously interesting set
of records. If the history had been written by one
hand only, it would no doubt have been more con-
tinuous and concise, but it would have lost materially
in charm and in value. As it is, the reader can well
agine himself in the company of a number of friends
ho have played important parts in a campaign, and
ho now relate in turn what they did and saw. And,
if course, the campaign has been full of important
events. Ever\' student of physical science has been
aware in a general sense of what he owes to the
forward movements made in the Cavendish Laboratory.
Yet in all probability even those who are best
acquainted with the history of modern physics will
find evidence in this volume of a greater debt than
they had imagined. The list of papers published from
the laboratory, a list to be found at the end of the
book, is simply astonishing ; it shows important addi-
tions made to every branch of physics. The names of
the authors and workers in the laboratory include those
of nearly all the best-known English physicists of
to-day, and of many from abroad. In their contribu-
tions to the book itself the various writers give us
something which is welcome and valuable. They
bring about us the atmosphere of the place. We see
the continual and unwear}'ing struggle with the diffi-
culties on that road which Maxwell and Thomson and
their fellow-workers felt sure was the road to success.
We realise their hopes and disappointments and suc-
cesses as they try one line of attack after another ; we
share in the triumph of the final unearthing of the
electron and in the rapid progress which followed on
that unique discovery.

The stor}- of the building of the laborator}- is told
by Fitzpatrick and Whetham, who also write of the
commencement of instruction in practical physics at a
time when there was hardly a precedent in such work
to serve as guide. Schuster describes the period of
CJerk Maxwell, whose commanding genius set a
standard for his professorship and his laboratory. Two
passages of Maxwell's writing are quoted repeatedly in
book; they have clearlv been acknowledged as

the

directions to his successors. The one is drawn from

NO. 2146, VOL. 8sl

his inaugural address, and defines the aims and
methods of experimental inquiry. The other is a flash
of insight, the product of his brilliant work on electro-
magnetic theory. He saw that the phenomena of the
electric discharge when better understood would
" throw great light on the nature of electricity as well
as on the nature of gases and of the medium pervad-
ing space." It is remarkable how fully this has been
realised and how each one of the three questions which
he mentions has since been illuminated by investiga-
tions in the direction which he points out. Best of
all, a great part of this work has been done in the
Cavendish Laboratory under the guidance of the man
in whose honour this book has been written. Glaze-
brook writes of the fine work which was done under
Lord Rayleigh, work characterised by Rayleigh's
recognition that the accurate determination of electric
standard had become a pressing matter. In 1884 Thom-
son succeeded Rayleigh. Thomson gives, in a chapter
which is all too short, a survey of the twenty-five years
that followed. It is naturally one of the most in-
teresting chapters in the book. We read his own
account of his work and of the gradual evolution of
his principal discoveries, of his fellow- workers, of the
system of teaching at the Cavendish, and of the classes
that grew so rapidly under his rule.

No doubt Sir Joseph Thomson could hardly be
trusted to write the full histc«y of the doings in the
laboratory during his own occupation of the Caven-
dish chair. That has been done by four men —
Newall, Rutherford, C. T. R. Wilson, and Campbell,
each closely concerned in the inquiries of the period
which he has discussed. Newall describes the years
between 1885 and 1894, when the interest centres
round the general attack on the problem of the electric
discharge. Rutherford writes of the three years of
intense activity, 1895-8, when the position was
stormed, the electron was captured, and Rontgen's
X-rays supplied such a ready means of investigating
phenomena in which the electron was concerned.
C. T. R. Wilson describes the events of 1899-1902, in-
cluding the elaboration and use of the condensation
method which he himself did so much to perfect.
Campbell shows the attempts to apply the new know-
ledge to " the fundamental problem of modem physics,
the relation between electricity and matter." He gives
also an interesting sketch of the curious and difficult
situation into which the knowledge has led us.
Finally, Wilberforce writes of the development of the
teaching of physics with a keen sense, both of the
difficulties of the art and of their compensating
humour.

Taking the book as a whole it is, in the first place,
a very charming testimony to the regard which the
I workers in the Cavendish entertain for Sir Joseph
i Thomson. He must be a happy man to note the
generous and affectionate appreciation so widely
evident in the book. In the second place, it will be
of perpetual interest to students of phj'sics as a record
of the inner life of the Cavendish during a strenuous
and prolific period. It is still more. It is practically
the history of the development of laboratory teaching
and organised research in England, so far as physical
science is concerned. In many ways it is reassuring.

M

196

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

If we consider the work done, the number of first-
class investigations, and the importance of the deduc-
tions made from them, we have no reason to be
ashamed of our country's contribution to the general
advance. We can be proud that so many students
have proved their worth in the Cavendish and left it
to fill important positions elsewhere, proud, too, that
students from abroad have so freely acknowledged
their debt to its spirit of enthusiasm and generous
comradeship in research. It is true that the book
leads us to consider the general question of physical
research in England, and that we then find conditions
which are not completely satisfactory. We have still
to fight for the recognition of the value of such re-
search, and we must in some way improve on the
disjointed nature of the career of the research student.
Too often his only reward is a teacher's position in
which he finds difficulty in exercising the powers he
has educated. But we cannot enter on the considera-
tion of such questions now ; we are only concerned
with a book which fulfils admirably the purpose for
which it was written.

A NEW BOOK ON REPTILES.
Reptiles of the World. Tortoises and Turtles, Croco-
dilians, Lizards, and Snakes of the Eastern and
Western Hemispheres. By R. L. Ditmars. Pp.
xix + 373 + 87 plates. (London: Sir Isaac Pitman
and Sons, Ltd., 1910.) Price 20s. net.

PRIMARILY intended as a general survey of the
reptiles of the world treated in a popular
manner, the handsome volume which has just ap-
peared simultaneously in this country and in America,
will prove of special value to all who keep these
animals in captivity. The name of Mr. Ditmars is
a guarantee of accuracy and originality in the treat-
ment of a subject in which he excels over all others.
The success with which he has managed for some years
the largest collection of living reptiles in existence,
viz., that in the New York Zoological Park, is well
known. From early boyhood his enthusiasm for rep-
tiles, especially snakes, has led him to study the
habits of these reptiles, so repulsive to many, even
among educated people, and his house has always
been the headquarters of an extensive collection of
snakes, large and small, innocuous and venomous.

The information he gives us is therefore thoroughly
trustworthy, unlike what we find in so many so-
called popular works, and we strongly recommend
this book to amateurs who keep reptiles in captivity,
as well as to those whose duty it is to look after them
in public menageries.

The American species, of course, receive the lion's
share in a treatise emanating from America, and in
a publisher's note to this English edition the reader
is asked to bear in mind that the species referred to
by the author as musk turtles, mud turtles, pond
turtles, box turtles, &c., are known in this country as
tortoises, the term turtle being restricted to the marine,
and sometimes a few of the larger river species. The
reviewer would express the regret that the term Terra-
pin, used for some of the fresh- or brackish- water
tortoises in America, has not been made to include
NO. 2146, V^OL. 85]

these intermediate forms, which are neither true tor-
toises nor turtles. Further, the name sand lizard,
applied to Acanthodactyliis boskianus (p. 38) is
misleading, as by sand lizard every English reader
would understand our Lacerta agilis, which has always
been known under that name. As is to be expected
from an author who is not exactly a systematist —
some may say all the better for the treatment of the
subject in a popular style, the information as to the
relationships and distribution of the animals dealt
with, and the number of species in each genus, is not
always quite up to date. Thus we notice that among
the Chelonians the Carettochelydidae are still included
among the Pleurodirans, to which they were tenta-
tively assigned before the skeleton was known,
although it is now established that they belong to the
Cryptodirans, in the neighbourhood of the Triony-
chidae. The common snapping turtle is said to extend
southward to Ecuador, whence it was first reported
by the late Prof. Peters ; but the reviewer was able to
show, many years ago, that the snapping turtle of
Ecuador is a distinct species, identical with the Central
American Chelydra rossignoni. No allusion is made
to the allied genus discovered a short time ago in
New Guinea.

On the whole the author has adhered to the classifi-
cation and nomenclature used in the British Museum
catalogues (1885-96), but he has departed from the
latter in the case of many North American types,
which causes some confusion and a lack of harmony
in the systematic treatment of the subject.

These are, however, very trivial defects. The great
value of the work lie's, as we have said, in the matter
relating to the habits of the reptiles, both wild and
in captivity, a subject on which the author is facile
princeps.

The varied contrivances by which reptiles secure
their food, produce and rear their young, harmonise
with their surroundings, &c., are fully dealt with, and
in a thoroughly original manner. The size to which
the largest crocodiles and snakes grow is also dis-
cussed, and only trustworthy records are adduced.
The largest crocodile measures 30 feet, so does the
largest python, the anaconda rather more than 25, the
Boa constrictor only 11; but it must be borne in mind
that the name Boa constrictor is often applied to
pythons in menageries and by colonists in Africa.

On the subject of snakes swallowing their young,
it is important to have the opinion of an observer of
such wide experience as Mr. Ditmars. "The storyj
of the female snake swallowing her young in time o^
danger," he says, "is purely fallacious. It has origin-
ated from observations of cannibal species making
meal of young reptiles " (p. 203). Apropos of cannibalj
species, we wish to direct attention to the important
experiments made on the king snake {Coronella or
Ophibolus getulus) of North America, a harmless
species, w^hich is apparently immune to the venom o^
such deadly pit-vipers as the rattlesnake, the copper-i
head, the mocassin, and the South American Lachesis,!
whilst it usually dies within an hour if injected with*
the poison of the old-world cobras.

Mr. Ditmars's observations and experiments on
chameleons and other lizards with changing hues have

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

197

convinced him that the colour-changes which these
reptiles undergo with such rapidity are not, as often
believed, in harmony with their surroundings, but are
regulated chiefly by light, temperature, excitement,
fright, or health. \Ve here reproduce a partial list of
these experiments on the common chameleon : —

Specimen A. Placed in the sunlight so that but one
side of the lizard was exposed to the rays.

Specimen B. Placed in the sunlight at an angle to
entirely suffuse the reptile with the rays.

Specimen C. Placed in a dark box ; temperature,
73° F._

Specimen D. Placed in a dark box ; temperature,
50° F.

After fifteen minutes, the following results were
noted :—

Specimen A. Was a dark brown on the side that had
been exposed to the sun ; the shadowed side was a pale
brown, mottled with green.

Specimen B. A uniform brown, deeper than the
dark side of specimen A.

Specimen C. When the cover of the box was drawn
the lizard emerged in a brilliant coat of green.

Specimen D. Crawled sluggishjv from the cold
vjuarters. Its colour was a uniform slaty-grey.

One curious effect of sunlight and shadow was
noticed. A specimen had been basking under a
coarse wire grating. Becoming frightened at the
approach of the observer, it changed its position. On
the dark brown body was what had been the shadow
of the grating, brilliantly imprinted in pale yellow.
Within half a minute this pattern had entirely faded.

The book is copiously illustrated with reproductions
of photographs taken by the author from living
specimens, and most of them are of high excellence.
In some cases, however, the reduction is too great,
such figures as those of the European lizards and
the glass-snakes and slow-worm (plates xxxia and
xxxvii.) being, from this cause, practically useless.
The snake figured on plate Ixxvii as Cerastes vipera,
and stated to measure about two and a half feet, is a
hornless Cerastes cornutus. The author appears to be
unaware of the existence of such hornless specimens,
otherwise he would not have written (p. 328) that it is
"impossible to mistake the horned viper," and that
C. vipera is, but for the absence of horns, much like
C cornutus. A three-colour process figure of the
rhinoceros viper, "the most beautifully coloured of all
poisonous snakes," is given as a frontispiece.

G. A. B.

THE CALCULUS OF VARLiTIONS.
Lccons sur le Calcul des Variations. By Prof. J.
Hadamard. Tome premier. Pp. viii + 520. (Paris:
A. Hermann et Fils, 19 10.) Price 18 francs.
^VrO one could be more competent than M. Hada-
^ ^ mard to deal with the calculus of variations, and
when this work is completed it will be a most valuable
exposition of the present state of the subject. It is
significant that in the first hnes of his preface the
author expresses the view that the calculus of varia-
tions is only a first chapter of the functional calculus
icalcul fonctionnel) of Volterra, Pincherle, &c., and
he gives, in fact, a short chapter on this new theory
(pp. 281-312). But the analysis, in this volume, is
mostly of a more familiar kind.
NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

In fact, the first step in any actual case that natur-
ally presents itself is still the classical one of
Lagrange, by which we obtain a differential equation,
or a set of differential equations. For simplicity, sup-
pose the varied integral to be 1 f(x, y, y')dx, then the

differential equation is of the second order, and its
I solution is said to form a family of extremals. Sup-
posing that the limiting values of x and the corre-
sponding values of y to be given, then in the general
case we may expect to find one extremal satisfying
the terminal conditions. But it by no means follows
that this curve really makes the given integral a
maximum or minimum ; an example due to Scheeffer
is given on p. 45, which brings out the point very
clearly. In this case the extremal found from the
differential equation is y = o, and the corresponding
value of the integral is o; nevertheless, analytical
curves can be drawn, as close as we please to y = o,
which make the integral negative.

In any case, a solution obtained from an extremal
is only a relative one ; that is, the extremal gives a:
maximum or minimum value r>f the integral relatively
to adjacent paths. And here it is important to define-
what we mean by adjacent, a fact first fully realised ■
by Weierstrass, whose definition of adjacency of the
pth. order is given on p. 49. W^e may have, for in-
stance, two curves each passing through the terminal
points A, B, and as close together as we please, but
one may be of continuous, the other of discontinuous
curvature. Now, if we have a varied integral involv-
ing higher differential coefficients than y', we must
exclude curves of discontinuous curvature, otherwise
the problem becomes meaningless, and similarly in
other cases.

After the limitations of the problem have thus been
touched upon, book ii. deals with the first variation,,
and the conditions of the first order, including variable
limits. Among other interesting points we have
Weierstrass 's transformation to homogeneous co-
ordinates, a discussion of foci (points on the envelope
of a family of extremals), and two very useful inno-
vations due to M. Hadamard. If / f{x, y, y')dx is the
varied integral, the figurative is defined to be the
curve f{x, y,y') — u, in which u,y' are regarded as
current coordinates, and x, y as constants. The
figuratrix is defined as the polar reciprocal of the
figurative with respect to x' + y' = i. By means of
these curves the author is able to put various analy-
tical conditions into a vivid geometrical shape. It
mav be added that book ii. contains the discussion of
various classical problems, such as brachistochrones,
least action, the Hamiltonian equations of dynamics,
&c.

Book iii. introduces the second variation, and goes
more deeply into the methods of Weierstrass, as well
as those of Jacobi, Clebsch, Hilbert, Kneser, and
others. We arrive ultimately at a statement, in
various forms, of sufficient conditions for a minimum
(pp. 389, 397), deduced mainly from the properties of
a pencil of extremals, and a brief discussion of the
necessary conditions, illustrated by examples (chapter
iii.). The remaining- chapters deal with variable
limits, discontinuous solutions, Osgood's theorem in

198

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

connection with the strict minimum, and various other
topics. Finally, there is a note on implicit functions.
Various interesting special theorems occur, by the
way; as an instance, we have the theorem that if y
vanishes for x — a and x — h, the integral

/lii-'-HS)'-"-^"-'

is never negative.

It will be seen that this treatise is more for the
advanced student than for the beginner ; in fact, as
the author expressly takes the theory of the differ-
ential and integral calculus for granted, the reader
should be prepared with a good knowledge of analysis,
including function-theory. In any case, the subject is
intrinsically difficult, owing to the vagueness of the
data when the problem is put in its general form ;
it is rather a matter of surprise that so much has been
done, without unduly restricting the nature of the
functions involved.

In conclusion, it should be stated that the treatise
is based upon a course of lectures at the College de
France, and that the redaction has been carried out
by M. Frechet, to whom M. Hadamard makes his
acknowledgments G. B. M.

HYDROELECTRIC ENGINEERING.
Hydroelectric Developments and Engineering. A
Practical and Theoretical Treatise on the Develop-
ment, Design, Construction, Equipment, and Opera-
tion of Hydroelectric Transmission Plants. By F.
Koester. Pp. xxv + 454. (New York: D. van Nos-
trand Company; London: A. Constable and Co.,
Ltd., 1909.) Price 215. net.

HYDROELECTRIC power plants do not call for
the same attention in this country as in America
and on the European continent. Yet what English
engineer who has visited such installations has not a
store of vivid recollections and happy experiences?
The mountains and the forests, the streams and the
waterfalls — for the generating stations of hydro-
electric plants are usually away out among the beau-
ties of nature— all bring back memories of pleasant
tours and the like, whilst so far from destroying the
attractiveness of their surroundings by harnessing
nature's forces in this way, the author of the present
work maintains that the scenery has at times been
made more interesting, when proper attention has
been paid to the architecture and situation of the
buildings. This opinion is well upheld by many of
the splendid photographs reproduced so well in this
large volume.

The title of the book, however, is certainlv ambi-
tious, and, criticised from this point of view, we fear
that the treatment on the whole is too general and
descriptive, even to the point at times of being
meagre, to be of great service to those directly con-
nected with hydro-power plant installations. This
will be further understood from the table of contents,
which comprises chapters on dams, headrace, pen-
stocks, power plant, mechanical equipment, electrical
equipment, electrical transmission, substations, line
protection, and a long list of developments, any one
NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

of which could occupy such a volume by itself. Hence
it is almost inevitable that only a bird's-eye view
could be given when all these subjects were brought
within the compass of one book. It may be recalled
that this popular mode of treatment appears to meet
with more favour in America than in countries this
side of the Atlantic. With this one reservation, how-
ever, we have nothing but praise for the general
excellence of the book, the care devoted to its arrange-
ment, and the high quality of its illustrations.

To show that the writer is well up-to-date, it is
only necessary to refer to a few of the new features
in hydroelectric developments which are dealt with in
their respective chapters : — Airshafts and equalising
chambers in connection with pressure tunnels ; seam-
less welded, flangeless, telescoping penstocks to facili-
tate shipment and to eliminate expansion joints ;
siphon system, in contradistinction to the inverted
siphon ; impulse wheels with draft tubes and multiple,
non-water-wasting nozzles ; compound turbine on a
single shaft, the discharge of one being the supply of
the other ; rapid and complete turbine tests by certain
methods and autographic recording device ; 30,000-volt
generators and their efficient protective devices against
lightning. Unique combination of single and three-
phase high-tension transmission systems from three-
phase generators; wagon-panel switchboard systems;
segregation and decentralisation of switchboards ; con-
tinuous water-flow grounders and horngaps with
micrometric setting. Two-legged transmission towers
and line-crossing protection.

At the end of each chapter is appended a biblio-
graphy of works and papers to which the student may
turn for further information ; this compilation is by
no means the least valuable feature of the book.

Occasionally the author's treatment includes matter
where his judgment seems to have been less sound.
Thus in discussing electric generators, he states there
are three types — the inductor, the revolving armature,
and the revolving field. But surely there is no reason
for treating all these at equal length ? — indeed, little
harm would have been done if the discussion of the
first two types had been omitted completely in describ-
ing modern high-tension machines, unless, of course,
the author intended to enter into the province of the
designer in order to bring out certain advantages in
the older types which have recently become prominent.
Nor is sufficient attention paid to the development of
high-speed water-turbine sets of large output. It
would have been well to have supplied a table giving
outputs and speeds of modern turbine sets for the
various classes of turbines.

Here and there an error has been allowed to remain
in the text, whilst at times important questions, such
as the effect of capacity in transmission lines, have
been omitted.

Following a ver}' useful and well-written chapter on
line protection (lightning arresters), the last section
of the book is devoted to a detailed description of
eight modern American and European hydroelectric
developments, which serve well to show the immense
advance made in water-power installations during
recent years.

Stanley P. S.\iith.

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

199

THE ORIGIN OF COAL.
Die Entstehung der Steinkohle tind der KaustobioUthe
uberhaiipt. By Prof. H. Potonie. Fiinfte Auflage.
Pp. xi + 225. (Berlin : Gebriider Borntraeger, 19 lo.)
Price 7.80 marks.

THE study of the probable mode of formation of
coal and kindred substances has for many years
engaged the attention of Prof. Potonie, who, as
palaeobotanist in the University' of Berlin, and also as
a member of the Geological Surs'ey of Prussia, has
had exceptional opportunit}' for such study, both in
the cabinet and in the field. At the York meeting of
the British Association in 1906, he laid before the
Botanical Section his views on the origin of coal,
and the following year issued the fourth edition of
his little work, "Die Entstehung der Steinkohle,
u.s.w." — an octavo of only forty-seven pages, which
was briefly noticed in Nature (vol. Ixxviii., p. 86).
In the new edition, recently published, the work has
been considerably enlarged, and the title so modified
as to indicate that it deals with the origin of causto-
bioliths generally.

Under this term caustobioliths are included all those
rocks or mineral substances which are, directly or
indirectly, of organic origin, and are combustible,
whilst such organic rocks as are incombustible, like
chalk, are distinguished as acaustobioliths. In order
to explain the origin of the fossil deposits, the author
has wisely given much attention to the corresponding
recent formations, or what may be reasonably re-
garded as such. Three great groups of caustobioliths
are recognised. In the first place, there are the rocks
called sapropelites, formed from organic slime, or
sapropel, resulting from the partial decay of aquatic
organisms and their products in stagnant water.
When the sapropel, in a sub-fossil state, becomes gela-
tinous, it is distinguished as saprocoll, whilst the
Tertiarj- forms are described as saprodil, and the
older varieties as sapanthracon. It is a disadvantage
that the work is rather heavih' weighted with an un-
familiar terminology, but it must be conceded that
most of the terms are expressive, and in many cases
undoubtedly convenient.

Cannel coal, boghead mineral and many so-called
bituminous shales are regarded as sapropelites, whilst
petroleum is considered by Prof. Potonie to be a pro-
duct of the natural distillation of deep-seated sapropel
rocks, which have been exposed to heat and pressure
during processes of mountain-building.

Another great group of caustobioliths is formed by
the humus rocks, which result from the accu-
mulation of the remains of land-plants and
bog-plants. This important class contains not only
many brown coals, but our ordinary- coals and anthra-
cites. Whilst sapropel rocks, generally present a dull
surface, or a silky lustre, and when heated yield much
gas, the humus rocks, or at any rate those of Palaeozoic
age, are usually lustrous and yield a smaller propor-
tion of gas. Coal which shows an alternation of
bright and dull layers is regarded as a mixed causto-
biolith, derived partly from humus, partly from
sapropel.

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

To Prof. Potonie common coal is a rock which in
most cases has been formed where It is now found,
mainly by the fossilisation of deposits of peat, often
in far-stretching swamps. Considering the modern
tendency, especially in France, to regard most coal as
a substance of allochthonous formation, it is interest-
ing to find a distinguished specialist upholding the
view of " growth in place," which until recently has
been so much favoured in this country.

Peaty deposits, though not formed of transported
material, may exhibit stratification, and humus
matter may be partially dissolved in water and pre-
j cipitated in layers. The coal-forming peat was prob-
j ably in a pulpy condition. In certain cases, the
, author suggests that the appearance of stratification is
■ explicable as the result of pressure acting in a direc-
tion at right angles to that of the lamination. Prof.
Potonie holds that the flora of the coal measures
indicates a tropical climate, and cites instances of the
1 extensive growth of peat in tropical swamps, as in the
fens of Sumatra, described by Dr. S. H. Koorders.
Distinct from both the sapropelites and the humus
' rocks is a small group of caustobioliths called lipto-
I bioUths, of which amber and pyropissite are examples.
\ The liptobioliths consist chiefly of resinous and waxy
1 substances, which by their resistance to decomposition
I are left after the decay of the other parts of the
I original organism.

Throughout the work the author gives numerous
j references to original authorities, but unfortunately
i in most cases without sufficient detail, the reference
i being usually limited to the name of the author and
j date of pubHcation, such as "vergl. Uthemann, 1892."
The student seeking further information would be
i grateful for a little more definite guidance.

F. W. R.

THE VOICE AND SINGING.

(i) The Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song. By
Prof. F. W. Mott, F.R.S. Pp. xi+112. (London
and New York : Harper and Brothers, 19 10.) Price
2s. 6d. net.

(2) The Abuse of the Singing and Speaking Voice:
Causes, Effects, and Treatment. By Prof. E. J.
Moure and A. Bowyer, Fils. Translated by Mac-
leod Yearsley. Pp. xi+130. (London: Kegan
Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price
2S. 6d. net.

(3) The Voice. An Introduction to Practical Phono-
logy. By Dr. \V. A. .\ikin. Pp. ix+159. (Lon-
don : Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.) Price
75. 6d. net.

THERE are now many manuals dealing with the
voice and with the management of the voice and
singing. These are unequal in value, more especially
as regards the description of the anatomy and
phvsiolog\- of the organs of voice and speech, and not
unfrequently the writer strongly advocates a view
peculiarly his own, and on which he founds his
method of training. It is therefore of importance to
have a description of the organs concerned in voice

200

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

and speech from the hand of an experienced physio-
logist, who is at the same time sympathetic with
music and with the arts of speaking and singing.
This we have in Dr. Mott's admirable little book (i).
Nothing could be better than the description he gives
of the whole niechanism, and in language that
any intelligent person can understand. In particular,
and as one would expect from a distinguished
neurologist, Dr. Mott shows the intimate relations of
the organs of voice and speech to the brain centres of
hearing and of motion, both as regards the delicate
movements of the mechanism of voice and of articula-
tion, and as regards posture and other bodily move-
ments. Teachers of the art of voice production, as in
singing or in the articulation of words and sentences
in public speaking, know little of this side of their
subject, and we feel sure that much of Dr. Mott's
information will be to them a revelation. A study of
his book will in some respects modify their mode of
teaching.

(2) Messrs. Moure and Bowyer's bcok is of a different
character. It deals with voice production in singing,
but more especially with the serious mistakes that mav
be made by methods of teaching, or by the strain put
on voices by singers themselves, that cannot fail to
injure the vocal apparatus. We would recommend
that a student should, in the first instance, carefullv
study Dr. Mott's book, and then take up that of the
French authors. In the latter there is first an in-
teresting historical sketch of the teaching of singing,
from the time of the Romans onwards. The church
was the first educator of singers, to meet the require-
ments of the plain chant. Trills, tremillos, and
shakes by and by embroidered the tones, and it is
curious that for many years falsetto voices were in
great request. The invention of the madrigal in the six-
teenth century enriched vocal music and made greater
demands on performers. Thus much was done before
a physiological basis was laid by Garcia, after the
revelations made to him by his invention of the larvn-
goscope.

The description of the mechanism is not so thorough
in the French book as that given by Dr. Mott, and it
may give some superficial if not erroneous notions.
The portion on the registers is well done, and more
especially the description of the mixed or middle
register. The chapter on "Vocal abuse" gives much
valuable information. Both teachers and singers
often forget that there should be a physiological har-
mony between different parts of the vocal apparatus.
Pulmonary capacity, muscular power, the dimensions
and delicacy of structure of the vocal cords, are all
more or less related. Strong and sudden expiratory
efforts made with the view of increasing the volume of
the voice may injure delicate cords. A light tenor
may make the mistake of trying to do what only a
strong tenor can accomplish, or the tenor may even
imagine he is a baritone. It is true that no laryngo-
scopic examination can enable a master to determine
what his pupil is capable of doing, but a few trials,
cautiously carried out with such solos for various
voices as are given in detail on p. 104, would soon
settle the question. Singers may also injure their
voices by frequent displacement or change in the
NO. 2146, VOL. 8-1

range of their voice. The same baritone in some cir-
cumstances may have to sing on successive days, or
even on the same day, as a deep baritone or a high
baritone of the Verdi type. Modern composers, and
especially Wagner and his followers, have injured
many voices by the demands they have made, as, for
example, in Tristan and Yseult. They have been
called " the executioners of the voice." Some singers
never learn properly how to breathe, and by taking in
too large a volume of air and expelling it with
violence, by " bellowing," in fact, they may even pro-
duce emphysema of the lung. 'ITie chest voice i^
difficult to manage, and it may be much injured, b\
welding two registers, and thus destroying purity of
tones. The scales showing the range of the registers
on pp. 80-81 are very instructive.

There is an admirable chapter on some of the patho-
logical effects of abuse. We find also an appendix
showing the vocal ranges of varieties of voices, such
as strong tenors, opera tenors, opera-comique tenors,
baritones, high baritones, or Verdi baritones, basses,
basso cantando, basso profondo, contralto, high
soprano, mezzo-soprano, and dramatic soprano, and,
to add to the interest of the list, the names of many
of the distinguished artists of their day are given.
The authors also point out, and illustrate by portraits,
the relation that often exists between the physical
appearance of the singer and the range and quality
of the voice. There are some signs of haste in the
translation; p. 15, line 4, should not "cause" be case?
Second sentence on p. 21 not clear. It is difficult to
understand the portion of the sentence at the top of
p. 42. At middle of p. 42 insert "if" before he. As
we 'have already indicated, the French Book is
the complement to that of Dr. Mott, and both
taken together leave little else to be written on the
subject.

(3) This book is an admirable account of the
mechanism of both speech and song. There is a full
description of the physiological mechanism concerned
in the formation of vowel tones and the sounds of
consonants. The action of the vibrators (the vocal
cords) and the. management of the resonator (the cavi-
ties of the pharynx, mouth, nose, &c.), is illustrated
by exercises which a reader can readily follow, and
the rules to be attended to in the management of the
breath are given with physiological explanations. Two,
notable features of the book are a pronunciation char|,
showing methods for the practice of English pro^
nunciation, and figures termed by the author " Sc
diagrams," showing the capacity of the various kin^
of voices, from deep bass to high soprano. Compose
would do well to study the figures on pp. 138, i,-;
and 140, where they would see at once the exorbita
demands on the voices of great operatic singers ma^
by certain composers, notably by Wagner and even
Beethoven. The effect of the prolongation of ve
high tones may be brilliant and striking, but the
production must cause, in many cases, serious t€
and wear to a fine voice. As a truly scientific exp
tion, dealing with a subject that has an imports
practical aspect, Dr. Aiken's book is to be strong
recommended.

John G. McKendrick.

December 15, 19 10]

NATURE

201

OUR BOOK SHELF.

I Die Wisscnschaftlichen Griindlagen der analytischen

\ Cheniie. By W. Ostwald. tiinfte Auflage. Pp.

\ii + 233. (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1910.) Price

> marks.

, 1 HE appearance of a fifth edition of this well-known

book aJfords gratifying evidence of the widespread

1 recognition that the study of analytical processes from

I the theoretical point of view is a necessarv- adjunct

' to the practical work of the laborator)-. At the same

time, the continued demand for a book of this char-

' acter is a striking testimony to the general utilitj' of

the ionic hypothesis in the consideration of the

problems of analytical chemistry. In spite of the

many attacks, persistent and vigorous, which have

been made upon the theory of Arrhenius, it has to be

admitted that its position as a working hypothesis is

stronger to-day than it was at the time of issue of the

-t edition of this volume.

The changes to be foimd in the new edition are
nparatively few. The principal novelt\' consists in
-lightly modified treatment of the theoretical portion
a result of the introduction of the view that the
chiometric laws are, in a certain sense, a conse-
■nce of the methods which are employed for the
paration and identification of compounds. In this
inection the conception of phase is introduced, and
ce a phase may be either a pure substance or a
ution, the problem of differentiating between these
1 classes is obviously one which falls within the
ere of analytical work.

I.ittle need be said of the section dealing with the

.'lications of the ionic theor}- to specific chemical

ictions. In the explanation of the action of the

iicators used in acidimetr\-. it is now admitted that

J the indicator ion has probably a different structure

' from that of the non-ionised indicator molecule. Few

anges have, however, been found necessarv as a

-lit of recent work, and the characters are retained

ich have earned for the book the right to be

mted amongst the classics of the literature of

iinalytical chemistry'. H. M. D.

\The '-Wellcome" Photographic Exposure Record and
Diary, 191 1. Pp. 280. (London: Burroughs,
\\ellcome and Co., n.d.) Price 15,
IS little pocket-book is a veritable vade mecum of
'tography in tabloid form, and while the present
iter never wishes to be without his copy when out
h his camera, he is sure other workers,' when they
ome acquainted with the contents of these pocket-
>ks, will express the same sentiments.
There is no necessity to recapitulate in detail the
rary portions of this book, but suffice it to say
it they are of a ver>- interesting and useful char-
*er, and besides dealing with the technical difficul-
- of exposure, development, &c., and colour photo-
tphy, they include directions concerning negative-
king, tank or stand developing, printing, toning,
nsifying. and so on. In addition to the portion
oted to the recording of negatives exposed, there is
■pie room for memoranda to replace the use of an
iinan- notebook. An important feature is the simple
fi effective exposure calculator attached to the inside
the cover, the correct exposure being read off under
conditions of light and subject bv a turn of the
■le. For this issue, this calculator is rendered even
;^ore simple for those who alwavs emplov plates or
Urns of one speed. By the insertion of a special disc,
ich may be obtained gratis from the publishers, the
'osure can be read off at a glance for anv stop.
's special disc will be particularlv useful to those
o expose yards of film in their Kodaks or other
no cameras.

XO. 2146, VOL. 85I

It should be remembered that three editions of this
" Record and Diary " are published, with correspond-
ing data for the northern hemisphere and tropics, the
southern hemisphere and tropics, and the United
States of America. Handy in form, and bound in a
neat green cover, it will find favour with most photo-
graphers.

Reason and Belief. By Sir Oliver Lodge. Pp. xiv +

212. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1910.)

Price 35. 6d. net.
This is a contribution to the literature of reconcilia-
tion. The science and religion of the nineteenth
centur}- were hopeless!}' at variance, chiefly in conse-
quence of the latter's claim to pronounce in matters
of cosmology {e.g. Mr. Gladstone's '" Impregnable
Rock of Holy Scripture "). But the conditions are
now different. Religion is being regarded as " an atti-
tude of the soul to all that it knows of cosmic law "
— in Myers's phrase — rather than as a matter of
dogma ; and science, also, is learning humility-. Crude
materialism is seen to be no complete solution of the
riddle of the universe, for we do not know what
" matter " is. Moreover, psychology is bringing to
light certain phenomena which orthodox scientific
theories do not seem to cover. The time, therefore,
is ripe for a rapprochement ; and among leaders of
thought on the scientific side of the reconciliation
movement, Sir Oliver Lodge is by far the most
eminent and the most influential.

Man is a being who is temporarily clothed in
matter, for purposes of education. He has lived be-
fore birth, and will live after "'death," in modes only
dimly conjecturable at present. If so, what difficulty
is there in supposing that an exceptionally great and
loving spirit, seeing the race's need, may voluntarily
take a bodv of flesh, in order to teach his similarly
incarnated brother spirits? This shows the way to a
reconciliation of reason and belief on a cardinal doc-
trine of Christianity.

The volume is enriched with apt quotations from
many sources — Wordsworth. Browning, Tennyson,
Swinburne, M\ers, Francis Thompson, &c. Its stvle
is popular and clear, but the thought throughout is
deep and suggestive. The latter part has an illu-
minating chapter on the scope of science, and also
deals with the teaching of the Old Testament in the
light of evolution, and with anticipated criticism.

J. A H.

Altitude Tables, computed for Intervals of Four
Minutes between the Parallels of Latitude 0° and
30° and Parallels of Declination 0° and 24°, de-
signed for the Determination of the Position-line at
all Hour Angles without Logarithmic Computation.
By F. Ball. Second edition. Pp. ix + 245. (Lon-
don : J. D. Potter, 1910.) Price 15s. net.
The appearance of a second and improved edition
of these tables is welcome on several grounds,
but mainly as an indication of increasing accuracy in
nautical calculations. We hope, too, that the demand
for such tables may be regarded as a proof of the
growing popularity of the method of determining the
position of a ship at sea proposed by Captain Marcq
St. Hilaire, of the French Xa\y. This method, though
theoretically superior to that of finding the Sumner
lines by the ordinan,'^ process, has not been generally
adopted, on account of the slight increase in the com-
putations required. Seeing that in the St. Hilaire
method, the observations may be made at any time
with equally good and consistent results, whereas in
the ordinary- method, observations taken near the meri-
dian mav have to be repeated nearer the prime ver-
tical, the objections that have been alleged against
the newer method on account of the length of the

202

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

observations ought not to be allowed to prevail. The
sailor expects to find tables at hand that shall curtail
the arithmetical processes to a minimum, and these
tables, the main feature of which is to give readily
and accurately, at sight, the altitude of the sun or of
stars within the ecliptic limits, at least in the more
frequented latitudes, will remove one of the objections
that have been urg'ed.

Other tables suggested by experience have been
added in this edition in order to increase its utility
and avoid the necessity of further reference. With
these tables and a naucicai almanac, it is said that
the navigator can complete his task. We would, how-
ever, allow him a book of logarithms, for the tables
given here are too restricted to serve any useful pur-
pose. One might need to check the accuracy of some
of the quantities supplied, though we have no reason
to doubt the general accuracy of the tables, for which
Dr. Crommelin and some of the staff of the Royal
Observatory are responsible.

Metallography Applied to Sidenirgic Products. By
Humbert Savoia. Translated by R. G. Corbet
Pp. 'xii+180. (London: E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd.,
1910.) Price 45. 6d. net.
The Italian original of this little book was
obviously intended to bring the more essential
parts of the metallography ot iron and steel within
the reach of Italian metallurgists, but what motive
there can be to justify the translation into English of
such an elementary compilation it is not easy to
understand, particularly as satisfactory original works
in our own language are now available. In the book
as it stands the feats of the author are largely dis-
guised by the achievements of the translator, who
appears to have invented an entirely new nomenclature
not only for purely nietallographic terms but for well-
known and widely-used technical words. That the
translator disclaims technical knowledge of the sub-
ject-matter of the book and begs for indulgence in
regard to technical terms cannot, unfortunately, alter
the fact that much of the book would be rendered
unintelligible to the non-expert reader for whom it
appears to be intended by such glaring translator's
errors as the use of "tempered" for "hardened,"
mechanical "elaboration" for mechanical "working,"
"resolving" for "dissolving," "composite" for
"compound" in its chemical sense, "soldered" for
"welded," "strain of extension" for "tensile
strength." and many others ; perhaps the most amus-
ing' example of the translator's misinterpretation of
the Italian words occurs in the description of the Le
Chatelier thermo couple as consisting of "platinum
and radiated platinum."

Apart from these serious defects, the subject-matter
of the book is not free from errors ; thus the text of
p. 69 definitelv suggests that " pearlite " is formed
from molten steel, and indeed throughout the text the
difference between the eutectoid pearlite and a true
eutectic is not indicated. The most satisfactory por-
tions of the book are those dealing with malleable
cast-iron, where the author is evidently on his own
ground, but, taken as a whole, the book cannot be
recommended to students of metallographv.

W. R.

Researches upon the Atomic Weights of Cadmium,
Manganese, Bromine. Lead, Arsenic, Iodine, Silver,
Chromium, and Phosphorus. Bv G. P. Baxter, and
others. Pp. vii+185. (Washington: Carnegie In-
stitution, igio.)
This memoir, which is published through the munific-
ence of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is
one of the many series of similar researches which we
owe to the Harvard School of Chemistry. It com-

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

prises eleven separate investigations on the atomic
weights of the elements enumerated in the title, the
results of which have been published in American and
German periodicals at intervals during the past six
years.

In the form in which they are now presented a few
minor alterations have been made, necessitated by a
more precise knowledge of certain of the fundamental
values upon which the determinations are based. Cer-
tain of the original papers have had their subject-matter
rearranged. The eventual results have, however,
already been incorporated in the last annual report of
the International Committee on Atomic Weights, and
are therefore readily accessible to all workers.

Practical Measurements. By A. W. Siddons and .\.
Vassall. Pp. xiv + 6o. (Cambridge : University
Press, 1910.) Price is. 6d.

This book is a development of the course of physical
measurements founded by Mr. Ashford at Harrow in
1896. Recently the earlier portions have been worked
under the mathematical staff. The course follows,
closely the syllabus of the joint committee of
the Mathematical and Science Masters' Asso-
ciations. It is important that teachers should
read the authors' observations on p. vii., as there is a
danger that the work may lead boys to suppose that
" science " and " measurement "are synonymous. The
course is open to the serious objection that it provides
a long series of measurements which are purposelc.-;s.
from the boy's point of view. Thanks to the experi-
ence and shrewd observation of the authors, the book
may serve as a trustworthy aid to mathematical
teachers who are undertaking, for the first time, the
control of classes engaged in laboratory work. Such
teachers will find their routine work improved as welf
as lightened by its use. To sum up, the book provides
a well-planned drill of a not too interesting kind, and
makes it possible to insist on the work being properly
done by the boy who desires to have a too easy
time.

The Year-Book of the Scientific and Learned Societies
of Great Britain and Ireland: A Record of the Work
Done in Science, Literature, and Art During the
Session 1909-igio by Numerous Societies and
Government Institutions. Compiled from Official
Sources. Pp. iii + 370. (London : Charles Griffin
and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 75. 6d.
This is the twenty-seventh annual issue of a widely
known and very useful work of reference to which
attention has often been directed in these columns.
We have noticed sev^eral additions to the list of
societies and associations, the work of which is de-
scribed. It seems strange, however, to find in a
volume issued at the end of 19 10 particulars of the
\Mnnipeg meeting of the British Association in 1909
and no references to the meetings of the association at
Sheffield this year.

Cambridge. Described by N. Barwell. Pp. 64. Nor^

u<ich and the Broads. Described bv W. Jerrold.

Pp. .s6. The Heart of Wessex. Described by S.

Heath. Pp. 64. All pictured bv E. W. Haslehust.

(London : Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s.

net each.
These latest additions to the series known as " Beau-
tiful England " are likelv to be popular guide-books
to the districts with which they are severally con-
cerned. Mr. Haslehust has been successful in giving
in his pictures delightful impressions of the different
counties, and visitors will be glad to have the volumes
to remind them of the beauties of the holiday resorts
thev have frequented. The descriptions are gossipy
and entertaining.

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

203

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 o/ Nature.
.\o notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

Morphological Method and the Ancestry of Vettebrates.

There has just reached me the Proceedings of the
Linnean Society for October, containing the report of an
interesting discussion upon the " Origin of Vertebrates " |
which took place at meetings of the society in January
and February of this year. Apart altogether from state-
ments as to matters of fact which seem to be open to
challenge, this discussion appears to me to raise points j
in regard to the methods employed by the morphologisl |
which are of practical importance to those interested in j
the science of morphology. j

The remarks made by Dr. Gaskell and his supporters |
make it apparent that there exist wide differences between i
what they accept as the correct principles of morpho- |
logical research and those which are accepted by other
working morphologists. Personally, I have been de-
voting myself for some time past to researches dealing
with the evolution of vertebrate structure, and my
impression is that there can be no wider gulf than that
• esasting between the working principles apparently adopted
by Dr. Gaskell and those adopted by myself and many i
other morphologists. If the principles of morphological i
speculation employed by Dr. Gaskell are sound, it seems
to follow that those heid by the majority of morphologists
are absurd, and that the work based upon them represents
in great part wasted labour. I will endeavour to throw
Into relief some of these radical differences of opinion
as to general principles which appear to separate many
of us from Dr. Gaskell and his friends. I feel all the
more impelled to do so when I read the words of a dis-
tinguished physiologist who took part in the discussion : —
" I am convinced that the principles on which he [Dr.
Gaskell] has proceeded are the only ones which will lead
to a solution of the problem." I fully realise that there
are physiologists who would feel it rash to express them-
selves so decidedly as to what are, or what are not, the
correct principles upon which to work in a science other
than their own. Nevertheless, it seems quite clear that
Dr. Gaskell's views — though they may not appeal to
many who are specialists in vertebrate morphology — do
produce a strong impression on many w^orkers in other
departments of biological science.

What are the principles which must be followed in
speculations regarding phylogeny if these speculations are
to be trustworthy? It is clear, in the first place, that
whenever possible such speculations should rest upon a
tripod basis of comparative anatomy, embryology, and
palaeontology. It is clear, further, that in fashioning
each foot of the tripod certain definite rules must be
j adhered to if the foot is to be sound and sufficient to
I support the weight which is to rest upon it. For example.
In making use of the data of palaeontology, we have to
bear in mind, firstly, that the geological record, and still
I more our knowledge of that record, is and must always
I be of the most fragmentary character, and, secondly, that
"1 all phylogenetic speculation it is unsafe to trust to
ita dealing only with one single set of organs, whether
rse be the skeletal organs — alone, as a rule, available
the palaeontologist — or any other system of organs. In
ii case of comparative anatomy and embryology we must
j bear in mind that a feature has a prima facie greater
importance or not according as to whether or not it occurs
j in a more or less " primitive " group. Then, again, in
both comparative anatomy and embryology it is necessary
I to devote great care and attention to the sifting out of
features which are mere adaptations to modern environ-
mental conditions from those which are ancestral. Finally,
has to be borne in mind that in comparative anatomy
are beset by the same kind of difficulty as that of the
jjiotozoologist when he tries to piece together isolated
] observations on dead material into a connected life-
history, while in embryology, on the other hand, the facts,
;ch as they are, appear to be presented to us all ready

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

arranged in their phylogenetic sequence. These general
principles apply to all phylogenetic speculations, and
morphologists are probably all in agreement regarding
them.

Now as regards the phylogeny of the Vertebrata.
When a student under Sedgwick at Cambridge I began to
realise that perhaps the most clamant need in vertebrate
morphology was for a broadening of its observational
basis, particularly in regard to the embryology of the
more primitive forms of vertebrates. There seemed
general agreement that the elasmobranchs, crossoptery-
gians, lung-fishes, and urodele amphibians were all
" primitive " groups as compared, e.g., with teleostean
fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals. It seemed clearly
indicated that if we were to have the general ideas of
vertebrate embryology upon a trustworthy basis it was
essential that the development of the crossopterygian
ganoids and lung-fishes should be worked out to a similar
degree of detail to what had been accompxlished in the
case of the other groups. My own research work during
the last fourteen years has been directed according to
this ideal, and has been devoted to the study of the
morpholt^y of the four relatively primitive groups men-
tioned above, together with, of course, the cyclostomes.
As I fail to see how there can be any other scientific
method of approaching the problem of vertebrate phylogeny
than that which starts from a comprehensive study of
such surviving forms as are admitted to be the more
pi imitive, I may be excused for venturing to offer these
remarks regarding the discussion at the Linnean Society.

One of the points rais'Kl in the discussion is the very
important one, upon which I have elsewhere expressed
opinions — the relations of physiology and morphology.
No one has, I dare say, a greater horror than I have of
that type of zoologist sometimes referred to as the
" mere " morphologist — the zoologist who fails to keep
before him at every moment of his work that he is deal-
ing with living functional organisms, who fails to realise
that at every stage of its evolution an organ must, in the
first place, be able to function. I have at various times
criticised evolutionary speculations, e.g. on the evolution
of renal organs, or of the vertebrate limbs, or on the
inadequacy of natural selection, because they seemed to
ignore important physiological or functional considerations.
While taking the greatest care to keep physiological con-
siderations before us, we must, however, not forget that
the facts upon which the evolution theory is based are
morphological facts. We know nothing as yet of " re-
capitulation " in physiology ; we have in the rocks no
record of physiological change ; even the science of com-
parative physiology is still in its infancy. The whole
record of evolution is and must necessarily be mainly, if
not entirely, a morphological record.

Another principle which is of much importance in
morphological work is this : the greatest care must be
taken to make the observational basis of speculation as
broad as possible. The fewer the organs or the organisms
that are made use of the less trustworthy are the con-
clusions drawn. E.g. a detailed study of the radiate eye
of an insect and of a stalk-eyed crustacean brings to light
the most striking resemblances, so much so that if we
only knew one genus of each group and only the eye
structure in that genus we should be inclined to suppose
the two genera to be closely allied. I need not say that
a study of the general morphology of the Antennata on
the one hand and the Crustacea on the other indicates
that they have been evolved separately from a simple
ancestral form which existed probably long before the
radiate eye had become evolved. The same kind of prin-
ciple holds in regard to organisms. The detailed study
of the structure of two animals may bring to light the
most astounding resemblances in details of structure, and
it may, nevertheless, be the height of rashness to attribute
the resemblance to genetic affinity unless there exists
collateral evidence which supports the view. Yet Dr.
Gaskell says, " my object throughout has been by the
study of Ammocoetes to find out a clue to the past history
of these extraordinary early forms of fish." Is the
ordinary zoologist" like myself completely in error when
he thinks that for " .AmmoccEtes " there should have been
written the words " C3clostomes, crossopterygians, elasmo-
branchs, lung-fishes, and amphibians " in formulating

204

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

Dr. Gaskell's programme of work at this immense problem
of the ancestry of vertebrates?

Personally, were I concentrating in this way on the
study of Ammocoetes, I should be constantly oppressed
by an uneasy feeling of absolute uncertainty as to the
extent to which the c\clostomes are primitive in their
structure and to which specialised for their extra-
ordinary habits, unique amongst vertebrates. Certainly
we should expect a priori that vertebrates that took to
such a mode of life would tend to become extremely
specialised. We do not even know for certain whether
they are derived from jaw-possessing ancestors, though
we cannot help suspecting that a vertebrate taking
to the cyclostome mode of life would tend to lose its
hinged jaw and become, therefore, cyclostomatous.

Another cherished principle of morphological research
receives a rude jar in Dr. Gaskell's sentence, " to me
and to all my friends who are accustomed to deal with
the vertebrate nervous system the explanation I have given
is so self-evident and natural that it is impossible to look
at the matter in any other way." Are myself and other
teachers of morphology talking nonsense when we urge
upon those commencing research work that the frame
of mind which they must endeavour to avoid at all cost, if
their work is to be of value, is that in which they come
to regard their working hypothesis as "so self^vident
and natural that it is impossible to look at the matter
in any other way "?

An important principle is that enunciated bv Dr.
Gaskell when Tie says that " each higher group of animals
has arisen in succession from the highest race developed
up to that time, by highest meaning the group possessing
the best developed central nervous system." Apart from
the trivial point that many would differ from Dr. Gaskell
in their estimate of the trustworthiness of the palaeonto-
logical statements by which this principle is illustrated,
the principle itself seems to many a somewhat doubtful
one. I take it by " high development " we mean, roughlv,
" complexity of organisation." Now organisation is
upon the whole adaptive to functional activity. A highlv
organised animal' is, as a rule, one the details of the
structure of which are highly specialised in relation to
environmental conditions. Such adaptive specialisation of
the various organs renders their possessor peculiarly liable
to suffer from changes in environmental conditions. It
seems probable that changes of environmental conditions
form one of the chief factors in compelling evolutionarv
change. It is at such periods that natural selection is
most accentuated : the adaptable survive, the unadaptable
are exterminated. It appears quite credible that when
important geological or other environmental changes come
about it is those forms the organisation of which shows
the most complete linking up to the preceding set of
conditions which are exterminated, in other words, that it
is not the highest existing forms which proceed to evolve
into a state of adaptation to the new set of conditions.

Apart from general principles, there are many important
statements as to fact which seem to me to call for com-
ment. Amongst these, for example, I read that " the
evidence of the rocks points to the Silurian age as the
time when the vertebrate first arose." To me it is simply
incomprehensible how any biologist can really believe that
the scales and teeth, comparable in complexity with those
of existing fishes, occurring in Silurian formations, can be
taken as having any bearing whatever upon the question
of the first appearance of vertebrates. There are indeed,
I think, many who feel compelled to admit that the
period of evolutionary time intervening between the first
appearance of the simplest chordates and the appearance
of these Silurian fishes may well have been as great or
greater than that which has intervened between the
Silurian times and the present day.

Dr. Gaskell refers to zoologists " accepting as a
commonplace the manufacture Of a new organ for breath-
ing air instead of water in the transition from the fish
to the amphibian." He also says that the evidence seems
to him stronger that the vertebrate alimentary canal has
been formed from a pre-existing respiratory chamber
" than that an alimentary canal should have taken on a
respiratory function in its anterior end." I would onlv
remark that anyone who studies the evolution of t'le adult
vertebrate from the embryo ran see for himself, as a

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

matter of fact, that the anterior end of the alimentar\
canal does develop a set of gill clefts, i.e. a mechanism
which in fishes is respiratory. Further, the only morphu-
logist who bas had the opportunity of studying the develo])-
ment of the lung in the lowest lung-bearing vertebral'
asserts that the homology of the lung or swim-bladder
fishes with the lung of the higher vertebrates appears :
him to be beyond question, and he takes the view th.
the lung, instead of developing " in the transition fro)
fish to amphibian," was in all probability already presci
in the ancient common ancestral form from which tel' ■
stomatous fish, lung-fish, and all the higher vertebral,
have been derived.

Dr. Gaskell refers to the old idea that the infundibuhn
of the vertebrate brain represents the oesophagus of tli
invertebrate, and that the suprainfundibular part of t'l
brain represents the supracesophageal ganglia. Such an
idea would only be of value as a scientific hypothesis it
based upon the facts of the earlier stages of brain develop-
ment in the more primitive groups of vertebrates. I hav
personally studied the development of the brain in elasmo-
branchs, crossopterygians (Polypterus), actinopterygian
ganoids (Amia, Lepidosteus), lung-fishes (Ceratodus,
Lepidosiren, Protopterus), and urodele amphibians. The
phenomena seen in these forms do suggest certain con-
clusions as to the general morphology of the vertebrate
brain, as that the hemispheres are primitively paired or
that the primary subdivision of the brain is into two
rather than into three parts {" vesicles "). They do not
suggest, however, any such view as that referred to. On
the contrary, they appear to me to indicate that the part
of the central nervous system which in the annelid or
arthropod has become the supracesophageal ganglia has
in the vertebrates completely disappeared.

Dr. Gaskell refers to those views which " turn the
animal topsy turvy, making the back of the invertebrate
correspond to the ventral surface of the vertebrate." As
a matter of fact, the only two stages of vertebrate ancestry
which may be regarded as established with a fair degree
of probability are : — (i) a protozoan stage recapitulated
in the unicellular zygote, and (2) a coelenterate stage re-
peated in the diploblastic stage of Amphioxus and in the
corresponding stages of lampreys, elasmobranchs, crosso-
pterygians: lung-fishes, and amphibians. We know, of
course, nothing of the details of structure of the diplo-
blastic ancestor, but it has been suggested by Sedgwick
and others that these ancestral forms passed through a
stage resembling in its general features the existing
actinozoan. This idea, which in my opinion is still a
perfectly reasonable working hypothesis, affords an
adequate explanation of developmental phenomena other-
wise extraordinary and ununderstandable, such as the
occasional occurrence of a mid-dorsal slit dividing the
central nervous rudiment and notochord into lateral
halves. It would clearly be unfair to state that such a
view is " doomed to failure " because it makes the back
of an invertebrate correspond to the ventral surface of
a vertebrate. The view does not assume the reversal of
the body. It merely refers back vertebrates and coelomate
invertebrates to a common ancestor in which there was
no ventral or dorsal surface — a form in which there was
a certain amount of concentration of the nervous system
in the region round the primitive -mouth or protostoma —
and suggests that in certain of the descendents of this
ancestral form the normal position of the bod}' is with
the neural surface beneath or ventral (annelids, arthro-
f>ods, molluscs), while in others (vertebrates) it is such
that the neural surface is uppermost or dorsal.

A strong point about this view is that it suggests a
possible origin of the segmented character of the meso-
derm of the vertebrates. It is generally agreed that the
mesoderm is of enteroccelic nature, and it was emphasised
long ago by Sedgwick that just such a segmentation of
enteroccelic pouches is already present within the phylum
Ccelenterata in the Actinozoa.

Prof. Starling in the discussion said : — " To an onlooker
like myself the striking resemblance between the earliest
fishes and the Arthropoda ... is striking evidence in
favour of Gaskell's theory." Morohologists. unfortu-
nately, have as yet no knowledge of the earliest fishes.
They are acouainted only with certain dermal skeletal
structures and a few impressions which give a vague

December 15, 1910J

NATURE

205

notion of the general form of certain Silurian " fish-like "
forms. Assuming, however, that it is the case that to
the onlooker there is a striking resemblance between the
earliest fishes and the Arthropoda, it is necessary to point
out that striking resemblance in superficial characters
provides a type of pitfall which the morphologist has at
an early stage in his education to school himself to avoid.
He comes across cases of amazing resemblance, e.g. in
pairs of " mimetic " butterflies, between a marsupial and
a placental mammal, between the organ of vision of one
of the higher insects and that of one of the higher
Crustacea, between the skeleton of a flagellate and that
of a radiolarian, and he learns to recognise that super-
ficial resemblance may, and frequently does, provide a
cloak for fundamental unlikeness. It is, in fact, one of
the main parts of his business as a morphologist to find
out whether in each particular case the striking resem-
blance so apparent to the onlooker is an expression of
resemblance in fundamental points of structure or whether,
on the other hand, it is merely superficial.

I think I have now said enough to make apparent how
greatly some of us who devote ourselves to the problem
of vertebrate phjiogen\- differ from Dr. Gaskell and those
with him in what we regard as the necessary principles
in accord with which morphological work must be done.
As regards Dr. Gaskell's main thesis, that vertebrates are
descended from arthropods, w-e take the position that what
is known of the morpholep- of vertebrates in general, and
of arthropods in general, does not justify the regarding
of that view as a reasonable working hypothesis. Were
Dr. Gaskell to increase by several fold his mass of de-
tailed anatomical resemblances between an undoubted
arthropod and an undoubted vertebrate, we should feel
ourselves confronted, not by a demonstration of near
genetic affinity, but rather by a fascinating puzzle in the
way of convergent evolution. It would take up too much
space, and perhaps serve little purpose, to indicate the
general considerations, the cumulative effect of which is to
force zoologists into the position I have indicated. I may,
however, just indicate one feature, the character of the
skeleton, which, as it happens, is a highly characteristic
feature alike in the arthropods and in the vertebrates.
In the .-Xrthropoda we find one of the finest evolutionary-
inventions existing in the animal kingdom — a supporting
skeleton formed out of waste products of metabolism, and
so spread over the surface of their body as to form an
armour effectively protecting the delicate living tissues of
the body from the most varied kinds of dangers. That a
group of free-living arthropods should have given up this
magnificent protective device is not, of course, incredible,
but before being accepted as probable it would have to
be supported by an overwhelming mass of evidence.

What evidence do we, in fact, find as to the nature of

the skeleton of the primitive vertebrate? We find in the

vertebrate that the skeleton in the earliest stages of its

development consists of a cellular rod cut off from the

dorsal wall of the gut and running longitudinally along

the median plane of the body. This rod, the notochord,

which still persists as the main axial skeleton in the

adults of some of the lowest vertebrates, occurs during

embryonic development, not merely in a few vertebrate

forms, but in every lower vertebrate the embr\-ology of

which has so far been investigated. There is not a single

exception. Could evidence be more overwhelming that the

ancestral vertebrate was a creature with a skeleton in the

form, not of a hypertrophied cuticle, but of a cellular

notochordal rod formed from the wall of the gut? Dr.

Starling would object that " no palaeontological evidence

seems to be brought forward in favour of this hypothesis."

1 The answer is a perfectlj- simple one. Palaeontology can

from the nature of the case offer us hardly any evidence

I whatever in regard to structures composed of soft, perish-

j abl« organic material. By far the greater part of the

I tissues and organs with which the morphologist deals are

i composed of such soft, perishable materials, and all these

j structures, upon the cumulative evidence of which (taken

I in conjunction with the much smaller amount of evidence

I obtained from the skeleton) he bases his conclusions, are

I almost entirely absent from the geological record. I

I might go farther and point out that a highly developed,

highly rigid skeleton is in itself a product of long-con-

Tued evolutionary change. Each animal possessing such

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

a skeleton is the descendent of a long line of soft proto-
plasmic forms in which the skeleton had not yet become
evolved, and these ancestral forms have, so far as
palaeontology is concerned, vanished for ever from our
ken. It is upon the study of the comparative anatomy
and embryology of existing forms alone that we have to
depend when we endeavour to form a picture of what
these ancestral forms were like.

The foregoing paragraphs are not meant as a criticism
of Dr. Gaskell's hypothesis. They are merely meant to
direct attention to an extraordinary want of agreement
as to methods or principles of morphological research.
It is clear that work in any department of science must
be done according to some definite set of principles if it
is to be of any appreciable value. In morphology, as in
other sciences, there are certain generally accepted prin-
ciples. It seems to me not unreasonable to ask that
workers who take up morphological research should either
accept these general principles and be guided by them, or,
if they find themselves driven to formulate a new and
better set of principles, that they should at least state
these clearly and give their fellow-workers the opportunity-
of judging in what respects they are better and more
trustworthy' than those in ordinary use. Unless this is
done there is apt to be caused an irritating waste of time
and energy. There is, further, the danger that important
work may be rejected without adequate examination, not
because of its inferior quality, but simply because of the
difficulty in the way of discovering common factors
between it and work on the more ordinary and orthodox
lines. J. Graham Kerr.

The University, Glasgow.

Mendelian Expectations.

Mr. Lewis Bonhote has confirmed Mr. R. Staples
Browne's statement that the web-foot in pigeons is a
simple Mendelian recessive, but he finds that when webbed
birds from two different strains are crossed an irregular
result is obtained, viz. four normal and one webbed.
Moreover, mating the first crosses yielded results in almost
every case contrary to Mendelian expectations, normals
throwing webs and webs throwing normals (Nature,
December i, p. i6o). Similar results have been obtained
with West Highland terriers, in which white is apparently
recessive to yellow. The offspring of pure-bred white
terriers belonging to the same strain are white, but the
offspring of pure-bred white terriers from different strains
are sometimes yellow. Further, a hybrid (yellow) which
produced more than 50 per cent, of white pups to a white
dog of her own (Inverness) strain produced only yellow
pups to a white dog of a different (Poltalloch) strain.

The explanation of these " irregular " results seems to
be that the normal toes, presumably latent in webbed
pigeons, and the yellow coat, presumably latent in white
terriers, are restored when two strains having a somewhat
different history' are interbred, i.e. mingling the blood of
two strains induces reversion. Because *' points " are lost
when two strains are crossed, many breeders are extremely
reluctant to introduce new blood even when their stock
is obviously deteriorating from in-and-in breeding.
Recently a very successful breeder assured the writer that
nothing in the world would induce him to use the blood
of another strain to improve his white Highland terriers,
and it is notorious that breeders of sheep and cattle have
once and again allowed their flocks and herds to lapse
owing to their reluctance to infuse fresh blood from other
strains. Further, Von Oettingen has pointed out that, in
the case of the English racehorse, the more remotely
related the parents the less chance there is of the offspring
winning races.

If crossing two strains is liable to lead to reversion, we
can understand why in some hands breeding is such a
lotter}', why, e.g., the offspring of two record racers or
trotters are swnetimes complete failures. The English
thoroughbred breed is made up of several distinct tvpes,
each of which is now and again represented by a Derby
winner. When two fleet but not too closely related
members of the same t^pe are mated, the result may
prove highly satisfactorj, but when the sire belongs to
one tj'pe and the dam to another, and when, in addition.

2o6

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

the parents are so remotely related that they are separated
by seven or more " free generations," the chances are
(unless one of the parents is highly prepotent) that, not-
withstanding the great merits of the immediate ancestors
and the expectations of Mendelians, the offspring will
revert to mediocrity. Hence it is not enough that breeders
should " mate the best with the best, avoiding close
affinities " ; they must avoid crossing distinct strains even
when the members of one strain closely resemble those of
another. This implies that, in addition to knowing the
pedigree of their stock, breeders should know as much
as possible of the wild races from which modern varieties
and strains were originally derived.

J. C. EW'ART.

Arctic Plants from the Vallsy Gravels of the River Lea.

I HAVE recently found a plant-bearing bed in the Low
Level River-Drift of the Lea valley at Ponder's End. It
is exposed in an excavation worked by the Great Eastern
Railway Company, and I am indebted to Mr. Horace
Wilmer, engineer to the company, for permission to carry
on my investigations.

The plant-bearing bed is found at a depth of 14 to 18
feet below the surface. It is embedded in stratified gravel
and sand, which presents much evidence of tumultuous
accumulation. In immediate association with it are found
tusks, teeth, and bones of the Elephas primigenius, Rhino-
ceros antiqtiitatis (if we are no longer permitted to call
it tichorhinus !), and other Mammalia.

The pit is situated on the present floor of the valley of
the Lea at a level of about 35 or 40 feet above the
Ordnance datum.

In correlation with the archaeological stages, the plant-
bearing bed of Ponder's End is later than the Mousterien
epoch. In fact, it is separated from this epoch by such
a wide interval that it is in all probability post-Palaeolithic.
On tlie other hand, it is unquestionably pre-Neolithic,
although the interval in this case appears to be compara-
tively short. There is thus little doubt that it comes
within the period of the archaeological hiatus between the
Palaeolithic and the Neolithic ages.

It is by far the most important plant-bearing bed that
has hitherto been found upon this horizon within the area
occupied by Palaeolithic man in this country. It occupies
a position not represented on the well-known sites of
Hoxne or Hitchin. The only bed, so far as I am aware,
which can be placed on the same horizon is that at the
Admiralty Buildings, Westminster. This, however, only
yielded two species of plants, one of them being the Arctic
form Betula nana.

I am at present engaged upon working out the botanical
material from this bed — a laborious task, occupying a large
amount of time. I am submitting this to Mr. F. J. Lewis,
who has very kindly undertaken its identification. A
considerable amount of material has already been ex-
amined, and, so far, Mr. F. J. Lewis has succeeded in
identifying ten species of plants, with four others doubtful.
Three of this number, namely, Salix herbacea, Betula
nana, and Sihhaldia proctimbens, are distinctively Arctic,
while most, if not all, of the remainder have a high
northern range, although thev are not confined to those
regions. Mr. F. J. Lewis defines the assemblage as Late
Glacial.

The researches of Mr. Clement Reid in beds associated
with the PalfEolithic deposits have shown that there have
been many oscillations of climate in the south of England
since the deposition of the Chalky Boulder Clay. With
the evidence of this new bed before us there can be no
doubt that the Palaeolithic age was closed by a partial
return to glacial conditions, succeeding an epoch, or
epochs, when temperate conditions prevailed. This con-
clusion is in agreement with the results of recent work
upon the mammalian fauna of the Pleistocene age.

This is not the place to enter further into this dis-
cussion. Enough has been said to indicate the importance
of this bed in throwing further light upon the climatic
changes of the Pleistocene age. It certainly suggests that
the archaeological hiatus is to be directlv associated in the
south of England with a final return of glacial conditions
of climate.

If this view be sound, as I believe that it is, it seems to

be perfectly justifiable to define Palaeolithic man as inter-
glacial, even although the last glacial phase above indi-
cated could not, of course, compare in severity with those
which preceded it.

S. Hazzledine Warren.
Sherwood, Loughton, Essex.

A New Theory of the Descent of Man.

It is probable that some readers may fail to appreciate
Prof. Klaatsch's "New Theory of the Descent of Man'*
at its proper worth owing to the technical terms and
obscure descriptions used in the account published in
Nature of November 24 (p. 118). The theory is simply
this. The Neanderthal man and the gorilla' have con-
tinuous supraorbital ridges and similar markings for the
insertion of muscles on their skeletons; the Aurignac man
(who could pass as a fairly high type of modern humanity)
has not a continuous supraorbital ridge, in which he pre-
sents a very superficial resemblance to the orang, and has
certain muscular impressions on his skeleton somewhat
similar to the orang's.

On this basis, which must be admitted to be " flimsy "
in the extreme. Prof. Klaatsch builds his new theory and
supposes that the gorilla and Neanderthal man are co-
descendants of one branch, the orang and the Aurignac
man of another. If one were to apply the principles used
by Prof. Klaatsch to the canine in place of the human
world, then we should say that the rough-haired New-
foundland is a co-descendant of a rough-haired bear, while
the smooth-haired mastiff has arisen with the sleek
leopard. An explanation is thus given of the points in
which the Newfoundland and the bear, the mastiff and
the leopard, have in common ; but what of the hundred
characters which the Newfoundland and the mastiff
possess in common, and which separate them from the
bear and leopard? Prof. Klaatsch ascribes these to "con-
vergence phenomena." At least that is how he accounts
for the fact that the Neanderthal and the Aurignac m- -
have all the features common to humanity ; one arose ;
the gorilla and the other arose via the orang, but bo:
arrived at the same structural goal so alike that most of (
us regard them as the same species.

The theory, owing to the demand it makes on " con-
vergence phenomena," passes somewhat beyond the limits
of rational speculation. Prof. Klaatsch's theory has failed
to gain the support of his able colleagues in Germany, and
is not likely to receive serious consideration in this
country. A. Keith.

Royal College of Surgeons, December 10.

The Cocos-Keeling Atoll.

In reply to Mr. Wood-Jones's letter (Nature,
December i), I would say that I still consider that his
arguments against Sir John Murrav's theory go in support
of it.

Mr. Wood-Jones suggests the reason for the precipita-
tion of calcium carbonate, when it has once begun, going
on until the solution contains • less than the normal
quantity ; what I wished to emphasise was that precipita-
tion does not begin until more calcium carbonate than 1
is normally present first passes into solution, i.e. that •
crystals can be formed in the interstices of the massi\
corals in the lagoons until some of the dead coral is di^-
solved. There is, therefore, proof of solution in tlv
lagoons of atolls.

In an early discussion on the same subject Sir Joli
Murray pointed out that the processes of the solution
the carbonate of lime of dead shells and skeletons by s
water, and of its secretion by the living organisms, a'
going on side by side wherever there are life and growr'
death and decay. In some regions secretion is in excf''
and there is a formation of calcareous deposits ; in oth<^'
solution is equal to secretion, as in the red clay ar-r:
of the ocean ; in others solution may be in excess <
secretion, as in the larger and more perfect coral lagoons.

In small coral atolls the periphery is large relatively :
the size of •'he lagoon, and the secretion of lime and t!
formation of coral sand are greatly in excess of the soli
tion that takes place, hence the lagoon becomes filled u;

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

207

In large atolls, on the other hand, the periphery is small
relatively to the size of the lagoon ; there is less secretion
and formation of coral sand by the living outer surface
than is removed in solution from the lagoon, which is, in
onsequence, widened, deepened, and reduced to a more
'•r les* uniform appearance.

Madge \V. Drummond.
Challenger Office, Villa Medusa, Boswell Road,
Edinburgh, December 6.

Positions of Birds' Ntsts in Hedges.

About a year ago I wrote to Xatcre (December i5,
1Q09) giving certain facts which I had noticed with regard
) the position selected by birds when building. There
^;emed to be good reasons for such selection, but I
wanted to know whether the conditions I had noticed were
local or general. The letter sent to N.ature by Mr. A. R.
Horwood showed that similar conditions were found in
Leicestershire, Shropshire, and Surrey. Of the informa-
ion which reached me directly, one letter deserves men-
ion.
Mr. Francis G. Cousins enlisted some of the boys of the
Johnstone Schools, Durham, as observers. Out of eight
nests, the positions of which are given in the terms of
ny letter, two only faced north, one faced north-west,
our south-east, and one south. I quote the following
ote sent by these observers : — " In the north-east of the
listrict, with fairly open country, the nests faced north-
ist, and at their rear Tt'os a vast extent of woods. In
he south-east of the district the nests face south-east,
■ith woods again at their backs and open country in
':"ont. " The italics are mine. I need not labour the
inclusion that birds seek sun and warmth when building
heir nests. In this connection it is interesting to quote
n observation made by Mr. Roosevelt (" African Game
frails." p. 290). He notes that, in Guaso Nyero, just
orth of the equator, the weaver birds place the mouth
f the nest invariably towards the north, away from the
-:rong. prevailing winds.

J. H. Tlll Walsh.
Heath House, St. Faiths, Norwich, December 11.

Tribo Luminescence of Uranium,

I HAVE not seen in recent literature any reference to
he " tribo " luminescence shown by uranium salts, and
V metallic uranium in particular. Having accidentally
cnocked over a bottle containing 2 grams of the latter
-ubstance, I was surorised to see the bottle glow with
: brilliant yellowish-white light, and on shaking the bottle
he luminositv could be maintained to such an extent that
he label on the bottle was read with ease, and the general
'lumination seen easily throughout a large lecture-room.
The best way to see the glow is to bring the bottle sharply
l>>wn on the nalm of the hand.

On repeating the exi>eriment with compounds of
.ranium, the nitrate and vellow oxide show the same
flFect, but to a very much smaller degree, whilst the
:'lack oxide and sodium uranate do not give it.

I expect the above must be known to workers with
uranium salts, but it mav be useful to some of your
r-^aders to know a method by which tribo luminescence
nay be so easily demonstrated.

W. A. Douglas Rudge.
Grey University College, Bloemfontein, November 18.

MARKED BIRDS IX TWO SENSES^
(i) 'ipHE interesting brochure referred to below gives
*■ an account of the bird observatory belonging
to the German Ornithological Societ\- at Rossitten,
which, already well known, is likely to become in the
future of prime importance in securing data, by local
observations and by the labelling of living' birds,

1 (i) " Di» Voge'wa-te "^oss-tten Her Deiusrhen Omithologischen Oesell-
scha*"! un'l da< Kennreicbnen der VOgel." By Dr. J. Thienemann. Pp. 36.
(Berlin : Paul Parey. lOio.)

(?) " A-grettc!; and Rtrd SVin« : the Truth about their Col)»'Ction and
KTport." Bv Harol-I Ham >1 Smith. With a Fore*-ord bv Sir J. D Ree<:
K.C.I.E, C.V.O., MP. Pp. iv-f-138. (fondon: John Bale, Sods, and
Danielsson, Ltd., 1910.') Price 55-.

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

towards the determination of many obscure questions
in bird migration.

Rossitten is situated on the narrow belt of sand-
dunes, lying between Cranz and Memel, which bank
out the Baltic Sea from the Kurische HafF, the more
northern of the two lagoons chiefly forming the
seaward face of East Prussia. The station — mainly
designed by Dr. Thienemann, the distinguished
ornithologist — was established in Januan,-, 1901, and
fitted up at the expense and under the auspices of the
.>iinisters of Education and Agriculture. Being,
therefore, a State institution, it will possess greater
stability than it could have had under the private enter-
prise of the society alone. Dr. Thienemann is director
of the station, and holds with this post that of Custos
of the zoological collections of the neighbouring uni-
versity- in Konigsberg. Ulmenhorst, the actual de-
signation of the observatory-, derives its name from
the generous lord of the manor, Herr E. Ulmer, who
presented, in 1907, the present buildings in a new and
more favourable site, some seven kilometres from Ros-
sitten, than the original installation. Here Dr. Thiene-
mann and his assistants, cut off from the world, spend
the drean.' and stormy season of the year from
October i to May i. The station stands on the nar-
rowest part of the sand-spit, whence the observers
have a free and unrestricted view of the aiea between
the seaward and the inner sandhills, and can study
the birds which specially collect there under genuinely
natural conditions. Previous obser\'ations made along
this stretch of sand-dunes, on the movements of the
hooded crow (Corvus corax), proved that a migration
route of great importance passed along it. and that
everv vear it was a rendezvous for flocks composed of
the same individuals. The site, therefore, though
peculiar and isolated, has been deliberately chosen
because of its special advantages.

The chief objects of the obser\'ator\' are to record
the exact dates and composition of the migration
flights, with the numbers and age of their component
species ; the direction in which the birds travel ; the
velocity and altitude of their passage (to be determined
bv the use of field telephones and box-kl^es), and the
atmospheric conditions prevailing during its continu-
ance, with the effect of any changes on the migratory
stream. Manv other cognate questions are to be
inquired into, such as bird-life in relation to food
supply, moulting, and colour changes in the plumage
at different ages, the economical value of birds, and
the most suitable means of protecting useful species.
It is intended also to form extensive collections of the
skins and internal parts of the birds of the Xehrung
and neighbourhood for reference and systematic study.
The scope of these observations as proposed to be
carried out at Rossitten, if covering a somewhat wider
field than, does not greatlv differ from that undertaken
bv, the committee of the British Ornithologists' Union
and bv other observers elsewhere. Valuable as the
obser\-ations all are, however, they do not, as was
pointed out in Nature of May 26, 1910. seem likely to
carrv us further forward than we at present are to-
wards the solution of the phenomena of migration,
until such observatories are more numerous and widely
distributed ; for what is now required is to trace indi-
vidual birds or flocks along every part of their route
from their birthplace to their winter quarters, and
back again several times. These feathered armies may
change their altitude, speed, and direction, or may
break up into several battalions beyond the nearest
horizon of an isolated observaton.-. and be affected in
front and in rear by weather conditions unobservable
from it. Even such bird observatories are as yet few in
number. There is one at Riga, one in Algiers, another
in Heligoland, and the one. so well known, at Buda-
Pesth, which cooperates with an observer in almost

2o8

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

every Hungarian province. By the more crucial
method of bird-marking the Rossitten observers are
busily engaged in carrying out investigations which
will give us eventually, we trust, the essential data
referred to above : the identification of the members of
a flock all along its migration route.

Besides those of Rossitten, only a few other
ornithologists have attempted the " kennzeichnen " of
birds. These are Prof. Martensen in Viborg, Prof.
Thomson in Aberdeen, Mr. Witherby in London, and
the watchers at the Heligoland station. The "mark-
ing " is done by affixing a light aluminium garter,
capable of easy and quick attachment to the leg of
adult birds captured for the purpose, and of fledglings
before they leave the nest. The weight of these rings
is so disproportionate to that of the bird that they form
(as has been proved) no possible impediment to its
flight or feeding. The weight of a stork's ring,
for instance, is only 2*4 grammes, while that for
?mall species is only o'o5 grammes. Each ring
bears a number and the name of the station em-
bossed on it, and when attached serves as an addressed
missive for its return to the station of origin. The
latter is obviously an essential factor to the success of
the system. At all events, if the ring itself be not re-
turned, its number with an accurate note of the time
and place of its wearer's recapture must be communi-
cated to the observatory, or published in some journal
likely to meet the eye of the Rossitten or other Euro-
pean ornithologists. Each bird, as soon as ringed, is
liberated to assemble with or rejoin its associates in
autumn and fare forth on its adventurous voyage.
The larger the number of birds ringed out of a migra-
tory flock, the greater are the chances of prizes being
drawn in this novel lottery by the man with a gun or
a snare, and of data, indisputable and free from con-
jecture, being accumulated towards the elucidation of
the routes followed by the flock, and of the terminus
of its journey.

At Rossitten numbers of hooded crows, black-headed
and herring gulls, storks, rough-footed buzzards, and
various species of Totanidae, Fringida;, and Chara-
driidae have been ringed since the observatory was
established. The success of these experiments has
been most remarkable. Large numbers of hooded
crows were obtained for marking through the ob-
servatory's investigators associating themselves with
the crow-catchers who frequent the dunes for the
purpose of netting these birds for food. Twelve
per cent, of the marked crows were recaptured, and
the place of their misfortune plotted on a map,
which shows that this species disperses over a wide
region to the north and south. The most northern
point of recapture was 30 km. from Savonlunna in
Finland, and Solesmes in France, the most westerly
and southerly ; while Prettin on the Elbe was the
most southern spot in Germany itself. From Rossitten
to Savonlunna the distance is 900 km., to Solesmes
1280 km., and from Savonlunna to Solesmes 2180 km.
Recaptures were also often effected in the crow-
catchers' nets in the neighbourhood of the East Prus-
sian lagoons, sometimes after the lapse of three or
four years, showing that the hooded crows come back-
wards and forwards to this region. Strange to sav
not a single marked individual from Rossitten has
been reported from the Netherlands.

Space does not permit our referring to any of Dr.
Thienemann's other records save that of the stork,
which indicates very clearly the great value of the
results to be expected by and by from these investiga-
tions. The first gartering experiments on storks were
made in the Zoological Gardens in Berlin on old and
on half-fledged birds. They were so successful that
assistance was requested, from those who had access

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

to nests of these birds, in ringing as many individuals
as possible. The observatory distributed rings free and
post paid to all who requested them, on the sole condi-
tion that a list of the birds marked, with a note (il
the place and date of their liberation, and of the
numbers on the rings, be sent to Rossitten. In the
first year 1044 '"'"Rs were distributed to outside helper^.
The results were astonishingly successful. First of
all it was proved that the storks migrate in autumn,
not to the south-west, but to the south-east. On plo.-
ting the " find places " of the recaptured birds on a
map, the course of their long journey from Easi
or North Prussia, where they were ringed, could
be traced out with beautiful regularity to east and
south. One w^as returned from Poland, one each from
Damascus, Acco (in Palestine), and Alexandria; one.
snared by a native, from Fittrisee, in Central Nori!
Africa; one from Rosseres, on the Blue Nile; oi^
out of a flock from Fort Jameson, in Rhodesia; on.
from the Kalahari desert, 8600 km. from its home,
killed for food by a Bushman, who, seeing the ring,
threw his prize away in terror as something uncannvf
and two from Basutoland, in southernmost Africa,
which were nine months old, and had travelled 9600 km.
from their birthplace. The dated rings proved also
that storks return from between one to three years
after leaving the nest to within a distance of 'their
natal district of from 6 to 94 km.

The recapture of certain ringed swallows in the
nest in which they were born a year after leaving it
raises, by the way, the interesting question : If a
young bird of the previous year returns to its actual
nursery, where do its parents nest? This system of
marking the old and young of migrating species will
unquestionably go far to provide data for solving the
great mystery of bird-life; but it is essential that'it ba
extended to the northern regions of America and Asia ;
and be instituted not only there, but in the middle
and at the southern extremity of the journey — •
in Central Africa, in South America, in South China,
and in Australasia — a work in which ornitholo-
gists, travellers, civil servants, and military officers
in these regions could render very important as-
sistance. Nor must the marking be confined to large
birds. Passerines, because less conspicuous, and be-
cause they are captured in large numbers for food, for
cage-birds and as agricultural pests, should be ringed
in all holarctic regions in vast numbers while in the
nest. The establishment of new observatories in these
distant regions of the globe is also a matter of urgency
which should be seriously dealt with by the next Or-
nithological Congress. Chance and happy circumstance
will doubtless in time reward such efforts, and return to
the expectant ornithologist answers from out of the
empyrean to his numerous queries, and will yet, we
trust, reveal to him the causa causans of the periodical
restlessness that impels the novice-bird to start and [1
guides it on its long, dangeroiis, often fatal, but
hitherto untraversed route to winter quarters of which
it has no previous knowledge.

(2) The second book on our list is, we fear, rather
an apple of Sodom, fair on the outside, but, within,
ashes — of gunpowder. It deals with birds marked for
0 verv different purpose from those of Rossitten. It is
chiefly made up of contributions by Mr. Harold Smith,
reprinted from a paper called Tropical Life, of whicli
he is editor, and from the Titnes, by various corre-
spondents, to defend those engaged in the plume trade
in the tropics from, as is suggested, attacks behind
their backs and in their absence by those "bigoted
members of society," " well meaning but badly in-
formed agitators," and "egotistical humanitarians,"
who are urging the Government to legislate to prevent
the indiscriminate slaughter of ''plumage birds now

December 15, 19 10]

NATURE

209

rife in certain parts of the British Empire," and, by
prohibiting their import into England, to discourage
the wearing of birds' skins, feathers, and plumes.

Of course, the badly informed humanitarians are the
ornithologists and the lovers of birds in all parts of the
civilised world. These people form, however, a large
body of highly educated men and women, who among
them have closely studied bird-life in every corner ot
the globe ; and who, entirely disinterested, are pos-
sessed of — let us say — quite as much common sense,
are as little led by "sentiment," and know "the
true facts of the case through long years of experi-
ence," as well as Mr. Harold Hamel Smith and the
feather traders.

The book is full of red-herring trails across the
question, and of mean suggestions (c/. pp. 31, 41
(footnote), and 56) which are not worth our while to
notice, and from which even Sir J. D. Rees, who
writes a foreword to the book, dissociates himself. It
would be reslaying the slain to discuss the question
whether or not the slaughter of many kinds of birds
for trade purposes is cruelly carried on or not. "Their
[the plumers'J ravages are simply sickening," says
Prof. Newton, one of the most accurate and unsenti-
mental ornithological historians that ever lived. The
evidence is overwhelming. Nor is it worth while dis-
cussing whether or not many species of birds are,
through the same agencies, becoming exterminated.
That question is also beyond contention. The paper
on extinct and vanishing birds, by the Hon. Walter
Rothschild, in the Proceedings of the fourth Inter-
national Ornithological Congress (1905), should be
read by those interested in this question, and also the
remarks of Prof. Newton on Extermination in his
"Dictionary of Birds." "The collection of skins for
ornithological museums or fishing tackle," we are told,
" is far more likely to exterminate a few rare birds than
the millinery trade" — who, we are also told, are "the
real protectors of birds" — "ever will be." The great
bird collection in the British Museum, the largest in
the world, contains probably about 500,000 skins, the
result of more than a century's assiduous amassing.
The present writer has been witness of that number
of humming-birds (chiefly) and other bright-plumaged
denizens of the Brazilian woods, all killed in the
breeding season, being shipped in one consignment
(and that not the solitary one of the season) from
Rio de Janeiro to London ; and has seen in the
Moluccas a single canoe-load brought by native
hunters consisting of scores of thousands of the most
gorgeous members of the New Guinea avi-fauna spread
out like wheat in a godown awaiting shipment to
Europe.

Such extensive massacres, in which not onlv the
parents but the nestlings perish, may go on for years
and not become very obvious without investigation on
the spot; but history shows that the results appear
only when it is too late for protective measures to
be taken. When a species has been reduced in
numbers below a certain point, natural enemies,
"red in tooth and claw," and causes difficult to de-
termine, begin to operate, and these complete the
ruthless work of man without his further interfer-
ence. Another good reason for legal regulation of this
trade is that, by the extinction of dominant species in
a region, the equilibrium of nature is disturbed, and
results disastrous to agriculture and in other direc-
tions arise. These questions formed the theme of
many serious discourses by ornithologists from all
parts of the world at the congress held this summer
in Berlin. There the concensus of opinion was that
measures must be taken internationally to prevent the
present wanton slaughter of birds.

The burden of this book is that the plume-traders
NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

will suffer great loss by the exclusion of skins and
feathers from this country. The same cry was raised
by the slave-traders against the emancipators who
struck at a "legitimate and honest trade" and "an
important industry in this country." One correspon-
dent of the Times writes (p. 98) it is " generous of
you to offer your columns to both sides of this con-
troversy." Mr. Smith, less generous, e.xcludes all
correspondence sent to the same journal on the pro-
tectionists' side. From one of the letters he publishes
we learn that the feather trade is rapidly going to
other countries, for reasons independent of threatened
legislation or of interference by " badly informed agita-
tors."

If it be true that the really large part of the trade
is done in "the millions of poultry and game-birds'
plumage, quills, and tails " (p. 105), w'hy, then, this
great outcry against the protection — which the traders
say they desire — of the most beautiful and useful of
living creatures, since tropical skins form in England
so sinall a portion of the trade. Among the demands
of the traders one is protection for the birds at their
natal centre only. This the Government to some extent
has done, and can do only, in its ow^n possessions ;
still, its legislation instead of " not securing the pre-
servation of a single bird " (p. 84), is providing, and
will increasingly provide, very large areas of sanctuarv
for them. It would stultify itself if it allowed the
importation of feathers from everywhere else, but pro-
hibited it from its own dominions. Another demand is
a close season (in India, for instance), after which
skins and plumes would be allowed to be exported. As
it is in the breeding season chiefly during which the
birds don the ornamental plumage for which high
prices are paid, it is obvious — human avarice being
what it is — that bird slaughter would be carried on
surreptitiously during that season, and the results
quietly stored away until the closure was over. The
expense of enforcing a close season being prohibitive,
the next best means of staying the evil is prohibition
of export. The " agitation " has been taken up bv the
Ornithological Congress, and we may shortly look
forward to international regulation of the trade.

This book may contain " the truth " about the col-
lection of "aigrettes and bird skins" as it appears to
Mr. Harold Hamel Smith ; but we conscientiously
believe that every unprejudiced, disinterested humani-
tarian in this country will repudiate his assertion.

A MONOGRAPH OF THE OKAPI.^

'X' HOUGH this monograph is replete with exact,
-*■ and in many cases novel, information regarding
the outward aspect and bones of the okapi, it will
certainly strike the general reader, as well as the
zoologist, as being an incomplete treatment of the
subject. This may not be the fault of its principal
author, Sir E. Ray Lankester, and is certainlv not
that of the keeper of the Natural History Museum,
Dr. Sidney F. Harmer, but is apparently due to the
financial control disliking the expense of publishing
the volume of text, which should have accompanied
the mere illustrations included in the volume under
review. The reason given is that as Jules Fraipont
has already published a monograph of the Okapi for
the State Museum of Tervueren, Brussels — an admir-
able piece of w^ork, it is generally admitted to be — the
publication of the text of Sir E. Ray Lankester's
studies and deductions would be superfluous. It is

1 "A Nfonograph of the Okapi." Bv Sir E. Ray Lankester. K.C.B.,
F.R.S., assisted by Dr. W. G. Ridewood. Pp. viii+48 plates. (London :
British Museum (Natural _Histfr>') printed by Order of the Trustees,
Longmans and Co., B. Quaritch, Dulau and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 2^s.

2IO

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

difficult to agree with the propriety of such a decision,
and it is to be hoped that before long the text which
should accompany these illustrations will also be
printed and published, especially as in the interval of
time which must elapse, further accurate information
regarding this interesting beast may have come to
hand. (The present writer has just been advised by Dr.
Bumpus, of the Natural History Museum at New
York, that a collector sent out by that museum has
succeeded in capturing alive a male, female, and calf
of the okapi, and these living forms of the animal are
now being conveyed across the Congo basin for ship-
ment to New York.) I\I. Fraipont's work, moreover,
complete as it was for the date of its publication in
1908, is not nearly so accessible to ordinary students
of zoology as the British Museum publications.

The history of the discovery of this Giraffid form at
the very opening of the twentieth century has already
been related so frequently that it does not need to be
repeated. But the specimens received during the first
few vears from the present writer and others, left

and above the eyes, swellings to which attention was
immediately directed by the whorls of hair in the skin
of my large specimen, which suggested that the okapi
could develop giraffe-like "horns" on those places.
The complete skin and skull obtained for me bv
Lieuts. Meura and Eriksson, and now in the British
Museum, were shown conclusively to belong to an
example that was sub-adult, namely, not grown to its
fullest size of development. The sex was very doubt-
ful. The natives who brought in the skin seem to
have spoken of it as the skin of a male, but it was
generally adjudged to be a female.

As soon as attempts were made to transmit okapi
specimens to Europe, the zoological authorities in
Brussels, London, and Paris were not long in having
in their hands skulls of undoubted male okapis
possessing ossicones three inches long or more*, some
of which bore at the tip a small piece of naked
bone equivalent to the beginning of an antler. Other
skulls, again, supposed to be female, were quite horn-
less. In some cases, minute ossicones were dis-

Right Hind-leq
Outside view.

Right Hind-leg
Front view.

Outside view.

Right Fore-leg
Front view

Left Fore- leg
Back view.

KiG. I.— Specimen of Okapi in the British Museum (Natural History) presented by Sir Harry Johnston. From "A Monograph of the Okapi."

those zoologists who studied them in some perplexity,
for they seemed to indicate, when closely compared
and examined, the existence of two types, or even
species, of okapi. There was considerable difference,
for example, in the arrangement of the stripes on the
hindquarters between the first strips of skin sent home
by myself in 1900 and the complete skin obtained by
me with the help of Lieuts. Meura and Eriksson in
190 1, and still more in the specimens secured later by
the Belgian officers in the Congo basin and a number
of British explorers or natural history collectors.

As already stated by M. Fraipont, this variability
of the alternations of black and white on the hind-
.quarters and fore limbs must apparently be accepted
as a characteristic feature of the okapi, and can
scarcely be reg-arded as of specific value. But then
arises the problem of the existence and non-existence
of ossicones. Both the skulls sent home by me in
190 1 were found to be hornless, though one presented
slight swellings of the bones at the base of the nose

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

covered under the skin. The general conclusions to
which zoologists were brought by the imperfect mate-
rial at their command were : that there were either
two species of okapi, one horned and one without
horns; or that the comparatively speaking hornless
female okapi was larger than the male : for the
horned skulls of all the known male okapis are found
to be smaller than those of the specimens of hornless
females.

Then, again, the skulls seemed to be divisible into
two series, broad and narrow. The question of two
distinct races, subspecies, or species, of okapi (the
first known of which was styled Okapia johnstoni)
can only be decided finally by extended research.
M. Jules Fraipont came to the general conclusion in
1908 that there was but one species known to us
which he re-named as above, but opined that there
might be distinct local races, varieties or even sub-
species, within a geographical range, which, although
described in the monograph under review as of limited

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

21 1

area, is really not so ver)* restricted after all. The
notes and observations of explorers and Belgian
officials show that the okapi is met with from the
vicinity of Nyangwe, in the eastern part of the Congo
basin, at no great distance from the west coast of
Tanganyika and from between 4° and 5° south lati-
tude, to the River Welle at the same distance north
of the equator, and almost to the banks of the Sem-
liki River and the forests west of Lake Albert Nyanza ;
while its western range has already been extended
(north of the main Congo) to the lo\ver course of the
Mubangi River, which lies not far away from the
zoographical limits of the Cameroons district. In-
deed, it would not surprise me at all if some such
explorer as Mr. George Bates discovered the okapi
in the Cameroons hinterland, just as he has discovered
there the Black Forest pig, and other equatorial
African animals first recorded in the East or Central
African forests.

Whether the okapi is found anywhere to the west
or south of the course of the main Congo is as yet

INTERNATIONAL MINERAL STATISTICS^

*T^ O the student of mining economics, part iv. of
■'• the Mines Report is always a volume of special
interest. The publication of Colonial and foreign
statistics in the present form was due to the initiative
of the late Sir Herbert Le Neve Foster, to whom all
interested in mineral statistics owe a deep debt of
gratitude. Xo one, however, was more sensible than
Le Xeve Foster himself of the many shortcomings of
this publication, as the writer of the present review-
can personally testify, and it is a matter of great
regret that so little has yet been done to remedy some
of the more glaring of the defects of this publication.
It is not to be inferred that the removal of these
defects is a simple or an easy matter, or even that
it lies within the power of any one individual to
accomplish it, for it is highly probable that nothing
short of an international agreement amongst the great
mineral-producing countries of the world can effect
this end, even partially. Such a work as the present

f tfe

Si--

i

1

m

M

I :

Riqhr Hind-leq
Outside view

Right Hind-leg Left Hind-leg Riqr: fc^-e leq Riqht Fcre-iea Left Fc-e -lee

front view. Inside & 3ack view Outside viev.. Trent view Beck view.

Fig. 2. — Specimen of Okapi in the British Museum (Natural Historj') presented by Major Povvell-Cotton. From " A Monograph of the Okapi.'

unrecorded, just as we have no record of the existence
of any anthropoid ape in the Trans-Congo regions.
So far as our imperfect information goes, the main
stream of the great Lualaba Congo acts as the limit
of distribution of some other forms of mammals, and
it may well be that at the time these creatures entered
tropical Africa the greater part of the Congo basin
was still a vast, shallow, fresh-water sea. A good
many of the creatures of the equatorial belt of Africa
extend from Mount Kenia and the East African and
\yest Tanganyika forests, right across Uganda and
the northern Congo basin to the Lower Niger, the
Gold Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, but of this
.-eries so far no trace of the gorilla, the okapi, or the
Black Forest pig have been met with westwards of the
Lower Niger, or even of the Cameroons, though there
are Dutch records of the seventeenth century, as well
as existing native traditions, which point to the exist-
ence of some form of Black Forest pig in the Liberian
forests.

H. H. Johnston.
NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

has for its main object the comparison of the mineral
outputs of various nations, and of the conditions under
which this output is obtained, mainlv with reference
to the labour engaged in its production and the rela-
tive danger of the miner's occupation. It is a truism
that no real comparison is possible unless similar data
are compared, and it is here that the main difficulty-
lies, the same terms being used in different countries
with widely different meanings.

To take a striking example, we find in the introduc-
tion a statement to the effect that the death-rate from
accidents in coal mines is as follows for the vear
1908 : —

Per 1000 Persons employed.

United Kingdom 1*32 France 0*95

British Empire i"45 Germany 2'46

Austria i-io United States 3-42

Belgium 107 Foreign countries generally 2-34

1 Home Office. Mines and Quarries : General Report and Statistics for
190S. By the Chief Inspector of Mines. Part iv., Colonial and Foreign
Statistics. Cd. 5284. (1910.) Price is. Zd.

212

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

This statement is g^iven without comment or ex-
planation, and leaves us to draw the obvious inference
that coal-mining in the United Kingdom is attended
with considerably greater risk to the miner than is
the case with our French and Belgian neighbours.
To those who know the true facts, it is, however, by
no means certain that this .trreater risk in this country
is a real rather than an apparent one. It is a curious
fact that in no country does legislation define what is
meant by a fatal mining accident. In the United
Kingdom our inspectors have adopted a working
definition which answers all purposes, although devoid
of legislative sanction, and class as a fatal accident
any accident that directly or indirectly causes the
death of the victim within twelve months after the
occurrence of the accident. In Belgium, however,
only those accidents are considered fatal that directly
cause death within thirty days of the accident, whilst
in France, where no definition at all is attempted, an
accident is only classed as a fatal accident if it causes
directly the death of the victim, either on the spot or
at anv rate within a verv short interval of time, whilst
in Germany and Austria it would seem that for an
accident to be classed as fatal it must directly cause
immediate death.

It is thus obvious that if the French or Belgian acci-
dent list were calculated upon the same basis as the
British, the death-rate in those countries might quite
conceivably appear to be higher and not lower than
our own. When the supreme importance of this
matter is considered, and when it is remembered that
every one of the countries concerned is engaged in
discussing legislation to promote the greater safety
of the miner, such legislation being not infrequently
based upon the comparative degrees of safetv as shown
bv the ratios of fatal accidents in the different coun-
tries, it is surely a pertinent question to ask whether
it is impossible to aij^ree upon an international defini-
tion of a fatal accident.

Coming next to the statistics of production, a cer-
tain degree of uniformity has been attained by express-
ing all the outputs in metric tons. On the other
hand, however, there are unfortunately many different
methods in use for estimating the outputs. Begin-
ning with the first mineral on the list, namely, coal,
there are many sources of error in the apparently
simple task of recording the coal output. Even in the
United Kingdom the returns as between different
collieries are not comparable, the practice being here
to return as output the total weight of mineral drawn
up the shaft, regardless of the fact that this may con-
tain more or less stone. So that if of two mines,
which produce an equal quantity of coal properly
speaking, the whole of the stone is in one case picked
out below ground, whilst in the other a good deal of
picking is left to be done on a picking belt at bank,
the latter will be returned as producing more coal
than the former. Again, the question of colliery con-
sumption has to be considered ; a certain proportion
of the coals raised is used for the purposes of the
colliery itself, in order to generate steam for the
various engines at work, whilst in other cases, again,
some of the miners are supplied free with coal for
domestic purposes, this coal constituting in effect a
portion of their wages. It is obvious that it will
make a considerable difference in the output returns
if the colliery consumption under one or both of these
heads is included or excluded.

The best plan w^ould probablv be to return onlv the
vendible coal as the output of a colliery, in which
case the coal supplied to the colliers, and in effect
sold to them as part of their wages, should be in-
cluded, but not that used for raising steam. More
important, however, is it to have a definite rule, which

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

5'79-s--
878

per metric ton

7-91
6-IO

»i

12-68

,,

1 2 92

,,

rule ought to be clearly and precisely set forth in the
returns; some legislative enactment on the subject
is obviously required. In Belgium the returns until
quite recently were always those of the coal raised
including stone; of late years some collieries have,
however, returned only vendible coal, whilst others
adhere to their ancient practice. In France the return
represents the vendible coal ^lus the colliery consump-
tion. In Germany the output returns comprise
vendible coal plus colliery consumption plus a certain
allowance for wastage. Further, it must be remem-
bered that on the Continent the coal itself is very
often not weighed, but its weip-ht is estimated from
the volume e.g. from the number of tubs of a known
capacity, produced by the mine. Here, again, it is
obvious that we are comparing figures which we have
no means of reducing to any uniform denomination,
and here, again, it is most important that there should \
be an international agreement as to what is. meant by-
coal output.

iMost countries assign a value to their coal produc-
tion, and in the introduction to the present report the
values of the coal outputs of some of the leading pro-
ducers of the world are tabulated. It is interesting to
calculate from this table the values assigned by the
various countries to their coal, the figures obtained
being as follows : — -

United States ...

Great Britain ...

Germany

Austria and Hungary...

France ...

Belgium

It is obvious at first sight that these coal values
must be based on more or less arbitrary data, and
possess no scientific importance. Intrinsically French
coal is certainly not worth more than twice as much
as American coal; in fact, so far as absolute value
goes, the Ainerican coal, which is here returned as
the least valuable of all, is actually the most valuable,
as a large proportion of high-class anthracite enters
into the American production. Undoubtedlv the
determination of the value of a given mineral produc-
tion is a difficult matter, even if a precise definition
be adopted ; it would probably be best to take as a
basis the value of the mineral loaded up readv for
transport at the mine, or, in other words, its selling
price less the cost of transporting it to a market and
marketing it ; the only drawback to this mode of
valuation lies in the fact that the values thus assigned
may be liable to wide fluctuations in accordance with
the laws of supply and demand. Fortunately, it may
be said that of all the data contained in this report, the
monetary values of the mineral production are prob-
ably the least important.

In some cases, improvements have been introduced
in the methods of stating the returns ; thus gold and
silver are now returned in kilograms of fine rfietal. In
many cases the output of metalliferous minerals is
stated, not in terms of the weight of ore, but in terms
of the weight of metal contained in the ores. The
heading in the report before us says, "contained in
or obtained from ore," but we assume that the latter
half of this phrase is an error. The figure that is
required is either the amount of metal contained in
the ore or else that obtainable from it, the two being
by no means equivalent statements. If the former is
adopted, it means the weight of ore multiplied by the
percentage of metal contained in it as determined by
accurate chemical analvsis, not bv so-called commer-
cial assav. If the latter method is adopted, the return
would give the amount of metal that can be obtained
from the ore by the smelting operations to which it is

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

21

subjected in each case; and it is therefore less
than the former figure by the smelting losses of
various kinds. The latter form of return would be
decidedly the more useful, but is the more ditticult to
obtain correctly. It is, however, essential that one
or other of these two methods be adopted, and not
sometimes the one and sometimes the other.

The report also deals with the number of persons
employed in producing the mineral output of the
various countries, and there is perhaps no portion of
the statistical records before us in wnich more diver-
gent methods of enumeration are made use of.
Some countries return indiscriminately men, boys,
women, and girls, and , some Europeans and
natives all under the same heading, whilst
others separate these categories. In Germany
the usual practice is to return the full number
of all names on the register, ill or well, at
work or idle, working whole shifts or only parts,
working throughout the year or only for a portion, as
the number actually employed. The present writer
does not know with certainty what the practice is in
Great Britain, and doubts whether there is any gener-
ally accepted practice ; certainly there is none that
has legislative sanction. Most managers in this
country simply return the number of men on
their books on the day when the return is
made out ; a few seem to consider that the
number of shifts worked in the year divided by the
the number of shifts worked in the year
divided bv the number of actual working days. A
better method probably would be to take as the
average number of men employed daily the total
number of shifts worked in the year divided by the
number of possible working days. A still more exact
method has been proposed by some authorities, and
is carried out in some places on the Continent,
in connection with schemes of insurance, namely,
to take the total number of hours worked
in a year by the whole of the workpeople
employed, and to divide this figure by some standard
figure which shall represent the average number of
working hours in a year ; this average number might
for the United Kingdoin be taken as 2400, namely,
^5oo days of eight hours. Obviously here, again, an
international agreement is indispensable. Further-
more, it is necessary to decide whether any, and if
so, which of the mine officials shall be included in
the list of mine workers ; the general practice appears
to be to include subordinate officials but none of the
staff and none of the office employes, but here again
much diversity of practice exists.

Further difficulties arise with reference to the classi-
fication of mine workings, our distinction between,
mines and quarries being quite different from that
which obtains in other countries. There is no uni-
formity of practice in respect of the substances which
ought properly to be included in a return of mineral
output, and it is an open question whether, e.g. brick-
clay should be included as well as fire-clay, salt derived
from sea water as well as rock-salt, and so forth.

Enough has been said to show that the figures in
the report before us must be used cautiously, and
that it is unwise to attempt to draw deductions from
them unless their meaning is quite fully understood in
each case. No doubt this fact detracts considerably
from the utility of such a report but it need hardlv
be said that not the slightest blame can be imputed
to those responsible for the report for the existing
state of affairs. The work of the statician should,
however, always be more than the mere unintelligent
accumulation of figures, and here there is ample scope
for someone who could persuade the principal mining
countries of the world to agree upon a common basis

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

for drawing up the essential elements of mineral
records.

.At the recent International Congress of Mining and
Metallurgy, the question of the unification of mineral
statistics occupied a prominent position, and, in fact,
the only resolution that was thought worthy of being
brought before the general meeting, and was
unanimously adopted, was to the effect that the con-
gress should urge upon the various Governments there
represented the importance of the adoption of an in-
ternational system. The report just published bv the
Home Office is only another proof, if such were
indeed needed, of the urgency of such a step, and it
is greatly to be desired that our Home Office would
take upon itself to lead the way in this matter. It
has for many years past made a special feature of the
collection of international mineral statistics, and it
would be eminently appropriate that Great Britain
should inaugurate an attempt to arrive at an inter-
national understanding ; there can be no doubt that
the other Great Powers interested in the question
would heartily welcome such a step, and that an
international commission could easily enough arrive
at a satisfactory arrangement. Until this has been
done, all the expense, care, and trouble involved in
I producing part iv. of the " Mines Reoort — Colonial and
j Foreign Statistics," must necessarily be to a large
! extent wasted, since it cannot but fail in givine a
proper comparative view of the world's mineral in-
dustry. Henry Lolis.

iVOT£5.

The Times correspondent at Stockholm reports that th-
Nobel prizes, amounting to more than 8000J. each, wer^
distributed by the King of Sweden on December 10 with
the usual ceremonial. All the prize-winners were present
to receive their prizes and give the statuton.- lecture, except
the winner of the prize for literature, Herr Paul Heyse,
who was prevented by his advanced age from attending.
The other recipients were Profs. Van der Waals Cphysic?),
Wallach (chemistry), and Kossel (medicine).

The Physical Society's annual exhibition, which is to
be held on Tuesday, December 20, will be open both in
the afternoon (from 3 to 6 p.m.) and evening (from 7 to
10 p.m.). Prof. }. A. Fleming, F.R.S., will give a dis-
course at 4.15 p.m., and again at 8 p.m., on some
improvements in transmitters and receivers for wireless
telegraphy, and Mr. R. W. Paul will give a number of
kinematograph demonstrations of some physical pheno-
mena. Most of the leading makers of scientific instru-
ments are sending apparatus to the exhibition.

The opening address by Dr. Muir, C.M.G., F.R.S., to
the South African .Association for the Advancement of
Science was delivered before a large audience in Cape
Town on the evening of October 31, the day of the arrival
of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught to open the Union
Parliament. The main subject dealt with was " The
State's Duty to Science," and the South .African news-
papers all agree that nothing more important or more
suitable for the occasion could have been chosen. The
State was viewed in succession as an educationist, a land-
owner, a health guardian, and as a patron of pure science,
and under each head illustrations were given from the
past actions and present needs of Cape Colony. The
chief part of the address is reproduced elsewhere in this
issue. The Minister of the Interior, General Smuts, in
pioposing the usual vote of thanks, threw out some hope
that the day of university reform in South .Africa was not

214

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

far distant. At the close of the meeting Dr. Muir pre-
sented the South Africa medal to Prof. J. C. Beattie, for
his magnetic and other work.

The jubilee of the German Agricultural Society is being
commemorated in Berlin this week by a series of meet-
ings. The Berlin correspondent of the Times states that
at the meeting on December 12 a vast audience in the
"building of the Prussian Diet listened to the congratula-
tions of the German Emperor, the Imperial Chancellor,
the Prussian Minister of Agriculture, and other dis-
tinguished personages. In the course of his remarks, the
Emperor is reported by the Times correspondent to have
said : — " Many a seed has been scattered since the society
was founded twenty-five years ago, and has sprung up
and flourished under the blessings of peace. Admirably
Tiave you succeeded in adopting all the advances in science.
In botany, in chemistry, in the breeding of animals, and
in industry, and so increased the efficiency of German
agriculture and raised the value of Germany's soil. Accept
my most cordial good wishes for the future. May the
agricultural population continue to hold its own as the
■core of the people, trustworthy in all circumstances, to
the advantage and welfare of the Fatherland."

A GENERAL meeting of opticians and others was held in
the rooms of the Chemical Society, Burlington House, on
Tuesday, November 29, to consider the desirability of
making arrangements for the holding of an Optical Con-
vention in 1912. The chair was taken by Dr. R. T. Glaze-
brook, C.R., F.R.S., as chairman of the permanent com-
mittee. A resolution was carried nem. con. that, pro-
vided sufficient financial support is obtained, an optical
convention be held in the spring or early summer of 1912.
The main objects of such a convention were specified as
being : — (i) the holding of an exhibition of optical and
allied instruments ; (2) the preparation of a catalogue of
optical and allied instruments of British manufacture to
serve as a convenient work of reference for all users of
optical and scientific instruments, not necessarily to be
limited to instruments actually exhibited ; (3) the holding
of meetings for the reading of papers and for discussions
and demonstrations on optical subjects ; (4) the publication
of a volume of Proceedings, in which these papers would
be collected together. The questions of the inclusion of a
foreign section and of the scope of the convention and
exhibition were discussed, and an organising committee
was nominated to undertake the work of making the
necessary arrangements for the convention.

The Agenda Club, which was formally inaugurated by
a banquet last week, proposes to ofganise effort, know-
ledge, and influence for the purpose of getting things done
which need doing for the benefit of the community. The
movement first acquired publicity through " An Open
Letter to English Gentlemen"' in the Hibbert Journal.
This letter, and the club itself, appeal frankly to the
idealism and the goodwill of the best men ; but an equally
essential characteristic of the club is to organise the
altruism of its members with at least as much efficiency
as that of the most successful modern business. The club
expressly enunciates its need of guidance by scientific men
in determining the agenda to be undertaken and in many
details of its work. It is a coordinating society, and not
one that overlaps the work of other bodies devoted to
special purposes. Among other methods to be employed
is that of the most extensive publicity. It should be able
to win recognition of the importance of scientific educa-
tion, to spread scientific ideas, and to extend the applica-
tion of scientific method and results to the affairs of every-

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

day life. It contemplates the encouragement of research,
especially perhaps in social science, and its scheme includes
groups of associates, among which are mentioned engineer-
ing, literature, medicine, and science. In thus applying
tested principles and modern methods to the desire to
help, which, if sometimes latent, is almost universal, the
club is effecting, at a singularly opportune and critical
moment, a new "grouping," which may prove a signifi-
cant step forward in social evolution. There is no entrance
fee and no fixed subscription. Money without other sup-
port is neither invited nor desired, but cooperation, with
or without subscriptions, is both sought and welcomed.
The address of the club is 4 Essex Court, Temple, E.C.

The report of the council of the Scottish Meteorological
Society was presented to the general meeting of the society
held on December 6. From it we learn that the prize of
20I. offered for competition amongst students and graduates
of the Scottish universities for the best essay on a meteor-
ological subject has been awarded by the council to Mr.
David MacOwan, of Edinburgh University, for an essay
on " Observations in Atmospheric Electricity in and near
Edinburgh." The council reports with satisfaction that the
publication by the Royal Society of Edinburgh of the
observations made on Ben Nevis and at Fort William
from 1883-1904 has just been completed by the issue of
vol. xliv. of the Transactions of that society. This marks
the completion of a great enterprise ; and it is noted that
not only have the observations themselves been printed in
detail, but that the four volumes in which they appear
contain also numerous papers in which various theoretical
and practical aspects of the observations are discussed. It
is a matter of further satisfaction that almost simul-
taneously with the. completion of the publication of the
Ben Nevis observations the society has, through the
generosity of its friends, been entirely relieved from the
burden of debt which it had to assume when the observa-
tories were closed in 1904. The following officers were
elected at the meeting : — President, Prof. A. Crum Brown,
F.R.S. ; vice-presidents, J. Mackay Bernard and Ralph
Richardson ; council, J. Macdonald, Dr. C. G. Knott, Sir
David Paulin, G. Thomson, H. M. Cadell, Captain H. G.
Lyons, F.R.S., Sir A. Buchan-Hepburn, Bart., G. G.
Chisholm, and M. M'Callum Fairgrieve ; hon. secretaries,
R. T. Omond and E. M. Wedderburn ; hon. treasurer,
W. B. Wilson.

Cancer once again formed the subject of the Bradshaw
lecture, delivered by Sir Arthur Pearce Gould at the Royal
College of Surgeons on December 7 before a large and
appreciative audience, which included Prince Alexander of
Teck. For three years in succession, 1903, 1904, and 1905,
cancer — although the conditions of the endowment mention
merely a " lecture on surgery " — was discussed in specu-
lative fashion and in its surgical aspects by one Bradshaw
lecturer after another. This was when the modern revival
in the investigation of this disease was in its beginnings,
and had contributed little that was new or could be
properly appraised. Perhaps from the mere fact that all
had been said, and said ably, that could be said, perhaps
from a feeling that it was unseemly to harp always upon
the same subject, cancer has been left alone for four
years. It was well to revert to it again, for by doing
so Sir Alfred Pearce Gould put himself in the position of
being able to assure his hearers that great advances in
knowledge have been made, and that the pessimistic views
held by those brought most in contact with the disease
are giving way before new hopes. The lecturer showed
that the four years' respite had sufficed for the results of
the comparati%'e and experimental investigation of cancer

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

21

to make a deep impression upon the leaders of the surgical
profession. He had much to say which no previous Brad-
shaw lecturer ever had an opportunity of knowing, and
much that even his immediate predecessors had not had
time to assimilate. The lecture, which appeared in full
in both the Lancei and the BriXish Medical Journal of
December lo, will repay the perusal of all interested in
this complex problem and the efforts that are being made
to solve it.

Committees have nowadays become quite a usual form
for the organisation and super\-ision of scientific research
to take, and investigations conducted under their aegis
may at times not redound in full measure to the credit
of the actual workers. Therefore, in Sir Alfred Gould's
Bradshaw lecture on cancer it is gratifying to note this
generous tribute paid to the workers who have raised the
English school of cancer research to its present pre-
eminent position among kindred organisations abroad.
The lecturer said :— " This college, in conjunction with
our sister in Pall Mall, by the initiation, control, and
housing of the Imperial Cancer Fund, has taken a ver>-
prominent part in this movement, and it is a matter of
great satisfaction that the researches carried out in our
laboratory are universally recognised as having been of
fundamental importance. We gladly recognise that all the
success which has attended, and may hereafter attend, the
labours of Dr. Bashford and his distinguished associates
is not due to the association with these Royal colleges,
nor to the sources from which the fund has been collected,
but to the abilit}', the wide knowledge, the patience, and
the honesty that are associated with the laborious industry-
of the workers." However excellently committees may be
constituted for advisory purposes and for control, they
can never replace the initiative and enthusiasm of in-
dividual workers. It is gratifying to know that this prin-
ciple is acknowledged in the investigation of a subject
of such great public moment as is cancer.

The death is announced of Captain G. E. Shelley, the
youngest son of the late John Shelley, of Avington, in
Hampshire, and nephew of the poet. After a short service
in the Grenadier Guards, Captain Shelley retired from the
.Army and devoted himself entirely to ornithology-, especi-
ally to that of Africa. Captain Shelley's earliest publica-
tion was a " Handbook on the Birds of Egypt," a most
useful companion to the voyager on the Nile, illustrated by
many excellent coloured plates drawn by Keulemans. He
next turned his attention to the sun-birds (Nectariniidae),
and in 1880 con^)Ieted a beautiful quarto w^ork containing
coloured figures of ever\- species of this brilliant family,
which may be said to represent the humming-birds of the
New World in Africa and Asia, although the two groups
are by no means nearly related to each other. In 1890
Captain Shelley was requested by Dr. Giinther to join Mr.
Sclater in preparing the nineteenth volume of the great
" Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum." To this he
gladly consented, as among the families included in this
volume were the cuckoos and other groups of which he
had made a special study. Captain Shelley now planned
a general work on the birds of Africa, in which he pro-
posed to comprise an account of all the birds known to
occur in the Ethiopian region. The first volume of this
important work was published in 1890, and succeeding
volumes were issued up to 1906, when the failing health
of the author brought the continuance of the work to a
stop. Besides these three works. Captain Shelley was for
many years a constant contributor to the Ibis, the journal
of ornithology published by the British Ornithologists'
Union, of which he was a well-known member. He was
NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

also an excellent field naturalist, and made many excursions
to different parts of .Africa in order to observe the bird
life with his own eyes and to add to his valuable collec-
tions, which, we believe, have attained a final resting
place in the British Museum.

The Berlin correspondent of the Times reports the
death, at seventy -eight years of age, of Prof. Franr
Konig, who held in succession the chair of surgen.' at
the Universities of Rostock (1869), Gottingen (1875), and
Berlin (1895). He retired from the latter chair in 1904.
His reputation was based largely on his skill in the treat-
ment of articular tuberculosis, on which he published a
monograph in 1883 (later edition, 1895). He was also
author of teaching manuals of surgery-, which were fre-
quently republished.

The Aeronautical Journal for October contained tr
announcement that the council of the Aeronautical Socie:
had conferred the gold medal of the societ>- on Mr. Octa-.
Chanute, consulting engineer, of Chicago. It was r- -
gretted that there was no immediate prospect of his being
able to receive the medal in person, owing to the serious
illness which overtook him at Carlsbad, from which, how-
ever, it was confidently expected that he had recovered
after removal to Paris. It is with greater regret that we
now learn of the death of Mr. Chanute at seventv-eight
years of age. Born in Paris in 1832, Chanute trained as
an engineer in America, where his professional duties in-
volved the construction of numerous railways and bridg-
including consultative duties connected with the New Yo:
elevated railwav ; wood preservation was also his speciali:
From 1874 onwards Chanute became interested in th:
problem of aviation, and not only did he make numerous
experiments with models, but shortly after, or perhaps
simultaneously with, Lilienthal and Pilcher's experiments
in Europe Chanute took up the practical realisation of
gliding flight in America in collaboration with Mr.
Herring and Mr. Aven.-. A large number of glides were
made with different types of glider, commencing with s
model based on the descriptions of Le Bris's historic
"albatross," and including gliders with a large number
of superposed planes, but the type finally adopted was a
biplane glider furnished with a smallish balancing tail.
.Although balance was, as a rule, maintained by moving
the bodv, Chanute embodied in his apparatus the prin-
' ciple of a flexible framework, which thus paved the way
for the Wright Brothers' " warping " devices and similar
I arrangements for the recover},- of balance and counteraction
; of instability, which form such a noteworthy feature of
I modern aeroplanes. The glides made with his machines
! were remarkably successful, and, the practising grounds
'• being among sand dunes, no fatalities ensued. Chanute
'' was the author of a number of papers and reviews dealing^
with the flight problem, and the Wright Brothers, the
late Captain Ferber, and numerous other aviators were
indebted to him for much valuable assistance.

The annual general meeting of the Royal .Agricultural
SocietA- of England was held on December 7. It was
announced that the total membership is now 10,129, having
reached five figures for the first time since 1901. The
report, which was adopted at the meeting, contains
abundant evidence that the society is assisting scientific
research in agriculture in a substantial manner. At the
Woburn Experimental Station, in addition to general ex-
periments, trials have been made of the new varieties of
cross-bred wheats introduced by Prof. Biffen, of Cam-
bridge, and also of French wheats. The residual values
of calcium cvanamide and nitrate of lime have been ascer-

2l6

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

tained in comparison with sodium nitrate and sulphate of
ammonia. The pot-culture work has included further
experiments on the influence of magnesia on plants. The
Hills' experiments concerned chiefly the use of zinc in
different forms and of lithium. The question of green-
manuring with leguminous and non-leguminous crops re-
spectively has been advanced a further stage. In the
botanical department some forty specimens of infected
plants were sent for examination. For the most part
these were attacked by common diseases, but the follow-
ing are not so generally met with : — silver-leaf on black
currant, Pseudomonas on swede, and Hypomyeces on
mushrooms. Two diseases, one on mangolds the other on
asparagus, are apparently new to science, and are now under
investigation. The society has decided to carry out experi-
ments with calves at the Woburn Farm, for the purpose
of demonstrating that by means of isolation it is possible
to rear healthy stock from tuberculous parents. Lord
Rothschild has undertaken to provide, free of all expense
to the society, thirty calves for the purposes of the pro-
posed demonstration. The arrangements are in the hands
of a special committee, and Sir John McFadyean has
undertaken to supervise the demonstration. With the view
of enabling the Royal Veterinary College to make further
investigations as to Johne's disease, an obscure disease of
sheep met with in certain parts of England, and vaccina-
tion as a preventive against tuberculosis in cattle, the
council has agreed to make a special grant to the college
of 200/. per annum for three years, commencing on
January i, 191 1.

The trustees of the Beit memorial fellowships for
medical research have elected the following persons to
fellowships. We give in each case the general character
of the proposed research and the place where it is in-
tended to carry out the research : — T. R. Elliott, patho-
logical changes in the suprarenal glands, at the Medical
School of University College Hospital. E. E. Aitkin,
investigation of a group of toxins with respect to the
manner of destruction, mode of neutralisation by anti-
body, and effect of the various modifications upon the
animal organism, at the Bacteriological Laboratory of the
London Hospital. Frances Mary Tozer, the presence of
sensory fibres in the third, fourth, and sixth cranial nerves ;
their influence upon ocular paralysis in locomotor ataxia
and other diseases, and the site of the ganglion cells, at
the Physiological Laboratory, Liverpool University.
R. W. H. Row, the structure, development, and functions
of the pituitary body in Vertebrata, at (i) King's College,
London (Zoological Laboratory) ; {2) Marine Biological
Association's Laboratory; and (3) Naples Zoological
Station (collection of specimens and embryological and
experimental work). H. Priestley, study of the diphtheroid
organisms with regard to their distribution, morphology,
cultural characteristics, pathology, and relationship to
diseased conditions of man and animals, at the Lister
Institute of Preventive Medicine. F. P. Wilson, the
changes in the lipoids of the tissues produced by syphilis
and their relation to haemolysis and immunity, at the Bio-
chemical Department, University of Liverpool. A. G.
Yates, the bacteriology of acute rheumatism, at the
Pathological Department of the University of Sheffield.
Annie Homer, the chemistry and physiology of tryptophane ;
the metabolism and chemistry of haemoglobin in so far as
they bear on its production in the animal body ; the com-
parison of normal and pathological tissues as regards their
contents of intracellular ferments, at the Physiological and
Chemical Laboratories, Cambridge. F. J. F. Harrington,
investigation of the functions of the male accessory genital
glands, at University College Medical School. /. F.

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

Gaskell, the origin of the suprarenal body in the inverte-
brates and lower vertebrates, and on the function of the
chlorogogen cells in invertebrates, at St. Bartholomew's
Hospital Medical School. The next election of fellows will
be held in December, 191 1. Correspondence should be
addressed to the honorary secretary, Beit Memorial
Fellowships for Medical Research, 35 Clarges Street, W.

In the Philippine Journal of Science (vol. v.. No. 3)
Mr. R. B. Bean gives a further account of his investiga-
tions into the different types of ears occurring among the
Philipinos, giving on this occasion illustrations of the
Iberian and the primitive types. In the former, the
characteristic features are the inversion of the conch and
the rolling out of the helix, this producing a shallow bowl
in the conch and a flat helix below. The whole ear is
thin, flattened, and usually placed parallel to the head.
The primitive ear, on the contrary, is distinguished by
the inversion of the conch and the rolling in of the helix,
the upper and lower portions of the latter projecting in
the form of a shelf, while the conch is deep and bowl-
like. The whole ear is thick. In the opinion of the
author, ears afford much better race-characters than
skulls.

In the report for the year ending September 20, the
committee of the Bristol Museum and Art-gallery expresses
its obligation to Lady Smyth for her gift of 1500Z. to
fit up a companion room to the one for which she had
previously provided funds. This will enable the adjacent
rooms to be arranged in uniformity. Among the additions
to the collection is the skin of a giraffe from East Africa,
which is now in the hands of the taxidermist, and will
in due course be installed in the building.

The new museum and art-gallery opened at Plymouth
on October 25 form the subject of an illustrated article
in the November number of the Museums Journal. The
foundation-stone of a building was laid so long ago as the
Diamond Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, but soon after
this was done the financial affairs of the city became
involved in difficult}", and further progress was stopf>ed.
Later on Mr. Andrew Carnegie offered a large sum for
the building of a public library, and it was eventually
decided to combine with the library a museum and art-
gallery, for which funds were provided from other sources.
The result is the present fine building, constructed partly
of Portland stone and partly of Devonian limestone, with
a total frontage of about 320 feet. Of this, the northern
180 feet are allotted to the museum and art-gallery. The
whole building is one of which Plymouth may justly be
proud.

Amongst publications recently issued .by the Inter-
national Council for the Study of the Sea are vol. xii.
of the Rapports et Proces-Verbaux, vol. iv. of the Bulletin
statistique, and No. 48 of the Publications de Circonstance.
The first of these contains useful summaries of the fishery
work carried out under the direction of the council. Dr.
Hoek gives an account of the recent work on eggs and
larvae of the Gadidae, Prof. D'.Arcy Thompson of that on
the distribution of the cod and haddock, Dr. Ehrenbaum
on the eggs and larvae of flat-fishes and Dr. Masterman
on their later stages, and Dr. Hjort reports on the herring
investigations. The statistical bulletin contains a sum-
mary of all fish landed in the different European countries
in 1907. The last of the three publications deals with the
plankton researches, and gives a list of all organisms
which have been recorded between 1905 and 1908 on the
periodic cruises, with an account of the stations at which
they were found. This forms a useful summary of the
detailed tables published in the bulletins.

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

2 1

In an abstract from the American Breeders' Magazine
(vol. i., No. 2) Dr. G. H. Shull adduces further evidence
in favour of a so-called pure-line method in corn breed-
ing that consists in raising self-fertilised generations with
the object of developing pure homozygous strains or
biotypes, and then cross-breeding from such pure strains
year by year.

A NOTE on works of improvement in the forests of the
Federated Malay States, contributed by Mr. A. M. Burn-
Murdoch, appears in the Indian Forester (October). The
author distinguishes gutta-percha forests, where Palaqitium
giitta and P. oblongifolium are the important species, and
mixed timber forests. Under natural conditions the
Palaquium forests contain a great number of tall, slender
trees in the pole stage arising from an undergrowth of
palms, chiefly Eugeissona tristis, and shrubs ; there are
also a few giant trees. When the young trees are cleared
of the undergrowth some are unable to support their own
superstructure and require lopping, from which, however,
they quickly recover.

A PALM disease receiving the name of " koleroga " is
described at length by Dr. L. C. Coleman in Bulletin
No. 2, issued by the Department of .Agriculture in the
Mysore State. The disease, confined to the Areca palm,
has been prevalent in two separate areas on the west coast
of India. For the most part the fruits are attacked, but
occasionally the fungus finds its way to the growing apex.
Spraying with Bordeaux mixture has proved efficacious.
From a study of the sporangiophores, zoospores, and both
kinds of sexual organs, and from infections made with
the spores, the author concludes that the fungus is very
closely allied to the well-known Phytophthora omnivora,
from which he separates it as a special variety.

The prominent item in the September number (vol. v..
No. 4) of the botanical section of the Philippine Journal
of Science is the first part of a description, by Mr. E. D.
Merrill and Mr. M. L. Merritt, of the flora of Mt. Pulog,
the highest, but until recently little known, peak in the
island of Luzon. Four zones of vegetation are dis-
tinguishable, of which the most important is an open
forest belt in which Pinus insignis is the characteristic
tree; this gives place at an altitude of 7000 feet to a
denser forest of irregular trees covered with mosses and
lichens, where epiphytic ferns and orchids are abundant,
while the summit is open meadow. In the flora the
families Polypodiacea-, Compositae, and Gramineae are best
represented. There is a predominance of continental
Asiatic as opposed to .Malayan types, together with a
definite, although small, admixture of Australian elements. ■

Mr. Bernard Smith has written on the Upper Keuper
sandstones of east Nottinghamshire in the Geological
Magazine for 1910 (p. 302). His study of the characters
of these rocks bears out the view, shared by Mr. Cress-
well in the paper above referred to, that they were
accumulated in distinctly shallow water. " Large tracts
with isolated pools were laid bare from time to time."
The sandstones among the marls are the deposits of wet
seasons, and show characteristic signs of flood and current
action. Mr. Smith suggests that the grey or green beds
in the Keuper are due to the check on oxidation caused
by organic remains and humic and organic acids swept
down from the land-surface.

From the report of the chief of the U.S. Weather
Bureau for the fiscal year 1908-9 we note that observa-
tions of the lower strata of air by kites and captive
balloons are made daily except on Sundays; efforts are
NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

being made to secure materials for kites that wiil not
absorb moisture. Measurements of the intensity of solar
radiation and the polarisation of sky light were made
whenever conditions were favourable ; both appear to have
had a higher value than during the previous year. Iso-
baric charts based on telegraphic reports from selected
stations throughout the northern hemisphere have been
prepared daily, and successful forecasts for about a week
in advance have been issued at intervals ; Prof. Moore
remarks that the application of world-wide observations
and upper-air researches to the art of weather forecasting,
both for short and k)ng periods, is yearly becoming more
apparent. Reports of marine observations by wireless
telegraphy have been discontinued on the Atlantic, but the
work has been taken up, to some extent, on the Pacific
coast. In the climatological summaries we note that the
total precipitation is determined from amounts recorded
daily, from midnight to midnight.

Dr. L. Birkenmajer, of the Cracow Uriversity, the
author of an elaborate biography of Copernicus, has been
fortunate to find (in the " Riks-Arkivet," Stockholm, and
in the library of Upsala University) several entirely un-
known autographs of Nicolaus Copernicus. The most
interesting is a letter written by the great astronomer, on
behalf of the Bishop and the Cathedral Chapter of Erm-
land, on July 22, 1516, to Sigismond I., King of Poland.
This message conveys to the King embittered complaints
against the Teutonic Order " the Knights of the Cross,"
described as " praedones, latrones et homines scelerati "
in the text of the document, which is entirely in
Copernicus 's own handwriting. For other interesting
details we must refer to the memoir published by Dr.
Birkenmajer, in collaboration with the distinguished
Upsala scholar Dr. Isak Collijn, in the Bulletin Inter-
national of the Academy of Sciences of Cracow, June,
1909.

The paper read by Sir Robert Hadfield and Prof. B.
Hopkinson before the Institution of Electrical Engineers
on Thursday last marks an important advance in our
knowledge of the magnetic properties of iron and its alloys.
By working in the intense fields obtained between the
poles of a large electromagnet they have succeeded in
showing that iron and its alloys with carbon, silicon,
aluminium, nickel, or manganese have definite saturation
intensities of magnetisation which are reached, in general,
in fields of less than 5000 units. For pure iron the
saturation intensity is 1675 units, and for iron carbide
about two-thirds of this. Each alloy behaves as a mixture
of one or more magnetic substances with materials having
permeabilities not differing much from unity. In
annealed carbon steels the saturation intensities are 6 per
cent, less than for pure iron for each per cent, of carbon
present. The tests of alloys of iron with nickel and
manganese have not led to any simple relation between
their magnetic properties and their composition.

Since Coulomb stated the laws of friction of soHds on
each other more than a century ago, little work has been
done on the subject except from the technical point of
view, which does not attach much importance to the
absolute cleanliness of the surfaces in contact. The
Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft
for October 30 contains a short account, communicated by
Prof. W. Kaufmann to the Versammlung Deutscher Natur-
forscher, of some careful experiments on the subject made
by his pupil Miss C. Jakob. The glass or brass surfaces
used were chemically clean, and were used in a glass

2l8

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

-chamber, which could be evacuated and dried. The
observations were made by tilting a large plate of the
material with a perfectly smooth surface until a small
piece of the same substance, provided with three spherical
feet, would slide down the surface. Sliding begins at a
very small angle, 1-5° for glass, and the speed has a
fixed terminal value for each angle of tilt up to a little
more than 5", when the motion becomes an accelerated
one. Up to this point there is a definite relation between
the speed and the friction, and this relation must be
substituted for the discontinuous law of Coulomb, accord-
ing to which friction prevents motion until an angle of
tilt of the order of 10° or 20° is attained.

An interesting article on critical speeds for torsional and
longitudinal vibrations, by Prof. Arthur Morley, of
University College, Nottingham, appears in Engineering
i'or December 9. The driving effort of a reciprocating
engine, or the resistances to be overcome, may be periodic-
ally fluctuating in magnitude, and if the period of such a
variation should approach to the period of a free torsional
vibration, or to an integral multiple of it, torsional oscilla-
tions of some considerable magnitude may be set up, with
accompanying high stresses in the material of the shaft.
Cases of approach to dangerous resonance with longitudinal
vibrations are perhaps much less common in machinery.
The author gives a complete mathematical analysis in the
article, and concludes with an interesting application to the
case of a pit cage and contents weighing ten tons, and
being raised by an engine running at 100 revolutions per
minute. Taking the net section of the rope at 2-5 square
inches and E as 13,000 tons per square inch, the depth at
which the natural frequency of vibration of the loaded rope
is equal to the speed of the engine is 955 feet, neglecting
the weight of the rope. Taking a rope weighing 8-4 lb.
per foot, and making allowance for its weight, the depth
at which resonance will occur works out to about 862 feet.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

Nova Ar^, 98.1910. — A telegram from Dr. Ristenpart
to the Astronomische Nachrichten (No. 4457) states that
the magnitude of Nova Arae, recently discovered by Mrs.
Fleming, was 9-6 on November 19.

The nova is invisible on forty-four plates of the region
taken at Arequipa during the period August, 18S9, to
March 19, 19 10, but appears on twenty-one photographs
secured between .April 4 and .August 3 of this year ; on
these plates its magnitude apparently ranges from 6-o to
lo-o, and thus it would appear that between March 19
and -April 4 the magnitude increased from 12-0, the limit-
ing magnitude of the .Arequipa plates, to 6-o. Like most
of its class, this nova lies well in the Milky Way, its
position (1875-0) being a=:i6h. 31m. 4s., 5=— 52° 10-4'.

Saturn's Rings.— Herr K. Schiller, writing to the
Astronomische Nachrichten (No. 4458), states that he
observed Saturn's ring system on November 26 at Both-
kamp, and could detect no extraordinary feature such as
was described by M. Jonckheere in an earlier communica-
tion ; the atmospheric conditions were excellent, and Herr
Schiller employed powers of 200, 600, and 800.

Publications of the Allegheny Observatory. — We
have received the first four numbers of vol. ii. of the
Publications of the Allegheny Observatory of the Uni-
versity of Pittsburgh, and give brief abstracts of them
"below. In No. i Prof. Schlesinger describes the Mellon
spectrograph with which he and the other observers prose-
cute their radial-velocity researches. This instrument was
provided, by the generosity of Mr. Andrew Mellon, for
iine-of-sight work when the Keeler memorial telescope
■was completed in 1906. The grave disadvantages arising
from the location of an astronomical observatory near a

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

large town, where the sky is never clear and ever
illuminated by artificial illuminants, had to be considered
when the form of instrument was under contemplation.
Consequently, the work which is possible had to be
materially restricted, because of the necessity of keeping
the possible exposures within reasonable limits, and a one-
prism spectrograph was designed. The sacrifice was cone
siderable, but peculiar circumstances rendered it necessary.
However, it appeared that useful work might be done if
the investigations were confined to such stars as have
broad, hazy lines, and this decision has been justified by
the results already published. Dr. Schlesinger describes
and illustrates the details of the instrument, showing how
rigidity has been attained with moderate weight. A region
of the spectrum from A 3930 to A. 4750 can be brought
into sharp focus, and under exceptionally good conditions
a strong spectrum of a fifth-magnitude star can be obtained
in about twenty minutes. Owing to the impurity of the
town atmosphere, the large mirror of the Cassegrain re-
flector has to be resilvered once a month, and the small
one everv other week ; even then, at times, they only
reflect about half as much light as when newly silvered,
and some 40 per cent, of the deterioration takes place
within three or four days of resilvering. The arrange-
ments for maintaining the temperature range of the prism
box within 01° C, for eliminating flexure, and for adjust-
ing the focus are minutely described and very ingenious.

In No. 2 Dr. Schlesinger and Mr. D. .Alter discuss the
relati%'e motions of 61 Cygni and similar stars. This dis-
cussion indicates that the motion of the companion star
is orbital rather than in a straight line — that the two stars
are phvsically connected ; thus the designation " of the
61 Cvgni type," as indicating pairs not physically con-
nected, should be abandoned.

No. 3 contains a discussion of the orbits of the spectro-
scopic components of € Herculis, by Dr. R. H. Baker,
determined from seventy-two plates taken with the Mellon
spectrograph during 1907-8. The period is found to be
4-0235 days, and the orbit nearly circular; there is no
substantial evidence for the presence of a third body. In
No. 4 Dr. Baker discusses the orbit of i H. Cassiopeia?,
from fifty-seven plates secured during 1908-9, and finds the
period to be 6-067 days.

The Orbit of the Perseids.^ — Meteoric astronomy is
being, and is likely to be, considerably advanced by the
energetic and organised observations of the Antwerp
Society d '.Astronomic. Since 1896 the Perseid and other
showers have been independently observed at many
stations, and the results collated and discussed. During
1909 and 1910, 485 and 303 Perseid trails were recorded,
and indicate the existence of seven radiants. For five of
the best marked of these M. Henri Dierckx has calcu-
lated elliptic elements, which he compares with Hayn's
elements for Tuttle's comet, 1862 III., in an article appear-
ing in Nos. 11-12 of the Gazette astronomique. The
agreement is well marked, although, as the author re-
marks, the probably large area covered by the swarm of
meteoritic particles precludes the expectation that the
Perseid elements would rigidly agree inter se.

Definitive Elements for the Orbit of Comet 1904 II.
(1904^). — This comet was discovered by.M. Giacobini at
Nice on November 17, 1904, and was observed until May
2, 1905. Herr J. Sedlacek has now discussed 118 observa-
tions, referred to eighty-four comparison stars, and
publishes the resulting orbital elements in No. 4453 of the
Astronomische Nachrichten. The orbit appears to be
hyperbolic, but the departure from a parabola is so slight
as to be practically negligible.

Designations of Newly Discovered Variable Sx.'iRS.
In No. 4457 of the Astronomische Nachrichten the com-
mission of the AG Catalogue of Variable Stars gives the
permanent designations to 126 recently discovered variable
stars. Manv of the objects have been discovered to be
variable during the present year, whilst the variabilitv of
others was detected during preceding years. In addition
to the designations, the commission gives the provisional
numbers, the positions for 1900, the range of magnitude,
and remarks concerning the discovery, the period, the type,
and the spectrum of each object.

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

2 19

THE TRANSAXDINE RAILWAY.

T T was on March 29, 1835, that Charles Darwin, who
-*■ had reached Mendoza from \"alparaiso by Peuquenes
and Portillo, set out on his return journey across the
Andes by the more northern line of the Uspallata and

Fig. I. — Valley of the Rio Mendoza below Piiente eel Inca, looking up stream; the rack rail is

s.en in the forearcur.d.*

Cumbre passes, which has always been the principal
means of communication between the pampas and the
Pacific Coast. It was not until twelve days later that he
reached Santiago, though no doubt a less ardent geologist
might have completed the journey in
somewhat shorter time. It could now
be easily accomplished by rail in less
than the same number of hours.

The Transandine railway is constructed
on the metre gauge, like many of the
Indian lines, although it links up two
broad-gauge systems. Leaving Mendoza,
where it connects with the Argentine
Great Western at a height of 2700 feet
above the sea, it turns southw-ard acro:-s
the plain, making for the point where
the Rio Mendoza leaves the eastern or
Uspallata range of the Andes, and then
follows the windings of the deep river
valley through the mountains. It thus
takes a route somewhat to the south
of that by which Darwin and other
travellers crossed this range. According
to their descriptions, the eastern slopes
are composed of Rhaetic sandstones and
bituminous shales resting on Devonian
and Ordovician slates, such as are found
in many parts of the Andes. These are
covered unconformably still further to
the westv.ard by thousands of feet of
acid and basic lavas and tuffs inter-
stratified with sandstones and carbon-
aceous shales, and believed to be of
Tertiary age. Intrusions of granite and
porphyry also occur.

After emerging from these mountains
and traversing the Uspallata Pampa, a
plateau of coarse detritus at an altitude of 6000 feet, the
railway enters the central cordillera of the Andes by the
deep gorge of what may still be called the Rio Mendoza,
though, like most South American rivers, it is known by

1 The illustrations are reproduced, with permi"wion, from a laper by Mr.
W. S. Barclay in ihe November number of the Geographical Journal.

NO. 214.6. VOL. 8.%1

different names in different parts of its course. Here Ihe
slates are covered apparently conformably by a thick
succession of Mesozoic rocks described in detail by Darwin,
Stelzner, and Schiller. They include acid lavas and tuffs,
breccias and conglomerates of the same material passing
into arenaceous rocks, amygdaloidal basalt, limestones,
gypsum interstratified with red and
purple sandstones and conglomerates,
and finally lava flows, tuffs, and con-
glomerates, consisting mainly of ande-
site, which are probably of late Creta-
ceous or even early Tertiary age.
Although marine fossils of Jurassic and
Cretaceous types are met with, some
of the beds were probably laid down
under continental conditions. On the

east the rocks are much disturbed, and
are penetrated and metamorphosed by
granite and diorite, as well as by minor
inclusions, which traverse, not only the
stratified, but the plutonic rocks.

The sides of the gorge present
magnificent sections of the geological
structure, one of the finest of which is
at the mouth of the Horcones valley,
by which AccMicagua was successfully
ascended. At Las Cuevas, a little
further on, the train enters the tunnel
beneath the Cumbre (" summit ") pass
and emerges in the valley of a tribu-
tary of the Rio Aconcagua, which
makes its way w-estward to the Pacific.
The tunnel is less than two miles long,
and little more than 10,000 feet above
the sea, while the pass is some 2000
feet higher. It is stated to have been
excavated in limestone and gypsum,
and conglomerates of rocks of igneous
origin. The western slopes of the ridge
are exposed to the wet north-west
winds, and the rocks are in places saturated with water
and decomjX)sed, so that it was necessary to face the
interior of the tunnel with concrete.

The railway then follows the valley of the .\concagua,

Fig. 2. — Scenerj- on the Chilian sidi of the tunnel.

where the later volcanic rocks dip at moderate angles to
the westward, and are penetrated here and there by
intrusions of '* porphyry," down to the fertile plain of the
same name, where at Santa Rosa de los Andes it connects
with the State railways of Chile. On account of the
steepness of the valley slopes and the decomposition of

2 20

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

the rocks the construction of the Hne on the western
slope presented serious problems to be solved, and the
central rack rail is almost continuously employed for a
distance of fifteen miles, while on the Argentine side it
is only occasionally resorted to.

Nearer the equator, where south-easterl}' winds prevail,
there are railways which, starting from the Pacific
Coast, reach an altitude of more than 14,000 feet with-
out the use of anj' special appliance of this character, for
the rainless western slopes present comparatively few
engineering difficulties ; but when the time comes for rail-
ways to be built down to the Amazonian plain it will be
no easy task to construct a firm track through the deeply
dissected country, where the almost continuous rain has
decomposed the rock to a considerable depth, and from
time to time great landslips leave a strip of the valley-
side denuded from crest to base of its thick covering of
trees.

The opening of this through route from the Atlantic to
the Pacific is an important step in the development of
communications in South America. Soon the .Argentine
railways will be united to those of Bolivia and Peru, and
the lowlands of Bolivia rendered accessible by the railway
round the cataracts of the Madeira. Everywhere the
plateau, the pampa, and the forest are losing their remote-
ness and their solitude, and bid fair to be occupied, ere
long, with a population drawn from European sources, a
consummation that, however natural and inevitable it may
be, cannot but inspire some vain regrets in those who have
known them when they were still in the state in which
the early Spanish adventurers found them.

John W. Evan%

EVOLUTION: DARWINIAN AND SPENCERIAN.
/^ N Thursday, December 8, the Herbert Spencer lecture
^^ at Oxford was delivered by Prof. Meldola, F.R.S.,
the title of the lecture being " Evolution : Darwinian and
Spencerian." Prof. Meldola began by pointing out that
while Oxford had influenced Darwin through Lyell (whose
reputation, however, was made by throwing over the doc-
trine of his old master at Oxford, Buckland), it had also
influenced Spencer through both Lyell and Mansel.
Evolution, the lecturer proceeded, did not stand or fall
with natural selection, but the prominence given by
Darwin to the latter principle availed to convert Spencer
from exclusive Lamarckism. Darwin and Spencer
approached the problem of evolution with different types
of mind, and addressed themselves to different audiences ;
the special task of Spencer was to show that organic
evolution was a particular case of general evolution. In
this he entirely succeeded, points of objection that might
be taken to his views being of minor importance. Selec-
tion, so far, had only been shown to prevail in relation
to the phenomena of life. Darwin's influence in depart-
ments where selection is not found was only indirect.

There was a fundamental difference in the method of
attack of scientific problems adopted by Darwin and
Spencer respectively. The procedure of the former was
analytic, that of the latter synthetic. For Spencer, philo-
sophy was unified science. His treatment of scientific
questions was characterised by extreme breadth, inasmuch
as his principles transcended the data of particular
sciences, this being one reason why he failed to impress
scientific men so much as might have been expected. No
such attempt to wield the weapon of unified science had
ever before been made. In estimating the comparative
validity of the methods employed by the two men, it
should be remembered that Darwin was working at a
lower level ; thus his foundations were more securely laid ;
and however sound the method, information can^ after
all, only be acquired by beings of finite intelligence and
imperfect sense organs. Hence mistakes could be, and
actually were, made ; these, however, the same method
would be competent to correct in the presence of better
information. Spencer's plan, on the other hand, was to
prove the existence of underlying principle controlling all
the processes of nature. Hence his method was philo-
sophical in the more enlightened sense of that term — the
sense seen in the old expression " natural philosophy."

From this point of view the division between sciences,
though convenient, is arbitrary. The rdle of the philo-

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

sopher is to develop generalisations and present them for
verification by science. Hence the sphere of science is
different from that of philosophy ; and in the region of
physical phenomena the deductive method has never been
called in question. In conversation with Darwin, the
lecturer was once speaking of the difficulties attendant on
the interrogation of Nature, to which Darwin replied,
" She will tell you a direct lie if she can " ! It could not
justly be said that Spencer was not an investigator at all ;
we were apt to forget that we stand on the shoulders of
our predecessors, and to judge them by the standard of
our own appliances and attainments. Of recent applica-
tions of the genuine deductive method, none was more
remarkable than the quantitative bionictric investigations
originated by Sir I'rancis Galton, pursued by the late
Prof. Weldon, and now being carried into various depart-
ments by numerous workers with conspicuous energy and
success.

The lecture was listened to with marked interest by a
large and representative audience, including the Vice-
Chancellor of the University, with several professors and
heads of colleges. It is published in full by the Clarendon
Press.

THE WORK OF POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTES.
"PHE Lord Chief Justice, Lord Alverstone, G.C.M.G.,
*• P.C., distributed the prizes at the annual prize distri-
bution at the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, London,
E.C., on Thursday, December 8. In the course of his
address, after the distribution of the prizes, he remarked
that one reason why perhaps years ago we had fallen
back was that this country and this metropolis had not
then been aroused to the necessity of thoroughly good
technical education, but that now immense good had been
done to all the outlying districts of the metropolis, as well
as to the City itself, by the establishment of the great
polytechnics and by their capability for doing good work
and of leading their students to higher and better grades.
With reference to the proposed establishment of a great
institution of technical optics in connection with the
Northampton Polytechnic, he recalled a visit he paid years
ago to the workshops of Messrs. Beck, and was satisfied
that with the development of science that was now going
forward practical optics would take a very prominent place
in the future ; he hoped that the jxjlytechnic, with the
support of those interested in it and the support of public
bodies, would be able to say next year that the building
of the new optical school had been commenced. It was
always, he considered, a matter of regret when the educa-
tional facilities of any branch of technical industry were
cribbed, cabin 'd, and confined, and he further expressed
the opinion that it was of very great importance that any
school of practical technology or practical instruction in
any expert business should be able to command the best
apparatus and the best accommodation, because if it did
not it would soon take second place. In these days
specialisation is absolutely necessary in every trade, and
after the preliminary training in fundamental subjects the
time soon comes when specialisation must begin with the
students, for in the present day it is np good scratching
at a subject, but it must be gone through right to the
bottom, so that the higher branches may be developed.
Rapid modern developments, for instance, in electricity are
constantly calling upon the institution for better apparatus,
upon the teachers for greater acquirements, and upon the
students for greater application.

After reference to the expenditure of some 6000Z. on the
new electric generating station, the Lord Chief Justice re-
minded the governors that they must be prepared for change
if they desired to keep up the standard of the institution to
the highest possible point. They must be on the look-out
in each subject for the particular branches which can be
specialised. In speaking to the students of the necessity
for concentration on the object in view, he remarked that
the extraordinary thing about Faraday was that he seemed
to be able to think and think only of the particular subject
that he was studying, and if he saw a light by the way
which perhaps might lead him to some other aim or object
he did not follow it up at once, but made a note, so to
speak, in his mind, never forgetting the main object at
which he was aiming, but putting a little mark so as to

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

221

come back some day and explore it. The address con-
cluded with appreciative remarks regarding the social and
recreative work of the institute, and especially with respect
to the high place taken in gymnastics. The necessity for
laying up for themselves a store of health and strength was
strongly impressed upon the students, and the inestimable
advantages of the social intercourse made possible by the
existence of the various clubs and societies was insisted
upon.

CEKTAIX PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE

XEGROES OF. THE CONGO FREE STATE

AND NIGERIA.

T N a lecture at the Royal Anthropological Institute on
•*■ November 29, Dr. Arthur Keith dealt with the physical
characters and relationships of certain negro tribes in
Equatorial Africa. His account was founded on data
collected by (i) Mr. E. Torday amongst tribes in the
Congo Free State, including the Bushonga, Basoka,
Sango, and several others ; (2) by Mr. P. A. Talbot in
southern Nigeria, including the tribes of the Ekoi, Kabila,
and Korawfs. Dr. Keith had also at his disposal three
collections of crania, an extensive one of the Batatela
(a tribe towards the eastern part of the Congo Free State),
which was brought home by Mr. Torday ; another from
southern Nigeria, which he owed to Mr. P. A. Talbot ;
and a third (from the delta of the Niger) which had been
placed at his disposal by Dr. Frank Corner.

In British Nigeria there are several types, but the one
which he regarded as characteristic was represented bv
individuals of low stature, relatively long-headed, with the
skull decidedly flattened from side to side. Manv of the
physical characters of this Nigerian type can be recog-
nised in the Sango and other Congo tribes bordering on
the Sudan. In head form, although not in stature, the
Dinkas and Furs of the Nilotic tribes resemble the
Nigerian type. In a contracted type which is prevalent
in the Congo Free State, and which may be called the
Congoese type, the head bulges laterally in the parietal
region, and is relatively short and low.

The Batatela and the Basoka are representative of this
type. It occurs also in some Nigerian tribes, and also
in the Nyam-Nyam and Baran tribes of the Sudan. The
Korawfs, a Nigerian tribe near the borders of the German
Cameroons, are of a low stature with relatively long
arms, as in Sir Harry Johnston's "forest negro type,"
but in head-form they resemble the Nigerian tvpe of negro.
The Bushongo from the south central part of the Congo
Free State are tall compared with the Korawfs, but
possess the massive head, great span, and large nose of
the " forest type." In many features the Bushongo are
related to certain of the Sudan tribes, such as the Nvam-
Nyam. To account for the present distribution of phvsical
characters among the negro tribes of Equatorial .Africa
one must assume that there has been a free intermigration
of tribes, and that in their evolution the tendencv in one
tribe has been towards the accentuation of one set of
features, in another tribe of another set of characters.
Thus in the Nilotic Dinkas high stature and narrow-
headedness have become marked characters ; in typical
Nigerians low stature and narrow heads ; in the Bsoka a
wide, short head and low stature : in the Buruna a wide
head and high stature. Interbreeding may have plaved a
part in the determination of tribal characters ; if it had
played a great part we should have found a greater degree
of physical uniformity. The e.xtent to which an admixture
of .Arab blood has modified the physical characters of
"■"gro tribes has probably been exaggerated.

SCIENCE AND THE STATED
JN all ages the welfare of a State must have been in a
greater or less degree dependent on the development
of its material resources and on the vigour and intelli-
gence of its people ; it is only in comparatively recent
years, however, that recognition has been given to the
fact that the State must leave nothing of this to chance,
but must set itself deliberately by the use of scientific

1 From the prf "tidential address delivered before the South African Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science on October 31 by Dr. T. Muir
C.M.G., F.R.S.

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

method to make the very best of its resources, and to
increase the available vigour and intelligence of everyone
within its borders. Not only so, but it must take suitable
precautions that intelligence be universally trained, and be
also duly organised so as to give the most effective and
productive result. It is no longer enough that the State
shall merely welcome and applaud a discoverer when he
arises, or merely safeguard a private inventor from being
fleeced ; on the contrary, it must give of its substance to
foster both discovery and invention, and must give legis-
lative help to secure that inventions when made shall not
be unfruitful through want of skilled labour or other
hampering cause.

If we ask the reason for this change, the answer is that
the keenness of international competition has vastly in-
creased, that this has led to serious searching of intellect,
that the laws of evolution have in consequence been seen
to be applicable to nations as well as to individuals, and
that under these inexorable laws the very existence of a
State may be imperilled by ignorance or neglect. It is
thus more important than ever that statesmen and leaders
of the people shall not only be men of probity and high
general character, but men of wide knowledge and pene-
trating forethought. They must have studied and must
know all the possibilities of both land and people. On the
material side they must have reckoned up the mineral re-
sources, the agricultural resources, the water power and
other forms of potential energy, the harbour accommoda-
tion, the waterways, and the advantages of the geo-
graphical position for over-sea commerce. On the human
side they must have noted the natural gifts and weak-
nesses of the people, the best means of developing the
former and of correcting the latter ; and if it should be
that there are varieties of race and colour in the popula-
tion they must have thought out plans, not only for pre-
venting loss of power through internal friction, but for
obtaining the close cooperation of all the races in the
general national interest. In the future it is only in a
relative sense that there will continue to be " hewers of
wood and drawers of water " ; the State that aims at
being in the forefront will have to see that even its wood-
hewing and its water-drawing are done intelligently and
to the best advantage. Further, the exploitation of any
race in the interest of a higher race will be fatal folly when
the need exists for exploiting all races in the interests of
the State.

These considerations make it readily appear that the
first great duty of the State towards science is to provide
an effective and comprehensive system of national educa-
tion. In the lower stages of the system direct and formal
instruction in science need not bulk very largely ; what is
essential is that the pupil shall throughout his course be
trained to observe, to think, and to reason. In the middle
stages — the stages covered by secondary schools of all
classes — the actual study of science, and especially of
scientific method, must form a larger and ever-increasing
part of the curriculum. Under neither of these heads,
however, need we enter into detail to-night ; it is sufficient
for our present purpose to insist in connection with both
on the desirability (i) of fostering rather than repressing
the natural curiosity of the young ; (2) of constantly re-
curring to the study of things in supplement to that of
words ; (3) of training the hands in the use of appropriate
tools other than the pen ; (4) of gradually introducing re-
search methods into class-room work. It is the neglect
of this advice that has been a main cause in the retarda-
tion of science ; it has also helped to make school life a
byword for dulness, and in many cases made the after-life
unintellectual and even trivial.

W'hen we come to the higher stages — the stage of the
university, and more practical institutions coordinate there-
with— the interest in our subject naturally increases, for
there we look, not only for instruction in science and
training in scientific method, but for a steady flow of
fresh contributions to the stock of human knowledge.
That this last is a legitimate expectation is now the
received opinion throughout the whole civilised world. In
accepting it, too, we have but returned to the original
conception of a university — a conception that in the course
of a long period of years had gradually come to be for-
gotten in English-speaking countries. The evil results of

222

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

this period of somnolescence at length became so striking,
not to say alarming, that in May of 1870 a Royal Com-
mission was appointed in England to make inquiry into
the whole matter. It may safely be said that no stronger
commission ever sat on a cognate subject, and that its
long series of reports are models of clear statement and
wise counsel which even to-day it would be difficult to
improve upon.

" We have no doubt," one weighty report says, " that
for a professor the duty of teaching is indispensable, but
we agree that original research is a no less important part
of his functions. The object of a university is to promote
and to maintain learning and science, and scientific teach-
ing of the highest kind can only be successfully carried on
by persons who are themselves engaged in original re-
search. If once a teacher ceases to be a learner it is
difficult for him to maintain any freshness in the subject
which he has to teach ; and nothing is so likely to awaken
the love of scientific inquiry in the mind of the student
as the example of a teacher who shows his value for
knowledge by making the advancement of it the principal
business of his life." How far the great English universi-
ties then fell short of the ideal here indicated may be
gathered from the writings of the time. On the mon-
strously developed examination system much of the blame
had, of course, to be thrown. When it was asked what
the universities did with their endowments and equipment,
a voice from Cambridge said " they perform the func-
tions, for too many of their students, of first-grade schools
merely, and that in a manner about which opinions are
divided ; and superadded to these is an enormous examin-
ing engine, on the most approved Chinese model, always
at work." Another writer advised that in order to be
honest the university ought to put up a large brass plate
with the inscription " Examinations held here "; and there
were endless other well-deserved sarcasms from those who
knew the facts best.

Of the agitation, the inquiry, and the plain speaking
much good came, and the English universities of to-day
show in consequence a very different character and spirit.
The difference may not be all that earnest reformers still
desire, but who in South Africa can with any conscience
throw a stone at the offenders? Even so late as 1901,
when numerous reforms had been effected in England, a
great educationist and chemist, in directing attention to
the function performed by universities on the continent of
Europe, wound up with the passionate cry : — " Their
universities have always been schools of research, of
inquiry; unless, and until, ours become such, and our
youth can be trained to advance, there can be no hope
for us. God help us to make the change before it is too
late ! " If this be the prayer considered suitable for
England when the present century began, what petition
will suffice to-day for South Africa, which, as regards uni-
versity research, stands well in the rear of the England of
forty years ago? Are we to be encouraged to hope that
one result of this year of union will be a serious effort
to uproot our low ideals of university work, and to sow-
in their place the seeds of true learning and research?
Fortunately, in one or two of the " colleges " a few
individual teachers have set an excellent example, striving
so far as their scant leisure permitted to advance the
boundaries of their subject. All honour to them, and mav
more and more of their students imbibe their spirit and
unite to press on the question of university reform and
the removal of a deeply engrained stigma.

Coordinate in a sense with universities are public
museums and libraries, the link of connection being that,
besides intended for the promotion of research, thev have
other purposes to serve. All of them profess to aim at
the instruction of the people ; but in the case of museums
and libraries this instruction is avowed to be mainly of a
popular character, and in the case of museums it often
differs very little from that more or less elevated amuse-
ment called sight-seeing.

As regards " museums," especially local museums, we
have to note that, in the first place, very seldom have
their founders had the purposes of real research in their
minds. _ Usually, indeed, the original object has been the
formation of a collection of animals, plants, and mere
curiosities, with the result that if anything profited thereby
it was natural history and archaeology alone. Further, a
NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

fresh museum has almost uniformly been started witho\ii
any intention of supplementing or cooperating with th»>
already in existence; much loss in effectiveness has thi.
been sustained. How best to remedy these initial defects
has been a long-standing problem with scientific men, and
it is now fairly well agreed (i) that the museums of a
country should for purposes of coordination and coopera- '.
tion be under some common control ; (2) that while in local
museums appropriate specialisation should be encouraged,
no science should be wholly neglected ; (3) that both of
the main purposes, instruction and research, should recei\
adequate attention in all museums ; (4) that in the d
of the central museum the purpose of research should b"
paramount, all the chief officers being chosen because of
their ability to advance the knowledge of their own sub- j
jects. We in Cape Town have in the South African >
Museum, with its annals, a scientific agency of great '
national value and of immense promise for the futui'
Sad it is to think that, while its collections have bi .
rapidly growing in magnitude and importance, i';
accommodation for exhibiting them remains as it \\ .
fifteen years ago.

As regards libraries, the state of matters is not grea;
dissimilar. There are more of them it is true; but if ;!
list be arranged in order of merit we have not got far
down it when we find that we have parted company with ■
scientific research. Indeed, the libraries that cater for
anyone else than the so-called " general reader " are
exceedingly few in number ; cooperation is thus at least as
necessary as in the case of museums. This is especially \
true in regard to scientific journals and the publications J
of scientific societies. The number of these is nowadays j
so great that a long purse is necessary for the mainten- ;
ance of a complete collection ; but by neglecting coopera- ■
tion we make matters worse than they need be. Here '
in Cape Town, for example, we have four or five libraries
that purchase scientific serials, and, though the libraries
are within short distance of one another, duplicate and
triplicate copies of some journals are to be found on their
tables, while other journals equally impwrtant are neglected
by them all. The time surely cannot be far distant when
this will be rectified, when the importance of such refer-
ence libraries will be better appreciated by the State, and
when the South African Public Library, having its special
annual grant for reference books restored to it, will take
the lead in a scheme of cooperation calculated to meet the
wants of all engaged in scientific or literary research.

When thus dealing with the functions of universities,
museums, and libraries, I have been in a manner viewing
the State as an educationist. I now wish, in the same
way, to invite your attention to the State as a landlord.
With an extensive and varied property calling for develop-
ment, one of the first and most urgent duties is to have it
surveyed and inventoried under every needful heading.
In the first place it must be accurately mapped ; in the
second place its surface constituents and rock formations
must be ascertained and registered; in the third place the
animal life of every district must be put on record ; in the
fourth place the same must be done with its plant life ;
and, lastly, its water supply, rainfall, and other climatic
factors must be observed and tabulated. There thus arise
as necessary scientific departments of the State's work —
the topographical, geological, zoological, botanical, and
meteorological. The fact that some of these subjects are
incidentally dealt with by college lecturers and private
students is no satisfactory reason for negligence on the
part of the State. All such outside aid, it must be re-
membered, is subject to the uncertainties of personal
liking, fashion, and caprice, and, consequently, is in its
nature fitful and untrustworthy in an emergency. Besides,
much of the work wanted to be done requires continuous
attention over long periods, so that efficiency can only be
secured by the existence of a permanent staff.

Attention has next to be directed to the State's dutv in
a third capacity, namely, as general health guardian.
Fortunately this, though involving consideration of a
number of sciences (entomology, bacteriology, mycology,
&c.), need not be enlarged upon, it being self-evident that
the bodily and mental fitness of the people is all-important
in the life struggle of nations, and that it is almost equally
momentous that animals and plants useful to man should
be protected from the ravages of disease. Further, ther^

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

225

is the satisfactory reason that in dealing with such matters
South African Governments have been, on the whole,
sympathetic and, in some directions, markedly liberal.
Here again, however, and perhaps in a special degree, it
is necessary to give warning that the State should not
burden itself with work proper to individuals and private
corporations, but should confine itself to needful scientific
work which other agencies cannot accomplish. It should
never be forgotten that the State which discourages self-

Ip is undermining its own strength.

Thus far we have been considering sciences with direct
practical applications ; indeed, the reasons for considering
them at all has been in the main because of the existence
<if these applications — because the sciences bear more or

~? immediately on the welfare and prosperity of the

ate. What, then, are we to say of sciences from which
the State or its people cannot hope to obtain any immediate
benefit? Our answer is — and it ought to be given with
entire frankness — such sciences must be content to take a
second place. The State, we feel, has a perfect right to
•^xpect something tangible in return for its outlay ; and,
- supply of funds being limited, it is bound to pass in

view before it any proposed series of scientific schemes,
separating them out into practical and impractical, and
thereafter sifting the practical into those that are urgent
and those that are not. A manifest danger, however,
besets the discriminators between rival schemes, it being
far from easy to foresee what particular research will
prove fruitful of practical af)plications and what will not.
How often has one seen the pure mathematics of to-day
change into the applied mathematics of to-morrow, and
the previously despised insect collector being hailed shortly
afterwards as a benefactor of mankind ! .All that one can
hope for is that those with whom such decisions rest will
lUvays take the best advice available. Of recent years

iropean Governments have tended more and more in

ch cases to consult their great leading scientific cor-
porations ; the Government of the Union may in like
manner find our own Royal Society a willing and useful
guide. I would merely add as a fact worth ruminating on
that the States which have differentiated least between pure
and applied science are the States which lead the world
to-day.

While thus whole-heartedly urging the great importance
of science on those who may be called to administer the
affairs of State, it would be unfair to ignore the difficulties
and troubles which well-disposed administrators are said
to have experienced in their dealings with scientific men,
or ■• experts," as they prefer to call them. The complaint
of the most moderate of these critics is that the man of
science is normally unpractical, and that his value to the
State is marred by eccentricities due to over-study or
excessive specialisation ; and those critics who are not
moderate, and who love a biting phrase better than strict
accuracy, say that when he is not an astute self-seeker
he is either a mooning pedant or a pernicious crank. Now
in regard to this I should first wish to ask whether it be
not the case that the failure of the scientific expert is
often due to causes wholly outside himself. Time and
again one has seen a man chosen for his high qualifica-
tions in a special branch of knowledge, and then set, not
to the work of extending this knowledge by investigation,
but to the absolutely diverse work of " running " a
Government office or carrying on a purely business under-
taking. Failure, nine times out of ten, is thus inevitable,
so rare is it to find the successful student and the capable
administrator combined in one. Surely it is the merest
common sense to urge that if both sets of qualifications
be wanted, reasonable care should be taken either that
they are possessed by the same individual or that a prac-
ticable arrangement involving their separation has been
previously devised. One thing certain is that in particular
the appellation " self-seeking " as applied to men of science
is singularly unfortunate, for, though the man of science
with such a bent is not unknown, one's whole experience
IS that he is a comparative rarity, and that the more zeal
a man has for science the less regardful he is of self.
Indeed, it has been maintained that in the virtues of un-
selfishness and truthfulness the man who has chosen the
pursuit of science for his life-work noteworthilv excels.
No less an authority than Helmholtz, himself a' man of
the world as well as a great investigator, has spontane-
NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

ously testified to this, speaking with enthusiasm of the
scientific man's " Sittenstrenge " and his " Uneigen-
niJtzige Begeisterung. " Unfortunately, it is possible that
this " Sittenstrenge " is exactly what our public men
would consider an eccentricity, their short-sightedness lead-
ing them to mistake a surface freckle for a deep-seated
defect.

Be all this as it may, however, it is important to urge
on both sides the fact that the man of science and the
man of affairs, whatever their respective frailties may be,
have need of each other, and must therefore in the future
strive to know each other better, and learn to cooperate
more effectively in the interest of the State. To this end
he who aims at State administration must seek to possess
other qualities and other aptitudes than those of the mere
party politician, so that, besides doing his own proper
work well, he may be the better able to gauge the value
of pure scientific work, and be the better fitted to sympa-
thise with the ideals and aspirations of even the extremest
of specialists. On the other hand, the specialist must
aim a little more at width of outlook and knowledge of
men and affairs, must seek to moderate his exaggerated
estimate of the importance of his own little domain, and
must try to see good in the labours of other specialists
in fields far distant from his own. never forgetting that
all fields are but perfectly fitted portions of a cosmic
whole, and that, as the botanist and the astronomer in
particular must come to know.

Thou can-it not stir a flower

Withoot iroubling a star.
It would be a neglected opportunity if we did not note
in passing that the need for a good understanding between
the devotee of statecraft and the student of science is only
part of a much wider need. Men who aspire to be leaders
in municipal affairs, in commerce, in trade, in the manu-
facturing industries, in agriculture, must all come to know
how substantially dependent they are upon science, and
how, indeed, in a very real way, they must become more
and more scientific themselves in the conduct of their
affairs. With them also the day is gone when rule-of-
thumb is a sufficient guide. Even sound common sense,
so great a standby in the past, is no longer enough : what
is wanted is that glorified form of common sense known
as scientific method. Practical men in every line of life
are beginning to see this, though they may not use the
term. In plain language, what it means is the employ-
ment, at every stage of a process or undertaking, of the
means best suited to attain the desired end. And as a
method it is always essentially the same, no matter how
the desired end may vary — whether the latter be, as we
in Cape Colony have seen it to be, the sanitation of a
town, the tracking of a crime, the repression of a native
rebellion, the fighting of an invading disease, or the
capturing of a market for fruit or wool. In all of these
there was the same need for collecting accurate data,
using all previously acquired relev.ant knowledge, planning
skilfully a course of procedure, selecting wisely the human
agents necessary, and then prosecuting with steady per-
sistency the plan resolved on.

• I need hardly say, in conclusion, that all that the most
enlightened State can do will never be fully effective with-
out a continuance of that zeal and devotion on the part
of the " private worker " which has been so conspicuous
in the past history of science ; and, fortunately, in the
course of evolution man has become so constituted that a
stoppage of the supply need not be feared. Many will still
be found willing and eager to work for the work's sake,
whether the State does its duty or the reverse, merely rest-
ing on the assurance that " Nature never did betray the
heart that truly ' loved her.' "

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.
Cambridge. — The special board for biology and geology
has adjudged the Walsingham medal for iqio to A. V.
Hill, of Trinity College, for his essay entitled " The Heat
Produced by Living Tissues, with Special Reference to
Muscular .Activity"; and a second Walsingham medal to
J. C. F. Fryer, of Gonville and Caius College, for his
essay entitled " The Structure and Formation of Aldabra
and Neighbouring Islands — with Notes on their Flora and
Fauna."

224

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

The Vice-Chancellor gives notice that the Walsingham
medal for 19 ii will be awarded for a monograph or essay
giving evidences of original research on any botanical,
geological, or zoological subject, zoology being understood
to include animal morphology and physiology. The regu-
lations for the medal are published in the Ordinances,
p. 629. The competition is open to graduates of the
University who at the time fixed for sending in the essays
are not of standing to be created Master of Arts. The
essays for the ensuing year are to be sent to the chair-
man of the special board for biology and geology (Prof.
Langley, The Museums) not later than October 10, 191 1.

It is proposed to confer the degree of science, Iwnoris
causa, upon Prof. George E. Hale, director of the Solar
Observatory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington,
Mount Wilson, California.

I

The Earl of Lytton will distribute the prizes and certifi-
cates at the Borough Polytechnic Institute on Monday next,
December 19, at 8 p.m.

A Reuter message from Kimberley states that the
De Beers Company has made a donation of 25,000/. towards
the founding of a South African university.

We learn from Science that Yale University has received
an anonymous gift of 3000/., the interest of which is to
be used as an emergency loan fund in the interest of
instructors and assistant professors of the University ;
6000/. of a fund of io,oooZ. left to the University by the
late Mr. J. Burnett Collins, of Fort W'orth, Texas; 4000/.
from Mr. Newton Barney, of Farmington, Conn., toward
the fund for the professorship of education, and a like
amount from the family of the late Mr. John H. Whitte-
more, of Naugatuck, as a memorial gift. From the same
source we learn that the University of Vermont has just
received 5000Z. by the will of Mr. Lewis L. Coburn, a
graduate of the class of 1859.

The annual meeting of the Mathematical Association is
to be held on January 11, 1911, at the London Day Train-
ing College, Southampton Row, London, W.C. At 11 a.m.
the president, Prof. H. H. Turner, F.R.S., will deliver his
address, and this will be followed by a paper on the teach-
ing of mechanics by Mr. G. Goodwill. The business meet-
ing will begin at 2 p.m., and will be followed by the read-
ing of papers. The Rev. Canon J. M. Wilson will deal
with two fragments of geometrical treatises found in
Worcester Cathedral library, and Mr. C. V. Durell will
take as his subject the arithmetic syllabus in secondary
schools. A discussion on the report of the committee on
the teaching of algebra and trigonometry will take place,
and an exhibition of scientific apparatus and books will be
held.

In connection with the Winter School of Agriculture of
the Essex Education Committee, a course of instruction
on farm crops and livestock is to be conducted at the
County Laboratories, Chelmsford, from January 9 to
March 17 of next year. The aim of the winter school is
to impart instruction in the cultivation of the soil, the
growth of crops, and the rearing of stock, based upon a
knowledge of the sciences on which the practice of agri-
culture depends. The instruction in chemistry and physics,
botany and zoology, is accompanied by practical labora-
tory work. The lectures on agriculture and surveying
are supplemented by field and other demonstrations, but
no instruction is given in the actual processes of farm
work, it being held that these must be learnt upon the
farm itself. The school, in fact, is intended to supple-
ment farm training, not to replace it. The instruction is
free to students resident in the County of Essex. Appli-
cations to attend must be made to the principal on or
before December 16, from whom further particulars and
forms of application may be had.

It is proposed to organise in London next July a holiday
course of lectures for the advancement of commercial
studies. The object of the lectures is to familiarise the
students — mainly commercial men and teachers of
economics from Continental countries — with the history
and practical working of English commerce and industry.
The lectures are being arranged by the International
Society for Promoting Commercial Education, which has
already held similar annual courses in Milan, Mannheim,

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

Havre, and Vienna. The society receives the 'p^tronay
and financial support of many European Governments.
The London course is to be held at the School of
Economics, Clare Market, London, W.C, from July 24
to August 12 next. Arrangements are being made for
securing the assistance as lecturers of the most eminent
liritish authorities on economic and commercial subjects,
and promises of help have been received already. An
influential committee is in course of formation, and the
names will shortly be announced. Persons interested in
the subject are invited to communicate with the organising
secretary for Great Britain, Mr. E. Cleveland-Stevens,
School of Economics, Clare Market, London, W.C.

The Education Committee of the General Medical
Council has been considering for a year the place in a
medical student's career that the preliminary sciences should
occupy, and it has been engaged also in discussing thi-
framing a pattern scheme showing how the subjects re-
quired could be studied adequately and the necessary
examination passed within the prescribed period. The re-
port of the committee was submitted to the General Medical
Council at its winter session held at the end of November.
The Education Committee has come to the conclusion that
the schools of the country generally are not at the present
time in a position to take up the work of preparing students
in the preliminary sciences, chemistry, physics, and biology,
and that the student must study these subjects at a medical
school or science institute. The committee further came
to the conclusion that any attempt to fix a standard mini-
mum curriculum would fail, and eventually recommended
only the elimination of some of the more junior examina-
tions— which are recognised as preliminary examinations in
general education — and their replacement by tests of an
intermediate character. After some discussion, in which it
was clear that there was a large body of opinion against
the committee's recommendations, the further consideration
of the subject was postponed until the May session of the
council next year.

At a meeting of the governing body of the Imperial
College of Science and Technology, held on December 9,
it was decided to invite Prof. Friedrich Czapek, of the
University of Prague, to occupy the newly founded chair
of plant physiology and pathology in the college, and to
take immediate steps to afford the accommodation neces-
sary for the important work of such a department. It is
understood that, in furtherance of the aim of the Imperial
College to apply science to industry, this chair has been
founded to meet the needs for training young men to act
as advisers in matters connected with agriculture at home
and in the Empire abroad. Under existing conditions of
agriculture it is everywhere recognised — notably by the
large planting communities — that the advice of scientific
experts has become absolutely necessary. There is, in
fact, a demand considerably exceeding the supply for the
services of trained scientific men to act in these capacities.
Prof. Czapek enjoys a world-wide reputation as one of the
leaders in plant physiology and pathology, and he has
devoted sjjecial attention to the biochemical aspect of these
subjects. It is precisely from this biochemical treatment
that results of the highest importance for industry may
be expected. We are informed that the college has every
reason to expect that Prof. Czapek will accept the invita-
tion. It is anticipated that the recognition of the import-
ance of the business interests wrapped up in this work
will justify the authorities of the college in looking beyond
their immediate resources for the heavy initial expense
required for buildinf^ and suitablv equipping such a depart-
ment and for its subsequent maintenance.

At the annual Convocation of the Allahabad University,
held on November 12 at the Muir Central College, the
Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Richards, conferred the degrees and
delivered an address. Great strides, he said, have been
made with the project for providing the University with
a habitation of its own. The plans prepared by Sir
Swinton Jacob will be on view in the exhibition shortly
to open in Allahabad. The plans include a senate hall
with offices and committee rooms, a law college, and a
university library. When the buildings are completed tlr^v
will amply provide for all the needs of Allahabad Uni-
versity. All the money needed for carrying out the whole
scheme has not yet been collected, but with Government

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

22

;~^istance and the donations promised and received some
Rs. 7,00,000 can be counted on. Further donations are
urgently needed. Later the Vice-Chancellor said the
Liiiversity may congratulate itself upon a windfall that
lias come to it during the year. A sum of more than
Rs. 75,000 has been received from the Queen \'ictoria
Memorial Fund as an endowment for founding readerships
for research work. The institution of university chairs
was recommended by the Universities' Commission of 1904
for this very purp>ose, and it has been a cherished hope
lor many years that .Allahabad University might be able
to do something for the promotion of research among its
graduate members. Hitherto, for lack of funds, nothing
could be done. Now, however, a beginning can be made,
and though it must be in a modest way at first, it
inaugurates a new and important era in development ; and
- time goes on it will attract other benefactions, until
University has at length sufficient funds for research
all the directions of university study.
The report on the work of the Department of Tech-
logy of the City and Guilds of London Institute for the
-ion 1909-10 is now available. At the recent examina-
.3 24,508 candidates were presented in technology from
- centres in the United Kingdom, and of these 14,105
-sed. By including the candidates from India and the
colonies, and those for the teachers' certificates in manual
training and domestic economy, the total number of
examinees was 26,878. These figures show an increase
on those of any previous year. In order to secure the
expert advice of trade societies and professional bodies in
the conduct of the department's educational work, the
institute has arranged for the formation of advisory com-
mittees, consisting of persons interested in, and with a
knowledge of, the technical details of different industries.
The functions of each committee are to suggest improve-
ments in the syllabuses of instruction, to recommend for
appointment new examiners, and generally to advise on
any matter connected with the course of instruction which
may be referred to them by the institute. Reference has
been made in former reports to the two main causes which
impede progress in the technical instruction of artisans,
and prevent the results of the teaching, now so liberally
provided by local authorities, from being as satisfactory
as might be desired. These causes are emphasised in the
special reports of several of the institute's examiners.
They are, first, the difficulty of finding competent teachers,
and, secondly, the unduly large proportion of artisan
students who enter technical classes without the pre-
liminary knowledge necessary to take full advantage of
the instruction they receive. While local authorities accept
readily the advice and assistance of the department in their
selection of teachers, and a higher standard of qualifica-
tion is now more generally required, further improvement
in this direction must be looked for if the money expended
on technical instruction is to produce its best results.
There can be no doubt that the teaching of technology
has greatly improved during the past few years, but it
must be noted that the examiners have still to direct atten-
tion repeatedly to the insufficient preliminary knowledge
that- some candidates possess.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
London.
Ge logical Society, November 23.— Prof. W. W. Watts,
F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. W. F. Hume : The

effects of secular oscillation in Egypt during the Eocene
and Cretaceous periods. There is evidence of the gradual
advance of the Cretaceous sea from north or north-east
over Egypt during Upper Cretaceous times. Four stages
in this advance are indicated by the distribution of the
Cretaceous deposits. The four phases are : — (a) A north
Egyptian type, in which the Nubian Sandstone entirelv
underlies fossiliferous beds of Cenomanian age. This
estends across Egypt from Sinai to Baharia Oasis, (b) A
\\adi-Qena type, developed near the head of the vallev of
that name, characterised by the alternation of Nubian
Sandstone with fossiliferous Cretaceous beds. (c) A
central Egyptian or Hammama tvpe, in which the Nubian
Sandstone forms the greater portion of the Cretaceous
series, only the Danian and Campanian beds being fossil-

NO. 214.6. VOL. 85}

iferous limestones or shales. The Campanian beds are
characterised by the presence of phosphatic fish-beds,
(d) A south Egyptian type has resemblances to the central
Egyptian, but in the Campanian the phosphatic beds are
inconspicuous. .\s regards the transition from the Creta-
ceous to the Eocene, the existence of two types of strata at
the base of the Eocene is noted : the first, the Luxor type,
being fossiliferous, and developed in the Western Desert ;
the second, or Qena type, being unfossiliferous, and com-
posed of white limestone similar to the Danian white lime-
stone below them, but structurally different. These varia-
tions may be due to fold-effects produced while the land
was gaining on the sea at the beginning of Eocene times,
the Qena limestones being remade Cretaceous material.
Whereas in southern Egypt Lower Eocene strata directly
overlie the Danian strata, in northern Egypt unconformi-
ties exist between the Middle Eocene and the Cretaceous
beds. The palaeontological differences between the Cre-
taceous and the Eocene are recorded, the principal feature
being the sudden incoming of the foraminifera Nummulites
and Operculina. The distribution, zonation, and variation
of the Eocene series are considered. The apparent uni-
formity of the fossiliferous Lower Eocene strata wherever
developed is noted. The lack of uniformity in the Middle
Eocene strata. The nature of the Eocene beds between
Baharia Oasis and the depressions of Moela and the
Fayum are described, zoned, and compared with the Middle
Eocene in other parts of Egypt. The influence of the
gain of land over sea is traced through the Upper
Moqattam beds. The Cretaceous period in Egypt is
marked by the gradual gain of sea over land ; during the
Eocene land appears to have been steadily gaining on the
sea, probably accompanied by gentle fold-movements, which
account for the minor differences in the nature of the
Eocene deposits. — A. R. Horwood : The origin of the
British Trias. During the Triassic period in Britain, de-
position, it is maintained, was brought about solely by
the action of water, and the British Trias is a delta-
system, for during Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic
times depKJsition was mainly in the same area. There is
a gradation from the Bunter to the Rhaetic. The Bunter
is known to be of fluviatile origin, and there is a con-
tinuity from Lower to Upper Trias, with an unconformity
due to the new mode of formation and change in sedi-
mentation. Oscillation and overlapping are admittedly
due to aqueous agency. The Triassic outcrop and the
delta-area of the river Mississippi are closely similar.
Coloration is original, from below upwards, and not
coincident with bedding. The thickness of the Bunter is
an argument for a subsiding area. The ferruginous types
in the Carboniferous, Permian, and Trias are alike due to
delta conditions. The Trias is horizontal now, as origin-
ally, away from any ancient hills which it covers. It is
only the skerries that are rippled. Screes occur mainly
to the south-west of submerged hills. Sandstones thin out
eastward, marls westward, and the skerries are on the
hills. Rock-salt and gypsum are also horizontal and con-
tinuous in a linear direction. The Keuoer gradually
merges into the Rhaetic phase, and the latter into the Lias.
Since the Bunter sediments came from the north-west into
the Midlands, so probably did the Upper Trias. Local
metamorphic and volcanic rocks may have provided some
of the heavier minerals, but, as a whole, their source was
more distant. The flora and fauna can be grouped in
provinces around the delta-head of the Trias. These con-
siderations point to an aqueous mode of sedimentation in
a moist and equable climate.

Physical Society, November 25. — Prof. H. L. Callendar
F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. A. Russell : The
electric stress at which ionisation begins in air. Prof.
J. B. Whitehead has published the values of the electric
stress at which ionisation begins in air. His electrodes
consisted of a metal tube and a cylindrical wire coaxial
with it. Alternating pressures were employed, and the
inner wires had diameters from 0089 to 0475 cm. If a
be the radius of the inner wire, the expression 32+i3-4'\/a
gives all Whitehead's experimental results for the maxi-
mum electric stress in kilovolts per centimetre with a
maximum inaccuracy of less than i per cent. Experi-
ments show that the electric stress at which ionisation
occurs is independent of the metals used for the electrodes

226

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

and of the inner radius of the outer tube. It depends on
the radius of the inner wire. Steinmetz's experimental
results on the sparking distances between parallel rods are
in substantial agreement with Whitehead's figures. An
empirical formula based on experimental results published
by Kowalski and Rappel is given for the sparking voltages
between equal spherical electrodes. The electric stress at
the moment of discharge has a minimum value when the
distance between the electrodes is a certain function of
their radius. Great stress is laid on the currents of
electrified air which stream round the electrodes before the
discharge takes place. These currents often modify the
values obtained for the disruptive stress at the moment of
discharge. The similarity between the formulae for the
temperature gradient at the surface of a hot wire cooling
in air and the empirical formula for the potential gradient
at the surface of an electrified wire when ionisation is
taking place at its surface is pointed out. — Prof. R. J.
Strutt.: The afterglow of electric discharge. When the
electric discharge has passed at low pressure through
certain gaseous mixtures, a luminosity survives for some
seconds after the dischai-ge has been turned off. An
improved method of experimenting on the phenomena was
introduced by Dewar. A powerful air-pump is used to
draw a regulated current of gas through the vacuum tube.
A continuous removal of the gas from the region of dis-
charge is effected, and the afterglow which it emits, in
passing through another vessel on its way to the pump,
can be examined continuously and at leisure. There has
been difference of opinion as to whether pure oxygen shows
a glow or not. The glow, if any, is certainly exceedingly
faint. With air a bright yellow glow is obtained, which
is improved by enriching the air with oxygen. Pure
nitrogen gives no glow whatever. Previous experimenters
have connected the glow with ozone, though without ex-
pressing definite views as to what part ozone played. The
evidence for this has been that the glow is only obtained
where oxygen is present, and that it is destroyed by heat.
Additional evidence has been obtained, (i) The glow can-
not survive passage through a tube cooled in liquid air.
This is regarded as due to condensation of ozone. (2) It
is destroyed by passage over oxides of copper, manganese,
and silver. Ozone is known to be destroyed by these
substances. (3) While the glowing gas oxidises bright
silver, the gas current beyond the point at which the glow
has died out does not do so. Disappearance of the glow
is simultaneous with disappearance of ozone from the gas.
The glow involves consumption of ozone. It is natural
to regard it as a flame of low temperature, arising from
the oxidation of some other body by ozone. Experiments
were made to determine the nature of this other body.
A current of ozone from a vacuum tube fed with oxygen
was allowed to mix with any other gas which it was
desired to test on its way to the pump. Nitrogen or
ordinary air added to the ozone gave no effect, but air
which had been through an independent discharge, and
had been deprived of its original glow by silver oxide, was
found to glow a'gain on mixing with ozone. Some body
is produced in air by the discharge the oxidation of which
is responsible for the glow. This body is nitric oxide.
On leading a current of this gas into the ozone stream a
brilliant glow was obtained of the characteristic \'ellow
colour. This glow can be produced in the form of a
pointed flame, with dark inner cone. The glow is not
associated with a sensible rise of temperature. Condensing
the ozone with liquid air, allowing it to re-evaporate, and
admitting nitric oxide to it, a yellow flash can be obtained
long after the electric discharge is over. The glow is
purely chemical in its origin. Ozone from the Siemens
tube used at atmospheric pressure seems incapable of
yielding the glow when mixed with nitric oxide. This
may be due to the low percentage of ozone present. The
main conclusion is that the ordinary yellow afterglow is
due to oxidation of nitric oxide by ozone. — L. F.
Richardson : The approximate solution of various
boundary problems by surface integration combined with
freehand graphs.

Zooloefical Society, November 29. — Dr. H. Woodward
F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Dr. H. B. Fantham
and Dr. H. Hammond Smith : A possible cause of
pneumo-enteritis in the red grouse (Lagopus scoticus).

NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

The authors recorded that in grouse-chicks dying of
coccidiosis, many of which showed symptoms of pneu-
monia, they found coccidian oocysts in the bronchioles,
bronchi, and trachea. The coccidian cysts in the bron-]
chioles were probably capable of setting up sufficient
irritation to account for the pneumonic symptoms. Thes
observations were interesting as showing that the mucHl
criticised views of Klein, Tegetmeier, and others on
" pneumo-enteritic " as a cause of mortality in grouse
may have some foundation in fact. — Dr. J. F. Genrimiil :
The development of Solaster endeca, Forbes. The author
described the ovaries and ova and the processes of spawn-
ing, fertilisation, segmentation, and gastrulation, and then
dealt with the characters of the free-swimming larvse and
the changes related to the metamorphosis. He discussed
the development of the internal cavities and of the skele-
ton, and described the methods he had employed in obtain-
ing and rearing the larvae. The memoir, in addition to
details of adult anatomy, contained a description of various
points in development. — F. E. Beddard : The alimentary
tract of certain birds, and on the mesenteric relations of
the intestinal loops. Notes the author had accumulated
relative to the viscera of birds which had died in the
society's gardens. The paper dealt more particularly with
species that had not been carefully studied from the point
of view of the convolutions of the intestine, and attention
was directed to a considerable series of birds. — Prof.
A. Cabrera : The specimens of spotted hyaenas in the
British Museum (Natural History). Three apparently
new forms were described.

Linnean Society, December i. — Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S.,
president, in the chair. — Captain C. F. Meek : The
spermatogenesis of Stenobothrus viridulus, with special
reference to the heterotropic chromosome as a sex
determinant in grasshoppers.

Mathematical Society, December 8. — Dr. H. F. Baker,
president, in the chair. — G. H. Hardy : Properties of
logarithmico-exponential functions. — G. H. Hardy : Some
results concerning the increase of functions defined by an
algebraic differential equation of the first order. — A. A.
Robb : Optical geometry of motion. — T. C. Lewis :
Note on the Pellian equation. — G. B. Mathewrs : The
arithmetical theory of binary cubic forms. — Dr. W. H.
Young: : The integration of Fourier's series. — Dr. W. H.
Young: : The theory of the application of expansions to
definite integrals.

Royal Astronomical Society, December 9. — Sir David
Gill, K.C.B., president, in the chair. — A. C. D. Crom-
melin : Note on Mr. Innes's paper on the mean or peri-
helion distances of comets. — A. Stanley Williams : The
equatorial current of Jupiter in 1880. The author con-
cluded from observations of eight spots that the rotation
period of the equatorial current in 1880-1 was nearly 20 sec.
shorter than during the years 1888-1908, amounting to a
difference in velocity of about 15 miles an hour. — A. A.
Rambaut : Observations of Halley's comet, Daniel's
comet (igoge), and comet 1910c, made at the Radcliffe
Observatory, Oxford. — A. A. Rambaut : Observations of
stars occulted by the moon during the eclipse of 19 10
November 16. A photograph of the eclipsed moon and
trails of stars was shown, the telescope having been
adjusted to the moon's motion during the eclipse. —
C. V. L. Charlier : Multiple solutions in the determina-
tion of orbits from three observations. The author showed
that in certain regions more than one solution could be
obtained from the observations, while in others only one
was possible ; in consequence of this, much difficulty was
somtimes found in obtaining the true orbit, as was the
case with comet igioa.^H. H. Turner : The accuracy of
the positions of the star images in the " Harvard Sky."

I By the latter term was intended the Harvard series of
fifty-five plates, forming a photographic map of the

I heavens on a scale about one-eleventh that of the Astro-

I graphic Catalogue. Formulae were given for computing
the optical distortion, varying as the cube of the distance
from the centre of the plates, and also for the differential
refraction.— S. A. Saunder : The determination of seleno-

j graphic positions, and the measurement of lunar photo-

December 15, 1910]

NATURE

227

graphs. Fifth paper : Results of the measurement of two
Yerkes negatives. The negatives, taken by Prof. Ritchey,
were extremely fine, but their dates — given as 1901
August 3 and November 21 — were uncertain. The result
of the author's reduction of the measures of the plates
enabled him to show that they were actually taken on
September 3 and November 20. The measures appeared
to show that points on the moon greatly above or below
the mean surface should be rejected, owing to their being
shifted in opposite directions by libration. A diagram was
drawn to exhibit the close agreement between points in-
dependently measured on phot<^raphs by Prof. Franz and
Mr. Saunder compared with the considerable divergence in
the positions of the same points as determined by Lohr-
mann and Madler. The actual measures had been made
on the negatives by Mr. Hardcastle.

Paris.

Academy of Sciences, December 3. — M. Emile Picard in
the chair. — G. Lippmann : Two pieces of metal lightly
touching do not, in general, form an electrical contact
when the difference of potential is small. Two forms of
contact are described in which no pressure is necessary.

V, In one of these a strip of paper moistened with a solu-
tion of an electrolyte {calcium chloride) is employed ; the
second consists of two amalgamated silver wires. — A.
Gautier : Concerning the invention of porous filtering
candles. The author fwints out that he described the
manufacture and use of porous porcelain filters two years
before Ch. Chamberland. — A. Laveran and A. Pettit :
A new haemogregarian of Damonia subtrijuga. — M.
Gouy : The potential of the discharge in a magnetic field.
— W. Kilian and M. Gig^noux : The levels of the pebble
beds and terraces in the neighbourhood of Saint-Rambert-
d'Albon (Dr6me) and of Beaurepaire (Is^re). — M.
I^ecornu was elected a member in the section of mechanics
in the place of the late M. Maurice Levy. — G. D.
Boerlagre : An attempt at " vol a vortex." Attention
is directed to the effect of the thickness of the front edge
of the wing in birds, and the author suggests that an
attempt might be made to realise these conditions in aero-
planes.— M. Lambert : A form of the equations of motion
of a small planet. — M. Borrelly : Observations of the new
Cerulli comet made at the Observatory of Marseilles with
the comet finder. Data are given for November 10, 12,
14, and 16. — M. Cogrgria : Observations of the Faye comet
(igioe, Cerulli, November 9) made at the Observatory of
Marseilles with the Eichens equatorial of 26-cm. aperture.
Positions are given for November 12 and 16. — P. E.
Gau : The integration, by the method of M. Darboux, of
any partial differential equation of the second order. — T.
Lalesco : The poles of resolving nuclei. — Henri Villat :
The movements of a fluid round an obstacle of given form.
— Marcel Chopin : The absolute measurement of currents
of great intensity. A description of a modified tangent
galvanometer capable of measuring currents up to 1000
amperes. — M. Tian : The nature of the decomposition of
hydrogen peroxide solutions produced by light. It has
been shown that the decompwsition of hydrogen peroxide
by heat is a bimolecular reaction, whilst the decomposi-
tion by catalysis in presence of colloidal platinum, diastase,
&x., is a unimolecular reaction. An experimental study
of the decomposition produced by ultra-violet light shows
that the reaction is unimolecular, and hence is not
analogous to the action of heat, but rather resembles
catalytic decomposition. — Paul Jggrou : The reception of
the Hertzian time signal from the Eiffel Tower. The
apparatus described and illustrated works with Leclanche
cells instead of secondary batteries, and is simplified in
other directions. — L. Decombe : The mechanical inter-
pretation of the principle of Carnot and Clausius. The
case of a compensated transformation. — F. Charron : The
modifications produced by the air layer in friction and
sliding between solid bodies. — Br. Glatzel : New experi-

, nients in stimulation by shocks in wireless telegraphy. It
IS well known that by interposing very short sparks into
the primar>- circuit of a Hertzian wave excitor the vibra-
tions in this circuit are effectually deadened. The author
passes the sparks through a tube containing hvdrogen
between nickel electrodes. Reoroductions of photographs
NO. 2146, VOL. 85]

are given showing the complete damping effect obtained.
— R. Marcelin : The mechanics of irreversible pheno-
mena.— A. BesBon and L. Fournier : By passing a
rapid current of hydrogen bromide over amorphous silicon
at a red heat a liquid is obtained which, on submitting
to fractional distillation, gives as the main product of the
reaction silicon tetrabromide ; small quantities of
SiHjBr, are also obtained, and also a liquid which appears
to be a mixture of this with SiHjBr. Details are also
given of a rapid method of preparing a crude silicon suit-
able for the reaction. By the action of the silent dis-
charge upon the vapours of the silicobromoform four sub-
stances were identified, SiBr^, Si^Br,, Si^Br,, and
Si^Br,o, the silicon analogues of tetrabromomethane,
octobrompropane, and decabrombutane. — E. A. Salmon :
A method for producing a reaction between two bodies in
the electric arc. — L. Tchousraeff and W. Fomin : The
addition of hydrogen to the isomeric thujenes and
sabinene. The application of the Sabatier and Senderens
reactions having been shown to be too energetic in the
case of these two hydrocarbons, the addition of two atoms
of hydrogen to each molecule was effected by the cata-
lytic action of platinum black, the hydrogen being used
under a pressure of 25 to 50 atmospheres. The physical
and chemical properties of the resulting hydrocarbons are
given. — Georges Denig:6s : A new reaction of morphine.
The reagent proposed is a mixture of ammonia, hydrogen
peroxide, and copper sulphate in aqueous solution. A
red colour is produced if the concentration of the morphine
is above 003 gram per litre. This reaction gives negative
results with codeine, thebaine, papaverine, narceine, and
narcotine. — A. Verneuil : The nature of the oxides causing
the coloration of the Oriental sapphire. Careful analyses
of sapphires from different sources (Montana, Burmah,
and .Australia) showed the invariable constituents to be
oxide of iron and oxide of titanium. The latter oxide
was not detected in the earlier analyses by other workers.
No chromium was found in the two sapphires examined
for this element, and the author concludes that chromium
is not essential to the production of the characteristic
colour. The conclusion that the colour is due to the
oxides of titanium and iron alone is confirmed by the
synthesis of the gem by fusion previously described. —
Henri Coupin : The influence of various volatile sub-
stances on the higher plants. — L. Moreau and E. Vinet :
Insecticide treatments in viticulture. — Ed. Griffon : The
influence of the tarring of roads on the adjacent vegeta-
I tion. The author comes to the conclusion that no in-
i jurious effect to vegetation can be proved to have been
I caused by the tarring of roads. Laboratory results cannot
be regarded as conclusive on this point, which can only
be settled by actual practice in the open air. — MM.
Melchissedec and Frossard : Muscular fatigue in sing-
ing.— M. Doyon : The formation of antirhombine in the
liver previously frozen at a very low temperature. — G.
Linossier : The influence of iron on the formation of the
spores of Aspergillus niger. It has been shown by previous
workers that if iron be omitted from the culture solutions
of Aspergillus niger spores are not formed. The author
has extracted the black pigment from the spores of this
mould, and shows that it possesses properties resembling
the haematin of the blood, and contains iron as an
essential constituent. This furnishes a full explanation of
the impossibility of producing spores in the absence of
iron. — Gabriel Bertrand and Arthur Compton : The
influence of temperature on the activitv* of cellase.
Cellase from sweet almonds has a maximum activity at a
temperature of 46° C. This is independent of the duration
of heating, and is a specific value of great interest. — M.
Lemoine : The presence of deposits of cholesterol in the
coats of sclero-aetheromatous arteries. — Ch. Veiain and
-Albert Michel-L6vy : The primary strata of the south of
the Vosges. — MM. Bernard and IMougrin : The stratifi-
cation of the nive and of the ice in the upper regions of
the collecting areas of glacier---. — Ph. Glangreaud : The
glacial phenomena in the mcuntains of Forez. — Paul
Bertrand : General characters of the stipes of Astero-
chlaena laxa. — M. Martel : The removal of obstruction
in water-bearing fissures. — P. Mercanton : The magnetic
condition of the diabases of Isfjord at Spitsbergen. —
Louis Gentil : The lower Mlouva (eastern Morocco).

228

NATURE

[December 15, 1910

New South Wales,
Linnean Society, September 28. — Mr. C. Hedley, presi-
dent, in the chair. — C. T. Musson and W. M. Came :

The adventitious roots of Melaleuca linariifolia, Sni. —
R. J. Tillyard : Some experiments with dragon-fly larva;.
This paper embodies the results of experiinents carried
out with the object of showing : — (i) That dragon-fly
larvae of certain kinds live longer than one year. An un-
known Libellulid larva taken at Heathcote on October 10,
1908, and more than half-grown then, has lived in an
aquarium to the present date. It now appears full-fed,
and may be expected to emerge this season. Its age, from
the egg, must be more than two and a half years.
(2) That certain dragon-fly larvag can resist severe and
prolonged drought. Eight larvae of Synthemis eustalacta,
Burm., were placed in a shallow-water aquarium over
sand ; no food given from December 25, 1909, and water
allowed to evaporate. The aquarium was dry on
February 2, and the larvae were kept alive, hidden in the
sand, until May 29, a period of nearly four months. The
larvse were then returned to water and fed up. Seven are
still alive, and may be expected to emerge this season. —
T. Harvey Johnston and Dr. J. Burton Cleland : The
Haematozoa of Australian Reptilia. No. i. A list of
Australian reptiles from which Hajmatozoa have been re-
corded is given, and three species of Haemogregarina
(Karyolysus) are described as new.

October 26. — Mr. C. Hedley, president, in the chair.- —
T. Iredale : An additional note on the birds of Lord Howe
and Norfolk Islands. The opportunity of inspecting the
Watling drawings in the British Museum prompted the
author to investigate the authenticity of the early chronicles
relating to some of the birds of Norfolk and Lord Howe
Islands, now extinct, or the identity of which has never
been settled satisfactorily. From the consideration of the
historical evidence available, the author concludes that the
extinct white gallinule (Notornis alba) was restricted to
Lord Howe Island; that the "Norfolk Island petrel" of
Latham is probably Puffinus griseus, Gm., which still
breeds about the typical locality, and not P. chloro-
fhynchus, Less., as supposed by the late Dr. Sharpe ; and
that drawing No. 282, regarded by Dr. Sharpe as repre-
senting P. tenuirostris, Temm., is undoubtedly a figure of
the CEstrelata still breeding, or which apparently used to
breed, on Norfolk Island, which must bear the name
CEstrelata philUpi, Gray, and which is different from
CE. neglecta, Schl. Some omissions are rectified, and
observations supplementary to those of Mr. Hull (Proceed-
ings, 1909, p. 636) are given. — A. F. Basset Hull :
Further notes on the birds of Lord Howe and Norfolk
Islands, with the description of a new spyecies of petrel.
The author endeavours to dispel the uncertainty enshroud-
ing the identification of the petrels of Norfolk Island.
Captain Hunter's " bird of providence " remains a
mystery, as visits to Mount Pitt in November, and in the
succeeding year in August, offered no signs of birds or
burrows, a condition of things possibly due to the exter-
mination of the old-time colony, or its removal to more
secure breeding grounds; The " Big Hill mutton-bird " of
Lord Howe Island, which breeds upon Mount Gower, is
shown to be markedly different from CEstrelata neglecta,
Schlg., and is described as new. — J. H. Maiden and E.
Betche : Notes from the Botanic Gardens, Sydney.
No. 16. — A. M. Lea : Australian and Tasmanian Psela-
phidae (Coleoptera).

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, December 15.
Linnean Society, at 8. — Reports on the International Botanical Congress

at Brussels, 1910 : Dr. Otto Stapf, F.R.S., and others. — Non-calcareous

Sponges from the Red Sea, collected by Mr. Cyril Crossland : R. W. H.

Row. — Comparative Anatomy of Leaves of Veronica : R. S. Adamson.
Royal Society of Arts, at 4.30. — The Taj Mahal and its Relation to

Indian Architecture : R. F. Chisholm.
Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Submarine Cables for

Long Distance Telephone Circuits : Major W. A. J. O'Meara, C.M.G.

FRIDAY, December 16.
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, at 8. — The Production of
Castings to withstand High Pressures : Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter and
C. A. Edwards. — The Constitution of Troostite and the Tempering of
Steel : Andrew McCance.

NO. 2146, VOL. 8sl

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — Mathematical Deduction of
the most Economical Ratio of Reinforcement for Reinforced-concrete
Structures: R. N. Mirza.

SATURDAY, Decemheu 17.
Essex Field Club (at Essex Museum of Natural History, Stratford),
at 6. — Notes on a " Neolithic Floor " near Rayleigh, Essex : F. W.
Reader and .S. Hazzledine Warren. — Sarsens, Basalt, and other Boulders
in Essex : Dr. E. A. .Salter.

MONDA Y, December 19.

Royal Geographical Society, at 8.30. — The French Antarctic Ex-
pedition, 1909-1910 : Dr. J. B. Charcot.

Institute of Actuaries, at 5. — On the Valuation of the Liabilities of
an Insurance Company under its Employers' Liability Contracts : W.
Penman, Jr.

TUESDAY, December 20.

Royal Statistical Society, at 5.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — The Winning of Coastal Lands
in Holland : A. E. Carey.

lYEDNESDAY, December 21.

Geological Society, at 8. — The Keuper Marls around Charnwood
Forest ; T. O. Bosworth. — The Relationship of the Permian to the Trias
in Nottinghamshire : R. L. Sherlock.

Royal Microscopical Society, at 8.— Modern Methods of Research on
a Scientific Crui'-er : Arthur Earland.

Royal Meteorological Society, at 7.30. — (i) Report on Balloon Ex-
periments at Blackpool, 1910 ; (2) The Meteorological Significance of
Small Wind and Pressure Variations : CajJt. C. H. Ley. — Atmospheric
Waves of Short Period : Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt.

CONTENTS. PAGE

The Cavendish Laboratory 195

A New Book on Reptiles. By G. A, B 196

The Calculus of Variations. By G. B. M 197

Hydroelectric Engineering. By Stanley P. Smith , 198

The Origin of Coal. By F. W. R 199

The Voice and Singing. By Prof, John G.

McKendrick, F.R.S 199

Our Book Shelf 201

Letters to the Editor:—

Morphological Method and the Ancestry of Verte-
brates,—Prof. J, Graham Kerr, F,R,S, ... 203
Mendelian Expectations. — Prof. J. C. Ewart,

F.R.S 205

Arctic Plants from the Valley Gravels of the River

Lea, — S, Hazzledine Warren 206

A New Theory of the Descent of Man.— Prof. A,

Keith 206

The Cocos-Keeling Atoll.— Madge W. Drummond 206
Positions of Birds' Nests in Hedges, — Lt,-Col. J, H,

TuU Walsh 207

Tribo Luminescence of Uranium. — Prof. W, A.

Douglas Rudge 207

Marked Birds in Two Senses 207

A Monograph of the Okapi, {Ilhistrated.) By Sir

H, H. Johnston, G. C.M.G. , K.CB .209

International Mineral Statistics. By Prof. Henry

Louis 211

Notes , . 213

Our Astronomical Column : —

Nova Arte, 98. 1 9 10 218

Saturn's Rings ." 218

Publications of the Allegheny Observatory . . . . . 218

The Orbit of the Perseids 218

Definitive Elements for the Orbit of Comet 1904 II.

(1904^?) 218

Designations of Newly Discovered Variable Stars . . 218
The Transandine Railway. {^Illustrated.) By Dr.

John \V. Evans 219

Evolution : Darwiniain and Spencerian 220

The Work of Polytechnic Institutes 220

Certain Physical Characters of the Negroes of the

Congo Free State and Nigeria 221

Science and the State. By Dr. T. Muir, C.M.G,,

F.R.S 221

University and Educational Intelligence 223

Societies and Academies 225

Diary of Societies 228

NA TURE

229

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1910.

PROBLEMS OF CROWN COLONY
ADMINISTRATION.
The Broad Stone of Empire. Problems of Crown
Colony Administration, -with Records of Personal
Experience. By Sir Charles Bruce, G.C.M.G. Vol.
i., pp. xxxiv + 511 + 2 maps. Vol ii., pp. viii + 555 +
4 maps. (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 19 10.)
Price 30s. net, two vols.

ACCORDING to the description on the title-page,
this book purports to discuss problems of
Crown Colony administration, and to contain, as
a subsidiary matter, records of personal experi-
ence. The first volume carries out, on the whole,
the promise of the title-page, but the second is in
effect a record of Sir Charles Bruce 's acta et verba
during the thirty-six years of his faithful and efficient
public service in Ceylon, British Guiana, the West
Indies, and Mauritius ; and the discussion of problems
of Crown Colony administration forms little more than
a setting for the account of his experiences, and of the
recognition which his valuable services deservedly
received, from time to time, at the hands of his official
superiors. Lengthy despatches and memoranda,
much of which might with advantage have been
omitted and the rest severely condensed, encumber the
pages of the book, and were it not that it is provided
with an excellent index, its undoubted value as a work
of reference for students of colonial administration
would be gravely compromised.

The book, which extends to some iioo pages, after
discussing the resources of the Crown Colonies, and
British policy in connection wuth them, under the
heads of national, colonial, and imperial, treats of the
Colonial Office and the Colonial Governor; and there
are chapters on law, labour, race, health, education,
religion, agriculture, forestry, commerce, finance,
transport, meteorology, imperial communications,
fiscal system, e.xpansion, defence, and the Crown.
There are seven appendices, of which two, namely
Mr. Edward Manson's memorandum on systems of
law obtaining in the Crown Colonies, and a memor-
andum on measures to be carried out for prevention
of malarial fever in Mauritius, are of special interest
to students of Crown Colony administration, and, as
already mentioned, there is an excellent index.

Within the limits of a short review it is not possible
to discuss more than one or two of the subjects with
which the author deals; it must suffice to indicate
the rest, and to say that (apart from a certain discur-
siveness and from the other drawbacks to which we
have felt bound to direct attention), the student of
problems of Crown Colony administration will find
much in the various chapters to reward his industry
and to satisfy his curiosity. To the readers of Nature
the chapters on agriculture and on forestry, the
chapter on meteorology, and the two chapters on
health, will probably be of the greater interest than
the others. The description of the work of the Im-
perial Department of Agriculture in the West Indies,
which has done so much during the last ten years
towards helping to restore the prosperity of the West
NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

Indian Colonies is interesting; the sketch of the pro-
gress of agriculture in Ceylon is instructive; and the
chapter on forestry shows of what vital importance
are conservation of forests and reaffcwestation, and
how much remains to be done in that regard. The
chapter on meteorology is practically confined to an
account, interesting so far as it goes, of the work
done under the auspices of Dr. Meldrum at the Mauri-
tius Observatory'. The most interesting chapters of
all are the chapters on "Health." Only those who
have lived in unhealthy climates can fully realise of
what vital importance it is to the prepress of a com-
munity that effectual means should be found for com-
bating the diseases which in so many of the most
fertile of the British Dominions beyond the seas have
so hampered what Sir Charles Bruce well calls the
"agencies of beneficial occupation" — industry, com-
merce, military and naval defence, and good
government — and how dependent those agencies
are on the preservation of health against tropical
diseases. In this field of later years science
has rendered yeoman service to the State,
and to the pioneers of civilisation and pro-
gress in the tropical and subtropical dependencies of
the Crown, and, indeed, throughout the world.
Malaria is no longer an elusive bogey ; yellow fever
has lost much of its terrors ; even plagxie and cholera,
in communities which have been brought to under-
stand the value and necessity of the precautionary
measures prescribed by science, can be successfully
combated and brought under control.

Yellow fever has been practically banished from its
hot-bed, Havana. The isthmus of Panama, which is
credited with having killed one workman for every
sleeper of the Panama Railway, is no longer a par-
ticularly risky place of residence. Our garrison and
fleet at Malta no longer suffer from Malta fever.
Ismailia, formerly a hot-bed of malaria, has been
rendered perfectly healthy. The dreaded sleeping sick-
ness, although no absolute cure has yet been found
for it, has, in Uganda, at all events, been brought
under control. It is unnecessary to multiply in-
stances. And apart from what has been done in the
matter of prevention and euro of diseases which
affect mankind, the labours of the bacteriologist,
protozoologist, entomologist, and helminthologist
have contributed in no small degree to the progress
and prosperity of the tropical and subtropical
colonies. This has been done by discovering and trac-
ing the life-history and development of the lower forms
of life which are the cause of many of the fatal diseases
to which stock, especially in tropical and subtropical
lands, are subject, in tracing out the means by which
they are communicated, and the life-history of their
transmitters, or intermediate hosts, in devising pre-
ventive measures, and preparing vaccines or serums,
and searching for and discovering drugs which act
as prophylactics or as cures.

The two branches of scientific inquiry — as regards
human disease, and as regards diseases of animals —
are, indeed, to a great extent interdependent. The
discovery of the trjpanosome of nagana in cattle and
of its transmission by Glossina morsitans may be said
to have pointed to the discovery of the transmission

230

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

of the trypanosome of sleeping sickness to man by
G. palpalis. The discovery that the trypanosome of
sleeping sickness persists and grows in G. palpalis
is akin to the discovery of the development of the
malaria parasite in the anopheles. The discovery of
the transmission of the piroplasma of Texas fever,
of East Coast fever, and of "biliary fever" in stock,
by means of ticks, pointed the way to the discovery
of the transmission by ticks to man of the spirillum
of relapsing- fever. There may be some reason to
hope that the exhaustive investigation of the causes
of grouse disease which is now in progress may pos-
sibly lead to a better understanding of the causes of
appendicitis in the human subject. Many similar
instances might be mentioned. But this is not the
place for an essay on the recent history of bacterio-
logy.

Much yet remains to be done. The cause of and
specific remedy for blackwater fever, that scourge of
tropical Africa, is still to seek. An effectual remedy
for sleeping sickness still makes itself desired.
Leprosy still baffles the investigator. No cure for
bilharzia has yet been found. Prophylaxis for horse-
sickness amongst horses, hitherto baffled by heemo-
lysis, has still to be discovered. (For mules a fairly
satisfactory prophylactic has been found.) Piroplasma,
for which, in dogs, a specific cure has been discovered,
in horses and cattle still presents an unsolved
problem.

But the future is full of hope. Such great strides
in advance have been made during the last few years
that no difficulty seems, to the investigator, to be
insuperable. Perhaps the most interesting- of the
later developments is the discovery of a series of facts
which point to the probability of the terribly fatal
fever, hitherto called malaria, on the west coast of
Africa, being really a form of yellow fever. This
matter is now, or is shortly, about to be brought under
exhaustive investigation; and should the probability
turn out to be a reality, the adoption on the Coast of
precautions similar to those which have proved so
successful on the isthmus of Panama should render
the Gold Coast as healthy as Barbados. Small
wonder that an influentially signed address has been
sent to the Memorial Committee, suggesting that the
name of our beloved Sovereign, the late King Edward
the Seventh, cannot be better commemorated than by
a liberal endowment of the schools of tropical medi-
cine, which in these later years have done so much
for the promotion of bacteriological research and the
prophylaxis and cure of tropical diseases, both in
the United Kingdom and in the British Dominions
beyond the seas.

THE MICROSCOPE AS AN OPTICAL
INSTRUMENT.
Microscopy. The Construction, Theory, and Use of
the Microscope. By E. J. Spitta. Second edition.
Pp. xxii + 502 + xvi plates. (London: J. Murray,
19 10.) Price 125. 6d. net.
' I "HE views expressed in the previous notice of this
-L work which appeared in Nature (February 6,
1908) would appear to have been amply borne out in
the welcome accorded to it by the public, since a
NO. 2147, '^OL. 85]

second edition has already become necessary. Continued
use of the volume as a book of reference has thoroughly
confirmed the original opinion formed as to its
value for the purposes of the practical microscopist.
While much more limited in scope than the classical
work of Carpenter and Dallinger, being restricted to
the consideration of the microscope as an optical in-
strument, it has from this point of view already largely
superseded the older work. Dr. Spitta is fortunate,
too, in having obtained, in dealing with the more
theoretical portions of the subject, the assistance of
Mr. Conrady, whose excellent mathematical know-
ledge has helped to keep the book free from any of
the remarkable theories in connection with the micro-
scope which have been put forward in recent years,
and have even found acceptance from some skilled
practical microscopists.

One of the features of the first edition of the book
was that it was well up-to-date in the account given
of present-day microscopes and microscope construc-
tion and accessories. There was thus the less neces-
sity for changes in a new edition appearing after such
a comparatively short interval. Nevertheless, besides
the one or two more important additions of which
mention is made below, advantage has been taken of
the opportunity offered to include some of the most
recent work. Old illustrations of microscopes by pro-
minent makers have been replaced by others of the
newest types, and descriptions of novel accessory
apparatus are given. We note that the name of the
Spencer Lens Co., of Buffalo, N.Y., now appears for
the first time, their stand for critical work being fully
illustrated, and attention is directed to their one-sixth
objective with specially long working distance (i mm.).
A new sixth by Watson and Sons, and one by
Reichert, with extra long working distance, are also
mentioned. Illustrations of newer models by Zeiss,
Beck, and Watson take the place of those previously
given, and some forms of museum microscopes, with
mechanical contrivances for bringing a series of slides
successively into the field of view, are now described.

Among additional accessory apparatus may be men-
tioned the simple form of apertometer devised by Mr.
F. J. Cheshire; new illuminators, especially the con-
venient miniature arc lamp by Leitz; Mr. J. W.
Gordon's lamp with glass-rod light collector, and Mr.
J. E. Barnard's mercury-vapour lamp for micro-
scopists— very convenient, with screens, for obtaining
monochromatic light ; a new auxiliary stage by Watson
and Sons; forms of gauges for measuring the thick-
nesses of cover glasses and slips; measuring oculars
or eyepiece micrometers ; and a simplified apparatus
and method of preparing metallurgical specimens for
microscopical examination. The last would appear to
be outside the limits of the work, which does not deal
with the extensive subject of the preparation of
specimens. We have noted also a number of changes
in the text, whether by way of omission of unnecessary
matter, or additions to render explanations clearer.
It is interesting that Dr. Spitta appears finally to have
come to the conclusion, with reference to the "black
dot " and " white dot " effects in pleurosigma, that
"the better the combination (objective) the better the
rendering of the black dot effect, no matter the appear-
ance, within reasonable limits, of the white one."

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

2\\

We would remark also that in his chapter on the
"Theories of Microscopical Vision," Mr. Conrady adds
a few paragraphs giving a short account of the con-
nection between N.A. and the vision of minute
objects of dimensions below the resolution limit,
whether self-luminous or opaque.

The more important additions are those which deal
with the extension of dark ground illumination to
high powers, and the description of Siedentopf's
apparatus for viewing ultra-microscopic particles.
Dark ground illumination at high powers is obtained
bv the use of a condenser or illuminator of special type,
which brings the light, usually with the aid of side
reflection, to a focus on the specimen at a very oblique
angle. Tvpes of such condensers by Lcitz, Zeiss, and
Beck are described, and the method will no doubt be
of value to the bacteriologist.

The Siedentopf method for illuminating ultra-micro-
scopic particles is well known. The subject perhaps
lies outside the range of the ordinary microscopist.

Finallv, it may be mentioned that the already excel-
kmt series of photomicrographs has been extended by
the introduction of four or five interesting photo-
graphs of amphipleura. Unfortunately, in the copy
we have seen, the printers have made the mistake of
printing' the descriptive text on the wrong side of the
thin paper separating the plates, with the result of
mafking it somewhat difficult to read.

GEOMETRY OF SURFACES.
.1 Treatise on the Geometry of Surfaces. By A. B.

Basset, F.R.S. Pp. xvi + 291. (Cambridge:

Deighton Bell and Co. ; London : G. Bell and Sons,

1910.) Price los. 6d.

\ CCORDING to his preface, Mr. Basset intends
-V this book to supply a want in English works on
solid geometry, namely, an adequate account of sur-
faces other than quadrics, the existing gap being due
to the fact that Salmon's "Geometrv- of Three
Dimensions " is now out of print.

The greater part of the book seems to be devoted
to a detailed examination of the various types of
singularities which can occur in surfaces of order not
higher than the fourth ; such a lengthy investigation
cannot be properly criticised except at the cost of
great labour. But, for reasons given below, it is
doubtful if the method adopted for resolving higher
singularities is really sufficient to do all that is
claimed by the author.

It is not altogether clear, either, for what class of
readers the book is intended ; the greater part of the
results will interest none but specialists in geometry.
And one may imagine that such specialists might be
tempted to ask why the analytical machinery is
developed purely from metrical definitions, when the
properties to be established are mainly projective (or
descriptive) in character. Thus, reciprocation seems
always to refer to a spliere, and homogeneous co-
ordinates are defined (§3) only as perpendiculars on
the faces of a tetrahedron. It is not quite easy to
see how Mr. Basset would justify the use of co-
ordinates such as x + iy, x — iy, on the last definition.

However, there is probably a wider circle of readers,
not claiming to be geometrical specialists, who would
NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

take an intelligent interest in an account of the pro-
perties of cubic and quartic curves and surfaces, and
particularly in results which are related to work in
other subjects. Such readers might also find it use-
ful to have information as to various models available
for the illustration of the shapes of the figures ; doubt-
less the expert geometer disdains these mental
crutches, and relies on his powers of intuition. But
those of us who confess to finding it difficult to
visualise surfaces from their equations, are able to
point to geometrical experts who have been led to
unexpected results by the consideration of models; one
need only mention Rummer's model of the surface of
centres of an ellipsoid (Salmon, "Geometr}- of Three
Dimensions," p. 273), and Henrici's models of mov-
able hyperboloids. Even expert analysts may make
slips in their work, and may find occasionally some
difticulty in detecting such slips, while an examination
of a diagram or model will often indicate the mistake
at once. .\n illustration may be drawn from Mr.
Basset's statement (§142) that the circles of
curvature at the ends of the minor axis of an ellipse
can intersect at points which lie on the circles of
curvature at the ends of the major axis ; a moment's
glance at a figure will show that the former circles
lie wholly outside, the latter wholly inside the ellipse,
for all values of the eccentricity.

Those who wish for an introductory account of the
simpler properties of cubic and quartic curves will
find Mr. Basset's provision for them rather scanty.
His theorems (and proofs) occupy but little more space
than the summary (of results only) given in Pascal's
■' Repertorio," t. ii. (ist edition); and some of Pascal's
references are omitted from the list (for cubic curves)
given on p. 100. A good deal of light would be
thrown on the classification of quartics of the first
species by a reference to the Sylvester-Weierstrass
method of invariant factors. The same method
would prove useful in handling cyclides (quartic sur-
faces), and leading up to Darboux's pentaspherical
coordinates; as Darboux's coordinates are not intrcv-
duced at all, Mr. Basset is unable to prove that
confocal cyclides cut orthogonally, and various other
theorems given in Salmon's account of cyclides have
to be omitted also.

Nor will the inquirer after the arrangement of the
twentv-seven lines on a cubic surface fare much better.
Mr. Basset gives half a page to proving their exist-
ence, and that of forty-five triple tangent-planes, but
he has no illustration to give us of even the simplest
example of a double-six. Details of the singularities
of the twenty-three different types of cubic surfaces
are enumerated; but we are not told that, say, the
cubic with a nodal line (of the first kind) can be
illustrated by the familiar cylindroid. models of which
are amongst the commonest examples of ruled skew
surfaces.

The resolution of compound singularities (chapters
iv. and v.) is discussed first for the case of plane
curves ; the method appears in all cases to rest on the
assumption (see, for instance, §165) that the most
general singularity of order ' p can be found on a curve

1 We have not succeeded in finding a precise definition of what Mr. Basset
m»ans by this term : it would seem to be a singular point with/ tangents
(some or all of which may coincide).

232

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

of degree p+\. But, even for P = 2, there is at least
one compound singularity not to be found on a cubic
curve ; this is the cusp of the second kind, the first
compound singularity resolved by Cayley. And readers
familiar with such investigations as those of Zeuthen
('■ Math. Annalen," Bd. x.), or Jordan ("Cours
d'Analyse," t. i., chapter v.), will recall that it is often
necessary to go to terms of quite high order before we
can obtain the precise equivalents of any given singu-
larity. It is therefore open to question whether Mr.
Basset's cases really include all types of singularity,
even for plane curves ; and, in the case of surfaces,
the method adopted is similar (see, for instance,
§§194, 196), so that it is apparently subject to the
same kind of objection.

Readers of Mr. Basset's "Treatise on Cubic and
Quartic Curves " will recollect his fertility in the in-
vention of new terms, such as anautotomic, aperi-
graphic, endodromic, and so on. We miss the last
pair of words in the present book, but autotomic and
anautotomic are to be found on nearly every page,
and occasionally new phrases, such as tritactic, quin-
tactic, nodotangential. The question as to whether
autotomic is a suitable term for a surface having a
conical point, must be left to experts to settle; but
to an ordinary reader like the present reviewer, the
word rather suggests a nodal line or curve on the sur-
face. However this may be, the addition of an index,
so that the definitions could easily be looked up, would
be an advantage to the general reader not specially
familiar with I\Ir. Basset's terminology.

T. J. I'a. B.

AMERICAN MEAT. INSPECTION.
American Meat and its Influence upon the Public
Health. By Dr. Albert Lef!ingwell. Pp. xii + 208.
(London : George Bell and Sons, 1910.) Price
35. 6d. net.

TpvURIXG the early period of the year 1906 the
■*-^ world was startled by revolting disclosures con-
cerning the stockyards and great packing houses of
Chicago, and the conditions which were then described
as prevalent were certainly a menace to the public
health. Since then the general public in America
and England have been under the impression that per-
manent and satisfactory reforms have been instituted,
which have led to the rectification of the abuses then
disclosed. But the writer of this work, while con-
ceding that certain improvements have been made,
finds a great deal to take exception to with reference
to the quality of the meat which is produced both for
home consumption and export purposes. He brings
forward certain facts which indicate that laws passed
in 1906 for the protection of the public health have
been so construed and perfunctorily administered that
in some most important particulars the Federal in-
spection of meat leaves much to be desired.

This tendency to favour a lax construction of the
law is alleged to be perceptible in many directions.
Consider lard, for an example. In the regulations of
1906, which were passed immediately after the outcry
in that year, it is stated that no animals dying before
slaughter could be brought into any establishment for
NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

rendering. It was intended by this regulation to keep
suspefcted carcases away from the tanks where lard
is rendered; yet in barely two years' time (.'Vpril, 1908)
another regulation was framed which made this pro-
hibition dependent upon the will of an official. Again,
in the 1906 regulations, extracts of meat were in-
cluded with other meat-food products which were sub-
ject to the examinations required by law, yet a subse-
quent amendnient to these regulations exempts these
products from meeting the general requirements.

The author produces statistics of the number of post-
mortem inspections made of carcases condemned
(both in part and in whole) among cattle and hogs
for the years 1907 and 1908 respectively; and certainly
the statistics of the latter \ear indicate a marked
reduction of the amount of flesh condemned.

We are also informed that the Department of Agri-
culture has abandoned altogether the microscopic
examination of pork for the detection of trichinae ;
and the author observes that the American Govern-
ment now throws the responsibility of contracting this
disease solely upon the consumer, if the food should
not be thoroughly cooked. Furthermore, a regulation
of 1906 required that carcases showing generalised
inflammation of the lung, pleura, intestines, peri-
toneum, or uterus, whether in acute or chronic form,
should be condemned ; but in 1908 this was amended
so as to deal only with acute inflammatory conditions.

In a popular work with a mission of this nature one
naturally seeks for evidence as to whether the writer
is fair, reasonable, and broad-minded — or otherwise.
The charges placed before the reader in this work are
independent of personal attestation, and they rest
entirely upon official documents. The writer, however,
expresses somewhat exaggerated views of the neces-
sity for the condemnation of the whole of a carcase
in which there is but strictly localised evidence of
tuberculosis, malignant disease, &c. In no country in
the world is this the practice; and the best scientific
opinion would be opposed to the necessity for the
enormous waste of good flesh which would result ;
although one cannot but sympathise with the senti-
mental objection to eating the flesh of a diseased
animal.

It is a well-written and readable book, and its perusal
leaves the impression that the meat inspection of the
United States is far from satisfactory, and that much
of what the writer says in adverse criticism of it is
justified. There appears to be no doubt whatever that
since the passing of the Pure Food Law, regulations
governing meat inspection have been issued which, in
a number of instances, considerably reduced the
stringency and efficiency of the 1906 regulations.

The writer looks to foreign lands, and chiefly to
England, for the remedy. He points out that the Eng-
lish people are vast consumers of American meat and I
meat products; and' he asks whether the meat and j
meat products packed in tins and exported are likely {
to be derived from the best of that which passes I
muster. He hopes and believes that by the practical ;
expression of public sentiment which will result in
the lessened demand for such meat, in England and
America, the evils will eventually be remedied.

In conclusion, it should be stated that the writer

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

is one who advocates ""an emancipation from the en-
slavement of the slaughterhouse, with all its evils";
and that he holds the view "that the butcher>- of
animals exists to-day solely because we demand the
victims. We have inherited the custom from bar-
barism ; there can be no doubt but that it will be
discarded altogether by the higher civilisation of the
future race."

THE CHEMICAL ASALYSIS OF IRON AND
STEEL.
Die Untersuchiitigs-Methoden des Eiseus tmd Stahls.
By Dr. A. Riidisule. Pp. 395 + xvi plates. (Bern:
Max Dreschel, 1910.) Price 11 marks.

THE title of this book is somewhat misleading.
It suggests a survey of the various methods
used in the experimental investigation of iron and
steel. In reality it is confined to one, viz., the
chemical analysis of the constituents.

In his preface the author states that the analysis
of iron and steel is one of the most difficult problems
in analvtical chemistrv', and that his object has been
to give a critical summary of the methods used in
estimating each constituent, with a view to indicating
which are the most trustworthy. His book certainly
gives a singularlv complete account of the details of
the methods which have been employed in the last
fiftv vears. But it is only here and there that any
attempt is made to compare the limits of accuracy
of comparable processes. .\ technical chemist wishing
to estimate, say, phosphorus in a given steel to a
certain degree of accuracy, would have considerable
difficulty in making his choice from this book. Rapid
methods are now the order of the day, and the works
chemist has to adopt the quickest, consistent with the
necessar>' degree of accuracy. It is a pit}- that the
author has not borne this in mind more than he
appears to have done.

.■\s is only to be expected, by far the greater part
of the book deals with the estimation of carbon,
manganese, sulphur, phosphorus, and silicon, elements
the percentage of which is demanded in all specifica-
tions where chemical analysis is included. In view
of the detail in which carbon is treated it is surpris-
ing to find that no differentiation is attempted between
■'carbide carbon" and '"hardening carbon" in the
estimation of "combined carbon," although this is a
point of considerable importance. Moreover, there is
no reference to the so-called "missing carbon."

The "alloy" steels containing special elements, e.g.
chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, nickel, vanadium,
&c., are well treated, and complete methods are given
for various combinations likely to be met in technical
practice. There is, however, no mention of uranium,
a modern constituent in the armour-plates of more
than one nav}'.

It is significant of the neglect of the influence of
gases in iron and steel that the sur\'ey of all the
methods of estimation occupies only nine in a book
oT 380 pages. For oxygen only one trustworthy
method appears to be known. Nitrc^en has fared
somewhat better. There is only a scant}- reference
to carbon monoxide and none to hvdrogen and carbon
dioxide. Modern metallographical research is insist-
NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

ing on the importance of the effect, particularly of
oxygen and nitrogen, on the properties of iron and
its alloys. For many years the pernicious influence
of phosphorus has been recognised. It is now coming
to be admitted that nitrogen may be anything be-
tween five and ten times as harmful. As yet no
specifications require the estimation of the gaseous
constituents in steel. The day is probably not far
distant when this will be demanded.

The microscopic investigation of steels has led to
another demand, viz., for a knowledge of how the
various constituents exist in the metal. The present
method of returning them as though they existed as
such is entirely misleading. In the majority
of cases th?y are combined. Some are segre-
gated as special constituents ; others are dis-
solved in the main bulk of the metal. It is just
here that the present methods of chemical analysis
are woefully weak; indeed, the researches of Carnot
and Goutal stand almost alone as a praiseworthy
attempt to obtain infcM-mation on these matters. If
the author, when he comes to prepare a second edition
of his book, will include a chapter dealing with the
methods that have thrown light on the chemical con-
stitution as distinct from the composition of steels this
will add considerably to the value of an already useful
and trustworthy handbook.

H. C. H. Carpenter.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY.
Erkenntnistheoretische Grundziige der Naturwissen-

schaften and ihre Beziehungen zum Geistesleben der

Gegenivart. By Paul \'olkmann. Pp. xxiii4-454.

Second, completely revised, and enlarged edition.

(Leipzig and Berlin : B. G. Teubner, 19 10.) Price

6 marks.

THE second edition of this work (originally pub-
lished in 1896) appears as the ninth volume of
" Wissenschaft und Hypothese," a series which takes
its name from its first number — a translation of Poin-
care's w-ell-known essay. The author has adopted,
both in the subject-matter and the mode of exposi-
tion, numerous changes that are intended to fit the
book for its new r6le. In particular he has sought,
by avoiding unnecessary technicalities and by the
multiplication of examples from the histor}- of science,
to make his work useful and interesting to the lay-
man. There is no doubt that he has succeeded. The
book in its present form, though not comparable in
brilliance or charm with the name-volume of the
series, srives on the whole a sound and lucid treat-
ment of the matters with which it deals. Its chief
weakness is a certain lack of architectural unit\- and
clearness of plan.

The author's general problem is to exhibit the
development of science as a psychological rather than
a logical process, the result of continued reactior\
between objective realit\- and investigating minds.
This reaction is conditioned by certain postulates, such
as the postulate of congruence between the logical
necessities of abstract thought and the phenomena
which express physical "law-." Also it follows uni-
versallv the same general course, described by the
terms induction and deduction, isolation and super-

234

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

position, &c. But the details of the scientific process,
and consequently its results, are a function of the
mind of, the investigator, as well as of the "facts"
investig-ated. Thus there are well-defined types —
especially national types — of scientific interpretation,
corresponding to typical differences upon the subjec-
tive side of the epistemological relation. It follows
that an inquiry into the scientific process, to be fruit-
ful, must be based upon a study of its concrete mani-
festations in historv.

This principle is applied in the chapters that make
up the greater part of Herr \'olkmann's book. The
last third is devoted to an analysis of the influence of
scientific thought and discovery upon the general in-
tellectual life of our time, as represented in its
philosophy, its views on education, &c. A lengthy
appendix consists of a reprint of two papers, one a
criticism of Newton's methods in the "Principia,"
the other a critical comparison between the funda-
mental ideas of Newton's mechanics and the alter-
native concepts proposed by Hertz.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Photo grams of the Year 19 lo. Typical Photographic
Pictures Reproduced and Criticised. Edited by
H. S. Ward. Pp. 160. (London : G. Routledge
and Sons, Ltd., Dawbarn and \\'ard, Ltd.; New
York : Tennant and \\'ard, 19 10.) Price, paper
cover, 2^. 6d. net. ; cloth cover, 35. 6d. net.
It is very useful and helpful to the photographer to
have under one cover a typical set of the photographs
of the year with attendant criticisms of each. It is
especially valuable to those who have not had the
opportunity of studying the originals for themselves.
This annual should therefore be appreciated bv a great
number of workers, and the one now issued is a
worthy follower of the former publications. In the
collection here submitted the photographs have been
chosen from an enormous number, and the selection,
as we are told, has been made by one "who has had
exceptional opportunity of considering the world's out-
put for a quarter of a centurv."

This year the book has been increased by the addi-
tion of eight pages of plates, reproduced bv the three-
colour process from originals by the three-colour car-
bon method, as well as by the newer single exposure
processes on autochrome, Thames, and dioptichrome
plates. While the editor points out that these pro-
cesses and their reproductions are not yet at the
" ideal " stage of natural colour photography, thev vet
afford examples of the expression of artistic indi-
viduality. The book, as usual, is of an international
character exhibiting photographs by Continental.
Colonial, and American workers. It contains fortv-
eight pages of letterpress and 161 reproductions in
monochrome and eleven in colours.

The " Code " School Garden and Nature Note-Booh.
Edited by G. Lewis. Pp. 96. (London : H. Mar-
shall and Son, n.d.) Price gd.
This little note-book is intended to help the scholar
and the teacher in systematising the work and the
observations in the school garden. L'nless a careful
record is kept, the full educational value of manv of
the observations cannot be obtained, but there may
be some difficulty in keeping;^ the records in such a
way that they shall be readily accessible. This diffi-
culty is obviated in the present book. The main part
of it is divided into twelve parts, one for each month,
each consisting of five pages. On the first are a few
NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

reminders for the month, showing what should be
done in the fruit, flower, and vegetable gardens, what
the animals and birds are doing, and what to look for
in wild plant-life. The next two pages are for a
record of work done in the garden ; the fourth is ruled
up for meteorological observations, but as onlv four-
teen entries can be made it is clear that daily readings
are not contemplated. The last page is for nature
observations. At the end of the book are pages
for crop records, for temperature and rainfall
charts — one for atmospheric pressure might usefullv
have been added — and for profit and loss account.

The mechanical labour of keeping observations is
thus reduced to a minimum, and at the same time
the record can always be traced back if necessary.
Only those who have attempted to get together class
records can realise entirely what a saving of time
and trouble this means.

One or two points in the introductory pages want
alteration. A loam is not "a soil composed of equal
parts of clay and sand." It is not only unnecessary-,
but undesirable, to give the name " sulpotide " to the
definite and well-known sulphide of potassium wash ;
if the scholar or teacher looked in the index of a
standard gardening book he would hardly be likelv
to see the word mentioned. The author recommends
the injection of carbon bisulphide into the soil to kill
the larvae of the click beetle (wireworms) ; this is
hardly a school operation, even if it were effective, and
the evidence on this point is bv no means clear. But
apart from these little noints the book is very useful,
and can be commended for class purposes.

Handbuch der vergleichenden Physiologic. Edited
by Hans Winterstein. Band ii., Erste Halfte.
Neunte Leiferung. Physiologic des .Stoffwechsels,
Phvsiologie des Zeugung. Pp. 819-980. Band iii.
Zweite Halfte. Zehnte Lieferung. Phvsiologie der
Energieproduktion. Physiologic der Form. Pp. 161-
320. (Jena : Gustav Fischer, 19 10.) Price per
fasciculus 5 marks.
When the earlier fasciculi of this ambitious work
appeared, we noted the general characters and aims
of the undertaking. The ninth fasciculus contains a
continuation of Prof. W. Biedermann's article on
nutrition in the different classes of the world ot life ;
but the article in question is not yet concluded. Each
group is considered in detail, and the outcome will be
a most valuable work of reference, and contains a
mine, not only of information, but of references to
original researches. The bibliographical notices relat-
ing to digestion and nutrition in the insects and
myriapods alone number 247.

The tenth fasciculus is a portion of the third volume,
which deals with quite different subjects. No doubt it
is a convenience to the editor to print the bits as they
are readv, thoug^h it is a little confusing to the reader.
It contains portions of two articles; the first is the
conclusion of an article on the production of elec-
tricity in animals and plants, by Prof. S. Garten,
and the second the commencement of an article by
Prof. Ernst Mangold, on the production of light in
livine things, especiallv in anima's. The two articles
manifest the same thoroughness of treatment notice-
able in the previous fasciculi, and we congratulate the
editor on having secured the service of collaborators
who are all actuated by the same high ideals.

Guide to the British Vertebrates Exhibited in the
Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural
History). Pp. vii+122, with a plan and 26 illus-
trations. (London : Printed by order of the
Trustees of the British Museum, 1910.) Price is.
This guide contains a concise account of the British
vertebrates other than the turtles and marine fishes.

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

235

w hich are altogether omitted, and the Cetacea, of
which only a list is given. The seventy-five species
of mammals are dealt with in an interesting manner,
references being made to their habitat, food, care of
young, change of coat, hibernation, &c. The com-
mon and Latin name of each species is given, and
we are glad to note that where the Latin name has
recently been changed the older and more familiar
designation has also been added. The large number
(442) of birds in the British list necessarily means
that each can receive only comparatively short notice
in the space available ; nevertheless, a large amount
of interesting information is packed into the twenty
pages devoted to this part of the subject. The rep-
tiles— three snakes, the blind-worm, and two lizards —
rind the Amphibia, seven in number, are described,
with notes on their distribution and habits. The
account of the fishes, which is restricted to those
occurring in fresh water, also contains many interest-
ing observations on their distribution, the distinctions
between allied species, spawning, &c.

.An appendix contains a full list of the species of
vertebrates, other than turtles and marine fishes,
which have been recorded from the British area. In
the case of those birds which have occurred not more
than six times notes are added or references given to
the records of capture. The illustrations, about half
of which are reproduced from photographs, are good,
and several are of special excellence. The volume
forms a thoroughly serviceable guide to the collection.

The Sea-Kings o/ Crete. By the Rev. James Baikie-
Pp. xiv + 274. (London : A. and C. Black, 1910.)
Price ns. 6d. net.

As a compilation this work shows great diligence ; it
has evidently been written con amore, and its aim is
most praiseworthy ; but it has no scientific value.
VV'e prefer to see ocuvres de vulgarisation of this kind
written, when possible, by the excavators themselves.
This is no doubt a counsel of perfection ; they have
usually too much to do to write popular books. But
in any case, such books should onlv be written by
trained archaeologists with a first-hand knowledge of
the subject and a personal acquaintance with Crete
itself. Of these qualifications we do not see much
evidence in Mr. Baikie's work, which, after the pub-
lication of the books of Mrs. Hawes (a Cretan excava-
tor) and Prof. Burrows, seems scarcely needed.

Pinro. (Brook's patent.) (W. J. Brooks and Co.,

Letchworth, Herts.) Price 15. per twelve yards.
This device consists of a thin metal tape, from which
fine steel points project at intervals of about four inches.
It is intended to be used by draughtsmen as a substi-
tute for drawing-pins, and also for attaching canvas,
posters, fabrics, &c., continuously along the edges.
The contrivance does not seem to us likely to be gener-
allv adopted, but there are special circumstances under
which it might be found very- serviceable.

Teachers' Notes on Nature-Study : Plants and Animals.

Pp. viii + 232. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd.,

n.d.) Price 15. 6d. net.
This re-issue of an old work will not commend itself
to teachers who desire to make the school study of
science a training in accurate observation, simple
reasoning, and precise expression. The method of
teaching, the haphazard arrangement of subjects, and
the general absence of scientific treatment, all remind
the reader of the discredited stvle of '"object-lesson"
common ten or fifteen years ago. The compiler,
whose name is withheld, does not appear to realise
the necessity in the case of young pupils for basing
every lesson on plants upon specimens in the hands of

NO. 2147, VOL. 8sl

each child, and encouraging the children to draw from
the specimen rather than from the teacher's black-
board sketches.

The Scientists' Reference Book and Pocket Diary
for 191 1. (Manchester: J. Woolley, Sons and Co.,
Ltd.) Price is. 6d. ; bound in morocco, 2s. 6d.
In addition to a handy diary in which provision is
made also for memoranda aiid addresses, this pub-
lication provides a very useful book of tables and
facts likely to be of use to workers in science, as well
as to students. In view of its small price the com-
bination is likely to secure a wide popularity.

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.]

Histoiical Note t n Recalescence.

The interesting resume of Prof. .Arnold's British
•Association paper on recalescence, which appeared in
Nature for December i, contains the following statement
in the opening paragraph : —

" In 1868 the late Dr. Geo. Gore, F.R.S., discovered the
recalescent points now known as Ar, and Ar„ and in
1872 Prof. W. F. Barrett, F.R.S., discovered the
recalescent point Ar,, which is now known as the carbon
change point. Prof. Barrett gave the phenomena the
generic title of ' recalescence,' by which they have been
known ever since."

.As no little misapprehension exists on this subject, it is
desirable, as a matter of historical accuracy, to state that
Dr. Gore did not discover the phenomenon of recalescence,
but he was the first to observe the remarkable momentary
elongation of an iron wire during cooling from bright
incandescence, which important observation subsequently
led to the discovery of recalescence.

Owing to the great practical importance which recales-
cence has assumed in the hardening and heat treatment
of steel, it may perhaps be of interest if I briefly state
the early history of this discovery'.

The Proceedings of the Royal Society for January 28,
1869, contains a paper by Dr. Gore which records the
anomalous behaviour of cooling iron above referred to —
its sudden transient expansion at a dull red heat. This
anomalous behaviour Dr. Gore found was not shared by
other metals, and he states that no reverse effect was
noticed upon heating iron wire to incandescence.^

Some two years later, having to deliver a lecture before
the Royal Dublin Society on the " Molecular Changes that
accompany the .Act of Magnetisation," I was anxious to
show Mr. Gore's interesting discover}", as it appeared
likely to be connected with the resumption of the mag-
netic state in iron when cooling from a white heat. In
answer to my inquiry Mr. Gore kindly furnished me with
his apparatus, and as he said he had no further use for
it I purchased it from him, and it is still in my possession.
To make the effect visible to a large audience a mirror
was attached to the spindle which moved the index, and
from it a ray of light was reflected to a distant scale.
This device revealed the fact, overlooked by Dr. Gore, that
a small momentary contraction of the iron wire took place
during its heating to incandescence, approximately at the
same temperature at which the momentary elongation
occurred in cooling.^

Dr. Gore having informed me, in a letter dated May,
1872, that he was not pursuing his original observation
and that the subject was quite open to anyone. I felt at
liberty to continue the inquiry-. .Accordingly, the follow-
ing year. Dr. Guthrie having kindly placed his laboratory

J 'n fact some eighteen months after his original oh-ervation Dr. Gore
states -n a r>ar>er published in the Phi/. Mag. for ."September, i'»7o(tbe italics
are his): — " The iron during; cooling . . . suddenly elongated bv diminution
of cohesion ... a rorresponding hut reverse phenomenon did not occur
diirine the process o^ heating the wire."

2 This lecture was repeated at thf London Tnst"lution a year later, and a
full report of it is published in the Journal of that Institution.

2^6

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

at South Kensington at my disposal, an investigation was
begun, which led to the discovery of recalescence on
September 12, 1873. On that date I noticed that accom-
panying the Gore effect in cooling iron, and at the same
critical temperature, a sudden reheating or a]ter glow
occurred. It was more difficult to detect the reverse effect
on heating, but a momentary arrest of the heating
appeared to occur at the critical temperature. The
Chatelier thermo-electric pyrometer was unknown at that
time, and I had to have recourse to an air thermometer,
which showed that the after glow was not an optical
illusion, but a real, though transient, accession of tempera-
ture, due to a liberation of latent heat and not to surface
oxidation of the iron, as was shown by the recalescence
occurring as strongly in an atmosphere of nitrogen or other
inert gas as in air. Furthermore, this effect appeared to
synchronise with the critical temperature at which iron
lost on heating and regained on cooling its magnetic
power, and with the remarkable thermo-electric inversion
in iron which Prof. Tait had then recently discovered.
I noticed, also, that a crepitation occurred in the iron at
this temperature resembling the Page effect on magnetising
iron.

These and other observations were described, and the
experiments exhibited at the British Association meeting
at Bradford a few weeks later, September, 1873, and the
paper was published in the Philosophical Magazine for
December, 1873.^ An interesting discussion on recalescence
followed the reading of my pajier, in which Prof. Clerk
Maxwell, Mr. Herbert Spencer, Prof. Carey Foster, and
others took part. This was reported in the local papers
at the time, and happily is preserved in a number of the
now defunct Quarterly Journal of Science.^

Later on a British Association Committee was appminted
to report on the whole subject. Prof. Geo. Fitzgerald
being chairman and myself secretary. Unfortunately, a
long delay occurred in the publication of the report, partly
owing to my removal to Dublin and the pressure of work
in the chair to which I was appointed ; meanwhile, the
subject was greatly enriched by the researches of others,
especially by M. Osmond, who in 1886 made it the starting
point of his classical investigations. An interim report
by the British Association Committee was, it is true, pub-
lished, but I would specially refer to the final lengthy
report published in the Proceedings of the British Associa-
tion for 1890, which had the advantage of Prof. Geo.
Fitzgerald's cooperation, he having witnessed and
corroborated some of the earlier exj>eriments described
therein. It is there shown that in 1875 two recalescent
points were found, most markedly in steel wire, " the
second and far stronger after glow being exactly coincident
with the sudden elongation of steel wire during cooling "
(the Gore effect). As that report is easily accessible, I
will not refer to the other observations it contains. Amid
the large literature on this subject which has grown up
attention should be directed to an excellent investigation
by a Swede, Dr. G. E. Svedalius, on the " Measurement
of the Anomalous Changes in the Length and Temperature
of Iron and Steel during Recalescence " ; this was com-
municated by Prof. Geo. Fitzgerald to the Philosophical
Magazine for August, i8q8.

With regard to the allotropic form of iron which appears
to be produced at high temperatuies — Osmund's $ iron —
and the liberation of the latent heat of allotropy during
cooling causing recalescence, I may point out that Prof.
Tait, from his thermoelectric researches, had been led to
the conclusion, as stated in his Rede lecture in 1873.
" that iron becomes a different metal on being raised
above a red heat." But I believe Prof. Geo. Forbes
was the first to suggest and pubHsh the fact that recales-
cence might be due to the liberation of the latent heat of

1 " On Certain remarkable Molecular Changes occurring in Iron Wire at
a Low T?ed Heat. Phi'l. Mag., December, 1873, p. 472 ; see also my paper
in the fnllowine number of the PAzi. Afag:

2 UpfYi the publication of my pappr in the Phil Mag:, Dr Gore wrote to
me as follow-;, in a letter dated Edebaston, December 22, 1873 :—" Your new
discoveries re'specin? the molecular changes in iron, described in the P/u'l.
Mag. for this month, have greatly pleased me ; especially the sudden deve-
lopment of heat attending the elongation during cooHne, and the sudden
shortening during heating." Furthermore, when Sir Roberts-Austen in a
lecture before the British Association in i^Sg made much the same error as
that quoted at the beginning of this note. Dr. Gore at once wrote to me and
expressed his great surprise that the discovery of recalescence should be
attributed to him.

an allotropic form of iron. Writing to me upon my experi-
ments on April 18, 1874, he remarks : — " It would follow
that iron heated to an intense white heat assumes an
allotropic form, and that at this temperature [of recales-
cence] when cooling it changes to the other form and
gives off latent heat."

In conclusion, let me congratulate Prof. Arnold upon
his investigations, extending over so many years, and the
light he has thrown on the causes of the different phases
of recalescence and the importance of the carbon change
point. No doubt he is aware that M. Svedelius, in the
paper referred to above, also experimented with electro-
lytic iron. Referring to the expansion at the critical
temperature, Svedelius says : — " In a rod of electrolytic
iron the magnitude of the expansion at D, decreased very
rapidly with every renewed heating, and after the fiftieth
heating no trace either of the critical point D or D, could
be discovered"; and he adds in a footnote: — "This con-
firms the statement made long ago by Prof. Barrett that
in very pure iron the anomalous contraction and expansion
could be ' washed out,' as it were, by repeated heating
and cooling." I do not know whether Prof. Arnold has
experimented with a very low carbon " burnt iron " to
ascertain whether any recalescent points remain in such
iron. W. F. Barrett.

Kingstown, co. Dublin, December.

Captain Cook Memorial.

Under the auspices of the British Empire League, a
very representative and influential committee has been
formed to carry out the proposal made by Sir Joseph
Carruthers, K.C.M.G., ex-Premier of New South Wales,
that a monument should be erected in London to th^-
memory of Captain Cook ; but I venture to ask. is thi-
the best way to honour the memory of the illustrious
navigator? Captain Cook was a great seaman, geo-
grapher, and ethnologist ; indeed, he was one of the fore-
most of the men of science of his day. As his life was
devoted to discovery of various kinds, surely the best
memorial to him would be to establish a fund, associated
with his name, the interest of which should be devoted
to the prosecution of investigations analogous to thos'-
in which he spent his life and met his death.

Cambridge, December 13.

A. C. Hadbon.

Accuracy of Time on Magnetograms.

I AM greatly interested by Dr. Krogness's letter in
Nature of December 8 directing attention to this matter.
W'e have been investigating this point for some time by
interrupting both trace and base line in our Adie magneto-
graphs.

We find that, in general, if the times are taken from
the base line we should actually get declination for about
two minutes later, but horizontal force and vertical force
for two minutes earlier. The error is probably not con-
stant, and so we have decided to interrupt the trace. It
may be of interest to say that we have been able to reduce
the interruption to one minute, which corresponds to
i mm. on the paper. George W. Walker.

The Observatory, Eskdalemuir, Langholm,
Dumfriesshire, December iq.

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower,

If the maximum of this meteor shower should occi
when the earth is in the same position with regard to tJ
sun as was formerly the case, it would take place in til
davtime of Januarv 3, 1911, but this shower does not seei
to 'have been sufficiently watched of late years to asc^
tain when the maximum now occurs. There is, however
some reason to believe that it will not be until the eveij
ing of January 3, in which case, as there is no nioonlighl
it would be a' very favourable opportunity for its observa
tion in this country. -As the maximum is of short durj
tion it ought to be more extensively watched for annual
than appears usually to be the case.

T. W. Backhouse.

West Hendon House, Sunderland, December 13.

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

237

ORIEXTAL OK BUBONIC PLAGUE.

PLAGUE is an acute infective disease, an infectious
fever, attacking man and some of the lower
animals, and attended with a considerable mortality.
The svmptoms in man develop within a few days of
infection, and consist of fever, headache, giddiness,
weakness, with staggering gaii, great prostration, and
delirium. In 75 per cent, of the cases the lymphatic
glands in the groin, armpit, and other regions are
inflamed, infiltrated, and much enlarged, constituting
the "buboes," hence the name "bubonic plague"
frequently given 10 the disease.^ In the remaining
cases, the lungs may be primarily attacked, the "pneu-
monic " form, or a severe blood infection may develop,
the " septicaemic " variety; in both of these buboes are
absent, or are a late development if the patient lives.
Occasionally an eruption of pustules or carbuncles
appears on the skin, a phenomenon frequently men-
tioned bv the older writers, and abscesses may form
in the buboes. The bubonic form is hardly infectious
or even contagious, but the pneumonic variety is
highly infectious, owing to the presence of large
numbers of the infective agent, the plague bacillus, in
the expectoration from which it is readily disseminated
in the air. In some instances the patients do not
appear particularly ill, and are able to go about,
though such cases are liable to sudden death from
heart failure.

The micro-organism of plague was discovered inde-
pendently by Kitasato and by Yersin in 1894. It is a
stumpv. rod-shaped organism or "bacillus," having
rounded ends, and measuring as a rule about 1/8000
inch in length, and i / 16000 inch in breadth, but longer
forms occur. In smears made at an early stage of
the disease from the buboes, expectoration or blood
respectively in the three varieties, the bacillus is pre-
sent in enormous numbers, and if the films are stained
with an aniline dye, such as fuchsia, it tends to stain
deeplv at the ends ("polar staining "), the centre being
hardly stained at all (see Figs, i and 2) ; this is a very
characteristic appearance. In older lesions peculiar,
large, rounded or ovoid "involution" forms of the
bacillus are met with. The organism can be readily
cultivated in various media in the laboratory ; it is
non-motile, and does not spore, and is readily destroyed
by heat (60° to 65° C. for ten to fifteen minutes), and
by disinfectants. The plague bacillus is pathogenic
for a number of animals, in addition to man — the rat,
mouse, guinea-pig, rabbit, hare, ferret, cat, monkey,
&c. In the United States the ground squirrels are
attaclied.

A remarkable feature which has characterised
plague from the earliest times is the alternation of
periods of widespread prevalence, "pandemics," with
periods of quiescence and complete intermission.
Thus, in the fourteenth century, in the course of three
years, plague decimated the whole of Europe, with an
estimated destruction of one- fourth of the population,
appearing in England as the black death.- In the
fifteenth, sixteenth, and se%-enteenth centuries there
were frequent outbreaks in Europe, Asia, and Africa,
more or less limited in extent, culminating in England
in the great plague of London, with 97,^06 burials in
1665, of which 68,596 were attributed to plague,
whereas in the five vears preceding and succeeding
this terrible visitation the normal number of burials
in London ranged from about 15,000 to 20,000.
Plague then rapidlv disappeared from western Europe,
so that by the end of the seventeenth centurv it was
practically extinct, and save for isolated outbreaks
(e.g. at Slarseilles and Toulon in 1720) occurred only

1 Although this is the rule. Prof. Simpson oo'nt-; out that in Accra, West
-Africa, 50 per cent, of the cases were of the pneumonic variety.

2 I am indebted to Prof. .Simpson's " Treatise on Plague " for these and
other historical details.

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

in Turkey, the Levant, Egypt, and Asia Minor. Thus
plague was practically unknown to the present genera-
tion until 1894, when it reappeared in epidemic form,
this time in Hong Kong. There have always been
localities in which plague has been "endemic," i.e.
continuously prevalent, for example, on the Persian
Gulf, in Asia Minor, and in Yunnan, a province of
China bordering on Burmah and Tibet. According to
Prof. Simpson, plague travelled from Yunnan by the
overland trade routes to Canton, thence by river to
Hong Kong ; from Hong Kong the disease was sea-

FlG. I. — Smear from bubo snowing^ Jarge numbers of
plague bacilli. X i30o.

borne to India, where it certainly appeared in 1896,
and since then has similarly been carried all over the
world. The agent by which the disease has been so
widelv disseminated is the rat, infection from maVi to
man being almost negligible, the rat fleas being- the
intermediaries betw^een the rat and man, and
mechanically conveying the infection — the plague
bacilli — frorn rat to rat, and from rat to man (vide an
article by Dr. Petrie in Nature, November 3, p. 15).
For combating the spread of plague, the destruction

Fig. 2. — Smear froii. fected Ferret (from

Suffolk), showing typical bi-polar staining plague
bacilli. X 1200.

of rats is therefore an important measure. While it
seems hopeless to effect complete destruction of these
rodents, a great deal can be done to lessen their
numbers, and the survivors will probably be less likely
to be infected. The destruction of rats may be carried
out bv systematic trapping, ferreting, and poisoning,
but anvone who has had to deal with rats is aware
how "cute" they are, and the most tempting morsels
will often fail to attract them to trap or poison. Hand-
ling the material or trap is sufficient to rouse their
suspicion, and the "taint" of man, if present, must
be destroyed by flaming or disguised by the use of

238

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

some strong-smelling substance, such as aniseed.
Moreover, alter a tew rats have been caught or
poisoned in a locality, the survivors will frequently
migrate elsewhere, hence the need tor concerted and
systematic action in and around a district in which
plague has occurred.

Although plague cases may occur at any time of
the year, the disease usually exhibits a marked
seasonal prevalence. In Poona plague is epidemic
only from July to February, .\ugust, September, and
October being the months of maximum prevalence.
This period corresponds closely with the extent of flea
prevalence on the rats. An epidemic terminates
naturally, owing to a combination of adverse factors,
e.g. decrease in the number of fleas, decrease in the
number of rats, and an increase in the proportion of
immune to susceptible rats.' In some instances
plague cases may be completely absent between the
seasons of prevalence, but by what means the infec-
tion is kept alive in the intervals has not yet been

lead to scattered outbreaks of human plague, probably
not in themselves very serious, but possibly causing
great injury to commerce. Thus, if, say, half a dozen
cases ot plague occurred in the neighbourhood of th<
d(x;ks, the Port of I.ondon would be placed in quaran-
tine,' and the home and foreign trade of the port
amounts nearly to one million pounds per day! It
behoves the authorities therefore to prosecute .-i
vigorous, concerted, and systematic campaign against
the rats with a view to the detection and the limitation
of infected areas; now is the time for action, for when
infection becomes widespread it is too late.

For the photomicrographs 1 am indebted to Mr.
I. E. Barnard. R. T. Hewlett.

EXPLORATION IN THE NEARER EAST.

IN his latest book,- Mr. Hogarth has given us a
series of brilliant sketches, each of which centra-
round some epistxle in a life of very varied archaec-

FiG I. — Kigging ihe gn

l_i,hc.->us. Kiom "Accidents of an Antiquary's Life."

determined. Rats are occasionally met with suffering
from what has been regarded as chronic plague, but
the latest investigations of the Indian Plague Com-
mittee indicate that the condition is one of recovery
from plague infection, and the condition is stated to
possess no significance in the seasonal recurrence of
the disease ainong the rats.^

The recent outbreak of plague in Suffolk, though in
itself insignificant, is disquieting owing to the fact
that plague-infected animals — rats, rabbits, hares, a
ferret (see Fig. 2), and a cat — have been met with in
five districts in Suffolk, in one district in Essex, and in
the London Docks, indicating a somewhat wide distri-
bution of infected • localities. This may be of no
moment, but, on the other hand, it may in the future

^ See "Reports on Plague Investigaiion in India," Nos. xxxvi and
■xxKvW, Journal of Hygiene, x. No. 3.
2 Ibid., Report No. xxxiv.

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

logical adventure. It is a delightful form of auto-
biography, for we find no dull pages to skip, n
laboured accounts of worthy but uninteresting achieve-
ment. Each chapter is a separate picture in itself,
and, as we read, we find ourselves transported, with
somewhat startling rapidity, throughout the lands of
the Nearer East. We see the author at work as an
archaeologist on the coasts of Asia Minor, in Crete,
among the Nile fens of the Delta, in Upper Egypt,
on the North African coast at Cyrene, and by the
banks of the Euphrates and Sajur, to say nothing of
the time when he served as the Times correspondent
in Thessaly during the Graeco-Turkish war. Few
archoBologists, if any, have accomplished work of so

1 Plague and cholera are the two diseases now quarantinable under t'
Paris Convention.

'-i "Accidents of an Antiquary's Life." By D. G. Hogarth. Pp. x + 17
(London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 7^. 6ei. net.

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

239

v.iried a character, and certainly none has Mr.

Hogarth's gift of vivid narrative. Many readers will

.ubtless be surprised that the siudy of archaeology

From "Accidents of an .\ntiquar>-'s Life,

>hould prove so attractive and picturesque an occu-
pation, but it is not without its hardships, as Mr.
Hogarth's pages bear witness. Saddle-sores, poor

by anyone who would take part in the exploration of
the less accessible countries of the Nearer East. But
.Mr. Hogarth lays no undue stress on what he has
undergone, and in his introductory
chapter, which he entitles an
" .Apology of an Apprentice," he
examines the basis of the faith
that has sustained him.

We do not pretend to an opinion
as to whether an antiquary, like
a poet, is born, not made, but
there can be little doubt that care-
ful training may do much to
mould an original, though perhaps
latent, inclination. .Apart from
the fact that he is more curious
of the past than the present, Mr.
Hogarth well describes the anti-
quary as loving detail for its own
• 'ke and as caring less for ends
than means. His ideals are, in
fact, rather different from those of
the purely scientific mind. The
severe man of science may extol
the pursuit of knowledge for its
own sake, but at the back of his
mind there is always an idea of
benefiting somebody or something.
The true antiquary has no such
obsession. The results of his
labours, when set out and labelled
in public museums, mav perhaps
hnve an educational value —
archaeology may after all be the handmaid of history
— but to him the pursuit is an end in itself apart
from its results.

Fig. 3. — ihe Iheatre of Aspendus.

food, the necessity to keep going even when half-
dead with malaria, and the absence of skilled advice
when suffering from other ailments, have to be faced

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

F om "Accidents of an Antiquary's Life."

j Though such may be the philosophy of " the anti-
quarian trade," Mr. Hogarch does not fail to recog-
nise that plunder is a real incentive, even to the most

240

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

philosophical of inquirers ; and the material results of
his own explorations give them a satisfying complete-
ness, like the buried gold which should always reward
the treasure-seeking hero of rom,ance. One of the
most exciting episodes in the volume, the exploration
of the limestone cave on Dicte, the legendary birth-
place of Zeus, affords an instance in pomt, and shows
how unexpected may be the treasure that sometimes
awaits the fortunate' explorer. Having blasted a way
into the cave through the fallen rock and boulders that
blocked its entrance, a fortnight's careful search of
the soil in the upper cave was rewarded by a certain
number of votive offerings around an altar
of burnt sacrifice. But it was at the end
of the excavation, when it only remained to
search the lower cave for objects that might
have slipped down during the secret digging of
the past few years, that the element of luck came in.
The floor of the lower cave is covered w^ith an icy
pool which runs far into the hill about the bases of
fantastic stalactite columns. Here, Mr. Hogarth tells
us, he did not expect to find much spoil, since no
native had ever found anything in the pool among the
columns, except a few scraps of water-borne pottery
from above. But with the true archaeologist's instmct
of seeing for himself, Mr. Hogarth ordered a thorough
search. Not much was found in the pool itself, but a
zealous worker, wanting to put both hands to his
work, happened to wedge his candle-end in the fluti.ig
of one of the stalactite columns, and by its light he
perceived the green edge of a bronze blade in the
slit. A further search w-as at once ordered : —

" Men and girls dispersed themselves along the dark
aisles, and perching above the black waters on
natural crockets of the pillars, peered into the flutings.
They found at once— found blades, pins, tweezers,
brooches, and here and there a votive axe, and in
some niches as many as ten votive things together.
Most were picked out easily enough by the shm
fingers of the girls ; but to possess ourselves of others,
which the lights revealed, it was necessary to smash
stalactite lips that had almost closed in long ages."

These were all votive objects, placed on the columns
of that silent pool that formed the shrine of the god
of Dicte. "As we saw those pillared aisles," Mr.
Hogarth remarks, "so with little change had the last
worshipper who offered a token to Zeus seen them
three thousand years ago."

Another venture that was crowned with unexpected
spoil was the excavation of the great Artemisium at
Ephesus, when the resources of modern engineering
had to be invoked to pump out the flooded excavation
around the base of the "Great Altar " and the founda-
. tion-deposit. The illustrations to the volume, unlike
those in so manv modern works, really illustrate the
text, and each fits naturally into the narrative. Of
those w^e have chosen for reproduction, one shows the
rigging of the great pump at Ephesus ; another, repre-
senting a half-buried palm-forest at Baltim, well illus-
trates the constant eastward progression of the shift-
ing sand-dunes which fringe the great flats of the Nile
delta ; the other, taken in the theatre of Aspendus in
Pamphylia, forms a striking contrast to the Ephesus
photograph, and shows the remarkable state of com-
pleteness in which a building of classical antiquity
■ may be preserved. Of all Roman theatres this is per-
haps the most perfectly preserved example.

The book contains several good stories, such as that
of the young British subaltern who knew no word of
Greek, but arrived on a polo pony "to be a father to
some twenty Cretan villages," and whose judgments,
delivered in knickerbockers and a cricket shirt, were
worthy, in their practical aspects, of a Solomon. But
we have already trangressed the space allotted to us,

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

and in any case we would not quote or summarise
the many passages we have marked. We prefer to
leave them unspoiled for the reader, to whom, whether
he be of an archaeological bent or not, we warmly
recommend the volume as excellent reading.

L. W. K.

ANTIMALARIAL MEASURES IN INDIA.

APERM.ANENT committee dealing with anti-
malarial measures in India has been appointed
by the Government of India. Its members are Lieut.-
Col. Leslie (Sanitary Commissioner with the Govern-
ment of India), Major James, I. M.S., Captain Chris-
tophers, I. M.S., and Lieut. -Col. Semple. Excluding
the last-named, whose views on the matter have not
yet been made public, the members of the committee,
previous to their embodiment, allowed it to be under-
stood that, in the light of the reputed failure of the
Mean Mir "mosquito reduction" experiments of
190 1-3, they hold any effort beyond quinine pro-
phylaxis as "rarely applicable to India. Indeed, they
claim that conditions in that country are so different
from those found in other parts of the world that
further investigations — and not application of else-
where approved anti-malarial measures— is the neces-
sary role.

An earnest of this attitude is exhibited in the pub-
lication by it, under the auspices of the Government
of India, of a brochure entitled "Paludism," which
it is announced will appear at irregular intervals—as
results from its labours become available. The editor
(Major James) in describing the functions of the com-
mittee and its relation to Sanitary Departments and
local bodies under provincial Governments, states that
the conference on anti-malarial measures in India,
held at Simla in 1909, "strongly supported the estab-
lishment of this organisation." The terms used by
the editor, how-ever, seem unduly optimistic. A refer-
ence to the Proceedings of that conference shows that
the appointment of this committee was not open to
option, but was definitely announced as an accom-
plished fact by the Government of India; and that
there are recorded marked objections by members, not
to the existence of the committee as a scientific body,
but to its possessing the extraordinary administrative
power to "direct (sic) and coordinate investigations"
throughout India, which, in the presence of Indian
official methods and the huge area involved, cannot
fail not only to trammel the initiative of local Govern-
ments and' their Sanitary Commissioners, but must
hopelessly delay the execution of practical measures.

Althou'gh, doubtless, having regard to the excellent
personnel of the committee, the publication will_ from
time to time furnish scientific matter of value, in the
absence of insistence bv the Government of India that
practical anti-malarial measures be undertaken, public
opinion will be apt to hold that its primary function
is that of a convenient financial scapegoat. The first
number of Paludism, after referring to the functions of
the committee, affords an original paper by Captain
Christophers on the use of statistics in investigating-
the epidemiology of malaria, and gives abstracts of
papers relative to paludism in countries other than.

In the meantime, sanitarians w^ith no lack of local!
experience have failed to see that there is in the^
environment of the mosquito in India more startling^'
conditions than have been met with and overcome^
elsewhere. Major Ross, C.B., especially, has from^
time to time called in question the correctness of thej
Mean Mir experiments; and, in person, he challengedj
the methods and conclusions of the officers concerned*

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

241

at the Indian Medical Congress held at Bombay in
1908. It was therefore a wise decision on the part of
the Government of India, on the termination of the
Simla anti-malarial Conference of 1909, to depute a
sjpecial committee of inquiry on this subject. The
officers selected were the Hon. Mr. Nathan, I.C.S.,
Colonel Thornhill, I. A., and Major Leonard Rogers,
I. M.S. Whilst all its deductions cannot be accepted,
this committee has produced a report which, though
omitting important details, is a remarkable product
of a single month's work. The experimenting
officers, ^Iajor James and Captain Christophers,
apparently elected to test statements made by
Major Ross, and regarded Mean Mir as a suitable
locality for this object. Of several typical extracts
from his publication and speeches quoted in the report
as justifying their methods, the following is selected
as of the most definite nature : —

"It is now a matter of the general experience of many
investigators that where mosquitoes abound in a house
their larvae can easily be found at a short distance, say
within a few hundred jards of the house. Occasionally,
where the house is isolated and no stagnant water is in
its immediate vicinity, mosquitoes may attack it from a
greater distance ; but this is exceptional, and in the great
majority of cases, especially in towns, almost every house
breeds its own mosquitoes in its backyards or in puddles
or drains in the streets close by."

To meet the necessities of a test experiment guided
by such very general data, it would have been well,
whilst relying upon the importance of the observation
as to pools in the vicinity of houses, also to have
ascertained from the authority concerned what he
implied by a '"few hundred yards" of the house
and even "a greater distance"; especially as by mak-
ing pools unfit for the reception of larvae by " oiling "
in the neighbourhood of houses, there was fulfilled —
so far as the mosquito is concerned — the condition
that " no stagnant water " be available in that posi-
tion.

The area selected by Major James was an oblong
— and not an isolated — portion of two square miles
of the total of eight square miles of the cantonment
of Mean Mir, whilst the line defining its limit,
except on the west, was "drawn close round the resi-
dential quarters, no attempt being made to deal with
the outlying uninhabited areas." The map furnished
with the report proves that the distance of dwellings
from untreated portions of the cantonment varied
from 40 to 260 yards, and that the limiting line
abruptly excluded numerous pits and rain-fed depres-
sions. It is a curious commentary upon this hap-
hazard method of conducting an important experiment
that Dr. Balfour, in his successful work at Khartoum,
did not similarly interpret Ross's dicta with which
he professed agreement.'

More reasonable measures were, however, employed
by Captain Christophers when operations fell under
his charge. He found that the flight of the mosquito
could be estimated at 1320 yards, and, thereupon, he
reports, he extended the area maintained by Major
James three-quarters of a mile " in every direction."*
Unfortunately, however, action was not taken by him
on this basis until the end of August, 1903, which,
having regard to the duration of life of the mosquito,
was perilously close to the ensuing three months
known locallv as the "fever season." Moreover, on
comparing the map accompanying his own report
with that furnished by the committee, it w-lU be seen

1 Second Report Wellcome Research Laboratories (Khartoum) p ar
z Scientific Memoirs by Officers of t^e Medical and Sanitary Departments
of the Government of India, No. 9, p. 8.

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

that confusion exists as to the essential point of
measurement being made from the most external of
the houses of groups of dwellings protected, and not,
for example, " from the centre of the inhabited area "
— a method which seems to have been erroneously
adhered to by the reporting committee. Comparative
measurements show that, in reality, he e.xtended
Major James's area 220 yards in the north, 465 yards
on the west, 500 vards in the east, and a little more
than three-quarters of a mile on the south. Yet, had
the same solicitude been afforded in other directions
as to the south, so as to secure a uniform extension
of three-quarters of a mile "in every direction," there
would have been included the native cavalry lines,
the west infantry lines, the east native infantry lines,
the lowlying dhobies' ground, and part of the pits
of the east rifle range.

The map showing present conditions, and the
accompanying description by the committee of work
done in the filling of pits, subsequent to abandonment
of the experiments by Captain Christophers, prove
that under this arrangement there must have re-
mained untreated very numerous and favourable spots
for larvae. The committee, in summing up its
evidence, has recorded its opinion that mosquito re-
duction, under conditions prevailing in Lahore, was
impossible ; but it seems to us clear that the experi-
ments were based upon an erroneous interpretation
of data said to have been adooted for guidance, and,
in execution, so lacking uniformity of method as to be
of no sanitar\' value.

On completion of the "mosquito reduction" experi-
ments at Slean Mir, the Government of India left the
cantonment to its fate until Surgeon-General Hamil-
ton, C.B., urged the employment not only of "mos-
quito reduction " methods, but the systematic im-
provement of surface drainage, the abolition of canals,
and irrigation within a definite (but we think in-
sufficient) radius of dwellings, and the employment
of quinine prophylaxis. This highly practical advice
met with warm support from General Kitchener, who
was in charge of the division, and operations were
accc dingly carried on from 1904 to 1909. Never-
theli ss, those who would support a laissez-faire policy
in 1 .idia have declared that these efforts have also
proved inapplicable. But, it is evident from the com-
mittee's report that in no detail has the advice of
Surgeon-General Hamilton, up to date, been acted
upon in so complete a manner or with such a grade
of efficiency as would warrant final conclusions as to
possible benefits.

In its conclusion, the committee holds that the
"general prosecution" of major schemes, such as
conducted in Panama, Lagos, and Sweetenham, is
financially impracticable ; it regards anti-larval
measures combined with quinine prophylaxis as offer-
ing "great possibilities," and advises action bv
Government on this svstem, but would defer this
pending investigations by the committee referred to
above, in our notice of Paltidism. For the rest, it
would trust to education of the people, which they
state "thus lies at the root of the problem." There
is here therefore a diminution of hope as to practical
measures by a process of whittling, and a suggestion
of the Greek Kalends as to consummation. In using
the term " general prosecution " of schemes, the com-
mittee has presumably laboured under the common
misapprehension that sanitarians would desire the
sudden expenditure of crores of rupees on anti-mala-
rial "major works" throughout India. What, how-
ever, is pleaded for is that the Government of India
should no longer be guided by results of experiments
conducted at Mean Mir by haphazard methods, and
thus fail, as it has for several years — apparently in

242

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

consequence of advice founded on such results — to
insist that local governments and local bodies serv-
ing under it shall no longer fail to class anti-malarial
measures as practicable, but shall estimate for and
finance them when feasible.

As to the combined anti-larval measures and quinine
prophylaxis, of the " great possibilities " of which the
committee is hopeful, obviously they could be con-
ducted continuously, at the least feasible cost, by the
Government of India insisting that a correctly
organised and well-educated executive sanitary ser-
vice should be available in each province, as, if the
still incomplete service in the Madras Presidency be
excepted, not even the skeleton of such an organisa-
tion yet exists in India.

As for "education," the only form that will appeal
to the average Indian villager for the next century is
practical demonstration of what correctly conceived
anti-malarial works can accomplish. His acquiescence
in Western theories would be but a polite fiction,
although no race can more quickly, or more grate-
fully, appreciate sanitary works demonstrably decreas-
ing sickness and death ; nor, in the face of his con-
viction as to their utility after their completion, would
he grudge his contribution towards them.

Municipalities do at the present time undertake
large sanitary works (other than anti-malarial) at a
cost from Rs.4 to Rs.12 per head of the population
served. But it is apparently the typical " small town "
under district board jurisdiction that presents to the
committee the insuperable difficulty of financing
"inajor schemes." But in this is involved an erroneous
method of regarding the matter. In severe cases of
malaria justifying major schemes, when a town is
impoverished by sickness and mortality, and, more-
over— as such places must be — is a danger to the sur-
rounding inhabited areas of the district in which it is
situated, by reason of its wandering human malaria
germ-bearers, it is sound political economv to require
not solely the alreadv impoverished locality but the
district board, and, in exaggerated cases, the pro-
vincial government concerned, to afford financial aid,
in part or whole. Nor need such a distribution of
responsibilitv be regarded as financiallv impracticable
if these principles be recognised. The borrowing
powers of district boards remain practically un-
exploited. whilst the expenditure of funds in their
charge is so erratic, and in such ill-considered
proportions to the various requirements of the
Acts they administer, that the best value is not
obtained.

Average taxation for district board purposes does
not exceed three half-pence per head per annum ; but
a single attack of fever (against several possible) per
annum in the case of an adult, if the standard treat-
ment by quinine approved by the Simla Conference be
resorted to, would cause an unproductive expenditure
of lod. for this single drug, besides that due to extra
luxuries during sickness, adjuvant medicines, and
ceremonies, &c., irrespective of loss of labour. Yet,
in the Punjab, where, during 1908, in round figures,
there occurred 700,000 deaths from malarial fevers
(giving a rate from this cause alone of 346 per mille
of the population), the district boards concerned
thought it proper to spend 24 per cent, of their in-
comes for education, against i'5 per cent, for sanita-
tion, including nothing for new water supplies. In
connection with malarial fevers and " the drain upon
the resources of India " they bring about, it is worth
remembering that, during 1908, there were treated in
the civil hospitals of India (where necessarily but a
fraction of the oooulation resort) a total of 5,211,851
cases of malarial fevers.

W. G. King.
NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

THE VOLUME OF THE KILOGRAMME OF
WATER.

'HP HE volume referred to below* contains three im-
A portant memoirs relativ'e to determinations
which have been made during recent years by the
Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, or under
its auspices, on the volume of the kilogramme of
water.

Since the fundamental work of Lefevre-Gineau and
Fabbroni, made towards the end of the eighteenth
century, on which the prototype standard kilogramme
was based, the question of the specific mass of water
has been the subject of a number of inquiries in
various countries. In spite of the critical and de-
tailed examination to which these inquiries have been
subjected, it is not easy to institute an exact com-
parison between the results, partly because the
measures have been made and expressed in units of
which the relation to the metric units is more or less
uncertain, and partly because certain elements in the
reductions and calculations have not been set out in
sufficient detail.

A resume of this work is given bv M. Guillaume
in the first of the three memoirs above referred to.
From this account, in which the previous work has
been carefully revised, and all corrections introduced,
so far as known data would permit, it appears that
the most probable values for the mass of a cubic
decimetre of water deducible from the most important
of the determinations subsequent to those of Lefevre-
Gineau and Fabbroni, are as follows : —

I82I.
1825.

Shuckburgh and Kater ... i '000475
Svanberg, Berzelius, Akerman, and

I83I.
1841.

1893-

Cronstrand .. ... ... ... i "000290

.Samnfer ... ... ... ... o"99975o

Kupfifer ... . o"99993i

Chaney 0"999850

The original work on which Lefevre-Gineau and
Fabbroni established the first standard kilogramme
has also been minutely examined and discussed bv
several authorities, and M. Guillaume has subjected
these revisions to a further scrutiny, from which it
would appear that the following are the most probable
values of the mass of the cubic decimetre of water : —

kg.
According to the revision of Broch (minimum) o"99988o
,, ,, ,, Mendelecff o"999966

,, ,, ,, Guillaume 0*999970

These numbers, it will be seen, differ notably among
themselves, and even after due weight has been given
to their relative probable value, it still remains un-
certain in which direction the difference between the
kilogramme as defined and as it actually is really lies.

The exactitude of these values ultimately depends
upon the precision with which the linear and hence
the cubical dimensions of bodies can be ascertained.
Within recent years great increase in accuracy has been
secured in such measurements by the application of
the phenomena of optical interference as worked out
by Fizeau and Michelson. In 1897 the late M. Mac^
de Lepinay ascertained the precise dimensions of a
cube of quartz bv this method and by means of it
made a series of determinations of the mass of a kilo-
gramme of water, and obtained the value 0*999959.
In 1899, MM. Fabry and Perot made similar deter-
minations by a modification of the method on the
same cube of quartz, and found the value 0999979.

These methods, with all the improvements which
experience has suggested, have formed the basis of
the series of determinations made by M. Chappuis. on

1 "Travaitx et Memoires du Bureau International des Poids et Mesures."
Tome xiv. (Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 1910.)

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

24.

one hand, and by MM. Mac^ de L^pinay, Buisson,
and Rene Benoir, on the other. That made use of
bv M. Guillaume consisted in ascertaining the
measurements by mechanical contact — the old method,
in fact, of Lefevre-Gineau, modified by the refine-
ments of modern metrology. In each of the methods
the general problem was the same, namely, lo deter-
mine by lineal measures referred to the prototype
metre, the dimensions, and consequently the volume
of a solid of definite geometrical form, say a cylinder
or cube of brass, or glass, or quartz, of as perfect a
form as possible, and then to ascertain the weight,
referred to the prototype kilogramme, apparently lost
bv the solid when immersed in water. The two parts
of this operation are of very unequal difficulty : that
of ascertaining the dimensions is by far the more
difficult. Thanks to the admirable equipment of the
bureau, the hydrostatic weighings could be made with
a very high degree of accuracy.

It is impossible within the space at disposal to enter
into the details of manipulation or to explain the
manner in which the experimental methods were car-
ried out. For information on these points the
memoirs themselves must be consulted. The final
results, obtained after a careful ' revision of all the
calculations, may be thus summarised : —

Method of Contact.

Mass of a Volume of a \v • >,» j

cubic dc-i'i.etre kilogramme "^'Snted
of water of water ^^*^"

kg-
0-9999749

o 9999655

0-9999672

Bronze cylinder of 14
.. ,, 10

dm^
I 0000251"!

1 -0000145 -I -000029
I -0000328 I

Interferential Method by Reflexion.
cm. kg. dmS

Cube of glass 4 09999713 10000287

/ 1st measure 09999789 10000211

" ^\2nd „ 0-9999784 I 0000216

,, 5 reworked 0-9999731 1-00002691

,( 6 0-9999696 10000304

,, 5 0-9999731 I 0000269 j

- 1 -C00026

I •0000259')

I -0000271 r°°°°^7

Interferential Method by Transtnission
cm. kg. dm'*

Cube of quartz 4 0'999974i

5 09999729

With respect to the relative value of the methods of
measurement, there can be little or no doubt in M.
Benoit's opinion that those obtained by the method
of optical interference are to be preferred to the
mechanical method of contact. On the other hand,
the older method has the advantage that bodies of
larger volume can be employed with a corresponding
diminution of error in other directions. The three
results are, it will be seen, very close together. The
final mean falls between 100027 and 100028, and is
rather nearer the first than the second number.

.Accepting the sixth decimal as the limit of accuracy,
the ultimate result is that i kilogramme of pure water,
free from air, at 4°, and under normal pressure,
measures 1000027 cubic decimetre; or that the mass
of I cubic decimetre of this water is 0-999973 kilo-
gramme.

The uncertainty of these numbers probably does not
exceed i in the last figure, or about a milligramme
on the kilogramine.

M. Rene Benoit, the director of the bureau, con-
cludes the resume of the three important memoirs
which have led to this result which some general
observations on its bearing upon the question of the
relation of the actual value of the kilogramme to its
original theoretical definition. He justly points out
that the original standard kilogramme of Lefevre-
NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

Gineau and Fabbroni was constructed with a perfec-
tion truly admirable, and altogether extraordinary
when one considers the general state of science and
the means at command in their epoch. Their kilo-
gramme was in effect represented by the mass of a
cube of water, the side of which measured not exactlv
I decimetre, but 1000009 decimetre. Even if it be
admitted that such a result could only have been
obtained by a fortunate compensation of errors, it is
certain that a like perfection can only be secured to-
day by obser\'ers equipped with all the resources of
modern metrology, working with the most scrupulous
care, joined to a critical faculty of the highest order
in the sifting and discussion of results.

He points out that whilst it might be possible to
construct a new standard kilogramme in closer con-
formity with its definition, there would be little prac-
tical gain in so doing. The litre, the volume of a
kilogramme of water, is in practical conformity- with
the cubic decimetre, not only for the needs of ordinary-
life but for bv far the greater number of the require-
ments of science. Should any case need a higher
degree of precision, there would be no difficultv in
the application of a correction based upon the conclu-
sions of the present work of the bureau. M. Benoit
sees in the general result a proof of the wisdom of the
decision of the International Metric Commission of
1872, not to disturb the original standards, but in con-
stituting the international kilogramme as funda-
mental prototype simply to copy the old kilogramme of
Lefevre-Gineau and Fabbroni.

T. E. Thorpe.

NOTES.

Prof. J. H. Poyntin-g, F.R.S., has been elected a
foreign Fellow of the Reale .Accademia dei Lincei.

Bv the will of Mr. Thomas Lupton, solicitor to the
Royal Institution, the institution will receive io,oooZ. for
general purposes.

M. .Armand G.^utier will be president of the Paris
.Academy of Sciences for 191 1. M. Lippmann has been
elected vice-president.

It has been decided to establish a laboratory for re-
searches in the chemistry of therapeutics in the Pasteur
Institute in Paris. The laboratory will be directed by M.
Ernest Fourneau.

On Thursday next, December 29, Prof. Silvanus P.
Thompson will commence the Christmas course of six
juvenile lectures at the Royal Institution on " Sound,
Musical and Non-musical."

The Paris correspondent of the Times reports that Prof.
Guignard, who has acted as director of the Paris School
of Pharmacy for the last fifteen years, has resigned his
appointment, and is succeeded by M. Henry Gautier,
professor of mineral chemistry at the school.

The Institution of Xaval Architects, which was founded
in i860, has received an intimation from the Lord Presi-
dent of the Priv\- Council to the effect that the King has
been pleased to approve of the grant to the institution of
a Royal Charter of Incorporation.

A CORRESPOXDEXT of the Daily Chronicle states that a
brilliant display of aurora borealis was witnessed at
Hampstead on Monday, December 19, between 10.30 p.m.
and II p.m. The display started in the north-north-west,
and the streamers spread across the sky so far as the
constellation of Orion.

244

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

We learn from Science that the Nichols gold medal of
the American Chemical Society for the year 1909-10 has
been awarded to Prof. M. A. Rosanoff, of Clark Uni-
versity, and his pupil, Mr. C. VV. Easley, for their joint
study of the partial vapour pressures of binary mixtures.
The -formal award will take place at the meeting of the
New York Section on January 6, 191 1.

Referring to the letter from Prof. W. A. Douglas
Ridge on the tribo luminescence of uranium in Nature
of December 15, Mr. H. A. Kent (The Poplars, Maidstone
Road, Bounds Green, N.) writes to say that he noticed
similar effects in 1904. He found by filling the tube con-
taining metallic uranium with oxygen the brilliancy was
much exhalted.

I\" continuation of the inde.x volume printed twenty years
ago, the Royal Society of Edinburgh has completed an
index to the Transactions of the society issued during the
years 1889-1908. The volume includes also an address by
Sir Wm. Turner, K.C.B., F.R.S., president of the society,
delivered at the opening of the new rooms on November
8, 1909.

A PRIZE of 100,000 francs is to be awarded to the
inventor of a practical apparatus which will make it
possible to save the crews of wrecked submarines, enabling
them to regain the surface uninjured. The French
Minister of Marine is able to offer the prize, as he has
received an anonymous gift from a French lady for the
purpose. The conditions under which the prize will be
awarded have been officially announced.

A .MEMORi.^L has been erected, says Science, at the
National Bacteriological Institute in the City of Mexico
to the late Prof. H. T. Ricketts, who at the time of his
death was assistant professor of pathology in the Uni-
versity of Chicago and professor-elect of pathology in the
University of Pennsylvania. His death was caused by
typhus fever, which he contracted while conducting re-
searches in this disease.

Among the many curious investigations carried out by
means of instantaneous photography, not the least curious
are those which Prof. A. M. Worthington, F.R.S., has
devoted to the study of the effects produced by the fall
of drops or solid spheres into water and other fluid. These
investigations will be described and illustrated in this
\-ear's Christmas lectures at the Royal Society of .^rts by
Prof. Worthington.

In his recent annual report the Secretary of the United
States points out that the attainment of the North Pole
by Commander Peary has added to the honour and credit
of the -United States. The Secretary of State therefore
recommends that Commander Peary should be given a
commission by legislation as rear-admiral of the Corps of
Civil Engineers of the U.S. Navy, to date from the day
of his discovery, and that he be retired as from that date
with the highest retired pay of that grade.

The death is reported, at the age of sixty-eight, of Dr.
Charles Otis Whitman, for the last eighteen years head
of the department of zoology and curator of the zoo-
logical museum at the University of Chicago. He had
previously held appointments at the Imperial University
of Japan, the Naples Zoological Station, Harvard Uni-
versity, the Allis Lake Laboratory, and Clark University.
From 1888 to 1908 Dr. Whitman was director of the
Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. He was
editor of the Journal of Morphology and of the Biological
Bulletin.

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

One of the most promising of American pathologists,
Dr. Christian Archibald Herter, has died recently at the
early age of forty-five. In 1890 he followed up his studies
at Johns Hopkins University and Zurich by publishing a
text-book on "The Diagnogs of Nervous Diseases." He
then devoted himself especially to pathological chemistry,
and held for several years the chair of that subject at
the Bellevue Hospital .Medical School, New York. Since
1903 he had been professor of pharmacology and thera-
peutics at the New York College of Physicians and
Surgeons. Dr. Herter had carried out several scientific
investigations for U.S. Government departments. He was
treasurer to the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research,
and had himself created two lectureship foundations, one
at Johns Hopkins University and the other at the Bellevue
Medical School.

At the annual meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists'
Union, held at Middlesbrough on Saturday, December 17,
a vigorous protest was made against the action of H.M.
Stationery Office in reference to the increased prices which
have now to be paid for hand-coloured editions of the
maps of the geological department. It was pointed out
that in withholding from the public cheap and easy access
to the results of the Geological Survey, the objects of the
Survey were in large measure defeated, and the cost of
this department of the public service deprived of much of
its justification. .'\t the same meeting Dr. Alfred Harker
was elected president for 191 1, Mr. H. Culpin the hon.
treasurer, and Mr. T. Sheppard hon. secretary.

The Eastern Telegraph Company report that an earth-
quake was felt at Zanzibar on December 14 at 11.40 a.m.
Greenwich mean time. The shock must have been of
great intensity over a wide area, for four of the com-
pany's cables between Zanzibar and Durban were broken
at about the same time. The first tremors were recorded
by the seismograph at Cardiff at about noon, the total
duration of the movement there being about two hours.

Tw'o slight earthquakes were felt throughout Glasgow
on Wednesday evening, December 14, the first at 8.54 p.m.
and the second shortly after ten. The first shock, which
was strong enough to make windows rattle and to throw
down some ornaments, lasted four or five seconds, and
was accompanied by a loud rumbling noise. The area
affected by it extends at least twenty-one miles east and
west from Glasgow to Greenock, and ten miles north
and south from Milngavie to Johnstone. The seismograph
record at Paisley Observatory shows a disturbance, one-
tenth of a millimetre in amplitude, at 8-54 p.m., and
others of larger amplitude, but not connected with the
Glasgow earthquakes, at 9.26 and 9.29 p.m., while a
slight movement about 10 p.m. may have been caused by
the second shock. The record obtained at the Royal
Observatory, Blackford, Edinburgh, at about 10.30 p.m.
had, of course, no connection with the Glasgow shocks.

In a communication published in the Morning Post of
December 20 Prof. J. Milne, F.R.S., records the follow-
ing series of earthquakes : — After a long period of rest
we have had a succession of large earthquakes. On
December 13 there was one on the West Coast of Africa,
which broke several cables, and on December 14 one in
Scotland. On December 16 one occurred so far off as
New Guinea. On December 17, at 7.30 a.m., one reached
us from a place so far distant as the West Indies. Next
day, at 4 a.m., one came from Java, and in less than
two hours, namely, at 5.49 a.m., there was another dis-
turbance in the West Indies. There was a third at 4.50
p.m. With the exception of the disturbance in Scotland
they were all very large, and shook quite half the world.

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

245

The subject of the Neolithic age culture in Malta has
been dealt with by Dr. Ashby and by Mr. Peek in the
last issue of Papers of the British School at Rome. It
has often been remarked that up to the present no
cemetery of this race has been discovered. In a letter
addressed to the Time? of December 13 Mr. T. Zammit,
curator of the Valetta Museum, announces that he has
found on the road between Attard and Nobile an un-
doubted Neolithic interment. No flint implements were
discovered with the remains, but the characteristic pottery
and the iron ochre pigment in which the bones were
soaked leave no doubt regarding the date of the inter-
ment. The discovery is most important, because on this
evidence Malta falls into line with Sicily and Italy so far
"= the Neolithic culture is concerned.

At a meeting of the executive committee of the British
Science Guild, held on December 14, it w'as reported that
a deputation on behalf of the Guild waited on December 2
upon the private secretary to the Prime Minister to re-
present the undesirability that Government should part
with the site at Fosterdown which had been selected by
the Solar Physics Committee three years ago as most
desirable for the future site of the Solar Physics Observa-
tory about to be vacated at South Kensington. This site,
for some unexplained reason, had been put up by Govern-
ment to be sold on December 13. The memorial protest-
ing against this sale was signed by the surviving members
of the Duke of Devonshire's Commission, past-presidents,
and a large numbers of Fellows of the Royal Society, and
of the British Science Guild. The Prime Minister was
pleased to comply with great alacrity with the prayer of
the memorial.

The Franklin Institute recently awarded the Elliot
Cresson gold medal, the highest in the gift of the institute,
to several men of science. The secretary of the institute
has favoured us with a detailed statement of the grounds
of the award in each case " for distinguished leading and
directive work," from which we extract the following
particulars. The award was made to Dr. Edward Weston,
Newark, N.J., for " electrical discoven.- and in the advance-
ment of electrical application"; to Prof. Ernest Ruther-
ford, F.R.S., for " the advancement of our knowledge
of electrical theory"; to Sir Joseph J. Thomson, F.R.S.,
for " th? advancement of our knowledge of the physical
sciences"; to Sir Robert A. Hadfield, for "the advance-
ment of our knowledge of metallurgical science " ; to Dr.
Harvey VV. Wiley, chief chemist to the Department of
Agriculture, Washington, D.C., for " work in the fields
of agricultural and physiological chemistry " ; to Mr. John
Fritz, Bethlehem, Pa., for " work in the development of
the iron and steel industries " ; and to Dr. John A.
Brashear, of Pittsburg, Pa., for " work in the production
and perfection of instruments for astronomical research."

The late Sir George S. Mackenzie, formerly Adminis-
trator of the Imperial British East African Company's
Territories, left estate of the gross value of 104,004/.
19s. 6d., of which the net personalty has been sworn at
99>647Z. 175. gd. The residue of his property is bequeathed
to his children in equal shares, and in the event of his
leaving' no children the following bequests are made : —
(i) To the Ross and Cromarty County Committee 2000/.
on trust to found two bursaries each of the value of 30/.
per annum, to be known as the " Sir William Mackenzie
and the Jessie Mackenzie Inchvannie Bursaries," to be
tenable at the Scottish universities for students from Ross
and Cromarty, and preferably from the National Schools,
for the study of medicine, chemistry, engineering, or agri-
culture, or other branch of applied science. (2) To the

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

Royal Geographical Society 1000/. to found a prize to take
such form as the council of the society may see fit, and
to be in commemoration of the great work done by the
British East Africa Company in saving British East Africa
for the British Empire. (3) To the president and council
of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College
of Surgeons, England, 30,000/. (subject to life interest of
his two brothers), for the endowment of scientific research
by students of ability and of registrable medical qualifi-
cation, who may thus be able to devote their whole
energies to such work, and be independent of ordinary
practice. This bequest is made in the hope that the com-
bined results of the systematic work of so many trained
workers may prepare the way for a genius to come who
will make great discoveries.

The International Exhibition of Hygiene is to be held
at Dresden in 1911. The object of this exhibition is in
no sense commercial ; it is being promoted for purely
educational purposes, and it is intended to give hygienists
of all nationalities an opportunity of learning what is
being done in other countries in the direction of guarding
the individual from the many dangers to health which
exist, more particularly in our large industrial communi-
ties. It will bring home to the public what has been
achieved by scientific research in the cause of hjgiene, and
it cannot fail to offer an impressive object-lesson to a
large number of visitors from different countries of the
importance, not only from the personal, but from the
social and national point of view, of a due regard to the
physical welfare of man. There is no doubt that the
exhibition will be international in its widest sense, the
Governments of far distant countries having already voted
considerable sums of money for the proper display of what
they have done and what they are doing in the domain of
hygiene. To ensure this, the German Government has
issued invitations to all the principal nations of the world
to take an active part in this philanthropic scheme, and
the invitation has been accepted by the very large majorit}'
of those to which it was extended. The only great country
which stands aloof is Great Britain, a country which is
universally regarded as occupying a foremost place among
the nations in its appreciation and practical application of
the requirements of sanitation. Although our Govern-
ment, with its characteristic lack of appreciation of scien-
tific work, does not seem disposed to take an official part
in this international exhibition, it is to be hoped that
mone\" will be obtained from other sources in order to
allow Great Britain to be represented adequately.

A CORRESPOXDEXT, Mr. George Boaq, writing from
Aguilas, Murcia, Spain, directs attention to a method
devised by Drs. Nasmith and Graham, of the Provincial
Board of Health, Ottawa, for destroying typhoid and
dysentery bacilli in water, and rendering it safe for drink-
ing purposes. A level teaspoonful of chloride of lime is
rubbed up in a cupful of water, the water being added
little by little, so as to obtain a uniform emulsion. This
is then diluted with three more cupfuls of water, and one
teaspoonful of the dilution is added to two gallons of the
water to be purified, mixing thoroughly, and the mixture
is allowed to stand for at least ten minutes. The direc-
tions are somewhat rough and ready, but if the water
tastes distinctly of chlorine sufficient chloride of lime has
probably been added. A water containing much organic
matter will require more chloride of lime than one con-
taining little organic matter. For a water containing
little organic matter one part of chloride of lime per
million parts of water suffices, but for an impure water
four or five parts may be required. If an excess of

246

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

chloride of lime be added the water becomes unpalatable,
but the taste disappears on standing, particularly in bright
sunshine, or may be destroyed by the addition of a
dechlorinising agent such as bisulphite of soda. The
efficiency of chlorine and chloride of lime for sterilising
water has been amply demonstrated by many observers —
Nesfield, Rideal, Thresh, Woodhead, and others.

In view of the recent scare of plague in the Eastern
Counties, considerable interest attaches to a paper by
Captain W. D. H. Stevenson (Scientific Memoirs by
Officers of the Medical and Sanitary Departments, India,
No. 38) giving a preliminary account of experiments on
the killing of rats and rat-fleas by means of hydrocyanic
acid, generated by the action of sulphuric acid on
potassium cyanide. Fleas were killed very rapidly by the
gas. In one experiment a mixture of i ounce of
potassium cyanide, 2 ounces of sulphuric acid, and
4 ounces of water was placed in a small room of the
capacity of about 346 cubic feet, and the door was then
closed. After forty minutes the door was opened,
and fifteen minutes later the room was entered ; all the
fleas left in different parts of the room were killed, even
those placed inside four bags, three of blanket and one of
cotton, but some of the fleas placed inside a box of clothes
survived. Rats were found to require more gas and a
longer exposure than fleas. On the other hand, plant-life
appears to be uninjured by the gas, and cultures of
bacteria were also unaffected by it. Dried grain is not
made poisonous for food by the gas, nor are its powers of
germination impaired in any way. Moist food-stuffs, how-
ever, such as water, milk, butter, and flesh, are said to
absorb the poison, and should therefore be removed from
a building during fumigation. The gas has no action on
metals or fabrics.

That dorbeetles and their kindred are generally infested
with mites in this country is a well-known fact, but it
appears to be a comparatively new discovery that in
Cej'lon beetles of this group are likewise infested by minute
species of flies. In the December number of the
Entomologist's Monthly Magazine Mr. J. E. Collin
describes a new species of small hairy flies of the genus
Limosina taken from a coprophagous beetle in Ceylon.
The flies were found clinging to the under surface of the
beetle, and, instead of attempting to fly away, allowed
themselves to be dropped into a collecting tube without
change of position.

In British Birds for December it is stated that about
7900 birds were ringed in this country during the year,
Messrs. Smalley and Robinson having marked no fewer
than 2313 out of this number. In the editor's opinion it
is at present too early to decide whether the results will
repay the trouble and expense involved in marking. Its
chief results will relate to the movements of individual
birds, and it is urged that special attention should be
paid to the recapture of the smaller marked birds by the
editor's corresjxvndents, most of those which have been
taken having fallen into the hands of persons unacquainted
with the scheme. The costs of the inquiry during last
year considerably exceeded the funds at the disposal of its
promoter, and if the scheme is to be continued next season
it can only be by the aid of special subscriptions.

In the Proceedings of the United States National
Museum (vol. xxxix., 1910, pp. 37-91) Mr. R. E. Snod-
grass, whose treatise on the structure of the honey-bee
was noticed in Nature of December 8 (p. 169), publishes
an important memoir on the thorax of the Hymenoptera.

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

In this paper the modification and elaboration of th
thoracic skeleton in the various families of the order ai
described in detail, and illustrated by nineteen text-figur<-
and fifteen plates. The author finds no support foi
Verhoeff's theory that each thoracic segment is a complex
of three primitive somites, but prefers to regard the
serially arranged sclerites of the mesonotum and meta-
notum — so fully shown by many Hymenoptera — as evidence
of specialisation.

In vol. v.. No. 3, of the Philippine Journal of Science
Mr. L. E. Griffin publishes additional information with
regard to the pearl-fishery, dealing in this instance with
the products obtained off Bantayan, an island lying
between the northern ends of Negros and Cebu, at the
head of the Tanon channel. In May and June, and again
in November and December, the water is usually so still
and clear that the bottom can be seen to a depth of eight
fathoms, and it is at these seasons that the natives look
for oysters. In place of forming banks, these occur
sporadically, and were it not for the shortness of the season
there is little doubt they would long ago have been
exterminated. The shells, although of relatively small
size, are of excellent quality, but they are chiefly valuable
on account of the large percentage of pearls they yield
and their fine quality. During the present year one pearl
of the value of Sol. was collected, while others worth
from 20I. to 4oi. each were obtained. The total annual
value of the fishery is about 900Z.

A SURVEY of the vegetation on the Kasatzkisch steppe,
near Kursk, is contributed by Mr. V. Alechin to the
botanical section (part ii.) of Travaux de la Societe des
Naturalistes de St. Petersbourg (vol. xli.). The main
feature is the great predominance of dicotyledons, although
Carex humilis takes an important part in the ground cover.
The author concludes that the steppes existed previousl
to the wooded areas, and that they have been but liti'
modified by human agency.

The suitability of bamboos and lalang, or cogon grass,
for making pa{>er pulp is considered by Mr. G. F. Rich-
mond in an article on Philippine fibres published in the
Philippine Journal of Science (Section A, vol. v.. No. 4).
Proceeding upon evidence furnished by other investigators
and by laboratory experiments, the author takes a favour-
able view of the prospects of a local soda pulp mill for
treating bamboos, and supplies an estimate of the prob-
able cost. Also it is stated that a supply of raw material
and the necessary fresh water could be obtained in several
localities.

Bud-rot disease of palms has been notified within recent
years from the West Indies, Ceylon,, India, and the
Philippine Islands, but in most cases the cause of the
disease has not been definitely established. Dr.. E. J.
Butler, who has conducted the investigations in India,
where palmyra palms are chiefly attacked, attributes the
disease there to a Pythium, deriving his conclusions from
the inoculation of healthy palms. The source of the
disease in the other countries, where cocoanut palms are
infested, is probably different. Dr. Butler has embodied
his latest researches, together with a general account of
the distribution and remedial measures adopted, in the
botanical series (vol. iii.. No. 5) of the Memoirs of the
Department of Agriculture in India. Two spore forms
are recognised ; in the ordinary case the contents of a
sporangium break up into zoospores, but in hot, dry
weather a resting variety of conidium is more commonly
found.

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

247

The Journal of the Royal Society of Arts for December 9
contains a paper delivered to the society by Mr. A. Mont-
gomery, State Mining Engineer of Western Australia, on
the progress and prospects of mining in Western
Australia. Mr. Montgomery states that the metallic
minerals occur in ver}- old igneous and sedimentary- rocks,
which are almost certainly pre-Cambrian. His conclusion
is that Western Australia owes the present shape of its
surface largely to submergence beneath the sea within
post-Tertiary times. The paper was accompanied by an
exhaustive statistical appendi.x, from which we find that
for the quinquennium 1903-7 the world's production of
gold was 76,000,000/., of which the Commonwealth of
Australia contributed 20 per cent, and Western Australia
10^ per cent. For the same quinquennium the gold pro-
duced has been more than 96 per cent, of the total mineral
production, and the mineral export from Western Australia
has been 80 per cent, of the total for all the exports from
the colony. The value of gold produced per man employed
has been more than 400?. during the years 1908-9. In
regard to the help afforded by the Government to the
mining industr>, attention is directed to . the extensive
development of the railway lines and of rhe systems of
water supply ; water is sold to the mines at from 45. 9<J.
to 8s. 6d. per 1000 gallons.

The November number of Petermann's Mitteilungen
contains an interesting map of Siberia taken from one
published by the Russian Academy of Sciences, which
shows the distribution of places where remains of the
mammoth and rhinoceros have been found. Most of them
lie within the Arctic circle, but one of the former and
rhrc^ of the latter sites lie further to the south.

\\ event of much interest in cartography is the com-
pletion, after about thirty- years' work, of the i : 100,000
map of Germany in 675 sheets. A full account of these
maps and the various stages in their development and
their production is given by Colonel v. Zglinicki, chief of
the cartographic section of the Prussian Survey, in a
recent number (No. 9) of the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft
fiir Erdkunde.

The determination of the international boundaries in
Africa proceeds apace, and in Heft 4 of the current volume
of Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten are pub-
lished the latitudes and longitudes which were determined
in 1905-7 along the boundary which divides the Cameroons
from the French Congo. Neither the time available nor
the funds at disposal sufficed to carry out a chain of
geodetic triangulation along the boundan.-. so that it was
necessary to rely on astronomical obser\ations alone.
Latitudes were determined by circummeridian altitudes of
north and south stars, and longitudes by lunar observa-
tions, and in three cases only by star occultations.
Observations made at the obser\'atories of Greenwich,
Paris, and Gottingen were utilised to furnish the final
corrections, the uncertainty- of the results being ±2 to
±5 seconds.

Under the title of " The Burial of Olympia," Prof.
Ellsworth Huntington in the Geographical Journal for
^'cember applies the theories advocated in his work

! he Pulse of Asia " to the problem of the decadence
Greek civilisation. This is often attributed to de-
station ; but from evidence collected in America by

jf. Moore, chief of the United States Weather Bureau,
denies that this can have played an important part in
ruin of the natural resources of Greece. He assumes

It pulsatory changes of climate, such as the rapid

-•ccation of parts of Asia, may have occurred in Greece
the millenium preceding 600 .a.d. To these he attributes
NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

many of the world's greatest movements of population,
such as the attacks of the barbarians on southern Europe,
the invasions of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, and he
connects with these the spread of malaria due to the
introduction of the mosquito, for which Greece now be-
came a fitting habitat. In the instructive discussion which
followed, these views were criticised by Prof. Myres, Dr.
Hogarth, Dr. Stein, Prof. Gregory-, and others, most of
whom, while admitting the novelt>- and interest of Prof.
Huntington's suggestions, desired further evidence. This
may perhaps be gained from Prof. Huntington's recent
work in the American deserts ; but until the question of
North Africa is settled the general problem cannot be
finally decided.

In the Popular Science Monthly for December Prof.
S. W. Williston discusses the birthplace of man in the
light of the palaeontolc^ical record. The evidence, he
suggests, points to the conclusion that it was in India
and its borderlands that the chief domesticated animals
were specialised — the genus Bos in the Indian Lower
Pliocene, the swine, horse, elephant, and the cat tribe ;
among birds, the ostrich, jungle-fowl, peacock, and grey
goose. Man may have been developed in this region
during the Late Miocene or Early Pliocene periods. He
believes that within a verv- few years the discover}- of
indubitable links in man's ancestrj- will be made in Central
Asia. China, or North India, there being no other region
to which the palaeontologist looks with more eager expecta-
tion for the solution of many profound problems in the
phylogenetics and migrations of mammalian life.

The Transactions of the Leicester Literary and Philo-
sophical Society for 19 10 contain two geological papers
of interest. Mr. F. Cresswell deals with the frequently
discussed question of the origin of the English Triassic
strata, with special reference to the Keuper marls. He
suggests that the grey bands represent periods of moister
climate, when minute organisms reduced the peroxide of
iron to protoxide. While regarding the floor on which
the English Trias was deposited as a rocky tableland, he
falls into a ver}- common error by stating that the Libyan
Desert differs from this, being " a unifcwm sandy plain."
Mr. Cresswell fully supports the view that desert condi-
tions prevailed in Triassic times in England, and urges
that the Keuper marls are formed of particles worn from
igneous and metamorphic rocks by "' weathering with a
ver\- limited amount of w-ater." Mr. J. McKenzie Newton
contributes an essay on the crystallisation of igneous
rocks.

In the Bulletin of the Central Meteorological Observa-
tor>- of Japan (No. 5, 1910) Mr. T. Okada discusses in
great detail the rainy season in Japan, which usually
extends from about the middle of June to the middle of
July, and is the most important period for the cultivation
of rice. To make the investigation more complete, five-
day means are given for the whole year for a large number
of stations in Japan and adjacent districts, with charts
and a short discussion of each of the principal elements.
The figures show that in Japan proper the rainfall reaches
a maximum at the end of June or in the first decade of
July ; it then falls to a minimum in August, and again
increases to a maximum in September or October. The
rainfall of the season in question is chiefly caused by
cyclonic disturbances from the Yangtse Valley and
Formosa, and is not a simple monsoon rainfall. The
period is characterised by continued cloudy weather, large
relative humiditj-, comparatively high temperature, small
wind-velocit}.-, and more or less rainfall every day. The
discussion extends to eightj-two quarto pages.

248

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

The use of the Clark and Weston cells as standards of
«lectronniOtive force has necessitated a close study of the
properties of cadmium and zinc amalgams, and numerous
valuable papers on this subject have issued from the
van 't Hoff laboratory at Utrecht. In the current number
of the Zeitschrift fiir physikalische Chemie (December 2)
is a further contribution from this laboratory by Ernst
Cohen and P. J. H. van Ginneken, dealing with the
properties of zinc amalgam as affecting the Clark cell.
The authors conclude that the formula in current use
representing the relation between the E.M.F. and the
temperature of the Clark cell is not trustworthy, and
should not be employed in accurate measurements. It is
further shown that for e.xact work the Clark cell must be
used at temperatures between 20° C. and 38° C.

The Department of Mines, Canada, has sent us a copy
of the report of analyses of ores, fuels, &c., made in the
chemical laboratories of the Geological Survey during
1906 and 1907, and of the Mines Branch of the Depart-
ment of Mines in 1906, 1907, and 1908. With the excep-
tion of twenty-seven rock analyses, the work done is
chiefly of practical interest, analyses being given of
numerous coals, lignites, peats, and ores of iron, copper,
and chromium. The results of seventy-seven gold and
silver assays show the wide distribution of the precious
metals in Canada. In an appendix a description is given
of the commercial methods and apparatus used for the
analysis of oil-shales.

Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd., will publish
shortly a fully illustrated work on " Australian Plants "
■suitable for gardens, parks, timber reserves, &c., by Mr.
W. B. Guilfoyie.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

A Projection on Saturn's Outer Ring. — During the
total eclipse of the moon on November 16 M. Jonckheere
directed the 35-cm. equatorial of the Hem Observatory to
Saturn, and found a bright projection extending outwards
from the eastern extremitj- of the exterior ring. The
projection was best seen with low jxjwers (100 and 200),
and its intensity decreased gradually, going from the
outer edge of ring A on to the background of the sky.
On November 20 and 24 the same projection was seen
with difficulty (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4461).

Discovery of Another Nova, Sagittarii No. 3. — In a
note appearing in No. 4459 of the Astratiomische Nach-
richten Prof. E. C. Pickering states that Miss Cannon
has found that a new star appeared in the constellation
.Sagittarius on August 10, 1899. A photograph taken on
August 9, although showing stars of magnitude 11-5 in
the immediate neighbourhood of the nova, shows no trace
of it, yet on August 10 it is a conspicuous object of magni-
tude 8-5. While the outburst v/as so sudden, the decline,
as is common with such objects, was very rapid, for the
light faded from 8-6 on August 25 to 10-5 on October 13,
1899 ) the decrease after that date was more gradual.
The nova is not shown on any photograph taken after
October, 1901, when its magnitude was about 13-0. The
position of this object was R.A. = i8h. i2-2m., dec. = —
25° 14' (1875-0) ; this is about lom. west of A. Sagittarii
and 20m. east of Nova Sagittarii No. 2.

Faye's Comet. — Having identified Cerulli's comet with
Faye's short-period comet, M. G. Fayet has investigated
the orbit with the idea of obtaining closer agreement with
Dr. Stromgren's elements. Employing three observations,
made between November 10 and 22, he calculated the value
for the mean motion and obtained two sets of elements,
which, however, were not altogether satisfactory. Then
on November 30 he secured a further observation, and this
enabled him to apply the method of the variation of geo-
centric distances and to calculate other systems, the fifth
of which agrees very nearly with Dr. Stromgren's elements
for 1903, except that the mean motion is 486-792" instead

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

of 480-16"; they also give a close agreement with the
observations. From the best system obtained, which may,
however, yet be improved, M. Fayet has calculated an
ephemeris giving daily positions up to January 30, 1911
(Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4461).

New Experimental Demonstration of the Earth's
Rotation. — ^An interesting description of an experiment
devised by Father Hagen to demonstrate the rotation of
the earth is described by M. B. Latour in No. 1346 of
Cosmos (November 12). Father Hagen 's apparatus
consists of a balanced beam of wood, 9 metres long, which
has a bifilar suspension, and to which is attached heavv
masses movable in the horizontal plane towards and awav
from the suspension. In the modified experiment these
masses each consist of 80 kilograms of lead mounted in
small waggons, which can be automatically released by
the fusion of a leaden wire. When released the w.iggons
run towards the centre, the moment of inertia of the beam
is modified, and it swings relatively to the earth ; the
motion is shown by a mirror attached to the suspension
and reflecting a beam of light on to a scale fixed on the
wall of the circular room wherein the apparatus is in-
stalled. When the chariots are made to run from iIt-
centre to the extremities the swing of the beam is in the
opposite direction and about half the amount. W'ith
Father Hagen 's apparatus, mounted in the massive tower
which carries the astrographic equatorial at the Vatican
Observatory, the mean of twenty experiments gave a value
for the earth's rotation very near the theoretical value at
Rome.

Investigation of the Orbit of ^^'oLF's Comet, 1898-
191 1. — In No. 4460 of the Astronomische Nachrichten
M. M. Kamensky gives in brief the results of an elaborate
investigation he has made of the movements of Wolf's
comet during the period 1898-19 11. This is the well-
known short-period (6-7 years) comet discovered by Wolf
at Heidelberg on September 17, 1884, and independently
by Copeland with the spectroscope on September 22 ; it
was reobserved in 189 1 and 1898, but was not seen in
1904-5. The orbit was completely transformed by Jupiter
in 1875, but the slight differences between the observed and
calculated places in 1898 indicate that it is now a per-
manent member of our system.

M. Kamensky first investigated the motion during the
period 1898 August 22 to 1904 June 12, taking into
account the perturbations of the earth. Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, and these are published in full in No. 15 (1910)
of the Bulletin de I' Academic linperiale des Sciences de
St. Petersbourg. He then carried the investigation for-
ward to March 28, igii, and publishes the full tables in
No. 16 of the Bulletin ; he also gives elements showing
the severe perturbation by Jupiter in 1875, and states that
extraordinary changes may again take place at a near
approach in the latter part of 1922.

According to the final elements, the next perihelion
passage should occur on February 24, 19 12, and in Bulletin
No. 16 M. Kamensky gives an ephemeris for the period
191 1 January 3 to October 14; for the latter date the
estimated magnitude is 12-2.

The Light Changes of Forty-nine Variable Stars.—
In the fourteenth issue of the Bulletin International, pub- |
lished by the Cracow Academy of Sciences, Dr. L. Pracka i
discusses the light changes of forty-nine variable stars. 1
The observations were made at the Bamberg Observatory (
during 1905-9, and each star is discussed at length. A
summary of the results is given in handy tabular form at j
the end of the paper showing the elements, the magni-
tudes and colour, and the form of the light-curve for each I
object. I

THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY'S EXHIBITION.

(~)^ Tuesday, December 20, the Physical Society of
^^^ London held its annual exhibition of physical |
apparatus, and the occasion was marked by some interest- ;
ing experimental lectures. Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S.,
chose for his subject some improvements in transmitters j
and receivers for wireless telegraphy, and referred first
to his well-known oscillation valve, consisting of a gloW i
lamp in which a metal plate of some convenient form is ,.

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

249

fixed. When the filament (which in the latest form is of
tungsten) is glowing, a current will flow if an E.M.F. is
applied between the negative terminal of the filament and
the metal plate ; the current can flow from the filament to
the plate, but not in the reverse direction, and thus rectifi-
cation results. Owing to the upward trend of the con-
ductivity curve a much higher sensibility is obtained by
applying a certain constant E.M.F. on which that due to
the oscillations is superimposed. Passing to the question
of the spark, the lecturer reproduced some interesting
records showing how greatly the secondary current is in-
creased when the spark gap is subjected to an air blast.
Finally, Prof. Fleming showed his new form of spark dis-
charger. This is of the Wien " quenched-spark " type,
and consists of two heavy steel circular discs, one above
the other, very perfectly surfaced and with an air gap of
\ mm. between them. The lower disc is stationary and
the upper one is rotated. The discs are placed in oil, and
as there is a hole in the lower disc there is a continual
circulation of oil. The discharger is found to give very
satisfactory and uniform results, and has been used for
measuring losses in condensers.

Mr. R. W. Paul gave several demonstrations of kine-
matograph diagrams. One series, due to Prof. R. W.
Wood, illustrated sound waves ; but certainly the most
effective films were those due to Prof. S. P. Thompson,
F.R.S., showing the movement of fines of force as a
keeper approaches a magnet, the starting of a current in
a solenoid, the rotation of a dynamo armature (in section),
and other similar phenomena. These must have appealed
strongly to teachers of magnetism.

As regards the apparatus exhibited, it may be said that
there were many interesting new instruments, though
perhaps nothing very striking, and there was much excel-
lence in many exhibits that were not essentially novel.
Thus in optical work A. Hilger, Ltd., gave an excellent
display of spectroscopic instruments and a beautiful
demonstration of anomalous dispersion. R. and J. Beck
showed a small spectroscope giving large dispersion and
with a sine motion so as to give wave-lengths direct.
Carl Zeiss, as usual, gave an interesting exhibit, including
the movement of gold particles (stated to be about 6 y-ft.
in size) in colloidal solution, a special " cardioid " con-
denser being used, consisting of two lenses combined, and
so shaped that a top illumination is secured for a dark
ground, although the beam of light comes from below the
centre of the stage. Messrs. E. Leitz showed a large
projection apparatus giving excellent definition.

Photometric apparatus was not so much in evidence as
on former occasions, but R. and J. Beck, and also Everett,
Edgcumbe and Co., showed very small portable photo-
meters for measuring surface brightness and illumination.
As an exhibit of general interest may be mentioned that
of Strange and Graham illustrating flapping flight. Two
wings are worked by " \'ilcar " mechanism, and a dis-
tinct upward pull is noticeable, apparently due to the
upward path of the wing differing from that on the down-
ward stroke.

The largest number of exhibits, as usual, were electrical.
Several interesting thermo-electric exhibits were shown by
the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co., among which
may be mentioned an arrangement for keeping the cold
junction of a clinical recording thermometer at a constant
temperature. This junction is covered by a small Dewar
vacuum vessel, and is surrounded by a heating coil, which
comes into action as soon as the temperature falls below
a certain value ; by this means the temperature of this
junction is maintained constant to o-i° C. This firm also
showed compensating leads consisting of copper and copf)er-
nickel alloy ; these are run in series with the pyrometer,
and, being thermo-electrically equal to the platinum/
platinum-iridium couple, they transfer the cold junction of
the pyrometer to the galvanometer, thus securing less
variation in temperature of the cold junction. An arrange-
ment whereby a constant E.M.F. is obtained for applying
to a pyrometer so as to secure a false zero was also shown,
and we noticed a convenient piece of apparatus for tracing
recalescence curves ; also an improved form of C. T. R.
Wilson's tilting gold-leaf electroscope. A new form of
radiation pyrometer which does not require focussing was
shown by the Foster Instrument Co., who also exhibited
some special thermo-junction alloys. H. Tinsley and Co.

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

showed a set of instruments largely due to Dr. C. V.

Drysdale, and some interesting vector diagrams of
alternating magnetic flux in an iron wire, obtained by
Drysdale 's alternate-current potentiometer. This firm also
showed a simple and strong form of vibration galvano-
meter based on the familiar Kelvin galvanometer ; a heavy
permanent magnet is provided for the control, and the
tuning is effected (without affecting the zero) by magnetic-
ally shunting this magnet to the desired extent. The
alternating current traverses a small coil, which can be
easily changed, and the makers state that the instnmient
can be used for alternating pressures down to i/iooth
micro-volt. R. W. Paul exhibited a well-designed new
type of decade standard resistance box with switch con-
tacts, the case being filled with oil, and we noticed some
new transforming apparatus by Leslie Miller and by Muir-
head and Co. Since there were thirty-five exhibitors, we
need scarcely say that there was a good deal to be seen,
but in the above notes we have only been able to refer
very briefly to a few of the more interesting items.

INVESTIGATIONS ON WHEAT IN INDIA.^
'T'HE importance of the wheat crop in India is not
-*■ always realised at home. Until the last few years
we received more wheat from India than from Canada
or Australia^sometimes more than from both countries
put together. At the present time wheat represents some
7 per cent, of the total value of merchandise exported
from India, but the amount exported is only about one-
tenth of the total production, the remaining nine-tenths
being consumed in the country itself. \\'hen an industry
has reached such great dimensions without excessive nursing
it is clear that those engaged in it have consciously or
unconsciously adopted tolerably satisfactory methods of
working, and any attempt on the part of an outsider to
effect improvements must be developed cautiously. When
in 1906 the Indian Board of Agriculture decided to take
up the matter seriously, they entrusted the work to Mr.
and Mrs. Howard, and subsequent events have amply
ji stifled the wisdom of their choice. Several important
papers have been issued, and finally a volume, *' Wheat
in India," in which the authors summarise the present
position of the problem and indicate the lines on which
advancement may be hoped for.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard devote the first half-dozen
chapters of their volume to a general sketch of wheat-
growing in India. Wheat is fairly widely distributed over
the country, but the areas where it is really important all
lie to the north or on the Central Plateau above the Ghats.
In the north-west a great deal of the wheat is irrigated ;
the Punjab is especially well suited to canal irrigation by
reason of its never-failing snow-fed rivers and its level
tracts of land, but recourse is also had to irrigation by
wells. On the other hand, in the Central Provinces,
Bengal, and Bombay, only a small area is artificially
watered.

In general, the soil is thoroughly well ploughed or
scarified during the monsoon and previous to sowing, as
many as fourteen ploughings being sometimes given. A
good deal of manure is applied in the northern districts,
but usually to the maize crop preceding the wheat ; in
the Central Provinces the monsoon (kharif) crop of rice,
which precedes wheat, is slightly manured, but in Bombay
the irrigated wheat itself is manured. Harvest begins in
the Central Provinces in March, elsewhere in April, May,
and even the end of June in the frontier districts. The
wheat for export has to be got to Karachi for shipment
as soon as possible, or it rapidly deteriorates, and is
attacked by moths and weevils. In the rush the railway
resources are heavily taxed, just as they are in Canada ;
the Indian case is, indeed, the worse, as there is no
elevator system.

These preliminary chapters are illustrated by maps,

1 " The Milling and Baking Oualiiies of Indian Whfat." No. 2. By
Albert Howard and Gabrielle L, C. Howard.

"The Influence of Environment on the Milling 'and "Bakirg Qualities of
Wheat in India.' By Albert Howard. H. M. Leake and Gabrielle L. C.
Howard. (Pusa : Agricultural Research Institute.)

"Wheat in India, its Production, Varieties and Improvements." By
.\lbert Howard^and Gabrielle L. C. Howard. Pp. ix+238. (Calcutta:
Thacker, Spink and Co. London : W. Thacker and Co., n.d.)

>o

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

quotations and statistics, and give an illuminating account
of wlieat-growing in India.

Passing on to a discussion of experimental work, the
authors point out that manurial trials on orthodox lines
are of purely academic interest in India. It was no doubt
an excellent thing to make them, but their value is limited
by the fact that the cultivator cannot usually buy the
necessary manures. It is much more to the point to
make cultivation trials, seeing that labour is very cheap
and the labourer realises the necessity for working the
land. But here again intelligent planning is necessary ; if
the trials are to serve as demonstrations for the native
they must be made with implements he can afford to buy
and learn to handle, and which the village blacksmith can
repair. A summary is given of the well-known Cawnpore
experiments, which show that the nitrogen supply is the
limiting factor in normal conditions of moisture and
temperature obtaining there. At Nagpur nitrogen was also
the most important factor, but the water supply was in this
case near the limit. The Punjab irrigation experiments,
said to be the best of their kind in India, were made to
ascertain the best quantity of water and the best number of
waterings. It was found that the native was, like many
other irrigation farmers, taking too much water, so that
the area under treatment was needlessly curtailed, and the
revenue suffered loss. But the authors further point out
that over-watering gives rise to mottled grain and to
samples uneven in texture, and therefore of low value.
This loss in value, of course, falls on the cultivator him-
self, and if it could be brought home to him would, no
doubt, induce him to take less water.

The authors then discu»s the factors adversely affecting
the production of wheat in India. In order of merit these
are climatic extremes, fungi, insects, and vermin. Of the
diseases, rusts are the most important, transcending in
effect all other diseases put together. The only trust-
worthy remedy at present known is to grow rust-resisting
varieties. Introduction of such wheats of high repute
from abroad proved to be useless ; wheats resistant in
Australia succumbed badly in India, and, indeed, were
more susceptible than the indigenous kinds, besides ripen-
ing too late. It therefore became necessary to raise new
varieties from Indian wheats, and this work was begun
by the authors in 1905. The first step was to take stock
of the native sorts. An ordinary Indian wheat-field con-
tains a mixture of several sub-varieties, which had to be
isolated. These in turn comprise several types, agri-
culturally distinct, though botanically identical, and within
each type individual variations occur. Selection w^s
carried on, not on the old mass-selection lines, but by
isolating single plants and studying their progeny in
succeeding generations. The separation of forms and of
pure lines has been successfully accomplished, and already
several wheats have been obtained which are of much
greater value than the mixtures at present in cultivation.
Indeed, five of the Pusa selections have been shown by
milling and baking tests to be in the same class with the
Canadian spring wheats,- the strongest and most valuable
on the market. When the botanical survey was well on
to completion it was possible to hybridise. This work is
now in hand, and it is to be hoped that Mr. and Mrs.
Howard will be able to carry the hybridisation on for the
necessary length of time, so that the full benefit of their
survey and selection work may be obtained.

A list of the botanical varieties of wheat found in India
is then given, and for certain provinces the agricultural
varieties as well. This survey is still in progress.

Throughout the book and the papers which the authors
have issued the various wheat problems of India are
handled in a masterly way. The record of work done
reflects the highest credit on the authors, and is full of
promise for the future of Indian agriculture.

THE REDUCTION OF ROLLING IN SHIPS.

"D EFERENCE is made in Engineering for December 16
■^^ to a paper by Mr. H. Frahm at the November meet-
ing of the Schiffbautechnische Gesellschaft, in which the
author describes his apparatus for reduction of rolling in
ships. In this apparatus two water tanks are disposed on
opposite sides of the centre line of the ship near the shell,
and are connected below bv a water conduit and above

NO. 2147, VOL- 85]

by an air conduit ; a throttle valve is inserted in the latter.
The water tanks are filled partly with water, which mav
oscillate in the closed circuit formed by the conduits. If
the throttle valve is closed oscillation is practically pre-
vented ; with the valve full open the oscillations are un-
obstructed, excepting that free waves cannot arise.

The principle on which the device is based is that ,1
series of wave-impulses will cause the ship to oscill.i'
about its longitudinal axis; these oscillations will becon;
pronounced when the period of the wav<3s agrees with tb.n
of the natural vibration of the ship. These differ in phast
by 90°, i.e. the maximum deflection of the ship from th''
vertical will occur a quarter period after the wave h;i^
been at its maximum inclination to the ship. The sauT
applies to the oscillations of the ship and to those of th
water column in the tanks, which rises and falls so tli;
the two oscillation periods are equal, provided the walri
has the proper mass. In this case the oscillations of the
water column will lag a quarter period behind those <>^
the ship, and hence half a period behind the period ■
the waves, and the two turning moments acting on tli
ship will therefore oppose one another. This is an appli-
cation of the principle of resonance.

Mr. Frahm 's apparatus is beyond the mere experimental
stage. The oil-tank boat W83 of the German Navy, ^^i>
tons displacement, is a very stiff boat, with a high natural
vibration period of 10-75 per minute. In dock the deflec-
tions from the perpendicular were reduced from 10° to
2° by twelve oscillations when the tanks were cut out,
and by two oscillations with the tanks in action. At sra
the amplitude of rolling was diminished to one-thin!
Two steamers of the Hamburg-.^merica Line — t!
ypirango and Corcovado — of 12,600 tons displacement,
have been fitted with the anti-rolling tanks. The formi-r
was a notorious roller. Both are now regarded as steady

j boats; the tanks reduce rolling 11° (on either side) to
25° maximum. Messrs. Blohm and Voss are designing

I anti-rolling tanks for the new passenger steamer of 55,000
tons which they are now building for the Hamburg-
America Line. The paper in itself is very interesting, and
is doubly so in view of statements made recently in the
case of the loss of the British steamer Waratah.

ARGENTINE METEOROLOGICAL RESEARCH.^

"T^HE services rendered to meteorology by Dr. W. S.
Bruce in founding the meteorological observatory at
Scotia Bay, South Orkneys, in 1903, are brought into
forcible evidence by the publication of successive year<'
observations. Through the exertions of Dr. Escalant
Minister of Agriculture, and the enthusiasm of Mr. VV. (■.
Davis, the Argentine Meteorological Office was enabled to
take over the observatory from the Scottish National
.Antarctic Expedition, and has maintained it ever since.
It must be remembered that this is the only permanent
meteorological observatory in Antarctic regions. Th°
observations for 1904, with an introduction by Mr. R. (
Mossman, are now published, though the title-page i~
dated 1905. The observations of following years seem not
yet to have appeared, but they are briefly summarised in a
m.ost interesting and useful outline- by Mr. W. G. Davis
on the chmate of the Argentine Republic. It may be
mentioned, also, that a discussion by Mr. Mossman of
each successive year's observations has appeared year b\
year in the Scottish Geographical Magazine. The tardv
appearance of the 1904 volume detracts somewhat from i'
interest in view of our knowledge of the six later year-,
but we understand that circumstances beyond the control
of the Meteorological Office alone delayed the publication.

Previous io the expedition of the Scotia it was supposed
that, from their latitude, the South Orkneys would enjoy
an oceanic climate. Actually, however, these conditions
only obtain for four months, while for the rest of the year
the conditions are continental. In exceptional years either
of these states of climate may be prolonged at the expense
of the other. The climate largely depends on the distri-
bution of ice in the Weddell Sea. The average mean

1 Anales de la Oficina Meteoroldeica Argentina.^ Tomo xvi.,_ O''^'"
vaciones de las Islas Orcadas en el Ano 1904. Text in both Spanish and
English. (Buenos Aires, 1905.)

" Climate of the Argentine Republic." By W. G. Davis. (Buenos Aires :
Department of Agriculture, igio.)

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

251

monthly temperature for five years (1903-8) varies from
968° F. in July to 3254° in January, while the absolute
range in the same period was 88°. The temperature
variability of the seasons brings out the tendency to a
winter continental and a summer oceanic climate. These
values are (1904): — spring, 51°; summer, 1-3°; autumn,
5-4°; winter, 91°. The year 1904 had a mean annual
mperature of 22-4°, which is 096° below the average
; -an of the five years 1903-8.

The wind directions, which were taken from the move-

•nts of the lower clouds, since the high land to the

•St of the observ'atory tended to deflect many winds, show

prevalence of north-westerly winds. Subsequent years'

ijservations give west and south-west winds as the most

frequent, which seems to show that the readings of 1904

give too high a value to north-west winds. Undoubtedly

he position of Omond House is such that west and south-

>t winds would tend to be below what would be re-

rded in an unexceptional situation. In fact, on further

nsideration, Mr. Niossman has, we understand, come

. the conclusion that the wind directions of 1904 are not

wholly trustworthy. East, and especially north-east, winds

are conspicuously rare, and the percentage wind frequency

' >r each season does not materially differ from that of the

ar. The temperatures associated with these winds are

great interest, but unfortunately in Mr. Davis's five

ars' summary no thermal wind-roses are given. Verv

obably the high temperatures associated with some of

these apparent westerly winds is partly due to Fohn effects,

since in May, 1903, that is, in midwinter, an undoubted

Fohn wind raised the temperature at the site of the

observatory to 46°, which was only 1° lower than the

absolute maximum of the year.

Associated with these prevailing west and south-west
inds. which were also experienced by Dr. Xordenskjold
at Snow Hill in 1902—3, there exists a low-pressure area
in the Weddell Sea, furthest south in autumn and most
northerly in winter, but with a centre normally about
66° S. and 30° to 35° W. The continental origin of these
prevailing winds accounts largelv for the low temperatures
of the South Orkneys compared with their latitude. The
theimal gradient on the east of Graham Land is steep,
and this fact, in relation to the southward bending of the
isotherms about 40° W., is strong evidence for the exist-
ence of the northward projection of .Antarctica south of
the South Orkneys to about the Circle. Moreover, on no
other grounds is it possible to account for the verv low
temperatures that occur from time to time at Scotia Bay
witfi southerlv and south-easterlv winds.

NAllVE WORKING OF COAL AXD IRON IN
CHINA.

^X interesting illustrated article on the native working
of coal and iron in the province of Shansi, China,
appears in Engineering for December 2. In the Ping
Ting Chau districts the iron ore is of excellent quality.
The methods of extraction are decidedly primitive ; in the
old workings the ground is often found honeycombed with
small shafts, seldom more than 14 inches in diameter, and
usually just large enough to allow a man to go down.
The tools used consist of a native pick, a cast-iron
hammer, a wedge, and a sort of basket-shovel, the ore
being raised in the basket by a small wooden winch. The
climate is healthy, but work under such conditions is sure
to produce disease, and consumption is very prevalent.
During the summer the mines are shut down,' and all the
men become farmers until the close of the harvest season.
The southern district specialises in wrought-iron goods,
for example, spades, picks, nails, wrought-iron bars, and
general ironwork ; the northern district produces the larger
and rougher classes of goods, such as cast-iron pans and
sections of tyres for cart-wheels. Reduction of the ore
is conducted in roasting-kilns ; the broken-up ore is mixed I
with anthracite and charged into clay crucibles, which are |
heated in the kilns for about four days. The iron residue I
IS then treated in a foundry, where it is broken up and i
remelted in crucibles for the production of cast iron, or,
if wrought iron is being produced, bv melting in a |
crude furnace, hammering, and puddling. j

The Ping Ting Chau district is one of the largest
NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

anthracite coal beds of which there is any knowledge.
The natives get at the coal by adit or by shaft, as
may best suit the nature of the ground. Shafts var>-
from 6 to 8 feet in diameter, and from 60 to 300
feet in depth ; the thickness of the seam of coal varies
from 4 to 18 feet. During late years native mechanics
have been giving advice, with the result that collieries
are coming into existence in which the coal is hoisted
in baskets, and cow-hide bags are used for hauling
out accumulations of water. A Canton Chinaman
attempted to apply up-to-date methods to a mine just
outside the Ping Ting Chau area, and sank a shaft beside
the adit. He proposed to use a winch for winding up
the coal, but before this could be done w'ater was struck
and the mine flooded. Boilers and pumps were erected
by Chinese workmen, and the water was successfully
cleared out of the first level. Shortly after starting work
an explosion took place, and practically closed the shaft.
-At present the men are carrying the coal up the steps in
bags in an excessively high temperature due to the steam-
pipes, and the Cantonese has retired from the field. Pick,
hammer, and wedge are the only tools used.

THE DYNAMICS OF A GOLF BALL^
nPHERE are so many dynamical problems connected
with golf that a discussion of the whole of them
would occupy far more time than is at my disposal this
evening. I shall not attempt to deal with the many
important questions which arise when we consider the
impact of the club with the ball, but confine myself to
the consideration of the flight of the ball after it has left
the club. This problem is in any case a ver\' interesting
one ; it would be even more interesting if we could accept
the explanations of the behaviour of the ball given by
many contributors to the very voluminous literature which
has collected round the game ; if these were correct, I
should have to bring before you this evening a new
dynamics, and announce that matter, when made up into
golf balls, obeys laws of an entirely different character
from those governing its action when in any other
condition.

If we could send off the ball from the cfub, as w^
might from a catapult, without spin, its behaviour would
be regular, but uninteresting ; in the absence of wind its
path would keep in a vertical plane ; it would not deviate

Fig. I.

either to the right or to the left, and would fall to the
ground after a comparatively short carry.

But a golf ball when it leaves the club is only in rare
cases devoid of spin, and it is spin which gives the interest,
variety, and vivacity to the flight of the ball. It is spin
which accounts for the behaviour of a sliced or pulled
ball, it is spin which makes the ball soar or " douk," or
execute those wild flourishes which give the impression
that the ball is endowed with an artistic temperament, and
performs these eccentricities as an acrobat might throw-
in an extra somersault or two for the fun of the thing.
This view, however, gives an entirely wrong impression
of the temperament of a golf ball, which is, in reality, the
most prosaic of things, knowing while in the air only one
rule of conduct, which it obeys with unintelligent con-
scientiousness, that of always following its nose. This
rule is the key to the behaviour of all balls when in the
air, whether they are golf balls, base balls, cricket balls,
or tennis balls. Let us, before entering into the reason
for this rule, trace. out some of its consequences. By the
nose of the ball we mean the point on the ball furthest in
front. Thus if, as in Fig. i, C the centre of the ball is
moving horizontally to the right, .A will be the nose of
the ball ; if it is moving horizontally to the left, B will

I Discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday. March 18, by
Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S.

2n2

NATURE

[December 22, igio

be the nose. If it is moving in an inclined direction CP,
as in Fig. 2, then A will be the nose.

Now let the ball have a spin on it about a horizontal
axis, and suppose the ball is travelling horizontally as in
Fig. 3, and that the direction of the spin is as in the

KiG. 2.

figure, then the nose A of the ball is moving upwards, and
since by our rule the ball tries to follow its nose, the
ball will rise and the path of the ball will be curved as
in the dotted line. If the spin on the ball, still about a
horizontal axis, were in the opposite direction, as in

,4

F... 3.

Fig. 4, then the nose A of the ball would be moving
downwards, and as the ball tries to follow its nose it
will duck downwards, and its path will be like the dotted
line in Fig. 4.

Let us now suppose that the ball is spinning about a

vertical axis, then if the spin is as in Fig. 5, as we look
along the direction of the flight of the ball the nose is
movmg to the right; hence by our rule the ball will move
off to the right, and its path will resemble the dotted line
in Fig. 5 ; in fact, the ball will behave like a sliced ball.

Fig.

Such a ball, as a matter of fact, has spin of this kind
about a vertical axis.

If the ball spins about a vertical axis in the opposite
direction, as in Fig. 6, then, looking along the line of
flight, the nose is moving to the left, hence the ball moves

x^gglpv

Fig. 6.

off to the left, describing the path indicated by the dotted
line ; this is the spin possessed by a " pulled " ball.

If the ball were spinning about an axis along the line
of flight, the axis of spin would pass through the nose
of the ball, and the spin would not affect the motion of

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

the nose ; the ball, following its nose, would thus move
on without deviation.

Thus, if a cricket ball were spinning about an axis
parallel to the line joining the wickets, it would not
swerve in the air ; it would, however, break in one way
or the other after striking the ground ; if, on the other
hand, the ball were spinning about a vertical axis, it
would swerve while in the air, but would not break on
hitting the ground. If the ball were spinning about an
axis intermediate between these directions it would both
swerve and break.

Excellent examples of the effect of spin on the flight of
a ball in the air are afforded in the game of base ball ; an
expert pitcher, by putting on the appropriate spins, can
make the ball curve either to the right or to the left,
upwards or downwards ; for the sideway curves the spin
must be about a vertical axis, for the upward or down-
ward ones about a horizontal axis.

A lawn-tennis player avails himself of the effect of spin
when he puts " top spin " on his drives, i.e. hits the ball
on the top so as to make it spin about a horizontal axis,
the nose of the ball travelling downwards, as in Fig. 4 :
this makes the ball fall more quickly than it otherwise
would, and thus tends to prevent it going out of tli
court.

Before proceeding to the explanation of this effect of
spin, I will show some experiments which illustrate the
point we are considering. As the forces acting on the
ball depend on the relative motion of the ball and the air,
they will not be altered by superposing the same velocity
on the air and the ball ; thus, suppose the ball is rushing
forward through the air with the velocity V, the forces
will be the same if we superpose on both air and ball
a velocity equal and opposite to that of the ball ; the effect
of this is to reduce the centre of the ball to rest, but to

2:^

Fig. 7.

make the air rush past the ball as a wind moving with
the velocity \'. Thus the forces are the same when the
ball is moving and the air at rest, or when the ball is
at rest and the air moving. In lecture experiments it is
not convenient to have the ball flying about the room ; it
is much more convenient to keep the ball still and make
the air move.

The first e.xperiment I shall try is one made by Magnus
in 1852 ; its object is to show that a rotating body moving
relatively to the air is acted on by a force in the direction
in which the nose of the body is moving relatively to its
centre ; the direction of this force is thus at right angles
both to the direction in which the centre of the body is
moving and" also to the axis about which the body is
spinning. For this purpose a cylinder A (Fig. 7) is
mounted on bearings so that it can be spun rapidly about
a vertical axis ; the cylinder is attached to one end of the
beam B, which is weighted at the other end, so that when
the beam is suspended by a wire it takes up a horizontal
position. The beam yields readily to any horizontal force,
so that if the cylinder is acted on by such a force this will
be indicated by the motion of the beam. In front of the
cylinder there is a pipe. D, through which a rotating fan
driven by an electric motor sends a blast of air which
can be directed against the cylinder. I adjust the beam
and the beam carrying the cylinder so that the blast of
air strikes the cylinder symmetrically ; in this case, when
the cylinder is riot rotating the impact against it of the
stream of air does not give rise to any motion of the
beam. I now spin the cylinder, and you see that when
the blast strikes against it the beam moves off sideways.
It goes off one way when the spin is in one direction, and
in the opposite way when the direction of spin is reversed.

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

The beam, as you will see, rotates in the same direction
as the cylinder, which an inspection of Fig 8 will show
you is just what it would do if the cylindt.- were acted
upon by a force in the direction in which its nose (which,
in this case, is the point on the cylinder first struck by
the blast) is moving. If I stop the blast the beam does
not move, even though I spin the cylinder, nor does it
move when the blast is in action if the rotation of the
cylinder is stopped ; thus both spin of the cylinder and

Blast

Fig. 8.

movement of it through the air are required to develop
the force on the cylinder.

Another way of showing the e.xistence of this force is
to take a pendulum the bob of which is a cylinder, or some
other symmetrical body, mounted so that it can be set in
rapid rotation about a vertical a.xis. When the bob of
the pendulum is not spinning the pendulum keeps swing-
ing in one plane, but when the bob is set spinning the
plane in which the pendulum swings no longer remains
stationary, but rotates slowly in the same sense as the
bob is spinning (Fig. 9).

-;>>--

and the other having the ordinary bramble markings, are
mounted on an axis, and can be set in rapid rotation by
an electric motor. An air-blast produced by a fan comes
through the pipe B, and can be directed against the balls ;
the instrument is provided with an arrangement by which
the supports of the a.xis carrying the balls can be raised
or lowered so as to bring either the smooth or the bramble-
marked ball opposite to the blast. The pressure is
measured in the following way : — LM are tw'o tubes con-
nected with the pressure-gauge PQ ; L and M are placed
so that the golf balls can just fit in between them ; if the
pressure of the air on the side M of the balls is greater
than that of the side L, the liquid on the right-hand side
Q of the pressure-gauge will be depressed ; if, on the other
hand, the pressure at L is greater than that at M, the left-
hand side P of the gauge w-ill be depressed.

I first show that when the golf balls are not rotating
there is no difference in the pressure on the two sides
when the blast is directed against the balls ; you see there
:s no motion of the liquid in the gauge. Next I stop the
blast and make the golf balls rotate ; again there is no
motion in the gauge. Now when the golf balls are
spinning in the direction indicated in Fig. 11 I turn on the
blast, the liquid falls on the side Q of the gauge, rises
on the other side. Now I reverse the direction of rotation
of the balls, and you see the motion of the liquid in the
gauge is reversed, indicating that the high pressure has
gone from one side to the other. You see that the pressure
is higher on the side M, where the spin carries this side
of the ball into the blast, than on L, where the spin tends
to carrv the ball awav from the blast. If we could

F G. 9.

We shall now pass on to the consideration of how these
forces arise. They arise because when a rotating body is
moving through the air the pressure of the air on one
side of the body is not the same as that on the other ; the
pressures on the two sides do not balance, and thus the
body is pushed away from the side where the pressure is
greatest.

Thus, when a golf ball is moving through the air,
spinning in the direction shown in Fig. 10, the pressure

Fig. 10.

on the side ABC, where the velocity due to the spin
conspires with that of translation, is greater than that on
the side .\DB, where the velocity due to the spin is in
the opposite direction to that due to the translatory motion
of the ball through the air.

I will now try to show you an experiment which proves
that this is the case, and also that the difference between
the pressure on the two sides of the golf ball depends upon
the roughness of the ball.

In this instrument. Fig. 11, two golf balls, one smooth

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

Fig. II.

imagine ourselves on the golf ball, the wind would be
stronger on the side M than on L, and it is on the side
of the strong wind that the pressure is greatest. The case
when the ball is still and the air moving from right to
left is the same from the dynamical point of view as when
the air is still and the ball moves from left to right ;
hence we see that the pressure is greatest on the side
where the spin makes the velocity through the air greater
than it would be without spin.

Thus, if the golf ball is moving as in Fig. 12, the spin
increases the pressure on the right of the ball and
diminishes the pressure on the left.

To show the difference between the smooth ball and the
rough one, I bring the smooth ball opposite the blast ; \ou
observe the difference between the levels of the liquid in
the two arms of the gauge. I now move the rough ball
into the place previously occupied by the smooth one, and
you see that the difference of the levels is more than
doubled, showing that with the same spin and speed of
air blast the difference of pressure for the rough ball is
more than twice that for the smooth.

We must now^ go on to consider why the pressure of the
air on the two sides of the rotating ball should be different.
The gist of the explanation was given by Newton nearly
250 )ears ago. Writing to Oldenburg in 167 1 about the
dispersion of light, he says, in the course of his letter : —
"I remembered that I had often seen a tennis ball struck
with an oblique racket describe such a curved line. For

254

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

•O-

Fig. 12.

a circular as well as progressive motion being communi-
cated to it by that stroke, its parts on that side where
the motions conspire must press and beat the contiguous
air more violently, and there excite a rcluctancy and re-
action of the air proportionately greater." This letter has
more than a scientific interest — it shows that Newton set
an excellent precedent to succeeding mathematicians and
physicists by taking an interest in games. The same
explanation was given by Magnus, and the mathematical
theory of the effect is given by Lord Rayleigh in his paper
on "The Irregular F'light of a Tennis Ball," published in
the Messenger of Mathematics, vol. vi., p. 14, 1877. Lord
Rayleigh shows that the force on the ball resulting from
this pressure difference is at right angles
to the direction of motion of the ball, and
also to the axis of spin, and that the mag-
nitude of the force is proportional to the
velocity of the ball multiplied by the velocity
of spin, multiplied by the sine of the angle
between the direction of motion of the ball
and the axis of spin. The analytical in-
vestigation of the effects which a force of
this type would produce on the movement
of a golf ball has been discussed very fully
by Prof. Tait, who also made a very
interesting series of experiments on the
velocities and spin of golf balls when
driven from the tee, and the resistance they
experience when moving through the air.
As I am afraid I cannot assume that all my hearers
are expert mathematicians, I must endeavour to give a
general explanation, without using symbols, of how this
difference of pressure is established.

Let us consider a golf ball (Fig. 13) rotating in a
current of air flowing past it. The air on the lower side
of the ball will have its motion checked by the rotation
of the ball, and will thus in the neighbourhood of the
ball move more slowly than it would do if there were no
golf ball present, or than it would do if the golf ball
were there but was not spinning. Thus if we consider a
stream of air flowing along the channel PQ, its velocity
when near the ball at Q must be less than its velocity
when it started at P ; there must, then, have been
pressure acting against the motion of the air as it moved
from P to Q, i.e. the pressure of the air at Q must be
greater than at a place like P, which is some distance
from the ball. Now let us consider the other side of the
ball ; here the spin tends to carry the ball in the direction
of the blast of air ; if the velocity of the surface of the
ball is greater than that of the blast, the ball will increase
the velocity of the blast on this side, and if the velocity
of the ball is less than that of the blast, though it will
diminish the velocity of the air, it will not do so to so
great an extent as on the other side of the ball. Thus
the increase in pressure of the air at the top of the ball
over that at P, if it exists at all, will be less than the
increase in pressure at the bottom of the ball. Thus the
pressure at the bottom of the ball will be greater than that
at the top, so that the ball will be acted on by a force
tending to make it move upwards.

side of the boat they have to face the wind, on the other
side they have the wind at their backs. Now when they
face the wind, the pressure of the wind against them is
greater than if they were at rest, and this increased
pressure is exerted in all directions, and so acts against
the part of the ship adjacent to the deck ; when they an-
moving with their backs to the wind the pressure against
their backs is not so great as when they were still, st)
the pressure acting against this side of the ship will not
be so great. Thus the rotation of the passengers will
increase the pressure on the side of the ship when they
are facing the wind and diminish it on the other side.
This case is quite analogous to that of the golf ball.

Fig. 13.

We have supposed here that the golf ball is at rest, and
the air rushing past it from right to left ; the forces are
just the same as if the air were at rest, and the golf ball
rushing through it from left to right. As in Fig. 13, such
a ball rotating in the direction shown in the figure will
move upwards, i.e. it will follow its nose.

It may perhaps make the explanation of this difference
of pressure easier if we take a somewhat commonplace
example of a similar effect. Instead of a golf ball, let us
consider the case of an Atlantic liner, and, to imitate the
rotation of the ball, let us suppose that the passengers
are taking their morning walk on the promenade deck, all
circulating round the same way. When they are on one

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

Fig. 14.

The difference between the pressures on the two sides
of the golf ball is proportional to the velocity of the ball
multiplied by the velocity of the spin. As the spin
imparted to the ball by a club with a given loft is pro-
portional to the velocity with which the ball leaves the
club, the difference of pressure when the ball starts
proportional to the square of its initial velocity. The
difference between the average pressures on the two sides
of the ball need only be about one-fifth of i per centJ
of the atmospheric pressure to produce a force on the ball
greater than its weight. The ball leaves the club ii
good drive with a velocity sufficient to produce far greater
pressures than this. The consequence is that when the
ball starts from the tee spinning in the direction shown
in Fig. 14, this is often called underspin ; the upward
force due to the spin is greater than its weight, thus the
resultant force is upwards, and the ball is repelled from
the earth instead of being attracted to it. The consequence
is that the path of the ball curves upward as in the curve
A instead of downwards as in B, which would be its path
if it had no spin. The spinning golf ball is, in fact, a
very efficient heavier-than-air flying machine ; the lifting
force may be many times the weight of the ball.

The path of the golf ball takes very many interesting
forms as the amount of spin changes. We can trace all
these changes in the arrangement which I have here, and
which I might call an electric golf links. With thi«
apparatus I can subject small particles to forces of exactly
the same type as those which act on a spinning golf ball.

Fig. 15.

These particles start from what may be called the tee A
(Fig. 15). This is a red-hot piece of platinum with a
spot of barium oxide upon it ; the platinum is connected
with an electric battery which causes negatively electrified
particles to fly off the barium and travel down the glass
tube in which the platinum strip is contained ; nearly all
the air has been exhausted from this tube. These particles
are luminous, so that the path they take is very easily
observed. We have now got our golf balls off from the
tee ; we must now introduce a vertical force to act upon
them to correspond to the force of gravity on the golf
ball. This is easily done by the horizontal plates BC,
which are electrified by connecting them with an electric

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

255

■ attery ; the upper one is electrified negatively, hence
'.hen one of these particles moves between the plates it is
exfjosed to a constant downwards force, quite analogous
to the weight of the ball. You see now when the particles
pass between the plates their path has the shape shown in
Fig. 16 ; this is the path of a ball without spin. I can
imitate the effect of spin by exposing the particles while
they are moving to magnetic force, for the theory of these
particles shows that when a magnetic force acts upon them
it produces a mechanical force which is at right angles

Fig. 16.

1 the direction of motion of the particles, at right angles
also to the magnetic force, and proportional to the pro-
duct of the velocity of the particles, the magnetic force,
and the sine of the angle between them. We have seen
that the force acting on the golf ball is at right angles
to the dfrection in which it is moving at right angles to
the axis of spin, and proportional to the product of the
velocity of the ball, the velocity of spin, and the sine of

Fig. 17.

the angle between the velocity and the axis of spin. Com-
paring these statements, you will see that the force on the
particle is of the same type as that on the golf ball if
the direction of the magnetic force is along the axis of
spin and the magnitude of the force proportional to the
velocity of spin, and thus if we watch the behaviour of
these particles when under the magnetic force we shall
get an indication of the behaviour of the spinning golf

Fig. 18.

ball. Let us first consider the effect of underspin on the
flight of the ball ; in this case the ball is spinning, as in
Fig. 3, about a horizontal axis at right angles to the
direction of flight. To imitate this spin I must apply a
horizontal magnetic force at right angles to the direction

F.G. 19.

of flight of the particles. I can do this by means of the
electromagnet. I will begin with a weak magnetic force,
representing a small spin. You see how the path differs
from the one when there was no magnetic force ; the
path, to begin with, is flatter, though still concave, and
the carry is greater than before — see Fig. 17, a. I now
increase the strength of the magnetic field, and you will
see that the carry is still further increased. Fig. 17, h.
1 increase the spin still further, and the initial path be-
comes convex instead of concave, with a still further
increase in carry. Fig. 18. Increasing the force still

XO. 2147, VOL. 85]

more, you see the particle soars to a great height, then
comes suddenly down, the carry now being less than in
the previous case (Fig. 19). This is still a familiar type
of the path of the golf ball. I now increase the magnetic
force still further, and now we get a type of flight not
to my knowledge ever observed in a golf ball, but which
would be produced if we could put on more spin than

Fig. ;o.

we are able to do at present. You see there is a kink in
the curve, and at one part of the path the particle is
actually travelling backwards (Fig. 20). Increasing the
magnetic force I get more kinks, and we have a type of
drive which we have to leave to future generations of
golfers to realise (Fig 21).

{Fig. 21.

By increasing the strength of the magnetic field I can
make the curvature so great that the particles fly back
behind the tee, as in Fig. 22.

So far I have been considering underspin. Let us now
illustrate slicing and pulling ; in these cases the ball is
spinning about a vertical axis. I must therefore move
my electromagnet, and place it so that it produces a
vertical magnetic force (Fig. 23). I make the force act

Fig. 22.

one way, say downwards, and you see the particles curve
away to the light, behaving like a sliced ball. I reverse
the direction of the force and make it act upwards, and
the particles curve awav to the left, just like a pulled
ball.

By increasing the magnetic force we can get slices and

7

Fig. 23.
pulls much more exuberant than even the worst we per-
petrate on the links.

Though the kinks shown in Fig. 20 have never, so far
as I am aware, been observed on a golf links, it is quite
easy to produce them if we use very light balls. I have

256

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

here a ball A made of very thin indiarubber of the kind
used for toy balloons, filled with air, and weighing very
little more than the air it displaces ; on striking this with
the hand, so as to put underspin upon it, you see that it
describes a loop, as in Fig. 24.

Striking the ball so as to make it spin about a vertical
axis, you see that it moves off with a most exaggerated
slice when its nose is moving to the right looking at it
from the tee, and with an equally pronounced pull when
its nose is moving to the left.

One very familiar property of slicing and pulling is
that the curvature due to them becomes much more pro-
nounced when the velocity of the ball has been reduced
than it was at the beginning when the velocity was
gi-eatest. We can easily understand why this should be
so if we consider the effect on the sideways motion of
reducing the velocity to one half. Suppose a ball is pro-

FlG. 24.

Fig. 25.

jected from .\ in the direction .VB, but is sliced ; let us
find the sideways motion BC due to slice. The sideways
force is, as we have seen, proportional to the product "of
the velocity of the ball and the velocity of spin, or, if we
keep the spin the same in the two cases, to the velocity
of the ball; hence, if we halve the velocity we halve
the sideways force, hence, in the same time, the displace-
ment would be halved too, but when the velocitv is halved
the time taken for the ball to pass from A to B is doubled.
Now the displacement produced by a constant force is pro-
portional to the square of the time ; hence, if the force had
remained constant, the sideways deflection BC would have
been increased four times by halving the velocitv, but as
halving the velocity halves the force, BC is doubled when
the velocity is halved ; thus the sideways movement is twice
as great when the velocity is halved.

If the velocity of the spin diminished as rapidly as that
of translation, the curvature would not increase as the
velocity diminished, but the resistance of the air has more
effect on the speed of the ball than on its spin, so that
the speed falls the more rapidly of the two.

The general effect of wind upon the motion of a spinning
ball can easily be deduced from the principles we dis-
cussed in the earlier part of the lecture. Take, first, the
case of a head-wind. This wind increases the relative
velocity of the ball with respect to the air ; since the force
due to the spin is proportional to this velocity, the wind

Fig. 26.

increases this force, so that the effects due to spin are
more pronounced when there is a head-wind than on a
calm day. All golfers must have had only too many
opportunities of noticing this. Another illustration is
found in cricket ; many bowlers are able to swerve when
bowling against the wind who cannot do so to any con-
siderable extent on a calm day.

Let us now consider the effect of a cross-wind. Suppose
the wind is blowing from left to right, then, if the ball
is^ pulled, it will be rotating in the direction shown in
Fig. 26 ; the rules we found for the effect of rotation on
the difference of pressure on the two sides of a ball in a
blast of air show that in this case the pressure on the
front half of the ball will be greater than that on the rear
half, and thus tend to stop the flight of the ball. If,

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

however, the spin was that for a slice, the pressure on
the rear half would be greater than the pressure in front,
so that the difference in pressure would tend to push on
the ball and make it travel further than it otherwiso
would. The moral of this is that if the wind is coming
from the left we should play up into 'the wind and slin
the ball, while if it is coming from the right we should
play up into it and pull the ball.

Fig. 27.

I have not time for more than a few words as to hov>
the ball acquires the spin from the club. But if you grasp
the principle that the action between the club and the ba"
depends only on their relative motion, and that it is tli
same whether we have the ball fi.xed and move the club
or have the club fixed and project the ball against it, thf
main features are very easily understood.

Suppose Fig. 27 represents the section of the head of a

< --

Fig. 28.

Fig. 29.

lofted club moving horizontally forward from right to left,
the effect of the impact will be the same as if the club
were at rest and the ball were shot against it horizontally
from left to right. Evidently, however, in this case th
ball would tend to roll up the face, and would thus g-
spin about a horizontal axis in the direction shown in th
figure ; this is underspin, and produces the upward fori
which tends to increase the carry of the ball.

Fig. 30.

Fig. 31

Suppose, now, the face of the club is not square to if_
direction of motion, but that, looking down on the club,
its line of motion when it strikes the ball is along PQ
(Fig. 28), such a motion as would be produced if the arm-
were pulled in at the end of the stroke, the effect of th
impact now will be the same as if the club were at re.-:
and the ball projected along RS, the ball will endeavour
to roll along the face away from the striker ; it will spin

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

in the direction shown in the figure about a vertical axis.
This, as we have seen, is the spin which produces a sHce.
The same spin would be produced if the motion of the
club was along LM and the face turned so as to be in
the position shown in Fig. 29, i.e. with the heel in front
of the toe.

If the motion and position of the club were as in Figs.
30 and 31, instead of as in Figs. 28 and 29, the same
consideration would show that the spin would be that
[x>ssessed by a pulled ball.

THE SECOND FRENCH ANTARCTIC
EXPEDITION.^

''PHE Antarctic is so vast as to admit of many expedi-
*• tions working together with good results, and Dr.
Charcot therefore resolved to return to the region which
lie had explored to some extent in 1903-5. His precise
object was to investigate from every point of view as
great an extent of the Antarctic as possible, without any
considerations as to latitude. He desired to enter the
region where the ice drifted furthest to the north, and he
had no hope whatever of reaching the Pole. He had a
three-masted vessel constructed at St. Malo, with auxiliary
engine, which he named Le Pourquoi Pas? It was
equipped with every care, and supplied with the most
modern instruments for observation. The crew consisted
of twenty-two men, most of whom had already accom-
panied Dr. Charcot on his previous expedition. The staff
consisted of seven, who were experts in different depart-
ments of science. The expedition started from Havre on
August 15, 1909, and on December 16 left Punta Arenas
for the Antarctic.

After passing Deception Island Dr. Charcot made for
Port Lockroy, in Gerlache Strait, where the work of the
expedition began. Some days later the expedition arrived
at Wandell, which was found to be a very unsatisfactory
harbour, and therefore the expedition moved on to Peter-
mann Island. Dr. Charcot with two of his companions
set out to discover if it was possible to pass between the
Biscoe Islands and the coast. As they expected to return
the same day they did not take any provisions or change
of garments. Their return was blocked by the ice, and it
was four days before they were able to reach the ship,
narrowly escaping death from hunger and cold. From
Petermann Island a journey was made towards the south
along the coast, the mapping of which, begun during the
previous expedition, was completed. A hydrographical
survey was made of .Adelaide Island, which was found
to be seventy miles long instead of eight, as had previously
been stated. To the south of Adelaide, in a region which
had not previously been visited, a great gulf was dis-
covered which was entitled Marguerite Bay. Here the
greatest difficulties were met with from the ice and from
icebergs, but these were successfully overcome. In spite
of all the difficulties the expedition discovered and studied
the hydrography of 120 miles of unknown coast to the
south.

At last, after two attempts, the expedition succeeded in
traversing the ice and reaching Alexander Land, which
was mapped, and the hydrography of which was investi-
ijated. It was found absolutely impossible to winter here,
however, and the expedition was compelled to return to
Petermann Island. Observations, however, were carried
on with great perseverance, numerous soundings and
dredgings were made, and many photographs taken. The
house which had been constructed here on the previous
expedition was still available, and after three days' work
was put into condition for being able to be used during the
winter. In the autumn numerous and long excursions
were made on the glaciers. The winter, though mild, was
almost continuously stormy, a formidable north-east wind
blowing during nine months. An immense quantitv of
snow fell. The terrible season was very trj-ing to the
members of the expedition, some of whom had been
attacked with scurvy.

An attempt was made to traverse Graham Land. The
members of the expedition who carried out the work
returned with many interesting observations, but without

1 .luminary of a paper by Dr. J. B. Charcot read before the Royal Geo-
graphical Society on December iq.

NO. 2147, VOL. 85I

having been able to overcome the impassable perpendicular
wall of granite and of ice which lines the whole of the
coast where a landing was attempted to be made. Many
other excursions were made in the neighbourhood. With
great difficulty, owing to the state of the ice. Deception
Island was reached at the end of November, and the
expedition received the greatest hospitality from the
whalers who are settled on the island. Many observations
were here made in seismography, on the tides, on hydro-
graphy, in natural history and geology, and many sound-
ings and dredgings were carried out.

After the expedition had been refitted it visited Bridg-
man Island, Admiralty Bay, the south coast of the South
Shetlands, at all of which places good work was done.
After this another attempt was made to penetrate south-
wards. In spite of the unfavourable condition of the ice
and the weather, the expedition succeeded in passing
beyond all the latitudes previously reached to the south-
west of Alexander Land. It was hoped that the expedi-
tion would be able to make further discoveries to the
south and the west of Alexander Land, but the formid-
able condition of the pack rendered this extremely difficult.
The route, however, was continued along the edge of the
pack, when Peter ist Island was discovered in the place
at which it is usually charted. After this the icebergs
became so numerous as to be embarrassing and dangerous.
Dr. Charcot reckons that they counted something like
5000 of these in one day. However, they succeeded in
reaching 126 degrees west longitude, and so reached two
or three degrees further south than the route followed by
Cook and Bellingshausen. As the supply of coal was
now almost exhausted, and the health of the expedition
had become alarming, it was decided to make for the
north. The icebergs gradually diminished, and at last
disappeared, and, thanks to an uninterrupted series of
strong winds, varying from south-west to N.N.W., rapid
progress was made. In ten days the Straits of Magellan
were reached, and on February 12 the expedition anchored
at Punta Arenas. The Pourquoi Pas? behaved admirably
in spite of the many trials to which it was subjected, and
the crew was all that could be desired, while the scientific
staff worked incessantly, and from the scientific point of
view the programme was scrupulously carried out. It
will take many months to work out the observations which
have been made during the expedition, to study and
arrange the rich collections obtained, and therefore it is
somewhat difficult to give more than a brief resume of
the results obtained.

From the geographical point of view the expedition has
proved that the west coast of what may be called the
South .American Antarctic is cut up by deep fjords, and
the coast studded with islands and reefs. Graham Land
is continued to the south by a land to which Dr. Charcot
has given the name Terre Loubet ; this is continued by
the Terre Falli^res. Alexander Land, which has only
been seen by Bellingshausen, is a large island, but the
lands discovered by the expedition to the south and west
of that very probably join on Terre Falli^res. Outside
of Peter ist Island the expedition did not obtain sight of
anv other land, but their soundings in continuation of
those of the Belgian e.xpedition, the configuration of the
icebergs and their movements, seem to indicate that there
exists a continual line, which most probably joints the
Graham Land section of the Antarctic to King Edward
VH. Land. Dr. Charcot considers that the further ex-
ploration of this land is very desirable, although the
difficulties from the state of the weather and the formid-
able nature of the ice here will render such an enterprise
extremely difficult.

In spite of the difficulties which had to be faced, the
observations made in the various departments of science
are extremely rich. Careful mapping of the lands visited
was carried out throughout ; numerous gravity observa-
tions were made ; earthquake phenomena recorded ; an
eclipse of the sun on December 23. iqoS, was observed ;
important geological observations carried out, proving that
the same dioritic and granitic forms which are to be found
in Graham Land are continued further to the south. Of
the existence of a continental plateau there can be little
; doubt from the observations that were made. Numerous
j excursions were made on the glaciers into the interior ;
' careful continuous meteorological observations were re-

258

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

coided ; loo soundings were made ; 200 specimens of the
water collected; twenty dredgings were carried out;
observations of interest in magnetism, in solar radiation,
zoological and botanical collections, and additions to our
knowledge in other directions, rendering the expedition
from the scientific point of view completely successful.

COMPARISONS OF JURASSIC FLORAS.

AT the forty-ninth annual meeting of the Yorkshire
Naturalists' Union, held at Middlesbrough on
Saturday, December 17, Prof. A. C. Seward, F.R.S.,
delivered his presidential address, entitled " The Jurassic
Flora of the East of Yorkshire in Relation to the Jurassic
Floras of the World." It was pointed out that the
estuarine beds of east Yorkshire were among the most
famous and important strata of the world from the point
of view of their fossil contents. Since the publication in
1822 of Young and Bird's " Geological Survey of the
Yorkshire Coast " much attention has been paid to the
fossil plants of Yorkshire by British and foreign students.
During the first half of the nineteenth century a consider-
able amount of work was done by such pioneers as
William Bean, John Williamson, W. Crawford William-
son, John Phillips,, and others. Prof. Seward gave a
general sketch of the flora which the labours of York-
shire naturalists have enabled students to investigate.
Prof. Nathorst, of Stockholm, who has more than once
invaded our shores, recently transported a portion of our
island to his country. By establishing a department
devoted to the floras of the past, the Swedish Academy
has set an example which the trustees of our national
collections would do well to imitate. Palaeobotany is still
without a representative in the British Museum !

Prof. Seward then reviewed the various fossil remains
of Algae and Fungi, Hepophyta, Equisetales, Lycopodiales,
Filicales, Gymnosperma;, Ginkgoales, and Coniferales,
being some of the types which occur in the Yorkshire
strata. The Yorkshire coast flora is characterised by the
abundance of ferns and cycads and certain types of
conifers, though as yet it is not possible to make any
statement as to the relative abundance of these different
groups. It is also probable that the Ginkgoales played a
fairly prominent part in the composition of the vegetation.
The most interesting fact in regard to the Jurassic ferns
is that they afford strong presumptive evidence in support
of the view that their nearest living allies are to be sought
in the southern hemisphere. As regards the cycads, com-
parison with recent genera is rendered more dift'icujt
because of the greater gulf between recent members of
the group and those which flourished in the Jurassic era.
There can, however, be no reasonable doubt that the
cycads of to-day are derived from an ancient stock which
produced also Williamsonia and other Jurassic genera.
Here, again, the recent plants most nearly akin to those
of the Mesozoic floras are chiefly characteristic of southern
and warmer regions. The same general statement is
applicable to the relation of some of the Jurassic conifers
to recent types. Finally, in the genus Ginkgo of the
Jurassic flora we have a- member of a group which would
probably have ceased to be represented among living plants
were it not for the fact that the recent species has been
long held in veneration in the Far East as a sacred tree.
With these southern forms there grew in profusion stal-
wart Equisetums, which afforded one of the few instances
of a genus still represented by several species in the British
flora which can claim a Jurassic ancestry.

At first sight one might be tempted to infer that there
is clear evidence of a tropical, or at least subtropical,
climate in Jurassic Europe. This would, perhaps, be a
correct conclusion, but it is one which cannot be con-
fidently made, so far, at least, as the botanical evidence
is concerned. The fact must be borne in mind that among
living plants very closely allied types, or even one of the
same species, may flourish under widely different climatic
conditions, as in the case of our own familiar bracken
fern, which appears to be equally at home on the York-
shire moors, in Tasmania, Abyssinia, and elsewhere. The
comparison of a past with a recent flora is bound up with
numerous considerations in addition to those connected
with the comparison of existing and extinct species.

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

During the Rh;ctic and Jurassic eras, and in the succeed
ing Cretaceous and Tertiary epochs, the genus Ginks
was very widely distributed in Europe. So recently as tr
Lower Tertiary period it existed in what is now the we
of Scotland in a form hardly distinguishable from til
maiden-hair tree. Are we justified in assuming that tl
living species is a safe criterion as regards power
resistance or capabilities of life with which the famt
was endowed at the zenith of its vigour? Were it possil
to learn from the maiden-hair tree what vicissitudes if
ancestors passed through since the days of the Jurassl
period, we might hear of unequal competition and gradus
migration from northern to southern latitudes.

In dealing with the relation of the Yorkshire Jurassic']
flora with that of other parts of the world, it is remark-
able to find that almost precisely similar plants to thosel
occurring in the local rocks also are found embedded irjf
strata of about the same age at places so far distant as)
Bornholm, Poland, Turkestan, Siberia, Korea, Japan,!
Franz Josef Land, Spitsbergen, Greenland, America, India,!
and Australia. This extraordinary distribution would]
certainly seem to indicate that the climate in Jurassic]
times must have been much more uniform the world over}
than obtains to-day.

As a result of Prof. Seward's address and his interest!
in the union's work, a committee was formed for the!
investigation of the Jurassic plants of Yorkshire, with]
Prof. Seward as first chairman.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

Sheffield. — Mr. R. J. Pye-Smith has resigned the pro-|
fessorship of surgery. The council has adopted the follow-
ing resolution : — " that the resignation of Mr. Pye-Smith
as professor of surgery in the University be accepted with
great regret. Mr. Pye-Smith, who is the senior member
of the teaching staff, has been a teacher of surgery for
thirtv-four vears, first in the old Medical School, next in
the University College, and finally in the Universitv, and
the council desire to place on record their appreciation of
the distinguished services which he has rendered to th*"
cause of medical education in Sheffield."

Dr. E. W. Adams has been appointed to the post of
lecturer in materia medica and assistant to the professor
of materia medica, pharmacology, and therapeutics.

Dr. W. Goodwin, head of the chemical department at
the South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, has been
appointed principal of the Midland Agricultural College,
Kingston, Derbyshire.

A Reuter message from Chicago announces that Mr.
John D. Rockefeller has made a final donation of
2,000,000/. to Chicago University, making a total of
approximately 7,000,000/. given by him to that institution.

The annual meeting of the Geographical Association
will be held on Saturdav, Januarv 14, iqii, in the Lecture
Hall, London School of Economics. The following short
papers will be read : — Geography at seven years. Miss C.
von Wyss ; map-making as a school subject, F. Beames ;
practical contouring round a London school, J. Fairgrieve ;
the tra'ining of teachers in geography, J. F. Unstead. An
address will be delivered bv the president, Mr. Douglas W.
Freshfield, and a lecture on " The Highways of England
and Wales, Past and Present, and their Relationship to
Geographical Conditions," by Mr. G. Montagu.

Liverpool.— The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
(Incorporated) at the time of the death of the late Dr.
J. E. Dutton in the Congo Free State, whilst investi-
gating sleeping sickness and other tropical diseases there,
started a fund to establish a chair in the University in
his memory. The necessary amount has now been raised,
mainlv through the generosity of the late Sir Alfred Jones,
Mr. W. H. Lever, Sir William Hartley, and many others.
The Liverpool School has at present a lectureship in
tropical entomology, and the committee decided, therefore,
that the best form the memorial could take would be the
foundation in the University of a Dutton professorship m
tropical entomology. The value of close investigation mto

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

259

' the habits and life-cycles of disease-bearing biting insects,
not only in the tropics, but also at home, is daily be-
coming more evident. Dr. Dutton was one who realised
this intensely, and it is fitting that his memorial should
take the form of a chair of medical entomology. The
aj)pointment to the chair has not yet been made by the
L'niversity, but will be announced in due course.

An agreement has been arrived at between the Senate
of the Queen's University of Belfast and the Corporation
of Belfast by which the work of the University and of
the Belfast Municipal Technical Institute will be co-
ordinated. As the Vice-Chancellor of the University said
at the meeting of the Senate on December 15, when the
agreement was made, this will afford an opportunity to
young men in Belfast of obtaining a complete education
in such subjects as mechanical engineering, electrical
engineering, chemical technology, textile technology, and
naval architecture, and of securing the degree of B.Sc.
ar the conclusion of their course of work. The advantages
of this arrangement to the Technical Institute, on one
hand, and to the University on the other, will be very
great. By the proposed arrangement means will be pro-
vided for obtaining trained captains of industry for the
various great enterprises for which Belfast is' famous.
The_ coordination forges another link between the Uni-
versity and the city. The technical subjects mentioned
will be studied at the institute, which becomes an integral
part of the University in a manner analogous to several
cases in England. We learn, too, that a public textile
testing and conditioning house has been started in con-
nection with the institute at Belfast. The functions of
the testing house are to be similar to those of other public
textile testing and conditioning houses, namely, the
examination of textile materials with the view of ascer-
taining and certifying their true weight, length, condition,
and strength, and, in addition, the carrying out of such
other tests and investigations as may be required in order
that spinners, manufacturers, merchants, and others
desirous of having tests conducted and an oflficial certificate
issued may effect their object through the medium of an
independent public authority.

As the result of representations made by the Old
Students Association of the Royal College of Science,
London, of which Sir Thomas H. Holland, K.C.I.E.,
F.R.S., is president, the governing body of the Imperial
College of Science and Technology has granted the privi-
lege of wearing academic costume to associates of the
Royal College of Science, London, a like privilege being
also granted to associates of the Royal School of Mines,
of the City and Guilds of London Institute, and to diplo-
mate students of the Imperial College. Patterns for
academic costume have been approved by the governing
body. In each case the gown is as for the Universitv of
London B.A., of black silk or stuff, but with the fore-
arm seam open, and without button, cord, or pleats. The
hoods are differentiated for the several colleges as regards
the colour of the neckband, which for A.R.C.S.'s will be
white, for A.R.S.M.'s gold, for A.C.G.I.'s red (as in the
Arms of the City of London), and black for diplomate
students of the Imperial College, the hood in each case
bemg as the Oxford University M.A. hood in size and
shape, of black silk or stuff, partly lined with white
watered silk to a depth of 6 inches, wi'th an edging, i inch
in width, of royal purple velvet, \ inch from the outer '
edge, and with a neckband i^ inches in width, lined with
white watered silk and edged with white watered silk
I inch in width. As regards the Associates of the Royal
College of Science, the decision of the governing body
removes a grievance of long standing, which was felt
more especially by teachers in secondary and technical
schools. It is generally recognised that the A.R.C.S.
diploma represents a course of training in no sense inferior
to that represented by a universitv degree and there is
therefore no reason why an invidious distinction should
be made between university graduates and associates of
the college in respect of academic costume. The claim
of associates to the privilege is strengthened bv the fact
that It has been granted to associates of various London
colleges, such as the Royal College of Art, King's College,
the Royal College of Organists, and the College of Pre-
NO. 2IA7. VOL. 8f^l

ceptors. Several London firms of robe-makers have under-
taken to supply academic costume of the approved
patterns.

Sir Alfred Keogh, Rector of the Imperial College of
Science and Technology, delivered an address at the
Woolwich Polytechnic on Saturday, December 17, on the
occasion of the nineteenth annual prize distribution. In
the course of his remarks he said : — ^There are certain sub-
jects engaging our attention at the present moment which
are of enormous importance to the future of the country.
We have been told that we are losing our supremacy
because we do not keep science and industry in close touch
with one another ; we are told that the manufacturers
have not an appreciation of science, and as a consequence
are being ousted in various directions by other people.
However it may shock you to hear me say so, I have the
greatest sympathy with the manufacturers. As a matter
of fact, I know in this countrj- there are manufacturers
who have the greatest appreciation for scientific education,
and are employing foreigners in their workshops because
they have the required knowledge. The reason is this,
that we are not providing the class of men this country
needs, and until we do provide them the manufacturer will
turn aside and get people from abroad. We have been
told all this, we have been told that our industries are
failing in consequence, and an effort was made — which
has been passed unnoticed — to bring science and industries
together and to coordinate general scientific education in
London. Three of the great colleges at South Kensington
— the City and Guilds College, the Royal College of
Science, and the Royal School of Mines — were combined for
the purpose of coordinating knowledge, and that incident
passed almost unnoticed. The Imperial College was in-
tended to coordinate the whole scientific education in
London, and we have in London (I include, of course,
Woolwich) a number of polytechnic institutions doing
technical work, and we are not coordinated one with the
other. If something could be done to coordinate the poly-
technics with the Imperial College, I for one have no fear
of the foreigner. This I earnestly hope will come about
soon. Perhaps it may be possible to get the teachers in
the polytechnics of London to recognise that there is one
great need at the present moment, that professors and
teachers should come together and devise a scheme to work
for one solid purpose and one object, and that is the
correlation of science and industrial work. I do not know
what the opinion here is on this point, but we think at
the Imperial College that there should be a great imperial
college in London including this institution, including every
other polytechnic, in which we shall be able to give our
own degrees. The principals of the polytechnics have been
called upon to express their opinion. I earnestly hope that
they will not forget that upon their shoulders will rest
the responsibility of saying whether these young men who
are here to-night are simply to become B.Sc. 's and then
to be thrown aside, or whether they are to become learned
Britons to help forward the industries of our Empire ;
unless the polytechnics do come forward with their solu-
tion, of the difficulty, then I can only tell you that some
other authoritv will have to start other institutions.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

London.
Royal Society, December 8. — Mr. A. B. Kempe, treasurer
and vice-president, in the chair. — Sir W. de W. Abney :
Colour-blindness and the trichromatic theory of colour-
vision. Part ii. : Incomplete red or green blindness. In
this paper the author continues the subject of the trichro-
matic tKeory of colour-vision and colour-blindness. In
part i. he treated of complete colour-blindness, and in this
paper, part ii., he treats of incomplete colour-blindness.
He shows how the amount of incompleteness can be
accurately determined from the luminosity curve of a
colour-blind person both red and green blind. He also
shows that the amount of incompleteness can be deter-
mined from observations made by the red- or green-blind
at any part of the spectrum if someone with normal vision
makes observations at the same place, using unchanged
white light for the comparison. Incidentally, he showr

26o

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

that the three sensation components of the different colours
of the spectrum, as determined by himself, are verified
by the results, and that the trichromatic theory fully
accounts for all cases of incomplete colour-blindness which
he has measured. — Lord Rayleigrh : The sensibility of
the eye to variations of wave-length in the yellow region
of the spectrum. — Sir D. Bruce and others : Trypano-
some diseases of domestic animals in Uganda. IV. :
Trypanosoma uniforme, sp. nov. — Sir D. Bruce and
others : Trypanosome diseases of domestic animals in
Uganda. V. : Trypanosoma nanum (Laveran). — Major
Ronald Ross and D. Thomson : Some enumerative
studies on malarial fever. The object of these researches
was to make a minute coordinated study of cases of
malarial infection occurring in the Tropical Ward of the
Royal Southern Hospital at Liverpool. The first care of
the authors was to elaborate a method by which the
number of parasites could be correctly counted, and the
one which they adopted was to make a measured quantity
of blood into a dehaemoglobinised thick-film, and then to
count the organisms contained in it. Almost daily esti-
mates of the number of parasites, with frequent estimates
of the leucocytes, the haemoglobin, and the excreted
urobilin, were made since the beginning of this year in
twenty-four cases of Plasmodium falciparum, eight cases
of P. vivax, and one case of P. malariae and P. falci-
parum. Correlation with minor deviations was found
between the number of asexual parasites present and the
degree of fever. If the asexual forms did not number
more than several hundreds per cm. they were not
numerous enough in these cases to produce fever. The
asexual forms do not disappear between relapses, as
usually thought, but tend to diminish. It is roughly
estimated from these cases that quinine reduces the asexual
forms by 50 to 80 per cent. — G. C. E. Simpson : Haemo-
globin metabolism in malarial fever. (Preliminary note.)
In the pyrexia of malaria there is a marked fall in the
haemoglobin of the blood, and further investigation of this
question was undertaken in the hope that it might throw
light on the relationship of malaria and blackwater fever.
In benign tertian malaria a slightly increased output of
urinary urobilin occurs, in malignant tertian malaria a
greater increase, and in the malignant form mrked uro-
bilinuria was sometimes found. — Major Ronald Ross and
D. Thomson : A case of sleeping sickness studied by
precise enumerative methods ; further observations. Con-
clusions.— (i) The increase of trypanosomes is due to their
active multiplication, de{>ending on the following condi-
tions : — (a) the liberation of a reproductive stimulant from
the dead trypanosomes of the previous fall ; (b) the small
number of leucocytes, especially mononuclears ; (c) the
habituation of the trypanosomes to their antibodies ;
(d) the absence or diminution of antibodies. (2) The
decrease of trypanosomes is due to their rapid death,
and to a cessation of multiplication depending on
the following conditions : — (a) the large increase of leuco-
cytes, especially of mononuclears ; (b) the formation of
antibodies in the serum. (3) The trypanosomes remaining
between the rises are resistent forms. (4) Extracts of
dead cells would appear to stimulate the corresponding live
cells to multiply or divide. — Dr. H. B. Fantham and
J. G. Thomson : Enumerative studies on Trypanosoma
gambiense and Trypanosoma rhodesiense in rats, guinea-
pigs, and rabbits ; periodic variations disclosed, (i) The
strains of trypanosomes used in these investigations
were :-^a) T. gambiense, old laboratory strain ; (b) T.
rhodesiense (Stephens and Fantham), from a patient
suffering^ from sleeping sickness in Rhodesia. (2) Rats,
guinea-pigs, and rabbits were inoculated with a definite
number of trypanosomes, and daily counts were made of
the parasites in the peripheral blood of the animals.
(3) Periodic variation was found in all these animals com-
paral .*z to that discovered by R. Ross and D. Thomson
in the olood of the sleeping sickness patient. (4) Rats
inoculated with each strain showed either a periodic in-
crease or a continuous rise in the numbers of parasites.
(5) The average life of rats inoculated with T. rhodesiense
was 11-3 days, with T. gambiense 13-8 days. (6) The
average incubation period in rats in the case of T.
rhodesiense was 2-9 days, in T. gambiense 4-4 days. The
average weights of the animals and the average number
of parasites inoculated were approximately the same in the
NO. 2147, VOL. 85I

two strains. (7) In rats infected with T. rhodesiense the
period between the crests of the graph was 3 to 4 days,
while in T. gambiense this period was 4 to 6 days. (8) In
guinea-pigs the trypanosomiasis tended to run a chronic
course, but the life of animals infected with T. rhodesiense
was shorter. The period between the crests of the graph
in both strains was longer than in rats, namely, 5 to 8
days. (9) Rabbits inoculated' with T. rhodesiense also
exhibit periodic variation. (10) The periodicity is ex-
plained by (a) variations in resistance on the part of the
host, accompanied by (b) the formation of latent bodies by
the trypanosomes in the internal organs of the host during
fall in numbers of the parasites in the peripheral blood. —
Dr. H. B. Fantham : The life-history of Trypanosoma
gambiense and Trypanosoma rhodesiense as seen in rats
and guinea-pigs, (i) The researches were undertaken to
investigate the parasitological aspect of the numerical
cyclical development found by R. Ross and D. Thomson in
the trypanosome of a patient suffering from sleeping sick-
ness contracted in Rhodesia. Rats and guinea-pigs
inoculated with T. rhodesiense and with T. gambiense
were killed at various stages of infection and their
internal organs examined, controls being used. (2) The
formation of a non-flagellate, latent or rounded body from
a trypanosome was observed in life, much of the cyto-
plasm and the fiagellum of the flagellate being cast off,
(3) Non-flagellate bodies were seen to grow into flagellate
trypanosomes when placed in fresh, warm, uninfected
blood. (4) The latent or non-flagellate stages are formed
at or near the time when the trypanosomes are most
numerous in the peripheral blood. (5) The latent bodies
are relatively numerous in the internal organs when the
flagellates are few in the peripheral blood of the host.

(6) The formation of latent bodies takes place especially in
the lungs. The latent bodies collect in the spleen and
bone-marrow, as stated by Salvin-Moore and Breinl.

(7) Latent bodies from the spleen of an infected rat inocu-
lated into another rat produced trypanosomiasis. (8) The
latent bodies are the post-flagellate stages of one genera-
tion of trypanosomes and the pre-flagellate stages of the
succeeding generation. (9) There is a life-cycle of T.
gambiense and of T. rhodesiense in vertebrate hosts.
(Compare Crithidia and Herpetomonas in invertebrates.)
(10) The occurrence of latent bodies explains the recur-
rence of trypanosomiasis in hosts when it has apparently
died out. (11) Mutual action and reaction of the host and
the parasite lead to the formation of rounded bodies, which
are relatively resistant. (12) Some flagellate trypanosomes
do not form latent bodies, but degenerate. Some latent
bodies die, and do not flagellate. — Major R. Ross and
J. G. Thomson : Experiments on the treatment of animals
infected with trypanosomes by means of atoxyl, vaccines,
cold. X-rays, and leucocytic extract ; enumerative methods
employed. In all the animals used in these experiments
regular daily counts were made of the parasites in the
peripheral blood by means of thick-film method, (i) Small
repeated doses of atoxyl prolonged the lives of rats in-
fected with the Rhodesian strain of trypanosomes, but
failed to have any trypanocidal action, as was demon-
strated by the fact that the parasites increased rapidly and
showed very active division. (2) We venture to suggest
that small doses of atoxyl actually stimulated the trj'pano-
somes of this strain to divide, and that the drug is also
a tonic to the body cells of the host. (3) Large doses of
atoxyl are trypanocidal, but the parasites form resistant
bodies, and cure is only temporary. The dose reauired I
to approach as near lethal as possible, and even then a |
cure was not obtained in the Rhodesian strain. (4^ Vac- i
cine treatment gave indefinite results, and insufficient \
experiments prevent definite conclusions being formed, j
The life of one rat ceemed to be prolonged when the
vaccine was administered in doses of 10,000,000 trypano- i
somes, with an interval between the doses. We,
suggest that the time of administration, the amount given, j
and the interval between the doses are all of importance,
and further work is being carried out. (5) Animals suffer- ;
ing from trypanosomiasis had the incubation period
delayed and their lives prolonged in the cold. (6) X-rays
had no trypanocidal action, but the life of the animal may,
have been prolonged. (7) Leucocytic extract gave in-'
definite results. — A. Campbell and D. W. Dye: Sound;
vibrations of very high frequency produced by electric sparks. ,

December 22, 1910]

NATURE

261

Geological Society, December 7.— Prof. W. W. Watis,
F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. A. S. Woodward :
Recent excavations in the cavern of La Cotte, St.
Brelade's Bay (Jersey), made during the present year by
the Jersey Society of .Antiquaries. According to the report
of Mr. E. T. Nicolle and Mr. J. Sinel, shortly to be
published by the Jersey Society, the cave has yielded
evidence of human habitation and traces of Pleistocene
Mammalia. About a hundred flint implements of the
Mousterian type have been obtained, besides part of a
molar of Rhinoceros antiquitatis, and both teeth and
antlers of Rangifer tarandus. Human remains and teeth
of Bos ha%'e also been examined and determined by Dr.
C. W. Andrews and Dr. A. S. Woodward, to whom the
whole of the collection of mammalian remains was re-
ferred. This being the first discovery of typical Pleistocene
Mammalia in the Channel Islands, the Jersey Societ\-
hopes to proceed with the excavations as soon as possible.
— Dr. .A. Strahan : The occurrence of recent shelly
Boulder-clay and other glacial phenomena in Spitsbergen.

Cambridge.

Philosophical Society, November 28. — Sir George
Darwin, president, in the chair. — Prof. Pope : Demonstra-
tion of natural colour photography of interference figures.
—Dr. Fenton and W. A. R. Wilks : (i) Colloidal form
of N'astvogel's osazone ; (2) a method of characterising
certain ureides. — H. O. Jones and D. I. James : The
racemisation of malic and tartaric acids by heat. — Miss
A. Homer : A note on the action of aluminium chloride
on benzene. — Dr. Forsyth : Some theorems concerning
uniform functions of two complex variables, together with
some simple properties of such functions. — Dr. Young :
Note on the fundamental theorem of integration. — H. C.
Pocklingrton : (i) The determination of the exponent to
which a number belongs, the practical solution of certain
congruences, and the law of quadratic reciprocity ; (2) the
divisors of certain arithmetical forms, the primes of
certain forms, and the arrangement of quadratic and some
other residues. — L. Doncaster : Note on spermatogenesis
of Abraxas grossulariata. — F. Norton : The discharge of
positive electricity from sodium phosphate heated in
different gases. A strip of platinum foil was covered with
sodium phosphate and heated in a partial vacuum by
means of an electric current. The positive leak from the
heated strip to two parallel platinum plates, one on either
side of it, was measured, when the following gases were,
in turn, contained by the apparatus : — air, oxygen, carbon
monoxide, hydrogen. It was found that the positive leak
in oxygen was about the same magnitude as the leak in
air. In carbon monoxide gas the leak was several times
greater than the leak with the strip at the same tempera-
ture in oxygen or air at the same pressure. In hydrogen
the leak was irregular, being when first tested about ten
times as great as in carbon monoxide, but after heating
for some hours it had diminished to less than the value
in carbon monoxide under the same conditions. The fact
that the positive leak is increased by admitting carbon
monoxide into the apparatus is in accordance with the
view that the positive ions from heated solids consist of
molecules of this gas. — ^J. A. Crowther : The distribution
of secondary Rontgen radiation round a radiator. The
distribution of the secondary rays round a radiator under
the action of a beam of primary Rontgen rays has been
measured both for the " scattered " and for the " homo-
geneous " secondary rays. The scattered radiation rises
to a maximum on both sides of the radiator in the line
of the incident beam, and falls to a minimum at right
angles to that direction. The maximum in the forward
direction of the primary beam is considerably greater than
that in the reverse direction. The homogeneous secondary
rays are uniformly distributed round the radiator. — J.
Satterly : The radium content of salts of potassium.
Three years ago Campbell and Wood discovered that the
salts of potassium were radio-active, giving off /3 ravs.
Thev tested the salts for radium and found none. In the
opinion of the author their test was not as accurate as
the occasion demanded, and he has performed some experi-
ments in which the presence of radium in potassium salts
is decisively proved. The amount, however, is extremplv

XO. 2147, VOL. 85]

small (3x10-'* gm. radium per gm. of potassium salt),
and does not interfere with Campbell and Wood's deduc-
tions.

Edinburgh.
Royal Society, December 5. — Dr. Burgess, vice-president,
in the chair. — E. M. Wedderburn : Temperature observa-
tions in the Madiisee (Pomerania), with mathematical dis-
cussion of temperature oscillations. A joint expedition
with Prof. Halbfass, of Jena, was made in August to the
Madiisee, a lake 17 km. long and 43 metres deep. About
3000 observations were made, and a temperature oscilla-
tion (or seiche) with a period of about twenty-five hours
was observed, the oscillations at the two ends of the lake
being in opposite phase. In the mathematical discussion
of the oscillations of the bottom water in a lake of vary-
ing depth and breadth, the assumption was made that at
a certain depth there was a sudden change of temperature,
and therefore of density, and that the temperature was
constant throughout each of the layers separated by this
surface of temperature discontinuity. The period of the
temperature oscillations depends on the differential
equation

dv-

+ -

P = o,

r(p-p')2(f)
where v = jbix)dx, h(,x) being the breadth of the surface

of temperature discontinuity at a distance x from the
origin taken in that surface ; P is a function of v alone ;
p' and p are the densities of the upper and lower layers ;
and

where A'(«) and A(.ic) are the areas of cross-section of the
upper and lower layers. The equation is of exactly the
same form as that used by Chrystal in his discussion
of ordinary seiches. The period of temperature oscilla-
tion in the Madiisee, calculated according to this formula,
is 249. — E. M. Wedderburn and A. M. Williams :
Experimental verification of the hydrodynamical theory of
temperature seiches. To verify the theory given in the
last paper, laboratory experiments were made with a small
trough of rectangular cross-section and parabolic longi-
tudinal section. Paraffin oil represented the upper layer
of warm water, and water the lower layer of cold water.
The observed periods of oscillation in the lower liquid
agreed well with calculation from theory. In some experi-
ments the ends of the trough were truncated just above
the surface of separation. As was anticipated by theory,
this caused no appreciable alteration in the period of
oscillation of the lower liquid. — Dr. Sutherland Simpson:
Observations on the body temperature of the domestic
fowl during incubation. The rectal temperature of the
brooding hen was compared with the corresponding
temperatures of a non-brooding or control hen. The
modifications which were observed to occur during the
brooding until a few days after the hatching were such
as might be expected to occur because of the altered habits
of the hen, apart altogether from the- brooding condition.

Paris.
Academy of Sciences, December 12. — M. Emile Picard
in the chair. — W'. Kilian and M. Gigrnoux : The fluvio-
glacial terraces of Bi^vre and Basse-Is^re. In a previous
paper an account has been given of the pebble beds and
terraces in the neighbourhood of La Valloire and Saint-
Rambert-d'Albon. The present paper deals with the con-
tinuation of these beds towards the east, and leads to
conclusions differing from the views now held as regards
the relations of the external moraines with the terraces.
— ^M. Amann and CI. Rozet : The total eclipse of the moon
of November 16, 19 10, observed at Aosta, Italy. The
contacts were observed under good conditions, the times
of the two observers being concordant. — M. Borrelly :
Observation of the Faye-Cerulli comet made at the
Observatory of Marseilles with the comet finder. Posi-
tions of the comet and comparison stars are given for
November 22, 23, and 26, and December i and 2. The
comet appeared to be between the eleventh and twelfth

262

NATURE

[December 22, 1910

magnitude. — M. Esmiol : Observations of the comet igioe
(Faye-Cerulli) made at the Observatory of Marseilles with
the Eichens equatorial of 26-cm. aperture. Positions
given for December i and 2. — Maurice Servant : Trans-
formations of surfaces applicable to surfaces of the second
degree. — E. Blutei : The application of Newton's method
of approximation to the approximate resolution of equa-
tions with several unknowns. — L6on Autonne : Com-
mutative groups of hypercomplex quantities. — M.
Galbrun : The asymptotic representation of the solu-
tions of an equation of finite differences for large
values of the variable. — W. Stekloff : The conditions of
closing of systems of orthogonal functions. — H. Violette,
E. Lacour, and Ch. Florian : Telescopic sights for marine
guns of small calibre. — Georges Claude : Luminescent
tubes containing neon. Photometric measurements have
been made with a tube containing neon, 6 metres in length
and 45 mm. diameter. Traces of impurities in the neon
were found to be very prejudicial, and details of the
method of purification found to be necessary are given.
The efficiency was found to be 08 watt per candle, but
this efficiency can be raised by increasing the length of
the tubes, and reasons are given for hoping that about
0-5 watt per candle can be ultimately obtained. — G.
Massol : The chemical composition of the gases spon-
taneously given off by the thermo-mineral spring of
Uriage, Is^re. The gas contains 1-87 per cent, by volume
of rare gases, about one half of which is helium. From
an estimate of the total gas evolved from the spring, it
is concluded that not less than 20 litres of helium per
day could be obtained from this spring. — L4on Guiliet :
The softening of rretals after wire-drawing. Specimens
of nickel and steel drawn into wires have been studied
from the point of view of the annealing temperature. —
E. L6g:er : The action of nitric acid upon the aloins : the
production of tetranitroaloemodine and trinitro-2 : 4 : 6-
meta-oxybenzoic acid. — Marcel Godchot : Hexahydro-
acetophenone and hexahydrobenzoylacetone. Hexahydro-
acetophenone on oxidation with alkaline permanganate
gives adipic acid ; the preparation of the oxime of this
ketone and of hexahydroacetanilide are also described. —
Paul Gaubert : The influence of foreign substances dis-
solved in the mother liquor on the facies of crystals of
meconic acid and on their pseudopolychroism. — Louis
and Georges Pamphil : Issite, a new rock in
Issites are holocrystalline amphibole rocks of
grain. Five complete analyses are given. — J.
Sodium rocks of the Arabian desert. — Ch.
Maugruin : Doubly refracting liquids of helicoidal struc-
ture.— V. Vermorel and E. Dantony : General principles
which ought to be followed in establishing formulae for
insecticides. It is shown that the quantities of soap used
in insecticidal preparations can be reduced from 5 per
cent, to I in 1000 without the moistening powers of the
solution being adversely affected. Methods have been
worked out for the employment of sulphur in such solu-
tions.— L. Moreau and E. Vinet : Lead arsenate in viti-
culture and its distribution on the fresh and dried grapes.
If the treatment is applied before flowering there is no
danger of contamination by arsenic ; if the application is
delayed until after flowering, traces of lead arsenate are
present on the grape. — MM. Griffon and Maublanc : k
parasitic disease of the chestnut. — A. Brissemoret and
A. Joanin : Contribution to the study of the physiological
action of the organic bases. The sleep which is produced
in the dog by the administration of conicine is due to the
hydrocarbon residue in the base. Phenomena of narcosis
analogous to those produced in the rabbit by morphine
can be obtained by the action of hexahydrophenanthrene.
— ^J. Kiinckel d'Herculais : The relation between the
insects (Lepidoptera) and the flowers of the Zingiberaceae,
and in particular with those of Hedychium. Their cap-
ture, its mechanism, and its consequences. — M. Roubaud :
Details concerning the morphological phenomena of the
development of trypanosomes in Glossina. — E. Sollaud :
The affinities of the genera Urocaris and Palaemonella. —
Gabriel Bertrand : Observations on a note relating to
the action of the Bulgarian ferment on proteid materials.
Criticisms of a recent note by M. Effront. — Jean
Boussac : The phenomena of folding in the Italian mari-
time Alps and at Castelvecchio.

NO. 2147, VOL. 85]

Dtiparc

dunite.

variable

Couyat

Victoria.
Roval Society, November 10. — Piof. E. W. Skeals i|
the chair. — II. R. Hamley and A. L. Rossiter : Tli

magnetic properties of " Stalloy." As the result of
research by (a) direct current, (6) alternating currents
different frequency, the authors conclude that, previous
annealing, " Stalloy " is of very little use, but that wh^
annealed it furnishes an almost ideal material for tt
construction of electric machinery. — W. Stapley : Th^
morphology of the vermiform appendix. The formation of
a true appendix is shown to be due, not to the presence
of lymphoid tissue, but to an atrophy of a larger csecum,
the peculiar shape and position being due to the disposition
of the longitudinal bands. — William MacKenzie : Som*-
observations on the comparative anatomy of the fibuhi.
The fibula is held to be undergoing recession among tli
higher mammals, its future complete loss being indicat'
by the occurrence of congenital cases of absence of fibu!..
in man. This loss is considered to be due to the assumj)-
tion of the erect position. — Hilda Kincaid : The bio-
chemical significance of phosphorus. Imported grasses
and cereals have a lower phosphorus content than tlv
same species grown in Europe, but a higher phosphorus
content than native Australian plants. Victorian soils are
poor in phosphorus. Animal tissues, eggs, and milk in
Australia have a phosphorus percentage equal to X\\'-
European. The export of phosphorus in the form of
animal carcases is considerable.

CONTENTS. PAGE

Problems of Crown Colony Administration . . . 229
The Microscope as an Optical Instrument . . . 230

Geometry of Surfaces. By T. J. I'a. B 231

American Meat Inspection 232

The Chemical Analysis of Iron and Steel. By

Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter 233

The Psychology of Scientific Inquiry 233

Our Book Shelf 234

Letters to the Editor:—

Historical Note on Recalescence. — Prof. W. F.

Barrett, F.R.S 235

Captain Cook Memorial.— Dr. A. C. Haddon,

F.R.S 236

Accuracy of Time on Magnetograms. — George W.

Walker 236

The Quadranlid Meteor Shower.— T. W, Backhouse 236
Oriental or Bubonic Plague. {Illustrated.) By Prof.

R. T. Hewlett 237

Exploration in the Nearer East. {Illustrated.) By

L. W. K.

Anti-Malarial Measures in India. By Col. W. G.

King

The Volume of the Kilogramme of Water. By Sir

T. Edward Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S

Notes ...

Our Astronomical Column : —

A Projection on Saturn's Outer Ring

Discovery of Another Nova, Sagittarii No. 3 . . . .

Faye's Comet

New Experimental Demonstration of the Earth's
Rotation

Investigation of the Orbit of Wolf's Comet, 1898-1911

The Light Changes of Forty-nine Variable Stars . .

The Physical Society's Exhibition

Investigations on Wheat in India

The Reduction of Rolling in Ships

Argentine Meteorological Research

Native Working of Coal and Iron in China . . .
The Dynamics of a Golf Ball. {Illustrated.) By

Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S

The Second French Antarctic Expedition ....

Comparisons of Jurassic Floras

University and Educational Intelligence

Societies and Academies

238

240

242
243

248
248
248

248
248
248
248

249
250
250
251

251
257
258
258
259

NA TURE

26

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1910.

MALARIA PREVENTION.
The Prevention of Malaria. By Major Ronald Ross,
C.B., F.R.S. With contributions by Prof. L. O.
Howard and others. Pp. xx + 669. (London : John
Murray, 19 10.) Price 21s. net.

FEW if any subjects bearing on the prosperity of
tropical lands can be of greater importance than
the effective control of those tropical diseases which
have often proved barriers, sometimes insuperable, to
their development. This will readily be admitted with
reference to the colonisation of such lands by white
men, but it is of at least equal importance for the
welfare of the indigenous races the progress of which
towards a higher civilisation is most intimately bound
up with an increased immunity from disease and a
higher standard of hygienic environment.

Of all the diseases prevalent in tropical and sub-
tropical countries there is none to compare with
malaria, either, in point of view of frequency or of
disastrous results in respect of the general health of a
population. This has been acknowledged to a certain
extent from the earliest times, but it has been left
for modern science to demonstrate the true magnitude
of the problem and to point out scientific and prac-
tical measures by which the damage caused by malaria
may be controlled.

In this volume, by Major Ronald Ross, we have an
admirable account of the whole of the many-sided
problem of malaria prevention, stated in clear and
eloquent fashion, and developing the subject in so
logical a sequence that the reader is carried in com-
plete sympathy with the author towards an accept-
ance of the preventive measures which he advocates
as being the best at present available.

No one has better right to speak with authority on
every branch of the subject than the author, whose
discovery of the mosquito transmission of the disease
laid the foundation for the majority of the preventive
measures which have already been of inestimable ser-
vice to humanity. The discovery of the malarial para-
site by Laveran, epoch-making as it was, in itself did
little to help in the prevention of the disease, and only
a knowledge of the complete life-history of the para-
site could teach us where and how to apply measures
directed towards the prevention of this scourge of
humanity.

Since this knowledge became available, numerous
books have appeared, in many tongues, dealing with
prevention, but the immense majority of these are
either purely technical or purely popular, and there
was a distinct place for a volume such as this, which,
while avoiding unnecessary technical and medical
detail, deals with each branch of the subject in com-
prehensive fashion and affords such a complete guide
as is imperatively needed by all who have to deal with
the subject practically, whether from the point of
view of the health officer or from that of the civil
administrator of a country or district. To obtain suc-
cess in a malaria campaign it is not enough to be told
what to do, one ought to know in addition the " why "
of each step.

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

Throughout the whole of the work the author
speaks, as he obviously feels, strongly on the half-
hearted manner in which preventive measures have
been applied by many bodies in administrative control
of various malarious countries. He acknowledges
that in many instances the cause of this official in-
difference is apprehension of excessive expenditure,
but he shows clearly that, even from this low point
of view, a grudging expenditure is bad finance.
Granted that the measures he so ably advocates are
carried out with intelligence, and under continuous
and proper supervision, few who follow his arguments
and examples will differ from him that few items in
a colonial budget would have been better expended.

After an interesting historical account of malaria,
from the earliest classical allusions to the discovery
of the parasites and of the mode of transmission by
anopheline mosquitoes, a clear account is given
of the fundamental observations and experiments
which have led up to our present-day knowledge.
Next follows a most interesting chapter on the para-
sitic invasion of man. This will be read with per-
haps the greatest interest by those who have prac-
tical knowledge of the disease, since it is replete with
information of the most valuable character on such
points as the number of parasites which may be
introduced by the mosquito, the number which must
develop from those introduced before illness is pro-
duced in man, the period of incubation, the limitation
of the invasion, &c. Even those who are familiar
with most of the subject-matter here dealt with will
find much to interest them, since there is scarcely a
point discussed which has not a direct bearing upon
the question of prevention.

Major Ross lays great stress upon the necessity for
a more accurate study of the disease by exact quanti-
tative methods, and his arguments and illustrations
in connection with this point will find general accept-
ance. For instance, he advocates a more accurate
study of the numbers and local distribution of the
particular anopheline mosquitoes which are found to
transmit malaria in a given locality, since, without
such a foundation, it is not possible to judge with any
degree of accuracy as to the effects of the measures
which may have been adopted with a view to their
destruction. Again, in assessing the value of different
preventive measures, such as mosquito destruction,
the systematic use of quinine or the protection of
individuals by mosquito netting, an accurate measure
of the amount of malaria present in a particular popu-
lation is an essential preliminary. He devotes con-
siderable space to the best means by which such
estimations may be carried out, and discusses the
relative value of estimates of the actual number of
individuals who have parasites in their blood at a
given time, the estimation of the number who show
signs of present or recent infection by enlargement of
the spleen, the constantly-sick-rate, the death-rate,
&c. He concludes that the most generally useful of
these is the spleen-rate, since an actual microscopical
examination of the blood demands too great labour.
In this connection a good example of his mathematical
reasoning shows that in a quarter of an hour a careful
microscopical examination of a sample of blood for

264

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

parasites will only have searched one-fiftieth of a cubic
millimetre. Now, since this volume is only about
1/150,000,000 of the blood in a man's body, it follows
that there is a considerable chance that not a single
parasite might be detected, although the individual
might have 150 million of them in his circulation at
the time !

Major Ross's preference for the determination of
the " spleen-rate " appears justifiable on grounds of
expediency, but, although he points out most of the
more obvious fallacies to be guarded against in mak-
ing such estimations, he scarcely appears to attach
sufficient importance to these. For instance, there is
very little experience accumulated as to the length of
time which some degree of splenic enlargement may
persist after recovery, while the splenic enlargement
caused by ankylostomiasis, as has recently been
pointed out by Darling, would invalidate the tests in
certain localities.

The section dealing with the laws which regulate
the number of anophelines in a locality will be fas-
cinating reading to all who have some practical know-
ledge of these pests, and is full of most suggestive
/natter, much of which will doubtless be put to the
test by those who have opportunity. The problem of
attempting the destruction or limitation of mosquito
life, under conditions where extensive breeding places
abound, and where the usual measures appear at first
sight impracticable, are boldly faced, and those who
are satisfied with Major Ross's mathematical demon-
strations on such points as the variations of mosquito
density due to various causes, the random scatter of
mosquitoes from a given point, &c., will find it neces-
sary to revise some views which have been and are
extensively held on the impossibility of limiting the
mosquito population in certain conditions.

The thoroughness with which the earlier portions
of the book have dealt with all branches of the subject
greatly adds to the value of the chapter dealing with
the selection of the preventive measures to be made
in a given instance, since one is able to follow the
author in his clear exposition of the manner in which
one must study the local conditions in every instance
before deciding on the plan of campaign. As he is
careful to point out, without such close study of these
conditions a scheme might be drawn up which was
foredoomed to failure, and large sums of money might
uselessly be thrown away. The chapter abounds in
valuable practical hints for the guidance of those re-
sponsible for the organisation of such campaigns, and
it may also be studied with the greatest profit by
laymen whose only desire is to know how best they,
individually, may avoid infection on proceeding to a
malarious country.

The second half of the book consists of a series of
articles by well-known authorities dealing with experi-
ences of individual malarial campaigns in many
countries, and these afford a number of object-lessons
in the application of the principles enunciated in the
first half. There are altogether twenty-one contribu-
tors to this portion, and the majority are recognised
authorities on the subject of malaria in the particular
country dealt with. For instance, the campaign
NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

against malaria in Italy is from the pen of Prof. Celli,
while that dealing with the most successful of all
malarial campaigns, that in the Isthmus of Panama,
has been written by Colonel Gorgas. Dr. Schilling
deals with malaria in German possessions ; and the
measures employed in French territory are described
by Dr. Edmond Sergent. The completeness of this
portion of the book is indicated by the fact that it
concludes with two most interesting articles on the
prevention of malaria in troops in war and in peace, the
former by Lieut. -Colonel C. H. Melville, and the
.latter by Major C. E. P. Fowler, who was associated
with Major Ross in his campaign in Mauritius, to
which so many allusions are made in the systematic '
portion.

Major Ross and his collaborators may be congratu-
lated on having produced a work which will be of the
highest value to all who are concerned with the future
progress and welfare of our tropical possessions.

W. B. L.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM COLLECTION OF
FOSSIL REPTILES.
(i) A Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Reptiles of
the Oxford Clay, based on the Leeds Collection in
the British Museum {Natural History), London.
Part i. By Dr. C. W. Andrews, F.R.S. Pp.
xxiii + 205+x plates. (London : Printed by order of
the Trustees of the British Museum, 1910. Sold by
Longmans and Co., B. Quaritch, and Dulau and
Co., Ltd.) Price 25s.
(2) A Guide to the Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians, and
Fishes in the Department of Geology and Palaeon-
tology in the British Museum {Natural History).
Ninth edition. Pp. xviii+iio. (London: Printed
by order of the Trustees of the British Museum,
1910.) Price gd.
(i) 'T^HE museum having acquired the unrivalled col-
J- lection of reptilian remains obtained with
much labour and unceasing care by the Messrs. Leeds
—more especially Mr. A. N. Leeds— from the brick-
pits in the Oxford Clay near Peterborough, it was
only fitting that they should be described in a manner
worthy of their importance and value. So far as the
marine forms are concerned, that is to say, the ich-
thyosaurs, plesiosaurs and pllosaurs, and crocodiles,
the task has been entrusted to Dr. C. W. Andrews,
who for several years past has devoted a large portion
of his time to the study of the^se groups. How
thoroughly well he has accomplished the work will be
apparent to all specialists who study the present
volume, which deals with the ichthyosaurs and plesio-
saurs.

The work appeals, however, to other than special-
ists, for it not only serves to make known the remark-
ably fine state of preservation in which many of the
skeletons of these strange reptiles are found, but it
also contains a number of interesting observations
with regard to their probable mode of life and the
conditions in which they existed. So nearly complete,
indeed, are many of the skeletons, that not only has it
been found possible to mount several for public exhibi-

December 29, 1910]

NATURE

265

tion, but, owing: to the separation of their constituent
elements, the details of the osteologrv- can be studied,
except in the case of the skull, which is often badly
crushed, as if they belonged to modern reptiles. It
should be added that this full acquaintance with the
osteolc^y of these saurians is largely due to the
extreme care exercised by Mr. Leeds in extracting
them from the matrix.

The remains are generally supposed to have been
laid down in rather deep water, but the association
of the marine forms with terrestrial dinosaurs, and
perhaps also the occurrence* of masses of lignite, sug-
gests that the deposit was formed near a coast, and
not improbably represents the mud-banks in the delta
of a mighty river. Here Ophthalmosaurus, the single
and most highly specialised representative of the ich-
thyosaurs, with its powerful caudal fin, pointed
head, enormous eye, and porpoise-like body, probably
lived in the open sea, where it played the part now
assumed by whales and grampuses. Why this par-
ticular type should have become practically edentulous,
whereas its upper Cretaceous successors were remark-
able for their powerful dentition, is somewhat difficult
to understand, although, as Dr. Andrews suggests,
this feature was probably connected with the nature
of its food. Certain features in its organisation sug-
gest that it was capable of " sounding " to consider-
able depths.

In marked contrast to the movements of this ich-
thyosaur were those of the contemporary plesiosaurs,
which were far more specialised types than their fore-
runners of the Lias. Instead of being driven through
the water by the screw-like action of a powerful tail-
fin, these appear to have rowed themselves on or near
the surface by means of their strong paddles, of which
the hind pair was nearly equal in capacity to those
in front, whereas the tail was short, and provided, at
most, with a rudimentary fin. Their whole organisa-
tion indicates that they haunted the neighbourhood of
the coasts, whereas their short-necked and more
strongly built relatives the pliosaurs may be assumed
to have ventured further out to sea, although they
did not possess the truly pelagic habits of the whale-
like ophthalmosaur. The littoral habits of the plesio-
saurs exposed them to much more varied conditions of
life -than was the case with the last-named reptile;
and it was these diverse conditions which prob-
ably led to the differentiation of the group into the
numerous types so well described in the volume before
us.

To follow the author through his survey of the
osteology of the groups forming the subject of this
volume would demand much greater space than the
editor is disposed to grant. Attention may, however,
be directed to the figure on p. 12 illustrating, the
form and arrangement of the constituent bones of the
occipital region of the ophthalmosaurian skull, and
more especially to the remarkable position and rela-
tions of the opisthotic and stapes. The great length
of the parasphenoid element (p. 15) is also noteworthy,
while of even greater interest is the author's reference
of the ichthyosaurian humerus to its proper side of the
•^^^y (P- 52). Among the plesiosaurs it must suffice
to refer to the determination of the relations and form
NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

of the clavicles and interclavicles, and especially the
gradual waning of the latter (compare Figs. 61, 62,
70, 88).

Dr. Andrews has a good deal to say as to the
phylogeny of the ichthyosaurs, for which readers
must refer to the work itself ; that of the plesiosaurs
and pliosaurs is reserved for the second volume,
which we hope to welcome before many months are
past.

(2) Passing on to the guide-book to the fossil reptile
and fish galleries, the mere fact that a new edition
has become necessary after the lapse of only five years
from the issue of its predecessor (which was entirely
re-written), affords sufficient evidence that the work
meets the requirements of the class of visitors for
whom it is intended. As we are told in the preface,
the new edition is practically a replica of the eighth
issue, and therefore demands no special notice in this
place. It may be noticed, however, that the price has
been raised from sixpence to ninepence, at which
figure the work is still a marvel of cheapness. In
the next edition it might be well to explain the mean-
ing of " type " specimens (vide preface), of which the
general public has no conception, and like wise to
amend the legend to Fig. 39, which states that the
specimen belongs to a small tortoise, whereas it is
reallv something like twentv inches in length.

R. L.

ELECTRO-CARDIOGRAMS.

Das Elektrokardiogramtn des gesunden and kranken
Menschen. By Prof. Friedrich Kraus and Prof.
Georg Nicolai. Pp. xxii + 322. (Leipzig: Veit and
Co., 1910.) Price 12 marks.

THE electrical phenomena of the living heart has
been a fascinating study among physiologists
since the early days of electro-physiology ; information
has been gathered with greater and greater accuracy
as apparatus and methods of investigation became
more and more refined, and now the regis-
tration of the electrical changes in the heart
may be, and is, practically employed in the
diagnosis of heart affections in the wards of the
hospital. A full discussion of the origin and progress
of method in this direction is given in this book,
which has been produced by authors well acquainted
practically with all the details of this branch of physio-
logical and clinical inquiry. The progress of research
is strikingly shown in a bibliography at the beginning
of the work containing a list of 243 papers on the
subject, of which no fewer than 131 have appeared
since the beginning of 1900.

It is interesting to notice that investigations into the
electrical phenomena of the heart are associated at
different periods with the invention of special instru-
ments and methods, such as the galvanometers of
Matteucci and du Bois Reymond, the differential rheo-
tome of Bernstein, the capillary electrometer of Lipp-
mann, and, still more recently, the string galvano-
meter of Einthoven. Matteucci, in 1843, was the
earliest observer with the galvanometer ; then, in 1849,
followed du Bois Reymond with his bussole ; Kollker

266

.NATURE

[December 29, 1910

and Miiller worked about 1856, Donders about 1872 ;
and at last there were the elaborate researches of
Engelmann from 1873 to 1877. Gotch and Burdon
Sanderson studied the phenomena of inhibition in the
heart of the tortoise in 1877; Bernstein, du Bois Rey-
mond, Engelmann, Hermann, and Burdon Sanderson
used the rheotome between 1868 and 1887. Then followed
the invention of the capillary electrometer by Lipp-
mann in 1873 ; it was soon used by Engelmann and
Mare}', and in 1883 it was employed in research by
Burdon Sanderson and Page. Waller, in 1889, was
the first to employ the instrument in the investigation
of the human heart. The actual oscillations in the
tube of the capillary electrometer were photographed
on a rapidly moving plate, so as to produce a cardio-
gram, and with this invention the names of Burch
and Burdon Sanderson will be always associated
(1890). In more recent times we have the invention
of the string galvanometer by Ader in 1897, ^^^ P^^"-
fected by Einthoven, until it must be regarded as by
far the most sensitive instrument for the purpose.
The instrument, as now constructed, is much more
delicate than the original instrument of Ader, while
tlie apparatus had been made complete by the photo-
graphic registering apparatus made by various in-
genious workers in optics and mechanics.

The accurate interpretation of the electro-cardiogram
owes much to Waller, who established important
leading principles on which monophasic and diphasic
currents can be explained. He also gave a schematic
representation of the action currents that can be led
off from the living human heart (Fig. 16, p. 45). In
the work under notice, there is a full description of
the principle and mechanism of the string galvano-
meter, and an analysis of the curves produced from
it (p. 64). The introduction of the quartz fibre has
most materially increased the delicacy of the instru-
ment. There can be no doubt that only an expert
can use the instrument In a satisfactory manner, as
is well illustrated by a study of the diagram of the
apparatus in an actual experiment in Fig. 28, p. 89.
This method Is much more complicated than the
simple galvanometer experiments once in vogue in
every physiological class-room or laboratory.

Kraus and Nicolai then give a thorough analysis
of the electrocardiogram, showing in the diphasic
effects groups of electrical oscillations In the curve
which are associated with the contractions of the
auricle, with those of the ventricle, and with changes
occurring also during the diastole of the ventricles
and the filling of the auricles. The time relations of
all those phenomena can also be accurately deter-
mined; Indeed, an Insight is obtained Into the
phenomena of the living beating human heart not
otherwise possible. They also endeavour to show that
those phenomena may be explained or accounted for
by our knowledge of the muscular arrangements of
the walls of the heart. Without mentioning the old
researches of Borelll or the more recent dissections of
Pettigrew (to be seen in the museum of the Royal
College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields), they de-
scribe the spiral arrangement of the fibres, the relation
of many of the fibres to the papillary muscles, the
NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

fibres of Wenckebach (1901) between vena cava and
the auricle, and the bundle of His (1893) between auricle
and ventricle. Nearly thirty years ago there appeared
the classical research of Gaskell (1883) on the heart of
the tortoise, which showed the passage of impulses
from auricle to ventricle, and was tTie beginning
of much work of great clinical as well as physio-
logical Importance. The analysis of many electro-
cardiograms is given with great care and thoroughness
by the authors In chapters vl. to x., and to those the
reader must be referred. .

The second portion of the work relates to the \
clinical use of the string galvanometer in the investi-
gation of diseases of the heart and of the circulation. .
When one considers that the complete apparatus costs
from 200Z. to 250Z., and that a special knowledge of
electrical appliances is required, it will be evident
that the method cannot be expected to come into
general use, even in the wards of a well-appointed
hospital. Physicians will depend more on mechanical
appliances for registering the movements of the
various pulses (both venous and arterial) and of the
heart itself, a method of sphygmographic investiga-
tion that has received a new lease of life by the
labours of Mackenzie and others. At the same time
it must be admitted that the electrical phenomena give
a glimpse of phenomena actually happening In the
heart which would escape detection by the mechanical
method, as, for example, slight changes In the beat
of the auricles, and some phenomena which may
account for want of rhthym, as when the auricles
and ventricles do not beat in the normal consecutive
order. The time relations can also be accurately
noted. The authors give many cardiograms well
worthy of the study of physicians. These must not be
confounded with the tracings that, by other methods,
may be obtained of the vibrations of the sounds of the
heart. Science must advance, but It is rather dis-
heartening to be obliged to take the view that these
elaborate researches have very little to do with the
actual treatment of diseases of the heart, and the
sufferer whose heart Is beating arhthymically will find
cold comfort in the certain knowledge that there is
some kind of fatty or other degeneration in the fibres
of the bundle of His in his cardiac organ.

Since the above was written a valuable paper has
appeared in Heart by Dr. Thomas Lewis and B. S.
and Adele Oppenhelmer on "The Site of Origin of
the Mammalian Heart Beat; the Pace-maker in the
Dog." The researches have been carried out with
the string galvanometer, with special reference to the
electrical relations of the collection of specialised
tissue at the upper caval end of the sulcus terminalis
of His. The tissue, or node, as it may be termed,
was discovered by Keith and Flack. Dr. Lewis and
his co-workers find electrical evidence to show that
it Is the site of primary activity, that Is to say, from
it impulses radiate that are the cause of the co-
ordinated heart beat. This result, long sought for
by other observers, is an important addition to cardiac
physiology, while it illustrates the value of the use
of the string galvanometer.

John G. McKendrick.

December 29, 19 10]

NATURE

267

AVSTRAUAN TRIBES.
(i) The Tribe, and Intertribal Relations in Australia.
By G. C. Wheeler. With a prefatory note by Prof.
Edward A. Westermarck. Pp. xii + i68. (London :
J. Murray, 19 lo.) Price 35. 6d. net.
I Two Representative Tribes of Queensland, with
an Inquiry concerning the Origin of the Australian
Race. By J. Mathew. With an introduction by
Prof. A. H. Keane. Pp. xxiii + 256. (London :
T. Fisher Unwin, 1910.) Price 55. net.
\ CQUAINTANCE with the interesting political and
• i X social organisation of the Australian aborigines
has gradually destroyed the tradition of their primaeval
simplicity, and the information collected and classified
by Mr. Wheeler (i), during his work as Martin-White
student of sociology in London University, shows that
intertribal relationships in Australia are unusually
well regulated. Mr. Wheeler declares that '" in con-
trast with the loose ideas generally held war in these
tribes cannot be deemed a normal condition," and
Prof. Westermarck, in a prefatory note, remarks
"among the Australian aborigines the germs of inter-
national law" and "something like an anticipation
of the Geneva Convention." Instead of the Austra-
lian aborigines retaining a primitive communism,
territorial ownership is so fully recognised that,
according to Mr. Wheeler (p. 161), "War has no other
purpose than the seeking of justice or revenge for
injuries done." War there, he says, is never for the
sake of territorial conquest, as the right of the lawful
owners of land is regarded as absolute.

The main purpose of Mr. Wheeler's study is to
collect the available information as to the relationships
of the Australian tribes. He summarises the evidence
as to their confederations, the rights of territorial
sovereignty, the regulations which govern tribal inter-
course— including barter, asylum, and the safety of
envoys, the punishment of offenders belonging to
different tribes, and war. The essay is a discussion of
second-hand evidence, in the valuation of which the
author is perhaps not always successful. Thus, he
disparages Hewitt's work, since, as that author care-
fully explained the source of his information, it is
obvious how much of it came from others ; but Mr.
Wheeler is less cautious in regard to some authori-
ties, in whose writings observation and inference are
less easily distinguished.

The essential difficulty in the study of intertribal rela-
tionships among the Australians is the absence of any
trustworthy distinction between tribes and intertribal
local groups, and between tribes and " nations." Mr.
Wheeler uses the term nation occasionally, but regards
it as inappropriate in Australia, as the groups are so
indefinite. He admits that there is no firm line to be
drawn between nations made up of tribes, and tribes
made up of local groups; and he recognises that the
relations between local groups of the same tribe do
not differ from those of local groups belonging to
different tribes. The intertribal regulations, which
Mr. Wheeler's study shows are so widely recognised
in Australia, therefore deal with the relations of local
groups, which have been perhaps only recently and
temporarily isolated or combined, and not of tribes
separated by racial differences, as in India or Africa,
or by traditional feuds, as in North America.
NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

According to Mr. Wheeler, the best test of a tribe
(p. 55) is that the intertribal groups do not carry
on unregulated warfare, and during warfare do not
eat the dead. According to Mr. Math%w, on the
other hand, tribal distinctions are based on language.

(2) Mr. Mathew 's book may be divided into two
distinct sections. Its main value is an account of the
Kabi and Wakka tribes, who inhabited the basins of
the Mary River and upper Burnett River in southern
Queensland. The author had excellent opportunities
for the study of the Kabi, as he lived among them
from 1866 to 1872, and has re-visited them in 1884
and 1906. He knows their language and appears
carefully to have observed their habits and collected
their beliefs and folklore. Mr. Mathew 's most in-
teresting chapter is upon religion and magic. He
concludes that "these tribes possessed the elementary
contents of religion " (p. 168), and had some belief in
supernatural beings, of whom they spoke with rever-
ence and of whom the "great supernatural" w'as
nameless and was referred to only with bated breath.

The value of Mr. Mathew's book is reduced by his
constant re-statement of the theory which he advanced
in 1899, in his " Eaglehawk and Crow," and in an
earlier paper. He there claimed that the two totemic
divisions named after the Eaglehawk and Crow were
due to racial differences ; he believed that the Aus-
tralian aborigines have originated from the fusion
of a dark " Papuasian " people, who were of the same
race as the Tasmanians, with a fairer people who
were possibly connected with the Dravidians of India,
the Veddas of Ceylon, and the Toalas of Celebes.
He "re-states this view in an introductor}- memoir, and
repeats it, but without mentioning the strongest objec-
tions to it, and still claiming in its support authors,
such as Lydekker — who has long since abandoned it,
Mr. Mathew admits that some tribes outside Aus-
tralia are also divided into two exogamous classes,
and he appears disposed (p. 140) to extend his racial
theory to those cases. Moreover, many Aus-
tralian tribes are divided into four classes
instead of into two, and as Mr. Mathew
admits that the fourfold division is not racial,
it seems unnecessary to adopt his explanation
for the division of the tribes into two classes. Mr.
Mathew states that the light-blooded and dark-blooded
sections may still be recognised among the Austra-
lians ; but, in quoting one of these cases he admits
(p. 142) that his informants differed as to which
section was the light and which the dark. The differ-
ence in colour appears to be as slight as the rest of
the evidence in favour of Mr. Mathew's theory. The
account of the Kabi is, however, a useful contribution
to Australian anthropology.

SOME CRITICAL SPECIES OF VERONICA.
Veronica prostrata L., Teucrium L., tind austriaca L.

nebst einem anhang iiber deren ndchste verxvandte.

By Dr. Bruno Watzl. (Abh. der K.K. Zool-Botan.

Gesellschaft in Wien. Bd. v.. Heft 5.) Pp. 94 + Tafel

xlv. (Jena: Gustav 'Fischer, 1910.) Price 7 marks.

DR. WATZL has made a detailed study of three
closely-allied species in what is generally recog-
nised as a very critical genus. Bentham, when mono-

268

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

fifraphing the family Scrophulariaceae in De Candolle's
Prodromus (1846), grouped these species with a few
others as a subdivision Pentasepalffi of the section
Cliamaedrys, characterised and distinguished from
other subdivisions, and the majority of the species of
the genus, by the five-toothed calyx as contrasted with
the usual four-toothed organ. The disappearance, by
gradual reduction, of the median sepal is one of the
factors in the diminution of the zygomorphv, which
is a feature of the Veronica flower when compared
with the more strikingly zygomorphic forms typical
of the family. These pentasepalous forms are to be
regarded as an older type from which the more
numerous tetrasepalous have been derived, and Dr.
Watzl again directs attention to the fact that the
character is a variable one, four-sepalled flowers
being of frequent occurrence.

None of the three species which are the subject of
the memoir occurs in the British Isles, but they are
widely distributed in central and southern Europe.
Veronica prostrata is the most constant of the three ;
besides the type only one form and one variety (from
Siberia) are recognised. There is, however, a con-
siderable amount of variation in habit, degree of
hairiness, and size of parts ; and, as shown by
plate v., the leaf displays great variety in size and
form in specimens from different localities. The other
two species are remarkably polymorphic, and are sub-
divided by the writer into a series of subspecies, varie-
ties, and forms, with, in several cases, a number of
transitional forms between the different subspecies.
Dr. Watzl has made a careful and exhaustive study
of a large series of specimens from central and
southern Europe, as well as of the citations in the
numerous European floras, and the results of his work
will have a special interest for the critical student of
the European flora. It is inevitable, however, that
the personal element should enter into such a detailed
study of a highly variable species occurring over a
somewhat extended area, and It is probable that other
critical students of the same group would not entirely
concur with the limitations of forms and varieties
which are adopted by Dr. Watzl. A. B. R.

SCHOOL DRAWING.
(i) A Course of Drawing for the Standards. Being
a Selection of Sheets from "A Complete Course of
Free-Arm and Industrial Drawing.'' By J. W. T.
Vinall. Pp. 24 + xxiv charts. (London : Blackie
and Son, Ltd., 1910.) Price 65. net.
(2) Natural and Common Objects in Primary Draw-
ing, with Full Directions as to Their Use. A
Handbook for Teachers. By J. W. T. Vinall. Pp.
v + 68. (London : Blackie- and Son, Ltd., 1910.)
Price 3s. 6d. net.
{l)npHE issue of the author's "Complete Course of
J- Free-Arm and Industrial Drawing," in sec-
tions is a wise step that will be much appreciated by
teachers. The first portion, published as "A Course
of Kindergarten Drawing, for Infants and Small Chil-
dren," has now been followed by a second and more
advanced selection under the title given above. It
NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

outlines a progressive school course for youths from
six j'ears upwards, corresponding to standards I. t*>
VII. and beyond. The first six plates deal with brush
work and the principles of colour harmony, with
applications to natural objects and ornamental designs.
The next six illustrate a well-graded course of free-
arm drawing in coloured chalks, based on circular,
elliptic, and compound curves. The applications l*i
natural and familiar objects, to ornamental patterns
and designs, with reference to the laws of growth,
repetition, and radiation, are verv numerous and in-
tensely interesting. The remaining charts compri-
free-hand drawing in pencil, crayon, and with tL
pen ; further brush work and shading ; and model and
perspective drawing, with technical and other applica-
tions. The plates are accompanied by a very lucid
and suggestive description that will prove most valu-
able to teachers. They are beautifully executed,
generally in colours. As a whole, the work forms as
admirable a course of school drawing as could be
desired, and impresses the reader with the great educa-
tional value of training conducted on lines indicated
by the author.

(2) This is a new work, intended to be supplemen-
tary to the one noticed above, its main object being
to assist the teacher in the selection of objects, pro-
perly graded and suitable for class instruction in
drawing in elementary schools. It is based on the
syllabuses of the English and Scottish Boards of
Education. The objects are displayed in a number of
plates, to which teachers will often be glad to refer.
The illustrations include familiar objects in common
use, nature forms and specimens, subjects for
measured drawings, and specimens of alphabets and
printing. The plates are desqribed in the text, and
are preceded by a general discussion of the aims and
qualifications of the teacher, of the apparatus used,
and of the methods of work. The book can be recom-
mended to teachers as affording valuable guidance in
their work.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Iron and Steel Analysis. Vol. i., Ordinary Consti-
tuents. By A. Campion. Pp. 80. (Glasgow:
Eraser, Asher and Co., Ltd. 1910.)
This small handbook gives a detailed account of the
methods used in determining the -six or seven elements
invariablv occurring in pig-irons and ordinary steels,
and also'' those employed in the proxima;te analysis

of coal. 1 . J -u A

With few exceptions, one method only is described
for each element, and in every case one which has
been in use (with modifications) in steel-works
laboratories for many years. Although, therefore,
there is nothing new by way of contribution to the
existing literature on the subject, the book is emin-
entlv suited to beginners. It is doubtful, however,
whether the author's hope that works chemists will
find the book useful will be realised, as some of the
methods described are by no means quick enough.
Rapiditv, consistent with accuracy, is a very impor-
tant consideration in steel-works laboratories, a fact
which the author obviously recognises in the preface.
The opening out of grey irons with hydrochloric
acid in silicon determinations, as described in this

December 29, 1910]

NATURE

269

book, has been largely superseded by the more rapid
and trustworthy process ot Drown. The gravimetric
methods described for manganese and phosphorus
are cumbersome. In the case of the former, the
importance of neutralising the acid solution of ferric
' and manganese chlorides at a boiling temperature
is wrongly insisted upon, and the washing of the
voluminous basic ferric acetate precipitate should have
been avoided.

Manganese furnishes one of the cases in which
alternative volumetric methods are described, the first
of which is undoubtedly more accurate than the
gravimevric method as carried out by the author. An
alternative process, preferably volumetric, for the de-
termination of phosphorus, would have materially
increased the value of the book. The other elements,
and particularly the most important one (carbon), are
dealt with in a very satisfactory manner. F. I.

the Potter's Craft. A Practical Guide for the Studio
and Workshop. By F. Binns. Pp. 171. (London :
Constable and Co., Ltd., 19 10.) Price 6s. net.

The preface leads to great expectations, for the author
says : — " This book is the outcome of an experience
extending over a period of thirty-six years. Twenty
years ago it would have been impossible for the science
of ceramics was not then born." The book itself is,
however, very disappointing, and cannot be con-
sidered as a serious contribution to ceramic science.
It is written apparently for the amateur potter; it
certainly would not be of use to anyone else, and there
is nothing in it that was not known twenty years
and more ago.

Much of the book is taken up with photographs and
descriptions of two well-known processes, viz.,
"mould-making" and "throwing." These could be
much better learnt and understood by a visit to a
pottery ; certainly no one will ever learn to be a crafts-
man by studying' the book. When one knows the time
it takes for a professional potter to learn to throw
even simple small pieces to a given size, it seems
j almost ludicrous to write as the author does of an
! amateur making vases two or three feet high by doing
i the work in sections. The chapter on glazes and
j glazing can lead to nothing but disappointment.
i It is hard to believe that the author has had
great practical experience when we see him trving
1 to deal with "the defects of glazes" in about two
I pages. For example, practical men know what a
difficult problem " the pinholing of glazes " is, and
j how many and varied are the causes which produce
jit. Mr. IBinns devotes two lines to it !—" Pinholes
I appear in the glaze when cool. Too rapid cooling is
i the cause." It is difficult to write with patience of
I this kind of treatment, particularlv when we remem-
} ber the preface.

Heroes of the Elizabethan Age. Stirring Records of
1 the Intrepid Bravery and Boundless Resource of the
Men of Queen Elizabeth's Reign. By E. Gilliat.
(London : Seeley and Co., Ltd., 191 1.) Price 5s.
The stout-hearted men who sailed the seas in the days
I of England's awakening were indeed heroes. Their
I charts were made with the degrees of longitude at
\ different latitudes of equal length ; they were in-
j accurate even as regards the shores of 'the English
j Channel, for it is one of the claims to renown of John
i Davis that he surveyed the Channel coasts in addition
1 to those of the Arctic, of Magellan Straits, and of the
Scilly Isles. They dared to cross the Atlantic in ten-
ton vessels, for the Squirrel, in which Sir Humphrey
Gilbert was lost, was of this size; thev took fiv'e
I rnonths on the voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, and
' "^ chances were that disease alone would kill off a
NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

large proportion of the crew of every vessel which
went on a protracted voyage.

Englishmen fitted out expedition after expedition ;
many times for no return, sometimes for a return of
hundreds per cent, on their outlay, for the capture
of one rich carrack might suffice to pay the cost of
a large expedition. In this atmosphere Hawkins
began the slave trade. Sir Richard Grenville fought his
good fight off the .Azores, and Howard and his cap-
tains harassed the .\rmada and made its efforts fruit-
less. In this spirit Sidney died at Zutphen. These
heroic efforts form part of the great struggle for Pro-
testantism which lies at the background of the life-
story of the thirteen heroes as depicted in this splendid
gift-book by a sometime master at Harrow School.
Well illustrated and produced, this book will delight
the heart of most boys and many girls, even those of
somewhat mature age. B. C. W.

International Language and Science. Considerations
on the Introduction of an International Language
into Science. Bv Profs. L. Couturat, O. Jespersen,
R. Lorenz, W. Ostwald, and L. Pfaundler. Trans-
lated bv Prof. F. G. Donnan. Pp. ix + 87. (Lon-
don : Constable and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s,
net.
Internaciona Matematikal Lexiko en Ido, Germana
Angla, Franca e Italiana. by Dr. Louis Couturat.
Pp. 36. (Jena : Gustav Fischer, 1910.) Price 1.50
marks.
The first of these books is an English edition of a
work the German edition of which was reviewed in
Nature for August 19, 1909. The translator is Prof.
F. G. Donnan, of Liverpool University. The "Inter-
naciona Matematikal Lexiko," by Dr. Louis Couturat,
contains all the technical terms commonly used in
mathematics. The language of the International
Commission constitutes in many respects a great ad-
vance on its predecessors. If there is one feature that
possibly calls for improvement, it is that the new
language is not based on Latin as much as it might
be, in view of the fact that Latin is taught in schools
in even' civilised country. By adopting the Latin
vocabulary free from all unnecessary grammatical
technicalities, the need of a new language could have
largely been obviated. It is true that a large propor-
tion of the words are taken from Latin, but there are
exceptions, such as " lasta " for ultimate, " sam-
centra, sam-foka," and so forth, for concentric and
confocal, " ringo " for annulus, and "helpanta" for
auxiliary.

The Presentation of Reality. By Dr. Helen
Wodehouse. Pp. x+163. (Cambridge: University
Press, 1910.) Price 3s. net.

In this little book Dr. Wodehouse (who is lecturer in
philosophy in the Universitj- of Birmingham) attempts
a description of knowledge from the point of view of
a philosophical psychology. She avoids metaphysics
as far as possible, but maintains that in all cognitive
experience we come into immediate contact with ob-
jective realit\-, of the existence of which we have in
experience an irrefutable witness, and that on all levels
of cognition, sensuous or intellectual, this happens in
the same way, namely, by the presentation of an object
to a subject.

The author's metaphysical inclinations seem to be
towards the school of Reid, while among recent writers
her affinities are with Dr. James Ward. Dr. G. F.
Stout, and Dr. A. Meinong. Bradley on the one hand,
and James on the other, come in for acute criticism.
Dr. Wodehouse believing strongly — as against the
great pragmatist — that reality does not wait for our
thinking to make it, though the discovery- of realitv
does ; that some discoveries can be made, and that it

270

NATURE

[December 291, 1910

is the duty of philosophers to go on trying to make
them, with which, no doubt, both pragmatists and
absolutists would agree. Indeed, " in spite of every-
thing, this is presumably the real standpoint of all of
us."

Lessons on Elementary Hygiene and Sanitation, with
Special Reference to the Tropics. By VV. T. Prout.
Second edition, 1909. Pp. xx+159. (London: J.
and A. Churchill, 1908.) Price 2s. 6d. net.

We are not surprised that this little book has passed
into a second edition. The plan of it is well conceived
and the matter excellently written. It tells in the
simplest language, with many appropriate compari-
sons which drive home the meaning, the structure of
the body and its functions, how health may be safe-
guarded, and how disease is propagated. Disease
germs, their mode of spread and entrance into the
body, are explained, and the salient points with re-
gard to the principal infective diseases are adequately
considered. Being avowedly written for residents in
the tropics, and in particular for those in Freetown,
West Africa, diseases like malaria, cholera, plague,
sleeping sickness, leprosy, &c., receive considerable
attention, but otherwise the details given are equally
applicable to the hygiene of any district.

Chapters on water supply and its purification, the
dwelling and sewage removal, respiration and ven-
tilation, diet and clothing are included, and render
the book a complete popular exposition of the prin-
ciples of hvgiene. It is also well and sufficiently
illustrated. ' R. T! H.

Aeroplane Patents. By Robt. M. Neilson. Pp. x +
91. (London : Constable and Co., Ltd., 1910.)
Price 4s. 6d. net.

This is a useful book, which may be recommended to
all who are interested in the subject of aeronautics.
It begins with thirteen pages of sound advice to in-
ventors, and continues vi^ith a list and description of
the various patents relating to heavier-than-air flying
machines. The list does not profess to be complete
or exhaustive, but it contains all the important patents
and most of the minor ones are mentioned. The de-
scriptions given are sufficient to explain the objects
and claims made in each case.

The period covered by the list extends from i860 to
1910, and perhaps the most interesting matter which
it brings to our notice is the enormous increase in
the number of patents relating to aeronautics taken
out since 1907. From i860 to 1906 the average
number of patents was about six per year. In 1906
the number was 29 ; in 1907, 42; in 1908, 115; in
1909, 759; and in 1910 (for eight months), 412.

That but a small percentage of the patents should
be of value is only what might be expected, but the
total number is evidence of the attention which is
being given to the subject.

Stray Leaves on Travel, Sport, Animals, and Kindred
Subjects. By J. C. Walter. Pp. xii + 295. (Lon-
don : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co., Ltd.,
1910.) Price 55^. net.

The ten chapters making up this book are for the
most part extracts from the author's diaries written
among the scenes described, and papers prepared for
meetings of a natural history society.

The conversational style adopted makes reading
easy, and the persevering reader will incidentally accu-
mulate much useful information about the countries
in which the author has travelled, and become
acquainted with the habits of many animals which
have aroused the author's interest. Mr. Walter's
wanderings have by no means been confined to his

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

own country; we have chapters dealing with his excur-
sions in Egypt and Palestine, France, Switzerland,
and Italy respectively. On each of his numerou-
journeys Mr. Walter was an industrious diarist.

1200 Mining Examination Questions. Arranged and
compiled bv G. L. Kerr. Pp. xxvii+iii. (Lc
don : Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1911.) Pri
2s. 6d. net.

These questions have been selected principally from
the papers set at the examinafTons held in the different
districts of Britain for managers' and under-managers'
certificates. The volume also contains copies of venti-
lation plans set at these examinations, and suggestions.,
to candidates who desire to qualify for mine managers*
certificates.

To some of the questions answers have been given,
but to the majority of them this has intentionally not
been done. The compiler explains that the correct
answer for any given question will vary somewhat
according to the formula used, and in mining unfor-
tunately no uniform set of formulae has yet been •
accepted.

Chez les Francais. Edited by H. Carter. With]
Exercises, by C. F. Shearson. Pp. vii+171 + vii.
(London : A. and C. Black, 1910.) Price 2s.

This well-selected collection of passages in French,]
from writers of recognised literary merit, dealing with^
France and French customs, should prove useful in :
classes where some progress has been made in the
study of the language. The book should be particu-
larly serviceable in connection with elementary
geographical teaching.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opiniom
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 Biological Inquiry into the Nature of Melanism in

Aiiiphidasis betularia, Linn.

It is well known to entomologists that dark varieties
of several species of moths have recently become increas-
ingly common in many localities within the British Isles,
and also that the dark forms are appearing in fresh
districts.

It is very desirable and important to know whether th&
colour of these dark races of moths is protective or whether
it has some other significance.

Before, however, anj' definite explanation of these
phenomena can be attempted, it is necessary to have as
complete a knowledge as possible of all the circumstances
which are likely to have any influence on the species
known to exhibit this melanic change. One significant
point in connection with my inquiry concerns the resting
habits of the moths which are subject to this melanic
variation. For example, it is important to know whether
the light-coloured moths (i.e. the peppered form of Ampki-
dasis betularia) generally rest during the day on lichen-
covered trunks of trees or any other light-coloured object,
and also whether the dark insects (as the form
Doubledayaria of .4. betularia) select black tree trunks or
other dark-coloured objects on which to rest.

Information of this nature can, however, be obtained
only by the cooperation of very many entomologists, for
the chance of obtaining sufficient evidence from the
observations of one or two persons is very remote. _ I
should therefore be extremely grateful if entomologists
would assist me in collecting information regarding the
resting habits of any of the undermentioned species belong-
ing to the Geometrae which may have come under their
notice : — '

December 29, 1910]

NATURE

271

Amphidasis betularia (Peppered Moth).
Amphidasis prodrotnaria (Oak Beauty).
Odontoptera bidentata (Scalloped Hazel).
Phigalia pilosaria (Pale Brindled Beauty).
Boarmia repandata (Mottled Beauty).
Roarmia abietaria (Satin Carpet).
Boarmia rhomboidaria (Willow Beauty).
Gnopbos obscurata (.Annulet).
Hybernia progemmaria (Dotted Border).

^cheme of particulars : —

,1) State, if possible, the number of specimens of each
variety (light or dark, &c.) of the above species that have
been observed at rest, together with particulars as to the
object upon which they were found, and also say whether
they were conspicuous or well protected by their colour.

(2) State, if possible, whether the species is abundant,
fairly common, or rare in the locality to which reference
of the observation is made.

(3) If it is not possible to answer the foregoing ques-
tions, any other information concerning observations of
a general character will be very acceptable.

All help received will be fully acknowledged on publica-
tion ; and I would like here to express (as it has not yet
been possible to publish anything upon the subject) my great
indebtedness to those entomologists who have previously-
sent valuable information concerning the distribution, &c.,
of the various forms of A. betularia in their own par-
ticular localities in compliance with a former request.

The University, Manchester. H. S. Leigh.

Protection from " White Ants " and other Pests.

In a recent number of Nature there was a note on
the subject of ants in general and white ants in particular
(they are not ants, but that does not matter, as they
are " so called "), in which it is said that the Admiralty
has decided in favour of " blue oil." Blue oil is the
residue left in the distillation of mineral oils after the
isolation of kerosine (called petroleum in England) and
paraffin. I therefore venture to give you my experience
in regard to the same and as to some other cognate
matters.

Some twent}- years ago I bought a cottage at Mitta-
gong, about eighty miles from Sydney ; it was furnished,
and when I went there for a night I heard a continual
rasping sound whilst in bed, and next morning, on
examining the place, I found it was infested with white
ants. They had eaten the pine lining in two rooms, as
well as the uprights of a door.

I was then connected with a kerosine company, and

immediately got a quantity of blue oil, which I had

sprinkled all round the foundation of the house with a

watering-can. The result is that the lining is in the

same condition that it was twenty- jears ago. This is

j not an isolated instance, because during that time I have

I had much experience of " white ants," and have always

^:nd that they cannot work if they are cut ofl from

nection with the ground, from which they get moisture,

.. ..ich is necessary for them, and they do not seem able

I to get through ground saturated with blue oil.

There is another matter to which I may refer in this

■"'^r. When I bought my present home, in 1882, I found

full of weeds and ants. I have got rid of both by

rmination, and with the latter of aphis and almost

rely of scale insects. Of the former I have not seen

for the past fourteen or fifteen years. My first experi-

e was with black aphis, by which the leaves of a

rarine tree were all curled up, whilst ants were con-

ually running up and down the stem. I had read Sir

n Lubbock's account of ants carrj'ing the eggs of aphis

rheir nests, and I therefore shaved off the rough bark

! chalked the stem for a foot or so, and the result was

-..at the ants soon ceased to visit the tree, and we had a

I healthy tree and a fair crop of fruit. I may say that, so

j far as my observation goes, ants cannot climb up a

chalked stem or post, as the chalk comes off with their

I feet and they fall down. I am not sure that this is the

"rrect interpretation, as I have seen that if a broad

ilk line is drawn round a meat-dish standing on a

If the ants seldom get arrows it, and if they do it is

NO, 2148, VOL. 85]

only by some place being missed in chalking. They seem
to leave a trace of formic acid behind them which guides
the followers, and, combining with the calcium of the
chalk, deprives them of their clue.

As to ants in general, I may say that after trying
various ways to get rid of them 1 have come to an
effectual method, that is, to find their nests and pour
down each hole two ounces of a solution of cyanide of
potassium. Two ounces per gallon is the strength I have
used, but it might be weaker. The ants are not all killed
by the first dose, for some are out foraging, and one
cannot be certain of killing all the queens, but by giving
them a dose once a week or a fortnight it is possible to
get rid of them.

There is another matter I may mention. Some thirty-
nine or forty years ago I observed an old shingle-roofed
cottage at Maitland. It had two dormer windows, the
sides of which had been painted white with white lead.
The whole of the roof was rotten with fungoid growth
except below the dormers, where the paint had been
washed down by the rain, leaving a white streak, and
there the shingles were nearly as good as they were when
put on. It was therefore evident that white lead was
inimical to fungoid vegetation.

When I came to my present home I had outside
Venetian blinds, and the " ladders " got quite rotten in
three vears, evidently by fungoid growths. In getting new
ladders I steeped them in a solution of acetate of lead
(6 ounces to the gallon), and they lasted for thirteen years,
being by that time worn out by friction in moving them
up and down. Acetate of lead is soon converted into white
lead by atmospheric carbon dioxide. I have used the
same process with a sheet surrounding a shower bath
K which in six months was black with " mould," and now
\ it is in as good condition as it was ten vears ago.

Will. A. Dixon.
97 Pitt Street, Sydney, October 31.

January Meteors.

The most noteworthy of the January meteor showers
is that of the Quadrantids. Owing to the great northerly
declination of the radiant, these meteors can be observed
at any hour of the night, and being long-pathed they may,
if fairly numerous, present quite a striking display. In
191 1 the maximum will fall on the night of January 3,
computed particulars of which and of other subsequent
meteor showers are here summarised.

Epoch January 3, iih. (G.M.T.), fourteenth order of
magnitude. Principal maximum Januar>- 3, i2h. 30m. ;
secondary maximum January 3, i6h. 30m.

Epoch January 4, i3h. 30m., seventeenth order of magni-
tude. Principal maximum January 3, ''i2h. 40m. ;
secondary maximum Januarv' 3, 6h. 30m.

Epoch January 6, 22h., approximately sixth order of
magnitude. Principal maximum January 5, i4h. lom. ;
secondary maximum January 5, ah. 45m.

Epoch January 6, 2h. 30m., fifteenth order of magni-
tude. Principal maximum January 7, 9h. 45m. ; secondary
maximum January 7, 7h.

Epoch January 11, 4h. 40m., eighteenth order of magni-
tude. Principal maximum Januarv- 12. 23h. ; secondary
maxima January 11, 4h. 40m., and January 12, i3h. 15m.

Epoch January 12, i9h., seventeenth order of magni-
tude. Principal maximum January 14, gh. 20m. ;
secondar\' maximum January' 14. i6h. 30m.

Epoch Januan.' 19. i7h., fifth order of magnitude.
Principal maximum Januar>' 18, 7h. 30m. ; secondary
maximum January 19, 2h. 15m.

Epoch January 21, 8h. 30m., twelfth order of magnitude.
Principal maximum January- 22, 23h. 30m. ; secondary
maximum January 22, i8h. 30m.

The intensity' of a meteoric epoch is inversely as its
order of magnitude. Thus the heaviest maximum occurs
on January 18, as it belongs to an epoch of the fifth order
of magnitude, which is the highest of the month. Owing,
however, to the times at which its m.ixima occur, and also
to other circumstances, this epoch will not furnish so many
meteors as the first two of the month, which have their
principal maxima shortly after midnight on Januarv' 3.

Dublin. John R. Henry.

272

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

EXCAVATIONS IN CRETE.'

SWIMMING in the blue sea of the Gulf of Mirabello
(well so named!), on the north coast of Crete, is
a solitary isle, the name of which is beautiful in its
Greek shape of Pseira, but by no means so lovely

Photo.]

Fig. I. — Pseira, from Kavou i.

when translated into English, for -^eipa means
" louse." The polite geog'rapher Kiepert has in his
map turned " Pseira " into " Psyra " (which is so
much nicer), but Pseira, Lausinsel, is its name.

Seen from the west it reminds one
of the Bass, but from the heights of
the bridle-path leading over the cliffs
from Kavousi to Tourloti, we see how-
low and insignificant it really is in
comparison with the coast-hills ; it
looks little more than a long, low-
shoal. It is barren, and waterless,
and no man lives there ; only a few-
goats derive a precarious subsistence
from the scrubby herbage which
covers a portion of it ; the rest is bare
rock. Yet this unpromising place
was the site, three thousand years
ago, of a flourishing settlement of
men, in which wealth existed and art
was fostered.

Readers of Nature will remember
that some years ago Miss Boyd (the
present Mrs. Hawes) excavated for
the University of Pennsylvania an
ancient Cretan tow-n on the spot
which bears the name of Goiirnia, on
the mainland not far from Pseira ;
articles describing her work . have
appeared more than once in these
columns. With her was working
a young American archaeologist, Mr.
Richard B. Seager, who, after the
close of the work at Gournia, ex-
cavated a settlement at Vasiliki, on the isthmus of
Hierapetra, half-way between Gournia and Kavousi,

^ "Excavations on the Island of Pseira, Crete." By Richard R. Seager.
(University of Pennsylvania ; the Museum ; Anthropological Publications,
vol. iii., No. I.) Pp. 38 + 19 figures+9 plates. (Philadelphia: Tne Uni-
versity Museum, 1910.)

which is opposite Pseira. The results of his work ;it
Vasiliki were reviewed in Nature of September (>,
1906. His next essay was the exploration of Pseira,
where certain indications seemed to promise success
in digging. Nor were these expectations dis-
appointed. On the small tongue of land which
forms the eastern side of the tinv cove
which is the harbour of Pseira (a
haven just large enough to hold a
couple of caiques), were discovered the
remains of an ancient town, with
streets of houses descending steeply to
the sea. It was a tiny place, though
when it was made it was bigger than
it seems now, for the land has sunk
everywhere along this coast since the
old Minoan times, and now the waves
wash into the houses. All the ancient
Cretan towns of the Bronze age seem
to have been small, as was Gourni^,
judging by our standards, with nar-.
row streets, some five feet broad at
most, and cramped houses with tiny
rooms.

But their small size was not the
result of small ideas or lack of cul-
ture. In the ruined houses of these
ancient towns have been found
treasures of ancient art, of that most
ancient art of Greece, the art of the
Heroic age, which is older by a
thousand years than the " Greek art "
of the schools. And waterless, barren
little Pseira has yielded objects of art
finer than most of those found at Gourni^, and hardly
inferior to many of those discovered by Dr. Evans at
Knossos (though, of course, in much less number).
We mav instance the relief fresco of the lady or

[R. B. Seager.

Photo. J

yti. A'. Hail.

Fig. z. — The ancient town of Pseira, showing the excavations.

goddess published in plate v., and the vases in Fig.
and plate vii., of Mr. Seager 's report on his excav.i-
tions, which lies before us.

A cursory glance at these and the other illustratii
of the report shows us that at Pseira the best trn
tions of Knossian art were followed, and it is evident

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

December 29, 1910]

NATURE

27.

that the little island was really wealthier than
Gournia, which at the time (about 1700-1400 B.C.) was
probably the local provincial capital of the isthmus
district. This wealth must have been due to seafaring
trade, and probably to a great fishing industry, for
agriculture there could be none on Pseira, even if in
those days (as seems likely) there were water springs
which now have dried up.

Then, about the end of the First Late Minoan Period
(about 1500 B.C.), came a catastrophe. The town,
which, like other settlements of the Cretan thalasso-
crats, even on the coast, was undefended by walls
and open to attack, was taken, destroyed, and sacked
by some unknown enemy. It never recovered, being
oiily occupied for a short time during the Roman
period.

To this disaster we owe, as Mr. Seager well points
out, the preservation of so many objects of high in-
terest. Gold, siver, and bronze were all looted and
carried off ; hence the comparative rarity of metal
objects. But the fine pottery which is of so great
interest to us now as evidence of the culture of its
makers was unvalued by sea-robbers, and so, here,
as elsewheFe in ancient towns which have been de-
stroyed by a catastrophe, we find this pottery and
other remains of value to us exactly where it was left
by the expelled or destroyed owners, or where the rage
of the conqueror cast it forth. " On all sites the period
of destruction is the one which leaves the richest
harvest for the excavator. As long as a site is in
continuous occupation the earlier deposits are only the
refuse of breakage and objects which have ceased to
be of service to their owners. They are thrown into
rubbish-heaps and used as artificial fillings to make
even floors over naturally uneven surfaces. Where,
as at Pseira, the town was destroyed in the height of
its prosperity, with no extensive later settlements to
disturb its ruins, the finds are, of course, unusually
rich " (p. 10).

I have no space for any critical discussion of tech-
nical points of archaeology, but may say that Mr.
Seager 's description of his fi.nds in this summary
report is both able and interesting. The publication is
well produced, its plates are admirable, and its line
illustrations well and accurately drawn. It is a worthy
addition to the series of anthropological publications
of the Pennsylvania University Museum, of which it
'^ .-ms the first number in the third volume. Soon we
oe to see a similar report on Mr. Seager's later and
-vA\ more interesting discoveries at Mokhlos, another
I isle, east of Pseira, where tombs have yielded gold
I treasures like those of Troy, and as old. Mr. Seager
jis to be congratluated on his admirable contributions
to the great work, important and useful alike to
nee and to art, which is being carried out by the
avators of ancient Crete. H. R. Hall.

T

THE LEAD GLAZE QUESTION.^
HE report referred to below is the outcome of the
deliberations of a committee appointed by Lord
Gladstone in May, 1908, to consider a question" which
has engaged the attention of the Home Office and
Parliament for several years past, and has already
been the subject of inquiry by several depart-
mental committees. It is a matter of common know-
ledge that persons engaged in the making of earthen-
ware and china are subjected to considerable risk to
' "^alth from two main cases — dust and lead. The

Report of the Department Committee appointed to inquire into the

gers attendant on the use of Lead and the Danger or Injury to Health
ing from Dust and other Causes in the Manufacture of Earthenware and

la and in the Processes incidental thereto, including the Making of
lographic Transfers. Presented to both Houses of Parliament bv Com-
id of His Majesty. Vol. i. Report. Pp. vii 4-150. (London: H.M.S.O.,

.) Price ts. $d.

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

dust arises from the finely-divided silicious matter,
mainly ground flint, employed in various stages and
processes of ceramic manufacture ; this when breathed
gives rise to distressing bronchial and lung troubles,
and in an aggravated form leads to the malady known
as "potter's rot."

The danger arising from dust may be largely
obviated by the use ot mechanical and other appliances
whereby tfte operative is prevented from inhaling the
dust-laden atmosphere. By the more general use of
exhaust-fans or other suitable ventilatmg machinery,
and by the employment of respirators, cases of
"potter's rot" are less frequent now than formerly.
At the same time much remains to be done by a more
stringent application of these remedial measures. It
was only in 1894 that the Home Office issued the first
code of special rules dealing with dusty processes.
The evil is patent and notorious ; it is, however, not
very satisfactory to be told that we must wait for the
statistics of 1920-2 before we can estimate the real
value of these special rules. If public opinion moved
as fast on the dust problem as it has on the lead
question, we should not have to wait ten or twelve
years before this crying evil was absolutely stamped
out, and "potter's rot" become as much a thing of
the past as "phossy jaw."

It is, however, mainly to the dangers attendant on
the use of lead in pottery manufacture that public
sentiment has been roused, and it has been largely
in deference to this feeling that the several depart-
mental committees above alluded to have been ap-
pointed. It is only by "pegging away" in this
manner that such amelioration as has been secured
has been reached.

The pottery industry in this country is mainly
centred in North Staffordshire. Of the 63,000 workers
in the 550 factories scattered throughout the United
Kingdom, 48,000 are employed in the 329 "pot-
banks " in the district known as the " Potteries."
Owing to special circumstances, arising largely from
local conditions of employment, no systematic
attempts to grapple with the evil of lead poisoning
have been made by the manufacturers as a bodj-.
Individual firms, with intelligent management, have
succeeded in minimising the mischief, but the laxity
of other firms has at times more than neutralised
the benefits which have been secured by the more
general adoption of the precautionary measure which
common-sense seemed to indicate and experi-
ence has shown to be adequate. The manufacturers
as a body have, in fact, been content to wait until
outside pressure has forced them into action, mainly
by rules and regulations issued by the Home Office,
and based on the suggestions or recommendations of
departmental committees appointed ad hoc.

The committee which has now reported has gone
over much of the ground already traversed bv its
predecessors, or which occupied the attention of those
engaged in the prolonged arbitration under Lord
James, leading up to the special rules of December,
1903. But it cannot be said that any real progress
has been made. Although it has been established that
a large amount of earthenware can be made without
the use of lead in any form, and even in the cases
where lead must be used, it has been proved that the
lead may be so combined that it is practically inno-
cuous, the manufacturers as a body have hitherto
resisted any attempt to prescribe a schedule of articles
which should be made with leadless glaze, or to bind
themselves to use grlazes in which the lead is in an
innocuous form. They, in fact, demand unrestricted
liberty to use any materials they think necessary for
their purposes. The loud cry of " foreign cornpeti-
tion " is sufficient to drown the still, small voice of
pity raised on behalf of the workers.

274

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

Now it is absolutely certain that under such condi-
tions lead-poisoning in pottery manufacture will con-
tinue to occur. The leading manufacturers, through
their counsel, in the course of the arbitration proceed-
ings before Lord James of Hereford in 1903, promised
the extirpation of lead-poisoning under the rules then
proposed, but that promise has not been kept. On
the contrary things are as bad as ever. That more
might be done under the rules as they stand would
seem to follow from the statistical information
furnished by the committee. They examined into the
record of the 550 potteries which have been placed
under these special rules during the period 1904 to
1908, and they find that during these five years : —

5 potteries have been responsible for 75 cases
17 .. .. .. 119 -,

151 .. .' .. 323 ..

In all 173

517

leaving 377 potteries out of the 550 in which no cases
have occurred at all. In other words, 32 per cent,
have an average of three cases every five years, while
68 per cent, are entirely free from the disease. In the
173 potteries in which the disease has occurred there
are 4,800 workers as against some 2,000 in the other
potteries. The conclusion would seem to be obvious.
It is in certain relatively large works that the cases
of lead-poisoning are most frequent, and this can only
be due to bad management, imperfect supervision, or
inadequate protective appliances.

During the period 190 1-9, 865 cases of lead-poison-
ing in pottery workers were reported. Of these 788
arose from glaze processes, whereas only 51 were due
to decorative processes. Lead glaze is therefore the
main cause of the evil.

It cannot be said that the conclusions of the com-
mittee now reporting have tended in the slightest
degree towards a solution of this grave evil. All the
conditions to which lead-poisoning in ceramic manu-
facture is due are perfectly well known, but the com-
mittee was apparently unable or unwilling to make
any definite suggestions as to remedies. The com-
mittee pleads that it was in a difficult position. The
members of the committee representing the manufac-
turers were entirely opposed to any restriction in the
use of raw lead; the representatives of the workers,
seeing the comparatively harmless character of low-
solubility glazes, would be glad to see them generally
introduced, " but have to consider the grave risk of loss
of employment which any dislocation of the industry
due to their introduction might entail." Might, not
would. Taking the question of glazes as a whole,
two facts, says the committee, are beyond dispute : —

" In the first place, the danger to the workers of
handling raw lead is very real ; in the second, it is evident
that however unsuitable leadless and low solubility glazes
may be for certain classes of ware, there is a consider-
able quantity made for which they are quite satisfactory."

But the members of the committee are unable to
make up their minds what classes of ware are repre-
sented by this "considerable quantity," although the
facts were before them. They think, however,

" that every inducement and encouragement should be
given to the manufacturers both to persevere with their
experiments in search of satisfactory and lovv-solubility
glazes, and to introduce them whenever possible."

Also efforts should be made to arouse the interest of
purchasers in the question. The members think " it
was established that pottery made with leadless and
low-solubility glazes can be obtained of excellent
quality," and they "consider that the desirability of
insisting on being supplied with such ware should be
NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

brought home to the pubHc at large." Lastly, they
are of opinion that —

" the observance of the special rules has been far from
satisfactory. In the past many of the manufacturers do
not appear to have regarded it as incumbent on them
personally to insist upon it ; they have left the initiative
to the factory inspectors, and in future they should be
made to realise that they are themselves responsible."

The committee obviously had not the courage of its
convictions. It is difficult to imagine any more feeble
or inconclusive "conclusions." No constructive action
seemed to be possible to it ; its only policv was
that of laissez-faire. The net upshot of the inquiry is
that the whole position is not one whit ameliorated;
the operatives apparently are still to remain the vic-
tims of lax surveillance or of indifference, and of
official non-interference.

The matter, however, cannot be allowed to rest in
this position. If the manufacturers' claim for un-
restricted liberty to use such dangerous materials as
they please is to be allowed, they must be made to
feel the responsibility they therby incur by far more
stringent measures than have hitherto been brought to
bear upon them.

THE NEW ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SPORT.'

■\17"HETHER by design or by accident, the new
* * edition of this work has appeared at an oppor»
tune time, since the success of the Vienna Exhibition
has attracted an even more than ordinary amount of
attention to sports and pastimes of all sorts during
the year now rapidly coming to a close. Those who

Photo.'\ >. Berridgi.

Himalayan Tahr. From "The Encyclopaedia of Sport."

possess the first volume of the original edition will
find, on comparing it with its successor, a great
change in regard to much of the subject-matter,
aviation having been practically created since the date
of the appearance of the first edition, while during
the same period motors have come to the front as a;
means of communication, and everything in connection

1 "The Encyclopaedia of Sport and Games." Edited by the Ear!
Suffolk and Berkshire. New and enlarged edition. Vol. i., A to Crickc
Pp. viii+496. (London : W. Heinemann, 1910.) Price, laf. (ui. net
home ; I2J. dd. net abroad.

December" 29, 19 10]

NATURE

275

with automobiles has been revolutionised. So far as
I am capable of judging', these articles, as well as those
devoted to archer}-, athletics, cricket, &c., are
ihoroughly up to date, and, like the rest of the volume,

idmirably illustrated.

On turning, however, to the articles on big game
md big game shooting, I notice that there is a con-
-iderable amount of repetition and overlapping, while,

orse still, one and the saine species of animal is in
-everal instances mentioned in different places und^:-
different names. In the case of the
reindeer or caribou, for example, the
-cientific name of the species is given

n p. 264 as Rangifer tarandus, on
-.'. 399 as C. ( — Cerz'iis) tarandus, and

n p. 401 as Tarandus rangifer. Take

s^ain the case of the Indian gazelle

Gazella bennetti), which is figured,
quite unnecessarily, in three different
places. The first figure, p. 75, bears

!;e legend " Ravine Deer " — a common

jortsman's name — while it is alluded

1 in the text as the " Chinkara " ; on
256 the illustration is lettered

Indian Gazelle," while on p. 412 the

tme figure reappears under the desig-
■ .ation "Chickara." Again, the West
African dwarf buffalo is designated Bos
caffer nanus on p. 248, and Bos putnilus

np. 319.

These eccentricities in nomenclature
are, however, by no means all the de-
fects in the articles under considera-
tion. The chita, or hunting leopard,
for example, in addition to being stvled
Cynaelurus jubatus on p. 408, and Felis
jubata two pages later, is stated on the
former to be nearly related to the
leopard; and on p. 410, the Indian
spotted deer, or chital, is asserted to be
a near ally of the fallow deer, despite
the fact that the one wears its spotted
livery all the year round and the other
only In summer. Worse than all, we
find on p. 250 a photograph described
as that of the western tur {Capra
caucasica), whereas it is really of the
same individual as that depicted on
p. 252, under its proper title of tahr
{Hemitragus jemlaicus).

An error of another kind appears in

le first article under the heading bison,

hich is devoted solely to the American

■presentative of the group, whereas it
-iiould have commenced with the
■-uropean species, which is the bison
~ ir excellence, the American animal

aving only a kind of courtesy right to

ne title.
These and others errors are due, in

he first place, to what I regard as the

ernicious principle of putting men of
lifferent opinions, and in many cases

■ very different degrees of knowledge,

> write on the same subject or
branches thereof, and in the second
place to the lack of a competent editor to revise and
correlate the zoological articles, and thus prevent use-
less and irritating repetition.

While fully appreciating the value of the work as
a whole — which is really a wonderful enterprise — the
above and other errors in the big game portion are
Tiuch to be deplored, more especially as the articles

ire intended for the use of those who are not
professed naturalists. R, L.

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

M

WESTERN CHINA."^
R. ARCHIBALD LITTLE'S work, the result

forms a valuable contribution to our knowledge of
that vast region. The volume before us is invested
with special interest, as it is the remnant of the
labour to which he devoted the greater part of his
life. He was at heart an explorer, although in busi-
""-^ as a merchant in Chung-keng, much of his time

Fig. I.— The Hua
in-China, unfort

Hua Lo at Wuchang, opposite Hankow : one of the most beautiful pavilioos
unately destroyed by fire. From " Gleanings from Fifty Years in China."

was spent in difficult and dangerous expeditions,
which he carried out so successfully as to establish
his fame, not only as an intrepid traveller, but as an
authority on the western provinces of the empire. He
was an exception to the majority of the foreign mer-
chants one meets in China in his having acquired a

1 " Gleanings from Fifty Years in China." By the late .4. Little Re-
vised by Mrs. A. Little. Pp. yvii + 330. (London : Sampson Low, Marston
and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 7^. 6d. net.

276

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

working knowledge of the language, which proved of
service to him in his travels and intercourse with the
natives, and in obtaining trustworthy information.

The present volume, unlike its predecessors, is made
up of a series of desultory notes or essays written at
intervals during his fifty years in Chung-lceng, the
majority having already appeared in some published
form, while the remainder are printed for the first
time. Taken together, they form an interesting addi-
tion to the author's well-known work, and are pub-
lished as they were written, no attempt being made
to edit or rearrange the material. It is best so, as
they are characteristic of the author, who won his
way to the hearts of the alien folks among whom he
lived and wandered in security for so many years, a
people who would fain see the last of the average
foreigner, whose aggressive commercialism they do
not love.

In his discussion of foreign trade with China the
author traverses familiar ground, but he affords some
insight into Chinese diplomatic delays in his account

The concluding chapters on the Chinese drama,
with examples of native plays, and on Confucianism
are new, and sustain the scholarly reputation of the
author. A. series of excellent photographs add to the
attraction of the volume. J. T.

THE CALORIMETKY OF MAN.'

A GREAT deal has been said previously as to the
general excellence of the methods and apparatus
developed in connection with the '"respiratory calori-
meter " now in use in the Nutrition Laboratory in
Boston. That they are original and are carried to a
unique degree of perfection, that they have been
utilised in the solution of very interesting problems.
All this is well known, and will be found frequently
dealt with by the authors of the publication referred
to below. Gratitude has been freely expressed on
these points.

In this recent publication the authors, experienced

investigators advantageouslv' equipped for the pur-
of the years spent in fruitless endeavour before | pose, have set themselves the task of laying a base

line for further calorimetric re-
search. They will receive the
thanks of every interested technical
observer for the splendid series of
data which they have compiled, but
they have overhauled them in a
nianner open to some criticism.

To develop this statement let us
take one set of their facts, namely,
that the oxygen consumption and
heat production of the human being
vary during periods of sleep within
wide limits when assessed per man,
or per kilo of man, or per square
metre of the surface of man. Of
these three forms of assessment, the
last is the most interesting since
the loss of heat, ' and therefore the
oxygen consumption and heat pro-
duction by which it is compensated,
is largely conditioned by extent of
surface. Now it is of some import-
ance that no surface nieasurements
have been made and that the esti-
mations of surface are really de-
rived from the measurements of
weight. The authors refer to this
point with some expression of
regret, and a promise of contribu-
tory data, again of an indirect kind,
in future. It would, however, have
been of far greater interest had they
dealt soundly with their data of
height and weight in such a way as to show with
unmistakable clearness that no probable corrections
in their surface estimations will account for the differ-
ences in heat loss observed. A clear statement that
they had found variations not accounted for, and never
likely to be accounted for, by variations in surface
would have been of substantial value.

That this end might have been met by an adequate
comparison of the measured heights and weights of
their "tall lean men, tall men, short fat men, short
men," with average anthropometric data, there can
be no doubt whatever. Thus let us take the par-
ticular instance of the individual giving the minimum
heat loss per man, or per kilo, or per square metre
of the surface of man, as compared with the seven-
teen other individuals whose fortunes can be fol-
lowed through most of the tabulated statements. His
height may best be described as the cube root of his

1 " The Metabolism and Fnerey Transformations of Healthy Man during
Rest." By F. O. Benedict and T. M. Carpenter. Pp. viii+255. (Carnegie
Institution of Washington, 1910.)

Fig. 2.— a quiet reach on the Upper Yangtse. From " Gleanings from Fifty Years in Ch

Chung-keng was thrown open as a treaty port. Mr.
Little was the first to take a steamer through the
gorges of the Upper Yangtse, a feat so daring and
hazardous as to prove what had been foreseen, that
the route was impossible for regular steam traffic.

In his historical notes on the provinces from Marco
Polo's time, who was the first to describe the region,
he states that an interval of some 600 years elapsed
before Abbe Hue gave some further account of the
country in 1844. He overlooks the claims of Fradelli,
Regis, and Bonjour, who, early in the seventeenth
century, surveyed and described the western provinces
of China, their products, and people.

We can do little more than name some of the other
subjects dealt with in the volume — the possible parti-
tion of China, China's Christian missions, an essay
in which the views expressed may not meet with the
approval of those engaged in the' work, although he
pays a just tribute to the workers as "the promoters
of all good in the advance made by China in the past
fifty years."

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

December 29, 19 10]

NATURE

^77

■eight multiplied by 4'5. Armed with a convenient
iable of cube roots and plenteously available data, it
will be found that this man is a departure from the
average, but a departure in the opposite direction to
that which would promise the concealment of much
weight under a partially spherical and dispropor-
tionally small surface. In this country- at least the
average height of the youth from eight years of age to
ighteen is 4'3v'W, whereas the stouter child and
dult above and below these ages is liable to possess
nailer heights, such as 42 to S'yv'W.
So far is this man's rate of heat-loss per estimated
square metre of surface below the average, and so
unlikely is it that direct measurements of his surface
will lead to any compensator)- change in the statements
such as would bring it near to the average, that it
might have been of value to direct special attention
ro his indisputable peculiarity-. Had this been done,
another peculiarity of his might perhaps have been
brought to mind and have been found of interest,
namely, that he is a veteran hahitiii of the calori-
meter. It may be suggested, indeed, that this is the
important fact inasmuch as it enabled him to sleep
amidst these peculiar surroundings and modified atmo-
sphere with unusual unconcern. That unconcern is
truly a factor of some importance may perhaps be
gathered from a consideration of the unexplained
greater evaporation of water from the surfaces of the
few women bold enough to enter the calorimeter.
It might be suggested that there is no mystery in the
fact that these ladies perspired unduly.

It is almost certain that this particular case might
legitimately be used to illustrate the statement that
sleep, like scientific literature, is sometimes profound
although often not so. It is indeed a well-known fact
that the excitability of the nervous system during sleep
is a very variable value, and it is extremely probable
that its variations are attended with changes in the
" tone " of the skeletal musculature, and therefore with
modifications in the quantity of concurrent meta-
bolism. Once take this point of view, which is
apparently not dealt with by the authors, who describe
all alike as being in profound sleep, and it will, on
sound grounds, be found that there is not one of these
recorded cases that does not require some consideration
in these terms. Thus it will be found that ever\- in-
dividual with a metabolism during sleep that is below
the averagfe value by more than 5 per cent., awakes
to a metabolism increased bv from 26 to 63 per cent.,
whereas every individual with a metabolism in sleep
greater than the average by more than 5 per cent,
awakes to a smaller increase varying from 10 to 22
per cent. It is necessary- to suggest that the one set
awake to a relatively much greater increase of meta-
bolism because they awake from a more profound
Mte of slumber. Nor is the suggestion the less
-cessar\' when it is discovered that although several
"»t infrequent visitors to the calorimeter are found
n either side of the average, vet the initials of the
^pst-known habitues are found in the heavy slumber
rlass and those of certain restless probationers in the
list of light sleepers. J. S. Macdonald.

NOTES.

In a four-column article which appeared in the Times
: December 22, the outbreak of plague in East .Anglia,
nd particularly the rat-infection in the locality, is dealt

ith ably and exhaustively. The writer of the article
oints out that no adequate measures have yet been taken
o deal with the situation, and urges that it is one of
ational importance and for direct Government interven-
on. It is suggested that a sum of lo.oooZ. at the very
east is required to prosecute the necessary inquiries and
NO. 2I4S, VOL. 85]

investigations, and that there is immediate necessity for
expert inquiry under Government control and at Govern-
ment expense. Compared with the issues involved, the
expenditure of such a sum, or even one many times larger,
need not be considered, and the course of action recom-
mended will commend itself to those who have a real
knowledge of plague, and it is to be hoped that the
authorities will speedily take in hand an organised scien-
tific inquiry into the outbreak of plague in England and
the remedy for its control. Similar views in outline were
expressed in the article on " Plague " which appeared in
Nature of the same date (December 22, p. 237).

The appalling loss of life associated with the terrible
colliery disaster at the Yard Mine of the Hulton Colliery
Co. at Bolton, Lancashire, has again emphasised ..Jhe
desirability of perfecting, so far as is practicable, the warn-
ing of approaching danger. The explosion, which occurred
shortly before 8 a.m. on Wednesday, December 21, resulted
in the loss of about 350 lives. The Times of December 22
says the disaster followed immediately upon a colliery
warning, which appeared on Monday in newspapers
circulating in various mining districts, and the warning
was said to be in continuation of one which had been
circulated a week earlier. Such warnings are not, how-
ever, issued by the Meteorological Office. With the
advance made in recent jears in our knowledge of weather
changes, it seems desirable to determine the atmospheric
conditions under which explosions generally occur, and, if
possible, to place the warnings of approaching danger on
a scientific basis and to make some public authority
responsible for the issue of such warnings. The weather
chart for 7 a.m. December 21 issued by the Meteorok^ical
Office is of quite a coriimon tjpe, and is representative of
many such occurrences in the course of an English winter.
.\ region of low barometer was situated to. the south of
Iceland, and a region of high barometer was situated over
Germany. The barometer at this time was fairly steady
at about 2995 inches over Lancashire. Examining the
atmospheric conditions under which fifteen of the greatest
colliery disasters of recent years occurred, between the
years 1880 and 1910, there is a preponderance of explosions
with a high barometer, and about the time that the central
area of an anticyclone is situated in the neighbourhood.
There are, however, marked exceptions to this, and the
disaster near Wigan on August 18, 1909, occurred when
an area of low barometer readings was centred close by.
Irrespective of the absolute height of the barometer, the
instances examined seem to occur about equally with a
rising and a falling barometer.

A Bill to make Paris official time coincide with Greenwich
time was presented to the French Senate on December 21.
The Bill was passed by the Chamber of Deputies several
3ears ago, and has been approved by the senate committee
and by the Cabinet, so that in all probability it will be-
come law. Paris time is 9m. 21s. ahead of Greenwich
time ; and upon the day prescribed by the law, the clocks
indicating official time in France will be put back by that
amount. By the adoption of the change, France will be
brought into the international system of Standard Time
reckoning which is now followed in most civilised
countries. On this system, the hour of each successive
fifteen degrees of longitude, reckoning from the Greenwich
meridian, is used for the Standard Time ; hence the differ-
ence in time in passing from one zone to another is always
an exact number of hours.

It was announced a short time ago that a new zoo-
logical garden in course of construction by Mr. Carl
Hagenbeck in the grounds of the Villa Borghese, Rome,

278

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

would probably be opened on January i. The grounds,
wJiich comprise twenty-eight acres, lie outside the old
walls to the northward of the city, and it is stated that
more than 40,000^. has been already spent on them, while
the animals, some 1400 in number, represent another
lO^oooZ. As at Stellingen, cages have been to a great
extent dispensed with, deep ditches and scarped cliffs
serving to confine the animals, which thus appear to be
at liberty.

The Zoological Society of London has elected the follow-
ing corresponding members : — Mr. Roosevelt, ex-President
of the United States; Mr. B. Basu, Calcutta; Mr. J. M.
Doctor, Bomba}' ; Dr. R. Dohrn, Naples ; Prof. Ludwig
von Graff, Graz University ; Mr. W. H. Osgood, Wash-
ington, U.S.A. ; Mr. H. Pam, Caracas ; and Mr. R. B.
Woosnam, Nairobi. Prof. E. Lonnberg, Stockholm, and
Mr. S. H. Scudder, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A., have been
elected foreign members of the society.

We learn from the Chemist and Druggist that the
branch laboratories of the Pasteur Institute of Paris, at
Garches, near St. Cloud, which are specially used for the
preparation of anti-diphtheric and other serums, took fire
a few days ago, and damage to the extent of 4000/. was
done.

The International Horticultural Exhibition which is to
be held in the Chelsea Hospital grounds at the end of
May, 19 12, promises to have considerable scientific interest.
There has only been one show of this nature in Great
Britain, namely, that of 1866, which was held at South
Kensington. Although the 1866 Exhibition was, in the
end, a magnificent success, it very nearly proved disastrous
to those responsible for the finances. The ultimate success
was obtained by the committee prolonging the period the
exhibition was open for public inspection, and the balance
which resulted from this policy was devoted partly to
the purchase of the Lindley library, at present housed
in the Royal Horticultural Society's Hall at West-
minster, and partly to making a donation to the funds
of the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Institution. In con-
nection with the exhibition there was held an International
Congress, and a valuable report of the proceedings was
printed which is still a lasting record of the work
and interest that were freely given by the horticulturists
of that day. In 1912 a similar congress will take place,
and subjects of international importance to the horti-
cultural industry will be discussed in the presence of
representatives from most of the European countries,
America, and our own colonies. It is expected that the
congress will consider the question of the regulation of
insect .pests and fungus diseases, and the effects of the
prohibition of the importation of certain plants to certain
countries, for instance, by the Phylloxera laws in the wine-
producing countries. Certain other questions suggest them-
selves as ripe for discussion ; for example, the improve-
ments which have been effected in plants in recent years,
the different methods by which those improvements have
been obtained, and horticultural education, with special
reference to the methods of training young horticulturists
in this country and on the Continent of Europe and in
America. A committee largely composed of scientific men
has been appointed specially to promote the congress and
a scientific section of the exhibition. The horticultural
show itself is expected to be the largest ever held in this
or jmy other country. There are already 431 competitive
classes, and many of these are of scientific interest, but we
must reserve any further remarks for a future occasion.
Copies of the schedule can be obtained from Mr. Edward
White, 7 Victoria Street, Westminster.

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

Mr. J. Gray contributes to the December number of
Knowledge an article on the measurement of persevera-
tion and its value as an index of mental character. In
point of fact, Mr. Gray does not measure perseveration,
but the speed at which rapid flashes of colour just succeed
in e.xtinguishing flicker in various subjects. He assumes
that the individual differences with which he meets are
due to differences in the persistence of colour sensations,
and that " this persistence ... is identical, or very closely
related, to a quality of mind which the psychologists call
Perseveration." The experimental facts which the paper
contains are two, viz. that flicker disappears more readily
in women than in men, and perhaps more readily in dark>
haired than in light-haired persons. The nature of these
differences awaits careful psychological investigation.

In the Revue gdndrale des Sciences for October i«
and 30 Prof. Marinesco, of the University of Bucharest,!
has given an interesting summary of recent investigational
upon the anatomical localisation of the human cerebral!
cortex, and more especially of the distinctive cytologicali
characters of each of the multitude of areas into which
the pallium of the brain can now be subdivided. His
descriptions are elucidated by a series of twenty-seven
drawings exhibiting a wealth of intricate detail. The
articles are essentially a digest of the work accomplished
by others, and especially of the classical researches of
Oskar and Cecilie Vogt and Karl Brodmann. Although
Prof. Marinesco 's citations of the results and the opinions
expressed by other anatomists are not always exact, on|
the whole his summary will be useful to those who are
unable to find time to read the voluminous literature upor
which it is based.

The Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club fc
November (ser. 2, vol. xi., No. 67) contains a critical
paper on the classification of the Bdelloid Rotifera which|
should be of great value to students of this difficult group.
The same number contains an interesting echo of the!
British Association's visit to South Africa in 1905 in the!
description, by Prof. G. S. West, of a remarkable new|
species of Volvox collected by Mr. Rousselet 'in Rhodesia.
The adult colonies are about i mm. in diameter, and may|
contain more than 50,000 cells. Another paper also deals
with the microscopic fresh-water fauna of Africa, being
contribution to the list of Hydrachnidae found in the East'
African lakes, by Mr. Charles W. Soar. The material
upon which this paper is based was collected during the
third Tanganyika expedition conducted by Dr. W. A.
Cunnington.

In the Centralblatt fur Mineralogie, Geologie u.
Paldontologie for 1906, p. 450, Dr. O. Abel founded a
new genus and species of bird (Alabamornis gigantea) on
two bones from the Alabama Eocene, regarded by Dr.
Lucas as the pelvis of a Zeuglodon, these bones being
described as coracoids of the bird. Dr. Lucas wishes to
state that there is no doubt vs^hatever as to the correctness
of his original determination, and that the bones in ques-
tion have been mounted in their proper position in the
Zeuglodon skeleton which is now exhibited in the U.S.
National Museum. " AJabamornis " must accordingly be
deleted from the list of fossil bird genera.

Dr. F. a. Lucas writes to say that the " Open Letter "
of the Campfire Club on the fur-seals of the Pribilows,
which was referred to in Nature some months ago, con-
tains several misstatements, more especially the assertion
attributed to the authorities that unless 95 per cent, of
the males were annually killed the herd could not increase.
In the Recommendations of the Advisory Board, of which

December 29, 1910]

NATURE

279

Mr. Lucas has enclosed a copy, the statement is " that
not more than 95 per cent, of the three-year-old male
seals be killed in any one year," which is, of course, a
very different matter. Mr. Lucas adds that all male fur-
•^eals over a certain size are not killed, but left to grow
up, and that under the rules in force for the last five
years the number of adult males has steadily increased,
while the females have as steadily decreased, and will
loubtless continue to do so if pelagic sealing be not
stopped.

In a paper on animals in Glen Garry Forest, published
\\\ vol. vi., part iii., of the Transactions of the Edinburgh
I'ield Naturalists' and Microscopical Society, Mr.
Svmington Grieve states that whereas half a century ago
he sea-eagle was far more numerous in Scotland than
I he golden eagle, at the present time precisely the opposite
of this is the case. The golden eagle, owing to the pro-
tection afforded to it by landowners, is increasing in
numbers throughout the Highlands in suitable districts.
On the other hand the sea-eagle, which formerly abounded
'in the cliffs of the west coast, has nearly disappeared,
md in the author's opinion, in default of more efficient
protection than it at present receives, will cease to breed
in Britain within a few years. Mr. Grieve is also of
c^inion that the wild cat is oh the increase in Scotland,
\ owing to the instructions issued by proprietors and factors
for its preservation.

In an article on the spawn and larva of the salamander
\mh\ystoma jeffersonianum, published in the American
J Naturalist for December, Prof. W, H. Piersol directs
attention to the low vitality of many of the eggs.
Although no accurate census has been taken, it is estimated
that under natural conditions three-fourths of the eggs
do not live to commence gastrulation, and the same pro-
portion of loss occurs in spawn kept in the laboratory.
The egg does not die as a whole, but while some cells
perish at an early period, others develop to a certain stage,
only to die later. These dead eggs imbibe water and
become larger than the rest, and in the natural condition
become infested with a fungus. Since, however, this
fungus does not make its appearance in spawn reared in
the laboratory, it is manifest that the mortality is due to
some other cause. On the other hand the spawn of the
allied .4. punctatum, both in the natural condition and in
the laboratory, suffers practically no loss.

The Live Stock Journal Almanac for 191 1 contains the

usual amount of valuable information regarding horses

ind pedigree stock of all kinds for 1910, together with a

lumber of articles on subjects of current interest by

. arious specialists. Sir Walter Gilbey, for instance, dis-

usses the effect of the rapid increase of motor vehicles

■n the prices of horses, and finds that although fewer

.lOrses are required in this country than was the case ten

>ears ago, yet prices in all classes are fully up to their

lid level. This affords evidence that the supply has fallen

''art passu with the demand, and this, from a military

.loint of view, is a serious matter. On the other hand,

lie demand for shire horses is fully maintained. In

mother article Lord William Cecil directs attention to the

value of our mountain and moorland breeds of ponies, on

;ccount of their stamina and hardiness, and advocates that

' "Overnment should take into consideration the advisability

of breeding a serviceable class of horse from pony mares.

In an article on the connection between the various breeds

■»f British cattle and the nature of the soil on which

hey are reared, Mr. P. McConnell revives the theory that

he red colour of Herefords is connected with the red

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

rocks of their native county. He forgets, however, to
add that the Sussex breed is also red- Apparently he also
believes that white park cattle are an aboriginally wild
stock.

Dr. Glido Sala (Mem. R. 1st. Lombardo Sc. e Lettere,
Classe Sc.y xxi., fasc. iv.) has published some interesting
observations on the cells of the ciliary ganglion. In the
human foetus of six or seven months the cells are com-
paratively simple ; they have few superficial prolongations
(each ending in a bulbous enlargement), and a pericellular
network is seldom present. At the time of birth the cells
and their processes are larger, and six or seven months
later loop-like outgrowths of the cell begin to appear, and
later become more numerous, larger, and more complex.
In adults there is a complex pericellular network of fine
deeply staining fibrils, which completely envelops the cell,
and there is often a spiral fibril round the axone. In old
persons the cells exhibit modifications and assume almost
the aspect of embryonic elements, and the protoplasmic
processes of the cell are, for the most part, short and
thick. In the same memoirs (fasc. iii.) Prof. Livini gives
some notes on the development of the trachea in the chick.
In embryos of about ninety-four hours' incubation the
lower end of the trachea and the origins of the bronchi
become narrowed and then occluded, but the lumen is
restored before the one hundred and eighteenth hour of
incubation. A little later the greater part of the trachea
becomes similarly narrowed and temporarily closed.

Among thirty-one forms of lichen collected by Ir. M.
Shegolef in the Jugjur chain (Stanovoi), Umbilicaria
caroliniana and Usnea cavernosa are of special interest, as
the former has been previously reported only from America
and the latter only from America and India (Bulletin of
the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, No. 7,
19 10). U. cavernosa seems to be widely distributed in
eastern Siberia, for it is abundantly represented in
Shegolef's collection.

Among ostracoda collected by D. Pedashenko in Issyk-
kul is Herpetocyprella mongolica, of a new genus which
resembles Candona and Eucandona in the absence of
swimming bristles to the second pair of antennae, but is
very different in many other respects (Travaux de la Soc.
Imp. des Naturalistes de St. Petersbourg, vol. xxix.,
fasc. 2, part i^). Other new species are Cypricercus
mongolicus and Cytheridea pedaschenkoi.

At the annual meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire
Entomological Society, held in Liverpool on December 19,
Mr. R. Newstead, of the Liverpool School of Tropical
Medicine, delivered his vice-presidential address on " Some
Morphological Characters of the Genus Glossina. " He
stated that he has made a careful examination of the
armature of the males of all the hitherto described species
of the genus Glossina, and it has not only revealed some
very striking morphological characters, but has led to the
discovery of three hitherto undescribed species : — Glossina
submorsitans, Newst. ; G. brevipalpis, Newst. ; and G.
fuscipes, Newst. ; and the le-establishment of Bigot's
G. grossa. The scheme of classification adopted is based
entirely upon the taxonomic characters of the male arma-
ture, which are the true and almost only natural
anatomical elements that can at present be found in these
insects. Mr. Newstead has found that the species fall
into three striking and distinct groups, each being
separated by very trenchant characters. The groups
are : — (i) The fusca group, including the four largest
species of the genus : G. fusca, Walker ; G. grossa, Bigot,
which have a western distribution ; G. longipennis, Corti ;

28o

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

and G. brevipalpis, Newstead. (2) The palpalis group, to
which belong the species : G. palpalis, Rob.-Desv. ; G.
tachinoides, Westwood ; G. fuscipes, Newstead ; and G.
pallicera, Bigot. (3) The tnorsitans group, comprising
G. morsitans, Westwood ; G. subtnorsitans, Newstead ;
and G. longipalpis, Wiedemann. In these three groups
forms occur which are so widely different as to lead one
to assume, without taking the other external features into
consideration, that they represent three distinct genera.
Certain it is that these insects illustrate one fundamental
principle of evolution, namely, that they have attained
great development of one set of morphological characters,
and have retained others apparently of an ancestral type.

The difficult question whether acquired characters can
be inherited is discussed by Dr. Hugo Fischer in the issue
of Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift for November 20
and the following number. Examples among unicellular
organisms are accepted in the cases of the sporeless races
of fission fungi and the colourless variety of Micrococcus
prodigiosus ; also the chromatic modifications of Oscillaria
and the physiological varieties of numerous Uredineae and
Ustilagineas are cited as good instances. Amongst
animals, the author notes the experiments of E. Fischer
and others, who produced more than transitory changes
of colour in butterflies by subjecting the pupae to
abnormally low temperatures, and Kammerer's results
with salamanders. In the case of flowering plants, the
author holds that the Alpine forms of larch and pine and
Wettstein's seasonal forms of Euphrasia and Gentiana are
not definite examples, but admits the races of maize pro-
duced by Blaringhem and the modified type of Semper-
vivum raised by Klebs. The essential factor appears to
be a disturbance of the metabolism.

A COPY of the annual report for 1909, dealing with
technological museums, has been published by the Technical
Education Branch of the Department of Public Instruction
of New South Wales. The report is an excellent record of
steady progress. A considerable number of exhibits were
added to the collections during the year. The display of
polished marbles and building stones of New South Wales
in the museum at Sydney has been largely added to, and
the whole now makes a fine exhibit. For comparative
purposes, slabs of the principal foreign marbles have been
displayed upon the walls in an adjoining court. To
increase the available knowledge of the constructive
value of the building stones, a special collection was
obtained from various parts of the State, and prepared
for testing at a loo-ton machine. Fire and water tests upon
specially prepared cubes .were next undertaken ujxjn the
sandstones, trachytes, marbles, and granites. The location
of deposits of building and ornamental stones occurring in
the area included in the Federal capital site was deter-
mined, and specimens of these materials procured. The data
obtained, together with a specially constructed map, were
published as an appendix to the second edition of the
museum's work on the " Building and Ornamental Stones
of New South Wales." The public-school teachers of the
district take advantage of the facilities offered by the museum
in the furtherance of nature studies ; 1567 specimens were
identified for teachers during the year, not including those
brought to the museum by teachers and pupils ; 865 speci-
mens were supplied from duplicate collections to assist the
teachers in the formation of school museums. Specimens
were identified and classified for a large number of schools
throughout New South Wales.

Mrs. M. Ogilvie-Gordon continues her studies of the
Triassic masses above the Grodental, in Tyrol, in the

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

Verhandlungen der k.k. geol. Reichsanstalt for igio (pp.
219 and 290). In 1908 she visited the Bo^gipfel region
with Prof. Rothpletz and Herr von Klebelsberg, and
verified the overthrust of Raibl beds on Dachstein dolo-
mite. Neocomian strata were found resting on Jurassic
north and south of the Eisseespitze ; these lie below the
overthrust. The sections of the B06 and Jagerschart
masses show remarkable discordances due to thrusting,
even among the Jurassic strata, and the Upper Triassic
beds climb up boldly on the crests. Similar overthrusting
has been studied by the author in the Sella and Langkofel
area (Trans. Edinburgh Geological Society, 1909-10). In
the second paper in the Verhandlungen the discovery of
fossiliferous Cassian beds is recorded from under the
Burgstall, a part of the Schlern mass where a dolomitic
and contemporary facies was believed to exist. The
dolomite on this level farther west is attributed by the
author to the occurrence of an overthrust, whereby the
Cassian horizon is brought above a wedge of the Schlern
dolomite, which properly should overlie it, as it is seen
to do on the Gamsteig and the BurgstalL

The Geologische Rundschau (Leipzig : Engelmann),
which was recently started as a journal of general geology,
continues on the broad lines laid down by its originating
society. Prof. Steinmann, for instance, describes and illus-
trates in parts ii. and iii. the structure of the Cordillera of
South America. M. Semper summarises seventy papers on
the " Klimaproblem der Vorzeit," a labour that will surely
rejoice his fellow-members. P. Wagner furnishes a list
of 127 German works and papers bearing on geological
teaching in schools and on the treatment of geology so asJ
to promote interest and observation. His introductory]
essay of sixteen pages reminds us that the main objectj
of the Rundschau is to bring the geological features of |
Germany and Austria to the front in public education. It]
is clear from his review that there is already a healthyj
njovement to draw even scholastic mineralogy out of the|
old grooves of dry description. In part iii. W. Meigenj
reviews recent work on the origin of dolomite, and J. J.|
Sederholm discusses twenty-three papers on the pre-1
Cambrian rocks of Fennoscandia. E. Dacqui^ deals withi
the Jurassic strata formed by transgression on thai
" Lemurian continent," that is, in the region between^
New Zealand, East Africa, and India. In part
J. Koenigsberger discusses the earth's age, and F. Pockels
the bearing of earthquake research on the nature of the|
earth's interior. It is clear that these reviews of geo-l
logical progress, written by specialists, make the Geo-
logische Rundschau a very welcome addition in all libraries
of a scientific character, as well as in many private
homes.

The Geographical Pictures published by Messrs. A. and
C. Black for use in schools furnish selected views of
typical land features for study. Twelve of these, illus-
trating various forms of valleys, have just been issued in
Series x. as half-tone prints of selected photographs, about
16x12 cm. Notes accompany them suggesting various
problems for study. A reference to the contoured map-
sheet on which the feature is represented would further
enhance their educative value.

Copies of the Tide Tables issued by the Canadian
Government for the Pacific and the eastern coasts of Canada
for the year 191 1 have been received. For the former,
tide tables are given for six stations, and from these the
tides at numerous stations can be determined. The results
given are largely based on the observations of 1909, when
twenty recording gauges were in simultaneous operation

December 29, 1910]

NATURE

281

throughout British Columbia ; besides these, however,
observations for six years are available at Sand Heads
station, and for shorter periods at the others. On the
eastern coast longer periods are available, and the tables
for Quebec are based upon observations extending over
thirteen years. It is claimed that the tables for Quebec,
Father Point, Halifax, and St. John are now superior to
those of any other harbour on the Atlantic coast of North
America.

We have just received Water Supply Papers Nos. 245,

247, 250, 251, and 237, 239, published by the United States

Geological Survey, in addition to the papers of the same

series referred to elsewhere (p. 2S3). The first four papers

deal with the surface waters of the Missouri and Lower

Mississippi Basin, the Great Basin, and California, and

ecord the gauge readings and discharge measurements

nade in 1907-8. Covering as they do a large area where

rainfall is slight, the results are interesting, though, of

ourse, they extend over a short period only, and 3re in-

•nded to be a preliminary investigation. River velocities

.re determined by the Price current-meter, which is almost

xclusively employed by the Survey, and in this way results

■f much value are obtained rapidly and from a very wide

irea. The other two papers treat of the quality of the

-urface waters of Illinois and California, especially with

•gard to their potability and their suitability for indus-

:rial purposes.

Is the last number of the Proceedings of the Royal
Society (vol. Ixxxiv., A, No. 572) is an important memoir
V Sir George Darwin on the tidal observations made
luring Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition of
1907. The observations are shown by Sir George Darwin
to demonstrate a tidal seiche in the Ross Sea, and from
its period Darwin concludes that the sea extends far
beneath the Great Ice Barrier into the Antarctic continent,
passing to the east of the Pole and for at least 10° of
latitude beyond it. He remarks that if this arm of the
sea extends across Antarctica to the Weddell Sea the
seiche would be much as the tidal observations indicate.
It was remarked in a note in Nature of May 12, on
the expedition by Lieut. Filchner, whose plan is based
on the assumption that Antarctica is divided into two
parts by a sound connecting the Ross Sea with the Weddell
Sea, that if the theory be correct some evidence in its
favour should have been forthcoming from the tidal
observations. Sir George Darwin's memoir shows that
the tides offer striking evidence in favour of the direct
connection between the Weddell and Ross Seas.

.\mong several useful papers in the Journal of the
Scottish Meteorological Society for 1909 (recently pub-
:shed) there is one of especial interest by Dr. G. .A. Carse
nd Mr. D. MacOwan giving a brief resume of the more
nportant facts connected with atmospheric electricity,
l^escriptions are given of some of the earlier methods of
detecting the phenomena, and of Lord Kelvin's water-
dropping apparatus, which is most widely used for
measuring the atmospheric potential. Observations show
"hat, in general, this factor varies with the time (there
eing in most places a diurnal and annual variation),
tcd that, generally speaking, it increases in proportion to
he distance from an extended horizontal surface if the
listance between the points is not too great. It has, how-
ver, been found by balloon ascents that in fine weather
: diminishes with height above ground, thus indicating
hat electrification is largely confined to the lower levels
f the atmosphere. The annual variation has a maximum
bout mid-winter and a minimum in summer, but the
periods of the diurnal variation are much more complex.

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

•Another factor of importance is the ionisation of the atmo-
sphere, and this is now being investigated more
thoroughly. A few of the more interesting of the various
theories accounting for the phenomena of atmospheric
electricity are briefly sketched, but, so far as known, none
has yet been promulgated which sufficiently explains all
the observed facts.

To the Rendiconti R. Accad. Lincei of October 2 Dr.
Eredia communicates an interesting paper on the cold
period of June in Italy. This cold period has already
been shown to exist over a large part of Europe, and to
be due to the mean distribution of pressure at that period.
But as Italy possesses a valuable series of observations
available for the purpose, the author has taken advantage
of them to show that this cold period in Italy constitutes
a real climatoiogical factor. His tables show differences
of the ten-day means of temperature from each other
between the third decade of May and the first decade of
July, for 120 stations, for the period 1866-1906. He also
gives a map showing by various shadings the difference of
temperature between the first and second decades of June
for different regions. These clearly show that generally
there is a considerable fall of temperature in the second
decade of June, that it is much more marked in Upper
than in Lower Italy, and is considerably influenced by
geographical configuration.

Ax interesting article by Dr. J. Mascart on actinometry
and on meteorology at Teneriffe is published in the Revue
ginerale des Sciences of November 15. The author points
out that in the determination of the solar constant a
difficulty arises at the outset ; according to the definition,
the receiving surface should be theoretically black for all
radiations, having the properties of an integral radiator.
Strictly speaking, this preliminary problem has not yet
been solved. He described the so-called " absolute "
instruments in use, which may be divided into two
groups : — (i) calorimetric actinometers, which contain a
liquid of known specific heat, of which that bj" Pouillet is
the oldest ; (2) those in which the electric energy necessary
to produce the same effect as the solar radiation is
measured ; to this class belong the actinometers of
Angstrom and F^ry. The Solar Committee has adopted
as a type Angstrom's compensation pyrheliometer. This
decision is excellent as regards uniformity of observations,
but might be harmful if it diminished the number of
measurements with other apparatus. Reference is made to
the observations made by the late Dr. W. Marcet and
others on the extreme dryness at times of the Peak of
Teneriffe, and on the electric phenomena there which
seem to be connected with the former. The author
considers the peak to be particularly favourable for
observations on atmospheric phenomena and their connec-
tion with actinometry ; also for observations of terrestrial
magnetism. He thinks that more attention should be
given to observations of zodiacal light, crepuscular rays,
and atmospheric polarisation ; these subjects are generally
omitted from meteorological text-books because they are
supposed to have no immediate connection with meteor-
ology, but with this view he does not agree.

Is a communication made to the Illuminating Engineer-
ing Society on December 9th Prof. G. W. O. Howe
showed that the darkening of the glass bulbs of Osram
lamps sometimes noticed is due to the use of a slight
amount of copper in the leading-in wires. This copper
appears to be projected from the p)oint at which the fila-
ment is joined to the negative leading-in wire, and forms
on the inner surface of the bulb a distinct shadowgraph of

282

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

■the glass stem and wire supports of the filament. It is
obvious that the use of copper, even in small quantities, in
the leading-in wires of these lamps must be avoided.

The device of doubling a wire on itself before winding
it into a resistance coil reduces the inductance of the coil
to a very small quantity, but unfortunately introduces a
•considerable capacity, which is equally undesirable if the
•coil is to be used in alternating-current measurements.
■Chaperon's method of winding the coil in sections, in
each of which successive layers are wound in opposite
•directions and the magnetic area of each layer made the
same, reduces the capacity considerably, but the more
recent suggestion to balance residual inductance and
■capacity has been taken up by Dr. E. Orlich, of the
Reichsanstalt, with marked success. He winds one layer
of wire on a slate slab 5 by 12 centimetres and 3 or 4
millimetres thick with rounded edges, then places bridges
over the edges and winds the second layer over the bridges.
The distance between the two layers of wire is calculated
so as to make the capacity and inductance equal for fre-
quencies not very high. The results of the calculations are
tabulated for resistance coils exceeding 3000 ohms, below
which the method is not applicable.

We have received from Messrs. J. J. Griffin and Sons,
Ltd., a new edition of " Scientific Handicraft." The
volume, which contains more than one thousand pages,
forms a very comprehensive catalogue of physical
apparatus. Messrs. Griffin, in addition to supplying all
that is most recent for advanced work in the phj^sical
laboratory, include in their list apparatus which is suit-
able for many technical industries. The catalogue is also
Issued separately in three parts, the first part dealing with
laboratory fittings and apparatus for general physics, the
second part with heat, light, and sound, and the third
part with electricity and magnetism. The book is well
illustrated, and is furnished at the end with tables of
physical constants. It will no doubt find a place in all
physical laboratories as a book of reference.

In a paper on the winning of coastal lands in Holland,
read by Mr. A. E. Carey before the Institution of Civil
Engineers on December 20, some interesting facts were
given with reference to the gradual reclamation of the
Dutch lowlands from the sea. The principal reclamations,
which have so largely altered the map of Holland, were
described, particularly that of the Lake of Haarlem, the
first reclamation of which was carried out between the
years 1540 and 1648. The so-called lake consisted of a
vast swamp. The final works of reclamation were
carried out by the State in 1840. Several of the breaches
in the sand dunes on the North Sea coast appear to repre-
sent former embouchures of the River Rhine. The level
of Amsterdam Peil, worked to by the Dutch engineers,
differs only by about i foot from the level of the Ordnance
datum. Some interesting facts ascertained in connection
with the borings for the water supply of the City of
Amsterdam were cited to show the delicate balance in
water pressure which exists in the substrata of the Dutch
fenlands. The gradual weakening of the natural protec-
tion afforded by the sand dunes was referred to, and some
interesting evidence was brought forward to show how
great the alterations in the position and magnitude of the
dunes have been. Changes in location of the sand dunes
are arrested by the planting of grasses on the faces of the
dunes, and the protection of them on the land side by
the planting of various kinds of trees. The controversy
proceeding in Holland as to the best procedure in carrying

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

out the project for the reclamation of the Zuyder-Zee,
which involves the reclamation of 1,500,000 acres, was
mentioned. Briefly, the alternative schemes are : — (i) to
close the inland sea by a reclamation dam running from
Wieringen to the coast of Friesland, near Piaam, thus
shutting out the North Sea from the area to the south,
the reclamation works being effected at leisure in the lake
which would then be formed behind the dam ; (2) to carry
out the series of smaller reclamations before the closing
of the entire sea.

The report of the Clifton College Scientific Society for
the year 1909-10 has been received. We are glad to find
that useful practical work continues to be done in the
various sections into which the society is divided. An
interesting series of notes on the birds of the Clifton
neighbourhood, arranged chronologically, is published with
the report.

OVR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

The Spectrum of the America Nebula. — In a paper
published in the Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger
Akadetnie der Wissenschaften (1910, No. 27) Dr. Max
Wolf discusses spectrograms of the America nebula taken
during October. The spectra were photographed with the
Zeiss spectrograph, having two U.-V. prisms, attached to
the Heidelberg reflector.

Referring the emission lines of the nebula spectrum to
several Fraunhofer lines occurring in the stellar spectra
shown on the same plate. Dr. Wolf finds for the former ,
the following wave-lengths :^434, 412, 406, 389, 383, 373,]
and 343. Of these the chief lines occur at 410-2 (412),!
383-7, 372-7, and 344-8 /Mfx, the line at \ 373 being by far
the brightest.

The Movements of Certain Stars, in Space, Compared]
WITH THAT OF THE SuN. — As an cxtract from the November]
Bulletin Astronomique we have received a paper in whichl
Dr. P. Stroobant shows that the sun is probably a unit]
in a stream of stars moving through space in the samel
direction with a common velocity. As a primary index he]
takes those stars of which the movements, relative to the]
sun, are small, and then reduces their movements to a]
common plane.

The result is certainly striking, for Dr. Stroobant shows!
that the seven stars a Cassiopeiae, )3 Persei, o Persei,!
o Scorpionis, 7 Cygni, e Pegasi, and o Pegasi are alJl
travelling towards a jxilar area of only 14° radius, with!
velocities ranging between 11 and 22 km. ; towards thei
centre of this area the sun is moving at a rate of 19-4 km.
The probability that of the 105 stars brighter than magni-
tude 2-5 seven should, accidentally, shows this common
motion, is very small, but it must be borne in mind that
the data on which the result is based are, especially in
the case of parallax, open to corrections.

Dr. Stroobant suggests that, with the accumulation of
further, more trustworthy, data, other stars may be found
to belong to the same stream, and he cites y Pegasi,
7 Persei, C Geminorum, o Hydrae," € Leonis, »j Leonis.
^ Ursas Majoris, t] Virginis, 7 Aquilae, o Pavonis, and
jj Pegasi as stars having small proper motions, and of
which the radial velocities relative to the sun are also
small.

The Italian Observatories. — In the Rivista di Astro-
nomia (Turin) a series of articles is appearing describing
in detail the various Italian observatories. In No. 10
Signor C. H. Loviselmi gives an excellent description of
the observatory of the Roman College. The account gives
the history of the observatory, describes the buildings and
instruments, and gives short accounts of the various
observers ; it is illustrated with photographs of the build-
ings and portraits of Vico, Secchi, Ferrari, and Tacchini.

Astronomy at the Brussels Exhibition. — An interest-
ing account of the astronomical exhibits at the Brussels
Exhibition is given by Dr. Stroobant in the Bulletin de
la SocUtd astronomique de France, and now published as

December 29, 1910]

NATURE

^^l

a separate brochure. Photographs of the exhibits from
Harvard, Mount Wilson, Heidelberg, and other observa-
tories show that astronomy was fairly well represented at
the exhibition.

Traci.ng the Solar Corona i.\ Lunar Observations. —
In the December number of the Bulletin de la Societe
astronomique de France M. Em. Touchet makes the
interesting suggestion that observers may be able to trace
the radiations of the solar corona in observations of the
moon. The note was submitted to the Academic des
Sciences in 1906, but did not appear in the Comptes
rendus, and even now M. Deslandres considers the difficul-
ties of realisation are about equal to those surrounding the
photography of the corona in full sunlight.

The suggestion is that when the sun rises on the moon,
the lunar surface, owing to the absence of atmosphere,
would first be illuminated by fairly strong corona! light,
then by the chromospheric radiations, and lastly by the
photosphere. With the observer's spectroscope slit
delicately adjusted on the position of lunar strip lighted
by the corona, one might possibly find, in addition to the
ordinary lunar spectrum, a narrow sf)ectrum composed of

AMERICAN HYDROGRAPHY.'

'T'HE first impression which one gains in turning over
the pages of these seven reports is that, if genius
be, as Dr. Johnson asserted, an infinite capacity for
taking pains, then the compilers of these statistical records
possess that attribute in a very high degree. One turns
over page after page of systematically prepared data, un-
questionably the outcome of innumerable observations
which have been carefully and religiously made through
long periods of time, and one cannot but admire the
patient, painstaking zeal of these scientific workers who
have concentrated their energies on this special field of
enterprise, in the service of their country, for the develop-
ment of its resources and the expansion of its commerce.

The work is carried on under the auspices of the Geo-
logical Survey of the United States, and this relationship
of hydrography to geology calls to mind the proud reply
of the " Scarabee " to the Poet at the Breakfast Table : —
" I am often spoken of as a Coleopterist, " he said, " but
I have no right to so comprehensive a name. The genus
Scarabaeus is what I have chiefly confined myself to, and
ought to have studied exclusively. The beetles proper are

Hydro-electric Plant (developing 36,600 horse-power) on Puyallup River, near Electron, Washington.

that of the earth-light and the corona. M. Touchet realises
that the difficulties are enormous, but suggests that, with
a clear atmosphere, large dispersion, and the large aper-
tures now available at Mount Wilson, for example, they
might not prove insuperable.

Annual Publications. — ^The " Companion to the
Observatory," published by Messrs. Taylor and Francis at
15. 6d., contains the usual features, and should be secured
by every astronomical student actually engaged in making
observations. The increase in the number of variable
stars makes the publication of the complete list impossible.
-As the compilers of the " Annuaire du Bureau des Longi-
tudes " have discontinued the computation of the variable-
star ephemerides, the editors of the " Companion " can no
longer rely upon that source of information.

M. Flammarion's " Annuaire Astronomique " also
follows its usual fbrm, and is a most useful work of refer-
ence to all interested in the popularisation of astronomy.
Its review of the past year's astronomy and meteorologv
is also useful, while the special articles therein comprised
are very interesting ; among them we might mention
notices on Halley's comet and the Paris floods of 1910.

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

quite enough for the labour of one man's life. Call me
a Scarabeeist if you will : if I can prove myself worthy
of that name, my highest ambition will be more than
satisfied. "

This is the true scientific spirit : the concentration of
thought and energy on one special branch of study to the
exclusion of even cognate interests ; the patient accumu-
lation of facts and data, and their careful analysis and
tabulation, within a purview sufficiently restricted for the
capacity of the individual investigator — by these means
alone is the practical knowledge of the world increased
and its avenues of progress extended.

In order to appreciate the full utility of these records
it is essential to recall the fact that the development of
water-power in every civilised country is rapjdlv becoming
an economic necessity. With the steady depletion of coal,
lumber, oil, and natural supplies of fuel there arises a
corresponding need for the exploitation of other sources

1 Surface Water Supply of the United States. 1907-S. Bulletins prepared
under the general direction of M. O. Leighton, viz., Paper No. 241, North
Atlantic Coast ; No. 243, Ohio River Basin ; No. 244, St. Lawrence River
Basin ; No. 245, Upper Mississippi and Hudson Bay Basins ; No. 24S
Western Gulf of Mexico ; No. 249, Colorado River Basin ; No. 252, North
Pacific Coast. OVashington : U.S. Geological Survey, 1910.)

284

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

of energy available for and adaptable to manufacturing
purposes. Among these water-power stands pre-eminent,
especially since the introduction of electricity, which has
provided an easy and convenient means for the trans-
mission of its energy. Then, in regard to flood preven-
tion, domestic water supply, irrigation, and land reclama-
tion there are obvious grounds for regarding the study of
periodic flow in rivers and streams as a consideration of
the highest importance. The damage arising from floods
in the United States exceeds a hundred million dollars
annually, and more than 70 million acres of the richest
land are rendered practically worthless by reason of pre-
vailing conditions of overflow and swamp. Amelioration
of these natural defects can only be brought about by the
collection of trustworthy data and a careful and thorough
study of all the circumstances attending the phenomena in
question.

Records of stream flow necessarily call for frequent and
prolonged observation. They must embrace all stages and
cover, if possible, the absolute maximum and the absolute
minimum of discharge. This involves, in most cases, a
period of at least five or ten years, and in some instances
twenty years or more. It is regrettable that the com-
pilers of these volumes have had to avow that a number
of their records are of insufficient duration, owing to
unforeseen reduction in grants and the consequent
abandonment of certain gauging stations. The national
exchequer is surely not so impoverished as to be under
the necessity of exercising retrenchment in regard to so
important a branch of the public service.

Three methods of stream-flow measurement have been
adopted by the Hj'drographical Department, according to
the local physical conditions, the degree of accuracy
desired, the funds available, and the length of time devoted
to observation.

The first, most theoretical, and least used method is
that of measuring the slope and cross-section of a stream,
and then using the Kutter expansion of Chezy's formula.
Owing to the difficulty of obtaining accurate data, and
more particularly to the uncertainty attaching to the
coefficients in the formula, results obtained by this method
can only be regarded as approximately correct.

The second method is that of measuring the discharges
over dams and weirs. Here the problem is complicated
by variations in profile and crest, by leakages through
the dams, backwater at high stages, log and ice obstruc-
tions, and local diversions of water for power purposes.
On this account comparatively few stations are main-
tained at weirs and dams.

The system chiefly employed is that of measuring the
velocity of the current, principally by the Price current
meter, rarely by means of free floats, and, at the same
time, determining by a series of ordinates from a datum
line the cross-sectional area of the stream.

The following comments on the relative merits of the
systems are interesting.

" Practically all discharge measurements made under
fair conditions are well within 5 per cent, of the true
discharge at the time of observation. Inasmuch as the
errors of meter measurements are largely compensating,
the mean rating curve, when well defined, is much more
accurate than the individual measurements. Numerous
tests and experiments have been made to test the accuracy
of current-meter work. These show that it compares very
favourably with the results from standard weirs, and,
owing to simplicity of methods, usually gives results that
are much more reliable than those from stations at dams,
where uncertainty regarding the coefficient and compli-
cated conditions of flow prevail."

Then there is, of course, the human element and the
personal factor which enters into all experimental work.
\t is interesting to know that, " with relatively few excep-
tions, the observers perform their work honestly." Yet
even honesty of purpose cannot eliminate every element
of error, though the effect of numerous readings is
obviously to minimise any inadvertent inexactitudes.
Individualism counts for something, too, but, on the
whole, errors arising from these and other causes become
self-compensating and virtually negligible.

Merely to enumerate all the river basins comprised
within the purview of the Hydrographical Survey would
involve more space than can be spared for the purpose.
NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

From the noble Mississippi, with its drainage area of
1,240,000 square miles, including wholly, or in part, thirty
States, besides a small portion of the Dominion of Canada,
down to the modest Siletz, with its length of 50 miles
and its basin of 320 square miles, there are measured
and described all sorts and conditions of streams with
names as musical as Menonimee and Wapsipinicon, as
dissonant as Umpqua and Puyallup, prosaic as Muddy and
fantastic as Devil's. The whole area of the country is
to be covered by a dozen bulletins, of which the present
seven form part, B. C.

PALAEONTOLOGICAL PAPERS.
I^HE troublesome question of fucoids has exercised Mr.
Otto M. Reis (" Zur Fucoidenfrage," Jahrb. k.k.
geol. Reichsanstalt, Bd. lix., published 1910, p. 615), an
author well known for his researches on ruin-marble and
cone-in-cone. He accepts an organic origin for the fucoids
collected by him in the northern Apennines and the Alps,
and points out that the clay, which might be regarded
as a mere infilling of a worm-tube, is in some cases so
arranged as to form a true wall to the tube. The
granulations on the surface of many fucoids may be re-
garded as due to clay-lumps used in the construction of
the worm-tube. Terehella figulus is cited (p. 628) as an
example of a worm that kneads up fine clay into bricks,
as it were, which it places from its mouth on to the grow-
ing margin of its tube. The author expects criticism,
since he sets aside the algal theory of the origin of fucoids
in the Flysch, and ascribes the structures to boring and
tubicolous worms.

Mr. E. W. Vredenburg (Records, Geol. Survey of India,
vol. xxxvi., 1908, p. 241) has described certain " pseudo-
fucolds " of eastern Baluchistan as casts of worm-burrows
and tracks of marine organisms, here following the work
of Nathorst.

Mr. M. D. Zalessky records iBiill. Acad. imp. Sci. St.
Petersbourg, No. 6, 19 10) in a brief English paper the
discovery of coal-balls in the Carboniferous of the Donetz
basin, containing well-preserved plants, from the study of
which much may be expected. Their mode of occurrence
precisely resembles that of the English examples studied
by Williamson.

Mr. Vredenburg (Rec. Geol. Surv. India, vol. xxxvi. .
p. 171) describes species of Orbitoides from the upper part
of the Upper Cretaceous of India, including megaspheric
and microspheric forms. As usual, this author interest-
ingly connects his palaeontological work with zonal con-
siderations and with questions of Indian stratigraphy,
which here occupy twenty-five pages of the paper.

The important manuscript work on dendroid graptolites,
left bv Dr. R. Gurlev, has been revised and issued bv
Mr. R. S. Bassler (Bull. 65, U.S. National Museum'.
1909). The forms described, including many species of
Dictyonema, are from the Niagaran (Middle Gotlandian)
Dolomites of Hamilton, Ontario. With one or two excep-
tions, like the Inocaulis on p. 48, the figures of these
difficult fossils are limited to the forms of the rhabdo-
somes.

Proceeding to molluscs, Dr. A. Schmidt has examined
the Anthracosiidae of the Upper Carboniferous beds of
Mahrisch-Ostrau (Jahrb. k.k. geol. Reichsanstalt, Bd.
lix., published in 1910, p. 733). The forms illustrated have
naturally an interest for English geologists, and the paper
both supports and supplements the work of Dr. Wheelton
Hind. Dr. Schmidt points out the general tendency
towards a uniform type of shell among the later members
of this fresh-water group, while the animals very prob-
ably remained quite distinct. The reduction of hinge-
teeth seems related to prolonged fresh-water conditions.
The author doubts if the fresh-water shells of the Mesozoic
era had fresh-water Paleeozoic ancestors, since the Permian
forms had already proceeded far towards uniformity of
type, and probably altogether passed away. However, a
mollusc described by Mr. L. J. Wills in a paper on the
Keuper of Worcestershire, to be quoted later, seems
possibly a survival of Naiadites. In the same volume of
this Jahrbuch (p. 407, published in 1909) Dr. A. Till con-
tinues his work on the jaws of fossil cephalopods. In the
absence of any guide to their correlation, these objects are

December 29, 19 10]

NATURE

2%'^

classed under the genus Hadrocheilus, and are dis-
tinguished by numerous specific names.

Mr. G. C. Crick describes a new genus and species of
dibranchiate cephalopod, Belemnocamax boweri, from the
Lower Chalk (Totternhoe Stone) of Lincolnshire (Proc.
Geol. Assoc., vol. xxi., 1910, p. 360). Belemnocamax
resembles Actinocamax generally, but has a broad ventral
furrow, and fine longitudinal striae near the point of the
guard.

Dr. A. Till (Verhandl. k.k. geol. Reichsanstalt, 1909,
p. 194) establishes a new genus, Villania, for an ammonite
allied to Perisphinctes, found in an Oxfordian horizon at
V'ill^ny, in Hungary.

Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell continues his studies of Tertiary
insects (.4m. Journ. Sci., vol. xxvii., 1909, p. 381), intro-
ducing three new genera, and Mr. H. F. Wickham (ibid.,
vol. xxix., 1910, p. 47) compliments him by describing
Calosoma cockerelli, among other fossil Coleoptera from
the Florissant (Oligocene) deposits of Colorado.

Mr. L. J. Wills (Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xxi., 1910,
p. 302), in a paper on the fossiliferous Lower Keuper rocks
of Worcestershire, describes in considerable detail three
species of Mesophonus, a new scorpion, fragmental re-
mains of which occur abundantly at Bromsgrove.
Numerous photographs of these remains are given, as well
as of the plants from the same strata.

Mr. Bashford Dean's studies on fossil fishes (sharks,
chimaeroids, and arthrodires) forms part v. of the ninth
volume of the Memoirs of the American Museum of
Natural History (1909). The memoir is finely illustrated,
and deals mainly with the cladoselachians of the Devonian
period, which are viewed, in agreement with the opinion
of Dr. A. S. Woodward, as primitive sharks. The author
regards them as nearer the earliest fish-type than are the
acanthodians of the Upper Silurian epoch (p. 247). Photo-
graphs and descriptions of mounted skulls of Dinichthys
and Titanichthys are also given.

The distribution of the Deinosauria in time and through
geographical areas is the subject of a memoir by Mr.
R. S. Lull (.4w. Journ. Sci., vol. xxix., 1910, p. i). As
the result of a wide range of reading, the author has
drawn up distributional tables, and maps illustrating the
probable routes of migration. The maps furnished by
De Lapparent for various Mesozoic periods are found to
supply the necessary bridges between existing lands in
which deinosaurian remains have been found. Incident-
ally, several suggestive remarks are made. On p. 5
bipedal movement is associated with the necessity for
rapidly traversing lands increasing in ariditv'. The
bipedal lizards of the present day occur in semi-arid areas.
The carnivorous and bipedal deinosaurs, the Theropoda,
are the most widely distributed, and appear to have
followed any other forms that furnished them with food.
Ihe armoured and herbivorous Orthopoda are regarded as
originating with Scelidosaurus of the English Lias, and
as having become sluggish and quadrupedal in the course
of time, when their heavy armour rendered them impreg-
nable (p. 11). At this period, including the epochs when
Polacanthus and Triceratops flourished, vegetation and
water seem to have been abundant. The mysterv of the
extinction of the deinosaurs is not lightened by the pass-
ing reference to geographical conditions on p. 37.

Mr. Harold Brodrick (Proc. Liverpool Geol. Soc, vol.
X., part v., 1909, p. 327) describes and figures footprints,
doubtless deinosaurian, found by him in the Inferior Oolite
at Saltwick, south of Whitby. It would be verv interest-
ing to know if the zone also contains marine fossils, in
view of Mr. Lull's comparison of aquatic deinosaurs and
hippopotamuses, the latter having been seen to move from
estuary to estuary through sea-water.

Mr. A. Zdarsky contributes a memoir on the Miocene
Mammalia of Leoben, in St\ria, to the Jahrbuch der k.k.
geologischen Reichsanstalt, Bd. lix., 1909, p. 245. These
occur in a terrestrial sandstone above clay and brown
coal, the last-named stratum resting on Palaeozoic slates.
Various rhinoceroses and Suidae occur. Among the latter,
the author places a new genus and species, Xenochoerus
leohensis (p. 264), represented by part of a mandible and
a row of teeth from the upper jaw. Mastodon and Deino-
therium are both present, and the deposit appears (p. 287)
to be of Middle Miocene age.

Mr. Franz Toula, in the same journal (Bd. lix., 1910,
NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

p. 575), records the results of an investigation of a pre-
glacial or interglacial bone-deposit near Kronstadt, in
Transylvania. The mammalian remains collected from
this in recent years have become somewhat scattered ;
but the author has examined most of them, and especially
describes the teeth of a new form, Rhinoceros kron-
stadtensis (p. 580). Among the bones of Cervus there is
a phalange that suggests the presence of the giant deer
of Ireland.

The Sitsungsberichte vom naturhistorischen Verein der
preussischen Rheinlande und Westfalens for 190S (pub-
lished in 1909) contains numerous abstracts of papers read
before its component societies. Dr. Elbert described at
Miinster (Section C, p. 51) his expedition to Java in search
of the predecessors of the human race. It may be well
to recall that he found traces of hearths in deposits that
showed the existence of man side by side with Stegodon.
He believes that primaeval man entered Java with the
Siwalik fauna at the close of Cainozoic times, and that
Pithecanthropus was entombed during a cold " diluvial "
epoch, when floods were caused by the action of lavas on
the snows. The evidence for this colder epoch is furnished
by the fossil plants of the Kendeng beds, which represent
species that now live at much higher elevations. Dr.
Elbert considers that Pithecanthropus was forced to re-
treat before primaeval man, while a land-connection was
still open with Celebes, and that various pigmy races may
have descended from this genus.

Without entering seriously on the literature of primitive
man as a branch of palaeontology, we may perhaps direct
attention to the spirited description by the late Com-
mandant Molard of the prehistoric drawings of animals
in the cave of Niaux, in Arifege (Spelunca, tome vii., p. 3),
and to Dr. Florentino Ameghino's illustrated account,
previously promised, of stone implements found near Mar
del Plata. The latter paper (Anales del Museo Sacional
de Buenos .Aires, tomo xx., April 22, p. 189) maintains
that the pebbles with chipped ends are in some ways more
primitive than eoliths, and attributes them to Homo
pampaeus of the Tertiary era. G. A. J. C.

.4 MOXOGR.APH OF THE JELLYFISHES."^

A NY attempt to arrange the Medusae of the world in
"^ a natural and convenient zoological system is beset
with so many exceptional difficulties that the author of
this very fine monograph must at least be congratulated
on the courage he has shown and the patience he has
exhibited in preparing and publishing his work.

Since Haeckel wrote his famous " System der Medusen "
in 1879 there has been no other standard monograph on
the group for systematic zoologists to consult, and the
need for a comprehensive revision of his classification has
been acutely felt. In many cases the forms which Haeckel
described as distinct genera have proved, in the light of
more modern research, to be but stages in the develop-
ment of one genus ; many new genera and species have
iieen described, and our knowledge of the life-history,
anatomy, and physiology of many of the old species has
been very widely extended. To bring together the results
of all these investigations into one great monograph, to
criticise, and to rearrange the genera, is the task which
Mr. Mayer has attempted, and, it may be said, with no
small measure of success.

The principal difficulty in the systematic arrangement
and nomenclature of the Medusae arises from the fact that
in some cases, but not in all, the free-swimming, bell-like
and sexually mature organism represents only a stage in
the life-history of an individual, or the detached sexual
organ of an individual which has an altogether different
form, and there are many examples of the sedentary or
h}droid stage of a species being known by one generic
name and the free-swimming or medusoid stage by
another. It may have been an ideal of the earlier writers,
which they themselves could not hope to attain, that
ultimately the sum total of the life-histon.' of a single
sp>ecies would be united under one generic and one specific
name. But this ideal appears to be in these days not only

1 " Medusae of the World." By Alfred Goldsbcrongh Mayer. 3 Vols.
Vol. i., pp. iv+2;o+xv; Vol. ii., pp. iv+23i-4c8+xv ; Vol. iiL, pp. iv-f
493~735- (Carnegie Insiitution of Washington, 1910.)

286

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

more remote, but even impossible to reach. As the author
points out, such dissimilar hydroids as Syncoryne and
Stauridium give rise to similar medusae of the genus
Sarsia, and on the other hand the dissimilar medusae

Fig. I. — Ptrsa incolorata, one of the Trachymedusa.

Bougainvillia (formerly known as Hippocrene or Margelis)
and Nemopsis are produced by gemmation from closely re-
lated species of the hydroid genus Bougainvillia. An
attempt, therefore, to construct a system under which the

sent exists. For the present, then, we may agree with the
author that the nomenclature of the medusa; and the
nomenclature of the hydroids must be, in the majority of
cases, kept distinct, but at the same time regret may be
expressed that he has not set forth his views of the classifi-
cation of these Coelenterates in some tabular form with the
families of the hydroids and medusoids arranged in
parallel columns. Such a table would necessarily be in-
complete and subject to several exceptions in detail, but it
would be extremely useful to those who are interested in
the Hydromedusa; as a whole and of great assistance to
naturalists who are endeavouring to work out their life-
histories. Such a table has recently been drawn up by
Stechow in a work on the Hydroids of Japan, which was
published, unfortunately, too late to be reviewed in
Mayer's memoir. A comparison of a table by Mayer, had
he constructed one, from the medusoid point of view with
that of Stechow from the hydroid point of view, would
have given us a very instructive review of the classification
of the Hydromedusae as a whole.

But it seems somewhat ungracious to begin a notice of
work that is characterised by so many excellent features
by complaining about an omission.

The first point that will strike the ordinary zoologist,
who is not a specialist in any one group, as a very
welcome and important novelty in monographs on
systematic zoology, is the inclusion in the text of a state-
ment concerning all the important contributions to our
knowledge of embryology, cytology, and physiology of the
subject group. This is not a work that can be set aside
as a systematic treatise, of value only when it is required
for the identification of a species, but it is one that can
and should be consulted by all those who are interested
in the morphology of the group. Special attention may be
directed to the excellent accounts, given in various places
in the text, of the physiology of the rhythmic contractions
of the bell, and the lucid statement concerning the recent
researches by Stschelkanowzeff on the extraordinary
developmental process in Cunina described by Metschnikoff
as " sporogony "; but there are many others to relieve the
tedium that is inseparable from a series of purely
systematic descriptions.

In dealing with the two genera Ctenaria of Haeckel and
Hydroctena of DawydofT, which have been supposed to
connect the true Coelenterates with the Ctenophora, the
author takes the perfectly sound position that the re-
semblances relied upon indicate no true genetic relation-
ships between the two classes, but he incidentally directs
attention to an interesting observation of Woltereck's that
in the larva of Solmundella and in the actinula larva of

Fig. 2.—Lychnorhiza bartschi, one of the Rhizostome Scyphomedusae. A, Oral view. B, Sense-organ seen from exumbrella side.

name of the hydroid stage would supersede the name of the
medusa stage, or vice versA, even if it were confined to
those species of which the life-history is known, would lead
to a state of confusion even worse than that which at pre-

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

Tubularia there is an apical pole-plate of ciliated ecto-
dermal cells. This does not constitute an aboral sense-
organ on such an elaborate scale as that described in
Hydroctena, but it indicates, at least, that this organ is

December 29, 1910J

NATURE

287

not necessarily a sign of Ctenophore affinities. As in
other divisions of the Cceienterata, the determination of
true or natural specific distinctions in Medusae from false
or accidental differences is extremely difficult. A great
many species have been described from the more or less
distorted and contracted specimens that are sent to
systematic zoologists by the collectors, and it is very prob-
able that many of the folds and wrinkles, and even the
warts and tubercles, that are relied upon for separating
species are due to post-mortem changes. Mr. Mayer deals
ith this problem with sound judgment. The work of
;)revious authors is carefully considered and tabulated, so
:hat the reader may form his own judgment in each case
if he wishes to do so ; but his own opinion, based on a
vide experience of living and preserved material, is clearly
xpressed. Thus, of the genus Pelagia, no fewer than four-
^n species have been described, of which six are from
le .Atlantic Ocean. " .All of the Atlantic species," he
5ays, " are closely related one to another, and future
researches may demonstrate that they are only geo-
graphical races."

It would be difficult to express adequately our admira-
tion of the sevent\-six coloured plates with which this
monograph is illustrated. As regards de'icacy of treat-
ment and accuracy in detail, they may be regarded as the
best series of zoological plates that have been published
for many jears. In addition to the plates, there are more
than four hundred text illustrations in black and white.
The majoritA' of these are copied from the works of other
authors, but there are several, such as the two specimens
we reproduce, that have not been previously published.

Important changes in well-known generic names are not

so common as in some other recent memoirs, but there

are some which many students of the group will notice

with regret. Thus the familiar genus Lizzia becomes

nerged in Rathkea ; Corynitis becomes Linvillea. The

eneric name Turris, having been used by Humphrey in

797 for a mollusc, is regarded as preoccupied, and this

vnus of Medusae becomes Clavula. As examples of

langes in spelling, we may refer to the genus Irene,

hich becomes Eirene, and Aurelia, which becomes Aurellia.

:!ut the most deplorable proposal in this respect is that

le name Craspedacusta should be used in place of

-•mnocodium. It is clear from the text that the author

as made this change with regret, since he realises the

:--at inconvenience that must be caused by the substitu-

-n of a name that has been used only once, and in a

reliminary note, for a name that has been used con-

stently by all authors, including the writer of the pre-

rninary note, ever since. That the change has been made

- due to the mandate of the International Commission on

/x)logical Nomenclature, who stated that the usage of the

ame Limnocodium would be "in contravention of the

; revisions of the Code." No better example could be

found to show the pressing need of some revision of the

Code. We cannot close this notice without again express-

mg our thanks to Mr. Mayer for his most magnificent and

serviceable memoir. It is really a great work, and will

mark a great step of progress in the literature of the

subject.

MEASURES OF SOLAR PARALLAX.^
T^HE particular value of solar parallax derived from the
discussion of any one set of measures is of smaller
consequence than the manner in which the result has been
achieved. The interest in the problem has shifted. In its
present position, the knowledge of the distance of the
sun from the earth is less important than the examination
and elimination of the causes that affect the accuracy of
the measured coordinates obtained from a series of plates.
Viewed in this light, Prof. Perrine's paper is of great
value, for it puts us in possession of an independent dis-
cussion of material that has already been submitted to the
most careful scrutiny.
We have presented to our examination a numerical
stimate of the different constructions that expert know-

/ "Detenninauon of the Solar Parallax," from Photographs of Eros, made
with the Cros-ley Reflector of the Lick Observatory, University of Cali-
fornia. By Charles D. Perrine, and others. Pp. v-fo8. (Cameeie
Institution of Washington, 1910.)

NO. 214S, VOL. 85]

ledge can place upon the same measures. Mr. Hinks, in
his elaborate discussion of the solar parallax from photo-
graphic observations of Eros, pointed out some discre^
pancies in the Lick results, which he thought required
further examination. Among others, he suggested that
some of the comparison stars were too distant from the
axis of colhmation. Apparently this criticism was justi-
fied, and Prof. Perrine has employed in his reductions 'oiiiy
those star images which were accurately circular. A.
second suggestion, that an error was introduced by the
eccentric position of Eros with reference to the stars of
comparison, is not accepted. This want of symmetry arose
from the plan of choosing the same stars for the morning,
and evening observations, a scheme which possesses
obvious advantages ; but in a plate taken with Eros
always in the centre, the motion of the planet will carry
it nearer to, or away from, the more outlying members
of the group of stars selected for measurement. The
motion of Eros in the interval was about 8'-io', and in a
field the available diameter of which is small the distor-
tion of the image might outweigh the evident theoretical
advantages.

To test this point Prof. Perrine has made two solu-
tions, according to the stars selected, and can find no
evidence of systematic error. .Another attempt to explain
the observed discrepancy, more of the nature of a sugges-
tion than a criticism, was made to depend upon the
generally small magnitude of the comparison stars. With
a large aperture and the necessity of restricting the field,,
there will be a tendency to use fainter stars than in other
observatories employing the ordinary photo-refracting,
telescope. .As a rule, the stars selected at Lick have been
fainter than the planet. Prof. Perrine does not specifically
discuss the effect of magnitude, and there is the less
necessity, since the value of the solar parallax he obtains
does not show any anomalous deviation from the final
value adopted by Mr. Hinks.

The difference of computational results is a point of
great interest. The final value of solar parallax derived
from the total mass of measures at the command of Mr.
Hinks is 8807*, while the same authority obtained from
the Lick measures alone 8-815". From the same data
Prof. Perrine derives from his own measures 88067'', ^^
identically Mr. Hinks 's result. The problem for solutioh
has therefore moved from finding an explanation of the
difference of Lick results from the general average to
tracing the cause of the disagreement between the Cam-
bridge and the Californian computations. The computed
probable errors also differ. That attached by Prof.
Perrine in his final equation for « is +00025', and by
Mr. Hinks +0-0046*. It is a matter for congratulatitMi
that such small differences should attract attention and
call for explanation. The minuteness of the discrepancy
seems to indicate that in modern processes such a degree
of refinement has been reached that the disagreement must
be attributed to purely arithmetical operations, and has no
physical significance.

AMERICAN VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY.

nPHE phylogeny of the Felidae forms the subject of an.
■*■ article, by Dr. W. D. Matthew, published in voL
xxviii. (pp. 289-316) of the Bulletin of the American
Museum of Natural Historj-. -According to the author,
the great majority of the extinct members of the family,
including all the oldest species, are characterised by a.
more or less pronounced development of the upper canines
into long, flat-sided tusks. These are the so-called sabre-
tooths, or machaerodonts, which date from the Lower
Oligocene, typical cats with relatively short upper canines
being unknown before the Pliocene. The early sabre-
tooths are, however, divisible into two series, one
characterised by the extreme length and slenderness of the
tusks and the large size of the protecting flange on the
lower jaw, and the other by the shorter tusks and smaller
flange. Hoplophoneus and Dinictis respectively represent
the two series in America. While the derivation of the
large Pliocene and Pleistocene sabre-tooths from Hoplo-
phoneus has been accepted, the relations of the modern
cats to Dinictis have been overlooked. " The evidence
appears, however, to indicate that the Dinictis phylum led

288

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

directly into the modern Felidae, the canines having re-
verted from the almost unique machaerodont specialisation
to the normal type of carnivorous mammals. The series
Dinictis — Nimravus — Pseudaelurus — Felis are in direct
succession, structurally and geologically."

In the opinion of Dr. Matthew the origin of the cat
family cannot be carried back further than the Oligocene
sabre-tooth, their supposed derivation through the so-
called /Elurotherium — which is based on the milk-dentition
of a species of the same group — from the Eocene crcodont
Palaeonictis being inadmissible.

Mr. R. O. Peterson has, however, just described, under
the name of Daphacnodon, in the Memoirs of the Carnegie
Museum at Pittsburg (vol. iv., No. 5), the skeleton of a
dog-like carnivore of the size of a large leopard from the
Miocene of Nebraska, which, together with the allied but
older Daphaenus, he regards as in a considerable degree
intermediate between dogs and cats, although the skull
and teeth are essentially dog-like. In many respects
Daphacnus, of which the whole skeleton is known, is very
cat-like, especially in the long leopard-like tail, which
may, however, have been bushy. A cat-like feature is the
partially retractile structure of the claws. In concluding
his description, Mr. Peterson observes that the model " is
instructive, as it furnishes at least a conception of a primi-
tive form ancestral to cats and dogs." Whether later
discoveries in earlier strata will reveal a community of
origin for the two groups remains to be seen.

Reverting to the first article, Dr. Matthew replies near
the end to critics who have doubted his theory that the
sabre-tooths attacked by dropping the lower jaw into a
nearly vertical position and stabbing with the upper tusks.
After supporting the theory by additional anatomical
evidence, he remarks that most of the early large ungu-
lates were of the " pachyderm " type, which were specially
suitable to this method of attack, while they would
succumb to the mode practised by lions and tigers.

" With the rise and dominance of the large light-limbed
ruminants and horses some of the early sabre-tooths were
correlatively adapted into the modern type of felines, while
other sabre-tooths, as the surviving pachyderm phyla be-
came larger, thicker skinned, and more {>owerful, became
progressively larger, more powerful, and developed heavier
weapons to cope with and destro}' them. The final extinc-
tion of the machaerodont phylum was probably largely
conditioned by the growing scarcity and limited geographic
range of the great pachyderms."

Finally, he protests against the idea that these later
sabre-tooths died out as the result of over-specialisation.

Recent conflicting opinions as to the pose of the sauro-
pod dinosaurs are discussed by Dr. Matthew in the
September number of the American Naturalist (vol. xliv.,
P- 547)- That these reptiles walked, instead of crawling,
the author considers fully proved, their limb-structure, as
was previously pointed out by Dr. Abel, displaying a
remarkable parallelism to that of proboscideans. This
" rectigrade " type, in which the whole limb is pillar-like,
with the foot short, rounded, and heavily padded, and the
toes reduced or rudimentary, is correlated with gigantic
bodily size, the movements being mainly restricted to the
upper joints, and the foot serving chiefly as a cushion to
minimise the shock. A structure of this kind will
obviously occur only among animals which habitually rest
their weight on the limbs alone.

A limit is, however, soon reached in regard to the
weight which even the most powerful limbs are capable of
supporting in the case of a purely terrestrial animal, and
this limit appears to have been attained among the
elephants. But if this be so, we are confronted by the
question why the saurof>od dinosaurs, with their less per-
fectly formed limbs, vastly exceed the largest elephants in
bulk and stature. The answer, in Dr. Matthew's opinion,
is that these reptiles were aquatic, and adapted to wading.
" A wading animal has the greater part of its weight
buoyed up by the water, and might attain a much larger
size without transcending its mechanical limitations, just
as the whales and some true fishes attain a much larger
size than any land animal."

In 1908 Mr. Lambe described a new genus of crocodile
(I^idyosuchus) on the evidence of imperfect remains from
the Judith River beds of Alberta, Canada. An unusually
well-preserved crocodilian skull from the Ceratops beds of

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

Wyoming, recently acquired by the U.S. National Museum,
is referred by Mr. C. W. Gilmore (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus.,
vol. xxxviii.), in spite of its later geological horizon, to
a second species of the same genus, under the name of
L. sternbergii. A second skull of the same species, from
the Hell Creek beds of Montana, which came under the
author's notice after the original paper was written, is
also described and figured.

Leidyosuchus may now be characterised as a short and
relatively broad-skulled crocodile, with the nasals appar-
ently not reaching the nares, the posterior nostrils wholly
enclosed by the pterygoids (instead of being behind them,
as in Crocodilus), the mandibular symphyses short and
formed in part by the splenial, the upper teeth more
numerous than the lower, the first lower tooth received
into a'pit, and the third and fourth — which are about equal
in size — into notches in the skull. The vertebrae have the
cup in front; and there was armour on the lower as well
as on the upper surface of the body. Many of these
characters connect the genus with Crocodilus on one
hand and Alligator (including Caiman) on the other,
although their preponderance is with the first-named genus.
There are also indications of affinity with the Tertiary
Diplocynodon. The position of the posterior nostrils —
intermediate between those of modern and Jurassic croco-
diles— is just what might have been expected from the
geological horizon of the genus.

Since its original description by Sir R. Owen in 1873
the imperfect skull of the saw-billed bird {Odontopteryx
toliapica) from the London Clay of Sheppey, preserved in
the British Museum, has remained the sole evidence of its
genus and species. When complete the specimen probably
measured something like 6 inches in length. The dis-
covery is now announced by Mr. B. Spalski, in the second
number of the new journal published at Leipzig under the
title of Der Geolog, of the skull of a much larger species
of the same genus in Tertiary strata in Brazil, the total
skull-length being no fewer than 5-? centimetres. The
name O. longirostris is proposed for the Brazilian species.

THE INFLUENCE OF RIVER SYSTEMS IN
THE EAST.

G'

LOBUS for September i, Bd. xcviii., contains an
article of some interest on the subject of the influence
of river systems in the East, by Herr Ewald Banse. The
author deals with the area between 17° and 36° N. lat.
and 17° W. and 74° E. long, (which he terms the Orient),
where the average annual rainfall is less than 200 mm.
(8 inches) ; this is bordered in the southern Sahara and
in the northern part of south-western Asia by a broad
zone with an' annual precipitation of 600 mm. (235 inches).
In summer this area is the hottest part of the earth's
surface. It tends to prevent the intermingling of various
flora, fauna, and human races ; the Arabian peoples, the
one-humped camel, and the date-palm are mainly con-
fined to it. The map accompanying the article shows
three main areas, which are drained by no rivers — the
Saharan, the Arabo-Syrian, and the Irano-Armenian, the
undrained regions amounting to 77 per cent, of the
Orient.

The central regions, with their entire lack of hydro-
graphic connection with the ocean, differ essentially from
peripheral countries with sea-connection. The formation
of level plains is one marked tendency of countries devoid
of rivers ; wind, which forms the sole connection with
the ocean, plays a very important role there. These flats
are to be regarded as phenomena of disease in the earth'<
surface, and the fact that three-quarters of the Orient_ i^
devoid of river systems will account for its low population
and helps to explain its cultural backwardness. It is the
watered areas — 23 per cent, of the whole — which have
produced the cultures of the Orient, e.g. the Sumerian
within the Anatolian-Kurdic belt. Higher cultures con-
centrate where there is flowing water all the year.

Four regions are passed in review, the Atlas countries,
the Sahara region, south-west Asia, and western Asia.
For each a table is drawn up giving the total area, pro-
portions of permanently river-drained, periodically /iver-
drained, and entirelv undrained land, and the density of
the population— the last, it may be noted, is in inverse

December 29, 1910]

NATURE

289

ratio to the extent of riverless country. These statistical

data are summed up in a fifth table. The Sahara region

is most intensively characterised by lack of river-systems ;

no rivers rise there, and those which flow through lose

rather than gain during the transit. Eighty-eight per

■nt. of this region is without off-flow. This huge desert

rea Herr Banse regards as " the surest bulwark of Islam

1 Africa."

RECEXT PROGRESS IN
LIGHTING.^

ELECTRIC

Incandescent Lamps.

"T^HE most remarkable development within recent times

is the production of an incandescent lamp with an

ficienc}- approximating to i candle-power per watt. The

st known of these lamps are of two kinds, one made

ith tantalum as the material for the filament, and the

Iier with tungsten. There are a great number of lamps

ider a great variety of different names using tungsten,

id the difference between the lamps is largely due to the

■fferences in the processes of manufacture adopted. The

ost recent development in the construction of tungsten

mps is in the use of wire-drawn filaments (L. Gaster,

intor Lecture, 1909).

In order to test a statement that has been frequently
made as to the bad effect of switching off and on, a series
of tests is being carried out in the Electrical Engineering
Laboratories at Liverpool in which the lamps are switched
off for ten seconds and then switched on again, the process
being repeated at intervals of one minute. .Although these
tests are not complete, the results, so far as they go, have
been interesting. In all, twenty lamps, which have been
supplied by several makers, are being subjected to this
test. The lamps were divided into two groups, and each
one was adjusted to have an initial efficiency approxi-
mating to 14 watts per candle-power ; this adjustment
was effected by introducing resistance into the circuit of
each individual lamp. One set of ten lamps was con-
nected in circuit with an automatic switch driven by a
small fan motor at such a speed that a cam switched
on the light for fifty seconds and switched it off for
ten seconds. The reason for this choice of time was
that it appeared that ten seconds was enough to allow
the filament to become practically cold, and thus to give
the maximum contraction and expansion of the thread.
So far as the experiments have gone, the effect of switch-
ing does not appear to be serious ; the lamps that have
been burning continuously have given out to the same
extent as those that have been subjected to the continuous
switching off and on.

The effective life of these lamps is found by them to be
roughly proportional to the 3-65th power of the initial
watts per candle-power, a law which corresponds with
that found for carbon filament lamps.

We may sum up the position, so far as metallic fila-
ment lamps are concerned, by saying that at present there
is no difficulty in obtaining a 230-volt metal filament
lamp of about 25 candle-power which will give one hori-
zontal candle-power for 12 watts, and will burn near this
efficiency for more than 1000 hours, probably for a much
longer period under ordinary conditions.

Before leaving the subject of incandescent lamps, it

may be of interest to make some remarks on the character

of the light that is emitted from them. The spectrum

'^'itained corresponds with the spectrum given by an in-

ndescent body, i.e. it is a simple band spectrum. So

"as my own observations have gone, there is no evidence

of selective emission, and the increase in efficiencv of

metal filament lamps may be said to be entirely due to

the higher temperature at which the lamp filament runs.

The wave-length of maximum emission intensity corresponds

fairly closely with Wien's law for the radiation emitted

a black body. (It may be of interest to note here how

arly the temperature of maximum emission intensitv for

:■ yellow line, D, or centre of the visible spectrum about

^ From a paper read before the lUutnlnatin? Eng-neirins Society on
I>ecemb€r 9 by Prof. E. W. Marchant. & s » j

6200° C, corresponds with the estimated temperature of
the sun.)

The nearer we can approach the temperature of the
sun with artificial sources of light, the more nearly will
an illumination be obtained which corresponds in all
regards with sunlight.

Arc Lamps.

The most notable advance in arc lighting within recent
3'ears is the flame arc, but these lamps have been used so
extensively for a number of years that the flame arc itself
is far from being a recent development.

It is my intention in this paper to lay stress on only two
points : — (i) the improvements made in the distribution of
light so as to give more uniform illumination over a
large area ; (2) the actual efficiency or flux of light emitted
per watt consumed in a modern lamp.

The attempt to obtain more uniform illumination on
the surface has been made in two ways, first by using
vertical carbons instead of V carbons, as in the earlier
form of flame lamps. As has been pointed out by many
people, the candle-power curve required to give uniform
horizontal illumination is much more closely approached
by the polar curve of light distribution given by a vertical
carbon lamp than by any other fornx

The second method which has been adopted with the
view of improving the light radiation from V carbon lamps
is by the use of special globes. The most notable example
of this is the use of the dioptric globe.

(2) Actual efficiency of modern arc lamps as measured
bv the influx of light per watt consumed (see subjoined
Table).

Type cf lamp Volts Current M.^S.C.P. watt

Enclosed flame lamp

(clear globe) 58 ... 8-45 ... 22CO ... 4-5

(opal globe) ... ... 57-8 ... 8-5 .„ 1430 ... 30

Open flame arc (slightly

obscured globe) ... 40 ... 70 ... 1040 ... 372
Singly enclosed arc

ordinary carbon ... 86 ... 85 ... 1150 ... i'6
Midget singly enclosed

arc lamp 77 ... 3*2 ... 245 ... I'D

Vapour Lamps.

The production of light from an incandescent vapour
is a method of lighting which has long been familiar,
though the only practical examples of it are the mercury
vapour lamp and the Moore tube. The two forms of
mercury vapour lamp which are being manufactured at
present are the quartzlite lamp and the silica lamp.

The main characteristic of this lamp is that it produces
a large amount of ultra-violet light, to which quartz is
transparent, and which is screened off from the exterior
by a heavy lead glass clover. If the lamp is left burning
without this cover for a few minutes the smell of ozone
produced is very strong. It is a matter for discussion
whether mercury vapour lamps containing these very
strong lines only in the spectrum will not ultimately prove
injurious to the sight of those who are obliged to work
in it. A priori, it would seem to be bound to produce a
fatigue of those parts of the retina which respond to the
impulses given by the particular rays which the lamp
emits.

A lamp of this type has recently undergone test in my
laboratory, with the result that the efficiency worked out
at 1-73 candle-power (mean hemispherical) per watt. The
lamp consumed 688 watts at 230 volts, and gave a mean
hemispherical candle-power of 1190.

The mixing of the mercury vapour light with that of
the light from tungsten lamps has been tried at Liverpool
with quite satisfactory results, the ratio between the
amount of light required to produce complete mixing being
very easily found by the aid of the globe photometer and
two pieces of milk glass, one piece illuminated by a beam
of daylight from the outside and the other by the light
diffused on the surface of the globe by the two sources
of light inside the globe. This method is, of course, not
so exact as the colorimeter of Ives, but gives quite satis-
factory results.

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

290

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

SMOKE AND ITS PREVENTION.'

T TNDOUBTEDLY the most important question of the
^ day from the sanitary and artistic point of view is
how best to combat the smoke nuisance, which, like a
cumulative poison, is slowly but surely saturating our
lives and homes with its filthy dregs, and is at the same
time like a cancer depleting and destroying our natural
strength by the waste of our already rapidly diminishing
fuel supplies.

When, in the thirteenth century, bituminous coal was
first used for fuel purposes, the smoke to which it gave
rise roused such indignation amongst the public that a
decree was passed in 1306 forbidding its use ; but fuel
had to be found, and the suppfy of timber proving in-
sufficient, once more attempts were made to introduce it,
but again public opinion led to its banishment in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth. The third attempt, however,
to bring it into use proved successful, and slowly the
consumption increased, until the last century saw coal
firmly established, not only as a fuel for domestic con-
sumption, but also as our great source of power, and it
was the possession of great stores of the fuel that gave
England her commercial supremacy.

The smoke from the few chimneys where coal was used
by our forefathers, and which so shocked the sense of the
observers of that day as to lead to its use being banned,
was an absolutely negligible quantity as compared with
the smoke belched forth into the air in any of the large
cities of to-day, and the effect upon our climate, our
health, and our buildings has so steadily risen with the
increase in consumption that it is no exaggeration to
speak of it as a cumulative poison.

It was only in the latter half of the last century that
the cumulative effect of smoke began to make itself
appreciable, and the 'eighties and 'nineties were marked
by a diminution in the hours of sunshine in our big cities
and by fogs of remarkable density and lasting power ; but
such legislation as was enacted and the efforts of those
interested in smoke abatement have apparently had some
slight influence in a reduction of the plague, and certainly
during the past ten years the fogs have not been of the
same density or so frequent as in the preceding twenty
or thirty years, but how far this has been due to efforts
at smoke abatement and how far to meteorological con-
ditions I, at any rate, am unable to say. It is an abso-
lute fact that even if a certain amount of work has been
done, so much still remains to do that the subject is as
important now as it was ten years ago, and my desire
this evening is to attack the subject of smoke from the
more chemical and physical side of its production, and to
review those methods which are practically possible for
its prevention.

It must be borne in mind that the smoke question not
only affects the well-being of the country, but also implies
a waste of fuel so great that with the problem of failing
coal supplies looming on the horizon it behoves us to
make a national matter of it, not only from a hygienic,
but also from an economic point of view. Indeed, the
whole question of fuel economy is so closely allied to the
problem of smoke prevention that it is impossible to con-
sider the one without the other, and if only rational
methods of heat production were adopted, both economy
of fuel and cleansing of the atmosphere would follow.

The principal source of the cloud which hangs over our
big towns, cutting off the direct rays of the sun and
ruining health, varies with the locality. In the south of
England it is the domestic grate using bituminous fuel
which is responsible for the major portion of this pollu-
tion of the atmosphere, whilst further north, in the great
manufacturing centres, it is the factory shafts which emit
the pall of black smoke that aids in shortening life and
killing vegetation, and which begrimes and finally helps
to destroy our public buildings.

Many estimates of the relative amount of pollution due
to manufactories and to the domestic grate have been
made, but as the question of what is the ratio of smoke
production from the various sources varies enormously
with the locality, no very satisfactory conclusion has been
arrived at.

^ A lecture delivered at the London Institution on December 8 by Prof.
Vivian B. Lewes.

With regard to London, Dr. Shaw's estimate that 70 pe^
cent, of the smoke is due to the domestic fire would probi
ably be about correct, but in Shellield or Birmingham th(j
figures would most likely be reversed. But it is a certain
fact that domestic smoke is produced throughout the whol^
length and breadth of the land, whereas the factor*
chimney concentrates its attention on the more limite
area of the manufacturing districts. ,

Although it is diflkult to gain any idea of the ratio ol
blame to be given to the two greatest sources of smok^
production at any one spot, yet it is easy to obtain ai
insight as to the relative total amount of smoke so pro3
duced from the uses to which our coal is put, and the!
Royal Commission on Coal Supplies arrived at the con-3
elusion that, of the 167 million tons of coal burnt in thii
country in 1903, 36 millions were used for domestic hear
ing, whilst, after deducting the coal used for gas making, I
would probably be near the truth to say that the domestU
use of bituminous coal is responsible for one quarter <^
the smoke pollution of the country, the responsibility fc
the remainder being split up amongst the various mam
factures and railways.

Practically all the advances of late years have been .
fuel consumption on the large scale, and the improyfl^
ments brought about by stoking machinery and attentioi
to air supply have been great, whilst some of the largea
manufactures have demonstrated, not only the ease ol
obtaining smokeless factory shafts, but also the economj
that accompanies them. .

Little, however, has been done to improve the condij
tions of fuel consumption in the household, and in spit^
of the fact that the use of bituminous fuel in the domestic
grate has been condemned for the part it has played ii^
the pollution of the atmosphere from the earliest years
of the fourteenth century to the present day, the ideas thai
exist as to its composition and method of production are
still very vague, and it is this side of the question witM
which 1 now desire to deal. In an ordinary open fire
radiant heat given by the incandescent fuel and heated
grate warms the room, and although it is. undoubtedly
a wasteful method, owing to the largest proportion of the
heat escaping up the chimney with the products of com-
plete and incomplete combustion, yet it is so superior
from the hygienic point of view, and so much more corn-
fortable than anv other method of heating, that it still
holds the premier position in spite of the economic
advantages of central heating systems or slow combustion
stoves.

The production of smoke from the ordinary open grate
using bituminous coal means a waste of fuel, but although
this loss assumes grave proportions when the number of
fires is taken into consideration, it is small as compared
with the other losses due to actions taking place in the
fire itself and the loss of heat escaping up the chimney.
When bituminous coal is fed on to the burning fire, the
action which takes place on the newly added portion
closely follow the lines of action occurring during the dis-
tillation of coal, and it is during this period that a very
large proportion of the heat units in the coal are lost,
owing to the amount taken up in decomposing the coal
and converting the volatile portions into vapours and
gases. During this period the coal, heated by the fire
from below and comparatively cool above, distils off tar
vapours, coal gas, and steam in proportions which vary
with the temperature. In the early stages, the surface
of the fuel being too cool to lead to their ignition, they
escape as vapours up the chimney, mingled with an
amount of air which is dependent upon the draught of
the chimney, and ranges from eight to thirty thousand
cubic feet per hour. In an ordinary flue the composition
of the escaping products may be taken as approaching to
the following analysis : —

Per cent.

Carbon dioxide 0'70

Methane 0-36

Hydrogen 029

Carbon monoxide ^'^^

Oxygen ^9-85

Nitrogen 7979

and these gases, together with water vapour, escape up
the chimney.

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

December 29, 1910]

NATURE

291

During this period of smoke production no soot is
formed, and the physical properties of the cloud of vapour
are an interesting study, as it explains one of the secrets
of the lasting power of smoke and the way in which it
acts. A most beautiful and instructive experiment is one
ievised by Mr. F. Hovenden, which shows to perfection
rhe structure of smoke as it escapes from a burning object.
A puff of smoke blown through a small glass cell
illuminated from below by an oxyhydrogen or arc light,
and examined under a low-power microscope, reveals the
fact that it consists of excessively minute vesicles which
ire in a marvellous condition of motion, and which, owing
o the gas within them being lighter than air, remain
iloating in the stream of air or gas until impact with a
olid surface causes a bursting of the little liquid envelope,
rorming a microscopic drop of tar on the solid against
vhich it has struck, and liberating the contained gases.

The wonderful movement of these vesicles is the most
beautiful realisation that I know of our conception of
nolecular motion, and the marvellous way in which they
ceep up a continuous bombardment would be a perfect
;cture illustration of kinetic energy if only it could be
n rejected on the screen.

Given proper conditions, most condensing vapours seem
0 assume this form, and the small vesicular masses seem
o retain the molecular activity of the particles that build
hem up. and there is little doubt that in fog or cloud it
i^ this formation that gives the floating power, as the
vater vapour contained by the vesicle is only a little
nore than half the weight of air, and also explains the
formation of rain by gun-fire and the dispersion of fc^
y electrical discharges, the bursting of the vesicle in each
:ase leading to precipitation.

The tar vapour which escapes during the distillation

:f coal, either in the gas-maker's retorts or upon an open

nre, consists of a mass of vesicles of this character, and

his period is the one in which the most serious waste

akes place, as not only is the greatest amount of heat

leing rendered latent by the distillation from the coal of

:'iese products, but they also escape unburnt up the

himney. .After a while sufficient heat finds its way

hrough the coal to the top of the fuel to ignite some of

he escaping vapours, and the bright luminous flame then

nakes its appearance above the fire. This flame radiates

': considerable amount of heat owing to the incandescent

oarticles within it, and the waste of heat diminishes ; but

;: will be seen that a large amount of vapour is still

-caping unburnt, owing to the dilution of the hydro-

arbon gases by steam and the cold air sucked in over

"he surface of the fire, which lowers their temperature

elow the point of ignition.

The appearance of the flame itself is worthy of notice,
as the chemical changes taking place within ' it make it
red and lurid towards the top, and the particles of oily
carbon which form the soot escape from it.

Flame is caused by the combustion of gaseous matter,
and when the air supporting the combustion is supplied
xternally to the combustible gas, the resulting flame is
always holk)w, consisting of at least two parts, an outer
zone in which combustion is taking place, and an inner
zone in which, there being no oxygen to carry- on the
combustion, no such action can take place. The' ordinary
luminous flame, such as is employed for illuminating pur-
poses, is divided into four parts, but for present purposes
our fire flame may be looked upon as consisting of only
^■hree, the inner zone being an area in which no combus-
on is taking place, but in which the gases are subjected
0 the baking action of the heated envelope that surrounds
it, and undergo many decompositions, the most important
chemical ^ change being the conversion of any hydro-
carbons into acetylene. In the outer zone combustion
takes place in contact with air, giving the hottest part
of the flame, and as the result carbon dioxide, carbon
rnonoxide, and water vap>our are formed ; whilst between
the inner and outer zones is a brilliantly luminous sheath
givmg the major portion of the cheerful firelight, whilst
higher up in the flame, if combustion is not complete, this
uminous portion becomes dull red and gives out far less
5ht. and above this again smoke begins to appear in
onsiderable quantities. These gradations in appearance
ye due to the acetylene and kindred bodies formed by
ne baking action of the outer zone on the hvdrocarbons
NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

in the gases and vapours passing through the dark inner
zone, entering the heated zone of combustion, when the
acetj'lene suddenly splits up under the influence of heat
into carbon and hydrogen, the latter of which burns and
adds to the general heat of the flame, whilst the carbon
raised to incandescence partly by the heat generated
during its own formation from the endothermic acetylene
and partly by heat from the flame, as well as by its own
combustion, gives out the light. If the combustion were
completed no smoke would be formed, but the diluting
influence of the nitrogen and other products from the fire
beneath and the cooling influence of the chimney draught
so check and hamper the completion of the combustion
of the products from the decomposed acetylene that the
top of the flame is cooled to a dull red, and the flame
is finally extinguished before all the carbon particles can
be consumed, this producing the sooty smoke which passes
up the chimney. The smoke does not consist merely of
the liberated carbon particles, but contains tar vapour,
water vapour, products of combustion, and excess of air,
together with the residual nitrogen from that portion of
the air that has been used in the combustion, as well as
particles of ash sucked up by the draught of the chimney.

In time the fire burns clearly, the amount of flame
becoming extremely small, and consisting mainly of carbon
monoxide, and practically smokeless combustion is
attained. No further pollution of the atmosphere takes
place until more coal is fed on to the fire, whilst the
incandescent fuel is radiating out the heat given by the
combustion of the carbon, and is doing more heating work
than at any other period.

Such details of chemical and physical action as I have
attempted to bring before j-ou seem absolutely superfluous
to the lay mind, but until they are recognised it is prac-
tically impossible to arrive at any true solution of the
difliculty.

Take an iron flask, half fill it with pieces of bitu-
minous coal the size of peas, and heat it up to the highest
temperature you can obtain with an atmospheric burner,
and you will find that, as the heat penetrates the mass
of coal, first white and then brown vapours distil from
the mouth of the flask. Ignite these brown vapours, and
you will see the same phenomena that are shown by the
luminous flame above the fire ; stop the flame for a
moment by closing the mouth of the flask by a damp
plug, and, having extinguished the flame, pass the brown
vapours through a condenser, and you find that black
liquid tar condenses and a clear, colourless coal gas
escapes, which when ignited gives a luminous flame with
little or no formation of carbon. Moreover, if, having
ascertained this fact, you remove the condenser and re-
ignite the mixture of gas and tar vapour, you find it
gives a flame which steadily becomes less and less
luminous, and finally assumes the character of a yellowish
flame incapable of forming smoke, and from which no
tar can be condensed.

This flame gradually dies away, and if the residue in
the flask be examined, it is found to be ordinary' gas
coke, which when burnt in air gives no smoke or soot,
and only such flame as is due to the formation of carbon
monoxide by the passage of air through the incandescent
carbon, and which, escaping from the mass, meets more
air and burns with a small non-luminous flame.

From the fact I have brought befwe you several points
are clear : —

(i) That the smoke-forming portion of bituminous coal
is the hydrocarbons, which on destructive distillation form
the tar.

(2) That the true coal gas contains but little of these,
and can easily be burnt with smokeless combustion.

(3) That the residue left after the destructive distilla-
tion of the coal, i.e. coke, burns without the formation
of smoke.

(4) That tar vapour and white smoke escape in the form
of minute vesicles, which will float in air until burst by
violent contact with some surface, on which they then
deposit as tar.

(5) That what we speak of as smoke consists of a
mixture of (a) tar vapour ; (b) water vapour ; (c) tarry
carbon particles ; (i) products of combustion other than
water vapour ; (e) fine particles of ash.

Amongst the gaseous products of combustion also are

292

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

to be found sulphur compounds, such as sulphuretted
hydrogen and sulphur dioxide, the first formed during the
distilling period when coal has just been fed on to the
fire, and the latter during the combustion. Both these
compounds are due to the sulphur always present in the
coal, and whilst the former blackens white-lead paint and
tarnishes silver, the sulphur dioxide, dissolving in water,
oxidises to sulphuric acid, which is far more actively
injurious, corroding and destroying metal work, retarding
the growth of vegetation, and finally killing it.

Smoke thus formed finds its way from the chimney
into the atmosphere, and is rapidly diffused through the
air by means of the air currents, and it is manifest that
if there were no means of removing it the air would
soon become perfectly opaque from its accumulation in
large quantities. When, however, rain falls, it rapidly
washes the air free from such suspended solid and liquid
impurities which constitute the visible portion of smoke.
Snow is even more efficacious than rain in doing this ;
where the snow has fallen on the glass roof of a green-
house it will be noticed that when it melts it leaves
behind a black deposit consisting of the solid matter
which it has collected during its passage through the air.
An analysis of a deposit of this character formed on the
glass roofs of some orchid houses at Chelsea gives a verv
good idea of the constituents of these solid impurities : —

Per cent.

Carbon ... ... ... ... ... ... 39-00

Hydrocarbons ... ... ... ... ... 12-30

Organic bases ... ... ... ... ... 1.20

Sulphuric acid ... ... ... ... ... 4.33

Ammonia ... ... ... ... ... 1.37

Metallic iron and magnetic oxide ... ... 2-63

Other mineral matter, chiefly silica and

ferric oxide ... ... ... ... ... 31-24

Water not determined.

In cases where long drought prevents the rapid clear-
ance of the air by this means, the heavier of the solid
particles settle by gravity, whilst the particles of carbon
and carbonaceo;js organic matter are slowly oxidised by
the oxygen and ozone into carbon dioxide, in which form
vegetation removes them from the air.

The solid particles suspended in air are, however, by
no means confined to the products of our improper use
of bituminous fuel, and mineral matter from the dust of
our roadways and organic matter from animal and vege-
table life all play their part in rendering town air
deleterious to health ; but it is the smoke " dirt " that
is the most injurious factor.

The smoke from our grates is naturally discharged at
a lower level than that from the factory shafts, with the
result that it probably has a greater effect on our general
health and buildings than the higher layers of smoke,
which travel for miles with the wind and which act more
by darkening the sky and cutting off the sun's rays; and
it is also clear that the low-level smoke will not extend
so far from the point .at which it is formed,, as contact
with buildings and vegetation rapidly rob it of the tar
vapours, with the result that in a smoky town like Leeds
it has been shown that at one mile out the solid impuri-
ties have fallen to one half, and at 7.\ miles out to one-
sixth.

Injurious as are the direct effects of smoke on health
and property, they are small as compared with those
brought about by dense fog, which may to a great extent
be attributed to smoke, which acts partly by helping its
formation and partly by retarding its dispersion.

Fog, whether it be in the form of white mist which
is found in the country, or the yellow abomination which
we know so well in London, is formed by the condensation
of water vapour from the air, and this is brought about
by anv cause which rapidly cools a large volume of moist
air. If, instead of the surface of the ground and the
objects on it only being cooled the air for a considerable
height above it is also lowered in temperature, then the
moisture which is deposited from it, instead of forming
dew, condenses in the air, forming minute vesicles that
remain suspended and floating in the air, and con-
stitute fog or mist. In pure air the mist so formed
consists of little else than these minute bubbles of water,
and has no irritating effect on the eyes or lungs. In a

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

large town like London, however, the air is charged with
an enormous number of minute particles, the heaviest of
which settle on a horizontal or roughened surface in the
form of dust, whilst the lighter particles continue floating
in the air. These particles consist of a heterogeneous
collection of all kinds of matter, amongst which " smoke "
particles bulk largely, constituting more than one half.
-All these floating solids cool with great rapidity on account
of the smallness of their size, and in doing so cause the
rapidly cooling air to deposit moisture upon them, and
so aid in the formation of the town fog, which appears
long before the country mist.

The air of towns in which much coal is used also
contains the volatile tarry matter distilled off during the
imperfect combustion, and this, condensing with the
moisture, coats it on the outside with a thin film, which
does much to prolong the existence of the fog, as when
the temperature of the air again rises the clean mist
again evaporates into the atmosphere, but the tar-coated
yellow fog has its power of evaporation retarded to an
enormous extent. Experiments made by Sir E. Frank-
land show that the evaporation of water in dry air isj
reduced nearh" 80 per cent, by blowing some smoke from '
burning coal on to its surface.

The statements made as to the enormous waste of fuel i
in the escaping smoke are, I think, often much ex- '
aggerated. In point of fact, the carbon wasted as soot
is extremely small, and varies in smoke with the stale
of the fuel which is fed on to the fire. Under the ordinary
conditions experienced in an open fire grate, in which the
fire has just been made up with bituminous coal, the
hea%-y smoke escaping will contain, on an average, \\ per
cent, of the total weight of fuel consumed, and as the
temperature of the mass gradually increases this falls to
less than \ per cent.

A greater waste of the thermal value of the fuel takes
place in the formation of the smoke, i.e. in the heat
rendered latent in bringing about the decomposition of
the coal, and the volatilisation and escape unburnt of the
tar vapours formed.

Having gained an idea of the causes which give rise
to smoke from the domestic hearth, we can now review
the proposals which have from time to time been made
for its prevention, and which may be classified under the
headings : —

(i) The use of bituminous fuel in special grates.

(2) The use of solid smokeless fuel.

(3) The use of gaseous fuel.

(4) The combined use of gas and coke.

(5) Central heating by steam, water, or hot air.

In considering the claims of these various methods we
must remember that the English open fire is undoubtedly
the most comfortable and wasteful method of heating that
could be adopted ; but although by far the largest propor-
tion of the heat escapes up the chimney, we must clearly
bear in mind that this very factor makes it a most
important engine of ventilation, and that at this time,
when the ventilation of our middle-class houses is chiefly
left to the jerry builder and the open fireplace, it is an
important factor of health. Moreover, it heats the room
in the only healthy way, that is, the radiant heat from
it does not directly raise the temperature of the air, but
is radiated to the floor, walls, and furniture in the room,
which again part with their heat slowly to the air in
contact with them and to the inhabitants, so that the
walls and other solid matters in the room are at a higher
temperature than the air.

Apart from its being more healthy to breathe cool than
hot air, there is another important point to consider, j
The normal temperature of the body is q8° F., or 36-8° C.,
and this temperature is maintained by the slow combustion :
processes going on in the body. By the laws of radiation |
a heated surface parts with its heat more or less rapidly 1
according to the temperature of the surrounding bodies,
so that if a person be sitting in a room filled with warm |
air, but near a wall colder than the air, his body will ;
rapidlv part with heat by radiation to the wall, and a ^
sensation of chill is the result ; but with the open fire j
this is never the case, as the radiant heat from the fire
heats the walls of the room to a temperature higher than :
that of the air. But when a room is heated bv means of
hot-water pipes or warmed air, the walls not being heat^^

December 29, 1910]

NATURE

293

in the same proportion, although the air may feel warm
the walls will remain cold, so that the heat of the body
would pass by radiation to the walls and give rise to a
chill.

If, therefore, one can retain the chief characteristic of
the open-fire heating by radiation, and eliminate the
smoke production and excessive waste of heat up the
chimney, we should have the ideal conditions for house-
warming.

Enormous improvements have been made in the domestic
grate during the last fifteen years both from the artistic
and economic point of view, and whilst with the older
forms it was not unusual to find a coal consumption of
7 to 8 lb. of coal per hour, this quantity has been re-
duced in the more modern forms to about one half, and
this in itself has been an important step in smoke reduc-
tion ; but grates have long lives, and the capital outlay
of putting in new ones results in the modern forms being
chiefly found in new houses. There have been many
attempts made to construct grates for the smokeless con-
sumption of coal, but it is found in practice that when
once the heavy carbonaceous smoke is produced it is very
difficult again to burn the carbon particles completely, as
the dilution caused by the large volumes of nitrogen pre-
sent prevents their easy combination with the oxygen of
the air ; and there is no doubt that the best methods of
preventing smoke from bituminous coal is to feed on the
fresh coal only in very small quanties, and to supply the
top of the fire with a sharp draught of hot air. Under
these conditions complete combustion of escaping hydro-
carbons is ensured, and very little carbon is allowed to be
liberated in the solid form. In order to do this, how-
ever, the stove has to be to a certain extent closed in,
which is a drawback, and it is also found that no grate
for bituminous coal is absolutely smokeless.

Stoves have been constructed in which the coal should
be supplied to the bottom of the fire, so as to keep the
top bright and clear, all the smoke having to pass through
the clear fire above, where it is decomposed. Such grates
are by no means novel, as one of the best was the
"Arnott," and must be more than sixty years old; but
for some reason they have never been popular with stove
manufacturers, with the result that they have never
reached the public, otherwise they are efficient and
economical.

The great factor in making special forms of grate an
ineffective solution of the smoke problem is that it involves
large capital outlay on the part of the consumer, and my
own experience is that unless the consumer can become
a reformer without expense or extra trouble, the majority
will talk but never act, and it is for this reason that the
use of solid smokeless fuel, which can be used in all
^sting grates, appears the most likely solution of the
great question.

Smokeless solid fuels may be classified as : —

(i) Coal which has been carbonised at a high tempera-
ture, so as to drive out practically all the volatile matter,
and this class is represented by gas coke and Coalexld.

(2) Coal which has been partially carbonised so as to
distil out the smoke-forming constituents, but to leave
enough volatile matter to give a non-luminous flame and
easy ignition, as seen in coalite and carbo.

(3) Non-bituminous coal, such as anthracite.

~ Coke, the solid product of high-temperature distilla-
''n, has never found favour with the middle and upper
isses as a domestic fuel, owing to prejudice against it
^ause of its being somewhat difficult to ignite and not
rning freely, and its chief market has been for steam-
sing and other manufacturing purposes, verv little find-
:: its way into the householder's grate. The result is
It, had not carburetted water gas offered a convenient
d economical way of using it in the gas works, manv
■npanies would have found great difficulty in keeping

the price during the years that coal was cheap.

It must be remembered, however, that during the past

ee years the great gas industry has been in a transi-

^" stage, and England is slowly following the lead of

^ Continent in recognising the fact that great economies

to be found in carbonising coal for gas-making in

T^\, ^^^""^^^ ^^^" J^^ve ever before been attempted,

a the introduction of vertical and oven retorts is un-

-ibtedly a step in the direction of making a coke which

NO. 2148. VOL. 85]

shall be more fitted for a domestic fuel than the over-
heated product made in the horizontal retorts of late
years.

The large amount of attention centred upon the pro-
duction of a smokeless fuel during the past three years
has led to the introduction of several processes for
improving the coke during gas manufacture, which,
although leading to little or no improvement, have enabled
the product to be sold under a fancy name, and have done
a certain amount of good by inducing consumers to try
under another name the coke which prejudice would have
damned untried.

The second class of smokeless fuel, and the one which
many scientific men look upon as the most promising
solution to the smoke problem, owes its inception to
Colonel Scott Moncrieff, who many years ago suggested
the use of a half-coked coal as a fuel supply, and tried
to make a commercial article by carbonising coal at the
ordinary gas-retort temperature, drawing the charge when
half the usual volume of gas had been distilled out from
it. Two factors, however, led to failure, the one being
that the time was not ripe, and the second that the means
by which he proposed to carry out his entirely admirable
idea, being dependent upon the ordinary gas-works prac-
tice, had to be carried out under certain conditions which
led to a want of uniformity in the fuel, and to certain
difficulties which those who tried to make it failed to
overcome.

The idea, however, of a semi-carbonised coke which
should still contain enough volatile matter to give easy
ignition and a cheerful flame without any smoke, was
independently revived under the name of " Coalite."

This differs from the fuel proposed by Colonel Scott
Moncrieff in that, instead of shortening the period of
carbonisation at a high temperature, the temperature is
reduced to one half the ordinary, and is continued in suit-
able retorts until a uniform coke, containing 12 to 15 per
cent, of volatile matter, is formed. In both processes
there is the fatal defect — from a gas manufacturer's point
of view — that less than one half the volume of gas is
obtained per ton of coal, and as the all-conquering career
of the incandescent mantle has rendered a high candle-
power gas unnecessary, the rich gas yielded is not looked
upon as an equivalent attraction.

The coalite process has the great advantages over the
older process that the fuel is of greater uniformity, and
that tlie yield of tar is doubled instead of being decreased,
and is greatly enhanced in value.

Coalite has created so much interest that, as was onlv
natural, the Moncrieff process was revived, and the pro-
duct is well known under the name of " Carbo."

Coalite appears at present to be labouring under difficul-
ties, but I am convinced now, as I was when I first
examined the process, that when its manufacture is
properly handled coalite will be the ideal fuel, and will
not only solve the smoke problem in the easiest possible
way, but will also be an important economic advance in
our treatment of coal.

The use of a non-bituminous coal like anthracite would
result in smokeless and very hot combustion, but here
again the objection is that stoves with a special draught
would have to be used, and the initial cost would prevent
its use ever being adopted, besides which any great demand
for this kind of fuel would at once send up the price to
a prohibitive figure.

If the consumer can be induced to take the trouble, a
very good semi-smokeless fuel can be made by using a
mixture of two-thirds coke to one-third coal, and instead
of piling up the grate with cold fuel when the fire burns
low, to add the fresh fuel frequently in small quantities,
so as to prevent the deadening of the top heat of the fire :
but this is diminishing, not killing, the evil.

Leaving the smokeless solid fuels, which I believe will
in the future play a very big part in the cleansing of
town air, we now come to the gaseous fuels, and here at
once we have ready to hand a solution of the difficultv
in the use of coal gas. Gas fires, gas cookers, gas water-
heaters, gas engines, have all been developed to a point
which leaves no valid excuse for overlooking their claims,
and ever since Bunsen in the early 'fifties gave us the
atmospheric burner, in which non-luminous combustion is
obtained and smoke rendered impossible, coal gas has

294

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

steadily progressed in favour for heat and power as well
as light, until at the present time nearly as much is used
for the one as for the other.

What, then, stands in the way of its universal adop-
tion ? First and foremost, initial cost crops up, as
although much has been done by the companies in
popularising gas stoves by letting them out on hire, by
easy payment systems, and by looking after their main-
tenance, the consumers must pay something, and that is
sufficient to damp their ardour as smoke reformers.
Secondly, gas is a little more expensive for continuous
heating than coal, although when used for short periods,
as for fires in bedrooms, &c., the fact that you turn it on
when you want the fire and turn it off when it is done
with brings the fuel cost to nearly the same as coal, whilst
in such places as Widnes and Sheffield, where the price
has been reduced to a minimum for heat and power, the
gas engine and gas fire well hold their own.

The chief sentimental objections to the gas fire — its
non-pokerbility and one's not being able to throw cigar
stumps and ash into it — are disposed of by a suggestion
made first, I believe, by Sir W. Siemens some thirty years
ago, and that is to decompose bituminous coal into coke,
tar, and gas in our gas works, and to reunite the true heat
producers, coke and gas, in our fire grates sans the smoke-
producing tar — to do, in fact, with coal what was done
by Chevreul a century ago with tallow, when he con-
verted the tallow dip into the composite candle.

All the initial outlay needed for this is to fit the atmo-
spheric burner arrangements of the gas stove to any
ordinary fire grate, so arranging them that they can be
made to swing back clear of the fire when they have done
their work of bringing to bright combustion the gas coke
used as fuel in the grate. This has always seemed to
me to be the best economic method of using the products
of gas manufacture, because it would be impossible to use
either gas or coke alone to entirely supplant the use of
bituminous coal ; a market must be made for the by-
products if prices are to be kept down and, as we hope,
still further reduced, but if the use of gas and coke could
both be increased, the gas manager could afford a diminu-
tion in the price of tar from over-production, as he has
already ruined the tar market by overheating his retorts,
and so loading the tar with free carbon and naphthalene
as to make it nearly worthless.

As I have before pointed out, to my mind the best
solution of the dual question of the most economical use
of coal and the cleansing of our atmosphere is to be found
in low-temperature carbonisation and the production of
such fuels as coalite, because every constituent of the coal
is utilised in the best way ; but when we see how little
expense and personal trouble is needed to attain smoke-
less combustion in other ways, it becomes evident that the
mere provision of means to bring about the desired end
is entirely insufficient. How can the societies interested
in smoke abatement influence the hundreds of thousands
of small consumers whose chimneys make the morning
cloud ; they may make their doctrines felt in the West
End, but will they ever touch the seething population of
the workers' quarters of the town?

One is gravely told that legislation should be passed
dealing with the question, and that the use of bituminous
coal should be forbidden ; but I think this is scarcely
feasible, and unless we revert to the conditions of i'^o6,
when a citizen of London was executed for using bitu-
minous coal, I doubt its being effective ; but I do believe
that if a future Chancellor of the Exchequer would put a
55. tax on bituminous coal, exempting that used for gas-
making, smokeless fuel manufacture, and for use by those
burning it in smoke-preventing forms of grate or furnace,
the question would quickly be solved, coal economised, and
smoke abolished.

UNIVERSTTV AND EDUCATIONAL

INTELLIGENCE.

Sir T. Carlaw Martin, editor of the Dundee Advertiser,

has been appointed by the Lords of the Committee of

Privy Council on Education in Scotland, director of the

Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh.

Prof. G. R. Thompson, professor of mining. University
of Leeds, has been appointed professor of mining at the

NO. 2148, VOL. 85]

South African School of Mines and Technology, Johannes-
burg, and principal of the college.

The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc-
tion for Ireland has issued in pamphlet form an illustrated
account of technical instruction in Londonderry, by Mr.
G. E. Armstrong, principal of the Londonderry Municipal
Technical School, which was published recently in the
Department's Journal (vol. xi., No. i).

The report of a higher education subcommittee of the
London County Council Education Committee, recently
prepared, provides interesting information as to the alloca-
tion of grants to secondary schools aided by the Council.
The income of aided secondary schools is derived from
four main sources : — endowment. Board of Education
grant, fees, and grants from the Council. The actual
receipts for the school year 1909-10 under the four head-
ings in order were 45,132!., 52,326/., 101,256/., and
37,398/., making a total of 236,112/. The estimated
receipts for 1910-11 — for the aided schools, which number
forty-two — are, under the same headings, 46,589/.,
52,653/., 97,181/., and 38,203/., amounting to 234,626/.
The amounts mentioned under fees include the fees of
London County Council's scholars, which in the forty-two
schools mentioned were in 1909-10 37,938/., and are
estimated for 1910-11 at 37,144/. It will thus be seen
that the total Council grant to aided secondary schools in
London was in 1909-10 75,334/., and will be in 1910-11

75.347^-

A COPY of the annual report of the 114th session of
the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College,
which was adopted by the governors last September, has
been received. The progress of the college in regard to
the number of students, as well as standard of work,
continues to be satisfactory. While the number of in-
dividual evening students has increased in five years by
30 per cent., class enrolments and " student hours " have
increased by more than 45 per cent. The fourth and last
section of the new buildings has now been completed, and
provides accommodation for the department of textile
manufacture. The new school of navigation, to which the
Glasgow City Educational Endowments Board has under-
taken to make an annual subsidy of 500/., has now been
organised and opened. In their report the governors
acknowledge the receipt of additional grants, amounting
to 26,866/., from the Scotch Education Department
towards the building and equipment fund, and a grant of
3000/. from the trustees of the late Mr. Alexander
Fleming.

The eighteenth annual distribution of prizes and certifi-
cates was held at the Borough Polytechnic on Monday,
December 19. Mr. J. Leonard Spicer (chairrnan of
governors) presided, and in the course of his opening re-
marks referred to the great progress made by the institute
during the year, the record number of class entries being
more than 5000, showing an increase of more than 500.
That the work was appreciated was shown by the
numerous visits paid by i>ersons from all parts of the
world interested in education, and as a result of one_ of
these visits a request had been received from the High
Commissioner to the Australian Commonwealth for a set
of specimens of metal work executed by the boys of the
day school, and the Japanese Commissioner, on behalf of
his Government, applied for the metal work of the boys'
day school, the specimens from the printing classes, and
the work of the oils, colours, and varnish department, that
had been displayed at the Japan-British Exhibition. The
principal, Mr. C. T. Millis, reported the satisfactory
examination results, and stated that thirteen medals had
been gained in examinations conducted by the City and
Guilds of London Institute, the Royal Society of Arts, and
other public bodies. Lord Lytton urged the students of
the polytechnic to do their utmost to realise the ideals
which the founders of that institution had in mind when
the polytechnic was first established. Was there ever a
more pathetic sight, he asked, than to see a man who had
suffered all through his life from lack of opportunity, and
he thought the polytechnics were established with the object
of equalising opportunities for all in the competition in
life. The polytechnics should in addition stimulate among
the students a sense of the duties and responsibilities of
citizenship.

December 29, 19 10]

NATURE

295

Judging from a speech by Mr. Beeby, the Minister of
Public Instruction at Milthorpe, on November 3, a report
of which has reached us, education in all its grades is
likely to receive generous treatment from the new Labour
Government in New South Wales. Among other develop-
ments in education which it is proposed to foster is the
inauguration of continuation and trade schools, and a
large extension of technical schools, with the view of
keeping boys and girls who leave school at an early age
to enter " blind-alley " employments under observations
and under the influence of active and interested minds
much older than their own. New regulations as to the
high schools are under consideration also. Their main
object is to establish a well-defined course of secondary
education in certain selected schools, and in that way to
abolish the present unsatisfactory position of superior
1 public schools in which children get a smattering of educa-
tion without any definite result. These regulations provide
for the establishment of high schools, the abolition of
tuition fees — the periods and character of instruction in
high schools and superior public schools differentiating the
two types — the institution of certificates of attainments,
and the localisation of scholarships within districts, to
secure their distribution throughout the States. The
Government believes also that reforms in the constitution
of the university are necessary before any serious increase
in State subsidies is considered, and this matter is under
consideration. As regards the question of compulsory
attendance at continuation and trade schools, the Govern-
ment proposes to face an alteration of industrial laws to
provide for the shortening of the working hours of boys
and girls up to the age of eighteen, and their attendance
at school for a certain number of hours each week. It
is satisfactory to find that the new Government of New
South Wales believes that the people of this State will
support cheerfully any proposal for a large increase in the
education vote so long as the money is spent wisely, and
will make every effort to carry out the reforms indicated.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

London.
Zoological Society, December 13. — Mr. G. A. Boulenger,
F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — E. S. Goodrich :
The segmentation of the occipital region of the head in
the batrachia Urodela. This paper was based upon the
author's studies of the development of the head region of
the Axolotl iAmblystoma tigrinum). The head of the
Axolotl contained three segments behind the auditory cap-
sule. Three metaotic somites were developed in these
segments, of which the first soon disappeared, and the
second and third contributed to the formation of the
temporal muscle. To the first segment belonged the glosso-
pharyngeal nerve, to the next two the vagus. The
occipital condyles were developed between the third and
fourth somites. The two hypoglossal roots corresponded
to the fourth and fifth metaotic segments, and passed out
in front of the first and second vertebrje. In the Amniota
all these segments were included in the head. The skull
of an amphibian was thus shorter than that of a mammal,
yet the condyles were homologous in the two animals.
The shifting backwards or forwards of the condyles was
brought about, not by the inter- or ex-calation of segments,
but by a transposition from one segment to another. The
shifting of the condyles was comparable to the transposition
of the limbs on the trunk-segments. — Oldfield Thomas :
The mammals of the tenth edition of Linnaus : an attempt
to fix the types of the genera and the exact bases and
localities of the species. It was shown that by the use
of tautonymy the types of nearly all the Linnae'an genera
could be definitely fixed, the conclusions arrived at by this
means agreeing in most cases with common usage. The
type of Simia^ however, would not be S. satyrus, but
S. sylvana, and of Dasypus D. novemcinctus instead of
D. sexcinctus, the consequences of which changes were
pointed out. Pygathrix, as represented by the two species
nemaeus and nigripes, was shown to be generically distinct
from Presbytis, so that the latter name still remained avail-
able for the ordinary Langurs. Changes in specific names,
due to a complete examination, were shown to be less
numerous than might have been expected, while the

NO. 2148, VOL. 8sl

stability of mammalian nomenclature was much increased
by avoiding the danger of what such an examination might
lead to. Type localities, derived from the original authors
quoted by Linnaeus, w^ere defined for a considerable number
of the species. — Dr. W. E. Hoyle : Report of the Inter-
national Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. A dis-
cussion of the report followed on the portion relating to
the formation of an official list of most frequently used
zoological names. The feeling of the meeting was very
strongly in favour of the International Congress giving its
authority to the formation of a list of zoological names,
the significance of which should not be altered by appli-
cation of the rules of the international code. It was
unanimously agreed to accept the action of the Congress if
it would adopt this course.

Royal Meteorological Society, Decembtr 21. — Mr. H.
Mellish, president, in the chair. — Captain C. H. Ley :
Report on balloon experiments carried out at Blackpool
in the early part of the year. The proposal was to employ
balanced pilot balloons, which, floating in a current with
no upward or downward hydrogen velocity, would repre-
sent the motion of a particle travelling in that current.
Difficulties, however, arose which prevented the scheme
being carried out as originally planned. Ultimately, a
hydrogen balloon, or twin-system of hydrogen balloon and
heavy satellite, was so valved as to have a large lift at
first, but to continuously lose gas under the action of a
leak until a certain point is reached, when the valve
closes, when in accordance with previous adjustment it is
nearly in equilibrium. The vertical motion of a fresh
wind blowing over a flat country is very slight as a whole,
but subject to marked variation on special occasions. In
the lowest stratum in the late afternoon there is frequently
a large descending current. The apparent effect of a river
is to check the wind velocity and cause a downward move-
ment of air over the whole area of the river valley. —
Captain C. H. Ley : The meteorological significance of
small wind and pressure variations. In this paper the
author compared the " ya wings " of the wind at Black-
pool with the small variations of atmospheric pressure as
recorded by the microbarograph. — Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt :
Atmospheric waves of short period.

Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, December 21. —
Mr. Edgar Taylor, president, in the chair. — F. Gillman :
Malaga magnetites. In a previous paper the author sug-
gested that the magnetites of Malaga, Spain, were
originated by segregation from the peridotite magma, and
the present paper was written to confirm this suggestion
after a detailed examination of one characteristic deposit
at Estepona. This deposit is intimately related to the
serpentinised peridotite which constitutes the entire mass
of the adjacent mountains, and is about half a mile
distant from the nearest metamorphic or sedimentary-
rocks, and the results of work executed on the ore body
serve to show that the deposit consists of serpentine,
which is sterile above a certain line, and more or less
ore-bearing below. — R. W. Hannam : A method of
raising bore-casings from a pontoon. This brief note
describes a simple method of withdrawing bore-casings
from a river bed by means of the surplus buoyancy of
native pontoons. A crowd of natives was employed to
weigh down the pontoon, and the bore-casing was secured
to it when thus depressed. At a given moment the natives
sprang overboard, and the buoyancy of the pontoon was
sufficient to withdraw the bore-casing. — H. C. Bayldon :
Notes on Chilian mills in Russia. The author provides a
useful and instructive treatise on the slow-running Chilian
or " edge-runner " mill invariably used in Russia for
crushing gold ores as a preliminary to amalgamation, &c.
After a brief historical summary the paper deals with a
description of the standard type of Chilian mills now in
use, and of the milling methods adopted in Russia, and
this is followed by notes on an improved type of Chilian
mill and milling plant recently introduced. The descrip-
tions are suitably illustrated, and there are ample statistics
relating to mills and their efficiency. The author is of
opinion that, if the same amount of thought and attention
were devoted to the development of this type of mill as
has been given to the heavy stamp-tube mill combination
in South Africa, it would prove a serious rival and give
a product nearer to the ideal aimed at on that goldfield.

296

NATURE

[December 29, 1910

Manchester.

Literary and Philosophical Society, November 15, —
Mr. Francis Jones, president, in the chair. — Dr. W.
Makower and Dr. S. Rubs : Note on scattering during
radio-active recoil. During experiments on the recoil of
radium B from radium A, not only did a surface directly
exposed to the recoil stream become active, but surfaces
situated outside the direct stream also received active
deposit. It was thought that these effects were due to
scattering from the surfaces upon which the recoil atoms
fell, and experiments were made to test this. These
were carried out in a high vacuum, and a plate was
mounted in such a way that it was outside the recoil
stream coming from an active wire coated with radium A,
but so that recoi) atoms scattered from a copper reflector
could reach it. When the plate was examined it was
found to be active, and by measuring its rate of decay
with an a-ray electroscope, more than half of the active
matter proved to be radium C, and not radium B. This
result can be explained if, when the radium B impinges
on the reflector, a small portion of it is scattered on to
the plate, but the greater part remains on the reflector
and subsequently gives rise to radium C, a small fraction
of which is then directly projected on to the plate. —
D. M. S. Watson : Upper Liassic Reptilia. Part iii. :
Microcleidus and on the genus Colymbosaurus.

November 29. — Mr. Francis Jones, president, in the
chair. — Prof. A. Schwartz and Philip Kemp : Some
physical properties of rubber. Pure rubber strip which
has not previously been extended has a large coefficient
of linear expansion when tested under loads just sufficient
to keep the strip straight. The behaviour of rubber when
heated under tension was found to be more complex than
had previously been supposed. The previous history of the
rubber as to whether it has been previously extended or
not largely affects the result. The modulus of elasticity
of the rubber probably changes with load and tempera-
ture. Considerable change takes place in pure rubber
when rested in air for some time at normal temperatures,
the strips, which were originally translucent and flexible,
becoming opaque and hard. An opaque, hard, and com-
paratively inextensible condition can be obtained by slightly
warming a pure rubber strip and rapidly extending it as
far as possible by hand. On keeping it extended thus for
a few seconds and then removing the tension it will be
found that the rubber remains extended in an opaque
condition, but can be brought back to its original
dimensions and condition by the application of slight heat.
The mecHanical hysteresis of rubber has been studied and
applied to the testing of rubber. The hysteresis machine
was described. A test-piece of rubber, subjected to a
series of complete cycles of extension and retraction, was
shown to increase in length, according to a logarithmic
law, with respect to the numbers of the cycles. The
slow stretch of rubber under a constant load also follows
a logarithmic law with respect to time. The work done
in extension, in retraction, and in the rubber itself, was
shown to be proportional to the cross-sectional areas of
the specimens.

Dublin.

Royal Irish Academy, December 12.— Dr. F. A. Tarleton
president, in the chair. — G. H. Pethybridgre and Paul A.
Murphy : A bacterial disease of the potato plant in
Ireland, and the organism causing it. The authors
describe a bacterial disease of the potato plant of frequent
occurrence in Ireland, and give an account of the organism
which they isolated from diseased plants, and with which
successful inoculations were carried out on healthy plants
and tubers. It is a multiflagellate peritrichous bacillus,
liquefying gelatine and producing decay in the living
tissues of a variety of plants in addition to the potato.
It resembles in many respects other organisms which have
been found causing similar diseases in potatoes both in
the Old and New Worlds, but does not appear to be
identical with any of them. The name Bacillus melano-
genus is proposed for it. — A. W. Stelfox and Robert
Welch : A list of the land and fresh-water Mollusca of
Ireland. In the introduction the authors give a short
risumi of the work which has been done in this branch
of natural history in Ireland from the time of Captain
Thomas Brown to the present day. This includes a list
of species added to the Irish molluscan fauna since the

NO, 2148, VOL. 85]

publication of Dr. Scharff's valuable work in 1892. The
paper is divided into three parts ; first comes the list
proper, which includes only bona fide records, i.e. records
which are backed up by specimens ; secondly, a list of
doubtful and erroneous records ; and, lastly, a complete
list of all species which are known to have been intro-
duced into Ireland in recent years. These are mainly
confined to greenhouses and nursery gardens. In the
list proper the authors give notes on the principal
variation of many of the species, especially that variation
which tends to be of interest to those who study the
geographical distribution of plants and animals. A full
bibliography accompanies the paper. — H. Wallis Kew : A
synopsis of the false scorpions of Britain and Ireland. The
arachnidan order Pseudoscorpiones is represented in the
British Islands by twenty-two species, one of which, un-
known in Britain, is confined in Ireland to the extreme
south-west.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

MONDAY, January 2.

Aristotelian Society, at 8.— The Standpoint of Psychology : Benjamin
Dumville.

Society of Chemical Industry, at 8.— The Determination of Sucrose
(Cane Sugar) in Sugar Factory Products by Clerget's Process using
Invertase as Hydrolyst : J. P. Ogilvie.— The Testing of Incandescent
Mantles : J. H. Coste and W. E. F. Powney.— Radiation Errors in Flow
Calorimeters : J. H. Coste and B. R. James.

THURSDAY, January 5.

R8NTGEN Society, at 8.15.— The Radioactivity of Thorium : Prof.
Rutherford.

CONTENTS. PAGE

Malaria Prevention. By W. B. L 263

The British Museum Collection of Fossil Reptiles.

By R. L 264

Electro-Cardiograms. By Prof, John G. McKen-

drick, F,R.S 265

Australian Tribes 267

Some Critical Species of Veronica. By A. B. R, . 267

School Drawing 268

Our Book Shelf 268

Letters to the Editor:—

.\ Biological Inquiry into the Nature of Melanism in

Amphidasis betularia, Linn. — H, S. Leigh , . . 270
Protection from "White Ants" and other Pests. —

Will, A. Dixon . . 271

January Meteors. — ^John R. Henry 271

Excavations in Crete, {Illustrated.) By H. R, Hall 272

The Lead Glaze Question 273

The New Encyclopaedia of Sport. {Illustrated.) By

R. L 274

Western China. {Illustrated.) By J. T 275

The Calorimetry of Man. By Prof. J. S, Mac-

donald 276

Notes 277

Our Astronomical Column : —

The Spectrum of the America Nebula ....... 282

The Movements of Certain Stars, in Space, Compared

with that of the Sun 282

The Italian Observatoiies 282

Astronomy at the Brussels Exhibition 282

Tracing the Solar Corona in Lunar Observations . . 283

Annual Publications . . 283

American Hydrography. {Illustrated.) By B, C. . 283

Palaeontological Papers. By G. A. J. C 284

A Monograph of the Jelly fishes. {Illustrated.) . . 285

Measures of the Solar Parallax 287

American Vertebrate Palaeontology 287

The Influence of River Systems in the East ... 2J
Recent Progress in Electric Lighting. By Prof.

E. W. Marchant 2i

Smoke and its Prevention. By Prof. Vivian B.

Lewes 290

University and Educational Intelligence 294

Societies and Academies 295

I Diary of Societies 296

NA TURE

297

THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 191 1.

1 CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF
EVOLUTION.
I'he Coming of Evolution. The Story of a Great
Revolution in Science. By Prof. J. W. Judd, C.B.,
F.R.S. Pp. iv+171. (Cambridge Manuals of
Science and Literature.) (Cambridge : University
Press, 1910.) Price 15. net.

SO much has been written within the last few
years about the history of evolution and its
founders that the first question that arises on meeting
ith the title of this new work is whether it is pos-
sible to say anything new upon a subject which has
already been dealt with so fuuy by the founders of
'le doctrine themselves, or has been handled from
• many different points of view by the historians
: science and philosophy. The title of the little
olume under notice need not, however, act as a
> terrent, because in the first place the name of the
Liihor will command the confidence of scientific
aders, and, in the next place, because, in the words
i the general prospectus, the series of small manuals
) which it belongs is

not intended primarily for school use or for young
ginners. The educated reader often experiences a
.fficulty in obtaining short books in which recent
iscoveries or modern tendencies are treated in a
mi-popular and broad style."

With the objects thus set forth we are in complete

mpathy. There is ample scc^e, not to say a crjing
need, for the authoritative enlightenment of the pub-
lic mind on scientific questions. With respect to the
present contribution to the series it is only necessary
to remind readers of the fact that Prof. Judd is among
that small and diminishing group of men who can
claim to have been personally acquainted with Scrope,
Lyell, Darwin, and Huxley, and whose qualifications
for instructing the public on that subject which has
been placed in his hands are therefore of an exception-
ally high order.

By " The Coming of Evolution " the author means
both the preparatory work of the great pioneers in
geology, such as Hutton, Scrope, and Lyell, and the
history of the revelation of the working mechanism
of organic evolution by Darwin and Wallace. Of
course, there is not much scope for novelty as re-
gards the main facts in such a work since most of
the materials have been public propertv for many
years. It is in the handling of the material, in the
presentment of the history and in the personal touches
which here and there enliven the storj' with actual
reminiscences that will be found the chief interest
"nd value of this fascinating little book. As a

ologist it is but natural that the author should

bring into prominence the achievements in that

domain, and especially those of his own master,

Lyell, whom he places as the founder of inorganic

•volution side by side with Darwin as the founder

t organic evolution. With what feelings do we now

-ad of the great struggle — rapidly passing into

ancient history — between uniformitarianism and

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

catastrophism, of the pitying contempt with which
many of his contemporaries regarded "poor old
Lyell's fads," and of the nerx'ous caution which at
that period was necessar\- in order to circumvent the
odium theologicum. It may have been excusable in
those days to regard the uniformitarianism of Lyell
as synonymous with evolution. Yet it must not be
I forgotten that this inorganic evolution deals only with
the geological record, \^'hether catastrophism in any
form occurred during the period represented by that
record is a matter of geological evidence, and it is
with the geologists that the interpretation of the
evidence rests. The old view of terrestrial catas-
trophism has certainly been slain ; nevertheless, after
the heat of the fray, are we not justified on calm
consideration in rejecting the view that catastrophism
and evolution are antagonistic and irreconcilable?
The shedding of moons by planets, the outburst of
temporar}- stars and other cosmical phenomena of
castastrophic magnitude would appear to indicate that
nature's operations are not always carried out by
retail instalments. Evolution per saltum, so far as
the geological record teaches, may be ruled out ; never-
theless there was a period antecedent to that record,
and catastrophic development must be reckoned with
as part of the evolutionary machinery of the cosmos.
Thoughts of this kind and many other suggestive
Ideas will be prompted by the perusal of Prof. Judd's
condensed history. There are many points upon
which the various classes of readers to whom the
book appeals could enlarge, and there is very little
scope for criticism in the usual acceptation of the
term. Prichard, who in some measure forestalled
Galton and Weismann, did not spell his name
Pritchard. The statement (p. 155) that "the inherit-
ance of acquired characters and similar problems were
constantly present to Darwin's ever-open mind" may
be challenged, because — to our everlasting regret —
this question did not take an acute fcM-m until after
Darwin's death. There is only one passing allusion
to the subject in the " Origin of Species " (sixth
edition, p. 33), where it stated that such "' variations '
are supposed not to be inherited," but Dr. Francis
Darwin informed the writer some time ago,
when the passage was brought under his notice,
that he was unable to throw any light upon the
source of his father's authority for the statement,
nor has the present writer been able to ascertain by
whom this view was held in Darwin's time. Per-
haps some of the readers of this notice may be able
to supply the necessan- information.

But these are only small points. From what has
been said concerning the volume as a whole it is
evident that we are indebted to the author for a most
readable and instructive summar}-, which appeals not
only to the educated public for which it is intended,
but which ought to be read, and read carefully, by
students of natural science. Prof. Judd, upon whom
manv of the present generation of geologists can now
look as their teacher, survives as a living witness of
that great campaign, carried on in the arena of
science, which resulted in the overthrow of the ancient
cosmogony and the demolition of that narrow
teleolog)' which hampered scientific progress in ever)'

298

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

direction down to the middle of the last centur}'. It
is well that he has given us this short epitome
with the history of modern evolution still fresh in his
mind, for the present-day student is apt to forget the
services of the great masters who fought and won
on his behalf that battle which swept away the bar-
riers interposed in the path of scientific progress br
prejudice and bigotry, and opened up illimitable fields
for cultivation by later generations.

R. Mei.dola.

EDUCATION AND ENVIRONMENT.
Educational Aims and Efforts, 1880^1910. By Sir
Philip Magnus, M.P. Pp. xii + 288. (London:
Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.) Price ys. 6d.

net.

IT has been recently pointed out by a distinguished
educationist how the opening of each of the last
four centuries has been associated with far-reaching
educational reforms, and how the beginning of the
present century has seen for the first time a deter-
mined effort to grapple with the whole problem of
national education in England, In all its grades, as
one thing. The present moment, therefore, seems a
fitting opportunity for Sir Philip Magnus to have
collected together some of his more important con-
tributions to educational progress, which have been
rendered the more interesting and the more valuable
by a prefatory series of essays dealing with several
branches of educational activity.

It is, of course, easy to be wise after the event, and
especially is this true in the subject under considera-
tion, which, if it is regulated as it presumably is, or
shouM be, by certain fixed principles, yet the factors
on which these principles depend, and the data on
which they must be founded, are so vague, so change-
able, and so difficult of definition, that possibly much
may be said in mitigation of the blunders which
people in high places have made in the past. None
the less, it is difficult to put forward a national de-
fence for the neglect of educational reform on broad
scientific lines, and so long as this sphere of national
activity is regarded as the shuttlecock of party poli-
ticians, it is hopeless to expect a well-defined policy
which will be conformable to the changing conditions
of changing times.

When the history of that great movement which
was started by the Education Act of 1870, and vitalised
and broadened by the Act of 1902, comes to be written,
after its effects have been properly defined and the
results can be assessed, it will be seen more clearly
than can at present be done the extent to which the
nation is indebted to the labours of a body of men,
who were responsible in a far larger measure than is
commonly appreciated for the essentials of the re-
forms, and among the names of these assiduous
workers that of Sir Philip Magnus will occupy a dis-
tinguished place. In some way he has been connected
with nearly every branch of educational work during
the last thirty years, and although in the earlier days
of what may be termed the forward movement, he was
frequently in the minority, events have shown that
the minority is not always wrong, and it is due largely
to the zeal with which he and others, whose names
NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

are not less prominent, pleaded for the recognition o:
environment as one of the essential factors in deter-
mining the aims and ideals of any educational policy
that so many of the latter-day reforms are due. Th.
characteristic, however, which distinguishes the author
of " Educational Aims and Efforts " from some few
of his fellow-reformers, is a sense of proportion, com-
bined with a breadth of outlook, which gives to his
utterances a value denied to others.

To attempt in the small space at our disposal to
deal in any detail with the subjects comprised in the
present volume is out of the question. To do so
adequately would involve a survey of the educational
history of thirty years. The important part which
Sir Philip played in the advancement of technical
education is too well known to require notice, but in
these days when the cultivation of manual dexterity
and the practice of scientific method are beginning to
be regarded as within the scope of the ordinary
elementary school, it is interesting to recall some of
the earlier utterances of Sir Philip Magnus on those
points, made in the da5^s of payments by results.
Secondary education and university reform are also
indebted to him in a large measure, and the views
which he put forward in 1888 as to girls' education
"demanding full and careful consideration from the
point of view of suitableness to woman's wants,
woman's occupations, and woman's mission in life."
in spite of the progress which has been made in this
direction in the last decade, hold with equal force
to-day.

To those who take a broad view of education as
something that is inextricably bound up with the
social fabric, the essay on " Social Changes and School
Work " will be regarded as perhaps the most impor-
tant in the whole volume, and one cannot but recog-
nise, in spite of the controversial issues which it raises
— the consideration of which would demand an essay
in itself — that the great upheaval of late years in the
social condition of our wage-earning classes "renders
it necessary that we should reconsider by the light of
these changes the foundations on which our present
system of education is raised." From the point of
view of teacher and administrator alike the problem
is rapidly entering on a new phase ; and although no
one can predict with certainty what the next decade
may bring forth, it seems clear that, in the clash of
opposing tendencies, the attitude of uncompromising
hostility to the larger and mOre complex require-
ments of modern conditions and civic responsibilities
must give place to a spirit of scientific inquiry as to
the most effective and economic method of coordinat-
ing educational aims with national ideals. Education
is at present far from being an exact science; but
there is no reason why it should remain an aimless
experiment of misdirected zeal with the welfare of
the rising generation.

We may perhaps be allowed to express the hope
that the author will return to this problem at an early
date, and in the meantime can only trust that the
essay will receive that earnest consideration which it
demands in view of the rapidly changing phases of
social life and of the child's altered relation to the
State. F. H. N.

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

299

ENERGETICS AND MODERN PROBLEMS.
Die F order ung des Tages. By Wilhelm Ostwald.
Pp. vi + 603. (Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsgesell-
schaft m. b. H., 1910.)

IN Goethe's " Maximen und Reflexionen " there
occurs the passage: "Versuche deine Pflicht zu
un, und du weisst sogleich was an dir ist. Was
^ber ist deine Pflicht? Die Forderung des Tages."
I he author of the present volume tells us that this
passage expresses the spirit in which he has from
ime to time, particularly during the last few years,
attempted the solution of problems quite outside the
-phere of his original scientific activity. These
roblems cropped up in the course of the day's work,
nd, so far as the author was personally concerned,
nperatively demanded a solution. The numerous
rticles and speeches here collected represent Prof.
Ostwald's views on the most varied questions, such
,s personalit}-, immortality, the relation of art and
-cience, the theory of happiness, science and tech-
ology, duelling, international languages, and educa-
ional reform. These and many other topics are dis-
ussed in a highly stimulating manner, the originality
f the author's argument being equalled only by the
harm of his style and the wealth of illustration which
he has at his disposal. If one accepts the definition
of a professor as given by " Fliegende Blatter " — " der
Professor ist ein Mann welcher anderer Meinung ist "
— it may readily be granted that the author, with his
refreshing novelty of view, has fully earned the title.

The point of view from which all problems are
regarded is the one natural to the apostle of energetics,
whose attitude towards the more general questions
of philosophy and psychology has already been out-
lined in these columns (Nature, 1902, vol. Ixv., p. 265).
As the years have passed, however, Prof. Ostwald has
been led to study the bearing of energetics on ques-
tions which touch more closeh^ the life of the modern
community, and are certainly of greater interest
to the ordinary student of science and scientific
method.

If, with the author, we measure culture by the
extent to which the various sources of energy are
economically utilised for human purposes, then it is
natural to test the claims of every custom, every
social organisation, and every educational system by
the inquiry, How far does it contribute to the
economical utilisation of energy? It might be sup-
posed that the mental attitude of one who applies this
test to all human endeavour is hopelessly utilitarian.
But this is not true of Prof. Ostwald, who is con-
cerned to find a place in his scheme of things for the
higher and less immediately practical forms of man's
activity. In this connection the question of the utility
of works of art is of great interest. Prof. Ostwald,
it appears, makes a hobby of painting, and we may
be sure that he would at once forbid himself this
activity if he considered it to involve a waste of
energy. What, then, is a work of art, say a great
painting, from the point of view of energetics?
According to the present volume, the social value of
such a work of art depends on its catalytic action, on
its effect in making us better and happier beings, and
so contributing to the more efficient transformation
NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

of energy in our daily tasks. This point of view is
greatly in adv^ance of the ultra-materialistic one from
which a great painting is merely so much canvas, so
much oil, and so much pigment, but it is doubtful
whether the comparison with catalysis is anything
more than a mere analogy.

The prominence still given to the study of languages
in schools is condemned in no measured terms, and
the time devoted to Latin and Greek is described as
a sacrifice to a superstition. It is quite truly pointed
out that the learning of even a modern language,
with its innumerable exceptions to rules, tends to
destroy the child's natural sense of logic and to unfit
it for any future scientific work. From this position
it is but a step to the advocacy of an artificial inter-
national language, which shall be " synthesised " on a
thoroughly logical plan, and shall obviate the
necessity of learning foreign languages. It is the
economy of energy to be secured in this way that has
led Prof. Ostwald to take a prominent part in urging
the adoption of Ido, a simplified form of Esperanto.

" Die Forderung des Tages " is pervaded by a genial
optimism, based on the belief that the future of the
race is in the hands of science alone. The optimism
is welcome, although one might be inclined to argue
about the grounds for it. It may be noted only in
passing that Prof. Ostwald's belief leads him to. the
curious conclusion that the chauffeur belongs to a
distinctly higher order of being than the "cabby."

Throughout the book there are scattered many
delightful reminiscences of the author's experiences
at home and abroad. These only add to the interest
and charm of a volume which is well worth reading
whatever one may think of energetics.

J. C. P.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
Industrial England in the Middle of the Eighteenth
Century. By Sir H. Trueman Wood. Pp. xii +
197. (London : J. Murray, 1910.) Price 5s. net.

WE have in the volume before us an extremely
interesting sketch, expanded from an address
by the authcn- given at a meeting of the Society of
Arts, of the condition of British industries in the
eighteenth century. Perhaps no two periods in the
history of social evolution, which followed one another
closely, present greater contrast than the beginning
of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth
centuries. Indeed, so enormous was the change in-
volved that Sir Henry Wood considers it rather as an
•industrial revolution" than a stage in a process of
evolution.

The invention of machinery, then the discovery of
power to work that machinery, entirely altered the
character of the industries of this country, and thus so
modified the lives of its inhabitants that it is no
wonder that social equilibrium is still far from being
attained. Before entering into a ver\' able discussion
of the state of the various branches of industry up to
the middle of the century, Sir Henry gives us a vivid
description of the social conditions then prevailing
with regard to the means of intercommunication, and
the knowledge of scientific applications for doing the
work of the industrial wcrld.

;oo

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

Heathen begins with an account of the various
branches of the textile and other trades, deeply in-
teresting:, not only to those desiring a knowledge of
their history, but to all students of the economic posi-
tion at that time. One curious fact impresses itself
on the mind of the reader, that is, how greatly the
development of trade was hindered by the very means
used to encourage certain particular trades which were
protected by Government action. There was cer-
tainly no laissez-faire in those davs.

The most important and most ancient of British
manufactures was the woollen industry. It was in a
state of great prosperity in the eighteenth century,
and was even down to 1770 a domestic industry car-
ried out in the homes, of the farmers, who produced
the wool, and carded, spun, and wove it into cloth by
the help of their families and servants. Nearly all
farmers depended on this industry to enable them to
pay their rent. For its protection enactments were
passed to prevent the export of the raw material ; laws
were also passed to prevent the mixture of cotton and
wool or of linen and wool in weaving fabrics. It was
to prevent competition with this valuable trade that
one of the Parliaments of that period killed the Irish
woollen trade, particularly its blanket trade, by put-
ting an import duty on its roods. Sir Henry Wood
does not mention this fact, but he states that the
encouragement given to the Irish linen industry was
to prevent that country entering into competition with
England. In the eighteenth century, as now, Ireland
and Scotland seem to have been the chief manufac-
turers of linen.

Probably it was owing to these repressive regula-
tions that England was one of the last countries to
adopt the manufacture of cotton. The skill of her
spinners was only equal to producing verv coarse
cotton yarns. Beautiful muslins and calicoes were
imported from India, and became so popular that in
1760 it was made "penal for any woman to wear a
dress made of India calico." The wearing of French
cambrics was also penal. One of the most fascinating
sections of this volume contains the description of the
gradual growth of the cotton industry as machinery
was invented and perfected.

The making of linen and afterwards of cotton
thread was first initiated in the west of Scotland by a
woman named Christian Shaw; it rose to be an im-
portant trade, even in the eighteenth century, and its
products were largely imported to England for pur-
poses of lace making, then chiefly carried on in
Devonshire and Bucks.

At the beginning of the century under discussion the
manufacture of iron was at a very low ebb. Carried
out since Roman times by the use of charcoal derived
from wood, it had almost declined entirely owing to
the destruction of the woods, and consequent legisla-
tive restrictions. The author traces the gradual
development of the use of coal for smelting, beginning
about 1735, at Coalbrookdale, first of all.

At this same place the method of casting iron was

discovered and practised. Sheffield and Birmingham

were already making a reputation for metal goods,

including pewter, which was much used as a subsa-

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

tute for pottery. Until well into the middle of the
century England was. n>ainly dependent on France and
Holland for the commonest kinds of earthenware.

Sir Henry Wood tells us that this period, until
some time after the middle of the century, was not a
happy one for science or for scientific development,
and we therefore find that industries dependent on
scientific knowledge, such as the making of glass and
fine pottery, of brewing and other chemical processes,
were in a backward state.

Enough has been said to show what a wealth of
material has been skilfully put together, and this book
forms a most trustworthy source of information when
coming from one who is in such a position as the
secretary of the Royal Society of Arts.

SPECTROSCOPY.
The Spectroscope and its Work. By Prof. H. F.
Newall, F.R.S. Pp. 163 + viii Plates. (London :
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 19 10.)
Price 2s. 6d.

ALTHOUGH classed as a manual of elementary-
science, this little volume will be found to cover
a very wide range of the phenomena of spectroscopy.
The opening chapters are occupied with the first prin-
ciples of the undulatory theory, Newton's classic
experiments, and the description of a simple spectro-
scopic outfit. In chapters iv. and v. the reader is
introduced to the various types of emission spectra
shown by radiations from various sources, and to the
characteristics of absorption, including the solar
fraunhoferic and chromospheric spectra. Chapter vi.
deals verj' lucidly with the theoretical principles to be
considered in the design of spectroscopic equipment,
showing the relation between angular and linear dis-
persion, purity and resolving power of various disper-
sive media, &c. Coming next to the application of the
spectroscope to definite branches of research, it is
shown how, by the aid of large instruments of special
design, the spectra of the stars may be studied, re-
vealing their variation in chemical constitution. This
naturally leads to the s\'stems of classification which
have been proposed to deal with the complex group-
ings. In describing the fluted structure of the third-
type stars, such as a Orjonis, it would have been
more correct to speak of the maxima of absorption
being nearest to the violet instead of saying that the
brighter ends were towards the red, as it is usual to
regard the heads of flutings as taken for reference
to the positions of flutings. It is also perhaps unfor-
tunate for the student that so much space should be
given to the old, incomplete, and now little used
classifications, while the more comprehensive and
natural systems put forward of recent years are dis-
cussed in a few lines. The idea suggested on p. 81
that the maxima of the star Mira (o Ceti) are of the
nature of a conflagration is scarcely to be recom-
mended, especially when dealing with beginners, as
the practically unchanging character of the spectrum
of the star (apart from brilliancy) even at maxima pre-
cludes the probability of any such chemical changes
as must accompan)' the production of flame.

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

301

Chapter viii, is occupied with the method and pro-
'4ress of determining the motions of approach or re-

ssion of celestial bodies b)' Doppler's principle of
changes of wave-length.

The great field of solar observation is very efficiently
-immarised in chapters ix., x., and xi., including the
L\v results obtained by the use of the spectrohelio-
graph (a simple diagram such as is often used would
have been of value in rendering the explanation of this
instrument much easier); the phenomena of the pro-
iiiinences and reversing layer during a total solar
eclipse; the sun's rotation and that of the various
planets. In chapter xi. particular attention is given
to the spectra of terrestrial atmospheric phenomena
by the detection of special features in the solar spec-
trum at different altitudes.

Chapter xii. is devoted to a short outline of the
meth(xls of investigating long wave radiations.
The inductive method of presenting the reason-

g is very acceptable, and the beginner who has
lastcred the subject so far will be well equipped for
ntering on the more advanced branches of this
uricate section of sjjectroscopy.

The concluding three chapters deal with the physical
• ctions of spectroscopy. The various systems of har-
monic laws found so closely to represent certain tv'pes
of spectra are well described. Perhaps in the pre-
sentation of the diagrams to illustrate these it would
have been preferable to adopt the same scheme of
orientation for the spectra. Thus in Fig. 46 the red
end is to the right, with all the lines of the series
converging to the left or violet; while in Fig. 47 the
red end is towards the left, and although the series
lines really converge to the violet as before, it is con-
fusing for a beginner to have to find that things are
all turned the opposite way. This is all the more
important from the fact that there are series actually
converging in opposite directions. The phenomena of
diffraction and general use of gratings for producing
spectra are next given, though necessarily condensed.
In a manual avowedly written to induce readers to
repeat the experiments, mention might well have been
made of the fact that excellent replicas of original
Rowland gratings, both plane and concave, are now
readily obtainable at a moderate price, as it is not
often that an original grating is available for general
experimental purposes.

It will have been noticed that the description of the
application of the spectroscope has been almost con-
fined to its astronomical aspects; it should not be
forgotten that spectroscopic analysis is at present
playing an important part in the chemical and metal-
lurgical industries.

Eight plates are given at the end of the book, show-
ing various representative spectra. There is also a
large coloured plate as frontispiece showing certain
elemental and other spectra.

It will be evident from this summary that the book
under review should ser\e as a most useful intro-
duction to the study of spectrum analysis. It appro-
priately fills a position between the elementary primer
with little or no technical information and the more
formidable complete treatises which are admittedly
repellent to the beginner.

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

THE THEORY OF METALLOGRAPHY.
Metallography. By Dr. Cecil H. Desch. Pp. x +
429. (London : Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.)
Price gs.

"T^R. DESCH has evidently been at great pains to
J->' compile a work that shall give a fair idea of
the subject as a whole as it appeals to him, and he
is, above all, a theorist. It is a difficult work for the
writer to review, for two reasons : because it covers
practically the whole range of this enormous subject
and is therefore necessarily dogmatic on many matters
that, if disagreeing with the author, it would need
much space to discuss adequately ; and, secondlv, be-
cause he dismisses the whole Sheffield School thus : —
"This (the Osmond) hypothesis has been generally
accepted as the best expression of the known facts, in
spite of strong opposition from a (the Sheffield) school
of metallurgists . . ." although on pp. 363 and
364 we find rather contradictory- opinions, such as
"j8-iron was originally described by Osmond as a hard
variety of iron. It is more correct to say that it is
capable of forming solid solutions with carbon, which
become hard under certain conditions of cooling."

The " eutectic-times " method for fixing the eutectic
composition was used by Arnold in his "Influence of
Carbon on Iron " (Proc., Inst. C.E., 1895-6, part i.),
although Tammann is credited with its first use in
1903 (p. 18).

The author might with profit study "The Diffusion
of Elements in Iron," by Arnold and McWilliam,
I.S.I., 1899, No. I, instead of the preliminary an-
nouncement of 1898, which he quotes, and besides
further details on diffusion would find that these
authors used the quenching method then, in an
endeavour to judge of the condition of the carbon,
&c., at high temperatures. Also in connection with
the method of changing structure from that showing
Widmanstatten figures to granular, the author credits
the discover}' to Fraenkel and Tammann in 1908,
whereas the fundamentals of the matter were first
published by Arnold and Mc\Mlliam in Nature,
November 10, 1904, p. 32.

A good account is given of the diagram of thermal
equilibrium, and on p. 32 it is pointed out that the
intermetallic compounds do not conform to our ideas
of valency.

The sixth chapter is a good one on practical pyro-
metrj' and thermal analysis, but actual work on the
subject, and recent discussions have surely at last
made it plain, that the author is entirely mistaken in
his statement on p. 126 that " In accurate work on
the transformations of solids, however, one or other
of the difference methods is almost invariably
adopted." As recently as the Buxton meeting of the
Iron and Steel Institute, September, 1910, it was dis-
tinctly shown that in a o"2 per cent, carbon steel the
best workers by the difference method do not divide
the Ar, point, whilst those working with the present
modifications of Osmond's inverse-rate method divided
the A, point with ease, absolutely proving the supe-
rioritv' of the latter method.

Chapters vii. to xiii. deal w^ith the preparation of
micro-sections; crystallisation of metals and alloys;

;o2

NATURE

[January 5, 191 r

under-cooling and the metastable state ; diffusion in
the solid state ; physical properties of alloys ; and
electromotive force and corrosion. In chapter xiv. the
construction of the equilibrium diagram is clearly
explained, and the remainder of the book deals
with the condition of metals in alloys, plastic deforma-
tion, the metallography of iron and steel, and the
metallography of industrial alloys.

The present writer has made many notes on points
in these chapters, as p. 222, "white cast-iron, marten-
site and cementite," instead of pearlite and cementite.
The author is good on the difficult subject
of hardness. P. 276, aluminium alloys have " a
lower hysteresis than the purest specimens of iron
. . . probably due to ... removing oxygen." This
is more likely to be due to the larger crystals formed,
and the author, in such a theoretical work, might use
the term "crystal" occasionally instead of "crystal
grain."

In the chapter on the metallography of iron and
steel there is so much that is erroneous that it is im-
possible to deal with it properly, but as an example
the statement on p. 374 that "A tool steel containing
i"6 per cent, carbon, quenched from 800° C. in ice-
water, consists of pure martensite," is meaningless.

The work is, however, one that every student of
metallography should possess, for although there are
so many points in it with which one does not agree,
the author has given on the whole a fair account of
theoretical matters connected with metallography, has
scoured the literature of the subject, even extending
to Russian, and has giv^en copious references which
must prove useful to those investigating the problems
of metallography, who desire with a minimum expen-
diture of time to find out what has been done on their
particular branch. A. McWilliam.

PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY.
Practical Physiological Chemistry. By Dr. R. H.
Aders Plimmer. Pp. viii + 270. (London: Long-
mans, Green and Co., 19 10.) Price 65. net.
THIS is really the second edition of Dr. Aders
Plimmer's excellent manual. The first appear-
ance of the book was privately printed for use in the
practical classes of physiological chemistry at Univer-
sity College, London, but a good many copies were
distributed to other teachers, and to the Press. A
favourable notice of this preliminary edition appeared
in the pages of Nature at the time. The publication
of the book for general sale is an indication of the
way in which the teachers of the subject welcomed
the new departure in the presentation of the subject.
For it is a new departure ; hitherto works on the
subject have been written by physiologists ; the pre-
sent book is written by a chemist ; it is physiological
chemistry as opposed to chemical physiology.

The increasing exactitude of knowledge in the
chemistry of those carbon compounds which are the
constituents or products of living matter warrants the
appearance of a book written to show that physio-
logical chemistry is only a branch of organic chemistry,
and Dr. Aders Plimmers has been successful in show-
ing the connection of the two by the insertion of the
appropriate and logical links which unite the intro-
NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

ductory chapters on organic chemistry proper with
its daughter science.

The main aim of the work is to make it a trust-
worthy practical guide, and no laboratory worker
can afford to be without it. Its ideal is that every
student shall work through all the exercises; these
are set out with detail and in a clear manner, so that
there is no reason why the student should fail to do
so under his teachers, except that of time, and time
is a very important factor for students of medicine,
to whom the work is primarily addressed. In the
medical curriculum, the number of subjects is grow-
ing every year, and each one of these is expanding
and seeking to encroach more and more on the un-
fortunate student's already too-full day. Teachers
are already seeking means to Ihnit in particular
certain preliminary subjects, and to exclude those
portions which have but little direct bearing on his
future practical life. There is no subject, however,
which has such a direct bearing on medical practice
as phjsiological chemistry ; its relationships to
pathology become clearer with everj' advance in know-
ledge ; if there is one subject more than any other
which should not be curtailed, that subject is
physiological chemistry. W. D. H.

SYSTEMATIC BOTANY.
Das Pflanzenreich. Regni vegetabilis conspectus.
Edited by A. Engler, Vol. iv., pt. 104. Papa-
veraccae-Hypecoideae et Papaveraceae-Papaveroi-
deae. By Friedrich Fedde. Pp. 430. (Leipzig : W.
Engelmann, 1909.) Price 21.60 marks.

THIS volume forms the fortieth part of the great
series of nionographs in course of publication
under Dr. Engler 's editorship. It comprises the family
Papaveraceae as understood in the restricted sense,
that is, without the Fumariaceae ; the account
of these will be issued subsequently as Papaveraceae-
Fumarioideae. The special portion of the work, the
systematic treatment of genera and species, is pre-
ceded by a general account of the family occupying
eighty-three pages, in which Dr. Fedde discusses the
morphology and anatomy of the vegetative organs.
with special reference to the value for systematic
purposes of the anatomical characters ; the position of
the laticiferous vessels and the character of the latex
is found most helpful in this respect. The floral
structure and its modifications are discussed at con-
siderable length, and also the fruit, especially the
various mechanisms of dehiscence. There is also a
useful section on geographical distribution, a discus-
sion of the affinities of the family, and an account of
its economic uses.

The great value of these monographs lies, however,
in the systematic portion, which should represent the
results of the work of an expert student of the family
on all the available material. Dr. Fedde is known as
an authority on the Papaveraceae, and we look to his
monograph for a careful and considered systematic
presentation of the family. It is somewhat surprising
therefore to note the treatment of the earlier genera
of Papaveroideae which, as Platystemon and Esch-
scholtzia, are confined to Pacific North America, in

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

303

ISentham and Hooker's " Genera Plantarum," these
genera are credited with one and four to five species
respectively, and while we might expect some increase
in the number of known species since the date of issue
of that volume, it is with somewhat of a shock that
we find Plat3Stemon credited with fifty-five and Esch-
-choltzia with 123 species. In Platystemon forty-nine

A the species are of Greene and six of Fedde, in
Eschscholtzia 104 of Greene and twelve of Fedde.
Prof. E. L. Greene, we believe, holds views as to the

•rigin of species which do not accord with those
generally accepted, and these views are no doubt re-

ponsible for the description of species based on char-

lCter^ which mij^ht otherwise be regarded as repre-
senting mere variants of a single species. Dr. Fedde
has not only adopted Dr. Greene's estimate, but added
ro the number. He perhaps shrank from the difficult
Msk of reducing the species to more workable pro-

■ortions, and took the path of least resistance. The
■ esult is, however, an increase in the number of those
-genera, which, like Crataegus in America, and Rubus

n the Old \\'orld, have been rendered hopelessly un-
Aorkable by any but the most devoted expert. This
nethod of treatment of some of the genera leads to

. want of uniformity in the work as a whole. Thus
mder the common poppy, Papaver rhoeas, are twent}-
~ix varieties and subvarieties, which probably have as
4ood claim to specific distinction as the '" species " of
Platystemon.

In dealing with the genera of Chelidonieae, Dr.
Fedde has followed the limitation of species accepted
by Dr. Prain, though he does not adopt his reduction

•1 several of the genera, Dicranostigma, Hylomecon,
and others, to subgeneric rank under Chelidonium.
On the whole, however, Dr. Fedde shows a dis-
inclination to differ from authority which we do not
rxpect from the expert who has exhaustively surveyed
the entire field of a large natural order. Thus under
Meconopsis, while accepting Dr. Prain 's sections, he
suggests with regard to two of these, Aculeatae and
Primulinae, that the division is not a natural one.

As regards the presentation of genera and species,
the descriptions are full, the synonymy and geograph-
ical distribution are carefully worked out, and collec-
tions and numbers are largely cited. The index is a
good one, but would be improved by the repetition of
the genus name at the head of each column, thus
avoiding the necessity for turning back to find the
genus to which the species names belong.

A. B. R.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Woodcraft for Scouts and Others. By O. Jones and
M. Woodward. Pp. 156. (London : C. Arthur
Pearson, Ltd., 1910.) Price 25. net.
That the present generation of country- people do not
-tudy woodcraft and field-lore with the zest and
thoroughness of their forefathers, is a regrettable fact
too well known to all capable of forming an opinion
<>n the subject. The nature-knowledge of the old-
fashioned shepherd has been replaced by a superficial
> ducation of a different class, which is of little or no
■Use to its possessor, and the intimate knowledge of
the creatures of the forest, field, and stream owned by
ihe professional poachers of a generation ago has to a

NO. 2149, VOL. 85I

considerable extent vanished with the diminution in
the numbers of that class in many districts. Nor is
this all, for ordinary country lads, m some counties at
any rate, show a lamentable lack of knowledge of the
names of wild plants and birds as compared with their
grandfathers. That the scout movement, if properly
conducted will do somemmg to improve this state of
affairs in the case of the rising generation is almost
certain, for it is obvious that to orient one's position
in a wood at night, to follow the trail of a suspect,
or to escape the attentions of an enemy is impossible
without a full knowledge of woodcraft in its widest
sense.

As an aid to knowledge of this nature, the excellent
little volume by Messrs. Jones and Woodward is very
opportune, if only it reaches the class for which it is
primarily intended. Both authors appear to have a
thorough grasp of their subject, and the amount of
information contained in their work is little less than
marvellous. In the tenth chapter there is perhaps a
little too much tendency to convert the young scout
into a rabbit poacher, and the expression on p. 136,
■' to break the law of trespass," is an indication that
the authors are not so well versed in the common law
of their own country as they might be. In treating
of the animals and plants of the countryside, the
authors are just as much at home as when discussing
old-fashioned country remedies, or the difference be-
tween wholesome and noxious funguses, and their
work as a whole leaves little or nothing to desire in
the matter of completeness and thoroughness.

R. L.

A School Course of Heat. By R. H. Scarlett. Pp.

xvi + 300. (London : Longmans, Green and Co.,

1910.) Price 3s. 6d.
This book is intended for the use of students who
have already passed through an elementary course in
general physics. The author devotes the first thirty
pages of the present volume to a recapitulation of the
elementary portions of heat. The rest of the book
deals with the more advanced parts of the subject
and touches briefly upon some points which do not
usually find a place in a school text-book.

The subject is developed throughout along the line
of practical work in the laboratory, but we do not
think the laboraton,- experiments are always well
chosen. In dealing with the errors of mercury ther-
mometers on p. 18, the author states that mercury is
not quite uniform in its expansion, and near 50° C.
on the scale, there will be a constant error amounting
to almost a degree. This error, of course, will depend
upon the glass, but one-tenth of a degree is nearer
the average correction necessary from this cause. The
method employed on p. 62 to obtain the relation be-
tween the density of a liquid at different temperatures
and its coefficient of expansion will present difficulty
to an elementary student, and it is certainly not
sufficiently accurate for all experiments as performed
in the laboratory. Thus, in the example given on
pp. 64, 65. there is an error of 3 per cent, in the
calculated coefficient due to the use of this approxi-
mate formula.

Similarly, in the treatment of coefficient of. absolute
expansion on p. 70, it is not made clear to the reader
which column length is involved in the denominator
of the expression obtained. The wrong one is
measured in the illustrative example, making a I5
per cent, error in the result. The hydrostatic method
is a most unsuitable one to employ for the expansion
coefficient of ether between 10° and 30°, as given on
p. 66. On p. 191 we are told that the steam and
hoarfrost lines intersect at 0° C. The chapter on
thermal conductivity would have been improved by

304

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

the inclusion of some experiments within the range

of possibility for the student. Forbes' method is

entirely unsuitable for performance in a school
laboratory.

Die praktischen Schiilerarbeitcn in dcr Physik. By
Dr. VV. Leick. Zweite Auflage. Pp. 49. (Leip-
zig : Quelle and Meyer, 1910.) Price 0.80 mark.
This pamphlet consists of two parts, of which the
first and longer is a plea for the further introduction
into German schools of laboratory work in practical
physics, while the second gives a few selected
examples of the kinds of work which the author
regards as specially suited for schools. It appears
that comparatively few of the German Gymnasien
and Realschiden have as yet introduced practical
physics into the school curriculum, although there is
at the present time a vigorous movement in favour
of its compulsory adoption in all higher schools. The
author sets forth very clearly the advantages of in-
dividual practical work, and discusses at some length
the objections that have been raised against laboratory
work m schools.

It is interesting and refreshing to find a German
author holding up English educational methods as a
model for his countrymen. He is, however, severe on
that method of teaching which induces the student,
t>r professes to induce the student, on the strength of
a few experiments (probably badly performed) to re-
gard himself as the discoverer of natural laws. The
examples in the second part of the pamphlet illustrate
other and better methods of arousing the interest of
the pupil, and show that Dr. Leick is a teacher who
by his own originality will induce originality in his
pupils. There is a fairlv full bibllographv.

H. E. S.

(i) Who's Who, 1911. Pp. xxvi + 2246. (London :
A. and C. Black.) Price 105. net.

(2) The Writers' and Artists' Year Book. Pp. viii +
132. (London : A. and C. Black.) Price is. net.

(3) The Englishwoman's Year Book and Directory,
iqii. Edited by G. E. Mitton. Pp. xxxiv + 386.
(London : A. and C. Black). Price 25. 6d. net.

The new edition of "Who's Who" (i) shows another
annual increase in size, containing eighty-four pages
more than the last issue. Due prominence is given
to the biographies of men of science, about whom the
volume provides many interesting personal facts, as
well as details of their professional careers. This
work of reference is more than ever indispensable.

The "Writers' and Artists' Year Book" (2) is a
verv useful directory for writers, artists, and photo-
graphers. It gives just the information which these
workers require. The new tables in the book include
cl"bs for authors and artists, and there is an article
this year on the law of copyright.

We agree with the editor of "The Englishwoman's
Year Book " (3) that no woman who takes any part
in public or social life can afford to be without this
volume. The book is now for the first time divided
into two parts : one including education, professions,
and social life, and the other being mainlv devoted to
philanthropic effort. An especially valuable feature is
the section giving particulars of scholarships offered
♦■1 women bv the different universities.

Notes on Physiology. By Dr. Henrv Ashby. Eighth
edition. Revised by Hugh T. Ashby. Pp. xxix4-346.
(London : Longmans, Green and Co., 19 10.) Price

Although this little book has seen eight editions, and
so has successfullv catered for a certain class of
s«-udents, that fact alone must not be taken as evidence
that the book is a good one. There is little or no

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

attempt made to keep pace with the advance of
modern physiology. Old and incorrect statements are
still retained, new work and new ideas are almost alto-
gether omitted. The book may perchance still enable
the lazy student to scrape through his examination on
the minimum of pass marks, but it is only right to warn
intending purchasers that to rely on Ashby's notes
alone will be like leaning on a broken reed. A cata-
logue of the various faults, both of commission and
omission, which adorn nearlv every page, might be
given, but it would be hardly fair to the readers of
Nature to use its columns in this way. These might
more suitably appear in periodicals which are mooe
widely read by the medical students for whom this
book is intended. W. D. H.

The Stars from Year to Year, ivith Charts for Every

Month. By H. Periam Hawkins. Pp. 23. Price

15. net.
The Star Calendar for 1911. By H. P. H. Price is.

net.
The Star Almanac for 191 1. By H. Periam Hawkins.

(Bedford and London : Beds. Times Publishing Co.>

Ltd.; and London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co.,

Ltd., 1910.) Price 6d. net.
O.NCE more we welcome the three annuals prepared
by Mrs. H. Periam Hawkins as being among the
most useful, low-priced aids to amateur astronomers.
"The Stars from Year to Year" is practically th<
same as last year, and in some respects this is to be-
regretted. For example, turning to " Halley's Comet,"
we find the latest information is the statement that
"according to the latest computations of Messrs.
Cowell and Crommelin it will be nearest the sun on
April 30, 1910." It seems a pity that in a book,
apparently issued for 191 1, some short resume of the
facts we learned from the re-apparition of so famous
an object is not. given.

in the "Star Calendar" the date calendar and the
lour quotations have been changed, and we would
suggest that in future issues the fastening at the
centre of the planisphere should be strengthened. The
addition of the equator and ecliptic, especially the
latter, might also prove useful.

No handier almanac than the broadsheet prepared
by Mrs. Hawkins can be hung in the sanctum or
observatory of the amateur. Eclipses, meteor showers,
the positions of the planets, &c., are tabulated, and
reproductions of the lunar eclipse of April 30, 1905,
and Ritchey's Orion nebula are also given.

W. E. R.

The Medical Directorv. 1911. Pp. 2168. (London r

J. and A. Churchill.) Price 14s. net.
In addition to full information of the professional
qualifications of recognised practitioners, this very
complete directory contains all the facts a medical man
is likely to expect in such a work of reference. Among
the new features of the sixty-seventh issue may be
mentioned new lists of coroners and Continental
health resorts ; a summary of the law as to crema-
tions; information as to motor-car and petrol rebates;
and a numerical summary showing the geographical
distribution of the medical profession.

Philips' Nature Calendar, 19 11. (London : G. Philip

and Son, Ltd.) Price 6d. net.
Notes are given on the characteristic animal and
plant life of each month, and on garden operations.
There are also notes on general aspects and problems
of nature-study, intended to suggest subjects for
lessons and observations. The calendar is intended
to be hung upon a wall, and it should be of decided
service in directing attention to the changing face of
animate nature throughout the year.

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

305

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions
expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake
to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected
manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature.
No notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

Observations of Mars.

In Nature of November lo, 1910, Mr. J. H. Worth-
ington gives his interesting observations of the fine
straight lines which he saw on Mars at Flagstaff, and
expresses his belief that these " telegraph wires " are
objective realities in the focal image. Although I have
not seen Mr. Worthington's paper, yet I shall reply to it,
basing myself on the accuracy of the abstract given of
it in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association,
vol. xxi., p. 130.

Now Mr. Worthington's very brief experience of the
appearance of Mars during the few days spent at the
Lowell Observatory is necessarily outweighed by that of
an astronomer like Prof. A. E. Douglass, who spent
several years in the planet's study at Flagstaff. But what
was the conclusion of Prof. Douglass from his observa-
tions of the straight " canals," of which he saw more
than anyone else? That they are optical "illusions"
having " worked serious injury, to our observations "
(Popular Science Monthly, vol. Ixx., May, 1907). It would
be difficult to conceive a more decisive symptom of frailty
in the " canal " question than this surrender to truth of
its ablest exponent.

In discussing my work rather than the collective
"vidence of great telescopes (of which my results form an
integral part), Mr. Worthington seems to show some mis-
apprehension in the very object of his criticism, for my
■onclusions are identical with those arrived at at Lick,
Verkes, and Mount Wilson. Thus, in 1895, Prof.
Barnard, summarising his evidence with the 36-inch at
Mount Hamilton, said : — " No straight, hard, sharp lines
were seen on the continents, such as have been shown in
the average drawings of recent years " (Monthlv Notices,
R.A.S., vol. Ivi., January, 1896,' p. 166). On "September
21, 1909, I state that " those geometrical spider's
webs ... do not exist" (Journal of the British Astro-
nomical Association, vol. xx., p. 141). A fortnight later
Prof. Frost telegraphs : — " Yerkes telescope too powerful
for canals." Lastly, on January 3, 1910, Prof. Hale pro-
claims " the perfectly ' natural ' appearance of the planet "
in the 60-inch reflector, by far the most perfect and
powerful instrument ever made, " and the total absence
of straight lines " (Journal of the British Astronomical
Association, vol. xx., p. 192).

It would thus appear that Mr. Worthington is perhaps
attempting to revive the old controversy on the relative
merits of large and small telescopes. But that question
has been settled long ago, so that any attempt to renew
It can no longer deserve serious consideration. The over-
whelming superiority of large instruments has been often
demonstrated on double stars, for the two discs seen in
a great aperture will be blended, by increased diffraction.
Into a single mass of light with an 18-inch ; and, as the
smaller star is observed to revolve in perfect harmony
with Newton's law, there can be no doubt whatever as to
its objective existence. The same fundamental principle
holds good for planetary detail. Two contiguous,
irregular, bright spots on Mars in a 33-inch will appear
as a single round spot in an 18-inch. Hence delicate
•>bjective markings, which are quite plain in large glasses,
annot be defined at all with inadequate instruments, and
his well-known rigid demonstration establishes for ever
he hopeless inferiority of small telescopes.

The advantage of great objectives I have further shown
^n Mars when stating (December 23, 1909) that the geo-
netrical network vanished in perihelic opposition of the
•>!anet. while much more delicate detail was quite plain
Journal of the British Astronomical Societv, vol. xx.,
p. 141). On September 20, 1909, under perfect seeing, I
can discover no straight lines, but draw Lacus Moeris as
^ vast shading, and Deltoton Sinus triple (letter to
>chiaparelli, dated September 21, 1909). A fortnight later

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

the same region of Mars is photographed at Mount Wilson,
and Lacus .Moeris comes out likewise as a vast shading,
while the triple structure of Deltoton Sinus is also con-
firmed. On November 3, 1909, at Flagstaff, the " lake "
is missed (although covering fully one-sixth of the diameter
of the planet), and Deltoton Sinus appears single, while a
host of lines furrow the surface (Journal of the British
Astronomical .Association, vol. xx., pp. 376-7). But the
fact that straight lines are drawn when more delicate
detail, confirmed by photography, is missed, constitutes
another proof, not only of the inadequacy of the 18-inch
as compared with the 33-inch, but also of the inanity of
the " telegraph wires."

Yet my position in the " canal " question should not be
misunderstood. If by " canals " be meant straight lines,
then I think the "canals" do not e.xist ; if we mean
irregular, more or less streaky markings, then the
" canals " exist. Of course, it would be utterly illegiti-
mate to speak of genuine canals on Mars. But in the
positions of Schiaparelli's lines I often saw, with the large
telescope, either (a) complex, irregular, knotted, or wind-
ing bands : or (b) jagged, isolated, dark sf>ots ; or (c)
indented edges of differential shadings. Under good see-
ing, the irregularities of these objects were held steadily
from five seconds to several minutes. From my experi-
ence of the " canals " since 1894, with various apertures,
I am led to account for the single and double straight of
lines of Schiaparelli as follows : over the objective sub-
stratum of irregular, sinuous corrugations diversifying the
Martian surface, a tired eye will discover by flashes a
geometrical appearance. Impressions of single lines will
fleet now and then either over a narrow objective streak
or over the jagged border of a half-tone, while double
parallel lines will flash in the position of a broader band.
But, as pointed out by Mr. Maunder, the straight lines
(which, so far as my evidence goes, are usually glimpsed
severally, and not collectively) are merely optical summa-
tions of groups of minute irregularities beyond the reach
of the instrument used. Prof. Lowell may justlv fee!
proud upon having succeeded where all his predecessors
failed, and upon having photographed the irregular streaks
of Mars by ingenious methods, devised at his observatory.

A new notion was recently introduced in science bv the
"born-good" and "born-bad" air of some localities;
but the splendid results of Dawes, Lockyer, Burton.
Green, Denning, and others in the British Isles (a country
most unfavourable to telescopic work), prove that the
difference between the best and worst observing stations
is largely a difference of duration of good seeing. Trans-
parency of air, which is indispensable in detecting faint
stars or nebulae, seems to be of little moment in planetarv
detail. When minute Martian irregularities, bevond the
reach of an 18-inch at Flagstaff, are held steadily near
Paris with a 33-inch ; when such detail is corroborated
bv the unanswerable testimony of photography ; and when
the blue cap of Saturn is a most conspicuous feature at
Meudon a whole year before the recent Solar Congress,
W£ are bound to admit that anv point on the earth's
surface may give us short spells of perfect seeing.

E. M. AXTONI.^DT.

Paris, December 28, 1910.

Sir Ray Lankester's Book on the Okapi.

Sir Harrv Johnston is wrong in suggesting (Nature,
December 15) that the incompleteness of my monograph
of the okapi is due to the " financial control " (pre-
sumably he means the trustees of the British Museum)
disliking the expense of publishing a volume of text. The
full expenditure required was approved bv the trustees
when I was director of the museum. The absence of
any further text than that which accompanies the plates
and figures in the volume, as issued, is solely due to the
fact that I have not provided such further text.

It would have been better to call the book " Contribu-
tions to a Knowledge of the Okapi " rather than a
" monograph " of that animal, since although it is in
the strict sense a monograph, it does not profess to give
(as Sir Harry Johnston seems to think that word implies)
a risumi of all that is known and has been written on

?o6

NATURE

[January 5, 191 r

the subject. When my book was originally planned it
was intended that it should be a monograph of the speci-
mens of okapi contained in the national collection, and
it thus became entered on our list as " the monograph
on okapi."

More, no doubt, might be written about the specimens
which I had under examination, and I should have, in
some circumstances, been able to add to what the book
contains ; but the problems which arose in the course of
my work could not, in many cases, be satisfactorily solved
by the examination of the existing material.

We shall have to wait for new observations made upon
fresh or living specimens for a solution of the question
as to what are the characteristics of the male and female
okapi respectively, what are their geographical variations,
and whether there are distinct races or subspecies.

E. Ray Lankester.

29 Thurloe Place, South Kensington.

Sir E. Ray Lankester is correct in supposing that I
was misled by the last paragraph of the preface to his
work on the okapi into the belief that there had been
or might be an additional volume of text to supplement
the illustrations given in the volume under review. From
private correspondence which passed between Sir E. Ray
Lankester and myself about three years ago I was under
the impression that the " text " alluded to was in exist-
ence, and perhaps I arrived too hastily at the conclusion
that for reasons of economy it had been put aside because
of the intervening publication of M. Jules Fraipont's
work. The title " Monograph of the Okapi " to which
Sir E. Ray Lankester refers as likely to mislead an
appraiser of his work was not of my bestowal, but is the
official title of this valuable and admirably produced
volume. The illustrations are fully described ; but I
suppose what I missed, and what I hoped might still be
forthcoming, were the deductions to be drawn from these
illustrations as to the affinities and systematic position of
Okapia : in short, a statement of Sir E. Ray Lankester 's
personal opinions. He is probably quite right to with-
hold these until something is known of the beast's
musculature and intestines.

H. H. Johnston.

The Dynamics of a Golf Ball.

With a view to reproduction in the forthcoming Life
of the late Prof. Tait, I have just been editing his popular
article on long driving, which appeared in the Badminton
Magazine of March, 1896. On reading Sir J. J. Thom-
son's lecture, as published in Nature of December 22,
19 10, I was greatly struck with the strong resemblance
between golf-ball paths worked out mathematically by
Tait and the stream lines of the electrified particles in the
ingenious experiment devised by Sir J. J. Thomson. A
few of Tait's calculated curves were given in Nature,
vol. xlviii. (June 29, 1893) ; but better examples will be
found in the second paper on the path of a rotating
spherical projectile (Trans. R.S.E., vol. xxxix., or
Scientific Papers, vol. ii., p. 386) and in the article on
long driving already mentioned.

By laborious arithmetical calculations, Tait and his
assistant computer worked out a series of possible trajec-
tories with various values for the transverse force due to
the underspin, obtaining, among others, the kinked path
which Tait had already demonstrated by undercutting a
light rubber balloon. It is extremely interesting to see
how the several types of curve figured by Tait for the
same initial speed of projection, but varying degrees of
underspin, are almost accurately reproduced by Sir J. J.
Thomson's beautiful method of subjecting a stream of
negatively charged particles to a suitable combination of
electric and magnetic forces. C. G. Knott.

Edinburgh University, January 2.

On the Simultaneity of Abruptly-beginning
Magnetic Storms.

I was naturally much interested in Dr. Krogness's com-
munication to Nature of December 8, 1910 (p. 170), and
wish to take this occasion to express my gratefulness to

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

him for makmg known his criticisms on some of th-.-
results of my investigations on magnetic stornis, as well
as on those of Mr. Faris, where there is opportunity for
reply. I am also glad that he has made his statements
sufficiently direct, so as to admit of an equally direct
answer.

Dr. Krogness first wishes to show that my conclusion,
that even the sudden magnetic disturbances do not begin
strictly at the same instant, but at measurably different
times at various points on the earth, rests on insecun-
foundation ; he would make it appear that it was based
on but two cases, viz. the disturbance of May 8. 1902 »
and that of January 26, 1903. He will find a table (No.
Vin.) in No. 2 of my researches (December, iqio, issu>;
of Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity)
which summarises the data from thirty-eight abruptly-
beginning disturbances between the years 1882 and 1909,
thirty-four of which were available to me when the articl'-
was prepared which Dr. Krogness reviews (loc. cit., pp.
19-20).

The table gives the date and approximate Greenwich
mean civil time for each of these thirty-eight disturbances,
next the number of observatories for which time data wer"
available and the approximate portion of a complete
circuit of the earth embraced by the contributing observa-
tories. Then the value of x, or the time in minutes re-
quired by a disturbance to pass over one-fourth of a great
circle, and in the following columns is given the approxi-
mate weight to be attached to any particular value of ;v»
as determined from all circumstances involved, and the
source from which the data have been obtained. A plus
sign attached to x means that the disturbance progressed
apparently in an eastwardly direction, as indicated by an
increase in the Greenwich mean time of beginning at
easterly stations over that at westerly ones. A minus
value of X means, of course, the reverse. Nos. 35-3S
were since added on the basis of data communicated by
Mr. Faris (loc. cit., pp. 213, 214).

Out of thirty-eight values of x, only ten, or about one-
fourth, have the negative sign, so that three-fourths of the
disturbances of the type here considered show an eastwarcf
progression at the times of beginning. In view of the
greatly varying circumstances on which the figures are
based — different observatories, diffe/ent instruments, times
scaled by different persons, different years, covering a
period of two and a half times that of a sun-spot cycle —
it is going to be difficult to explain the persistency of the
plus sign by any such possible errors as Dr. Krogness
points out, which, as a matter of fact, even he will hardly
contend would be always in the same directi/Mi for every
observatory, nor even necessarily always the same at the
same station.

From this table the following results are derived : —

Weighted mean value of 28 plus values of x = + i "65 minutes

,, ,, 10 negative ,, =-l"8o ,,

Weighted mean without regard to sign ... = ±.i'6g „
(Hence velocity of progression for average
sudden disturbance, whether to the east

or to the west, is « ... 99 km. /sec.)

Weighted mean with regard to sign ...- ... = -rO'74 minute
(Hence average algebraic velocity of east-
wardly progression is 225 km. /sec.)

We thus get a velocity for the progression of a sudden
disturbance on the order of 100 to 200 kilometres per
second ; hence, if a sudden disturbance passed around the
earth completely it would take approximately between
seven and three minutes. We are here, then, dealing
apparently with a velocity of a greatly subordinate order
(1/3000 to 1/1500) to that of electromagnetic waves, which
would require but a tenth of a second to pass round the
earth, and of kathode rays which would take on the order
of a half-second.

Another line of argument set forth in my papers is based
on the harmonic analysis of the typical disturbance here
under consideration, for which the effect, in general, is an
increase in H (horizontal intensity) over the whole earth
and a decrease in Z (vertical intensity) in the northern
magnetic hemisphere and an increase in Z in the southern.
It was found, for example, that the disturbance system of

January 5, 191 i]

NATURE

307

Mav 8, 1902, was a two-fold one : first, the stronger, a
-et of electric currents which, if negative, circulate in the
upper regions around the earth eastwardly (anti-clockwise)
if one were looking down on the North Pole, and secondly,
a weaker system, imbedded within the earth, possessing
the characteristics of directly induced magnetism. It is a
matter of interest that the harmonic analysis prescribes
the same direction of progression around the earth for the
upper negative electric currents as has been revealed by
the generally eastwardly progression of the times of
beginning ; and it is natural, then, to inquire whether
these overhead negative currents consist of negative ions
moving ai the rate of lOO to 200 kilometres per second, the
resulting effect of which on our magnetic needles is merely
an exhibition of the Rowland effect on a scale far
transcending any laboratory experiment.

We have found that the speed of these negative charges
nust be on the order of about I'soo that of kathode rays.
My provisional calculation showed that if we are dealing
l^.ere with moving ionic charges, then at the height of
ibout 75 kilometres the rarefaction of the air and the
aher necessary conditions, so far as can be judged from
-urface experiments, would be such as give a velocity of
ihe order required to satisfy the apparently slow propaga-
tion of magnetic effects over the earth. The lower the
urreni gets down the slower the speed, and, if other
things are equal, the greater the effect. Whether this is
v\ accordance with actual observation is at present under-
j;oing an examination.

Now let us look briefly at the matter in another way.
suppose a negative ion is set in motion at a given alti-
tude and in an easterly direction ; the deflecting effect of
:he earth's magnetic field on the eastwardly moving
negative charge is to bring it down closer to the earth.
But, as we have seen, the ionic velocity decreases with
lecrease of altitude, and hence the magnetic effect pro-
luced by the moving charge on a needle at the surface
would begin later and later as the charge travelled east-
ward. If, on the other hand, the negative charge started
westward around our planet, then the deflecting effect of
tile earth's magnetic field would be to make the charge
move higher and higher or faster and faster. We might
lius possibly have the following state of things : due to
~ome cause, electric charges are set in motion in every
direction from a given point overhead. Those with an
''-asterly component of motion would have their velocities
checked in the manner just described, whereas those having
a westerly component would have them increased, so that
for two stations, one east and one west, the magnetic
effect might be recorded later at the east station than at
the west one — as we have actually found to have been the
case in the vast majority of the thirty-eight cases above
treated.

Dr. Krogness next attempts to break down the testi-
mony regarding non-simultaneity of commencements of
sudden storms furnished by Mr. Paris {loc. cit., pp. 93-
105). Dr. Krogness notwithstanding. Mr. Paris does
make a statement (p. 98) as to his method of time scalings
and the various matters involved to secure the desired
accuracy. It is the custom in the Coast and Geodetic
Survey to take into account every possible source of error,
and as the result Mr. Paris says : — " It would thus appear
that with especial care the times could be scaled from the
magnetic records within one-half minute in any individual
case."* He furthermore states (p. 105): — "In closing, it
seems proper to state that the scaling of the times of the
"beginnings of sudden impulses is not so difficult a matter
as it is to ascertain the exact correspondences in the curves
at different stations, for the form of the photographic
record of the starting impulse is not always exactlv
the same at different places ; that is to say, the fixing of
the exact point of the beginning of the disturbance is
sometimes more difficult than the reading of the time after
the point is decided upon. This difficulty arises chieflv
from the fact that the magnetic traces, except in tropical
latitudes, are much of the time not smooth curves."

l_ In the December, 1910, issue (Soc. «7.) Mr. Farts has two communications
which will give further eWdence on the matter of accuracy of his time
scalings to which Dr. Krogness may be referred.

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

This matter of being sure of having precisely the same
perturbation for all stations is one apparently insufficiently
considered by Dr. Krogness. Por example, he questions
our time of beginning in the H disturbance for the storm
of May 8, 1902, as recorded at Potsdam. I gave i2h. om.,
and he gets uh. 58m. ; I have had our scalings gone over
once more, and have this to say : unless the Potsdam
Observatory has revised the data furnished us (copy of
magnetogram and accompanying time data), the time
given by Dr. Krogness is wrong, and i2h. om. is correct.
If our Potsdam data are correct, then Dr. Krogness has
either made an error somewhere, e.g. may not have con-
sidered the fact that the middle of the hour breaks in the
Potsdam curves is for local mean time, not for middle
European time, or he has taken a small preliminary tremor
observed at some of the stations, but of a different
character than the particular perturbation considered. He
should also remember we had before us the curves of
twenty-five observatories, with the aid of which the
identical characteristic p>oint could be determined upon for
each, so far as that is possible.

Another fundamental fact in terrestrial magnetism of
which Dr. Krogness is not aware is this : the existence
or non-existence of a terrestrial magnetic phenomenon
cannot be proved by one magnetic observator}, no matter
how excellent and suf>erior its equipment may be — not
even the whole European group, consisting of about twenty
magnetic observatories, would in certain instances suffice.
Since the publication of the papers criticised by Dr.
Krogness, a prediction which I made has been found true.
On p. 25, loc. cit., I say : —

" In fact, I confidently expect, as soon as a complete
analysis has been made of magnetic disturbances covering
the greater portion of the earth, it will be found that the
disturbance field, in general, presents all the same
characteristics of the terrestrial, primary one — the disturb-
ances will themselves reveal effects from terrestrial, con-
tinental, regional, and even local causes (earth currents,
for example, whose path and intensity depend upon local
character of soil, &c.)."

Mr. Paris has brought together for the March, 191 1,
issue (loc. cit.), the data from observatories all over the
globe with respect to some peculiar magnetic disturbances
which occurred between December 29 and 31, 1908. With
his permission I will anticipate by saying that these dis-
turbances, of which there were eight cases, occurred each
time over restricted regions of the globe — e.g. in the United
States and not in Europe, or vice versa, &c. The interval
between the occurrence of the disturbance in the United
States and Asia, or Asia and Europe, was not a matter
of a few minutes, but a matter of many hours ! Though
this disturbance — whenever it occurred — never lasted much
more than half an hour, and was during an otherwise
magnetically calm day, nevertheless a number of observa-
tory directors are on record as having recognised it and
having characterised the day as disturbed (class 1). The
interesting point is, however, that they did not all get it
at the same absolute time, but at times differing by many
hours ! A discussion will be given in the March issue
{loc. cit.).

Hence, by attempting to disprove a fact based on such
extensive data as referred to above, with the aid of data
at one observatory — Potsdam — Dr. Krogness has simply
shown that he is unfamiliar with a fundamental fact
regarding the distribution of magnetic phenomena. Everv
magnetic phenomenon known to me partakes of a most
complex character, and to get a general result of value it
is necessary to base an investigation, not simply upon one
station or one part of the earth, but on as great a portion
of the earth as possible — the greater the better.

Dr. Krogness next reverts to the disturbance of January
26, 1903, the times for which were scaled by Prof. Birke-
land. He exhibits a rather interesting method of dis-
crimination between the various stations, and appears to
have overlooked where his own figures lead. He rejects
in toto the three Coast and Geodetic Survey magnetic
observatories, Honolulu, Baldwin, and Cheltenham — the
latter two probably because Prof. Birkeland had found the
identification of the point of beginning of the disturbance

^o8

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

difficult. But this Prof. Birkeland says was likewise true
of Toronto, yet Dr. Krogness retains this station ; why he
rejects Honolulu Dr. Krogness does not say. Again, he
overlooks the fact that when he corrects Birkeland 's
scaling for San Fernando he has improved the easterly
progression — Prof. Birkeland 's value was nearly two
minutes too high. In view of the uncertainties in Prof.
Birkeland's scalings revealed by Dr. Krogness, and as
Prof. Birkeland fails to specify the particular element con-
sidered, not full weight could be attached to this disturb-
ance in the above table. It should also be stated here
that Prof. Birkeland considered, in all, six characteristic
points of the disturbance curve, and my result was based
on all the scalings — seventy-two in number — and not
merely the half-dozen taken by Dr. Krogness. Did I
myself consider such limited data as Dr. Krogness uses
adequate for the purpose, I might point out that his own
figures show an easterly progression of the times on the
order of what is to be expected, which would have been
still further accentuated had he not rejected Honolulu.

Just as I am preparing this reply, I am in receipt of a
letter from Dr. Chree, dated December 6, 1910, accom.-
panying a copy of the proof-sheets, which he kindly let me
see, of his paper before the Physical Society, November 1 1 ;
he had also given a paper on the same subject at the
British Association meeting. He is not in agreement with
my general deductions or with those of Mr. Faris. His
criticisms are in part covered by the foregoing reply to
Dr. Krogness, and in part \iy my article in the December
(1910) issue (loc. cit.). I can only say here that I cannot
agree with Dr. Chree in several of his own deductions,
and especially with regard to the possible inaccuracy of
Mr. Faris's time scalings: I beg to refer him to pp. 213-4
(loc. cit.). Nor can I enter here into a discussion with
regard to his criticisms of my hypothesis of ionic currents,
for it would seem that he has unintentionally put into his
discussion ideas which are new to me. I will only re-
mark that nowhere in my papers have I supposed such a
simple overhead electric current in the plane of the geo-
graphical equator as postulated by him ; this is best shown
by my mathematical analysis.

In conclusion, I would like to state my position once
more, viz. even our most sudden magnetic storms begin
at measurably different times for various stations dis-
tributed over the globe. The data thus far available would
show that the Greemvich mean times of beginning increase
more often in an eastward direction than in a westward
one.

Our explanations as to the cause may differ, but I
believe what I have just stated to be an actual fact.

L. A. Bauer.

Washington, D.C.,

December 19, 1910.

Tribe Luminescence of Uranium.

MoissAN first directed attention to the pyrophoric
properties of metallic uranium. The luminosity shown on
shaking a bottle containing metallic uranium is due to the
oxidation of small particles of the metal. Uranium is a
hard but brittle metal ; when pieces of it rub together
small particles are knocked off, and if these are neither
too small nor too large the friction may be sufficient to
heat them above 170° C, at which temperature uranium
inflames in air. The presence of smaller particles, which
do not inflame visibly in air, is shown by their incan-
descence in a gas flame lit by the " spark " from the
metal. The luminosity obtained by rubbing metallic
uranium is not the same class of phenomenon as the
luminescence produced by shaking a tube containing
uranium nitrate ; the latter has been described as tribo
luminescence (Wiedemann). If the tube containing
metallic uranium is filled with hydrogen no luminosity is
obtained, whereas the luminescence of the uranium nitrate
is unabated in such an atmosphere. The sparks obtained
from uranium are hot enough to kindle a gas flame or
explode a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen ; in fact, I
have been able to work a petrol engine by igniting the
gas charger by means of such sparks. The luminescence

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

of the uranium nitrate crystals, on the other hand, is
unaccompanied by any considerable rise in temperature.
Pyrophoric properties similar to uranium are shown to a
remarkable extent by Welsbach's alloys of rare earth
metals and iron.

Tribo luminescence is shown by a large number of
organic and inorganic compounds, e.g. arsenic trioxide,
uranium nitrate, potassium sulphate, zinc sulphide, quinine
valerate, aniline hjdrochloride, benzoyl j8-naphthylamine.
Crystallo luminescence, or the luminosity produced during
crystallisation, is practically the same phenomenon, being
caused by the fracture of crystals after formation ; it is
well shown by mixtures of sodium and potassium sulphate.
Tschugaefi' found a connection between the optical activity
and the tribo luminescence of organic substances, but
Gernez has disputed the existence of any relation between
them. Substances that phosphoresce readily under X-rays
generally show tribo luminescence, and the connection
between the two phenomena is accentuated by the observa-
tions of Karl, which show that quite pure inorganic sub-
stances do not show tribo luminescence. It is remarkable
in view of the radio-activity of uranium that salts of this
metal should show phosphorescence and tribo luminescence
to such a degree; Karl has found, though, that quite
" pure " uranyl acetate does not show tribo luminescence,
while Tschugaefi' mentions that the chloride and sulphate
also do not exhibit this property, though they are all
phosphorescent. The tribo luminescence of crystals may be
likened — though analogies are dangerous guides to theories
— to the bursting of an elastic band with a snap ; when
the cohesive forces between the molecules of the crystal
are overcome the electrons are disturbed, and light waves
result, while substances which easily phosphoresce or are
radio-active would the more readily have their electrons
disturbed.

Mr. Rudge mentions that the yellow oxide of uranium
shows slight tribo luminescence ; I could only obtain the
effect by fairh' vigorous rubbing in a mortar, and as the
oxide changes to a dark colour with this treatment, the
luminosity may be due to oxidation.

Mr. Rudge's letter directs attention to two interesting
but distinct phenomena.

Alfred C. G. Egerton.

R.M.A., Woolwich.

The Clarification of Liquids by the Process of
Tanking.

I SHALL be glad if any of your readers can give me
information upon the following problem. In the clarifi-
cation of liquids by the process of tanking, the settled
clear liquid is drawn off from a tap situated on the side
of the tank above the muddy layer. When the tap is
turned on, does only the liquid above the tap run out or
does some of the liquid below the tap run out also? In
the special case of tanking oils, there is very little differ-
ence in specific gravity between the upper clear lajer and
the lower muddy layer. Further, how should the outlet
be fitted so that on running out the upper layer the lower
should remain least disturbed?

Rowland A. Earp.

Preston Brook, near Warrington,
December 22, 1910.

The Conduct and Song of Birds.

This morning, Thursday, is clear and frosty, but until
now we have had constant rain. In spite of this the
birds, for three or four days, have been singing as in
early spring. The rooks have been visiting their old
nests in the elms, and, our gardener assures me posi-
tively, have been carrying sticks and repairing their nests ;
this he has seen himself, and marked as exceptional. I
suspect that this (unusual?) conduct and song herald a
period of fine dry weather.

F. C. COXST.IBLE.

Wick Court, near Bristol,
December 22, 1910.

P.S. — Fine weather here since December 22 until to-day,
January 2 !

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

3^*9

THE NEW HAMBURG OBSERVATORY.

IN the United States the science of astronomy has
enjoyed for many years the advantage of liberal
financial support, and the erection of a new obser^'a-
tory on an imposing scale is no verj- uncommon
occurrence. In Europe it is otherwise, and the estab-
lishment of a new observatory is a notable event. We
welcome it as such, and watch its development with
special interest.

The old obser\ator\- at Hamburg was founded in
the year 1825. Its first director was C. Riimker,
and the excellence of his services may be judged from
the fact that the present staff is engaged uf)on a re-
reduction of the catalogue which he formed. In igot)
it was decided to remove the obser\'ator\- to a distance
from the town, and the necessary funds were voted by
the municipality for its equipment. The new site is at
Bergedorf, about twelve miles south-east of the old

equipment — at least two equatorials, for instance, and
a meridian circle — into one main building. The same
building contained, under the same roof, the working
rooiTis of the astronomers, and often — most objection-
able feature of all — the residence of the director, and
perhaps of an assistant as well. The new Hamburg
Observatory carries modern ideas to their logical con-
clusion. Ihe isolation of the instruments reduces
mutual obstruction to a minimum, makes it possible
to design each building solely to the advantage of
the instrument it contains, and to a great extent
removes the risk of fire, an ever-present danger in
climates drier than our own.

The old-fashioned astronomer would expect a
serious disadvantage in the weakening of central con-
trol. But this defect is avoided by a complete system
of telephonic communication between the several
buildings. The central offices of the obser\-ator}' con-
tain in a cellar six standard clocks. These are con-

FiG. I. — The New Hambiu^g Observatory at Bergedorf : View from the Sooth.

observatory, and about 130 feet above the level of the
Elbe. Work on the new institution has proceeded
with great energy-, and the obser\'atory "Jahres-
bericht " for the year 1909 shows that the con-
structional part was practically complete at the end
of that year. The report contains an excellent series
of photographs of the several buildings in different
stages of construction, and gives a good idea of what
the observatory- will be when it is in fuU working
order.

The great feature in the plan of the new observatory
is the complete isolation of the different instruments.
Each has its own building, as shown in the illustration
here reproduced. This is a principle to which we
have long been tending, and here it is carried out
with absolute and logical completeness. We are onlv
too familiar with the old st}le of observatory build-
ing. Apart from separate structures, which are addi-
tions of a later date, it was usual to crowd the whole

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

nected with a switchboard on one wall of a room in
the basement. Close by is a chronograph by means
of which all the clocks can be compared inter se and
with all the observing clocks of the establishment.
The Hamburg observatory is responsible for an
elaborate public time service. The necessary- electrical
arrangements for this are placed on another wall of
the same basement room. It is verv' natural that the
installation of this complicated sj'stem of wiring has
occupied much time, the underground cables alone
running to a total length of about 1400 yards. When
to the low-voltage system required for the telephones
and time service is added the provision for distribut-
ing electric light and power, it can be judged to what
extent the efficiency of a modern observator\- depends
on the technical application of electricit)-. Modem
advances in astronomy are often attributed to the
spectroscope and the photographic plate. This rather
overlooks the help derived from electrical power.

JO

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

which has rendered the use of large-scale apparatus
practically possible.

The new observatory will be powerfully equipped.
The lo-inch Repsold-Merz equatorial has been moved
from Hamburg, and is in working order. A 4-inch
Repsold transit instrument remains for the present at
Hamburg, and will be moved when the new institu-
tion is in a position to take over the time service.
This will be the case when the installation of a new
Repsold 72-inch meridian circle is complete. The
mounting of this fine instrument will embody the
ideas of Sir David Gill. The roof is of iron and in
the shape of a half-cylinder, the shutters rolling apart
over the east and west ends. The whole is protected
from the direct radiation of the sun by a louvred
wooden covering. Special arrangements are made to
control the instrumental errors. To the south is an
adjustable horizontal collimator of the ordinary type ;
to the north is a lens focussed on the mvre, which

Dr. R. Schorr, the director, has expressed some
disappointment at delays, particularly in completing
the optical work. But in an undertaking of this mag-
nitude something of the kind is inevitable, and we can
only express admiration of the lines on which Dr.
Schorr has designed the new institution, and the«3
energy which is apparent in the progress already^
made. H. C. P.

HUE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF THE NILE*
VALLEYS

SOME ten years ago, when Lord Cromer was
building up a medical school in Cairo, the task
of establishing the department of anatomy was en-
trusted to a junior fellow of St. John's College, Cam-
bridge, Dr. Elliot Smith. The young professor
reached Egypt at an interesting phase of the develop-
ment of our knowledge of the ancient inhabitants of

Lippert Astrograph

Meridian Circle. • Ruficctor. Mire. Kefracior.

Fig. 2. — The Main Buildings of the New Hamburg Observatory.

Transit Instrument.

takes the form of a vertical collimator, as at the Cape
Observatory. Still further to the north, on the same
meridian^will be placed the 4-inch transit instrument,
which will use the same mire. The two instruments
are thus in line, and an independent check is possible
by comparing them directly.

In addition, the observatory will possess a large
refractor of 24-inch aperture, a reflector of 40-inch
aperture and lo-feet focal length, and a photographic
combination. The mounting of the refractor will be
by Repsold, and the lens by Steinheil ; some delay
has been caused by the difficulty in obtaining the
discs of suitable quality. The large mirror has been
made by Zeiss. For the photographic combination
the observatory is indebted to Herr Lippert. It will
comprise a telescope of the normal astrographic type,
and two short-focus photographic objectives of 12-
inch aperture. This work has also been assigned to
Zeiss.

that country. It was then becoming clearly recog-
nised, thanks to the labours of Prof. Flinders Petrie
and those associated with him, that certain of the
burials were older than the dynasties, and that it had
become possible to study the Egyptians of a pre-
historic or predynastic period.

With the human remains of this ancient period Prof.
Elliot Smith was soon brought in contact; in 190 1
he had the good fortune to examine the bodies ex-
cavated by the Hearst Egyptian exploration of the
University of California from a predynastic cemetery
at Noga-ed-Deir, in upper Egypt; material which was
particularly valuable because of the accurate manner
in which it had been dated by Dr. G. A. Reisner.
During the following years, amidst the onerous duties

1 " The Archseological Survey of Nubia." Report for 1907-8. Vol. ii.,
Report on the Human Remains, by Drs. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., and
F. Wood Jones. Pp. 3734-vi plans. Plates to accompany Vol. ii., pp. 9 +
xlix plates. (Cairo : National Printing Dept., 1910.) Price 2 L.E.

NO. 2149, VOL\ 85]

January 5, 191 i]

NATURE

311

of the medical school and the time absorbed by other
lines of research, he found time to examine human
remains which could be assigned to definite periods
of a long period of Egyptian history, and thus lay the
foundation of a knowledge of the physical history of
the ancient inhabitants of the Nile valley.

In 1907, when it was resolved to heighten the

Aswan dam, an opportunity occurred which allowed

him to carry his researches among the ancient inhabi-

nts of Nubia, and to compare them with their

•ntemporaries in Egypt. Very wisely the Egyptian

ivernment resolved to make a complete exploration

the ground which would become submerged when

e dam was raised, and it was especially fortunate

the men selected for the task. Captain H. G.

on?. F.R.S., was director, Dr. G. A. Reisner,

chaeologist, Prof. Elliot Smith, anthropologist. The

ork of exploration was commenced immediately

jQve the dam, and by the month of October, 1907,

Grave 23 I. Burial assigned to the late Predynastic Period.

the remains of more than 2000 individuals, each with

its full archaeological history, waited the attention of

e anthropologist. With his school duties in Cairo

was clearly impossible for Prof. Elliot Smith to

■ dertake the task of examining these single-handed.

\ good fortune Dr. Wood-Jones, who had just

turned from studying coral formation in the Cocos-

eeling Islands, was appointed to assist Prof. Elliot

- nith and carry out observations in the field. Dur-

^ the winter 1907-8 forty-eight cemeteries were

vplored on both banks of the Nile, extending some

s'^hteen miles above the Aswan dam. At the end

the winter the anthropological staff had made

iservations on about 6000 individuals, belonging to

irious periods, dating from predynastic to early

liristian times — random samples of a local popula-

'n through a period of 5000 years. The opportunity

as unique; it may never occur again, and it is onlv

i^t to add that Prof. Elliot Smith and Dr. Wood- Jones

NO. 2149, VOL". 85]

have availed themselves of it to the full. Their
splendid records have now been published by the
Egyptian Government in a form which deserves warm
acknowledgment from archaeologists and anatomists
throughout the world. Ever since men began to in-
quire into the origin of the human species they have
turned for light to the valley of the Nile.

In a remarkable opening chapter, Prof. Elliot Smith
deals with the living thread of humanity that stretches
along the Nile valley and links the negroid population
of equatorial Africa with the fairer-skinned millions
of Asia and Europe. During the last 6000 years that
(bread has changed remarkably little in character; at
least when the curtain rises on it in predynastic tunes
its composition is altogether modern in type and
composed of a comparatively highly civilised com-
munity. It is true that in later times the head of the
inhabitants becomes broader and the stature taller.
Some have regarded the change in physique of the
EgA-ptians as the result of civilisation. Prof. Elliot
Smith does not deny that the environment of a higher
civilisation may not have had its effect, but is in-
clined, from the evidence he has been able to adduce,
to infer that the changes are to be sought rather (i)
from an infiltration of a Levantine race, which entered
lower Egypt at an early period and spread up the
alley, and (2) from an infiltration of a negro element
which entered the valley from the south. This at
least is clear that there is a long period of Eg^^Jtian

Fig. 2.^Skull of a man showing
feminine characters.

Fig. 3. — Skull of a woman show-
ing masculine characters.

history beyond that which is now termed predynastic.
The modern t\'pe of man is more than 6000 years old.

Some of the speculations regarding the racial con-
stitution of the ancient Eg3^ptians may prove to have
only a passing value, yet the contributions made by
Prof. Elliot Smith and Dr. Wood-Jones to certain
problems which closely concern anthropologists are
certainly of an abiding worth. It seems a compara-
tively easy thing to distinguish a man from a woman,
but when it comes to the sexual and to the age dis-
tinction of the skeleton, and especially of the skull, the
problem becomes a very difficult one. Dr. Wood-
Jones gives accurate tracings of two crania (Figs. 2
and 3) ; one skull possesses all the characters of a
male, but is really that of a woman ; the other is
that of a man, but has distinct female features. The
pelvis, as one would expect, affords the best criteria
of sex, and even it may show a certain degree of
sexual mixture. Prof. Elliot Smith found by experi-
ment that crania which were "' sexed " according to
their apparent characters were grouped wrongly to
such an extent that the measurements made from such
groups gave misleading data. It is very unfortunate
that elaborate statistical tables have been prepared
from crania which were thus classified. We are glad
to note, too, that Prof. Elliot Smith thinks there is a
future for anatomical as well as statistical observa-
tion in anthropology.

The account given by Dr. Wood- Jones of the
phvsical characters, deformities, and abnormalities of

312

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

the ancient Nubians is full, accurate, and interesting,
and provides a wealth of data which is quite new.
His observations on their diseases and injuries opens
a fresh chapter in pathology ; for the first time we
have a precise knowledge of the ailments and diseases
of ancient races. No certain evidence of syphilis was
found in Nubia, tuberculosis was extremely un-
common, rickets was unknown, but that chronic
disease of joints, rheumatoid arthritis, was extremely
common, especially in the predynastic inhabitants.
Stone in the bladder and kidney occurred but seldom,
but appendicitis evidently occurred, for in the illustra-
tion reproduced in Fig. 4, a band of adhesion — signify-
ing a former inflammation of the appendix — is seen
to pass across the pelvis of a young woman found in
a cemetery of the Byzantine period. Gout was also
known ; and a sketch by Dr. Wood-Jones shows
the basal joint of the big toe of a man
loaded with "chalk" stones. Caries of the teeth, so
prevalent now amongst European races, was un-
known amongst the predynastic Egyptians, but in
lower Egypt, it had appeared in the wealthier class
by the time of the earlier dynasties. It did not be-
come common until early Christian times in Egypt.

i- iG. 4.— i

viscera, showing an adhesive \jat,<l -^i^a^,,^^ ^^ ^.^ a-^-^t.,,^:.
woman of the Byzantine period.

There cannot be two opinions of the scientific value
of the report prepared by Prof. Elliot Smith and Dr.
Wood-Jones ; they have made a contribution to our
knowledge of racial anatomy and disease, of which
the Egyptian Government and English anatomists
mav well be proud. But it is also clear that this
contribution is only a first instalment to a verv large
and important subject, which must be studied now,
otherwise the opportunity will have gone for ever.
Both authors have returned to England, and it is
greatly to be desired that the Eirvptian Government
will see that the work they have begun so well will
be continued.

THE GERMAN EXCAVATIONS AT BABYLON.

OF all the societies that are engaged in the
enormously important scientific work of dis-
interring the remains of ancient civilisation in the
countries of the Near East, probably the most success-
ful, in proportion to the length of time it has been
in existence, is the " Deutsch Orient-Gesellschaft."
Here, as in other matters, the German has come late
upon the scene, but he has made up for his late

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

appearance, not only by the amount of work he has
done, but also by the way he has done it. Armed
with ample funds derived from private subscribers,
and made conspicuous by the special patronage of
the German Emperor, the '"Deutsch Orient-Gesell-
schaft " has carried on, or helped to carry on, excava-
tions in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Asia
Minor, which have produced results of the highest
importance to the archaeologist and to the historian
of early civilisation. The excavations of the pyra-
mids of Abusir, in Egypt, which date to the time of
the Fifth Dynasty, have given us an entirely new idea
of the art and religion of Egypt under the " Old King-
dom " ; the disinterment of the ancient ruins of
Jericho and Megiddo have made us realise better than
before what the Canaanite civilisation was like ; the
discoveries of Dr. Winckler at Boghaz Kvoi have
revealed to us a previously unknown period of the
history of the Hittites, and those of Dr. Koldewey and
Dr. Andrae at Babylon and Kala'at Shergat (Assur)
have enabled us to study the actual ruins of the
greatest city of the ancient world and of the oldest
capital of Assyria.

The work at Babylon was the first undertaken bv
the society after its foundation eleven vears
ago. In March, 1899, work was begun on
the Kasr, the "citadel" of Babylon, where
are the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace,
and where he constructed the famous
" Hanging Gardens " to please his Median
queen, and make her fancy herself once
more among the mountains, trees, and
forests of her native land. Here was found
an important monument in the shape of a
stela of a Hittite king, which had been
carried ofif by some Babj'lonian conqueror,
probably from Carchemish. The great
walls of the citadel, Imgur-Bel and Nimitti-
Bel, have been uncovered, and the long
"Processional Way of Marduk," between
the two walls of Nimitti-Bel, have been re-
vealed. Near by is the great mound, now-
called Tell ' Amran ibn-'Ali, which covers
E-sagila. the chief temple of Babylon's
chief god, Marduk. And between this and
the citadel is a space called es-Sahn, "the
plate," in which stood a great ziggiirrat-
temple called Etemenanki. This building,
.. „j„„,.^- E-sagila, and the neighbouring temple ot
Borsippa, compete for the honour of being
the legendary " Tower of Babel." Dr.
Koldewey seems to pronounce for the claims of E-sagil,.
and Etemenanki against Borsippa, and has latel\
announced in an article in the Berliner Tageblatt thai
the excavation of the Tower of Babel "we now aspirt.
to and expect." Whether E-sagila or Etemenanki,
or the two together, are the basis of the legendary
tower we do not know, but in any case the work will
be of the highest interest. The execavations have
also uncovered a temple of the god Ninib, E-patutila,
and many streets ; while the great palace buildings of
the citadel, where Belshazzar's feast took place and
Alexander died, have been shown to cover up on the
river-side the remains of the quay walls built by
Sargon and Nabopolassar.

Babylonian architecture was not beautiful, and in
this, as in its use of enormous and imposing brick-
masses, it reminds us strongly of the architecture
of imperial Rome. As the brick at Rome was covered
up by marble veneer, so at Babylon the brick wall-
faces were often varied by coloured relief brickwork
or hidden by coloured glazed bricks arranged in orna-
mental designs. The Gate of Ishtar at Babylon, dis-
covered by Dr. Koldewey, has splendid decoration of
both kinds, showing bulls guarding the gate. The

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

o'o

vie of decoration with glazed bricks was borrowed
V the Persians, and we see it in the splendid decora-
tion from Persepolis now in the Louvre at Paris.

It is to be hoped that Dr. Koldewey has still more
important discoveries in store. H. R. Hall.

IHE NEGLECT OF GROL P-THEORY.

THE volume of " Proceedings of the London
Mathematical Society," second series, vol. vii.,
contains twenty-six papers by such well-known mathe-
maticians as Bateman, Bromwich, Burnside, Dick-
son, Dixon (A. C, and A. L.), Hardy, Harrison, Hob-
son, Lamb, Littlewood, Macdonald, Pidduck, Sommer-
ille. and Young. While these are mainly of tootech-
cal a character to admit of discussion in this notice,
detention should be directed to some remarks in Prof.
Burnside 's address on the "" Theory- of Groups of Finite
Order," as affordint^T an object-lesson on the important
question of " England's neglect of mathematics."
Prof. Burnside states : —

" It is undoubtedly the fact that the theory of groups
of finite order has failed, so far, to arouse the interests
of any but a very small number of English mathe-
maticians ; and this want of interest in England, compared
with the amount of attention devoted to the subject both
on the Continent and in America, appears to me ven,"
: markable." " So far as I have been able to learn, no

urse of lectures has ever been delivered either at Oxford
Cambridge on the theon,- of groups of finite order."

In fact, so far as the teaching of the subject in England

concerned, one may say that it does not exist."

It appears that during the twenty-one years of the
\v, alas I defunct "Part II." of the Mathematical
ripos, questions on finite groups have only appeared
ur times, and that it is doubtful whether four candi-
ites have seriously studied the subject.
On the other side we have the following statement :

"In Paris M. Jordan gives a course on the theor}' of
oups of finite order at the College de France at regular
ervals to an average class of six students, while the
ilois theory of equations is lectured on at the Sorbonne
J the Ecole normal, as well as at one or two of the
ovincial universities.

In most German universities, the regular course of

lectures on algebra, attended by large classes of students,

f^ntains an exposition of the more elementary parts of

r theory of groups of permutations. In addition to this

ere are, in all the larger universities, special courses

devoted to groups of finite order and to discontinuous

groups, which attract a considerable number of students.

" ir instance, such special courses last year were attended

Gottingen by thirty students, and at Freiburg by twelve.

In the United States all the leading universities offer

:^ular courses in the theory of groups of finite order,

ih the exception of Harvard, where a course is given on

V Galois theory of equations. In some cases the course

a yearly one, and in the others it is biennial. These

courses attract from two or three up to ten or twelve

students, who in general have already taken the B.A.

■degree."

Prof. Burnside offers some explanations for this
neglect, but probably the reason is a \ety simple one.
If any English mathematician specialises in the theory
of groups (and at least one instance is known to the
reviewer) no university will offer him adequate re-
muneration for a course of lectures on the subject ; on
the other hand, the mathematical departments of
English institutions of university rank are deplorably
understaffed in comparison with those in foreign
countries, and their teachers are far too overburdened
with elementary- work to be able to start courses or
a subject like " groups," in addition to meeting the
necessan,- requirements of their examination svllabuses.
Prof. Burnside suggests that the cause may parily be

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

a lack of demand for instruction in the subject on the
part of senior university students. But is it not the
fact that such students are induced to give up advanced
mathematical study and to take to experimental
science in order to qualify for "research student-
ships?" If they persist in specialising in higher
mathematics of any kind, they not infrequently do so
at the risk of injuring their future prospects of obtain-
ing appointments.

NOTES.
Political services and commercial prosperity appear to
be the claims to distinction of most of the people whose
names are to be found in the list of New Year Honours.
The list includes the names of few men of eminence in
the intellectual world — whether of science, art, or litera-
ture. One Fellow of the Royal Societ>- — Dr. David
Ferrier — has been knighted ; and among the twenty-four
other new knights are Dr. H. B. Donkin, Mr. G.
Laurence Gomme, and Dr. G. Newman. Even in these
cases, however, the honour appears to have been conferred
for public services rather than in recognition of scientific
w^ork. The list has been received with the usual chorus
of congratulation by the daily papers, but it can in no
way be regarded as truly representative of the men who
are rendering the best ser\-ices to the nation.

The Oceanographical Institute provided by the Prince of
Monaco at Paris will be inaugurated on Monday,
January 23.

It is announced that an association for the promotion
of science, to be called the " Kaiser Wilhelm Gesell-
schaft, "will shortly be formed in Germany. The first
meeting of the association is to be held within the next
week or two under the presidency of Prof. Emil Fischer,
and the German Emperor proposes to be present.

The Paris Academy of Sciences, at a meeting on
December 29, 1910, discussed the question of the election-
of women as members of the Institute of France. We
learn from the Times that the academy eventual!}- came;
to the conclusion that each section of the institute has
complete independence with regard to the election of
members, and that each academy has the right to decide
the question of the election of women to its membership.
The subject is being discussed at a general meeting of the
academies as we go to press.

We regret to see the announcement of the death of one
of the best known supporters of amateur astronomy in
Germany, Dr. M. Wilhelm Meyer, who died recently at
Meran, at the comparatively early age of fift}--eight. Dr.
Meyer's astronomical career began at Geneva, of which
observatory he was for a short time director. He
signalised his connection with that obser\'ator3- bv an
attempt to determine the densit>- of the material near the
nucleus of a comet by observing the displacement of stars
over which the comet passed ; but he is better known
from his relations with the Urania Gesellschaft in Berlin
and his efforts to encourage astronomical studies in those
who frequented the observatory-. He was successful in
attracting those who were capable of using the equipment
provided wiseh' and well. Among his pupils or followers
may be mentioned Herr Witt, who discovered the planet
Eros in the Urania Observatory. Many of ' his popular
works have had a wide circulation, among which mav be
mentioned " Das Weltgebaude, " a work addressed to
those who were capable of following the detailed explana-
tion of the more diflScult problems in astronomy, and the

314

NATURE

[January 5, 191 i

■*' Spaziergange durch das Reich der Sterne." He also
wrote on comets and meteors in a way to attract atten-
tion and stimulate enthusiasm.

The Meteorological Office has, with the commencement
of the present year, introduced considerable improvement
in its Daily Weather Report. Dover has been discontinued
as a reporting station, and Newquay has been added.
The London observations are now taken at Kew, and not
in St. James's Park as for some years past. The London
area is, however, well served by supplementary observa-
tions given for Greenwich Observatory, City (Bunhill
Row), Westminster (St. James's Park), and Hampstead.
The graphic representations are greatly improved, and
the area covered by the charts has been extended, so that
the incorporation of the observations from the Atlantic
Ocean received by radio-telegraphy will be much clearer.

The summary of the weather for the year just issued
Tjv the Meteorological Office with its Weekly Weather
Report shows that the mean temperature for the several
•districts of the United Kingdom was nowhere very
<lifTerent from the average. The absolutely highest
temperature reported in the British Isles was 83°, which
occurred both in the east of England and in the Midland
•counties, and the lowest was minus 10°, in the east of
Scotland. The rainfall for the year was in excess of the
average, except in the north and west of Scotland. The
greatest excess was 9-12 inches, in the Channel Islands,
and this was followed by an excess of 6-83 inches, in the
south-west of England. The heaviest aggregate measure-
ment was 4974 inches, in the north of Scotland, and the
least 25.24 inches, in the north-east of England. The
largest number of rainy days during the year in any dis-
trict was 257, in the south of Ireland, the least 194, in
the north-east of England, and 195, in the south-east of
England. The duration of bright sunshine varied con-
siderably in different districts, but there was a general
■deficiency except in some of the northern districts. In the
north of Scotland there was an excess of 74 hours, and in
t^e north-west of England an excess of 62 hours, whilst
in the Channel Islands there was a deficiency of 159 hours
and in the east of England a deficiency of 103 hours. A
discussion of the Greenwich observations shows that the
mean temperature for the 3-ear was 50-4°, which is 0-3°
in excess of the average. The highest monthly mean was
62.2°, in August, the lowest 38-7°, in November. In
November the mean temperature for the month was 4-7°
below the average of sixty years, and in July it was 4°
beiow the average. In December the mean was 5° in
excess of the average, and in October it was 3-5° in excess.
The absolutely highest temperature was 82°, in June, the
lowest 20°, in January. The greatest range in any month
was 48°, in May. There were only two warm days with
the temperature above the average in July, and only three
in November, but there were about twenty-six warm
•days both in October and December. November had as
many as fifteen frosty nights. The aggregate rainfall was
28 inches, which is 4 inches more than the average, and,
with the exception of 1903, it was the heaviest rainfall
for thirty years. July was the wettest month, with 3-55
Inches, and September the driest, with 0-72 inch. The
■duration of bright sunshine was about 115 hours' deficient
for the year. May was the sunniest month, with 219
hours, and December the least sunny, with about 30
hours.

Several earthquake shocks have been recorded during
the past week. According to Reuter messages, continuous
shocks were experienced in the province of Elis, Greece,
NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

on December 29, 19 10. On December 31 a distinct earth
tremor, lasting several seconds, was felt at San Francisco
at 4.41 a.m.; and on January i a strong shock was fi :
at Brusa, in Asiatic Turkey.

A TELEGRAPHIC message from the ss. Ccinc to tl,
Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company on December 1^.
1910, published in the Times of the following day, stat'
that the ship had been in communication with the Engli-
and French coasts at 1250 miles distance, and with Flor^
Island on three successive days. The ship was in com-
munication with the European and American coast everv
day of the passage, and was at the time of telegraphin.
1 140 miles from New York.

The Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund was established
by Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, of Stamford, Connecticir
" for the advancement and prosecution of scientific 1
search in its broadest sense." The income from this fuivl
is now available, and the trustees desire to receive applica-
tions for appropriations in aid of scientific work. Th
trustees are disinclined, for the present, to make any gra:
to meet ordinary expenses of living or to purchase instn
ments, such as are found commonly in laboratoric
Decided preference will be given to applications for small
amounts, and grants exceeding 60I. will be made only in
very exceptional circumstances. Applications for assis
ance from this fund, in order to receive consideratior
must be accompanied by full information, especially :
regard to the following points : — (i) precise amount r
quired ; (2) exact nature of the investigation proposed

(3) conditions under which the research is to be prosecutei:

(4) manner in which the appropriation asked for is 1
be expended. All applications should reach, befor
February i, the secretary of the board of trustees, D;
C. S. Minot, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mas<..
U.S.A.

Mr. F. C. Selous has been commissioned by tl
trustees of the British Museum to undertake an exped
tion to the southern district of the Bahr-el-Ghazal <
Lado for the purpose of procuring the head and skin c
an adult male of the Sudani race of Lord Derby's elan
(Taurotragus derbianus gigas). As these antelopes appea
to be of a wandering disposition, it is by no means ea-
to know where to light upon them, and even when four
it is somewhat difficult to decide whether to select, fc
museum purposes, a comparatively young bull with lon^^
unworn horns and a short frontal "brush," or an old-
animal with shorter horns but a fully developed brusl.
At present this eland is represented in the exhibitio
galleries of the natural history branch of the museum h\
the mounted head of a female and a male skull and
horns. Mr. Selous, who has our best wishes for success,
starts, we believe, almost immediately.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Times of December 28, 1910
records the discovery of what may be called an Arab;
Pompeii in the neighbourhood of Cordova. The discover
of this pleasure-resort of the great Khalif Abderral
man III., who erected it between 936 and 961, has bee:
jealously concealed by the Spanish archasologists, an
came to light accidentally through the examination d
certain fragments of Arabic sculpture of the tenth centur
recently deposited in the Museum of Cordova. The r
mains may be assigned to the Egyptian or Copto-Arab
school, and among them the most remarkable are th
specimens of glass work with a silver sheen, the secret o
which has long been lost, and the painted and glazf
pottery made out of calcined clay. So far, the excavation-

JAXU.\RY 5, 191 l]

NATURE

15

ipear to have been most inefficiently conducted, and
;ach valuable material has been destroyed. It may be
iped that the Spanish Government will now arrange for

0 scientific examination of a site which is likely to
.-upply much information on a little known chapter of the

I history of Moorish art.

\ Mr. D. C.\RRt.THERS, in conjunction with Mr. J. H.
il Miller and Mr. M. P. Price, left England in March last
ith the object of exploring zoologically, botanically, and,
. far as possible, geographically, the upper part of the
,sin of the Yenesei and the western frontier of Mongolia.
he expedition started in May from Minusinsk, on the
nesei, up to which point that river is navigable, and
ally reached Kuldja on November 14, in the Hi valley
the Tian-shan range, having successfully accomplished
•^ journey along western Mongolia. A preliminan,-
count was given in the Times of December 30, 1910,
om which it appears that the expedition had first to
averse a belt of virgin forest, which extends in this
^ion from the Yenesei to the Baikal lake, and then
:?sed over a range 5000 to 7000 feet high into an upper
sin of the Yenisei. This basin was inhabited thinly by
ibes of Finno-Tartar stock, who reside partly in the
•rest and partly on the more open country of larch groves
:d pasture land. The forest people are occupied in hunt-
g and herding their domesticated reindeer, of which tw-o
eeds were met with. Wild reindeer were also found to
cur on the higher parts of the hill ranges above the
rests. The western part of the basin was found to be
ore arid than the forest-clad eastern portion, and in it
e inhabitants lived in felt tents. Everywhere signs
: ounded of former settlements and of an earlier and more
Ivanced civilisation, and evidence seemed to point to an
creasing desiccation of the region having been the prin-
pal cause of its desiccation here as in other parts of
ntral Asia. In passing south to Kuldja on the approach
: the winter season across the basin of the Upper Irtish,
ist deposits of fine mud now being eroded by the hill-
reams were met with, and it is suggested that these
ere deposited in comparatively recent times, when there
xisted a vast inland sea covering all the river basins of
this region, and of which the lakes Balkash, Ala-Kul,
1 Ebi-Nor, &-c., are the vestiges. The route for next season
nay be eastwards along the Tian-shan range to the
estern margin of the Gobi desert.

It has been long known that there is a considerable

-d of low-grade iron ore in the Jurassic rocks of some

f the western isles of Scotland, and especially in Raasay.

he "deposit there has been described by Mr. H. B. Wood-

ard in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, and

alyses published by him showed that the ore agrees in

. neral character, as well as in geological horizon, with

le Cleveland ores of Yorkshire. The deposit in Raasay,

n island off the north-eastern coast of Skye, covers an

rea of some 28 square miles. Prospecting work on the

-posit has been conducted for some time past by Messrs.

Am. Baird and Co., of Glasgow, and it is now announced

.at they have secured an option for the purchase of the

land, and that they propose to erect blast furnaces there

r the smelting of the ore. The extension of the ore bed

1 Skye has also been examined, but with less promising
esults. The Raasay ore is of low grade, but its position
Hows of inexpensive mining. The ore will be used for
le production of foundry pig iron.

Some particulars of the proposed work of the German

Antarctic Expedition are given by the Berlin correspondent

r the limes in the issue for January 4. We learn from

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

this source that the Antarctic expedition, under the com-
mand of Lieut. Filchner, will leave Germany early this
year for Buenos Aires, and will proceed from there at the
beginning of October via South Georgia and the Sand-
wich Islands to the Weddell Sea. On arrival in the
Weddell Sea it is proposed to establish a base station on
the eastern coast so far south as possible, with the neces-
sary equipment for a year's research. A party of ten
men will be landed, of whom six — a geologist, a meteor-
ologist, an astronomer, a doctor who is also a bioI<^ist,
a co(^, and a sailor — will stay in the station, while the
remaining four will undertake a long sledge expedition
into the interior of the South Polar continent. Meanwhile
the ship will return to the Atlantic Ocean to carry out
coastal observations and oceanographical work. At a
meeting held on January- 3 in the building of the General
Staff, with Prince Henn>- of Prussia in the chair, the
treasurer of the committee which is arranging for the
expedition announced that a sum of about 41,250^. is in
hand. The cost of the vessel and equipment have
amounted to 14,500/., and the total cost of the expedition
is estimated at 70,060/. A lottery has been authorised by
the Federal Council, and is expected to produce not less
than 27,000/.

The expedition of the British Ornithologists' Union to
Netherlands New Guinea, continues to labour under
extreme difficulties, and the experiences of its members
confirms the opinion that New Guinea is one of the most
difficult places in which to travel. The jungle which the
expedition has encountered is almost impenetrable, and is
described as " dismal, dark, dripping," abounding with
noxious insects and leeches. The strain and illness have
so told on Mr. Goodfellow, the leader, that he has had
to return home. Earlier accounts stated that ver\- short
people had been met with ; the last account describes a
true pygmy race inhabiting " the foot-hills of the moun-
tains. These shy and treacherous pygmies, who average
4 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 8 inches in height, wander ov^
the heavy jungle-clad hills and mountains, subsisting on
roots and jungle produce, hunting the wallaby, pig, and
cassowary, and fishing in the mountain torrents. They
dwell in the rudest kind of lean-to huts made of branches
and fan palms, with no regular villages, but moving from
district to district in search of food. The only metal toot
they possessed was a small wedge-shaped piece of iron,
I inch by 2 inches, inserted into a wooden handle, and
answering the purpose of an axe, and with this a whole
2o-acre clearing had been made. None but those who
have worked and toiled in this dense jungle can really
appreciate the perseverance and patience necessary to
accomplish this, for many of the trees are from 12 to 15
feet in circumference. This piece of iron was traded up
from the coast natives."

On Tuesday, December 20, 1910, in a paper read before
the Royal Colonial Institute on the birds of our colonies
and their protection, Mr. James Buckland brought a
further heavy indictment against the plume-hunter and his
trade in our colonies and dependencies, and a powerful
appeal in favour of the prohibition of the import of
trade feathers. In Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand,
India, and the West Indies, the most beautiful members
of their avifauna are apparently being so ruthlessly
destroyed as to make it no difficult matter to predict their
comparatively early extinction. As an example of the
havoc wrought by these hunters, Mr. Buckland instances,
among many other battues, the slaughter on the island
of Losiansky, near Lysan, one of the bird-reservations

3i6

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

established in the Pacific by the United States, of 300,000
sea birds before the descent of the Government cutter put
a sudden stop to their proceedings. The author of the
paper emphasises the enormous value of birds in our
tropical and subtropical colonies from an economic point
of view, and pictures what would result from the extinc-
tion of such species as the straw-necked ibis, which saves
the Australian paddocks in their periodical ravages by
grasshopp>ers, of which twenty-five tons can be devoured
in a single day by 200,000 of these useful insect eaters.
Protection of colonial birds, he pleads, is called for also
in the interests of sentiment and hereditary association.
" Which is it to be," he asks, " the bird, alive, filling
the land with song and beauty and labouring unceasingly
for the good of millions of our kinsmen, or the bird, dead,
and irreparably lost to our colonies, that a few individuals,
whose number is composed largely of the foreign element,
may put money in their pockets? "

Mr. Hamel Smith forwards us, in reference to the
review of his book, " Aigrettes and Bird Skins," in
Nature of December 15, 1910 (p. .207), a number of
extracts — unfortunately too long for our limited space —
from various notices dealing with the book in the colonial
and Indian Press, many of them supporting " a fair hear-
ing for both sides prior to the passing of enactments,"
and reminds us that his book " suggests the establish-
ment of a close season generally and total prohibition of
shooting at any centre where the birds show serious signs
of diminishing." In reply to this communication our
reviewer repeats that the difficulties and expense of
effectively maintaining a close season are prohibitive. The
plume-hunter, moreover, apparently devoid of conscience,
ignores all laws, regulations, and enactments. The nuptial
period is his only harvest time ; if stopped in that season
his occupation would be gone. The facts already
sufficiently established prove that the trade is conducted
with the utmost cruelty, that the extermination of many
economically valuable species is imminent, and that no
close season will effectively stop the slaughter of ornate
birds so long as such great emporia as London and other
Continental cities remain open. In centres where exter-
mination is imminent, even if proclaimed, the plume-
hunter will carry on his trade by stealth when he cannot
openly, and will ship away his harvest as " cow-hair,"
" horse-hair," or under any other specious designation
likely to pass the custom house.

In a lengthy letter to the Times of December 26, 19 10,
Dr. Bulloch makes an earnest appeal for the adequate
endowment of medical education and research. He points
out that the better educated the medical man, the greater
the gain to society in general who requires his services.
Medical education at present is so expensive that the cost
is less than half covered by the fees of the students. We
have hospitals unrivalled in the world, but it has been
decreed that the generous contributions of those who sup-
port them must not be applied to medical education. The
public demands the greatest efficiency, yet with few excep-
tions fails to provide the institutes which are necessary
for the training. The donations of generous donors for
medical research, such as those of city companies and of
Mr. Carnegie and the Beit scholarships, to some extent
miss their aim. In the main they go to the researchers,
but neglect to provide these with laboratories and train-
ing for their work. The teachers who have to train them
are overworked and inadequately remunerated ; they them-
selves might, had they the time and opportunity, form
the mainstay of medical research in this country. But the
research scholarships are usually awarded to relatively

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

young men, and their teachers obtain no help, financial or
otherwise.

The Psychological Review for November (19 10) con-
tains a paper by Mr. T. V, Moore on the influence of
temperature and the electric current on the sensibility of
the skin. The author finds that the minimum threshold
for touch and for spatial threshold is reached when the I
temperature of the skin is about 36° C, above and below r
which point the threshold rises. He also concludes tha-
Pfliiger's law for the irritability of motor nerves aivl
muscles holds for cutaneous sensibility, which is accord-
ingly decreased at the anode and increased at the kathod<-
pole. Mr. Moore finds that, immediately after the subjet -
tion of a skin area to the induced electric current, thi
sensibility of the touch spots and of the pain spots is
lowered considerably, and he believes that under these con-
ditions a touch spot may function as a pain spot.

According to an article by Mr. L. E. Hope, the curator,
published in the Museums Journal for December, 1910, a
local natural history record bureau has been established at
the Carlisle Museum. The area of observation include^
a radius of fifty miles from the city, and it is to be hoped
that an increase in the local fauna list will be the result
of the movement. The scheme has been in operation sinc''
1902, and during the last few 3-ears the annual number of
notes has been between 200 and 300 annually. The idea
may be commended to other local museums. ;

According to an article in the Times of December 23, ■
1910, the relatives of the late Mr. Boyd Alexander are i
about to present, in accordance with the wishes of the |
deceased, his large collection of African birds to the British
Museum. The specimens are about 4000 in number, and
include several species (whether the types is not stated
discovered by the late explorer, among the most interesi-
ing of these being Willcocks' honey-guide {Indicate
-willcocksi) and the long-tailed tree-warbler {Urolai
mariae), the latter representing a generic type of its own
The first portion of the collection was made in the Cap
Verdes, a second portion during the Kumasi relief expedi-
tion, a third when Mr. Alexander led a column to
Gambaga, a fourth in the course of the Alexander-Gosling
expedition from the Nile to the Niger, and the last in the j
islands of the Gulf of Guinea and the Cameruns.

Much interest attaches to a note, by Mr. E. Bidwell, in
the October (19 10) number of the Ibis (ser. 9, vol. iv.,
P- 759)' <^" fragments of the egg of an ostrich obtained
some years ago in a nalla on the Kain River, in the Band:
district of the United Provinces of India. Structurally
the shell is almost identical with that of the Somali
Struthio molybdophanes, but the thickness is somewha:
greater. The name S. indicus is proposed for the speci>-
represented by the Banda egg-fragments. It may be men-
tioned that in ancient literature there are references to
the occurrence of large birds in Central Asia, not improb-
ably inclusive of Baluchistan, which could scarcely have
been other than ostriches, while in old Chinese works there
is mention of ostrich-eggs sent as presents to the
emperors. The Assyrian sculptures show, moreover, that
ostriches formerly inhabited Mesopotamia. Sub-fossil egg-
shells indicate the occurrence of a species (S. chersonensts)
in the Government of Cherson, in south Russia, while in
the Pliocene we have remains of S. karatheodori horn
Samos and of S. asiaticus from northern India.

The nature of the colouring of the kingfisher is dis-
cussed by Mr. F. J. Stubbs in the Zoologist for December,
19 10. According to the angle of vision and the position

January 5, 191 i]

NATURE

317

> t the spectator with regard to the light, the colour of the
feathers on the back of the bird ranges from ultramarine
and cobalt, through green, to straw-yellow. The outer
layers of the feathers are transparent, and may be removed
without interfering with the underlying colour, which is
-ot due to pigment. Beneath the outer layer is a pave-
ment-like arrangement of polyhedral cells, the tops of
hich are the source of the blue colour. These caps are
-lightly conve.x, and when seen by reflected light are blue
on both sides. In the author's opinion the origin of the
colour may be explained by " the theory of the produc-
tion of blue by the reflection of light from small particles,
and of orange or red by the transmission of light through
small particles." It is, in fact, precisely analogous to the
colour of the air, the full blue appearing when the feathers
are seen by diffused reflected light, while at a low angle,
when the light is in part transmitted, the straw-yellow
results.

A MONTHLY journal entitled Peru To-day is published to
give an account of Peruvian development, and from it we
learn that the principal cotton-producing districts are near
the coast, and are usually vast desert-like valleys irrigated
from the rivers flowing from the Andes to the Pacific.
Canal irrigation is adopted, and the growers have acquired
considerable skill in management. The sugar cultivation
is being improved by the introduction of labour-saving
devices and more modern machinerj- ; attention is also
being paid to drainage. The yield on well-managed
estates is very considerably above the average of the
country, a fact which indicates that there is still con-
siderable scope for development. An experiment station
has been established at Lima for working out agricultural
problems.

The interesting little booklet entitled " West Indies in
anada," that has been drawn up -for the Canadian Exhi-
; lions at Toronto and St. John's to give information about
the resources of the West Indies and British Guiana, will
appeal to a much wider audience than such publications
usually find. It contains a map of the West Indies and
tables showing their chief exports and imports ; then follows
an account of each island, including a short history and
general description, an account of the climate and sanitary
conditions, and of the industries. Unfamiliar crops and
operations such as planting bananas are illustrated. A
list of books dealing with the West Indies is included, and
finally an alphabetical list is drawn up of the products,
with a sufficient account of each.

The Proceedings of the University of Durham Philo-
sophical Society is always an interesting volume, and the
current number (part v., vol. iii.) fully maintains the
standard set by its predecessors. Mr. Gray reports a
severe attack by a furniture pest, Glycyphagus domesticus,
de Geer, on the contents of the dining and drawing rooms
of a new house in Newcastle, which did so much damage
that all the infested furniture was destroyed. Prof. Potter
describes experiments showing the difference of potential
set up by the activity of micro-organisms in culture solu-
tions, and Mr. Home and Miss Coull give an account of
their work on the absorption of water by the seeds of
Vicia Faba. Engineering subjects are represented bv Mr.
Eden's paper on the endurance of metals under alternating
stresses, and Mr. Dixon's paper on torsional vibrations of
massive loaded shafts.

The Board of Agriculture issues each month an excellent
Journal containing papers on technical subjects of import-
ance to farmers, market gardeners, and others, as well as
shorter articles and notes on crops, markets, &c. Recent
issues contain an article by Mr. K. J. J. Mackenzie, in
NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

which he develops his well-known studies of the " points "
of livestock, showing how they may to some extent be
reduced to actual measurement, and thus become suscep-
tible to exact treatment. Mr. Sawyer gives an account of
the sugar beet grown for export in Norfolk, but considers
that the price offered — 17s. 6d. per ton — was barely
sufliicient ; he thinks that 20s. would have to be offered
by factories starting in England. Dr. Russell gives some
new analyses of seaweed, and shows that it contains
notable quantities of fertilising material ; unfortunately, no
economical method has yet been discovered of working it
up into a saleable manure.

In the Bulletin of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of
St. Petersburg, No. 13, 1910, M. I. P. Tolmachef reports
the changes made in the map of the coast between the
rivers Khatanga and Anabar by his expedition in 1905.
Cape Preobrazhenie is removed more than half a degree
to the south. The east coast of the Khatanga Gulf was
found to be very irregular, jutting out into three large
peninsulas separated by deep inlets, and the St. Nicholas
Island does not exist. The entrance to Nordvik Bay faces
north, not west. The actual coast-line is marked in red
on a cutting from the loo-verst map of Asiatic Russia.

The Memoir of the Imperial Russian Geographical
Society (Statistical Section, vol. x., No. 2) consists of an
essay by M. Semionof-of-Tian Shan, on the towns and
villages of Russia and their distribution in relation to
physical conditions and historical events. The country is
divided into three main divisions : the centre and north-
west, where agriculture thrives on the watersheds ; the
northern, where the climate is severe and rural industries
(fishing, lumbering, &c.) are pursued on the rivers and
lakes ; and the black soil of the south, exclusively agri-
cultural, where the population is concentrated in the
valleys. The towns are divided into groups according to
population and regions, and are treated in connection with
the non-rural industries (mining, manufacture, trade, &c.)
to which they chiefly owe their origin. Fifty per cent,
of the urban population is concentrated on the shores of
the Baltic. The article is accompanied by a general map
and many sketch-maps illustrating especial subjects.

As the irrigation system in Egypt is continuously being
developed, the margin within which improvements may be
made becomes narrower, and factors which at first were
of minor importance have now to be studied. In the
November (1910) number of the Cairo Scientific Journal
Mr. J. Murray contributes a study of the seepage and
evaporation loss from the Ibrahimia canal, which waters the
greater part of Middle Egypt. A reach of 132-5 kilometres
is investigated, having a width of from 38 to 55 metres
between Deirut and Maghagha, and is treated in four
sections ; in these the loss is found to be 39, 2-8, 20,
and 08 metres per second in proceeding from Deirut down
stream, and a formula is proposed for reckoning the loss
in similar canals in Egypt.

In the Cairo Scientific Journal for November (1910) Mr.
H. E. Hurst describes a visit made to some of the oases
in the Libyan desert when extending the magnetic survey
of the Nile valley to the westward. Traces of the old
Egyptian practice of astronomical observation were found
in Dakhia oasis in the method of dividing up the day
into periods for supplying the water from the flowing
wells, and in utilising the rising or setting of certain stars
for distributing the water to the land of different share-
holders in the water of the spring. The same custom
prevails in Baharia oasis, and also in Nubia, where the
water is raised from the Nile by water-wheels worked by

3i8

NATURE

[January 5, 191 i

■cattle, and then distributed on the land of each owner
in turn.

At the meeting of the research department of the Royal
Geographical Society on December 15, 1910, papers were
read by Miss M. Pallis and Mr. R. Gurney on the saline
water of that portion of the Norfolk Broads which is
drained by the rivers Thurne and Bure. Evidence was
brought forward to show that such salinity was only
directly due to the tidal water of the sea in the case of
the Bure, but in the basin of the Thurne salinity increases
inland, and is greatest in Horsey Mere, which is fed by a
layer of salt water which percolates from the sea coast
and extends to some height above low tide-level. Similar
■ conditions were cited from Holland, where much attention
has been given to the mapping of such salt-water table.

An article relating to the decrease, in recent years, in
the frequency and intensity of London fog appeared in the
Times of December 27, 1910. The statistics given, based
■on information published by the Meteorological Office, are
illustrated by two diagrams, in which the prevalence of
fog and bright sunshine in London are shown, in triennial
.means, by curves. These diagrams are supplemented by
the following table : —

Days Hours of bright
with fog sunshine
1st nme Winters, 1883-4 to 1891-2 ... 29-9 ... 55-6
2nd „ ,, 1892-3 „ 1900-1 ... 207 ... 70-1
3rd ,, ,, 1901-2 ,, 1909-10 ... IO-6 ... 93-5
The curve relating to fog shows an increase in frequency
•during the first nine years, a decline subsequently, rapid
at first, afterwards gradual. The curve of bright sun-
shine, although irregular, exhibits a tendency for an
increase during the twenty-seven years ; since the winter
of 1901-2, only one season had fewer than the normal
.record. Reference is made to a discussion on the subject
which took place six years ago at a meeting of the Royal
Meteorological Society, when the respective speakers
attributed different causes to the improvement in the air
of London. The opinion favoured by the writer of the
article is that the improvement is due to the more
vigorous enforcement of the smoke-prevention clauses of
the Public Health Act, the use of gas fires for heating
and cooking, and improved methods of lighting. As
regards the quality of London fog, these are probably the
true reasons ; fog, however, usually occurs when an
approximation to uniformity of pressure gives rise to a
state of stagnation in the atmosphere, and is frequently,
though not necessarily, associated with anticyclonic con-
•ditions ; moreover, the geographical position of London
favours the occurrence of fog.

The present position of Antarctic meteorology is the
subject of an interesting and instructive article, by Mr.
R. C. Mossman, in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal
Meteorological Society for October last. He points out
that our knowledge of Antarctic climate, as relating to a
continental surface, depends on sledge journeys, the fixed
observing stations being largely affected by oceanic in-
fluences. One of the most striking features shown by the
records at the stations is the low summer temperature to
the north of the Antarctic circle, due to pack-ice and to
the frequency of fog in low latitudes. The useful tables
accompanying the work show that the lowest of the
annual mean temperatures was —1-3°, observed by the
Discovery, being 8-4° lower than that at Cape Adare, some
400 miles to the north. The absolute minimum, observed
by the same ship, was —58-5°, but considerably lower
readings were recorded on sledge journeys. Precipitation
is most difficult to estimate, owing to drifting snow ; in
the Victoria Land region the Shackleton expedition found

^•o. 2149, VOL. 85]

an annual fall equal to about gj inches of rain. .Th
author estimates the annual amount for the land surf;.i
of Antarctica at about 12 inches. The winds are from .,
easterly direction, but at heights exceeding 15,000 feet il,
air moves polewards. The Shackleton expedition reco.
nised two high-level currents, the upper from a norther
and the middle from a southerly quarter. The author
observes, that the subject requires further study, and that
after the Pole is reached there will be little inducemf-rr
for enterprises of a record-breaking character, and th
some solid scheme of purely scientific research could i
set on foot with some prospect of success.

The resume of the meeting of the Soci6t6 frangaise '.
Physique on December 2, 1910, contains a short accou:
of M. Perot's paper on the luminescence of the mercu;
arc in vacuo. The observations were made on arcs form
in a spherical vessel 10 cm. diameter, the current flowii
along a diameter. At very low pressures the dischar;.
fills the whole of the vessel, and has a white appearam
As air is allowed to enter, the discharge concentrates its. :
and becomes a rose-coloured column not unlike the positi\
column in a vacuum tube. Mercury is transported froi
the anode to the kathode. Water vapour destroys ili
luminescence. An examination of the green line of tl
spectrum shows that while the principal component
reversed and displaced towards the red as the pressure
increased, the principal satellite is unaffected by pcessur
When observed in light emitted in the direction in whit
the current is flowing and in the reverse direction, r
spectively, it shows that the luminous centres are travellin
with the current with velocities of 30 to 350 metres p'
second, according to the pressure. M. Perot conclud'
that the light emission is due to the mercury atoms set :
vibration b\' the impact of electrons, that these aton
encounter inert atoms which they set in motion withoi:
rendering luminous, and at each encounter the phase, bi
not the energy, of the vibration is changed.

A NOTE in the Builder for December 31, 19 10, giv
account of a contradiction to the generally accepted id'
that asphalt paving or lining is a barrier to vegetatio;
The courtyard at the Bank of Italy, in Rome, includes
small garden planted with shrubs, and particularly wii
Dracaena and Chamaerops. Beneath the court is a bas
ment covered by masonry arches, the extrados of which is
protected by a layer of asphalt seven-eighths of an inch
thick, with the' object of preventing the percolation of
moisture into the chamber where documents are stored.
Some little time ago it was noticed that damp patch' -
had appeared on the ceiling, and that the size of the
increased rapidlj-. On removing the earth from above the
masonr)- it was found that several roots of Chamaerops
had penetrated right through the asphalt, the holes beiiK
of about 0-25 inch in diameter, and almost as clean as ;
bored by a tool. Being unable to pierce the masonry, tli
roots had forced their way between it and the asphal
and, some of them having perished, left holes, throug:
which water passed freely.

Commenting on the accident on the Midland Railwn
at Hawes Junction, the Engineer for December 30, 191*
considers that the question of safeguards against fire i
trains after collision is not very easily settled. T!i
substitution of electric light for gas is a recommendatin
which does not meet the whole case. Live coals ejecte
from the fire-box by the collision have been responsib!
for starting fires ; it is on record that an electrical!
lighted coach was so destroyed in the Grantham accident
again, the two coaches which first caught fire at Cud-
worth were so illuminated. The small inverted incandes-

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

319

!it gas mantles now employed give an excellent light
uch appreciated by passengers, and gas commends itself

the companies on account of but little skilled attention
ing required. Points which might be considered are a
lire generous use of steel in the body of the coach, and
' adoption of fire-proof paint, as on the District Rail-
av. Extinguishers and a few fireman's tools might be
ovided in ev;ery guard's van. Lastly, it might be asked
lether it is not possible to reduce the chances of tele-
oping? It is only natural that the two front coaches of
; ? train in question should be crushed ; they were situated
tween two engines and a sleeping-car weighing about

tons. A uniform weight for passenger-carrying vehicles
ould appear to be a point worthy of attention.

OLi? ASTEOSOMICAL COLUMN.

Discovery of an Eighth-magnitude Nova. — A telegram
■m the Kiel Centralstelle announces that a new star
as discovered by Mr. Espin, at Tow-Law, on December
, igio. Measurements were made at yh. 35-9m. G.M.T.,
d the position of the nova is given as

R..\.=22h. 32m. 9-5S., dec. =52° 15' 21* N.
This is just circumpolar in our latitudes, and, as the
object is at present of the eighth magnitude, numerous
observations should be possible, weather permitting.

This object will be known as Nova Lacertae, as it lies

in that constellation, forming the apex — to the north-east

— of an approximately equilateral triangle, of which the

base is the line joining a and /3 Lacertae ; it lies in the

southern border of the Milky Way in that region. As

' acerta transits during the afternoon, observations should

possible during the greater part of the evening, and as

^r. Espin records " bright lines," spectroscopic observa-

■ns are desirable wherever possible.

Later reports state that the star is red, and that bright
Hum and hydrogen lines have been seen in the spectrum,
lotographs of the nova were taken at Greenwich on
-cember 31, and the magnitude w'as reported as 7-5.

Metcalf's Comet, 19106. — A continuation of Dr. Ebell's
liemeris for comet 1910b appears in No. 4462 of the
troiiomische Nachrichten. The present position of the
met lies in Corona at i5h. 52m., -1-36° 45-4', and is
jving northwards and slightly towards the west ; the
agnitude is nearly constant at 120. Although not very
.vourably placed for observation, the comet may still be
served during the hours of the early morning.

Elements for Faye's Comet, igioe. — From observa-

■ins made on November ii, 18, and 25, Prof. Risten-
part and Dr. Prager have calculated new elements for
comet igioe, and now publish them in No. 4462 of the

'stroHomische Nachrichten. These elements confirm the
rntity of the comet with Faye's comet, and give the time

i perihelion passage as 1910 October 30-04 G.M.T. ; the
eccentricity of the orbit is given as 0-5x69, and the comet's
period as 596 years.

.\ set of elliptic elements, calculated by Mr. Meyer and
Miss Lev\', of the Berkeley Astronomical Department, and
published in No. 186 of the Lick Observatory Bulletins,
gives the time of perihelion passage as 1910 November
12-413 G.^LT., the eccentricity as 0-5459, ^^^ ^he period

~ 6-926 years.

-\ New Map of the Moon. — A map of the moon, pre-

ired by Mr. Goodacre, was exhibited during last session

the Royal Astronomical Society, and was enthusiastic-

!y received by the selenographers present. Mr. Goodacre

'w proposes to have the map reproduced on such a scale

at the lunar diameter will be 60 inches, and to issue it

the form of twenty-five separate charts, each 13 inches

4uare. If 200 subscribers are forthcoming this can be

done at the price of 22s. 6d. per set. The map shows all

the known lunar features, their accurate delineation

pending upon the positions of 1433 points given in Mr.

;under's memoir (the Observatory, No. 429).

The Total Eclipse of the Moon, November 16, iqio.
— RepK)rts of the observations made at a number of Con-

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

tinental observatories during the total lunar eclipse which
took place on November 16 appear in No. 4460 of the
Astronomische Nachrichten.

Dr. Max Wolf gives the times of entry and exit of
various features as recorded by a number of observers at
Heidelberg ; detailed observations of the various colorations
of different features are also reported.

Father Fenyi, at Kalocsa, also records colours and re-
marks on the general brightness of the eclipsed surface ;.
at i2h. 33m. 12-37S. G.M.T. he observed the occultatioa
of the star B.D.-(-i8° 489.

Occultations and colour variations are also recorded by
Herr Miindler, Prof. Kiistner, and Dr. Courvoisier.

Nineteen Stars with Newly Discovered \'ariable
Radial Velocities. — In a paper appearing in vol. xxxii..
No. 4, of the Astrophysical Journal, Mr. O. J. Lee gives
the measures of the spectra of nineteen stars which have
recently proved to be spectroscopic binaries. The spectra
were photographed at the Yerkes Observatory, the dis-
persion of one prism being usually employed. The stars
are «r Andromedae, t Cassiopeiae, p Tauri, v and ^
Geminorum, 42 Camelopardalis, 7 Cancri, 0 Hydrae,
<r Leonis, 23 Comae Berenices, t} and y Coronae, j and ir
Serpentis, y Ophiuchi, <j> Sagittarii, 13 Vulpeculae,
16 Lacertae, and a Pegasi.

The multiple character of some of these stars was
announced by Prof. Frost and Mr. Lee at the Cambridge
meeting of the Astronomical and .Astrophysical Society in
-August, but t Cassiopeiae, y Ophiuchi, and a Pegasi are
now included for the first time. Some of these binaries-
are members of visual multiple systems, and in others
the examination of the H and K lines suggests that the
stars may belong to that class of binaries in which the
calcium lines appear to have a constant velocity.

Observations of Planets. — The December (1910)
number of the Bulletin de la Societe astronomiaue de
France contains some interesting notes, by M. J. Halley,.
on observations of Venus made at Roubaix during 1909—10.

M. Halley used a Secretan refractor of 135 mm. aper-
ture, and was favoured with excellent atmospheric con-
ditions. He records, in addition to the bright polar areas,
several markings which persisted during his observations ;;
the chief of these is a pair of dark streaks, divided by a
bright lane, running from the terminator towards the
south ; a dark patch, which appeared to lengthen, in the
northern hemisphere near the bright limb ; and a dark
area bordering the bright area at the north pole.

Several of the photographs of Saturn exhibited by Prof.
Lowell are reproduced to illustrate a paper on planetary
photc^raphy which appears in the November (1910) number
of the Bulletin.

COLOUR CONTRAST IN PHOTOMICRO^
GRAPHY.

'T'HE latest of the series of booklets issued from the
-*• laboratory of Messrs. Wratten and Wainwright,,
Ltd., Croydon, deals with photomicrography. This
booklet differs from most of the more pretentious works
dealing with photomicrography in that but little attention
is paid to the instrumental side of the subject, which is
dismissed with only a few words of practical advice,
attention being concentrated upon the relation between
colour and contrast, especially from the point of view
of the photography of stained sections.

A perusal of most books on photomicrography indicates
that the more difficult parts of the subject technically,
such as the high-power photography of diatoms or minute
bacteria, receive a somewhat undue amount of attention
compared with their importance to the average worker in
science, the difficulties which less expert workers find in
obtaining really first-rate photographs of sections or pre-
parations being somewhat apt to be overlooked. The
greatest difficulty found is usually that the contrast
between the structure to be examined and the background'
is insufficient, and the main control of contrast is supplied
by the colour of the light used for illumination.

A coloured object is, of course, coloured by virtue of
the propert)- w-hich it possesses of absorbing some of the
constituents from white light ; if the light reflected from

\20

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

such a coloured object be examined by means of a spectro-
scope, it will be found that a ]X)rtion of the spectrum is
partly or completely missing. This missing portion
appears as a black band, which is generally known as
the absorption band of the colour. If a particular object
absorbs most of the constituents from white light, so that
only a small portion of the spectrum is transmitted, then
that portion may be referred to as the transmission band.

Since the light which is not absorbed falls upon the
eye, the sensation of colour produced is the reverse, or

W. L. 5000 to 5400 5700 640c

Photomicrographs of an Eosine stained section.

complementary, to the colour which is absorbed, so that
a light-blue object has an absorption band in the red of
the spectrum, a magenta in the green, an orange in the
blue-green, and a yellow in the blue-violet. Now this
consideration shows that if a colour is to be rendered as
black as possible, then it must be viewed or photographed
by light which is completely absorbed by the colour, that
is, by light of the wave-lengths comprised within its
absorption band.

A useful example is given by the photomicrographs of

Transmission Spectrum of Wratten B and E Screens.

a section stained with eosine; this section appears pink,
eosine absorbing green and blue-green light from XA. 4700
to 5400. If the section is photographed by green light of
wave-lengths 5000 to 5400, completely absorbed by
eosine, the section is entirely black, the maximum amount
of contrast being obtained, and, owing to an excess of
contrast, the detail of the section is blocked up. Photo-
graphing at X 5700, on the border of an absorption band,
a greatly lessened contrast is obtained, which for this
particular section will give the best result. If we photo-

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

graph by red light of wave-length 6400, which is com-
pletely transmitted by the section, the contrast disappears
and the results are f^at and useless.

This section thus demonstrates the close connection
between the colour of the illuminating light and the con-
trast produced. A different procedure is required il
contrast is to be obtained, not against the background,
but within the object itself.

.\ good case of this is the photography of an unstained
section of whalebone ; this is of a yellow colour, and
shows ample detail to the eye, but it completely absorbs
blue-violet light, and if it is photographed on an ordinary
plate sensitive only to blue-violet light, then it shows fa'r
too much contrast, appearing as a black detailless mass
against the background, and presenting an exaggerated
example of the loss of detail which has already been
noted in the eosine section photographed by light whicii
it completely absorbs.

The proper procedure in this case is to photograph th.

'iject by the light which it transmits. The whalebon.

• ction, for instance, photographed by red light, give-,

perfectly satisfactory results, showing ample detail in

tructure.

The best method of determining the contrast required
any object is to examine the object visually under the
licroscope first by means of a combination of screens
transmitting light absorbed as completely as possible, and
then by other screens transmitting light less completeh
absorbed, until the degree of contrast obtained is satis-
lactory to the eye.

In the booklet on photomicrography, Messrs. Wrattei;
ind Wainwright, Ltd., publish a list 'of the chief micro-
scopical stains, giving their absorption bands. By th-
help of a special set of screens a section stained with an\
of these colours can be illuminated in such a way as to
produce any required degree of contrast.

The accompanying illustration shows the absorption
spectrum of aniline blue, and the transmission band of th ■
filters chosen to produce the maximum degree of contrast.

In order to estimate exposure, tables are given show-
ing the various factors involved, and including a table
giving the multiplying factors of the screens used singly
and in pairs, the light sources given ranging from th-
oil lamp to the open arc.

PRIZE AWARDS OF THE PARIS ACADEMY

OF SCIENCES.
A T the annual public meeting of the academy, held on
December 19, the prizes awarded for the year
1910 were announced as follows : —

Geometry. — The grand prize of the mathematical
sciences was not awarded, no memoir having been
presented on the stated problem ; Emile Lemoine
receives the Francceur prize, and M. Riquier the
Poncelet prize.

Mechanics. — A Montyon prize is awarded to
Jules Gaultier, for his inventions in connection
witli surveying instruments ; the Fourne3'ron priz-
was postponed to 1912.

Xavigation. — The extraordinary navy prize wr-
divided between G. Hilleret (3000 francs), J. L. li
Lafrogne (1500 francs), and J. Lecompte (151
francs) ; the Plumey prize was not awarded.

Astronomy. — The Pierre Guzman prize was no'
awarded, but the interest accrued was attributed
to the late Maurice Loewy, for the whole of his
scientific work ; the Lalande prize to P. H. Cowell
and A. Crommelin, for their researches in connec-
tion with Halley's comet; the Valz prize to
St^phane Javelle,' for his work on nebuhns and
periodic comets ; the Janssen medal to W. W. Campbell,
for his researches in stellar spectroscopy.

Geography.— The Tchihatchef prize is divided between
Dr. Verbeek (2000 francs), for his geological explorations
in Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, and Louis Vaillant, for
his explorations in Central Asia ; the Gay prize is not
awarded, but Carlos Porter receives a mention for his
work on the fauna and flora of Chili ; the Binoux prize
is divided between Emmanuel de Martonne (1000 francs),
for his work in physical geography, A. Bellot (500 francs),

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

321

r his monograph on the island of Delos, and Crepin-

'•Durdier de Beauregard (500 francs), for his guide to

le geographical explorer ; the Deialande-Gu^rineau prize

:o the Marquis de Segonzac, for his work in Morocco.

Physics. — The Hubert prize is awarded to M. Barbillion

If his works on the technical applications of electricity;

;e Hughes prize to Alexandre Dufour, for his researches

iii spectroscopy ; the Kastner-Boursault prize to M.

Magunna, for his inventions in connection with multiplex

telegraphy ; the \'ictor Raulin prize to Gabriel Guilbert,

r his meteorological researches in connection with

ather forecasts.

Chemistry. — The Jecker prize is divided equally between

.. Guyot and J. Bougault, for their researches in organic

•^mistr}' ; the Cahours prize between MM. Brunei,

aillemard, and Jolibois ; a Montyon prize is awarded to

M. Taffanel, for his researches on explosives used in

mining, and a mention (1500 francs) is divided between

bis assistants, MM. Fenzy, Le Floch, and Durr ; the

Mhumbert prize to Witold Broniewski, for his experi-

ntal studies on the electrical properties of the metallic

,.loys.

Botany. — No award was made of the Desmazieres prize ;

ii-orges Bainier receives the Montagne prize, for his

udies of the moulds; Hippolyte Coste, the de Coincy

:ze, for his book on French flora; Maurice Bouly de

l.esdain the de la Fons-Melicocq prize, for his memoir

on the lichens in the neighbourhood of Dunkerque ; G.

'hauveaud the Bordin prize, for his memoir on the

velopment and disappearance of the transitory tissues

I plants.

.Anatomy and Zoology. — The Savigny prize is awarded
to Emile Brumpt, for his studies of .\frican parasitic
■■-eases ; the Thore prize to Emile Massonnat, for his
itomological studies.

Medicine and Surgery. — Montyon prizes (2500 francs) were
awarded to G. Martin, Leboeuf, and Roubaud, for their re-
port on the expedition for the study of sleeping sickness in
the French Congo ; to J. Dejerine and Andrd Thomas, for
their book on diseases of the spinal column ; and to E.
Perroncito, for his researches on the causes of pernicious
anaemia in miners. Mentions (1500 francs) were awarded
to Ch. Mantoux, for his memoir on the intra-dermo re-
action with tuberculin ; to P. Emile Weill, for his re-
searches on the treatment of subjects with non-coaguling
blood ; and to MM. Moussu and Monvoisin. for their
memoir on the milk of tuberculous cows. MM. Aynaud,
L6on B^rard, and Jules Milhit receive citations.' The
Barbier prize is divided between A. Thiroux, for his
memoir on sleeping sickness and the animal trypano-
somiases in Senegal, and H. Bierrv, for his work in
experimental physiology; the interest on the Br6ant prize
is divided between Jules Bordet (3500 francs), for his work
on immunity and studies on the serum of vaccinated
animals, toxins, and antitoxins, and .\. Taurelli Salim-
beni (1500 francs), for his work in connection with
cholera; the Godard prize is awarded to L. Ambard and
E. Papin. for their study on urinary concentrations, verv
honourable mentions being accorded to MM. Carle. Hans
von Winiwarter, and G. Sainmont ; the Baron Larrev
prize is divided between M. Chavigny, for his studies in
military psychiatry, and Miramond de Laroquette. for his
memoir on the scapular ring; the Bellion prize is divided
between M. Imbeaux. for his work entitled " Statistical
and Descriptive Annual of the Distribution of Water " (in
collaboration with MM. Hoc, Devos, van Lint, Peter,
B^tant, and Klein), and MM. Frois and Sartorv ; the
Mege prize is not awarded, the interest being divided
between Mile. J. Joteyko and Mile. Stefanowska ; S^verin
Icard receives the Dusgate prize, for his memoir on the
signs of real death in the absence of a doctor.

Physiology. — A Montyon prize is divided between Ch.
Livon. for the whole of his work in experimental phvsio-
°^-': .^'^^ Marin Molliard, for his memoirs on the organic
nutrition of the higher plants in its relations with
morphology ; the Philipeaux prize is awarded to Maurice
Arthus. for his work on anaphylaxv ; the Martin-
Damourette prize to E. Laguesse. for his researches on
the structure of the pancreas and their application to a
rational treatment of various forms of diabetes ; the Lalle-
mand prize is divided between Ren6 Legendre and Aldo
NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

PerroncitO; the former for his contributions to the know-
ledge of the nerve cell, and the latter his researches on
the regeneration of the nerve cell. No memoir having
been received on the question suggested for the Pourat
prize, this has not been awarded, and is postponed until

Statistics. — MM. de Chabert and Gallois receive a
Montyon prize (1000 francs) for their general atlas of
Indo-China, with statistical tables, mentions of 250 francs
being accorded to M^L E. Blin and Perrier.

History of Science. — The Binoux prize is awarded to
Ernest Lebon, for the whole of his historical work, and
especially his history of astronomy.

General Prizes. — Berthelot medals are awarded to MM.
Barbillion, A. Dufour, Magunna, Gabriel Guilbert, Guyot,
J. Bougault, Guillemard, Taflfanel, and Broniewski ; the
interest of the Lannelongue foundation is divided between
Mme. Cusco and Mme. Riick ; Charles Fremont receives
the Tr^mont prize ; .Arthur Robert Hinks the interest on
the Leconte prize (2500 francs), for his researches on the
solar parallax ; Fabry and Perot a Wilde prize (3000
francs), for their researches on new interference methods
in spectroscopy ; Harel de la Noe the Camer^ prize, for
his improvements in bridge construction. The Lonchampt
prize is divided between Albert Frouin (2000 francs), for
his work on the use of calcium and magnesium salts after
of orchids, F. Monier, F. Chesney, and E. Roux (1000
francs), for his researches on the influence of mineral
salts in the therapeutics of fractures, and M. Fleig
(1000 francs), for his studies on the intravenous injection
of mineral solutions ; the Saintour prize between Noel
Bernard (3000 francs), for his researches on the biology
of orchids, F. Monier, F. Chesney, and E. Roux (1000
francs), for their book on adulteration, and E. Kajser
(500 francs), for his work as a whole. The Jerome Ponti
prize is given to Henri .Andoyer, an encouragement of
500 francs being accorded to Si. Kimpflin. The Houlle-
vigue prize is awarded to the late Bernard Brunhes, and
an additional prize from the same foundation to Emile
G^rards. M. Audibert receives the prize founded by Mme.
the Marquise de Laplace, and >OL Audibert and Henry
Weill the prize founded by M. F^lix Rivot.

The Bonaparte Fund.

Thirty-four applications for grants out of this fund were
received by the committee for the year 1910 ; after re-
ducing the number to eleven, the total amount required
still exceeded the amount available. Under these condi-
tions. Prince Roland Bonaparte placed an additional sum
of 5000 francs, making 30,000 francs in all, for the current
year, out of which the committee recommend the follow-
ing grants : —

5000 francs to ^L Hartmann, for the experimental study
of the distribution and development of elastic forces in
bodies deformed by external stresses.

5000 francs to M. Lrbain, for the extraction on the
large scale of germanium, indium, and gallium from
blehde.

3000 francs to MM. Bauer and Moulin, for the construc-
tion of an electric furnace in platinum or iridium, to be
applied to the determination of Stefan's constant and the
distribution of the energy in the spectrum.

2500 francs to M. Blaringhem, to enable him to continue
his researches on hereditary variations in . plants, to pre-
pare a complete collection of the plants studied during the
last four years, and to purchase a suitable microscope.

2500 francs to M. Nicolardot, to enable him to pursue
his studies on columbium and tantalum, especially for the
purchase of the necessary platinum vessels.

2000 francs to M. Jules Baillaud, to enable him to
complete his researches on atmospheric absorption, the
amount to be applied to the construction of a special
photometer.

2000 francs to ^L Chevalier, to enable him to carry on
his studies on the vegetation of French tropical Africa.

2000 francs to >L Eberhardt, for the extension of his
exploratory studies on the economic botany of French
Indo-China. and to complete the installation of his labaia-
tory at Hu^.

2000 francs to M. Gaillot, for the completion of <ne

;22

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

calculations necessary to the revision of Le Verrier's
tables of Jupiter.

2000 francs to M. Bordmann, for the completion of his
stellar photometer.

2000 francs to M. Ouidor, for assistance in the publica-
tion of his memoir on the external morphology of the
parasitic copepods.

SEX RELATIONSHIP.

"DERHAPS one of the most subtle and interesting
problems of life is the numerical relationship of sex
and its influence on the body politic.

It has always been something of a puzzle why the pro-
portion of each kind, apparently with little or no under-
lying reason, is produced in the right numbers. The
argument that if such were not the case the particular
species would not survive does not reveal to us the
methods by which this object has been achieved by nature.
That some mechanism must exist by means of which,
within certain limits, the number of males and females
born is regulated, is proved by the facts of history, where
we have numerous examples of wars and other social
upheavals where males have largely suffered, and yet
within an apparently short period of time, as measured
by such events, a balance has been again re-established.
The sex equilibrium may be compared to that of a gyro-
scope, where the greater the disturbance of jjosition the
greater is the force tending to re-establish its natural
stand whilst in motion. Nature in her methods never
does anything exactly, but approaches an object by
establishing lateral control, which guides her on her way,
should any deviation occur. Thus she does not proceed
along a straight line, but is continually oscillating to
either side. Her progress may very well be likened to
that of an inebriated person in search of his dwelling.
All that can be said is that he has a tendency home-
wards.

The facts regulating sex must be something of the same
type, and are such that the greater the oscillation in any
one direction the greater must be the restraining force
invoked to curb or neutralise the movement. .All such
movements have an inertia, and consequently, like a
pendulum, pass the middle line and establish a negative
phase. The history of any race in its sex composition
would show us that such oscillations have occurred
throughout time, modified, no doubt, in their regular
sequence by such factors as wars and famine. These
oscillations of se.x balance have brought with them certain
changes and movements in the people themselves ; an
excess of males would naturally tend to produce war,
either civil or foreign, whilst a superfluity of females is
easily associated with upheavals in the domestic polity of
the community. There is no doubt that, could we trace
the history of the world, or any section of it, we should
see that man simply reacts to certain variations which
are inevitable sequences in the establishment of this
balance. Are there at present any indications of the
methods upon which, or factors by which, this state is
maintained? As is usually found, " truth is simple," and
so the workings of nature, when once discovered, are easily
understood. The sex constitution of our population, upon
which such mighty issues depend, appears to obtain its
regulating force from a very simple factor, and apparently
is correlated with age only.

At the present time the sex balance is as follows : —
At birth the ratio of males to females is about 1030 to
1000 ; at the fifth year, owing to deaths amongst the
males, the balance is equal ; from the fifth to the fifteenth
year the mortality amongst the females is slightly higher
than amongst the males, but from that time onwards the
females relatively increase. If we take the male as a
few years older than the female for the purpose of mating,
then the balance is disturbed further still. The result of
this is to produce in a community a section of women who
cannot possibly perform that function for which they were
fashioned. Their energies are naturally directed into other
spheres, as evidence of which we see the revival of the
movement for political recognition. The agitation is no
new one, and apparently is dependent for its strength and
virility on the position of the sex pendulum. If the pre-

•NTO. 2149, VOL. 85]

sent female oscillation has not yet reached its zenith th'
agitation will continue ; if the reverse is happening, a-
there is reason to believe to be the case, then the presen
movement, after certain bursts of rejuvenescence, shouli'
slowly subside, to be again resurrected at some futui
epoch in the history of the world.

The. following table gives the relationship of the agt
of the mother to the sex of the child : —

(Taken jrom an Inquiry into Birth Conditions in the Town
of Middlesbrough.)

births

Males boro
per 1000

Males

29
226

437
617

Females
... 44 •
... 264

- 455 •
... 617 .

females

.. 659

.. 856

960

.. 1000

720

772

... 715 ■

... 750 .

.. 1007
.. 1030
• 1033

ages

the figures are ::

Total number in
each period

Males bor
per 1000
females i
each peri ,

Males

Females

29
197
211
180

... 44 .
... 220 .
... 191 .
... 162 .

.. 059

.. 895
.. 1 105
.. nil

15s

- 133 •

.. I165

All births up to 19th year

., ,> 24th „

„ „ 29th ,,

,. ,. 34th ,,

,. » 39th „

All births

England and Wales (1910)

If taken between the stated ages
follows : —

Up to 19th year

From 20th to 24th year inclusive

„ 25th ,, 29th „ ,,

,, 30th „ 34th „ ,,
34th year and over

It is seen that, as a matter of fact, the tendency to
produce females over males is present in young mothers ;
at more mature ages there is an excess of males. We
can easil}^ see how a self-regulating balance is established,
depending upon this fact. In a state of society in which
females are scarce they naturally, owing to demand, mate
early in life, and tend thereby to reproduce an excess of
their own kind (females), thus neutralising the state which
recently existed. On the other hand, should the males be
in the minority, the females will mate at more mature
ages, at anj' rate at ages of twenty-five and above as is
at present, in which circumstance an excess of males is
produced. We see, therefore, that the natural tendency
at the present time is to neutralise the female excess. We
may possibly look upon ourselves at the present moment
as being at the zenith of a female oscillation, and as time
progresses, helped probably by a saving of infantile life,
a more numerical equality of sex will be established.

The relationship of the age of the father to the sex of
the child is much the same as the mother, and where
disparity in age occurs the influences may neutralise each
other, so that with a mother of about twenty years and
a father of about thirty years the chance of a boy or a
girl should be about as equal as nature can make such a
problem. Education is attempting to teach the inhibition
of self, and thus delaying the age of marriage, so that
the preponderance of male births should go on increasing.
If the present rate of progress is maintained, and allow-
ing for the greater mortality of the male infant over the
female, an average marriage rate of between twenty-seven
and twenty-eight years should produce a population in
which the males are at all periods in excess of the females.

R. J. EWART.

AVIATORS AND SQUALLS.

OX looking through. the now formidable list of fatalities
which mark "the progress, and the dangers, of
aviation, the reader is often struck by the number of
accidents where the reason for the capsize of the machine
is not apparent. "Holes in the air" is the explanation
frequently tendered, but it seems more than probable that
sudden gusts, or squalls, at critical moments may be the
re.al factors causing the trouble. For this reason an
article bv M. Durand-Greville in the December (1910)
number of the Bulletin de la Societe astronomique de
France is of interest. . j.

M. Durand-Greville proposes a system of warnings ol

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

323

grains and coups de vent which would inform the airman
of the approach of grave risks should he attempt an ascent
until the squall has passed, bo far back as 1892 M.
Durand-Gr^viile made the suggestion to meteorologists in
a memoir entitled " Les Grains et les Orages," which
appeared in the Annales du Bureau central meteorologique
de France. This memoir showed that the isochronic lines
marking the commencement of storms corresponded with
much longer isochrones of squalls. The name ruban de
grain was attached to a more or less sinuous band extend-
•■iC from near the centre to the circumference of a
uression. This band is often 1000-1500 km. (625-940
les) long, and in its interior the wind is very strong,
d often accompanied by precipitation. The advent of
squall is generally marked by a gentle south-west
id veering with startling suddenness and violence to the
rth-west, masses of cloud come up rapidly from the
-t, and frequently heavy thunder is heard. All these
nomena occur suddenly and practically simultaneously,
that the passing of the squall is easily and definitely
-erved.

-M. Durand-Gr^ville's proposal is that from those
rions first passed over, telegraphic warnings should be
:Tiediately dispatched to centres lying eastwards in the
■sequent path of the disturbance. Numerous experi-
nts have demonstrated the feasibility and utility of the
erne. Stations west of Paris have sent messages
louncing squalls which have subsequently passed over
It city at the predicted time.

On the occasion of the great Aeronautical Congress at

Frankfort during 1909, the plan was tried by M. Linke,

' -■•:K:tor of the meteorological station there. Fiftv-five

-ervers within a radius of 150 km., were asked to notify

director of any squall which passed over their separate

-r.Ttions, and M. Durand-Greville states that, " save in

• I- or two cases, all the storms which visited Frankfort

ring this period were known to M. Linke more than

hour in advance."

M. Durand-Greville points out that the expense to anv

dy which undertook the organisation of the warnings

•lild be almost negligible as compared with the money

ii-^'ndpd in prizes awarded to aviators, not to mention the

ch greater cost of machines, &c.. and the lamentable

rifice of human life which might, at least to some

•^nt, be obviated. The ordinary forecasts and warnings

-ued by the various national meteorological offices are

too general to be of use in this regard, but special

vices might be instituted, as a trial, by some of the

ietjes especially interested in aeronautical matters.

TEMPERATURE OF THE UPPER .AIR.
"yj M. RVK.\CHEF has worked out the results of

' balloon ascents at Pavlovsk, Kuchino near Moscow,
1 Nizhni Olchedaief. There were sixty-three flights at
vlovsk, thirty-two at Kuchino, and twelve at Olchedaief,
ne of which attained a height of 12 kilometres. With
,ard to the yearly means, the temperature at Pavlovsk
- up to 9 km. lower than at Kuchino, the differences
reading up to 3 to 35 km., and then diminishing. At
km. they change sign, increasing up to a maximum of
>ut 4^ C. between 105 and 12 km. The difference of
nperature between Pavlovsk and Nizhni Olchedaief is
ich greater, diminishes up to 10 km., where it changes
n, and attains a maximum of 1° between 11 and 12 km.
marked diminution in the fall of temperature takes
ice^ at a lower height in Pavlovsk than in Kuchino, and

Kuchino than at Olchedaief, the heights being 9-5,
". and loS km. respectively. The temperature of the

hermic layers is highest at Pavlovsk and lowest at
• chino. These variations may be explained by the
lerences of latitude, Pavlovsk being situated at about
. Kuchino 56°, and Nizhni Olchedaief 48=', while
vlovsk is more exposed to the mild influence of a sea
mate than the other two places.

At Nizhni Olchedaief the ascents were too few to deduce
> satisfactory conclusions with regard to seasonal varia-
ns. At Pavlovsk the temperature at all seasons from
' ground up to 85 to 9 km. was lower than at Kurchino,
ept that in winter the temperature up to 500 metres
<s higher, which result accords with the readings taken

the ground for a series of vears. The difference of

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

temperature in winter, spring, and autumn shows a
marked increase at about 2-5 to 3 km., changes sign at
85 to 9 km., and rapidly increases to the isothermic layers,
where the temperature is lower at Kuchino than at
Pavlovsk. In summer the difference decreases continually
up to 95 km., and then changes sign and increases. The
height where the fall in the temperature becomes in-
significant is lower in all seasons at Pavlovsk than at
Kuchino, except in spring, when it is about 10 km. at
both stations.

The temperature of the isothermal region is markedly
lower at Kuchino. In the curve of monthly means is seen
a retardation of the maximum in the higher layers of air.
In the lower atmosphere the maximum occurs in July
both at Pavlovsk and Kuchino, but at greater heights it
occurs in August, the change taking place at a height of
2-5 km. at Kuchino and at 4-5 km. at Pavlovsk. At 9 km.
the maximum returns to July. The minimum exhibits
somewhat similar variations. Amplitudes and gradients,
mean changes of temperature with elevation in cyclones
and anticyclones, &c., are also discussed, with numerous
tables and diagrams, in an article published in the Bulletin
of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg,
No. 7, 1910.

THE IXCEXSE-ALTAR OF APHRODITE AT
PAPHOS.

A N interesting article by Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter
■^^ appears in Globus of November 17 (xcviii., pp.
293-7), •" which he brings forward data to prove his
earlier supposition that the first site of Paphos was in the
neighbourhood of Randi, in Cyprus. Certain inscriptions
from this vicinity showed that Aphrodite, " the un-
conquerable," sender of Spring, was worshipped, and that
an ancient incense-altar had existed there. The block
containing the most important inscription is held by Prof.
Richard Meister, of Leipzig, to belong to an incense-altar,
and he adds that the incense-altar of Aphrodite at Paphos
(Homer, VIII., 362 ; Homeric Hymns, IV., 59) was
famous from earliest times.

Last .\ugust Dr. Ohnefalsch-Richter was able to identify
a semi-subterranean side-chamber in the rock connected
with this altar, whence had come the inscribed incense-
bowls which Prof. Meister has been deciphering. Dr.
Zahn's excavations in the chamber have brought to light
some half-dozen further inscriptions in the Paphian script,
and he has made a number of valuable discoveries on the
hill-side below, among them phalli which again played an
important part in the Paphian Aphrodite-worship. The
cult carried on on the hill consisted in making incense
offerings, as described by Homer; in Dr. Zahn's opinion
images were not used originally. A clay statue of about
life-size was, however, found in the middle of the altar-
chamber, the style indicating a date about 600 B.C. The
article concludes : — " We must wait to see what Prof.
Meister will make of the hundred and more inscriptions
discovered. As yet everything supports my surmise that
on . the hill of the incense-altar at Randi, not only an
incense-altar of Aphrodite Paphia stood, but the most
famous, the Homeric, incense-altar of Aphrodite of
Paphos."

Early in the article the writer refers to ten inscribed
stones from Randi " from secret, prohibited excavations."
which were fortunately purchased by someone who
generously presented them to the C\prus Museum. This
is additional evidence, if such be required, of the urgent
necessity for strong measures by the Government for the
repression of iUicit traffic in objects of archaeological
interest in this island and elsewhere. A. C. H.

AIMS OF ASTRONOMY OF PRECISION."^

T^HE science of precise physical measurement is one
■*■ which does not readily appeal to those not immedi-
ately concerned, either with the methods or results. An
authoritative statement that the sun's distance from the
earth is 92,880,000 miles may excite wonder, but scarcely
more than will the statement that it is approximately

1 From the presidential address delivered before the Royal Society f
South Africa on April 20, 1910, by S. S. Hough, F.R S. Published in th
Transactions of the Society, vol. iu, part i.

324

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

93,000,000, except in the minds of those who are in some
measure acquainted with the laborious processes by which
the two extra figures are derived. In fact, I have not
infrequently heard the methods of observation used
described by some such epithet as " hair-splitting." For
this reason I thinli I cannot do better to-night than to
describe to you, without entering into technical details of
the methods employed, some of the aims and objects to
which modern astronomy of precision is devoted, and which
render essential none but the highest refinements that
human ingenuity can devise.

Perhaps the primary reason why astronomy appeals to
the popular ima<jination in a higher degree than other
sciences is that astronomy is par excellence the science of
prediction. True, the days are now past when an astro-
nomer is regarded, except by the most ignorant, as gifted
with supernatural powers and capable of predicting events
that can have no conceivable relationship with the objects
of his researches, or when an unscrupulous astronomer
could utilise his powers of prediction for imposing on the
world at large in the face of the criticisms of fellow-
workers in collateral branches of science. Nevertheless, it
is only necessary to point to any of the leading almanacs
to establish the undoubted claim of astronomy to a con-
siderable predictive capacity in its own legitimate sphere.
These almanacs, prepared in advance, give from day to day
the positions of the sun and moon, the phenomena of
eclipses, and various other data with an accuracy which
can only be called in question by the most refined tests
available to astronomers.

How, then, has astronomy acquired this faculty? The
answer to this question is — at least primarily — by con-
tinuous and patient observation, using always the most
refined methods of physical measurement available.

A well-devised scheme of observation is sooner or later
bound to lead to the detection of laws governing physical
phenomena if such laws exist. Thus it was the planetary
observations of Tycho Brahe which led to the detection of
the laws of planetary motion associated with the name of
Kepler.

Once such laws have been established and the necessary
initial data secured, the science of astronomical prediction
would for the future devolve on the mathematician rather
than the astronomer, were it not for two sources of un-
certainty with which the astronomer must continue to con-
cern himself. It is evident, on one hand, that we
cannot infuse into our predicted phenomena greater pre-
cision than that derived from the initial data, themselves
dependent on imperfect observations. However well the
laws governing planetary motions may be understood, the
predicted position of a planet to-day depends on its observed
positions at some earlier epoch or epochs ; and the falli-
bility of the observations made at these earlier epochs will
not only pervade all future predictions, but will inevitably
increase in amount as the epoch of prediction recedes from
the epoch of observation. For this reason, if the standard
of accuracy of prediction is mereh' to be maintained — and
the growing requirements of science will scarcely rest con-
tented with this — continuous observation must be main-
tained and the data on which predictions are based revised
from time to time.

I have dealt so far only with the effects of the unavoid-
able inaccuracies of observations, even when pushed to
their utmost refinement, as influencing results of prediction.
A second consideration of even greater importance is the
validity of the laws associating the predicted with the
observed phenomena. I may illustrate my point again by
reference to the laws of Kepler. It is now well known
that these laws are only rough approximations to the
actual truth, and that though they might serve as a useful
basis for prediction over a short interval, a few years at
most would suffice, by showing a rapidly increasing de-
parture between the observed and predicted positions of
the planets, to Indicate that these laws require amend-
ment.

That the direction this amendment should take followed
so soon on the original discovery of Kepler's laws was
due to the geniu? of Newton, who showed that the theory
of universal gravitation propounded by him not only
adequately accounted for the laws enunciated by Kepler,
and pointed to their imperfections, but served to coordinate
as due to a single cause even more recondite phenomena.

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

such as the leading inequalities in the motion of the moon,
the precessional motion of the earth, and the phenomena
of the tides. This theory further reduced to order tho^'
astronomical vagaries the comets, . showing that, so lonj;
at least as they remained within the precincts of the solar
system, their motions tvere governed by it, while observa-
tions of double stars have established beyond question that .
even remote parts of the universe are still subject to thf
same laws.

The dynamical laws propounded by Newton, which to-
day virtually form the basis of all astronomical prediction,
enable us to trace back as well as to trace forward th'
history of the solar system, and to confront modeii;
observations with historical records. Needless to say, in
but rare instances do these records possess the necessar\
elements of precision to strengthen the existing data re-
quired by the astronomer ; but there are important excep-
tions. For instance, a very small uncertainty in th>
" elements," which in conjunction with Newton's law-
govern the motion of the moon, will produce by lapse ol
time a large change in the comparatively small area <<\
the earth's surface over which a total eclipse of the sun
is visible as such. Thus a record that a particular eclip^
was seen as total in a given locality becomes an observa-
tion of precision, provided only the chronological date n
which the eclipse occurred can be traced with sufiicien
certainty to ensure the identification of the eclips
concerned.

The confrontation of modern with historical observ,'.-
tions of such a character has served to establish beyond
question the high degree of accuracy with which the law-s
of Newton represent the motions within the solar system,
and their trustworthiness as a basis of prediction for years,
perhaps for centuries, to come. It is, however, on
various grounds quite certain that these laws in themselves
are not absolute, far-reaching though they are, and that
they in turn, like those of Kepler, must be superseded b
laws still more exact.

Until such laws are discovered there will always remai;
an element of uncertainty, apart from that due to tb
initial data affecting all predicted phenomena — an un-
certainty which can only be removed when the phenomena
cease to be prospective, and when they can be confronted
with later as well as with earlier observations.

The fact, however, that the laws of gravitation yiekl
such a close representation of the observed motions within
the solar system throughout historic time renders the
detection of a departure from these laws a question of
extreme delicacy, but none the less essential, if predictio
is to be secured for long periods in advance.

I have selected my illustrations largely from the sob^
svstem chiefly on the grounds that, thanks to the New-
tonian laws,' it is here that, in spite of the immense
mathematical difficulties which have had to be faced,
astronomical prediction has attained its greatest triumphs.
I wish now to divert attention to the stars. In so far as
these form the fiducial points to which the motions of the
planets and other members of the solar system are re-
ferred, it is essential that the positions of a limited
number, at least, should be determined with the highest
possible accuracv. Any uncertainty in their positions will
undoubtedlv be 'reflected in the positions of the planets,
and will constitute one of those sources of error so liable
to increase with time, and render efforts at prediction, if
not entirelv nugatorv, at least partially ineffective.

The universe of so-called " fixed stars " is not invariabl
in aspect, though its changes, for the most part, are of so
minute a character that they can only be surely detected
either bv the most delicate measurements or by their
cumulati've effect over long intervals of time. It is chieflv
through a study of these changes that our knowledge of
the stellar universe has been acquired in the past, and it
is largely to similar means that we look for an extension
of this knowledge.

Among changes which lend themselves to observation
for this purpose we mav enumerate : —

(i) Changes of the intensity of the light of the stai-
The origin of these changes, except in a few instanc* -
remains obscure. In certain cases, however, notably in
the case of variable stars of the Algol type, a satisfactory
explanation of the observed phenomena has been found in
the motions of a system, governed by laws similar to those

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

325

rating in our solar system, of which the visible star
ns a constituent member.

2) Changes of position due to orbital motion in binary
multiple stars. Where both components of a binary
: are visible, these changes readily admit of direct
isurement. In other cases the existence of a com-
ion is inferred to account for regular periodic changes
position of the visible component, though this com-
ion cannot be seen either on account of intrinsic want
light or on account of its close proximity to the primary,
1 the consequent incapacity of our telescope to render

two visually distinct.
1 hese changes are of interest as affording evidence of
validit)" of the Newtonian laws in systems other than
solar system.
1 he changes to which I have so far referred are changes
ch affect isolated stars or groups of stars, but which
not occur, at least to a sensible extent, in the generality
of stars.

I come now to the changes of position due to the earth's

' iral motion which, on the other hand, may be expected

.nfluence all stars in common. Even where, as in the

- s I have already spoken of, their influence is obscured

by orbital motion within the system, when once this

orbital motion has been thoroughly examined, its laws

deduced, and due allowance made for it by computation,

we might expect to find the effects of the earth's motion

still apparent.

The earth in its orbit round the sun approximately

H-i^ribes a circle of 186,000,000 miles in diameter, and its

;essive positions in space at intervals of six months

r separated from one another by this extent. But

experience has shown that recurring changes in the

relative positions of the stars, as viewed at intervals of

six months — that is to say, from two different points of

the universe separated by this vast distance — can only be

f1-rected in the case of a limited number of stars, and then

by the application of the most delicate methods of

asurement spyeciallv designed to bring these changes to

light.

To the Cape Observatory and its former director,

Henderson (1832-4), belongs the credit of first producing

trustworthy evidence of the existence of any fixed star, for

which these changes could be unmistakably detected, and

which, therefore, was not too remote fr<Mn the solar system

to permit of its distance being at least roughly determined

comparison with the diameter of the earth's orbit.

derson's discoven,- has since been fully confirmed by

larer obser\ers, and other stars likely to yield tangible

results have now been examined. As illustrative, how-

'•vpf, of the evasiveness of the quantities sought, and the

ssive labour by which only they can be derived, though

problem of stellar distance has always been in the

forefront of astronomical interest, and has attracted the

attention of several able observers, the number of stars

for which well-determined parallaxes have been published

up to the present day does not exceed some 400. This

number is quite insignificant in comparison even with the

^ber of stars visible to the naked eye without tele-

pic-aid. Moreover, the stars investigated have been, in

general, selected on the grounds of some a priori proba-

bilit}' of their possessing a measurable parallax, either on

account of apparent brightness or on account of their

large apparent motion, and for this reason they can

scarcely be regarded as typical of the generalitv of stars.

In order, then, to gauge the depths of the visible
universe it would appear imperative that our base-line
must in some manner be extended. The distance of
186.000,000 miles through which we are carried in the
-" rse of a single half-year by the orbital motion of our
et round the sun is so small in comparison with inter-
.;ar distances as to give rise to changes in the apparent
relative positions of stars which, except in the most pro-
nounced instances, are so insignificant in amount as to
defy detection even by the most refined processes of
measurement we possess.

How, then, can such an extension of our base-line be
ined? I have already pointed out that the so-called
xed stars " are not truly " fixed," but that on close
observation it is found that each star has an apparent
motion either peculiar to itself or shared bv other neigh-
bouring stars which, with it, constitute an independent
NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

system. I refer primarily to the visible motion transverse
to the line of sight.

If then our sun, as we maj- reasonably suppose, is itself
a member of the stellar universe, it may be anticipated
that it too will not be at rest, but will be moving forward
in space, and the visible motions will be those due to the
combined effects of the motion of the sun and stars.

That the apparent motions of the stars were not entirely
fortuitous, but that they could, at least partially, be co-
ordinated throughout the sky as the visible manifestations
of a single phenomenon, viz. a translatory motion of the
sun with its system of planets through interstellar space,
was first pointed out by Sir William Herschel, who further
indicated that the point of space to which this motion was
directed was situated in the constellation " Hercules."

Before proceeding to the further consideration of this
solar motion, I wish first to point out to you how its
existence at once suggests a means of " extending our
base-line " for the purpose of gauging these interstellar
depths. I have refrained from any numerical estimates of
the amount of this motion, as this involves philosophical
questions into which I do not desire to enter to-night ;
but in order to fix our ideas it is necessary for me to give
you some notion, at least, of the order of magnitude. It
is now possible to state with some certainty that the speed
of the sun's motion relatively to the stars as a whole
amounts to about 20 kilometres per second, and that the
space traversed in a single day therefore amounts to rather
more than 1,000,000 miles, that in a year to about
400,000,000 miles. Thus the stars, as seen on two
occasions a year apart, may be considered as viewed from
two points in space separated by this length, and it only
requires lapse of time in order to increase the length to
an almost indefinite extent.

The great scheme for the photographic mapping of the
heavens at present being carried out on an extensive scale
by means of the cooperative efforts of the leading obser\'a-
tories of the world will shortly furnish a highly accurate
delineation of the skies as seen at the commencement of
the twentieth century. This alone has called for con-
centrated effort extending over some twelve years at least,
while it would even now scarcely be safe to say that
another ten years will see its completion. An immediate
repetition is scarcely to be contemplated, though a sub-
sequent repetition at some future epoch, which may be
agreed on by astronomers, forms an essential part of the
programme as originally introduced.

When this scheme is completed in its entirety very
ample data will be av-ailable for the discussion of stellar
distribution by the methods I have suggested to you.

In the meantime, however, in such tentative attempts
as have been made to fathom the secrets of the universe
by means of the study of stellar proper motion, it has
been necessary to rely on early recorded exact observa-
tions. It will be clear from what I have already explained
to you that it is the earliest trustworthy records in com-
parison with the most up-to-date available which will vield
the greatest length of base-line, and consequently the most
trustworthy results. For this reason the majority of the
discussions hitherto attempted have been based on the
catalogue of Bradley, dependent on observations made by
him at Greenwich between the years 1750-62. This cata-
logue contains the places of some 3000 stars observed
with a precision far surpassing any similar previous
observations, and comparing favourably with the best
modern catalogues. The stars selected by Bradley are
fairly uniformly distributed over the portions of the skv
accessible to him, viz. from the North Pole to 30° south
of the equator.

Unfortunately no early catalc^fue of stars of even
approximately similar precision exists for the remaining
region of the sky between 30° S. dec. and the South Pole,
and the absence of exact knowledge of these regions for
the earlier epochs has always hampered these discussions.

The discussions I refer to have generally had as their
immediate objective : —

(i) The determination of the precessional constant, i.e.
the annual amount by which the earth's axis of rotation
changes its position in space, and

(2) The determination of the speed of the solar motion
and the position of the solar apex, i.e. the point in the
heavens towards which the sun's motion is directed.

326

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

The discrepancies in these quantities found by different
investigators, either starting with different data or
utilising different methods for the combination and dis-
cussion of the same material, had long been a puzzle to
astronomers. The key to the situation was at length
furnished by Prof. Kapteyn, of Groningen, who, in an
epoch-making paper read before the British Association in
Cape Town, first pointed cut that the apparent motions
of the stars indicated, not merely the existence of a
single solar apex, but that there were two separate regions
of the sky towards which a preference was shown by the
directions of motion of the Bradley stars.

This was a phenomenon which could not be explained
by a simple motion of translation of the sun, as evidently
the sun's motion could not be directed to two different
points simultaneously, and the only feasible explanation
was that the stars consisted of two groups, and that the
motion of the sun relatively to one of these groups differed
from its motion relatively to the other, or that, though
the stars appeared intermingled in space, they possessed
an independent relative motion, which might be regarded
as located in one group or in the other, but which was
shared by all the stars peculiar to the group.

The theory of the existence of two streams or drifts
of stars thus put forward by Kapteyn has since received
full confirmation by other investigators, notably by
Eddington, who based his examination on the early
observations of Groombridge, and by Dyson, who limited
his discussion to a selected list of stars possessing con-
siderable proper motions.

Recent investigations at the Cape have led us to ex-
amine in somewhat more minute detail the proper motions
of the Bradley stars, with the result that, though the
phenomena first noticed by Kapteyn stand out as the most
prominent feature, certain subsidiary features of no less
importance have been brought to light.

I have concerned myself hitherto only with the visible
motions of the stars transverse to the line of sight, as
derived by the older methods of measurement. The intro-
duction of the spectroscope into astronomical research has
opened up vast new fields into which, so far as they relate
to the chemical and physical constitution of the sun and
stars, it is not my purpose to enter to-night. What I
wish rather to emphasise is the value of this instrument
as a supplement to the older methods in relation to the
geometrical astronomy of position.

In accordance with the principle laid down by Doppler,
the wave-length of light received from a source which is
either receding from or approaching a receiver will appear
to be modified by an amount dependent in a known
manner on the velocity of approach or recession. If the
receiver takes the form of a spectroscope which permits
by any means, direct or indirect, of the measurement of
the wave-lengths, and the normal wave-lengths of the
lines under examination are independently determined by
laboratory investigations, the difference between the
observed and the normal wave-lengths will thus afford a
means of measuring the velocity of approach or recession
of the source of light.

Of the precautions necessary to ensure precision it is
not my purpose to speak to-night. The large spectro-
scope of the Cape Observatory, which we owe to the
munificence of the late Mr. Frank McClean, was from the
outset constructed with due regard to these precautions,
so far as they could be foreseen, for the purpose of deter-
mining with the greatest accuracy attainable the radial
velocities of stars. The instrument has been already
successfully used, and its capabilities have been estab-
lished in an investigation of the aberration constant of
light as depending on the apparent variations in the radial
velocities of stars resulting from the earth's orbital motion.

From a relatively short series of observations discussed
by my colleague Dr. Halm, this constant has been derived
with a precision not inferior to that attained by the best
series of older observations, and the capabilities of the
method are yet far from exhausted.

-At the present time the instrument is being devoted to
a series of observations of all such stars as are accessible
in the southern skies, the spectra of which present
sufficiently pronounced features to admit of measurement,
primarily with the view of ascertaining what evidence can

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

be derived from a study of the radial velocities in regard
to the systematic structure of the universe.

A year or two must elapse before the present observing
programme is completed, but a preliminary discussion of
the observations already secured in combination with the
published results derived from similar observations in the
northern hemisphere has revealed the existence of
anomalies similar to those found from the study of the
transverse motions — anomalies which can only be recon-
ciled with the two-drift hypothesis put forward by
Kapteyn by the further hypothesis that though both drifi-
pervade the whole sky, they are not similarly distribute
throughout it.

At present, through scantiness of material, from a study
of the radial velocities we have been able to do little more
than discriminate between the two halves of the sk'
which contain, respectively, the greatest and the le.i
proportion of second drift stars. It is, however, a fact ot
some significance that the former corresponds very closely
with that hemisphere which contains the Milky Way,
suggesting the phenomenon that Kapteyn 's second drift
might be identified with the galaxy. It was with the view
of examining this suggestion in the light of the evidence
which could be secured from the transverse motions of the
Bradley stars that the discussions I have sketched to you
to-night were undertaken by Dr. Halm.

While they have established almost beyond question the
rough features of distribution demanded to reconcile the
radial-velocity determinations, they further point to an
even more detailed correspondence between the distribu-
tion of galactic stars and the distribution of stars of the
second drift, leaving but little doubt as to the identity of
this second drift with the galaxy. It is this second drift
which exhibits evidence of structural unity. .As regards
the Milky Way, the mere appearance on any fine night
affords evidence of a similar character, and it is on this
account that we have been able to identify the Milky Way
with the second drift rather than with the first.

The significance and origin of this structure are as yet
obscure, but the more its details are elucidated and the
essential features established the nearer are we to an
answer to the question. What is the Milky Way?

To revert to my original text, I have endeavoured to
point out to you the method<v of research by which an
answer is sought to this and similar questions, and to
explain to you the reasons why the highest precision
attainable is a sine quA non in the conduct of such
research. Thus it is that the study of the large-scale
phenomena of the universe resolves itself frequently into
a study of the minute detail of instrumental appliances,
on which must be brought to bear all the knowledge that
can be derived from other branches of scientific work.
The geologist helps us in the selection of stable founda-
tions on which the engineer may erect our large instru-
ments. Chemistry and physics in our photography, our
optical and electrical appliances, are of daily application,
while one of the most valued accessories in almost all
methods of precise measurement is the spider's web we
derive from zoology.

Astronomy, in its turn, has done much in the past, and
in the future will doubtless do more, to assist the develop-
ment of collateral sciences. Thus the geologist cannot
afford to ignore, even if he does not accept as conclusive,
the evidence furnished by astronomy as to the nature of
the earth's crust. Exact measurements of space and time
as conducted in physical laboratories are for the most part
conducted by methods first designed to suit the require-
ments of astronomical precision, while in the sun and
stars chemical phenomena, which may be studied with the
aid of the spectroscope, are taking place on a scale far
surpassing anything that can be produced in the labora-
tory.

The value gf free intercourse between workers in the
various branches of science is certainly indisputable, and
I wish to close my address by reference to the opportuni-
ties which our society can afford in this respect.^ Devotees
even of applied, and still more of pure, science in a young
country are necessarily few in number and scattered. A
large proportion of these will in the early stages of their
career have been in close association with one or the other
great centres of scientific activity of the world, and to
such a feeling of scientific isolation almost amounting to

January 5, 191 1]

NATURE

327

exile, and consequent lack of stimulus, is almost inevit-
able. Important as are our publications, it is even more
through our monthly meetings and the promotion of
personal intercourse that the society can help in its
m-imary duty of the advancement of natural knowledge in
South Africa.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

The discussions at a conference of teachers in rural
schools, held in London «n December 28, 19 10, under the
auspices of the National Union of Teachers, showed that
teachers are recognising more fully the desirability of
making the education in elementary schools in countn.
districts so far as possible of a practical kind, which will
train the children for agricultural and other country
avocations in later life. A resolution was adopted
unanimously urging that, wherever possible, some teach-
ing in handicraft and housecraft should be given to
children in rural schools, and that, where necessary and
practicable, centres for instruction in these subjects should
be formed. It was suggested during the discussion that
central school farms might be established, where practical
work on the land could be carried on by boys drafted
from neighbouring schools. It was recognised, also, that
actual work in a garden abounds in opportunities for the
best lessons in observation, attention to detail, never
putting off until to-morrow what ought to be done to-day,
as well as the cultivation of the virtues more commonly
associated with the moral instruction lesson. Another
resolution, unanimously carried, deplored the continuance
of the partial exemption system, and declared that the
time has arrived when no child shall be either partially
or totally exempt from attendance at school before four-
teen years of age. .'\ discussion on continuation schools
in rural districts revealed some diversity of opinion, but
the meeting eventually decided that, having regard to the
impossibility of satisfactorily organising and coordinating
continuation work in rural districts, where children are
at present allowed to secure partial exemption from school
attendance at the early age of eleven or twelve for the
purpose of employment, no exemption, either partial or
whole-time, from day-school attendance should be granted
until the age of fourteen years is attained, all wage-
earning child labour out of school hours under the age
of fourteen should be forbidden by law, and these con-
ditions having been secured, a system of compulsory
attendance at continuation schools or other suitable educa-
tional institutions from the age of fourteen to eighteen,
accompanied by provisions which should safeguard young
people against undue physical or mental overstrain, should
be an integral part of a national sj-stem of education.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
Dublin.
Royal Dublin Society, December 20, 1910. — Mr. R.
Lloyd Praeger in the chair. — Dr. J. H. Pollok : The

vacuum-tube spectra of the vapours of some metals and
metallic chlorides (part i.). By the use of a new form of
vacuum tube, made entirely of quartz, which the author
has recently devised, he can readily obtain photographs of
the whole of the vacuum-tube spectra of the vapours of
metals and metallic chlorides. In the present paper the
author gives a description of the quartz vacuum tube and
photographs of the spectra of the vapours of mercury,
nc, cadmium, arsenic, and antimony, tc^ether with
otographs of the spectra of their chlorides, under vary-
ing conditions. The vapours of the metals and their com-
pounds, so far examined, show substantially the same line
spectrum in the vacuum tube that they do when metallic
electrodes are sparked in air. When a condenser is intro-
duced in the circuit, the metal and its compound show
precisely the same change of spectrum, which would seem
to indicate that the changes take place in the vibratin;^
atom. If a large amount of vapour of the chloride is
jwesent without a condenser, bands are seen in addition
to the line spectrum of the metal, and these appear to be
due to the particular compound present, and must there-
fore be connected with the vibrations of the molecule.

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

— Dr. G, H. Pethybridgre : Considerations and experi-
ments on the infection of potato plants with the blight-
fungus (Phytophthora infestans) by means of mycelium
derived direct from the planted tubers. The theory recently
advocated by Massee, that the potato crop becomes
attacked with the " blight," not by means of the " spores "
of P. infestans, but by means of the mycelium of this
fungus, which, after lying dormant for a long period,
passes from the planted tubers into the nearly full-grown
stalks, is criticised, and it is pointed out how difficult it
is to reconcile this mode of infection with the well-known
facts of the disease. It is shown that, owing to the
absence of controls, the experimental evidence on which
the theory is based is quite worthless. -'\ repetition of the
experiments, carried out by the author with the necessary
controls, gave results exactly the opposite to those on
which the theory is based. — Rev. H. C. Browne : Some
suggested improvement in epicyclic variable gears. The
improvement applies specially to the modern bicycle, and
consists in effecting the complete separation of the epicyclic
train from all the moving parts on the middle speed, so
that the friction is reduced to the same amount as if the
machine were a single-geared machine, i.e. so that there
is no movement except that of the ball races at each end
of the axle. The high and low speeds are also improved
by getting rid of all friction due to over-running pawls or
the unnecessary rubbing of parts. The middle speed is
produced directly by the engagement of the driving member
with the hub, the epicyclic train being completely detached
and in no contact with any of the moving parts. The
linking up of the gear train with the drive for the high
and low speeds is effected in a simple manner by the use
of spring trigger pawls. Some care has been given to the
construction of the epicyclic train so that it may be a
proper mechanical unit in itself instead of being a some-
what loose assemblage of wheels. With this object, the
wheels of the train are provided with friction discs reach-
ing to the pitch lines, and the friction between the elements
of the train is thereby reduced to rolling friction.

Paris.
Academy of Sciences, December 27, 1910. — M. !^mile
Picard in the chair. — A. Gaillot : The analytical theory
and tables of motion of Jupiter, by Le Verrier. Additions
and rectifications. These tables represent with sufficient
exactitude the observations made between 1750 and 1869.
From 1870, the comparison of the observed and calculated
positions shows increasing discrepancies. The tables for
Jupiter have now been recalculated, and the results com-
pared with observations for the period 1750 to 1906-7. —
Paul Sabatier : A method for causing two substances to
react in the electric arc. The method described by M.
Salmon in a recent note (December 5) was anticipated
by the author in 1899. — W. Kilian and M. Gig:noux :
.An attempt to coordinate the levels of the pebble beds and
terraces of the Bas-Dauphin6. — The perpetual secretary
announced the death of Armand Sabatier, correspondant
for the section of anatomy and zoolt^)-. — ^J. Guillaume :
Observations of the sun made at the Observaton.- of Lyons
during the third quarter of 19 10. Observations were
possible on sixty-four days during the quarter. Three
tables of the results are given, showing number of spots,
their distribution in latitude, and the distribution of the
faculae in latitude. — Maurice Servant : The transforma-
tions of surfaces applicable to surfaces of the second
degree. — T. Lalesco : Left-handed symmetrical nuclei. —
G. Ko«<ralew8ki : The formulae of Frenet in functional
space. — L. Zoretti : The equations of motion of a viscous
fluid. — G. de Proszynski : The application of the gyro-
scope and of compressed air to taking kinematographic
views. The gyroscope is driven by compressed air, and
is attached to the camera in such a manner as to suppress
or deaden small vibrations. — Jean Becquerel : The
positive magneto-optic effect presented by the phosphor-
escence bands of rubies and emeralds, and the relations
between emission and absorption in a magnetic field. —
J. Thovert : Photometry and the utilisation of coloured
sources of light. A description of a new empirical spectro-
photometric method. — Daniel Berthelot and Henry
Gaudechon : The principal tvpes of photolysis of organic
compounds by the ultra-violet rays. The photolvsis of

328

NATURE

[January 5, 191 1

primary alcohols is characterised by the predominance of
hydrogen and absence of carbon dioxide ; with secondary
and tertiary alcohols the proportion of hydrogen is re-
duced, being replaced by, methane and its homologues.
Aldehydes give a gas containing carbon monoxide as the
chief constituent, whilst carbon dioxide predominates for
the fatty acids. — M. Nanty : The equilibria between
potassium bicarbonate and hydrated magnesium carbonate.
— Georges Denig^s : A new reaction for cupreine. The
reagent used is a mixture of water, copper sulphate,
ammonia, and hydrogen peroxide. Cupreine gives a deep
emerald-green coloration after adding some alcohol. — M.
Hanriot : Brown gold. This name is applied to the gold
left after treating a gold-silver alloy (20 per cent, gold)
with nitric acid. This is not pure gold, but contains traces
of silver, copper and lead, and also of nitric acid, even
although the washings with water are free from acid.
This gold undergoes changes in colour and volume on
heating, a description of these being given in detail. —
F. Bodroux : The action of some esters on the mono-
sodium derivative of benzyl cyanide. In a preceding paper
it has been shown that the sodium derivative
CgH-.CH.N'a.CN reacts with the esters of the fatty acids,
giving compounds of the type CjH5,CH.(CN).CO.R, and
in the present note the reaction is extended to esters of
the monobasic aromatic acids. — M. Lespieau : The con-
densation of acrolein bromide with malonic acid. The
saturated acid CH2Br.(CHBr),.CH,.C02H is obtained
instead of the unsaturated acid expected.— L. Tchougraeff
and E. Serbin : The complex salts of certain amino-
acids. An account of the preparation and properties of
some chromium salts of glycine and its homologues. —
P. Pierron : A method of preparation of the aromatic
acylguanidines. — L. H. Philippe : The glucodeconic
acids. — 'Pierre Breteau : The addition of hydrogen in
presence of palladium : application to phenanthrene.
Palladium was used in the form of sponge, block, and
precipitated metal, phenanthrene tetrahydride being
formed. — -MM. Achalme and Bresson : A method for
determining the presence of one or several diastases in a
liquid.- — W. Vernadsky and Mile. E. Revoutsky : The
chemical distinction between orthose and microcline.
Lithium and rubidium have been found in various micro-
clines ; this is opposed to the rule for distinguishing
orthose from microcline, based on the absence of lithium
and rubidium in the latter. — ^Auguste Chevalier : New
evidence on Voandzeia Poissoni. — L. Matruchot : The
new culture of an edible mushroom, Pleurotus cornuco-
pioides. — G. Andre : The conservation of saline matters
during the growth of an annual plant. — Henri Ag^ulhon :
The acquirement by maize of immunity with respect to
boron compounds. — ^P. Maze : Induced ripening of seeds.
The antigerminative action of acetaldehyde. — P. A.
Dang^eard : The action of light upon chlorophyll. —
P. Ammann : The existence of a perennial rice in
Senegal. — P. Bouin and P. Ancel : The lipoid nature of
an active substance secreted by the yellow body in
mammals.— Louis Lapicque : The relation of the
encephalic weight to the retinal surface in some orders of
mammals. A new set of experimental results confirming
the views announced in a previous paper.— C. Houard :
The mode of action of Asterolecanium, external parasites
of stems. — Auguste Michel : The structure of the elytra
of Halosydna geJatinosa. — Fabre Domergrue and R.
Leg^endre : A method of detecting Bacterium coli in
anaerobic cultures in waters and oysters. The develop-
ment is carried out in the absence of air ; this modification
of the usual methods removes some ambiguities from the
reaction. — E. Doumer : Epilepsy and constipation. Cases
are cited in which the epilepsy was directly connected with
constipation ; electrical treatment of the abdomen, result-
ing in the removal of the constipation, completely sup-
pressed the attacks of epilepsy. — ^M. Godfrey : Some
results of the study of the Antarctic tides observed in the
course of the French expedition to the South Pole. The
results of the analysis of the observed data are not in
accord with the views of Whewell or the more recent
hypothesis of R. A. Harris, and show that the tides in
this region are very complex. — Georges Hervd : The
instructions given by the National Institute (first and
second class) to Captain Baudin for his voyage of dis-
covery in the Antarctic (1800-4).

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, January 5.

RSntgf.n Society, at 8.15.— The Radioactivity of Thorium : Prof.
Rutherford.

FRIDAY, January 6.

Geologists' Association, at 8.-— A History of Species-making ; as illus-
trated by some Carboniferous Corals : by Dr. A. Wilmore.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8.— The Measurement of Boiler
Deformations : G. F. Davidson.

TUESDAY, January 10.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — (i) The Strengthening of the
Roof of New Street Station, Birmingham ; (2) The Reconstruction and
Widening of Arpley Bridge, Warrington : W. i)awson.
WEDNESDAY, January ii.

Geological Society, at 8.— The Zonal Classification of the Salopian
Rocks of Cautley and Ravenstonedale : Miss G. R. Watney and Miss
E. G. Welch. — On a Collection of Insect-remains from the South Wales
Coalfield : H. Botton.

THURSDAY, January 12.

Royal Society, at ^.^p.— Probable Papers: The Absolute Expansion o''
Mercury: Prof. H. L. Callendar, F.R.S.and H. Moss.— The Density of
Niton (Radium Emanations) and the Disintegration Theory : Dr. R. W
Gray and Sir W. Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S.— The Charges on Ions in
Gases, and some Effects that Influence the Motion of Negative Ions :
Prof. J. S. Townsend, F.R.S. — The Distribution of Electric Force in the
Crookes Dark Space : F. W. Aston. — The Measurement of End Stan-
dards of Length : Dr. P. E. Shaw.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Adjourned dhcussion:
Submarine Cables for Long Distance Telephone Circuits : Major
W. A. J. O'Meara, C.M.G.

Mathematical Society, at 5.30. — A Property of the Number 7: T. C.
Lewis. — A Mode of Representation of an Electromagnetic Field as due
to Singularities Distributed over a Surface : Prof. H. M. Macdonald. —
On the Fundamental Theorem in the Theory of Functions of a Complex
Variable : Dr. W. H. Young.

FRIDAY, January 13.

Royal Astronomical Society, at 5.

CONTENTS. PAGE

A Contribution to the History of Evolution. By

Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S. 297

Education and Environment. By F. H. N. ... 298

Energetics and Modern Problems. By J. C. P. . . 299

The Industrial Revolution 299

Spectroscopy 300

The Theory of Metallography. By Prof. A.

McWilliam 301

Physiological Chemistry. By W. D. H 302

Systematic Botany. By A. B. R 302

Our Book Shelf 303

Letters to the Editor: —

Observations of Mars. — E. M. Antoniadi 305

Sir Ray Lankester's Book on the Okapi. — Sir E.
Ray Lankester, K C.B., F.R.S.; Sir H. H.

Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B 305

The Dynamics of a Golf Ball. — Dr. C. G. Knott . 306
On the Simultaneity of Abruptly-beginning Magnetic

Storms. — Dr, L. A. Bauer 306

Tribo Luminescence of Uranium. — Alfred C. G.

Egerton 308

The Classification of Liquids by the Process of

Tanking. — Rowland A. Earp 308

The Conduct and Song of Birds.— F. C. Constable 308

The New Hamburg Observatory. (Illus.) ByH. C. P. 309

The Ancient Inhabitants of the Nile Valley. {Illus.) 310

The German Excavations at Babylon. By H. R. Hall 312

The Neglect of Group-Theory 313

Notes 313

Our Astronomical Column : —

Discovery of an Eighth-magnitude Nova 310

Metcalf's Comet, igiob 3^'

Elements for Faye's Comet, 1910^ ........ 3^9

A New Map of the Moon 3^9

The Total Eclipse of the Moon, November 16, 1910 319
Nineteen Stars with Newly Discovered Variable

Radial Velocities 3''

Observations of Planets 3'''

Colour Contrast in Photomicrography. (Illus.) . . 31'

Prize Awards of the Paris Academy of Sciences . 320

Sex Relationship. By Dr. R. J. Ewart 322

Aviators and Squalls 322

Temperature of the Upper Air 323

The Incense-Altar of Aphrodite at Paphos. By

A. C. H 323

Aims of Astronomy of Precision. By S. S. Hough,

F.R.S 323

University and Educational Intelligence 32?

Societies and Academies 327

Diary of Societies 32°

NO. 2149, VOL. 85]

NA TURE

;29

THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 191 1.

MlGRklORY BIRDS.

The Book of Migratory Birds, met with on Holy
Island and the Northumbrian Coast, to which is
added descriptive Accounts of Wild Fowling on the
Mud Flats, with Notes on the General Natural
History of this District. By W. Halliday. Pp.
258. (London : J. Ouseley, Ltd., n.d.) Price 55.
net.

THE obtrusive title of a work should, we think, be
more closely descriptive of its contents than that
of the volume now before us. "The Book of Migra-
tor}' Birds " — the title conspicuously appearing on its
cover — excites hopes in the ornithologist of a com-
prehensive contribution to a branch of his science of
unquestioned interest. His momentary disappoint-
ment, on discovering from the continuation of the title
inside, the restriction of its scope to the Northumbrian
coast, may perhaps be relieved on his recalling the
fact that the district, with its offshore islands and
lighthouses, forms a migration-observator}' from
which a keen and persistent watcher might be ex-
pected to make valuable contributions to the
question. His annoyance, however, will be acute
when, on dipping into its pages, he finds the volume
to be only a melange of articles, strung together in
the most casual way, and evidently originally con-
tributed to some newspaper or journal in which either
science was not a strong point or the editorial super-

ision was far from exacting.

The first part consists of a score of essays, not one
without need of vigorous revision by a competent
zoologist, while the second describes a certain number
of the species of the Northumbrian coast individually ;
the book, however, makes no serious contribution to
migration data, nor adds anything new to the
histor\- of the species observed. The first thirty-seven
pages are alone specially devoted to the bird-life of
Lindisfarne and the Fame islands, but the short and
desultor}- notes on the species mentioned will hardly
pay the reader for his time. The succeeding three

-says deal with " wild-fowling " as far removed from
Holy Island as North Kent; with "a few comments
on sport," and "how I became a naturalist," this last
filling eight pages, of which five contributed by
another pen, have no connection in the world with
the autobiography. With the following two, on "bird
migration " and " bird migration from America to
Europe," hope rises that at last some new ideas on
the subject giving its dominating title to the
book are to be disclosed. We are not disappointed
by the author.

" Whatever theory is advanced [on this absorbingly
interesting question] the idea," writes Mr. Halliday,
"baffles the most devoted student of natural history.
Yet the query as to the causes of the northern or
spring exodus has prompted me to make an effort to
explain . . . those laws. . . . Almost without excep-
tion . . scientists are agreed that previous to

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

tne period termed the Glacial or ice age, climates
were non-zonal — that is, that they were ot the same
general temperature everywhere from pole to pole.
rirst, that there was an epoch of torrid heat followed
by one of tropical heat, and succeeded by one of tem-
perate heat, which gradually passed into one of exces-
sive cold, during which period the higher lands were
snow-covered. . . . Since this age the climates have
become zonal — a condition which seems to us most
natural, because man remembers naught to the oon-
trary.[!] The geological record shows us, however,
that everywhere from pole to pole the same life existed
during all the periods before the latter part of the
temperate Tertiary epoch. Aside from these differ-
ences of temperature resulting from elevation , . .
there were in the nature of things few reasons for
migrations of either fauna or flora . . . when finally
the gradual transition from earth-heat control to sun-
heat control had taken place, and the Ice age began,
these wanderings to and fro become systematic and
periodical. The stronger and more, active individuals
pushed further on than their fellows, as they climbed
up further on mountain sides, thereby forming a class
apart. They mated and founded new varieties. . . .
So here we have, in its earliest and simplest form, the
origin of the migratory movements of animals which
have developed to such an extent in this day under
the present zonal distribution of climates. Thus we
mav conclude," adds the author, " that, beginning with
the first modifications of climate, perhaps at the com-
mencement of the Pleistocene era, the various forms
of life being suited to a uniform environment sought
in their wanderings to and fro, the continuance of
these conditions."

So here at last we have the final word on phenomena
which have puzzled generations of ornithologists and
others !

After such epoch-making discourses as these, a dozen
other essays — evident reprints — follow on a variety
of matters unconnected with the subject of the book,
yet containing many entertaining observations not to
be found in more recent ornithological histories I

The second part of the book describes individually
forty-two species only out of the ninety listed on p. 22
as the more or less complete avifauna of Holy Island
and region. They are not arranged in any classifica-
toiry order, nor, in many cases, do they appear under
the generic and specific names which are usually given
them bv the rules of nomenclature. Fuller and more
accurate accounts of these species are to be found in a
score of well-known histories of British birds. We are
staggered to find in this catalogue of Northumbrian
birds the names of the cassowary and the ostrich,
sandwiched between the quail and the merlin. We
live and learn, however! Of the two final essays,
both of which appear under the headline of " The Book
of Migratory Birds," the one on North Sea seals may
be legitimately included in a work on Northumbrian
natural history'; but it is a far cry from longshoring
on Lindisfarne to "seal-hunting in Greenland," which
is the title of the other. The author, however, makes
his own apologies in these words : —

" If the able and experienced chroniclers of the
migrants in the past have written craving the indul-
gence of the reader, I feel I am infinitely more in need
of such indulgence, and as a man is but mortal . . .
his best work is oft-times a sorry attempt."

M

330

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

PRINCIPLES OF ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY.

Theoretical Principles of the Methods of Analytical
Chemistry based upon Chemical Reactions. By
Prof. M. G. Chesneau. Authorised translation by
Prof. Azariah Thomas Lincoln and Prof. David
Hobart Carnahan. Pp. x+184. (New York: The
Macmillan Co. ; London : Macmillan and Co.,
Ltd., 19 10.) Price 7s. 6d. net.

IN the introduction it is stated that this book re-
presents the reproduction of a series of lectures
delivered in the College de France on the principles
involved in the methods of analytical chemistry. The
reversible and irreversible reactions which are in-
volved in analytical processes are discussed, on the
one hand, from the point of view of the theory of
electrolytic association, and, on the other, from that
of the heat changes which accompany these reactions.

It is obvious that the comparative examination of
the facts of analytical chemistry from these two
points of view represents a theme to which consider-
able interest would attach if the comparison were
made by a chemist thoroughly familiar with both
aspects of the question, and yet untrammelled by
adhesion to any particular doctrine. Unfortunately
this is not the case, and it is perhaps partly due to
the author's lack of familiarity with the present posi-
tion of the ionic theory that his verdict is given in
favour of the so-called calorimetric theory. The
evidence which leads to this result is very far from
convincing, for whereas great stress is laid on the
difficulties, real and apparent, which are involved in
the adoption of the ionic theory, the improbable con-
sequences which attach to the application of the
calorimetric hypothesis are accepted without criticism

Only a brief reference can be made to a few of the
many points which call for comment. In terms of
the calorimetric theory we find that acids are classified
as strong, medium, and weak according to the quan-
tities of heat liberated in the process of neutralisation.
The decrease in the activity of a weak base, such as
ammonia, on the addition of a corresponding salt, is
attributed to the production of acid by hydrolytic de-
composition of the salt. An attempt is made to
refute the ionic explanation of the similar influence
of salts on weak acids by reference to experiments on
the rate of solution of zinc in solutions of acetic acid
to which various metallic acetates were added. Such
experiments are in reality of far too complicated a
nature to allow of the results being interpreted in
favour of or against any particular theory.

In the discussion of osmotic pressure, the early
measurements of Pfeffer and Ponsot are cited, but no
reference whatever is made to the work of Morse
and his collaborators, or to that of Hartley and the
Earl of Berkeley.

Certain generalisations, drawn by Ponsot from
transport measurements by Chassy, are brought for-
ward as being more important than all the excellent
experimental work done on the subject from the time
of Hittorf onwards. Here, as in so many other in-
stances, the lack of the author's knowledge of recent
work on the nature of solutions of salts is lamentably
apparent.

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

In the treatment of indicators, Ostwald's long-
discarded ionic explanation is the only one which the
author sees fit to compare with that based upon the
calorimetric theor)'.

These references suffice to indicate that the author
has failed to do justice to his subject, but this review
would be incomplete if attention were not directed
to the unsatisfactory character of the translation. In
view of the fact that the academic title of the second
translator is that of associate professor of Romance
languages, a rendering of the original into tolerable
English might have been reasonably expected. To
show that this anticipation is not fulfilled, the first
paragraph on p. 4 may be quoted : —

"The processes of analytical chemistry consist, in
general, in bringing each element successively to the
state of a definite compound in a final system, formed
of distinct phases, whose nature lends itself easily to
a separation by purely mechanical processes."

This conglomeration would appear to be the result
of a too literal translation.

Apart from the publisher's share in the production
of the work, the reviewer can find nothing to recom-
mend it, and the translation represents a good deal of
misspent time and energy. H. M. Dawson.

MORE MOSQUITOES.
A Monograph of the Culicidae or Mosquitoes. Mainly
Compiled from Collections Received at the British
Museum. By Fred V. Theobald. Vol. v. Pp. xv +
646 + 6 plates. (London : British Museum (Natural
History), Longmans and Co., B. Quaritch, and
Dulau and Co., 1910.) Price il. 55.

SOME few years ago a critic observed that, owing
to the system of classification adopted for the
Culicidae, to describe a new species " and call it a
genus " was far easier than to determine its true
systematic position. Since then, such has been the
activity of genus-makers, the condition of affairs as
regards the nomenclature and taxonomy of the known
mosquitoes has become infinitely worse. No ento-
mologist of repute will deny that, were characters so
trivial as those now employed for the distinction of
most of the so-called "genera" amonp^ Culicidae made
use of in other orders of insects, or in other families
of Diptera, the result would be little short of chaos.
Sooner or later the whole question of mosquito classi-
fication will have to be reconsidered ; meanwhile the
subject awaits the advent of a properly qualified
systematist, gifted with breadth of view and possess-
ing a sound knowledge of fundamental principles.

The book before us, which is a continuation, and,
in some respects, a rdsumd of the previously published
volumes of Mr. Theobald's well-known work, is con-
structed upon the same lines as its predecessors, and
certainly bears witness to the industry of its author.
We are told in the " Introduction " that, since the
appearance of vol. iv. in 1907, the genera of Culicidae
have been increased by twenty-one and the recognised
species by no fewer than three hundred and ninety-
two, though it would seem that not all of the latter
are actually new; thirteen of the genera, however,
and eighty of the species are now described for the

f

January 12, 191 1]

NATURE

Z^"^

first time. Since the first two volumes of the mono-
raph (pubHshed in 1901) have long been out of print,
f appearance of the present instalment is opportune,
d the tables for the determination of genera and
I'cies, with which it is copiously provided, will doubt-
's prove useful to many. The figures are clear and
-11 executed, and misprints are few.
The author's English, however, not infrequently
makes the sensitive reader shudder; for instance, the
first sentence of the book includes the words, " they
tabulate as follows," and this remarkable phrase, in
which " tabulate " is used as an intransitive verb, is
repeated again and again in the course of the volume.
As additional examples of faulty phraseology we may
quote : — " It probably comes in Myzotnyia " (p. 22) ;
!' it cannot be said as to what pictiis really is " (p. 25) ;
"A number of allied genera come around it and they
keep on increasing in number" (p. 151). More serious
than this is a flagrant error in terminology. Diptera,
as is well known, have a five-jointed tarsus, but Mr.
Theobald not only employs the objectionable, because
et}'mologically incorrect, term " metatarsus " for the
first joint of the tarsus, but calls the second and third
joints the " first and second tarsals," and so on ; this
is confusing as well as wrong, and would lead a
novice to suppose that in the CulicidjB the tarsus is
four-jointed.
With reference to the disseminator of yellow fever,
may be noted that the author has decided to retain
ihe name Stegomyia fasciata, Fabr., instead of re-
garding the specific designation as preoccupied and
substituting for it calopus, Mg., as is the practice in
the United States. On the ground of common sense
well as expediency, the course adopted in the British
luseum monograph, though not in accordance with
the accepted rules of zoological nomenclature, is un-
doubtedly the best. Mr. Theobald should not, how-
ever, perpetuate a slip made in his last volume, by
stating that "Villiers described a mosquito (1789) as
Culex fasciatus," the original author of the name in
question, which dates from 1764, being O. F. Miiller,
whose brief description, accompanied by a reference
to the work in which it appeared, was copied bv de
^"illers (not Villiers) in 1789.

PHILOSOPHY.
Philosophical Essays. By B. Russell, F.R.S. Pp.
vii+185. (London: Longmans, Green and Co.,
1910.) Price 65. net.
'X'HE subject-matter of Mr. Russell's book may be
-»- gathered from the titles of his chapters — "The
Elements of Ethics," "The Free Man's Worship,"
The Study of Mathematics," "Pragmatism,"
William James's Conception of Truth," "The Monis-
tic Theory of Truth," "On the Nature of Truth and
lalsehood." With the exception of the last, all are
jreprints, with some alterations, of articles which have
■npeared in the Ne-M Quarterly, Hibbert Journal, In-
tendent Review, Albany Review, Edinburgh Review,
d Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.
In the first essay the author states his own deter-
,mmist convictions, and points out that determinism
;does not interfere with moraL, for, as a matter of
NO. 2150, VOL. 85I

fact, people never do believe that anyone else's actions
are not determined by motives, however much they
may think themselves free.

"If we really believed that other people's actions
did not have causes, we should never try to influence
other people's actions." "Most morality absolutely
depends upon the assumption that volitions have
causes."

In the third essay there is a fine statement of the
" supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, like
that of sculpture," which the mathematician sees in
his subject ; also some good hints on teaching. But
the largest part of the book, and perhaps the most
interesting, is that in which the author combats tjie
new philosophy — or some aspects of it — which is
mainly represented by Dr. Schiller, now that its great
American protagonist is gone from among us, to the
regret of all students, whether disciples or philosophical
enemies.

Mr. Russell is an empiricist, and therefore agrees
with pragmatism's readiness to treat all philosophical
tenets as working hypotheses only ; but he dissents
from its conception of the nature of truth. If utility
is to be a criterion of truth, it is not a useful criterion,
for it is usually harder to discover whether a belief is
useful than whether it is true (e.g. papal infallibility).
Therefore the pragmatist theory does not "work," and
the prag^matists are hoist with their own favourite
petard. As to the "will to believe," Prof. James
ignores the distinction between believing and enter-
taining an hypothesis. If a man comes to a fork in
the road, and does not know which branch to take,
it is a " forced option " from the point of view of
action, for he must take one of them if he is to arrive
at his destination. But his belief is not forced. He
neither believes nor disbelieves that he is on the right
road, until he finds out by asking somebody, or by
sign-posts, or from other sources of information. The
Will to Believe "assumes that if we do not completely
believe an hypothesis, we must either completely dis-
believe it or wholly suspend judgment." But the fact
is that all experiment, both in science and dailv life,
implies a state of mind which accepts neither alterna-
tive. Actions are based on probabilities.

There is much further acute criticism, but the author
expresses his great respect and esteem for William
James, and his deep sense of the public and private
loss occasioned by his death.

HEREDITY.
Heredity in the Light of Recent Research. By L.
Doncaster. (Cambridge Manuals of Science and
Literature.) Pp. x+140. (Cambridge: University
Press, 19 10.) Price is. net.

MR. DONCASTER has performed a remarkable
feat in condensing into so small a space such
an admirable introduction to the study of heredity
in the light of recent research. He writes clearly,
without dogmatism, he treats fairly both the Mendelian
and the biometric schools, and shows excellent judg-
ment in what he includes and in what he omits.

The book begins with a discussion on the nature
of heredity and variation, showing^ how the study of
one is bound up with that of the other, and how both

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

bear on the problem of evolution. The different kinds
of variation, their nature and their causes,
next come in for consideration, and the methods
of investigating them are dealt with. Then
follows a chapter on the statistical study of heredity,
which includes a description of the simplest method
of measuring correlation. Chapters v. and vi. treat
of the Mendelian form of inheritance, both as it is
seen in a single pair of allelomorphs, and when it is
complicated, as in the inheritance of coat colour in
rats and mice, by the dependence of the character on
two separately inheritable factors. This is succeeded
by a discussion "on some disputed questions," which
range from the apparent incomplete segregation of
coat-characters in the descendants of a cross between
long-haired (Angora) and short-haired guinea-pigs to
the inheritance of acquired modifications. The treat-
ment of these problems is suggestive rather than
exhaustive.

The final chapter deals with heredity in man. The
more important conclusions obtained by the use of
statistical methods are mentioned, and cases are
described where the inheritance of particular char-
acters may be explained on Mendelian lines. Among
the latter are included the presence or absence of pig-
ment in the front of the iris observed by Hurst, and
Nettleship's remarkable pedigree of "night-blindness,"
which appears to behave as a Mendelian dominant.
Finally, the importance of inheritance in the con-
sideration of certain sociological questions is insisted
on. Two appendices are added, (i.) " Historical Sum-
mary of Theories of Heredity," and (ii.) "The Material
Basis of Inheritance."

The excellence of the print and paper are deserving
of especial mention. The latter is thin but opaque,
with a very smooth, but not an offensively glossy sur-
face. This enables the diagrams of variation and
pedigrees, &c., to be reproduced very clearly though
on a small scale, while the Jialf-tone blocks are better
printed than in many a mord expensive work.

E. H. J. S.

EkRLY EGYPTIAN REMAINS.
The Tomb bf Two Brothers. By Miss M. A. Murray.
(Handbook, Manchester Museum.) Pp. 79 + 21
plates. (Manchester : Sherratt and Hughes ; Lon-
don : Dulau and Co., 19 10.) Price 5s.
IN 1907, during the exploration of a series of tombs
at Der Rifeh, . the cemetery of the ancient
Egyptian town of Shas-hotep, near Assiut, a con-
cealed and hitherto unrifled chamber was discovered.
Prof. Flinders Petrie, recognising the importance of the
contents being kept together and scientifically examined,
suggested that in consideration of a subsidy towards
the work at Memphis, the tomb and its contents
should be placed at the disposal of the Manchester
Museum. Through the liberality of friends the sum
required, with a balance sufficient to defray the cost
of the present monograph, was provided. The report
has been edited by Miss M. A. Murray, who has
secured contributions from experts on the many points
of Interest connected with the discovery.

The tomb belongs to the twelfth dynasty, and sup-

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

plies two of the earliest mummies which have hitheito
been subjected to scientific examination. They were
placed in highly decorated coffins enclosed in elaborate
cases, while the viscera were, as usual, deposited in
so-called canopic jars. Each of the deceased was pro-
vided with a statuette as a home for the Ka, or separ-
able soul, and the chamber also contained two figures
of girls bearing offerings for the dead, and boats
provided for the journey of the soul to its final rest.

Various novel and interesting questions are dis-
cussed by Dr. J. Cameron in his elaborate report on
the anatomy of the remains. The inscriptions indi-
cate that the bodies are those of two personages
named respectively Nekht-ankh and Knumu-nekht,
the former an elderly man, the latter middle-aged,
both of small stature, about 5 feet 3 inches high.
The slimness, delicate moulding, and faintness of the
muscular impressions in the case of Nekht-ankh indi-
cate a feminine type ; and Dr. Cameron infers that
he was a eunuch, or at least he designates the type
as eunuchoid. Further, the extraordinary fact is dis-
closed that on him the operation of subincision, fami-
liar to all students of Australian native tribes, but
hitherto not recognised in Egypt, had been performed.
In this connection it is significant that the right
lateral incisor of the upper jaw had been removed;
and it can hardly be a mere coincidence that the re-
fnoval of this tooth, possibly as a means of propitiat-
ing Nemesis or to subserve some obscure magical pur-
pose, is a part of this rite in Australia. These curious
facts deserve, and will doubtless receive, due attention,
from anthropologists.

It is also remarkable that the skulls of these two
brothers, sons at least of one mother, differ widely in
structure. That of Knumu-nekht, the younger, is
extremely prognathous, with an alveolar or gnathic
index of 104-34, while that of his eunuchoid brother is
remarkably orthognathous, with an index of 93"8,
that of Englishmen being 96. The obvious explana-
tion is that these men were sons of one mother by
different fathers, the prognathous type indicating
admixture of some negroid stock, such as that which
has been recognised by Prof. Eliott Smith in some
Nubian cemeteries. It is a proof of the artistic
capacity of this early period that the carver of the
statues of the brothers clearly indicated these vari-
ances of racial type.

Manchester is to be congratulated on the acquisition
of a collection of the highest anthropological interest,
on the liberality of the citizens who secured its!
possession, and on the skill and learning which thej
writers have bestowed upon this admirable mono-|
graph.

PHOTOGRAPHIC PRACTICE. j

A Primer of Photography. By Owen Wheeler. Pp-j

vii + 202. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., n.d.)

Price 2s. 6d. net. j

WE have read this volume with much pleasure, be-i
cause it consists of a plain and straightforward
statement, by a man of experience, of those facts
that one who has just begun to photograph will find
profitable. The author gives no preface or introduc-

January 12, 191 1]

NATURE

333

tion, relying presumably on the title as a sufficient
indication of his aim. He deals with the practice
rather than the underlying principles of photography,
though these and historical details are not altogether
neglected. He does not repeat such instructions as
are enclosed in every box of plates or packet of paper,
and refers without hesitation to various proprietary
articles and to expense. As might be expected, the
author regards his subject from the point of view of
the present-day beginner, and it is in this that the
volume differs from the older primers. There is no
attempt to indicate methods of manufacture, because
no one at the present time prepares his own sensitive
material. There are no tables of exposures necessary
in various circumstances, because "here the ex-
posure meter or guide comes into play." Films are
not treated of as if they almost needed an apology for
their introduction, nor hand-cameras as if they were
inferior in almost everything else but price to the
instruments supported in a more stable manner.

Although no two teachers would make exactly the
-ame selection of processes as being best suited to the
beginner, and making all due allowance for personal
preference, we are rather surprised that the common
mercury and ammonia method of intensification is not
referred to, the two methods recommended being the
uranium and the silver cyanide methods, both of
which are more troublesome than the other.
The statement that plates are made ortho-
chromatic " by bathing ordinary plates in a colour
sensitiser " is likely to mislead the beginner in this
detail of manufacture. Of course, the sensitiser is
added to the emulsion, bathing being quite an excep-
tional process. There are a few matters, particularly
in the optical part, that might be revised with advan-
tage, but these are not of prime importance. The
chapter on "Telephotography" explains the manner
of using the special lenses constructed for this purpose
in a more simple and at the same time complete
manner than we have ever seen elsewhere.

STARS IN SEASON.
Round the Year with the Stars. By Garrett P. Ser-
^iss. Pp. 147. (New York and London : Harper
and Brothers, 1910.) Price 5s. net.

THIS volume takes quite a different line from that
of "Astronomy with the Naked Eye," by the
same author, the points of overlap between the two
volumes being infrequent and unimportant. In the
arlier work Mr. Serviss described the legends and
myths which so profusely surround the old constella-
tions ; in the present volume he endeavours to culti-
vate a personal knowledge with the chief units of the
celestial pageant.

In the four principal chapters (i.-iv.), the sky is
taken at each of the four seasons — spring, summer,
autumn, and winter — and is so described that the be-
ginner may locate, with but little trouble, the con-
stellations and their lucidae. This may sound rather
a hackneyed procedure, but in the hands of Mr. Ser-
viss, whose poetic enthusiasm for the stars is, on ever^-
page, as obvious as his wide knowledge, it becomes
most interesting and instructive. For example, he
NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

introduces (p. 25) a discussion as to the most suitable
season for the commencement of the year, deprecating
January, when nature is asleep, as compared with
spring, when the glorious re-birth takes place. A
reference to Sir Norman Lockyer's researches on the
different years would have further elucidated the sub-
ject. The fact that our constellation Virgo is similarly
named in ten different and ancient languages is the
type of fact that makes the work so interesting. But
the physical attributes of the individual objects are
not neglected; the powder of science is judiciously
mixed with the jam of poetic mythology. The de-
scription of Spica's magnitude, intrinsic brilliance, and
enormous velocity, given on p. 31, should be appre-
ciated by the least scientifically inclined sky-gazer. It
is helpful to find the common, countryside names
given beside the Arabic names and the Bayer Greek
letter.

In discussing the colours of companions, the author
is, we believe, rather too dermatic when he states
definitely (p. 89) that the complementary colours are
not the effect of contrast. Recent researches rather
tend to contradict this, and we look upon the footnote
reference to Dr. Louis Bell's work (p. 90) as a nega-
tion of the author's dictum. The four seasonal and
the six ordinary charts are nicely done, but we fear
they are not of sufficient size or contrast to aid the
beginner in his actual observations. The appendices
are very interesting, and after reading through the
first, which gives the Christianised names of the con-
stellations, the beginner will probably shudder at the
possibility of having to use the genitive singular of
"The Red Sea with Moses Crossing It," Schillerius's
" improvement " on Eridanus. W. E. R.

A PAIR OF TIGER BOOKS.
(i) Anecdotes of Big Cats and other Beasts. By

David Wilson. Pp. viii + 312. (London: Methuen

and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 6s.
(2) The Life Story of a Tiger. By Lt.-Col. A. F.

Mockler-Ferrj-man. Pp. iv+253. (London: A.

and C. Black, 19 10.) Price 3s. 6d.
(i) TT has been suggested that one reason for the
-1- greater prevalence of man-eating tigers in
India, as compared with man-eating lions in Africa,
is due to the superiority in courage of the natives of
the latter over most of those of the former country.
Whatever may be the truth of this assertion as re-
gards India, it most certainly does not apply to
Burma, where, according to Mr. Wilson, it is a
common practice for the relatives or neighbours of a
person carried off by a tiger to pursue the murderer
then and there, armed only with spears, or other
primitive weapons, in order to recover the body. Some
faint idea of the courage necessary for such a primi-
tive expedition may be gleaned, observes the-author,
bv anyone who tries to take a bone from a savage
dog. In one instance recorded in Mr. Wilson's book
four old men started to rescue the body of the grand-
daughter of one of the party, and succeeded in badly
wounding the tiger, although with the death of one
of the heroic four, and the maiming of a second.
But this act of heroism is exceeded in a case where

334

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

the first of a party of three young girls walking in
single file through the jungle was seized and carried
off by a tiger. Nothing daunted, the second girl,
seizing a chopper from the onfe behind her, rushed
in pursuit, and actually killed the striped marauder
by a rain of blows on its head. It is true that both
anecdotes rest on native testimony, but they seem to
)iave the impress of truth.

Mr. Wilson's book is, however, by no means con-
fined to tigers, and will be found to contain a number
of more or less interesting observations on the habits
and character of many denizens of the Burmese
ju'rigles, from meloks 'downwards to snakes and
lizards.

(2) Colonel Mockler-Ferryman's volume, on the
other hand, is a " tiger-book " pure and simple, and
for those who enjoy animal " autobiographies " is an
excellent example of that class of literature, for the
author appears to be thoroughly well-acquainted with
the habits of the striped tyrant, and records the
history, in what are supposed to be the animal's own
words, of a member of the race from cubhood to
mature age. Incidentally he mentions that there are
" castes " among the species, and that the sleek hill-
tiger, with a fully-striped coat, is an altogether supe-
rior class of animal to its fat, and often sparsely
striped, brother of the lowlands. An attractive feature
of the volume is formed by the eight coloured plates,
reproduced in excellent style by the tricolour process
from sketches by Mr. Harry Dixon. Whether when
a tiger has knocked over a sambar stag by a vigorous
rush, its mate would take a flying leap on to the
victim in the manner shown in the plate on the cover
of the volume, I am not competent to say, but the
action certainly looks like a somewhat unnecessary
display of energy. In the plate representing a tiger
clinging to the shoulders of a tame buffalo in the
arena of a native chief, the horns are of somewhat
antelope-like type, but we are told on p. i6 of the
text that the bufifalo in question, together with its
fellows, possessed horns of abnormal shape. R. L.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Anton Dohrn : Geddchtnisrede gehalten aiif dem In-

ternationalen Zoologen-Kongress in Graz am i8

August, 1910. By Prof. Th. Boveri. Pp. 43.

(Leipzig : S. Hirtel, 1910.) Price 1.25 marks.

Although the labours and personality of the late

Anton Dohrn have been strikingly presented in this

journal, the motives that led him to found the

" Stazione Zoologica " and the influence he has exerted

are matters of great interest, not to be exhausted by

a single article. In a wonderfully artistic manner

this aspect of Dohrn 's life is made clear in a speech

delivered by Prof. Boveri during the Graz Zoological

Congress last August, and now published by Hirtel,

of Leipzig.

In that pure, nervous German to which he has
accustomed us. Prof. Boveri sets forth the inspiration
that led Dohrn to undertake his life-work, the capacity
that enabled him to overcome difficulties of the severest
nature, and to win support of the most international
character. Now that it is done we are apt to forget
the originality, the clear-sightedness, and the zeal
which underlaid such a splendid success ; and it is
well that the man himself should be known who has

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

raised on alien territory buildings that cover 2000
square metres, that enclose 250 rooms, and employ
fifty officials. The international value of such a
laboratory is imrnense, and the work is that of one
man who faced the forebodings of failure from his
father, friends, and colleagues, who strove against
misfortune upon misfortune, and who, in spite of this,
staked his whole interest in the ultimate success of
the scheme- The speech is one of lasting value.

Fly-Leaves from a Fisherman's Diary. By Captain
G. E. Sharp. Pp. xi+175. (London: Edward
Arnold, 1910.) Price 5s. net.
Books about fishing, and above all about drj-fly fish-
ing, are so constantly appearing that the reader tends
to become critical, not to say fastidious. Yet we do
not think that the most fastidious will complain of
Captain Sharp's little book. The writing of it has
obviously been a labour of love undertaken by a keen
sportsman, and an ardent lover of nature and open-
air life. The episodes described are ordinary, and, we
had almost written, commonplace, but they are set
forth with the charm which is inseparable from the
descriptions of the really sympathetic student of the
life of a river.

It has been the good fortune of the author to find
employment in a country town within bicycling dis-
tance of the water that he fishes, and, month by
month, he has been able to spend his days and half-
days of leisure by the river. Month by month he has
described his days, or some of them, for, "Even in
fishing there are sometimes evil days, but they are
not the days which we remember." The book is
illustrated with three really admirable pictures of
stretches of a chalk stream and a charming view of a
nameless Wiltshire village. L. W. B.

Mating, Marriage, and the Status of Woman. By
James Corin. Pp. xii+182. (London and Felling-
on-Tyne : Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., 19 10.)
Price 2S. 6d. net.
In an essay of considerable interest, the author re-
views the causes which have led to the development
of the relations existing between the human male and
female.

The phenomenon of a relatively inferior female
bound to a relatively dominant male is peculiar to
man. The contention is that the marriage system is
the cause of human progress while at the same time
it affords an explanation of woman's physical and i
mental inferiority. Progress depends on the birth- |
rate. If woman is to be a highly developed breeding
machine she must occupy an inferior position, being
economically dependent on the male. Centuries o.f ,
selection, for breeding purposes, of the feeblest, most ;
submissive, and patient of women have had a marked j
efTect. '

Mating, in which the woman was free, belongs to |
the first period of human affairs, and marriage tothe i
second. In the opinion of the author, the marriage |
system, fostered by militarism, has developed from the |
practice of communal rape, and the relation of vie- j
torious soldiers to captive women. According to Skeat. !
the word wife is allied to vibrare, to tremble; hence!
wife means a trembling thing, a captive. The essay.
is interesting and the argument is well sustained. |

Mother and Child. Being Letters from an Old Nurse \
to a Young Mother. Bv L. M. Marriott. Pp. 126.^
(London and Felling-on-Tvne : Walter Scott Pub-
lishing Co., Ltd., iqio.) Price is. _ I
In a small volume of 120 pages much sound advice
is given about the management of pregnancy, the'
health of voung mothers, the care of infants, the early
training of children, and other domestic matters.

January 12, 191 i]

NATURE

335

The book is written in the form of letters from a

arse to her patient. It is intended for the laity.

iie instructions are practical and the teaching is in

.cord with the modern school of obstetrics.

It is questionable what advantage is gained by pre-

- nting medical subjects in this way, but if women
• to be supplied with information on these subjects
could not be better given.

The book is of handy size, and it is supplied with
1 index. The type is good.

iie Modern Geometry of the Triangle. By W.

(jallatly. Pp. 70. (London : F. Hodgson, n.d.)

Price 2S. 6d.

The principal novelties in this tract are the chapters

1 the orthopole (with some original propositions by

e author) and on orthogonal projection (mostly after

rof. Neuberg). A pretty theorem in the latter is that

! equilateral triang^Ies in a given plane project upon

lother plane into triangles having the same Brocard

i^le. The other four chapters discuss various kinds

coordinates, the Lemoine and Brocard points, pedal

;d anti-pedal triangles, the medial triangle, and the

>impson line. No reference is made to the Tucker

circles, or to Kiepert's hyperbola; even the Brocard

circle is unmentioned, so the tract is deficient, even

as 1 summary of the most important parts of the

subject. A rather irritating- feature is that the symbol

i> used for two entirely different purposes ; this might

silv have been avoided. Perhaps the figures will be

and as useful as anvthing in the tract, for although

ey are not particularly good, they are drawn so

at the special points are far enough apart, which

^ not ver\' easy to contrive when a student is drawing

4ures for himself. M.

1 aid Appell : Bwgraphie, Bibliographie analytique des
Ecrits. By Ernest Lebon. Pp. viii + 71. (Paris:
Gauthier-Villars, 1910.) Price 7 francs.

This volume is the latest addition to the excellent

- ries of biographies published under the general title,
Savants du Jour," to which attention has been

directed on several occasions in these columns. The
brochure maintains the high character of the series.
A biography of Prof. Appell, in which an interest-
ig account of his early experiences during the siege
: Strasburg, where he was born in 1855, is followed
an exhaustive list of the academic distinctions,
onorary titles, prizes, and decorations which have
en conferred upon him during his strenuous life.
lis work in mathematical, analysis was eulogised by
M. Charles Hermite in 1889, on the occasion of
Prof. Appell's receiving a gold medal at a conference
"esided over by King Oscar II. ; and the appreciation
here printed. M. Gaston Darboux's account of the
-.earches in geometry-, for which Prof. .Appell re-
ived the Bordin prize of the Paris Academy of
iences, is also included in the volume. A com-
lete list of the papers and addresses of the subject
: the biography completes what is a valuable record.

Flower Anthology. Selected and illustrated by
-Alfred Rawlings. Pp. iv+163. (London: Philip
Lee Warner, 19 10.) Price 5s. net.

HE quotations in this collection have been selected
om the works of many well-known poets, but more
specially from Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Herrick,
haucer, and Keats.

The poems have been classified roughly into those
aling with the seasons of the year, and the changes
' the animal and vegetable world associated with
nem. We are glad to see Edmund Spenser's "The
'ageant of the Year," which gives a fine description
nd picture of nature in the different seasons and
onths.

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

The illustrations form a pleasing addition to the
volume, which should meet with the approval of alt
lovers of poetr)'. The book is, moreover, very taste-
fully bound.

Hazell's Annual for 191 1. A Record of the Men and
Movements of the Time. Edited by Hammond Hall.
Pp. lix + 592. (London : Hazell, VVatson and Viney,
Ltd.) Price 3s. 6d. net.
The twenty-si.xth issue of this useful reference annual
is so much uf>-to-date that it contains a biographical
list of members of the new HouSe of Commons. So
varied are the contents of the volume that it will
appeal to workers in most spheres of human activity.
The man of science will find, among other useful
contents, articles on scientific progress in 19 10, aerial
navigation in 1910, Imperial research, scientific insti-
tutions, higher education, forestry, and afforestation,
agriculture, and daylight saving. It is remarkable
how much information has been packed into a small
space.

Plant Anatomy from the Standpoint of the Develop-
ment and Functions of the Tissues and Handbook
of Micro-technic. By Prof. W. C. Stevens. Second
edition. Pp. xv + 379. (London : J. and A.
Churchill, 1910.) Price los. 6d. net.
The first edition of Prof. Stevens's work was reviewed
in Nature for July 9, 1908 (vol. Ixxviii., p. 219). The
present issue has been enlarged by the addition of a
chapter on reproduction, and the volume has been
revised generally.

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 Recent Earthquakes in Asia.

I AM informed by Mr. G. W. Walker, superintendent of
Eskdalemuir Observatory, that the records of the seismo-
graph according to the design of Prince Boris Galitzine,
which was recently presented by Dr. Arthur Schuster to
the observatory, give the positions of the epicentres of
the recent earthquakes in Asia as follows : —

January- i, lat. 36!° N., long. 66° E.

January 3-4, lat. 42° X., long. 77° E.

The first place is in the Hindu Kush range of
.Afghanistan, north-west of Cabul. The second is in the
north-east of Turkestan, near its junction with the Chinese
and Russian Empires. W. N. Shaw.

Meteorological Office, South Kensington,
London, S.W., January 9.

As it is unusual for the Kew magnetographs to be
affected by earthquakes, it seems worth mentioning that
on the occasion of the Turkestan earthquake, near mid-
night (G.M.T.) of January 3, both the declination and
horizontal force traces show unmistakable effects. The
magnets oscillated in a way characteristic of mechanical
shocks. .According to our Milne seismograph, the pre-
liminary seismic tremors reached Kew about n.35 p.m.,
and the large wav-es about 11.47 pni., when the limits of
registration were exceeded for a minute or so. There was
then a comparative lull until about 11.54, when the limits
of registration were again exceeded, and these very large
movements continued with short interludes for more than
fifteen minutes.

The apparent times of commencement of the oscillatory
magnetic movements are about 11.53 •" ^^^ declination
and 11.55 '" the horizontal force curves, and for four or
five minutes the oscillations were so continuous that no'

33^

KTATURE

[January 12, 191 1

trace is clearly shown. From 11.35 to 11.38 there was a
very rapid easterly movement of about 4' in the declina-
tion trace, of a non-oscillatory character. The close agree-
ment in time of this movement with the arrival of the
preliminary tremors is very likely a purely accidental
coincidence ; but the movement is of an unusual character,
and it would be interesting to know what was being re-
corded at the time at other magnetic observatories. The
movement may, of course, have been due to some purely
local source, e.g. abnormal electric-tram currents.

C. Chree.
Kew Observatory, Richmond, Surrey, January 7.

Singularities of Curves and Surfaces.

There is a distinction between multiple points and
what, for want of a better word, I have called singular
points. The curve aWp+ //^+] = o has at A a multiple
point of order p, but not a singular point. The latter
points are defined in § 169 of my " Geometry of Surfaces,"
reviewed in Nature of December 22, 1910 (p. 231), and
the definition may be illustrated as follows. Let multiple
points of orders p. q, r . . ., where p is not less than
q, r . , ,, move up to coincidence along a continuous curve ;
then the compound singularity thereby formed is a
singular point of order p. The curve of lowest degree,
which can possess a singular point of given order, depends
on the way in which the singularity is formed. Thus if
four nodes move up to coincidence along a conic, the
resulting singular point is of the second order ; but a
quintic is the curve of lowest degree which can possess
such a singularity. Also, if three nodes move up to
coincidence along a straight line, the singular point is
still of the second order, but no curve of lower degree
than a sextic can possess such a point.

The reviewer's statement in the second paragraph is
misleading, and calculated to convey a false impression,
since the investigations referred to are applicable to
surfaces of any degree. The fact is that a quartic surface
is capable of possessing most of the simpler singularities.
The principal exceptions are triple lines, which cannot be
completely discussed without the aid of a surface of the
seventh degree, and cuspidal twisted curves, which necessi-
tate the employment of a quintic surface, since a quartic
surface, which possesses a cuspidal twisted cubic curve,
is a developable surface, and is therefore not sufficiently
general for the purpose in question.

As science advances, the introduction of new words is
essential. Thus lithotrity, ovariotomy, scleroderma, &c.,
have been introduced during the last century to designate
operations and diseases of which our ancestors were
ignorant, whilst algebra has been enriched by such words
as catalecticant, evectant, protomorph, &c. the choice of
suitable words requires care, but I adhere firmlv to my
opinion that Latin and Greek are the best languages to
employ. A, B. Basset.

December 23, 1910.

It is unfortunately impossible to give a very brief
rejoinder to Mr. Basset's letter ; and it is perhaps as well
to take the opportunity of giving a further statement of
my position in reference to singularities on a plane curve.

In the first place, the distinction drawn in Mr. Basset's
letter between multiple points and singular points of order
p does not seem to be in agreement with the practice
followed in his book, where the two terms appear to be
used indiscriminately : thus in §§ 171-4 and § i8i the
term multiple point is invariably applied to singularities
which, according to his letter, he would now call singular
points. At any rate, the singularities considered in these
articles cannot occur (in their general forms) on curves of
degree (p+i), and, as I understand Mr. Basset's letter, he
intends the use of the term multiple points to be restricted
to those singularities which do occur on curves of degree
(^+1). Naturally such a restriction would justifv the
assumption made in § 165, which was criticised in my
review ; but no modification of terminology will answer the
question as to whether all types of singularitv can be
obtained by Mr. Basset's treatment of the subject.

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

The singularities which were in my mind when 1 raised
this question were those considered by Zeuthen {Math.
Annalen, Bd. x.) and Jordan (" Cours d'Analyse," t. i>
chap. V.) ; a fairly simple example is given by the origin
on the curve .x = t^, y = t'^ + 1" + 1'".

Zeuthen 's method enables us to determine the Pliick'
equivalents of the singularity, and Jordan shows how l.^
find quadratic transformations which reduce the singularity
to a simpler character. But I do not see that Mr.
Basset's limiting process (as briefly indicated in his letter)
would enable us to handle any singularity of this- type
(called a cycle by Jordan), nor have 1 found any reference
to the existence of such types in Mr. Basset's book.

T. J. I'A. B.

Scottish Natural History.

I SEE that Nature of December 29, 1910, refers to two
statements made before a natural history society by Mr.
Symington Grieve, viz. :—

(i) That half a century ago white-tailed eagles w*"-^^
more abundant than golden eagles, or words to t!.
effect.

(2) That Mr. Grieve is of the opinion that wild cats are
on the increase in Scotland owing to the instructions
issued by proprietors and factors for their protection.

With regard to the first, naturalists would like to hu.
further data. It is certainly true white-tailed eagles utfc
then vastly more abundant than now, and that they are
now verging on extinction as an existing species. But
that they were " far more numerous half a century ago
than the golden eagle " requires more exact statistics.
Forty years ago there were quite eighty eyries of golden
eagles occupied over all Scotland, but I cannot find any
evidence to prove that white-tailed eagles at any time
anywhere in Scotland even approached that figure, and
during at least forty years I have paid considerable atten-
tion to all statements made as to their distribution and
their subsequent decrease. Locally in some few districts
white-tailed eagles were more numerous than golden
eagles, but not generally, and I believe all ogeupied
eyries could at any time have been easily counted.

As regards the increase of wild cats, that is also quite
undoubted, but the true reason is not the direct instruc-
tions given by proprietors or factors generally, though that
may have some local value also, but to the protection
afforded by the increased area of lands devoted to dr •
afforestation. T. A. Harvie Brows.

Dunipace, Larbert, Stirlingshire, N.B.,
December 29, 1910.

The Origin of Man.

The following extract from a review in " Dodsley's
Annual Register for 1767 " of Dr. Adam Ferguson's essay
on the " History of Civil Society " may be of interest : —

"Many of the authors who have written on man, and
those too, some of the most ingenious, have set out by
considering him as an animal. . . . Nay, one in particular
has thrown out doubts of his having been originally a
monkey or baboon." (The reviewer goes on to speak of
this theory as " too ridiculous for serious animadversion.")

Could any of your readers say who was the " one in
particular "? Charles E. Benham.

Colchester, January 7.

COLLIERY WARNINGS.

WHEN an appalling collien,- disaster, like that ai
Hulton Colliery, happens to coincide with a
"colliery warning," public attention is naturally
attracted to the fact, and the warning at once becomes
invested with an appearance of importance that i>;
out of all proportion to its true value. There appear
to be an impression that tliese colliery warnings ar
issued by some central responsible authority, such :.■■•
the Meteorological Office might be, and that they ar
based upon sound scientific principles, but as a mattt
of fact they are issued by the Press Association, and ar

j.\NUARY 12, 191 1]

NATURE

Zn

apparently issued in defiance of all the dicta of science
and all the teachings of practical experience. All these
warnings are based on the assumption that a high
barometric pressure indicates a condition of danger
for the coal miner; for example, the warning pub-
lished on December 19 last states : — "While the glass
remains at about its highest level, miners are advised
:o beware of escapes of firedamp from the strata."
Ihe entire falsity of this assumption has been re-
peatedly pointed out in the technical press, but as the
warnings are still being issued on the same lines, it
nay be worth while to place the main data on the
-abject before those interested in the matter.

Firedamp occurs occluded in coal, and also contained
under pressure in cavities and fissures in the coal
-eam itself and in the strata adjacent to it. Further-
ncM-e. in every collier}- there are larger or smaller areas
rem which the coal has been removed, and which are
nore or less loosely filled with debris, either deliber-
ately thrown or packed in to fill up partly the empty
spaces, or due to the breaking down of the roof of
the coal seam. Such a partially filled space is known
rechnically as the "goaf"; the ventilating current in
i colliery traverses the various roadways and work-
ings, passes along the working faces of the coal, and
may sweep along the edge of the goaf, but the goaf
itself is never ventilated. Hence in a fier\- colliery
the goaf gradually fills with a mixture of firedamp
;nd air. The object of the ventilating air current is
o dilute the firedamp given off gradually from the
;>al faces, or coming off more rapidly from cavities
nredamp escaping in this way being known as a
blower"), to such an extent as to produce a non-
xplosive atmosphere in all accessible parts of the
mine.

A gas explosion can only occur in a properly
worked collier\- when an evolution of firedamp
takes place in excess of the normal, and the
question directly before us is how this rate of
volution of firedamp can be affected by changes of
tmospheric pressure. It is an obvious truism that
•ncrease of pressure nmst tend to prevent the escape
f firedamp from the coal or the strata of rock. In
vhe case of gas contained in cavities, this is often
under very great pressure, as high as 30 atmospheres
having been recorded by actual measurement, and
in such circumstances, even a considerable change
in the height of the barometer, say 3 inches, amount-
ing to only one-tenth of an atmosphere, would have
but little influence. On the other hand, blowers
sometimes give off gas at pressures not greatly above
that of the atmosphere, and then fluctuations of atmo-
-oheric pressure may have a decided effect. Thus in
ne Colliery Gitardian of December 13, 1907, Mr.
D. S. Thomas gives a record of his obser\'ations on a
blower extending over a twelvemonth, in which he
•und that the flow of gas from the blower increased

- uite regularly whenever the barometer fell, so much

- > that " the slightest change in barometric pressure
as shown more delicately than the barometer itself

could record it."

As regards occluded gas, it is quite certain that this
conies off more readily when the coal is placed under
diminished pressure. Numerous investigations have
been made on this point, and it has been found that
whilst a small reduction of pressure causes the
occluded gas to commence to come off, yet even after
many hours' exposure in a vacuum at ordinarv tem-
peratures, a considerable proportion of the gas is still
retained. As regards therefore the gas contained in
the coal and the surrounding rocks, it appears to be
beyond controversy that a low barometer must neces-
sarily correspond to a somewhat increased evolution
of firedamp.

The gas contained in the goaf is under somewhat
NO. 2150, VOL. 85I

different conditions; so long as the air in the airways
of the mine is under the same pressure as that in the
goaf, there is no tendency for the latter to flow into
the former once the condition of equilibrium has been
attained, whether this be under a regime of high or of
low barometric pressure. A rapid fall of the barometer
would necessarily affect the airways first, and would
therefore cause the foul air from the goaf to flow out
into the airways of the mine, and it is quite c<mi-
ceivable that a series of rapid alternations of high and
low pressure, bringing about a considerable inter-
change between the air in the roadways and in the
goaf, would promote diffusion, and thus help to in-
crease the proportion of firedamp in the airways; in
the main, however, it is the falling of the barometer
that will bring about this result. This reasoning,
based upon elementary- physical laws, appears to be
incontrovertible, and points conclusively to a falling
barometer as the condition to be dreaded, and that
this is the case is well known to all mining engineers,
and apparenth" to everycMie except the Press Associa-
tion. It seems probable that the firedamp of the goaf
plays a greater part in fouling the air of a mine than
does that evolved from the coal, as a general rule, and
that therefore a rapidly falling barometer is more
dangerous than a continuously low barometer in most
cases.

Numerous observations have abundantl}^ con-
firmed this reasoning; the Prussian and Austrian
Firedamp Commission showed conclusively that the
f>ercentage of firedamp in the air of mines was greater
when the barometer fell, and the British Commission
of 1886 came to the same conclusion, though they
attached less importance to the subject; it may be
advisable to quote their words : — " While we recog-
nise that variations of atmospheric pressure exert
influence on the escape of gases which have accumu-
lated in the cavities, and possibly to a slight extent
on that of gases emitted directly from the coal, we
entertain great doubt as to the wisdom of placing
reliance on the issue of meteorological warnings."

In addition to the work of the various commissions,
there are in existence numerous ref>orts of investiga-
tions carried on in this country- and on the Continent,
notably in Westphalia and the north of France, and
all agree in showing that an increase of firedamp in
the air of mines attends a fall of barometric pressure.
It is thus inexplicable why the Press Association should
still continue to look upon a high barometric pressure
as a source ol danger, unless on the reasoning that a
high barometer must fall before ven*- long, and it
may be charitably assumed that the warnings are
issued on this hypothesis. Nevertheless, the statement
of the recent Royal Commission on >Iines respecting
these warnings (second report of the Royal Commis-
sion on Mines, 1909, p. 175) : — " They are misleading,
and, as far as we can see. their publication serves no
useful purpose," deserves most emphatic endorsement.

Seeing that a barometric change cannot, of course,
per se, bring about a colliery explosion, but can only
produce conditions under which an explosion is liable
to occur, the explosion itself being determined by the
coincidence of several more or less accidental circum-
stances, it is hardly to be expected that statistics of
explosions would be of anv great value. In order,
however, to get as much light as possible upon t^e
facts of the case, I tabulated some time ago all the
explosions that occurred in the year 190s, and com-
pared them with the state of the barometer at Kew;
parenthetically, I may remark that I took the Kew
readings because the news agency bases its warn-
ings upon it, although it is, of course, the state of the
local barometer and not of the Kew barometer that
reallv affects the question. The results were as fol-
lows : —

338

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

Out of 138 explosions there were : —

21 explosions when the barometer stood bet ween 29 -oand 29 49 in,

56 „ „ ,, 29'5 „ 29-99 ,,

54 „ ., M 300 .. 30-49 »

7 M .. .. 305 .. 3°'^ '»

Furthermore, there were : —

48 explosions when the barometer WiS rising
70 ,, ,, ,, tailmg

20 ,, ,, ,, sicady or slightly fluc-

lUiiiin^.

I also compared the colliery warnings issued in the
first half of 1905 with the explosions that took place.
'Ihere were in those six months 62 days on which
explosions took place out of about 155 working days,
so that if a date should be selected at random, the
probability that an explosion would occur on that day
or the day following would be about 4 to i ; during
those six months there were fifteen warnings issued,
only six of which were followed within torty-eight
hours by an explosion, so that the Press Association
only hit upon a dangerous date once in less than ten
timies. Obviously it could do better if it trusted
to chance alone, and if the matter were not such a
serious one, I should be tempted to advise the news-
papers concerned to turn over the subject of colliery
warnings to their sporting tipsters. Over a series of
years the average number of explosions was about
150 per annum, and the average number of warnings
about 25, so that even if every warning were followed
by an explosion, only one explosion in six would have
been foretold.

Of course, it is every explosion that must be taken
into account, and not only serious explosions or those
attended by loss of life. Whether a small gas explo-
sion occurs doing no damage at all, or whether the
explosion extends throughout the whole of a colliery,
killing its hundreds, is obviously determined by
the circumstances of the case, and is indepen-
dent of barometric fluctuations ; indeed, modern
researches are forcing us very near to the con-
clusion that in present-day colliery practice every
serious extensive explosion is a coal-dust explosion
rather than a gas explosion, though the latter may,
and very often does, originate it. In fairness to the
news agency, I may point out that when the barometer
is high there is a likelihood that the coal-dust in a
mine may be drier than when it is low, and it is
possible, though not proved, that in these circum-
stances the risk of a coal-dust explosion may be some-
what greater. This consideration, however, does not
affect the general conclusion that the colliery warn-
ings as issued by the Press Association, which
pointedly refer to firedamp, are misleading, and
would be harmful but for the fact that most colliery
managers know too much about the subject to pay
any attention to them.

I hold that it would be a real service to the mining
community if the Meteorological Office would send
out notice whenever an area of considerable baro-
metric depression is approaching our shores as long
in advance as possible, so as to w^arn colliery managers
to be on the look out for a fall in the barometer.

I understand that similar predictions are furnished
to farmers at harvest time for a small fee, and surely
if this can be done where material interests alone
are involved, it is not too much to ask for the like
assistance where men's lives are at stake. It is not
at all certain that the influence of barometric changes
upon the possibility of colliery explosions is of any
great importance, but in matters of such supreme
gravity, no precaution, however trifling, should be
neglected. Henry Louis.

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

SOURED MILK AND ITS PREPARATION.
LACTIC CHEESES.

IN a former article ^ the nature, preparation, and
uses of soured milk were dealt with. It was
pointed out that the consumption of sour milk is wide-
spread in the East, that in all the sour milks a pecu-
liar niTicro-organism is present, with artificial cultun <
of which it is possible to prepare soured milk in imita-
tion of the natural product, and that soured milk tends
to lessen intestinal putrefaction and seems to be bene-
ficial in many complaints. The micro-organism
{Bacillus bulgaricus) present in all the natural sour
milks is one possessing distinct and special character-
istics, though exhibiting marked variation or "pleo-
morphism," and Makrinoff,^ who has critically studied
the question, believes that all the varieties which
have been described are referable to one species. Two
more or less distinct races seem to exist, namely, one
that produces a somewhat viscous product, another
that does not, and for the preparation of soured milk
the latter is to be preferred as yielding a more palat-
able product. The morphological and staining char-
acters of the Bacillus bulgaricus are so distinctive that:

Fig. I. — Filro of properly soured milk, showing presence of the
B, bulgaricus only (Gram, X 1200).

a microscopical examination, combined with the Gram
staining process, of the soured milk, enables us to
judge to what extent the B. bulgaricus has developed,
and whether there is contamination with other organ-
isms (Figs. I and 2).

For the preparation of soured milk it was pointed
out that the milk must be properly sterilised by
adequate boiling, inoculated with a proper " starter,"
that is a culture of the B. bulgaricus, and incubated for
from 12 to 24 hours at a temperature of 105° to no
F. Starters may be obtained in the liquid and sohd
(tablet) forms, but unquestionably the liquid are_ far
superior to the solid ones. Thus Quant ^ examined
certain tablet preparations, and compared them with
a liquid culture as regards flavour of, and production
of lactic acid in, the .soured milk produced. The
liquid culture produced 2-34 per cent, of lactic acid
B.P./ the tablets yielded only 007 to 0*42 per cent,
of lactic acid B.P. ; moreover, the curd and flavour
were unsatisfactory with the latter. Quant also

1 Nature, April 7, 1910, p. 159.

2 Centr.f. Bakt., Abt. ii., Pd. xxvi.. 1910, p. 374-

3 Brit. Med. Journ., 1909, ii., p. 1738.

4 i?./'. = British Pharmacopoeia.

January 12, 191 i]

NATURE

339

directs attention to the importance of a proper
incubation temperature. He found, using the liquid
cuhure, that the yield of lactic acid at 105° F.
was more" than one and a half times that at 85° F.,
and more than one and one-third times that at blood
heat, 984° F. Samples of five preparations were also
examined for the British Medical Jourtial ^ with the
; )llovving results : —

Percentage of Lactic Acid Produced.

c I, After 10 hour's

^""P'* incubation

(i) Fluid culture (Oppenheimer) ... ... o'96

(2) Fermenlactyl tablets ... ... ... o 00

(3) Lactobacilline ,, ... ... ... 0"02

(4) Sauerin ,, ... ... ... 007

(5) Trilactine ,, 0-27

From this table it will be seen that the liquid culture
is far superior to the tablets. The writer also
examined - liquid sauerin, and sauerin, trilactine, and
fermenlactyl tablets, and of these the liquid sauerin
alone could be considered satisfactorj'.

In response to a request by the editor, several firms
have been good enough to furnish preparations which

I

Fig. 2. — Film of soured milk prepared with tablet starter.
Numbers of small Gram-negative bacilli present (Gram and
eosio, X i20o).

have been examined by the writer with the following

results : —

I. Content of B. bulgaricus : —

(i) Tablets.

(a) B. bulgaricus present in ij'ioo and i/iooo of a
tablet, not in less. Streptococci also present.

(b), (c), (d) Very few B. bulgaricus present, even in
i/ioo of a tablet; milk not curdled.

{2) Fluid Culture.

(a), (b), and (c) B. bulgaricus present even in
1/100,000,000 c.c. No streptococci.

(3) Tablets.

(a), (b), and (c) Very few B. bulgaricus present even in
i/ioo of a tablet; milk not curdled.

(4) Lactic Cheese.

B. bulgaricus present in 1/100,000 gram, not in less.
Streptococci present.

(5) Sour Milk Cream Cheese.

B. bulgaricus present even in 1/100,000,000 gram.
Streptococci present.

From this it will be apparent that the fluid prepara-
tion (No. 2) has a content of B. bulgaricus enormously

1 Brii. Me J. /ourn., 1909, 1., p. 104.

2 Brit. Med. Joum., 1910, ii., p. 15S4.

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

greater than the tablet preparations (Nos. i and 3).
The lactic cheeses, if fairly fresh, contain a high
content of B. bulgaricus, and are a pleasant and
wholesome addition to the diet.

II. Characters of soured milk made with the prepara-
tions : —

(i) Tablet. — Milk markedly curdled. Acid, but some-
what cheesy odour. B. bulgaricus present in moderate
number, also streptococci. Gram-negative bacilli present.

(2) Fluid Culture. — Milk well curdled- Acid, pleasant
odour. .Abundance of B. bulgaricus ; no other micro-
organism.

(3) Tablet. — Milk curdled, but B. bulgaricus scanty.
Gram-negative bacilli present.

The result of these tests is to show that the tablet
preparations do not produce a satisfactory soured
milk, and the product is contaminated with bacilli
other than the B. bulgaricus (see Fig. 2). The fluid
culture, on the other hand, yielded an excellent soured
milk, the flavour of which, however, would probably
be improved if lactic streptococci were present in
addition.

Special lactic acid-producing streptococci {e.g. 5.
lebenis) are always present in the natural sour milks,
they aid the rapid growth of the B. bulgaricus by
producing an acid environment, they tend to lessen
the separation of the curd, and, in the writer's opinion,
render the soured milk more palatable.

The small content of B. bulgaricus present in dry
tablet preparations renders these com.paratively in-
efficient for internal administration, and not to be
compared with the ingestion of even a few cubic
centimetres of properly soured milk.

I am indebted for the photomicrographs to Mr.
J. E. Barnard.

R. T. Hewlett.

THE BRITISH SCHOOL .AT .ATHENS."^

THE fifteenth volume of the ".Vnnual of the British
School at .\thens " is somewhat less in bulk
than its immediate predecessor. Probably its present
length is about the extreme of what is convenient for
a book of this format. The most important articles,
as before, are those which describe the continuation
of the work of the school at Sparta, which has been
so successful, and has conferred such great distinction
upon British archaeology in Greece. Mr. Dawkins,
the director, describes the work generally, and the
conclusion of the excavation of the sanctuary of
Artemis Orthia, and Mr. Droop the pottery, with
regard to which he has made important discoveries
which have given us quite a new idea of the history
of ceramic art in the Peloponnese. The long list of
inscriptions recovered in the sanctuary- of Artemis
Orthia is finally disposed of by Mr. A. M. Woodward,
who appends to his admirable and painstaking work
a series of corrections of re-discovered inscriptions
which had previously been copied by Fourmont.

The main part of this section of the '" Annual "
is devoted to the description of the Menelaion,
the heroon of Menelaos and Helen, of whom
the latter, at any rate, seems to have been origin-
ally a minor deitv, a nature-goddess, akin to Artemis
Orthia herself. The shrine is placed on a hill a little
to the south of Sparta, and was solidly built on a
strong revetment- wall of great stone blocks, to which
the top of the hill serves as a core. This imposing
I work is probably of the fifth centur\- B.C., but the
explorers found manv traces of far older occupation,
going back to the Mycenaean period.

A large number of smaller antiquities were dis-

1 " Th*" Annual of the Tirit'sh School a' Athene." No. xv. Session
1008-9. Pp. viii+4i2-f2o plates. (London : MacmtlLan and G)., Ltd., iii.d.)
Price 251. net.

340

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

covered, mainly small votive offerings, consisting
chiefly of figurines of terra-cotta and lead. These
leaden figures are extremely interesting, and are well
published in a series of plates. Those of warriors are

Fig. I.— a Laconian Vase of the Seventh Century. From " The Annual of
the British School at Athens."

of rernarkable interest, as showing Spartan military
dress from the seventh century onward. Small orna-
ments of lead, such as little spiked wreaths, were
found in enormous numbers ; Egyptian scarabs were
found; of these one, pi. viii.. Fig. 4, is published
upside down. These are of the seventh century,
as iilso is a ring (Fig. 12, p. 142).

The work at the Menelaion is described by
Messrs. Wace, Thompson, and Droop. Sand-
wiched between this and the preceding descrip-
tions is a curious note on a Scottish parallel to
the Spartan custom of electing the dead Lycurgus
as eponymous Patronomus ; in 1547 St. Giles
himself was elected patron provost of Elgin for
" ane zeyr nyxt to cum." This note, which is by
Mr. P. Giles, seems a little incongruous in the
prominent position which it occupies, and would
have been better as a footnote somewhere else.

Messrs. Wace and Hasluck continue their in-
teresting notes on the topography of Lakonia,
and Mr. Traquair describes the notable churches
of western Mani. The revival of church building
by the always independent Maniotes at the end
of the eighteenth century is interesting ; it seems
probable that this was largely due to the Greek
cruise of the Russian squadron of Orlov, which
revived the hopes of Orthodox Christendom for
freedom' from the domination of Islam. Mr.
Hasluck continues his researches into the byways
of Greek history during the Frankish period with
his articles on "Monuments of the Gattelusi "
(the Genoese lords of Aenos on the Maritza) in
the ^gean, and on " Frankish Remains at
Adalia," and also deals with "Albanian Settle-
ments in the ^-Egean Islands." We return to
the classical period with Mr. Woodward's article
on a new fragment of an Athenian " Quota-List
of the year 417-6 B.C.," giving the amounts paid
by the subject-allies to the treasury of the Con-
federation of Delos in that year, and with Dr.
Duncan Mackenzie's interesting reconstruction of
figures in the East Pediment of the Temple of
.^gina, in opposition to the views of the late
Prof. Furtwangler. Dr. Mackenzie has, we are
sorry to say, held over the next instalment of his
long article on "Cretan Palaces," which has been a
feature of recent volumes of the "Annual." Messrs.
Wace and Thompson also contribute a short article
on their discovery of "A Cave of the Nymphs on

NO. 2I';o. VOL. 8sl

Mount Ossa," previously unknown. A large number
of fragmentary votive stelae were found.

The third portion of this year's "Annual," and not
the least important, also deals with Greek religion.
This is the publication by Profs. Bosanquet and Gil-
bert Murray of the Hynin to the Kouretes, the warrior
guardians of the infant Zeus, who, like the Salii c
Rome, with whom they were compared long agi
leapt in their dance with clashing of sword and speai
In the hymn, which was discovered during the t\
cavations of the school at Palaikastro, in Crete, tlie
worshippers of Zeus pray the god to leap as did the
Kouretes around him when a babe, as a ritual act t<"
bring prosperity and good fortune to Crete: "To u
also leap for full jars, and leap for fleecy flocks, aru.
leap for fields of fruit, and for hives to bring in-
crease. Leap for our cities, and leap for our sea-
borne ships, and leap for young citizens and f(
goodly law." So Prof. Murray admirably translate
the Greek of the hymn. The march and dance of the
Kouretes and the Salii remind one greatly of the
leaping March of the Minoan " Harvesters," as they
are called, on the steatite vase found by the Italian
excavators at Agia Triada, in Crete, some years ago,
of which a cast may now be seen in the British
Museum. Are we to see in them Kouretes, or rather
the young men performing the parts of Kouretes, as
Strabo describes them as doing, in the mysteries of
Zeus, with an older man as their leader? The
curious implements which they bear will then be of
an agricultural nature, since, as Prof. Murray

Fig,

2.— The re-discovered inscriptions in the Shrine of Orthia. From " The
Annual of the British School at Athens."

observes, the Kouretes "were certainly connected wii
spring and fertility" (p. 360), but developed later inf
weapons, which Prof. Savignoni and the Italia;
archaeologists first took them to be. I am, at th*

January 12, 191 1]

NATURE

341

moment of writing, uncertain whether or not this
comparison has been made before.

The restoration of the text of the hymn and the
translation by Prof. Murray is very interesting. I
speak under correction, but is nayKparis ydvovs really
to be rendered by *• Lord of all that is wet and gleam-
ing " ? Why should Zeus Kouros be lord of all that
is "'wet and gleaming"? Why not "bright and
Gleaming"? Though no doubt ydvos gives, strictly,
the idea of "wet and gleaming," yet surely the refer-
ence is to the gleaming ripple of the cornfields, not
to the sea?

Of the admirable character of the translation a
specimen has been given above.

The myth of the Kouretes in its anthropological
aspect is dealt with by Miss Jane Harrison, who
treats it with her usual learning and wealth of illus-
tration. Her conclusions are important, as bringing
the dance of the Kouretes into connection with the
initiatory rites at adolescence which are common
among savage tribes ; she aptly compares them with
the initiation ceremonies in use among the Wirad-
thuri tribes of New South Wales. The scent on the
Agia Triada vase derives a new significance from this
comparison.

The director contributes a scheme for the trans-
literatia of modern Greek, which is to be used in
future by contributors to the •" Annual," with the ex-
ception that T] is to be transliterated by e and not bv i.
This seems rather too great a concession to the weaker
brethren ; it gives an entirely wrong impression of the
pronunciation to those who are accustomed to the
values of e and i in foreign words.

The volume is one of the most interesting that the
schcol_ has produced, although for the first time we
miss in it any description of Minoan or Mvcenaean
discoveries. But the resumed excavations at Phvla-
kopi, in Melos, which are now to be taken in hand,
will no doubt enable the School to contribute again
very shortly important material for the studv of pre-
historic Greece. H. R.' Hall.

KOREAN METEOROLOGY— OLD AND NEW.^
"P OR the last six years a meteorological observatory,
■*■ equipped with modern instruments, has existed
at Chemulpo, and has been working energetically to
estabrish a network of stations, from which the
climatic elements of the country might be derived.
Many difficulties have been encountered, but that these
have been successfully overcome is shown by the issue
of the first volume of scientific memoirs from the
observatory, in which the director, Dr. Y. W^ada, de-
scribes the progress that has been made and sketches
the programme it is proposed to follow. He is to be
congratulated upon the success of his vigorous direc-
tion, for a map shows that forty-five stations have
been furnished with instruments, from which reports
are received regularly. Most of these stations are
scattered round the coast, at lighthouses, but there is
also a chain of observatories running through the
interior, and these no doubt will be increased as the
country progresses.

A paper by Dr. T. Hirata shows that discussion
proceeds simultaneously with the collection of observa-
tions. He investigates the amount of evaporation in
Korea and South Manchuria, and its relation to pre-
cipitation. Although the data at present are
slender, and the conclusions somewhat precarious, the
inquiry is one of great economical importance, because
the quantity of rain is barely sufficient to ensure the
safety of the rice harvest on which the welfare of the

i "Scientific Memoirs of the Korean Meteorological Obsen-atory." Vol. i.
Chemulpo, Korea, 1910.)

NO. 2150, VOL. 8$]

country largely depends, and all information connected
with moisture is of deep significance.

But as such inquiries have only a local interest and
would fail to attract attention, Dr. Wada has done

,^#i»

Fig. I.— Old Raingauge in Taiko.

well to quicken curiosity by reference to the science
that flourished in the Korea of the past. He shows
that the raingauge, supposed to have been invented by
Castelli, about 1639, was in use in the East long
before its value
was appreciated
in Europe. Dr.
Wada, quoting
from the second
volume of the
historical annals,
explains that in
the sixth year of
the reign of King
Sejo (correspond-
ing to 1442 in the
Gregorian Calen-
dar), the King
had a bronze in-
strument con-
structed to meas-
ure the rainfall.
It was a vase of
a depth of 30 cm,
and a diameter
of 14 cm. Every
time rain fell,
'observatory offi-
c i a 1 s measured
the height and
informed the
King. But the
important point
in this account
is, that this was not a toy set up from
curiosity, but that similar instruments were distributed
throughout the provinces, and the results of all
observations were reported to the court. Naturally

Fig. 2. — A Chinese Clepsydra of about 820
years ago.

142

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

the director has endeavoured to recover specimens of
these instruments and also the register of observa-
tions. Unfortunately, he has found no records
•and none of the original vases. But he has unearthed
three copies of the pluviometer. The illustration re-
produced here (Fig. i) shows the instrument with the
pedestal on which it stood. This instrument dates
back to 1770. The three large Chinese characters
declare that it is an instrument to measure rain, and
the seven smaller give the date of its construction, in
Chinese reckoning. Several pillars have been found
without pluviometers attached, and one is particularly
interesting, as a long Chinese inscription is engraved
upon it, and though some of the characters have been
obliterated by time, enough remains to connect it with
the original order of King Sejo.

This same king erected astronomical observatories
and fitted them with excellent instruments for the
time. He seems to have prided himself on the posses-
sion of an automatic clepsydra, in which the hours and
quarters were sounded by manikins. The general
form of clepsydra seems to have consisted of four
vessels at different levels, " and water poured in the
highest vessel flows, passing through the intermediate
ones. Into the lowest, where an arrow with graduations
to indicate the time in its upper part, was floated."
Fig. 2 gives the general form of the instrument, but
the mechanism is not well shown. Dr. Wada also
reproduces a photograph of an ancient observatory,
demonstrating the forward state of science of the age,
about 64.7 A.D. It is supposed to have been used for
the making of observations to correct the calendar, but
there is nothing in the picture to suggest that it ever
formed part of an observatory. It is simply a tower-
like structure.

THE ADMISSION OF WOMEN TO THE
FRENCH ACADEMIES.

WE learn from the Times of January 5 that at the
recent quarterly plenary meeting of the five
academies of the French Institute, the question of the
eligibility of women candidates for the institute came
up for consideration. It arose from the circumstance
that Mme. Curie, the discoverer of radium, has been
put forward as a candidate for one of the vacant seats
in the Academy of Sciences. How her claims are
regarded by that body may be inferred from the fact
that in the list as finally submitted her name stands
at the head. It is stated that at the general meeting
more than 150 academicians were present, and that
the proceedings, as might have been expected, " were
extremely animated." Eventually the motion in favour
of the admission of women was rejected by 90 votes
to 52. The institute further adopted a motion to the
effect that whilst it did not presume to dictate to the
separate academies, there was, in its opinion, "an
immutable tradition against the election of women,
which it seemed eminently wise to respect."

It remains to be seen what the Academy of Sciences
will do in face of such an expression of opinion.
Mme. Curie is deservedly popular in French scientific
circles. It is everywhere recognised that her work is
of transcendent merit, and that it has contributed
enormously to the prestige of France as a home of
experimental inquiry. Indeed, it is not too much to
say that the discovery and isolation of the radio-active
elements are among the most striking and most fruit-
ful results of a field of investigation pre-eminently
French. If any prophet is to have honour in his own
country — even if the country be only the land of his
adoption — surely that honour ought to belong to Mme.
Curie. At the moment, Mme. Curie is without a
doubt, in the eyes of the w'orld, the dominant figure

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

in French chemistry. There is no question that any
man who had contributed to the sum of human knowj-
ledge what she has made known, would, years ago,
have gained that recognition at the hands of his
colleagues which Mme. Curie's friends are now
desirous of securing for her. It is incomprehensible
therefore, on any ethical principles of right and jus-
tice, that because she happens to be a woman she
should be denied the laurels which her pre-eminent
scientific achievement has earned for her.

There may be room for difference of opinion as
to the wisdom or expediency of permitting women to
embark on the troubled seas of politics, or of allowing
them a determinate voice in the settlement of ques»
tions which may affect the existence or the destiny
of a nation ; but surely there ought to be no question
that in the peaceful walks of art, literature, and
science, there should be the freest possible scope ex-
tended to them, and that, as human beings, every
avenue to distinction and success should unreservedly
be open to them.

All academies tend to be conservative and to move
slowly ; they are the homes of privilege and of vested
interest. Some of them even incline to be reactionary.
They were created by men for men, and for the most
part at a time when women played little or no part
in those occupations which such societies were in-
tended to foster and develop. But the times have
changed. Women have gradually won for them-
selves their rightful position as human beings. We
have now to recognise that academies as seats of
learning were made for humanity, and that, as mem-
bers of the human race, women have the right to look
upon them as their heritage and property no less than
men. This consummation may not at once be
reached, but as it is based upon reason and justice
it is certain to be attained eventually.

NOTES.

An earthquake of unusual violence occurred in Russian
Turkestan at 1.25 a.m. on January 4, or shortly after
II p.m. on January 3 (Greenwich mean time). At
Vyernyi, the chief town of the district, with more than
11,000 inhabitants, the shock lasted for nearly five minutes,
and has been succeeded by a large number of after-shocks.
Nearly every building in the town is damaged, and all the
mud-houses in the neighbourhood have collapsed. The
total loss of life, is unknown, but forty bodies have so far
been recovered from the ruins. It is reported that the
whole of the town of Prjevalsk, which is situated on the
shores of lake Issik Kul, has been destroyed by the waters
of the lake. The extraordinary violence of the earthquake
is attested by its effects on the seismographs of distant
observatories. At Pulkova, more than 2200 miles from
the epicentre, practically all the instruments were thrown
out of order. This was the case even in this countrv.
At West Bromwich, the first tremors were recorded at
11.35 P-m., and soon attained a range of 15 mm. By
11.54 the range was far beyond the capacity of the instru-
ment, and at midnight the east-west needle collapsed.
The great movement continued until 12.12 a.m., and the
disturbance did not end until 3.56 a.m., giving a total
duration of 45 hours. At Cardiff the maximum movement
was registered at 12.14 a-m-) and was so great that the
instrument was deranged. At Limerick all the instru-
ments were dismounted. The earthquake, which is one
of the greatest of the last quarter of a century, is evidently
a successor of that which occurred on June 9, 1887, when
V3'ernyi suffered even greater injury than on the recent
occasion, owing to the prevalence of stone buildings, which
have since been largely replaced by wooden ones.

January 12, 191 1]

NATURE

34

J*fO

We regret to see the announcement of the death, on
January lo, of Mr. J. W. Tutt, whose work in entomology
and other departments of natural history are known to
manv men of science. Mr. Tutt was trained as an
elementary-school teacher at St. Mark's College, Chelsea,
and was at the time of his death headmaster of the Port-
man Place Higher Grade School. He became a Fellow
of the Entomological Society of London in 1885, and was
a member of its council. He was also prominently
associated with other entomological and natural history
societies in the City and South London, and was honorary
member of La Soci^t^ Entomologique de Namur and La
Soci^t^ Entomologique de Geneve. He was editor of the
Entomologist's Record as well as of the South-Eastern
Saturalist, and the author of numerous papers and other
publications of substantial scientific value, including " A
Natural History of British Lepidoptera," " A Natural
History of British Butterflies," " A Natural Historj- of
British Alucitides," " Migration and Dispersion of
Insects," " Melanism and Melanochroism in British
Lepidoptera," " British Noctuae and their Varieties,"
*' Monograph of the British Pterophorina. " Mr. Tutt
also wrote a number of works on the more popular aspects,
of natural history, and in many ways contributed to the
advancement and extension of scientific knowledge.

We record with regret the death, on January 6, of Sir
John Aird, at the age of seventy-seven years. Sir John
Aird's name will be associated by most people with the
erection of the Assuan dam and the .Assiut barrage. With
his partners he was the builder of the Manchester Ship
Canal. He was also actively engaged in many other
great engineering undertakings, which include, among
others, waterworks at Amsterdam, Calcutta, Copenhagen,
London, and Birmingham ; the docks at Tilbury, South-
ampton, Avonmouth, and Singapore ; the West Highland
Railway and the Hull and Barnsley Railway ; and gas
plants on a large scale in many parts of the world. Sir
John Aird was elected an associate of the Institution of
Civil Engineers in 1859, and a member of the Iron and
Steel Institute in 1887. He was created a baronet in
190 1.

The French Prehistoric Congress is to be held at Nimes
on August 13-20 of this year.

The French Society of Therapeutics has awarded its
gold medal to M. Ch. Moureu, for his work on the rare
gases and the radio-activity of French mineral waters.

Mr. F. M. Bailey, Colonial Botanist, Queensland, and
Mr. G. H. Knibbs, Commonwealth Statistician, Common-
wealth of Australia, were included among the new
C.M.G.'s in the list of New Year Honours. We regret
their names were omitted from our note last week.

By the generosity of Dr. Charcot, the Pourquoi Pas?
has become the property of the French Department of
Public Instruction. The vessel is anchored off Rouen, and
is attached to the Paris National Museum of Natural
History. An annual grant of 10,000 francs, we learn from
the Revue scientifique, has been made towards the upkeep
of the ship, which will be utilised bj' the museum for
oceanographical cruises.

The Christiania correspondent of the Morning Post
states that more than a hundred distinguished Norwegians,
including the Prime Minister, the Ministers for Foreign
Affairs, Public Works, and Commerce, and the Rector of
the University, gave a banquet on January 7 in honour
of Dr. S. Eyde, the well-known engineer, who has done
so much towards the development in Norway of the
industry based upon the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen.
NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

We learn from the Chemist and Druggist that the late
Dr. Ernest Durand, known as the donor to the Paris
Museum of Natural History of the herbarium originally
belonging to the botanist Cosson, has left the sum of
6000/. to be devoted to the classification and study of the
botanical collections in the museum. At the time these
collections were given to the authorities, in 1906, Dr.
Durand gave 2000Z. to defray the expense of classifi-
cation, &c.

A meeting of the International .Association of Seismo-
logy will be held in Manchester under the presidency of
Prof. .Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., beginning on Tuesday,
July 18 next. The meeting will consist of delegates of
the twenty-three countries belonging to the association,
and other men of science who may be invited by the
president. The president asks us to state that he will be
glad to hear from anyone interested in the subject.

At a meeting on January 4, the Devekjpment Com-
missioners considered their policy in connection with
agricultural instruction in England and Wales and in re-
gard to the financial needs of the Scottish agricultural
colleges, and decided upon the terms of a letter to the
Scottish authorities. The Commissioners also decided to
obtain, temporarily, scientific assistance for the investiga-
tion of the possibilities of the cultivation of tobacco and
flax.

The arrival of several boxes of skins of mammals and
other animals from Sze-chuen at the natural history
branch of the British Museum affords the Times, in its
issue of January 3, an opportunity of referring to the
generosity of the Duke of Bedford in providing funds for
collecting expeditions in northern China and other districts
in the heart of .Asia, these museum expeditions having
been carried on for several years. Reference is also made
to similar work which has been carried on for some time
in .Africa at the expense of Mr. C. D. Rudd. The latest
of these exf>editions is now at work in British East .Africa.

Ox Tuesday next, January 17, Prof. F. W. Mott,
F.R.S., will begin a course of six lectures at the Royal
Institution on " Heredity," and on Thursday, January 19,
the .Astronomer Royal, Mr. F. W. Dyson, F.R.S., will
deliver the first of three lectures on " Recent Progress in
•Astronomy." The Friday evening discourse on January 20
will be delivered by Sir James Dewar, F.R.S., on
" Chemical and Physical Change at Low Temperatures";
On January 27 by Prof. W. H. Bragg, F.R.S., on
'■ Radio-activity as a Kinetic Theory of a Fourth State
of Matter " ; and on February 3 by Dr. A. E. Shipley,
F.R.S., on " Grouse Disease."

The council of the Rhodesia Scientific Association
adopted the following resolution at a meeting held
recently : — " That a gold medal be offered for an original
paper advancing our knowledge of the transmission of any
insect- or arachnid-borne disease affecting Rhodesia, such
paper to be read at a meeting of the Rhodesia Scientific
.Association for publication in its Proceedings. The medal
will only be awarded for a paper which, in the opinion of
the council, is of sufficient scientific merit." Non-resi-
dents as well as residents in Rhodesia are invited to send
in papers not later than July 31 addressed to D. Niven,
Secretary Rhodesia Scientific .Association, P.O. Box 586,
Bulawayo.

The council of the Institute of Metals reports that a
large increase has recently taken place in the membership
of the institute, which now reaches more than 550. .Addi-

344

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

tional honorary members have been appointed in the
persons of Dr. R. T. Glazebrootc, F.R.S., and Sir Andrew
Noble, Bart., K.C.B., whilst Sir William H. White,
K.€.B., F.R.S., has been elected the first fellow of the
institute. The annual general meeting of the institute will
be held on January 17-18. On the latter day, papers will
be read at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, West-
rhinster, S.W., commencing at 10.30 a.m. Among the
papers are the following : — A new critical point in copper-
zinc alloys : its interpretation and influence on their proper-
ties, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter ; some practical experience
with corrosion of metals. Engineer Rear-Admiral J. T.
Corner, C.B. ; the adhesion of electro-deposited silver in
relation to the nature of the German silver basis metal.
Prof. A. McWilliam and Mr. W. R. Barclay. There will
also be presented the preliminary report to the Corrosion
Committee, by Mr. G. D. Bengough. This report will be
of an important character, dealing with the present state
of our knowledge of the corrosion of non-ferrous metals
and alloys, with suggestions for a research into the causes
of the corrosion of brass condenser tubes by sea water.
Full ^particulars regarding the institute can be obtained
from Mr. G. Shaw Scott, secretary of the Institute of
Metals, Caxton House, Westminster, S.W.

The first annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of
Barcelona- was held on Pecember 8, 1910, when the new
president and executive council were elected. Addresses
were delivered by the retiring president on the progress
of astronomical science during the year 1910, ^nd by the
secretary on the development of the society since its
foundation. The inaugural meeting of the society was
held on January 30, 1910, at the University of Barcelona,
as a result of the labours of Don Salvador Raurich, who
had been carrying out valuable educational work in the
city by means of popular articles on astronomical and
allied subjects contributed to the columns of "Las Noticias,
a well-knovi?n Barcelona journal. At the inaugural meet-
ing Dr. Esteban Terradas, professor of physics in the
University of Barcelona, was elected first president, and
a strong executive council was formed. In April King
Alphonso became a life member, and was elected honorary
president. A^ the present time the membership numbers
230, and as a result of the first year's work the
society finds itself with a bank balance of Sol. after
paying all expenses. In the future it is intended to devote
the accumulated funds of the society to the erection and
equipment of an observatory, where members may meet
regularly in a social way for practical observation and the
informal discussion of questions of astronomical interest.
During the year lectures on astronomical subjects were
delivered in the Grand Saloon of the University of
Barcelona, and numerous addresses on a smaller scale
were given on practical spectroscopy and general astro-
nomy in the private * observatories of certain members.
The following is a list of the officers of the society for
the year 191 1 :- — President, Prof. Eduardo Fontser^, chief
of the Time Service of Barcelona ; vice-presidents. Prof.
Luis Canalda and Don Ferdinand Tallada ; secretary, Don
Salvador Raurich ; vice-secretary, Don A. Pulv6 ; treasurer.
Prof. M. Font y Torn6 ; other members of the council.
Prof. Ignacio Tarazona, professor of astronomy in the
University of Valencia ; Dr. Enrique Calvet, Don Jos6
Subiranas, and Don Juan Mercadal. The address of the
secretary is Diagonal, 462, Barcelona, where all com-
munications should be addressed. The society is entering
upon its second year of activity with bright prospects, and
is very successfully cultivating a taste for astronomical
study among all classes in Spain.

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

The Research Defence Society has just published a
small book called "The Truth about Vivisection." The
book is a collection of leaflets dealing with some of the
main points in the practice of experiments on animals, and
of the results obtained by this means. It also includes a
leaflet on the charges made against the Rockefeller Insti-
tute, and also the correspondence between the secretary
of the Church Anti-vivisection Society and the Bishop of
North Queensland. All the points dealt with are clearly
explained, and technical details are avoided so far as
possible. The book is therefore suitable for anyone to
read, even if not conversant with the correct phraseology.
This is a great advantage, because the details of the whole
matter are naturally of a highly technical character.
Much of the misapprehension which exists in the minds of
many people, including those who are definitely anti-
vivisectionists, arises from want of knowledge. In the
great majority of cases this is not wilful, but simpl\
because the details have hitherto been almost impossible
for the uninitiated to follow. There are, however, a few
persons to whom the words of Mr. Rudyard Kipling ar'^^
applicable. He says that there will always be persons
" who consider their own undisciplined emotions more
important than the world's most bitter agonies — the people
who would limit and cripple and hamper research because
they fear that research may be accompanied by a little
pain and suffering." It is very desirable that all think-
ing people should endeavour to acquaint themselves with
the essential facts of the case, and the recent publications
of the Research Defence Society have now made this
possible by providing the necessary information in a simple
form. The leaflets show that 95 per cent, of the experi-
ments performed are of inoculations, which are not really
in any way an operation, being merely needle-pricks. A
great number of these are routine investigations carried
out on behalf of various Government departments for the
preservation and improvement of the public health. The
history of the successful fight against Malta fever and
other tropical diseases forms a chapter of intense interest
in the history of the British Empire, and is one which
well repays study ; this side of the question might with
advantage be somewhat further developed in the collec-
tion of pamphlets in question. The Httle book is highly
to be recommended, and should supply a great want.

In a report contributed to the December (1910) issue of
Man on the Ceylonese drum known as udakiya, Dr. A.
Willey connects this hour-glass pattern of instrument with
certain drums made from human skulls found in Tibet.
In the latter type the drum consists of two human calvaria
inverted and superposed, the ends being covered with
pieces of skin. The use of such drums for magical pur-
poses is not uncommon in Tibet, and thence the shape
may have passed to India, where it is still used by ascetic-
and spirit mediums, and thence to Ceylon. The custom
which still prevails in Tibet of drinking from the skull of
a holy man or an enemy is remotely connected with this
form of drum.

In the December (1910) issue of Man Messrs. E, T.
Nicholle and J. Sinel describe the exploration of a Palaeo-
lithic cave-dwelHng, known as La Cotte, at St. Brelade.
Jersey. The existence of this habitation has been known
since 1881, and it has now been investigated under great
difficulties, due to its position. Bones of Rhinoceros
tichorhinus, horse, reindeer, and deer, with human teeth
and some fragmentary bones, have been unearthed. The
flint implements, found in considerable numbers, belong to
the well-known tongue-shaped Mousterien class, the

January 12, 1911]

NATURE

145

pointe a main " of Mortillet. Falls of rubble have now
ndered it impossible to make further examination of this
::e at present.

In the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin for December,
iio, there is an instructive article by Dr. Lewellys F.

barker on electrocardiography and phonocardiography, and
>iitaining many illustrations of the apparatus employed
id of the cardiograms obtained. It is chiefly remarkable
r the description of the electrocardiographic installation
the medical clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, which
ows that the apparatus may be fitted up at a smaller
ist than is generally supposed, and that it may be applied
1 the diagnosis of a good many cardiac and nervous

; seases. The remarkable progress in this department of
::nical inquin*- is well shown in this paper, and especially
, the analysis of the many curious cardiograms obtained
: Baltimore and elsewhere.

In the Proceedings of the Royal Society, ser. B, vol.

Ixxxiii., p. 124, Dr. R. Kirkpatrick describes, under the

name of yiurrayona phanolepis, a new type of sponge from

Christmas Island, Indian Ocean, referable to the family

ommonly known as the Pharetronidae, equivalent to the

haretrones of Zittel. When this group was first estab-

-hed, it was believed to be extinct, with its latest repre-

ntative in the Maestricht Chalk, but, inclusive of the

•^w Christmas Island form, which constitutes a subfamily

y itself, six living genera, each with a single species, are

ow known. Murrayona differs from all the other genera

1 that the skeleton consists of a firm basal network

void of spicules, overlain by a dermal layer of scales,

le axial core of spicules found in the other living genera

aving been discarded. The absence of spicules in some

f the fossil Pharetrones may be due to the same cause,

'though in other instances (as has hitherto been con-

dered to be the case with all) it may be the result of

fossilisation. Apparently there is no such genus as

Phareton, and if this be the case the family requires a

ew name.

The two articles in the Journal of Economic Biology for

December, 1910, are devoted to "warbles." In the first
f these Prof. G. H. Carpenter furnishes notes on the
fe-history of the reindeer warble-fly (CEdemagena
irandi), his specimens being derived from a young rein-
;?er in the Dublin Zoological Gardens. He finds that
he egg of CEdemagena has a thin flap at the free end,
I long the edge of which the egg-case readily splits. The

position and appearance of this recall the " lid " of the
3g of the horse bot (Gastrophilus equi), and suggest that
he maggots of CEdemagena are licked off and swallowed
■y the reindeer immediately after hatching. In Hypo-
erma iovis, the ox warble, the egg has no such lid, which
nds support to the suggestion that the host swallows the

'?ggs instead of the maggots. In the second article Messrs.

Cooper and Nuttall, who accept the idea that cattle lick
ff the eggs of Hypoderma from their legs as a definite
ict, discuss means of preventing the destruction of hides
y warbles. A hide was cut into four quarters, of which
iree were severally treated with different chemicals,
ncluding picric acid, and it was found that in none of
he cases was tanning interfered with. It is recommended
hat the experiment of treating the legs of oxen with picric
:id should be tried.

The current number of the Quarterly Journal of Micro-

copical Science (December, 1910) contains an elaborate

md very interesting memoir, by Prof. J. P. Hill, on the

arly development of the Marsupialia, with special refer-

-rnce to the native cat (Dasyurus viverrinus). This forms

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

the fourth of the author's well-known contributions to the
embryolc^y of the marsupials, and in it he describes in
detail the process of cleavage, the formation of the blasto-
cyst, and the differentiation of the embryonal ectoderm
and endoderm. The uterine ovum possesses a shell-
membrane and a layer of albumen outside the zona,
analogous with the corresponding structures in the egg of
monotremes, but is much smaller than the latter, and
contains much less yolk, its condition in these respects
being intermediate between that of the monotreme and
that of the eutherian egg. The character of its early
development is also intermediate between that of the two
latter groups. Cleavage is complete, and at first
meridional, resulting in the formation of a ring of eight
blastomeres placed equatorially within the egg-shell,
followed by an equatorial cleavage which divides each
blastomere into two, an upper, smaller, and clearer, and
a lower, larger, and more opaque. Two rings, each of
eight cells, are thus formed, the upper one giving rise to
the embryonal region of the blastocyst wall, and the
lower to the extra-embryonal r^ion, which the author
regards as homologous with the trc^hoblast of the
eutherian ovum. Prior to the completion of the first
cleavage, the egg eliminates from itself a spherical mass
of yolk which takes no direct part in development, though
it becomes enclosed in the blastocyst cavity. The paper
includes a valuable discussion of the early ontogeny of the
Mammalia, in which the author defends the generally
accepted view that the mammals are descended from
ancestors which had large, heavily yolked eggs, and
vigorously opposes the recently promulgated theor>- of
Hubrecht, in accordance with which the alecithal
character of the eggs of higher mammals represents the
primitive condition. He also entirely disagrees with
Hubrecht 's interpretation of the trophoblast as an
embryonic membrane comparable with that of the nemer-
tines and other invertebrates. The " entjpic " condition
of the eutherian embr}"0 is explained as a secondary
modification due to*the loss of the egg-shell.

A NOTE by Miss A. G. St<Jcey on the sporangium of
Lycopodium pithyoides, published in the Botanical Gazette
(September, 1910), indicates that the sporangium arises
from the leaf, but during development grows away from
it, and appears to be cauline. In size and shape, as well
as in the proportion of wall cells, the sporangium
resembles that of L. dichotomum.

The annual report, for 19 10, of the Department of Agri-
culture, Trinidad, by Prof. P. Carmody, covers the reports
of the botanical departments in Trinidad and Tobago, of
various estates, and the Government laboratories. The
cacao exports for the year were the highest on record;
crops of sugar-cane were good, but the sucrose content of
the Juice proved to be small. Analyses of Castilloa rubber
trees of different ages showed that the latex in young trees
contained more than 50 per cent, of resin, and this de-
creases to about 8 per cent, after eight or ten years.

A CYTOLOGICAL investigation of corn rust, Puccinia
graminis, described by Dr. F. Zach in the Sitzungsberichte
der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna
(.^pril, 1910), deals with the crucial stage when the fungus
invades the palisade cells of the leaf and enters upon a
contest with the protoplasm and nucleus. Sometimes the
fungus is worsted and its hyphae are dissolved ; in other
cases the fungus is victorious, when the protoplasm and
nucleus are disintegrated and certain portions are excreted.
It is suggested that the power of the host to withstand
the attack of the parasite is partly innate, but to a great

;46

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

extent determined by climatic and soil conditions. The
author criticises the mycoplasm theory of Eriksson, which
refers mainly to the phenomena here described.

A CATALOGUE of hybrid plants raised at Kevv during past
years is published in the Kew Bulletin (No. 9). The
three hybrid species of Cytisus are interesting, two being
ascribed to chance pollination by insects, while the third,
Cytisus Dallimorei, producing pale purple flowers, was the
result of an artificial cross between a variety of
C. scoparius and C. albus ; it received an award at the
Temple Show last year. Success has been attained with
several Rhododendron hybrids, notably a cross from
Rhododendron Fortunei, and two monophyllous Strepto-
carpus hybrids are recorded. A Strelitzia that flowered for
the first time during the winter 1909-10 was raised from
a cross made in 1893.

The Agricultural and Forestry Department of the
Nyasaland Protectorate has issued its second annual report,
from which we learn that the past year has been one of
the most successful on record. A few years ago the only
industry of any importance was coffee ; when this failed,
the plantations were closed down. With the introduction
of cotton, tobacco, and rubber, the area of land under
cultivation has steadily increased, and at no time in the
history of the protectorate have such large areas of virgin
land been opened up for planting as at present. The
experimental work of the department consists in the
improvement of existing crops and testing of new crops
likely to be of value. Afforestation is also being under-
taken, the railway and tobacco industries having been
responsible for a large consumption of the native timber.

The Agricultural Journal of India, vol. v., part iii.,
contains articles on the cultivation of millet, jute, Cara-
vonica cotton, and bananas. The millet, Andropogon
Sorghum, is grown in the dry zone of Upper Burma, where
the yearly rainfall is from 20 to 25 inches, and rice will
not grow. The grain furnishes food for the natives, and
the leaves and stalks for cattle. Jute is grown on land
suitable for rice; in some districts it is possible to take
winter rice after jute, and thus to get two crops in one
year ; but this is not always possible, and in general it
may be said that the area under jute represents the loss
of so much land to rice. Caravonica cotton is a hybrid
tree cotton recently introduced, for which many excellent
properties were claimed. It is stated, however, that the
variety has not been a success, and, further, that no tree
cotton is known that will answer as a field crop.

The need for phosphatic manures in all parts of the
world, and the rate at which their already high consump-
tion is increasing, makes it important that all known
phosphate deposits should be mapped as thoroughly as
possible. Should a phosphate famine ever occur, it would
be more serious than a coal or any other famine, as no
substitute of any kind is known. The United States
Department of Agriculture Bureau of Soils has recently
investigated the phosphate fields of Idaho, Utah, and
Wyoming, and published the results as Bulletin 69 of their
series. The deposits are considerable, and though they are
not yet extensively worked because of their distance from
markets, there is no doubt that they will become important
in future. It is recommended that steps should be taken
now to control the mining rights and to prevent waste of
the lower-grade deposits that will not at first be profitable
to work.

Prof. Emile Chaix, Avenue du Mail, 23, Geneva, has
issued a circular letter, accompanied by a pamphlet, direct-

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

ing the attention ' of geographers and geologists to the'
" .Atlas photographique des formes du Relief terrestre."
This work was organised by the ninth International Con-
gress of Geography in 1908, in accordance with a proposal
by Profs. Brunhes and Chaix, and subscriptions are now
asked for, so that a series of views may be prepared and
published. Prof. Chaix 's pamphlet furnishes the details,
and it will be possible to subscribe for 100 plates at half
a franc apiece, or single plates at one franc each. It is
estimated that the whole series required would be about
500 to 600 plates, their issue being spread over ten years.
The samples furnished give a picture about 13 cm. b\
9 cm., and are of a geological rather than a geographical
character. The scheme, however, is a wide one, and we
may hope to see such subjects as typical cirques, alluvial
plains, and escarpments, illustrated from all parts of the
world. It is at present, for example, difficult to obtain
views of our own Cotteswold Hills, or the meanders of
the Severn, or the Hercynian ridges of southern Ireland.
The cooperation of scientific photographers is invited, and
it is to be hoped that geographical considerations will
prevail in the selection.

In the meteorological chart of the North Atlantic Ocean
for January (first issue), published by the Meteorological
Committee, attention is directed to the displacement of tli
high-pressure system to the region of Madeira and North
Africa as one of the marked features in the daily weather
maps of December 8-14, 1910, embracing the North
Atlantic and adjacent shores. An enormous region of low
pressure, extending from Nova Scotia to the western half
of Europe, is shown by the charts ; on the morning of
December 12 the barometer reading on board the
Mauretania, in lat. 51° N., long. 21° W., was as low as
28-04 inches. A remarkable circumstance connected with
several well-developed secondary disturbances which
advanced in rapid succession towards Ireland was that
none of their centres passed eastward of the Irish Sea.
Under their influence, the weather conditions were of an
exceedingly unsettled type all through the week.

The flexure of a rectangular plate under uniform hydro-
static pressure is a problem which mathematicians have
from time to time attacked by different methods. A new
investigation, based on the methods of Mr. Walter Ritz, is
now published by Mr. D. Pistriakoff, of the Kieff Poly-
technic. It is published in Russian, with a short abstrac:
in French.

Those mathematicians and physicists who experience
difficulty in forming a clear mental picture of the concepts
of non-Euclidian geometry will find a useful and suggestive
paper on the Bolyai-Lobatschewsky system, by Prof. H. S.
Carslaw, in the Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathe-
matical Society, xxviii. (1910). The author starts by show-
ing how the properties of planes and straight lines in
ordinary space can be extended by inversion to spheres
and circles through a fi.xed point. He then proceeds to
consider the properties of spheres and circles that are
orthogonal to a given fixed sphere, and shows that if these
be called " ideal planes " and ideal lines, they will be
found to possess properties exactly analogous to those of
hyperbolic geometry. In the plane geometry thus estab-
lished " ideal parallels " are represented by circles which
touch on the fixed orthogonal circle, and thus it follows
that through a given ideal point two parallels can be
drawn to a given line. In short. Prof. Carslaw shows
that a geometry identical with that of Bolyai and
Lobatschewsky can be built up in ordinary Euclidian space,
and, so far as plane gedmetry is concerned, in an ordinary

January 12, 191 1]

NATURE

>47

l.uclidian plane. Unless some unforeseen fallacy in this
investigation should be discovered which has escaped
Prof. Carslaw's notice, we have here a convincing proof
ll that Euclid's parallel postulate is incapable of demonstra-
tion. In fact, it is argued that if any inconsistency existed
1 the Bolyai-Lobatschewsky postulate this inconsistency
uould be extended by Prof. Carslaw's " ideal " system to
Fuclidian geometry. Do not these arguments point to the
view that Euclid's postulate should be regarded as a
property of matter rather than of space?

Ik the American Architect for November 23 Mr. Wm. H.
(loodvear describes measurements of 1910, undertaken on
behalf of the Brooklyn Museum, of the spiral stairway of
the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The main result of these
leasurcments is to confirm the author's view that the
iciination of the tower was intentional, and was not due
. subsidence after or even during construction. The main
vidence on this point is derived from an examination of
the steps between the thirteenth and sixty-ninth. Not only
does the mean height of the ceiling increase by i foot
10^ inches between the thirty-fifth and forty-ninth steps,
hut there is an increase in the downward dip of the ceil-
ig to the inner wall of about 8J inches in the whole
iterval. .As the stairs in question represent the extremi-
•5 of the line of greatest slope, the effect of these changes
^ to throw the weight of the structure off the overhang-
ic; side. On the higher floors these variations appear to
nve been abandoned, presumably on the ground that the
ifety of the structure was sufficiently secured without
lem, whereas if the inclination were accidental it is
bvious that the tendency would be to increase the pre-
cautions as the subsidence increased. The author further
*| points out the advantages from an aesthetic point of view
-f the standing of the Leaning Tower in a depression or
well," and also of the change of inclination of the
upper storeys, both of which support the theory of inten-
■\ tional inclination of the structure.

The measurements of the magnetic properties of iron,
-teel, nickel, and cobalt at the temperature of liquid air,
which have been made by Dr. R. Seattle and Mr. H.
Gerrard, and were described in the Electrician for
December 23, 1910, confirm the view generally held on
the strength of results obtained at higher temperatures,
viz. that decrease of temperature increases hysteresis.
The curves given for the hysteresis losses as functions of
the magnetic induction in alternating and in rotating
fields are of the same general form at the temperature of
quid air as at ordinary temperatures. The loss in cobalt
in a rotating field is about twenty times that in nickel.
The authors make no reference to the Langevin-Weiss
theories, but, so far as one can judge from the curves,
their results do not furnish any material support for those
theories.

Vol. iii. of the Journal of the Municipal School of
Technology, Manchester, consists of nearly four hundred
pages of reprints of papers communicated by the staff and
students to scientific societies and to the technical Press
during the year 1909. The principal papers deal with
mechanical and electrical engineering and with chemistry,
and show that in these subjects, at least, the Manchester
School stands in a position which no other technical school
or polytechnic in the country has approached. Of the
^hirty papers, two may be selected as t3'pical of the work

e school is doing. The first, by Prof. Nicholson, deals

with experiments directed to the removal of the obscurity

which enveloped the subject of the transmission of heat

from the furnace gases to the water in a steam boiler,

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

and some of the results obtained have already been in-
corporated in boiler design. The second, by Prof. Knecht
and Mr. J. P. Batey, contains the results of examinations
of a number of dye-stuffs in solution in order to settle the
question whether these substances exist in solution as
colloids or not. The authors conclude that the dyes tested
do not. These examples serve to show how successfully
the Manchester School of Technology is bringing the
power of science to bear on the industries of which Man^
Chester is the centre.

An interesting article on photo-elasticity, by Prof. E. G.
Coker, appears in Engineering for January 6. Account is
given of apparatus and experimental results obtained at
Finsbury Technical College, the experiments having for
their object the determination of the condition of stress
in transparent bodies by the effect which these latter, when
subjected to such stresses, produce on polarised light
passed through them. A special optical bench designed
bv Mr. F. Cheshire is used, in which a lantern, fitted
with an arc lamp, projects a beam of parallel light. The
beam is polarised by a Nicol's prism, then passed through
the specimen, which latter is stressed by some convenient
apparatus. A lens focuses the beam on a second Nicol's
prism, which serves as an analjser, and the image of
the specimen so formed is thrown on a screen or sensitive
plate. A feature of the article is the reproduction in
colours, by the three-colour process, of a large number
of photographs taken on Lumi^re plates direct from the
specimens under stress. These are of special interest to
engineers, and include examples of beams, tension
members, a furnace flue, circular hooks and chain links,
a locomotive plate spring, a square threaded screw and
nut, and a pillar. Examples are included showing the
disturbance in the stress distribution caused by notching
the specimens in various ways, and also the effect of a
non-axial load on a tension member. Probably glass is
the material possessing properties most closely resembling
materials in general use by engineers, but, owing to the
difficulty of preparing glass specimens, xylonite has been
used.

Mrs. H. Periam Hawkins sends us a copy of a new
(the fourth) edition of " The Stars from Year to Year,"
in which the account of Halley's comet, to which refer-
ence was made in the notice of the book in last week's
Nature (p. 304), is brought up to date. \Ve do not quite
understand why the earlier edition should have been sent
to us for notice when a new edition was to be issued a
few weeks later.

The current quarterly issue of Mr. C. Baker's catalogue
of second-hand instruments for sale or hire has reached
us. Particulars are given of more than 1500 pieces of
scientific apparatus which can be bought or hired at the
second-hand department at 244 High Holborn, London.
From the same house comes a very complete list of
additions since 1909 to the stock of lantern-slides of
scientific interest.

Mr. Edward Stanford announces for publication on
January 16 the third edition, rewritten and enlarged, of
" The Building of the British Isles," by Mr. A. J. Jukes-
Browne. It is eighteen years since the last edition of this
work was issued, and much fresh matter has consequently
been embodied in the new book.

In the paragraph relating to the " Live Stock Journal
Almanack " in Nature of December 29, 1910, the name
Lord William Cecil should have been Lord .Arthur Cecil.

(48

NATURE

[January 12, 191 i

OVR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

The January Meteors. — Mr. W. F. Denning writes : —
" The night when the shower of Quadranlids or Bootids
was expected proved very clear at Bristol and many other
places. The display of meteors was not a very abundant
•one, but what the event lacked in numbers was amply
■compensated for by the brilliancy of the objects observed.

" Not only were the meteors generally very conspicuous,
but they traversed long tracks of the heavens, and their
flights were readily traced back to the visual radiant.
This year I made the centre at 227° + 54° from about
•eight paths, and there seemed another well-defined shower
of similar meteors from 250° + 47° in Draco.

" The meteors were of moderate speed and accompanied
by trains. They were also well observed bv Miss Helen
M. Metcalfe, of Kildare, Mr. W. H. Steavenson, of
■Cheltenham, and others. No doubt some of the larger
members of the shower were recorded at several stations,
and it is hoped that observers will send in their notes so
that the heights and velocities may be computed. January
is a good month for large meteoric fireballs, and it re-
mains to be seen whether the last half of the present
month will provide the usual number seen in preceding
years."

Nova Lacert^. — The weather conditions, in London at
any rate, have not been favourable for observations of the
new star discovered by the Rev. T. E. Espin on December
30, J910.

According to observations recorded in the Times, Mr.

^ CASSIOPEIA

• ■••..

• 1
CEPHEUS ^

• 1

^ \

1

•
•

1 '^. ^ ^ •

xNo",/3 \ i

..■ '>■:' '

:

• \ M

1 ^ \ TT , " ANDROMEDA

•A

\ LACERTA 1;

Chart showing position of Nova Lacertae.

Hinks examined the nova on January i and 2, and found
it fainter on the second, night ; a bright line in the red,
the C line of hydrogen, was apparently the strongest in
the spectrum, and three other bright lines were observed.

Mr. Espin, writing to the Observatory (January, No.
431), states that a further examination, on January i,
confirmed his previous observation of the spectrum ; it is
neither type iii. nor iv. Two bright lines are conspicuous,
the stronger one probably F, and a yellow line, which he
suggests is D3. Three bands appear between F and D,
and on the more refrangible side of F there is a band so
strong as to make the spectrum appear discontinuous ;
beyond that there is a bright band. The spectrum re-
minds Mr. Espin of that of R Cygni, with the details
more pronounced. He suggests that the star may turn
out to be a variable, although, if so, it is curious that it
has not been discovered, as have several others in the
neighbourhood, at the Harvard Observatory.

A Daily Mail report states that no spectrum observa-
tions have been possible at Greenwich, owing to the bad
weather, but photographs, which show the nova to be
decreasing in brightness, have been secured. The
Astronomer Royal expresses the opinion that the object is
reallj' a nova, not merely a previously undiscovered
variable star.

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

The nova is conspicuous among the stars near by bv

reason of its distinctly red colour. We append a chart

showing its position relative to the bright stars of
Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and Lacerta.

Comets Due to Return in 191 i. — Mr. Lynn's annual
note of the periodical comets due to return this year
appears in No. 431 of the Observatory . He includes
Brooks's 1889 comet, as it was due at perihelion on
January 8, but suggests that no further observations of it
at this return are likely ; it was nearest the earth on
August 9, 1910.

Faye|s comet, in accordance with Prof. Stromgren's
conclusion as to the acceleration of its perihelion passage,
returned in 1910, and observations have been recorded in
these columns.

Encke's comet is due in the coming summer, but Mr.
Lynn, considering its faintness in 1908, fears that we ar<
losing this well-known object, first observed in 1786.

Wolf's comet, of 1884, is not due until early in 1912,
but observations may be secured about the end of th
present year.

Preliminary Results derived from Radial-velocity
Determinations. — At the Boston meeting of the Astro-
nomical and Astrophysical Society of America Prof.
Campbell read a paper in which he gave the preliminarv
results derived from the study of 1073 radial-velocity
values.

The position of the solar apex comes out as A = 272-0° +
2-5°, D=: -I- 27-5° ±3-0°, and the corresponding velocity o
the solar motion was found to b-
17-8 km. This latter value is lower
than those previously found, bui
the available data will yield nr.
higher .value. Apparently there i-
a difference depending upon th'
spectral type of the stars considered
for, taking 330 stars of types O-F.,.
V was found to be 17-7 km., whilst
704 stars of types F^-G, K and M
yielded i8-o km.

Further, the radial velocities of
stars freed from the solar motion
component do not appear to be r.
function of the visual magnitude;?.
Stars of the later spectral types — as
divided above — appear to have radial
velocities nearly 50 per cent, greater
than those of the earlier types ; th'
increase is progressive. The mean
velocity for thirteen nebulae con-
sidered is 23-4 km. The results also
confirm Kapteyn's theory of a
systematic drift.

In making the observed radial
velocities and the proper motions to
correspond, it was indicated (i) that
the stars of different magnitudes are less differentiated ir
distance than has hitherto been supposed ; (2) all th
brighter stars down to the fifth magnitude are further
away than indicated by the formulae for mean parallaxes ;
(3) the parallax stars which have been used as sample stars
are not representative of the stars in general. Some c>
these results may be modified by the proposed solution,
using Boss's proper motions now available.

Other results accruing from the systematic study of
radial velocities indicate that, in general, the periods of
revolution are shorter for the early than for the late:
types ; the orbits also show less eccentricity. Sevent\
orbits, now known with reasonable certainty, are in accord
with the theoretical conclusions of Darwin, Poincar^, and
See regarding the origin and development of binary stellar
systems (Journal R.A.S. Canada, vol. iv., No. 5).

Stell..\r Magnitudes. — A popular and very interesting
paper on stellar magnitudes is published by Mr. J. E.
Maybee in No. 5, vol. iv., of the Journal of the Roya!
Astronomical Society (Canada). Mr. Maybee explains th'
system of magnitudes, tells how they are determined, ann
discusses some of the interesting facts which have accrued
from photometrical studies of the stars.

.A.stronomical students and amateurs will probably find
a great deal of useful information in the paper.

January 12, 1911]

NATURE

349

VlilZE SLBJECTS PROPOSED BY THE PARIS
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES FOR 1912.

/^^EOMETRV.— Grand prize of the mathematical,

^ sciences (3000 francs). The subject proposed for

12 is the improvement of the thewy of algebraic difler-

ial equations of the second or third order the general

• gral of which is uniform. No memoirs having been

ived on the question proposed for 1910, this will also

awarded in 1912. Francoeur prize (looo francs), for

:k useful to the progress of pure or applied mathe-

tics ; Poncelet prize (2000 francs), for a work on pure

iihematics.

'lechanics. — Montyon prize (700 francs), for inventions

improvement of instruments useful to the progress of

iculture, or the mechanical arts or sciences; Fourneyron

ve (1000 francs), for a memoir on the theory and

)eriment of air resistance, applicable to aviation. The

stion set for 1910 is also postponed to 1912. Boileau

ie (1300 francs), for researches on the motion of fluids

tributing to the progress of hydraulics. As an

-rnatwe, the funds may be applied to the assistance of

scientific man without means.

Xavigation. — The extraordinary prize of 6000 francs, for
work tending to increase the efficiency of the French naval
forces ; Plumey prize (4000 francs), for an improvement in
steam engines or any other inventicMi contributing to the
progress of steam navigation.

Astronomy. — Lalande prize (540 francs), for a memoir
work useful to the progress of astronomy ; Valz prize

0 francs), for the author of the most interesting observa-

1 made during the current year ; Janssen prize, a gold
dal awarded for a discovery or work representing an
portant progress in ph3sical astronomy.

Geography. — Tchihatchef prize (3000 francs), for the
encouragement of exploration in the lesser known portions
of Asia ; Binoux prize (2000 francs), for original geo-
graphical work ; Delalande-Guerineau prize (1000 francs) ;
Gay prize (1500 francs). The question proposed for 1912
is the study of the tides of the earth's crust.

Physics. — Hubert prize (1000 francs), for a treatise or
discovery concerning the practical employment of elec-
tricity ; Hughes prize, for a discovery or work contributing
to the progress of physics ; L. La Caze prize (io,ooo
francs), for works or memoirs contributing to the progress
of physics.

Chemistry. — ^Jecker prize (10,000 francs), for works con-
tributing to the progress of organic chemistry ; Cahours
prize (3000 francs), for the encouragement of young
chemists ; Montyon prize (unhealthy trades) (prize of 2500
francs and a mention of 1500 francs), for a means of
rendering a trade or calling less unhealthy ; L. La Caze
prize (10,000 francs), for the best work on chemistry.

Mineralogy and Geology. — Victor RauHn prize (1500
francs), for facilitating the publication of works relating
to mineralogy and petrography.

Botany. — Desmazieres prize (1600 francs), for the best
work published during the year on cryptogams ; Montagne
prize (1500 francs), for memoirs on the anatomy, physio-
logy, development, or description of the lower cr}.'ptogams ;
de Coincy prize (qoo francs), for a work on phanerogams.

Anatomy and Zoology. — Savigny prize (1500 francs), for
the assistance of young travelling zoologists, not receiving
Government support, concerning themselves specially with
the invertebrates of Egypt and Syria ; Da Gama Machado
prize (1200 francs), for memoirs on the coloured parts of
the tegumentary system of animals ; Thore prize (200
francs), for the best work on the habits and anatomy of

-'" species of European insects.

Medicine and Surgery. — Montyon prize (2500 francs, and
mentions of 1500 francs), for works or discoveries useful
in the art of healing ; Barbier prize (2000 francs), for a
discovery useful in surgical, medical, or pharmaceutical
science, or in botany in relation to medicine ; Breant prize
(100,000 francs), for the discovery of a specific cure for
cholera, or, as an alternative, for the discover}' of the
causes of this disease, leading to its eradication ; Godard
prize (1000 francs), for the best memoir on the anatomy,
physiology, and pathology of the genito-urinary organs ;
Baron Larrey prize (750 francs), for a work dealing with
the subject of military medicine, surgery, or hygiene ;

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

Bellion prize (1400 francs), for works or discoveries useful
in medicine; M^ge prize (10,000 francs); Argut prize (1200
francs), for the discovery of a remedy for a disease at
present incurable.

Physiology. — Montyon prize (750 francs), for experi-
mental physiolc^y ; Philipeaux prize (900 francs), for ex-
perimental physiology ; Lallemand prize (1800 francs), for
researches relating to the nervous system ; L. La Caze
prize (10,000 francs), for the best work on physiology ;
Martin-Damourette prize (1400 francs), for a work on
therapeutical physiology ; Pourat prize (looo francs), for
new data on the utilisation and assimilation of albumenoids-
in food.

Statistics. — Montyon prize (1000 francs, and two men-
tions of 500 francs), for the best memoir on questions re-
lating to statistics.

History of Sciences. — Binoux prize (2000 francs).

General Prises. — Arago medal, Lavoisier medal, Berthe-
lot medal, Henri Becquerel prize (3000 francs), Gegner
prize (3800 francs), Lannelongue prize (2000 francs), ■
Tremont prize (iioo francs), Wilde prize (one of 4000
francs and two of 2000 francs), for work in the fields of
astronomy, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, geology, or
experimental mechanics ; Longchampt prize (4000 francs),-
Saintour prize (3000 francs), for work in the physical
sciences; Victor Raulin prize (1500 francs), for work in
mineralog}' and petrography ; Bordin prize (3000 francs),
for researches on determining sex in living beings ;
HouUevigue prize (5000 francs) ; Cam^r^ prize (4000
francs) ; Jerome Ponti prize (3500 francs) ; prize founded
by Mme. la Marquise de Laplace ; Felix Rivot prize (2500
francs).

H ALLEY'S COMET.
A LTHOUGH our British skies were so unfavourable
•^^ for observations of Halley's comet, the almost
constant flow of published results shows that those
astronomers more fortunately situated in clearer atmo-
spheres and lower latitudes reaped a rich harvest ; some ot
the most striking results are briefly referred to below.

Among ■ the favourably situated observatories, that at
Johannesburg, the Transvaal Government Observatory^
was one. of the most favoured, and appears to have used
its opjx>rtuhities to the fullest possible extent. Brief notes
have appeared in Nature from time to time, but in
Circular No. 4 the results to the end of June are described
in full, and illustrated by some forty reproductions of
photographs and numerous drawings of the nucleus and
head on various dates.

The photogi-aphs are described by Mr. H. E. Wood,
who, at the request of Mr. Innes, the director, employed
the lo-inch Cooke lens, of 446 inches focal length, to
photograph the comet on every possible occasion. This
instrument is the one presented to the observatory by Mr.
Franklin-Adams, and has two finders, one of which is
mounted on swivels, allowing it to be moved in two
directions ; this device proved exceedingly useful for getting
the whole of the comet on the plate when the length of
the tail exceeded 8°.

On the original photographs the scale is i"' = 20 mm.,
but in reproducing them this has been slightly reduced,
and varies, on the nine plates, between 19-2 and 14-2 mm.
per degree.

Between April 11 and June 3 the weather conditions
were very favourable, except for the occasional intrusion
of the moon, and photographs were secured on forty-four
dates. Their general excellence is emphasised by two
unmounted, direct prints which accompany the circular,
thus affording a comparison between original and repro-
duction. Seven of the photographs were taken by Mr.
Mitchell, the others by Mr. and Mrs. Wood, and Mr>
Wood describes each in detail.

The maximum lengths of the tail shown on the photo-
graphs are 17° on May 6 (60 minutes' exposure), 17° 15*^
on May 14 (38 minutes), and 18° on May 30 (120 minutes),
but in each case the image of the tail evidently extended
beyond the edge of the plate. On June 3, however, 120
minutes' exposure failed to record more than 4° 30' of
tail.

The majority of the photographs show a composite tail

350

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

in which a number of rays appear to emanate from a
point immediately behind the nucleus, while the envelopes
around the nucleus appear to form a cap over the tail.
Extraordinary irregularities and contortions are shown on
the photograph of May 21, which is an exceptional one.
The first photograph of the series, taken on April 11,
showed a fan-shaped tail 9' long after 4 minutes' expo-
sure. This gradually increased, and on April 19 (37
minutes) a tail of 7° 45' long was depicted, which was
straight for 4° and then appeared to be blown to the
south quite suddenly, the remaining part being very faint.
A very confused, intricate, and contorted tail was photo-
graphed on April 21, one bright streamer, forming the
northern boundary, bending twice at right angles at about
4S' from the head.

On May 4 the photograph which we here reproduce,

from one of the
direct prints, was
taken with 30
minutes' expo-
sure, and shows
a tail 15° long to
the edge of the
plate. At 5° from
the head the
breadth was 1°,
and the tail
appears to be
composed of a
large number . of.
overlying shafts
with a central
bright streak.

The southern

edge is slightly
convex, an d
shows a number
of delicate
branches emerg-
ing from it with
striking regu-
larity; the
northern edge is
quite simple.

Later photo-
graphs show a
great number of
streamers, ten
rays being visible
near the head on
May 8; but the
tail was straight,
no branching of
the streamers
being shown.
Three days later
the tail was
bifurcated by a
dark central
space, along the
north edge of
which there was
a bright ray ; this
division was
accentuated on a
later photograph
taken on May 11. An elongation of the head appeared
on May 12, when the envelopes about the nucleus
extended to a distance of 1° behind it. The last photo-
graph before transit was taken on May 16 with 12 minutes'
exposure, and shows 9° of tail, which was 2° 5' wide at a
distance of 5° from the nucleus. The greater brightness
of the envelopes on the southern edge is noticeable to a
distance of 1° from the nucleus, and the tail appears quite
simple, without rifts or rays.

After the transit, on May 21, a condensed stellar nucleus
was shown on the photographs, and the envelopes on the
northern edge were stronger than those on the southern.
But on May 25 the envelopes were apparently symmetrical,
and two days later the nucleus was very bright, and there
was no visible condensation. On June 25 the head was
much broader than the tail, and appeared to be granular,

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

FjG. I. — Halley's Comet, May 4, 1910. Photo-
graphed at ttie Transvaal Observatory. Ex-
posure 30 minutes.

suggesting a very close cluster of small stars; this, Mr
Wood suggests, may be a photographic effect. Althou};;
on several photographs taken in June the head is describui
as being large, no mention is made here of the division
of the nucleus as recorded by other observers.

The circular also contains a most interesting reswn<
of the measured lengths of the tail recorded visually \,\
Messrs. Innes and Worssell. The greatest apparent lengti
was on May 19, when the tail extended 150° from tli
assumed position of the head; the greatest length actuall.
seen and measured, with the whole comet visible, w:i
107°, on May 17. As mentioned in an earlier circular,
the eastern, or morning, tails were seen at Johannesburg
three days after the transit of the comet, but Mr. Inm >
believes that a rupture took place before May 18, and
that the eastern tails seen on May 21 were not then con-
nected with the main body of the comet. Mr. Innes 's
testimony as to the magnificence of the comet is worth
quoting here. He says : — " It may be said that it would
require much imagination to desire a more impressive an '
brilliant spectacle than that presented by Halley's comi
on the mornings of May 15, 16, and 17. It was inde' i
a ' Great Comet,' such as the writer had never seen befor
and can hardly expect to see again."

No less interesting are the notes regarding the gener; '
visual appearances between January 25 and July 6, bu:
space will not permit mention of more than a few of
them. A secondary nucleus was measured on April 16,
and was then 12", in position angle 48-3°, from th
primary ; this appearance of a second nucleus was nn.
persistent, but was recorded, on and off, many times.
The drawings from the visual observations are reproduced
on. Plates x. and xi., and form a valuable record of the
innumerable changes in the various phenomena attending
the comet during the apparition. On May 6 the head
was decidedly yellowish, an appearance not noted before,
and the tail apparently intercepted about half the light
of the star B.D. -f8-5°, reducing its relative magnitude
by 0-8. The nucleus and bright coma were also recorded
as decidedly yellow on May 12, when, the jets from the
nucleus had a most extraordinarily complicated appear
ance, which was accentuated on the succeeding day (s(
Nos. 31-34, Fig. 2). • •

. After the transit the visual observations showed a stelln:
nucleus without jets or rays, which, however, developed
later. The nucleus, too, changed and became multiple,-,
and three nuclei were recorded on June 2. Later, the
separate- nuclei . appear to. have become diffuse, and on
June 4 had the appearance of a large, out-of-focus double
star,- distance about 4", almost resolved ; the colour was-
still yellow. By July 6 the head, although much brighter
in the centre, showed no stellar nucleus. -

Father Goetz, of the Buluwayo Observatory, also con-
tributes some I notes of visual observations, and gives a
sketch of the comet's head as seen on May 13 ; a peculiar
feature is a much brighter segment of the inner envelopes
immediately in front of the nucleus. Two faint stars wer<
seen through the coma on May 21, and were not appreci
ably dimmed.

A number of meteorological phenomena were recorded
by the observatory staff and by numerous correspondents.
Especially interesting are the lunar-halo phenomen.a
depicted on Plate xii., and the note that unusually high
temperatures were recorded at the observatory during th^
time of the comet's passage.

Mr. Innes offers to lend, under suitable conditions, th-
original drawings reproduced on Plates x. and xi. to an\
recognised investigator who may require them.

The Utrecht observations of the comet are recorded b-
Profs. Niiland and van der Bilt in No. 44.^3 of th-
Astronomische NachricMen. They give positions fron
December 3, 1909, to May 27, and a number of not'
describing the various peculiar phenomena observed. The\
also record the yellow and orange-yellow colour observed
early in May, and direct attention to the various shapes
and position angles assumed by the head. The sketches
made between April 29 and May 6 so nearly resemble,
in their peculiar forms, those made by Bessell and
others in 1835, that the present observers suggest
that the great periodic comet has its own specml
phvsiognomv.

The same iournal contains a record of the observation-

January 12, 191 1]

NATURE

351

nude by M. F. Sy at the Algiers Observatory. Positions
••_• given for the period April lo to July lo, and the
irious phenomena of the head and the tail are briefly
: scribed. Observations of Venus and the comet, as sug-
, sted by Prof. Birkeland, were made, under adverse con-
it ions, on May 2, but no special phenomena were re-
Kirked. Similar duplications of the nucleus to those re-
irded at Johannesburg were observed on May 3, 8, and
iter dates, but only a single nucleus was seen on May 5.
\ notable recrudescence of brightness apparently took
lace on July 9, as compared with July 5 when a nebu-
sity, 1' in diameter, and no nucleus were seen. Refer-
loes to these alternating duplications of the nucleus are
lude in the December (1910) number of the Bulletin de
1 Societe astronomiqiie de France, where MM. Millochau,
Borrelly and others describe their observations. M.
J amain finds that the successive appearances are best
explained by the supposition that the nucleus of the comet
had a rotatory motion, with a period of about 21-5 hours.

In No. 4461 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Dr. J.
Mascart reproduces three excellent photographs, and three
drawings of the head, taken at his special observing station
at Teneriffe during May and .April respectively ; the com-
plicated structure of the head on April 16 and 18 is especi-
allv remarkable. But Dr. Mascart deals chieflv with the

^4i

OS THE ORIGIN OF SLAIEKY AND
PARASITISM IN ANTS.
T'W'O interesting papers on the origin of slavery and
■■■ parasitism in ants, by Henri Pi^ron, Maitre de Con-
ferences a I'Ecole pratique des Hautes-Etudes, have
appeared recently in the Revue generale des Sciences
(September 15 and 30, 1910), and the main points are sum-
marised below. The papers are conveniently divided into
sections, and are rendered more valuable by full references
being given for all the statements referred to.

I. Females : Foundation of Colonies.
(i) Foundation of a New Nest by a Fertilised Female. —
After the marriage-flight of ants, the males and females
fall to the ground, when the males die, and those of the
females which escape the numerous dangers to which they
are exposed taken refuge in crevices in the ground, where
they lay their eggs. For a month or more the female
appears to subsist largely by the absorption of the alary
muscles, now no longer required ; but in some cases, as
in Atta sexdens, the female carries with her a supply of
the mycelium of an edible fungus,, on which she and her
progeny afterwards subsist. . The earliest hatched workers
in nests founded by a single female share her privations,
being much smaller than those hatched later. In some

liir/3

S^^

^^

^T -'"-^Se

Sqj^ja '.-<:'■-

j^^fiM

w/mk,.

rMfjBKI

^Sfe^'

iJBI^

'^K'

'tt^^f-ir

i^^^i*

^^'

w

V ■ ■.

if^jH? '.'

'- ". "■-, ' ■ ■

. v>^ ■•■i"

/

.<*

^-^^^

^^-%

^3

Fig. 2.— Changes in the Head of Hallty'a Comet, as oi served at the Transvaal Observatory-.

conditions of observation on a mountain site, and strongly
emphasises the advantages which accrue from the establish-
ment of an astronomical observatory in a clear atmosphere
and at a high altitude, yet more or less readily accessible.
Finally, he suggests the necessity for establishing an
important and permanent international observatorv' on
Mount Guajara, w'here he was stationed. Dr. Mascart
gives more details, and discusses such matters as the
zodiacal light, &c., in an article which appears in the
December C1910) issue of the Rivista di Astronomia, Turin
(vol. iv.. No. 12, p. 585).

\ note in the December (1910) number of the Observa-
tory (No. 429) suggests that, as the comet has now
sufficiently emerged from the sun's rays, a few more
observations may be secured, even in European latitudes,
before it finally disappears until August, 1985. An
ephemeris for Greenwich midnight, and extending to the
end of March, is given ; as the declination is about 18°
south, those observatories situated in the southern hemi-
sphere will enjoy better conditions. At present the comet
is apparently situated in the constellation Corvus, and is
travelling slowly in a south-westerly direction ; its position
for December 31, 1910, is R..A.=:iih. 53-4m., dec.=
18 12-7' south, but after January 11 it will again com-
mence to travel northwards.

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

cases a portion of the eggs are sacrificed for the nourish-
ment of the female and the newly hatched larvae, and are
also used by .4. sexdens as a hot-bed for the fungus.
Some of the species of ants in which nests are founded by
a single female are among the oldest in existence, going
back, almost unchanged, to Tertiary times.

(2) Foundation of a New Colony in a Pre-existent Nest.
— Female ants will sometimes take up their abode, and
rear a fresh colony in the deserted nests of other species,
or even, on more or less friendly terms, establish a
colony of their own in inhabited nests of other species.
On the other hand, ants of the genus Solenopsis, &c.,
usually form nests in small galleries round and com-
municating with the nests of larger species, which they
plunder at will, without the larger ants being able to
pursue them into their narrow fastnesses.

(3) Foundation of a New Nest with the Aid of Workers
of the same Species. — The females of some ants are unable
to form a new colony without the aid of workers, and if
they fall to the ground near their own nest, or one of the
same species, they may return to the nest, or may be joined
by a colony of workers, and thus assisted to establish a
new one.

(4) Foundation of a New Colony with the Aid of
Workers of another Species. — .Although ants usually

352

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

•destroy those of other species which enter their nests, they
will sometimes receive females^ especially if fertilised, into
their communities, whether females of their own species
are living in the nest or not, and hence mixed nests of
two or more species may originate. Many instances are
quoted, both among European and American ants, and the
author sums up the various alternatives as follows : —
(i) isolated workers may dig a nest for the queen and
make their dwelling with her ; (ii) she may be received
into a nest which has lost its own queen ; (iii) she may
be received into a nest possessing a queen, whom she kills
and supersedes ; (iv) she may be received into a nest where
a queen lives, whom she does not injure, but who dis-
appears, either making her escape or being killed by the
workers ; (v) she may be received into a nest where the
former queen remains, and continues to perpetuate her
brood.

Illustrations of these alternatives are then given, with
comments, and the author concludes that the formation of
new colonies depends rather on the behaviour of the
workers than on that of the queen.

(5) Foundation of a New Colony hy Conquests of
"lymphs. — This section relates to cases in which a war-
like queen enters the nest of another species and drives
away the adult ants, establishing herself as the queen of
their undeveloped progeny. These cases form
transitions to those in which a queen is received
into the nest of another species where the former
queen still lives, and both species subsequently
live together in harmony and perpetuate a mixed
nest.

II. Workers : Perpetuation of Colonies.

(i) Perpetuation hy Workers without Allies. —
In cases where the queen founds a nest, and is
afterwards supported only by her own progeny,
the duties of the workers are generally less defined
than in bees. These duties fall under four cate-
gories : — nutrition, rearing, construction and pro-
tection, and warfare.

(2) Perpetuation of a Nest with the Temporary
Aid of Auxiliaries. — In cases where a female has
fallen among a nest of a different species, or a
band of workers which have adopted her, and a
mixed nest is the result, a tendency seems to
persist to carry ofif nymphs of other species, which
is one cause of ant-slavery.

(3) Perpetuation by Nutrition (Myrmecophily).
— This relates to the actual parasitism of various
species of ants which inhabit the nests of others
either as guests or (as in Solenopsis, to which we

!have already alluded) as parasites.

(4) Perpetuation by the Permanent Aid of
Auxiliaries.— This relates to ant-slavery proper,
where the mistresses are more or less completely

■dependent on their slaves for their very existence.

(5) Perpetuation in the Complete Absence of the
Workers of a Species. — The strangest cases of all
are p>erhaps those of certain species of ants which
are only male and female, and which live
parasitically in the nests of others." Sometimes
when such a workerless queen introduces herself
into a strange nest the workers kill their own
queen instead of the intruder, in which case the
colony is inevitably devoted to destruction by the
Impossibility of any further production of
workers.

In his second paper M. Pi6ron reviews and
-comments on the views of Darwin, Wasmann,
Wheeler, Emery, and Santschi on the various
problems connected with ant-life. He regards
Formica fusca as an ancestral form of the genus
Formica, it being undistinguishable from F. flori
found in Baltic amber, and having thrown off a
series of closely related forms in most parts of the world.
This ant shows th*; primitive stage in which the new nest
is formed by the female only. Thence we pass on to
JF. rufa, of which the female can only found her nest
"With the aid of workers of her own or another species,
jand from thence to the stages of slavery and parasitism.
Then M. Pi^ron discusses the general problem of the

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

origin of slavery and parasitism among ants, the theory
of progressive stages leading to these curious habits, thp
explanation of the different conduct of the females, the
problem of the rise of slavery and parasitism among
neuters, and the origin of aid and tolerance towards in-
truders of other species. His final conclusion seems to h-
that in proportion as evolution leads further and furtli'
from a primitive state, insects, like men, become more ami
more dependent on each other. Among ants, those with
the simplest and most primitive habits are the most
abundant, while as they become slave-holders, and later
on parasites, their colonies and individuals become rarer
and rarer. It is evident that when ultra-civilisation
degenerates into slavery and parasitism it is neither good
for man nor ant.

TEMPERATURE CHANGES AND SOLAR
ACTIVITY.
pROF. F. H. BIGELOW {American Journal of Science,
vol. XXX., August, 1910, p. 115) has been discussin«
the variations of the mean annual temperature of the
United States of America and their relation to the changes
of solar activity as shown hy the frequency of sun-spots
and prominences.

Prominences, magnetic field, suu-spots and the temperature amplitudes and excesses of
the United States.

To arrive at a correct estimate of the mean tempera-
ture of the Slates and the departure from the mean for
thirty-three years, monthly maps showing the departures
of about 100 stations were prepared, and lines of equal
departures drawn. The product of the area under one sign
and the departure gives a " temperature volume." The
difference between the negative and positive " temperature

January 12, 191 i]

NATURE

1 c*

000

.olumes " gives the measure of the departure of the whole
rea from the thirty -three-year mean. The sum of the
wo volumes (regardless of sign) is given as the amplitude
f the departures during the month. Annual mean
!-parture numbers and annual mean amplitude numbers
vere obtained and plotted as curves, and compared with
. Lirves of solar prominences and sun-spots and the mean
horizontal magnetic force (see figure). (The two fempera-
ure curves are inverted.)

Prof. Bigelow says : — " The synchronism in the long
' riod between the two solar curves and the three terres-
ial curves cannot be questioned, that for the magnetic
•Id being direct and those for the temperature system of
:ie United States being inverse." . . . "The synchronism
tween the curves of short period is not so well pro-
junced as for the long period . . . ; " and Prof. Bigelow
•oints out that this may well be due to inherent imper fee-
ions in the solar and magnetic observations.
.\rguing that an increase of solar action produces an
crease of temperature in the tropics but a relative de-
ease in the temperate zones because of the increased
)W of cold air from the poles to the equatorial regions,
Vof. Bigelow produces this set of curves as evidence, and
>ints out tfiat the succession of minor crests is about
iree years, this being the three-year period which he
-st described in 1894.

It is unfortunate that this investigation has been kept

1 the limits of the United States. It does not absolutely

lollow that the case is proved for the whole temperate

zone. Prof. Bigelow remarks that " there is a tendency

for temperature to oscillate about a sort of nodal line on

he Eastern Edge of the Rocky Mountain Plateau," and

ne wonders what would have been the effect on the curves

had the plateau occupied the greater instead of the less

part of the States. M.

LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL CONFERENCE
OF TEACHERS.

npHE meetings held at Birkbeck College on January 5,
6, and 7, were no less important than those of the
twelve preceding years. Indeed, the general standard of
papers read was higher. The audiences ranged from 500
to 800, and they showed a better appreciation of improved
principles and methods than was evident, say, seven years
ago. In the case of the earlier conferences there was
undoubtedly a tendency for the listeners to say, " This
method of teaching is all very well — ideal perhaps — but
impossible under the conditions in my school." By his
organisation of these conferences, Dr. Kimmins has
brought home to those who have attended them the fact
that work of the finest quality is actually done under
conditions which appear, or even are, the most adverse.
Not once, but fifty times, have these meetings demon-
strated that the possibility of working on improved lines
depends on the inspiration of the teacher.

Recognition of the dominant influence of the teacher in
the practice, as distinct from the administration, of educa-
tion, was made by the chairman of the London County
Council Education Committee, Mr. E. A. H. Jay, who
presided at the opening session, and Mrs. Bryant's plea
for specialisation derives much of its weight from this
recognition.

The most largely attended meeting was that opened by
Mr. George Alexander, who urged the value of dramatisa-
tion and of good elocution by the children. It was clear
that he was preaching to the converted. The discussion
on " Memory " was of interest, as it brought out in a
remarkable way the utility to the teacher of recent work
in e-xperimentai psychology, notwithstanding the fact that
the professional psychologists regard such application of
their work as premature. The application of scientific
method to education means that teaching will be brought
more and more into harmony with an increasingly trust-
worthy psychology. Further, it means that the teach-
ing of history will be more scientific (as exemplified
in the masterly paper read by Mr. B. Lewis) and the j
teaching of science more historical and humanistic. It
will mean a new educational era. |

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

Specialisation in Teaching.

Mrs. Bryant, headm.istress of the North London.
Collegiate School, opened the discussion on this subject
with a paper advocating a certain degree of specialisation
on the part of every teacher of a staff. She assumed that
it was more normal for teachers to specialise than not^
and that there was something artificial in a school where
every teacher taught evervthing. In a condition of free
growth, schools developed from a minimum of specialisa-
tion in the subjects taken by each teacher towards a state
in which nearly all progressive teachers specialised more
or less. Specialisation did not mean limitation entirely
to one subject ; still less did it mean one teacher, one-
subject, all the teacher's life. There were persons who
taught mathematics only, or classics only, or science only,
for all their life's career. These were specialists in ^
special sense ; but these subjects were not only large in
extent, but multiple in the nature of the subject-matter
they comprised. There was, however, a specialisation
open to the humblest holder of a pass degree or a
teacher's certificate. For aU sorts of reasons, teachers
have the ability and an impulse to specialise — and to vary
their speciality. To learn a new thing and then have an
audience to talk to and make talk about it — this is the
joy of the teacher who is (not merely was) a student also.
Moreover, the learners share the joy, and are stimulate<Jl
thereby. Again, the move may come from a sense that
there is a need for a certain kind of knowledge in the
school curriculum. We see this just now in the case of
teachers who believe that Scripture should be taught with
more intelligence and scholarship. The practical motive
sets going the movement towards patient study, and
presently we have enthusiastic learners who are also
effective teachers. The modern head of a school could
organise the work so that each teacher took a larger
share in the work she was best fitted to teach, so that
without one dismissal or resignation the advantages of
limited specialisation could be secured. These advantages
were great : — (i) the scholarship of the teaching staff was
raised, and therewith that of the learners, ideas were more
accurate, inquirv- more thorough, interest more real,
curiosity more lively and fresh ; (2) the teacher became
a student, and to little children the reality of this made
all the difference. The good teacher is always finding
some new problem and solving it, just as the bad adminis-
trator is always trying beforehand to settle how every-
thing is to be done. It was well that variety of personal
influence should be brought to bear upon the child ; more-
over, the sense of belonging, not to the class merely, but
to the larger whole of the school, is quickened when the
child has real acquaintance with many members of the
staff.

Mr. Frank Bulley gave a clear account of the simple
arrangements made in the John Ruskin School, whereby
the main advantages of specialisation are being secured irr
an elementar}' school. Dr. Borland urged that assistant
teachers should be encouraged to specialise in music, and"
that one or more of such " specialists " should be included
in every staff.

Memory.

Prof. J. Adams presided over the second session, which
was devoted to the psychology of memory and the in-
fluence which our knowledge of this subject should have-
upon teaching. The chairman introduced the subject witlr
an indication of its difficulty and importance. Dr. C.
Spearman spt^e on *' The Relation of the Memory to the
Will." The paper pointed out the remarkable contrast
between the present cultivation of the study of memory
by psychology and its neglect by education. This was
attributed to an unfortunate want of touch between educa-
tion and psychology, arising largely from the defective-
character of most psychological text-books. As a result,
educationists have generally failed to recognise that
memory, taken in its largest significance, embraces more
or less exhaustively all the mental processes whatever, of
intellect, and even of will. There are, indeed, most
important differences between its higher and its lower
manifestations, seeing that some persons excelled in the
one and some in the latter. Our present exaggerated
examination system is, in fact, chiefly disastrous owing

354

NATURE

[January 12, 191 i

to its predominant cultivation of the lower kinds and to
its showering its rewards and honours upon the pupils
endowed with these. But, on the other hand, there are
also most important resemblances between the two kinds ;
the fundamental laws of mind have the same form in both
cases, and the study of the simpler and more accessible
kind seems an indispensable preliminary to obtaining any
really scientific and effective grasp of the higher ones.
Various instances were given to illustrate the light shed
in this manner on many of the most difficult problems in
the education of the will, such as the encouragement of
good impulses and the repression of bad ones ; the fallacies
were exposed which underlie the present harmful emphasis
laid on game contests between schools, and the pernicious
exaggeration of examinations.

The Teaching of Geography.

Mr. B. C. Wallis gave an account of the five years'
course adopted in the County Secondary School, Holloway.
The first stage dealt with the globe as a model of the
earth, and was mainly observational and descriptive. The
second stage occupied three years, and was largely
heuristic in character, involving quantitative work relating
to the world, the North Atlantic shore lands, and the
British Isles. In the third stage an attempt was made
to apply methods of investigation used in the previous
stage to the original authorities, chiefly Government
publications.

Mr. C. J. Rose dealt wYth " Open-air Teaching of Geo-
graphy," and the vfinancial difficulties in the poorer dis-
tricts received attention. Mr. C. J. Fairgrieve discussed
the problem of the ideal room for indoor teaching of the
subject, a problem which certainly needs more attention
than it has received hitherto. Mr. Alford Smith opened
a useful discussion, and it appears that the revolution in
the treatment of geography which has already been accom-
plished in most secondary schools is making headway in
elementary schools, in spite of defective maps and atlases.
A great amount of energy, ingenuity, and knowledge is
being shown by the most progressive teachers of all classes
of schools in the construction of home-made apparatus of
a teaching power far surpassing the products of the trade.

Educational Experiments in Schools.

Mr. B. Lewis described the combined scheme of history
and geography adopted at the Old Castle Street School.
Compared with the sciences, history was apparently
amorphous, and clear ideas were best obtained by focussing
many converging lines of association on events of world-
wide import. He adopted the chronological method ; the
concentric method failed to emphasise growth and develop-
ment. He contrasted present with past, and thus tried
to cultivate historical feeling. The physical geography of
Britain was studied with special reference to the Saxon
invasion, that of each European country was associated
with that period of its history when it most closely in-
fluenced England. For similar reasons the geography of
America and India was treated in connection with the
events of the eighteenth century, that of the China Seas
studied when the Russo-Japanese war was the historical
topic, viz. at the end of the course. At the same time
the geography of. Britain and Europe was distributed over
all the standards, as appeared from the details given of
one section of the course. The manner in which the
scheme was worked out led the chairman, Sir Alfred
Keogh, to declare that it was the finest piece of short
historical description ever delivered. The Rector of the
Imperial College also warmly endorsed the plea, put for-
ward in a paper by Mr. A. G. Gawler, for individual
work even in large classes. Mr. Gawler 's opinion is that
in teaching the path of individuality is the path of least
resistance, and the boy who journeyed along it lifted him-
self to a higher plane. In the concluding meeting papers
were read on " Number Teaching," " Stencilling," and
"Animals in Infant Schools." Prof. M. J. M. Hill pre-
sided, and dwelt upon the association of the University
of London with the County Council in promoting educa-
tional efficiency.

G. F. D.

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

THE MAKING OF A DARWIN.'
T M.AY take my text from a recent remark of Henrv
■*■ Fairfield Osborn, to the effect that a Darwin could
not be produced in the American university of to-dav.
This raises a number of questions, some of them un-
answerable, but all of them worthy of the attention of
scientific men interested in the continuance of a race of
investigators.

As a starting point we mav quote Prof. Osborn 's words
in full :—

If ' the poet is born, not made,' the man of science is
surely both born and made. Rare as was Darwin's
genius, it was not more rare than the wonderful succession
of outward events which shaped his life. It was true in
1817, as to-day, that few teachers teach and few educators
educate. It is true that those were the dull days of
classical and mathematical drill. Yet look at the roster
of Cambridge and see the men it produced. ' From
Darwin's regular college work he may have gained but
little, yet he was all the while enjoying an exceptional
training. Step by step he was made a strong man by a
mental guidance which is without parallel, by the precepts
and example of his father, for whom he held the greatest
reverence, by his. reading the poetry of .Shakspere,
Wordsworth, Coleridge and Milton, and the scientific
prose of Paley, Herschel and Humboldt, by the subtle
scholarly influences of c^d Cambridge, by the scientific
inspirations and advice of Henslow, by the masterful
inductive influence of the geologist Lyell, and by the
great nature panorama of the voyage of the Beagle.

" The college mates of Darwin saw more truly than he
himself what the old University was doing for him.
Prof. Poulton, of Oxford, believes that the kind of life
which so favoured Darwin's mind has largely disappeared
in English universities, especially under the sharp system
of competitive examinations. Yet this is still more truly
the atmosphere of old Cambridge to-day than of any of
our American institutions. It would be an interestin<;
subject to debate whether we could nurture such a man ;
whether Darwin, were he entered at a Columbia, a
Harvard, or a Princeton, could develop mentally, as
Charles Darwin did at Cambridge in 1817. I believe that
conditions for the favourable nurture of such a mind are
not with us. They are repose, time for continuous
thought, respect for the man of brains and of individuality,
and of such peculiar tastes as Darwin displayed in his
avidity for collecting beetles, freedom from mental con-
vention, general sympathy for nature, and, above all, order
in the world of ideas. If the genial mind cannot find
the kindred mind, it cannot develop. Many American
school and college men are laughed out of the finest
promptings of their natures. In short, I believe our
intellectual environment would be distinctly against a
young Darwin of to-day."

These words of Osborn hint at certain weaknesses in
our American educational system to which I shall refer
later on. Meanwhile, I do not think that it is the whole •
truth or wholly the truth. If a Darwin were to be
" laughed out " of his career, the event would have
occurred in the English secondary school, where he was,
in fact, nicknamed " Gas " on account of his interest in
chemistry; and it is certainly not true that in the old
Cambridge or the new Cambridge there is as high a
valuation of unexpected originality as the supposititious
young Darwin would find to-day in America.

I think that the elements which make up a Darwin
can be reduced to three, whereof the first far overtops
the others, the heredity of great genius being far more
rare than one would infer from Osborn 's words, and far
more difficult to mar or- discourage.

What, then, are the elements that we unite to make a
great investigator, not of Darwin's class, let us say, for
that comes only with many centuries, but a naturalist not
unworthy to come in as a footnote to a page on
Darwinism? The fundamental elements, as I take it, are
these three: first, the original material, to which we may
look to heredity alone ; second, meeting nature at first

1 Presidential address delivered he'bre the American Association for tb*
Advancement of Science, Minneapolis, Decemb r 27, igio, by Dr. David
Statr Jordan.

January 12, 191 i]

NATURE

355

ind, and meeting her early and persistently; third, the

rsonal inspiration and enthusiasm derived from some

eat teacher. In Darwin's case the raw material was of

; ' highest order, the best which amphimixis ever put

^ether. This material no university could spoil, though

unbridge and Edinburgh confessedly tried their best.

Iv-etles, racehorses, flowers and trees, contact with nature

these kept up an enthusiasm promoted rather than

i-'cked by the hopeless dreariness of his university

\-rcises. These gave the second element, and the third

ime from the privilege of the young Darwin to be " the

1 in who walked with Henslow," and later with Sedgwick

:-^0.

In the .American universities, heredity plays her part;

r limitations, whatever they may be, are racial, and our

)ck is good. Nature is close at hand, closer than in

e Old World, and whosoever is really filled with zeal

' know her has not far to go. Agassiz remained in

Inerica because in America he was 'nearer to his studies

! m he could be in Europe. Here " nature was rich,

hile tools and workmen were few and traditions none."

.11 this our American universities offer in abundance. The

lal question is, then, that of personality, and the ques-

>n I would raise is whether, in accumulating tools and

iditions even as in Europe, we are not failing in this

ijard. Are we not losing sight of the man, of the thing,

ove all others, which goes to the shaping of a great

ituralist or a great scholar in any field? We may say

at the machinery of our universities is developed, not

r the shaping of a Darwin, but for the moulding of verv

•inmonplace models. But so it is everywhere. Paulsen

-aid never conceive that any of the great scholars of

igland should be professors in an English university.

le work of the university, with its gowns and hoods,

- convocations and degrees, its taking seriously the State-

verned Church and the hereditary aristocracy, seem so

i-^n to the life of the great scholar that one cannot con-

ive his taking part in them. Yet great scholars have

•ne just this. They have developed in just this armo-

here. drinking from the real fountains of learning hidden

thin the university, and not from the drippings of the

rgoyies with which mediaevalism has adorned its

-:terior.

In like fashion we could not conceive of the voung
Darwin, in a claw-hammer coat, in the afternoon defend-
ing his one major and two minors with a thesis which
no one will ever read, on a topic leading up a blind
alley, as a doctor in any German university. But even
this, or much worse or more incongruous, might happen
to a Darwin or a Huxley, or a Lyell or a Cray, or a
Helmholtz, an .Agassiz or a Gegenbaur, were such to
grow up into the universities of to-day. Externals count
for little, and all these things are external. The man, the
teacher, and the contact with nature — these are the only
realities. The beginning is in the man, his ability, his
"fanaticism for veracity," and his persistence in the
work. The university cannot make the man. It cannot
wholly shut him away from objective truth, even if it
tries desperately to do so, and its principal influence is
found in the degree to which its grants the inspiration of
personality.

The reading of good books cannot be regarded as an
element peculiar to any sort of university training. A
good mind seeks good books and finds them. Shakespeare,
Coleridge, and Lyell were just as accessible to me or to
you as they were to Darwin. They are just as accessible
to anvbody anywhere. Time to read them is not even
essential. One secret of greatness is to find time for
everything in proportion to its worth to us. k further
advantage is ours in this generation. We have the
. Origin of Species " and the whole array of fructifying
literature arising from this virile stem.

The only possible element in which the American
university could fail is that of the influence of personality.
Can it be that this influence is waning? Do our men no
longer " walk with Henslow," as once they walked with
Gray and Silliman and .Agassiz?

Do our men go to the university for the school's sake
and not for the men who are in it? Is it true that as
our universities grow in numbers and wealth, their force
as personal centres or builders of schools of thought are
declining? To some extent this is certainlv true. Once, I

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

when a young naturalist went in search of training and
inspiration, he went to Agassiz. He did not go to
Harvard. He scarcely thought of Harvard in this con-
nection. Agassiz was the university, not Harvard. The
botanist went to Cray. He did not go to Harvard.
Later the chemist went to Remsen, the physiologist to
Martin, the anatomist to Mall, the morphologist to Brooks.
That these four men happened to be together at Johns
Hopkins was only an incident. The student went out to
find the man, and he would have followed this man around
the world if he had changed from one to another institu-
tion.

I saw the other day a paper of an irate German
morphologist who, in attacking a certain idea as to the
origin of fishes' arms and ours, denounced " die ganze
Gegenbaurische Schule " who followed Gegenbaur in his
interpretation of this problem. Never mind the contention.
The point is that there is a Gegenbaur school of
morphology. This school was not the university, but
Gegenbaur himself. \\e ought to have more such schools
in America, schools of advanced thinkers gathered around
a man they love, and from whose methods and enthusiasm
the young men go away to be centres of like enthusiasm
for others. I believe that our system of university fellow-
ships is a powerful agency in breaking up this condition.
If, by chance, it were possible for us to produce a Darwin,
the raw material furnished, it would be a difficult task
if a fellowship of 500 dollars has drawn him to the labora-
tory of some lesser plodder, preventing him for ever from
being " the man that walked with Henslow."

The fellowship system keeps our graduate courses
running regardless of whether these courses have anything
to give. So long as our fellows are hired to take degrees,
then sent out to starve as instructors, so long shall we
find our output unworthy of our apparent advantages ; and
in our sober moments we shall say with Osborn, we do not
see how an American university could produce a Darwin.
.At the same time, professors in universities in other lands
will admit that the machinery for mediocrity offers little
promise to the great. Jacques Loeb tells the story of a
young man who applied through him for a fellowship in
physiology at Chicago. His admiration for Loeb's
wonderful genius as an experimenter and as an original
worker on the borderland of life and matter led him to
wish to work with Loeb above all other things. Loeb
wrote back that he had resigned his chair in the L'niversity
of Chicago to go to the University of California. Then,
said the candidate, " will you kindly turn over my appli-
cation for a fellowship to your successor at the University
of Chicago? " This single case is typical of the attitude
into which our fellowship system, as it is now adminis-
tered, throws the young digs who arise in our various
colleges. The embryo professor asks for his training, not
for the man of genius who will make him over after his
kind, but for the university which will pay his expenses
while he goes on to qualify for an instructor's position. By
this and other means we are filling the ranks of our teach-
ing force, not with enthusiasts either for teaching or for
research, but with docile, mechanical men, who do their
work fairly, but with few touches of the individuality
without which no Darwins nor Darwinoids can ever be
produced. It is a proverb at Harvard, I am told, that
" the worm will turn, and he turns into a graduate
student."

Thirty-seven years ago it was my fortune as a beginner
in science to attend the meeting of this association at
Dubuque. The very contact with men of science which
this meeting gave was a wealth of inspiration. To hear
these men speak, to touch their hands, to meet them on
the street, to ride with them to the fossil-bearing rocks
or the flower-carpeted prairie, for the moment, at least, to
be counted of their number, all these meant wonderful
things.

Of these men, let me speak primarily of the students
of natural history, for then, and even yet, I know little
of anything else. They w-ere naturalists " of the Old
School," these workers of the early 'seventies. Louis
.Agassiz, dean of them all, was not at Dubuque, but I
came to know him very soon after. There was .Asa Gray.
I heard at Dubuque some Harvard man say, " There goes
Asa Gray. If he should sav black was white, I should
see it looking whitish." There was Shaler, the many-

156

nature:.

[January 12, 191 1

sided, every side altogether charming ; and Spencer F.
Baird, the father of cooperative science, the science at
the Capitol at Washington. There was Fred Putnam,
the ever-present veteran, a veteran even in his youth.
There was Joe Le Conte, ever clear-headed and ever
lovable. There was Newberry and Leslie and Gill and
Allen and Swallow and Leidy and Calvin and Marsh and
Coues, Wilder with his shark brains, and Scudder with
his butterflies, and I know not what others, the great
names of thirty years ago, names which we honour to-
day.

These men of the Old School were lovers of nature.
They knew nature as a whole rather than as a fragment
or a succession of fragments. They were not made in
Germany or anywhere else, and their work was done
because they loved it, because the impulse within would
not let them do otherwise than work, and their training,
partly their own, partly responsible to their source of
inspiration, was made to fit their own purposes. If these
men went to Germany, as many of them did, it was for
inspiration, not for direction ; not to sit through lectures,
not to dig in some far-off corner of knowledge, not to
stand through a doctor's examination in a dress coat with
a major and two minors, not to be encouraged magna
cum laude to undertake a scientific career. The career
was fixed by heredity and early environment. Nothing
could, head them off, and they took orders from no one as
to what they should do or what they should reach as
conclusions. They did not work for a career — many of
them found none — but for the love of work. They were
filled with a rampant, exuberant individuality which took
them wherever they pleased to go. They followed no set
fashions in biology. Such methods as they had were
their own, wrought out by their own strength. They were
dependent neither on libraries nor equipment, though they
struggled for both. Not facilities for work, but endeavour
to work, if need be without facilities, gave them strength,
and their strength was as the strength of ten.

For this reason each typical man of this sort had
Darwin walking with him. He became the centre of a
school of natural history, a rallying point for younger
men who sought from him, not his methods or his con-
clusions, but his zeal, his enthusiasm, his " fanaticism
for veracity," his love for nature, using that hackneyed
phrase in the sense in which men spoke it when the
phrase was new.

Students of Agassiz, notably Scudder, Lyman, Shaler,
and Wilder have told us what all this meant, where " the
best friend that ever student had " was their living and
moving teacher. The friendship implied in this, his
worthiest epitaph, rested, not on material air, but on
recognition of " the hunger and thirst that only the desti-
tute student knows," the craving to know what really is,
which outranks all other human cravings.

Marcou tells us the story of the wonderful work done
in the little college of Neuchatel, without money, materials
or prestige, investigating, writing, printing, engraving,
publishing, all in one busy hive at a thousand dollars a
year, when the greatest of teachers had youth, enthusiasm,
love of nature, and love of man as his chief or only
equipment. This story was repeated, with variations, at
Cambridge, and with other variations by Agassiz's dis-
ciples throughout the length and breadth of America.

I heard Agassiz say once, " I lived for four years in
Munich under Dr. Dollinger's roof, and my scientific
training goes back to him and to him alone." Later, in
America, he dedicated his contribution to the " memory
of Ignatius Dollinger, who first taught me to trace the
development of animals."

This suggests the thought of the heredity in science so
ancient or characteristic of the Old School. From Dollinger,
Agassiz was descended. From Agassiz, all of the naturalists
of the Old School of to-day, all the teachers and investi-
gators who have reached the sixty-year mark, or are soon
to reach it. These men, from Joseph Le Conte and
David A. Wells, of his first class, through Shaler, Wilder,
Putnam, Alexander Agassiz, Hartt, Baird, Walcott, Whit-
man, Brooks, Snow, Lyman, Clark, William James,
Faxon, Fewkes, Garman, down to Minot and myself, the
two youngest of the lot, as I remember — Minot venerable
already, according to the Boston Press.

It is characteristic of the men of the Old School that
NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

they formed schools, that they were centres of attractiui
to the like-minded wherever these might be. There wer^
no fellowships in those days whereby men are hired v
work under men they do not care for and along lin<
which lead, not to the truth they love, but to a degree an
a career. We speak sometimes of the Agassiz school <
naturalists, the Gray school of botanists, as in Germain
" die ganze Gegenbaurische Schule " of anatomy, " d.
Ilaeckelsche Schule " of biology. These may be terms <
praise or of opprobium, according to the degree of om:
sympathy with that school and its purposes.

To belong to a school in this sense is to share th
inspiration of its leader. The Gray school of botanis;
no longer place the buttercup or the virgin's bower at tl
head of the list of plants as a typical flower. Gray di'
this ; but this is not an essential in honouring Gray. The>
begin at the bottom, Darwin fashion, and the honour of
the end of the list is given to the specialised asters and
mints, or the still wider wandering orchids, the most
eccentric, the most remotely modified, no longer to the
tj'pical, the conventionally simple. In this there is a tacit
assumption that Gray would have done the same had he
possessed the knowledge which is now the common
property of his students. Probably he would ; but that
matters nothing, for each one follows his own individu-
ality.

The characteristic of the Agassiz school was the early
and utter discarding of the elaborate zoological philosophy
which the master had built up. The school went over
bodily to the side of Darwin, not because Darwin had
convinced them by his arguments, but because their own
work, in whatever field, led them to the same conclusions.
No one who studied species in detail could look an animal
in the face and believe in the theory of special creation.
The same lesson came up from every hand, and we should
not have been true to the doctrines of the master if we
had refused faith to our own experience. When the
Museum of Comparative Zoology was finished, Haeckel
is reported to have said, perhaps in envy, perhaps in jest,
that " the output of any scientific establishment is in
inverse ratio to the completeness of its equipment." In
other words, the more men have to do with the less they
would do.

Statistics show that in this paradox there is at least a
grain of truth, and this grain of truth stands at the base
of my own misgivings. With the scantiest of equipment
much of our greatest work has been done. It is said that
Joseph Leidy 's array of microscopes and knives cost not
less than a hundred dollars. The " Poissons Fossiles"
was written when its author lived from hand to mouth in
the Latin Quarter of Paris, copying " on the backs of
old letters and on odd scraps of paper the books he
needed, but which he could not buy." Since Haeckef
said the words I have quoted, if he ever said them, facili-
ties for biological work have multiplied a thousand-fold.
Every German university, Jena with the rest, and most
American universities as well, have a far greater equip-
ment than the Museum of Comparative Anatomy had
forty years ago. Victor Meyer is reported to have said
that the equipment of every chemical laboratory should
be burned once in ten years. This is necessary that the
chemical investigator should be a free man, not hampered
by his outgrown environment. In like vein, Eigenmann
has said that when an investigator dies all his material
should be burned with him. These should be his creation,
and he should create nothing which he cannot use. These
could be useful to none other except as material for the
history of science. Therefore, too much may be worse
than too little. The struggle for the necessary is often
the making of the investigator. If he gets what he war^ts
without a struggle, he may not know what to do with iK

But facilities do not create. The men who have
honoured their universities owe very little to the facili-
ties their universities have offered them. Men are born,
not made. They are strengthened by endeavour, not by
facilities. Facilis descensus. It is easy to slide in the
direction of least resistance. That direction is not
upward. It is easy to be swamped by material for work,
or by the multiplicity of cares, or by the multiplication of
opportunities. I may be pardoned for another personal
allusion. I have spent the best portion of my life in_ the
service of science, but for the most part not in direct

January 12, 191 1]

NATURE

357

service. I have tried to help others to opportunities I
could not use myself. I have been glad to do this, because
that which I might have done has been far more than
balanced by the help I have been able to give to others.

But it is not clear that this greater help has led to
greater achievement. I cannot find that the output bears
any direct relation to the means for producing it. The
man who is born to zeal for experiment or observation
cannot be put down. He is always at it. Somewhere or
somehow he will come to his own. No man ever adds
much to the sum of human knowledge because the road
is made easy for him. Leisure, salar>', libraries,
apparatus, problems, appreciation, none of these will
make an investigator out of a man who is willing to be
4mything else. There is human nature among scientific
0ien, and human nature is prone to follow the lines of
least resistance. It takes originality, enthusiasm, abound-
ing life, to turn any man from what is easily known to
that tvhich is knowable only through the sweat of the
intellect. Of all the men I have tried to train in biolog\',
those five I regard as ablest because their contributions to
science have been greatest, were brought up out of doors
or within bare walls in which books, specimens, and equip-
ment were furnished from the scant salary. .A struggling
teacher, a ver}- young teacher at that, at 1800 dollars per
year, and 10 per cent, of this for a biological library, is
not a condition to attract advanced students to-day, but,
so far as my own experience has gone, I have never
known stronger students than those who came to me to
be trained under these pinching conditions.

To-day the conditions are adjusted to the promotion of
the docile student rather than the man of original force.
He goes, not to the man, but to the university. He finds
"work in biology no longer a bit of green sod urtder the
blue sky shut off by conventional and ugly hedges, and
therefore to be acquired at any cost. It is a park, open
n e\ery side to anybody. Or, dropping the poor meta-
phor, he finds his favourite work not a single hard-
won opportunity in a mass of required language and
mathematics. He finds the university like a great hotel
with a menu so varied that he is lost in the abundance.
His favourite zoology or botany is not taught by a man.
It is divided into a dozen branches, each taught by an
Instructor who is a cogwheel in the machine. The master
under whom he would seek inspiration is busy with the
planning of additional cogwheels or the oiling of the
machinery. Or, more often, there is no master teacher
tt all. The machinery is there and at his hand. He has
•ut to touch the button and he has alcohol, formal,
xylol, or Canada balsam — whatever he needs for his pre-
isent work. Every usable drug and every usable instru-
ment is on tap ; all we need, degrees and all, are made
for us in Germany. Another button will bring him all
the books of all the ages, all the records of past experi-
ence, carrying knowledge far ahead of his present require-
ments, usually beyond his possible acquirements. The
touch of personality, the dash of heredity, is lost.

Worse than all this, for the student who is worth while
will orient himself even among the most elaborate appli-
ances and the most varied concourse of elective, is the
fact that he is set to acquire training without enthusiasm.
Sooner or later he receives a fellowship in some institu-
tion which is not the one to which he wishes to go.
Virtually, he finds himself hired to work in some par-
ticular place not under the man, of all men, he has chosen
to know. He is given some petty problem ; it seems petty
to him and to others. He takes this as his major, with
two convenient minors, and at last he is turned out with
Tiis degree to find his own life, if he can, with his degree.
His next experience is to starve, and he is not so well
fitted for this as he would have been had he begun it
sooner. If he finds himself among facilities for work, he
w'ill starve physically only. If he marries, he starves in
good company, but more rapidly and under greater stress.
Tf chance throws him into a college without facilities, he
will starve mentally also. In any case, he will lament
the fact that the university has given him so much
material help, so little personal inspiration, and at the
end values its product so low, that with all the demands
of scholarship and scholarly living his pay is less than
that of the bricklayer or the hack driver; for he has

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

attained a degree of scholarship without a corresponding
degree of compelling force. His education has not given
him mastery of men, because its direction has not been
adequately his own.

It is always the struggle which gives strength. Learn-
ing or polish may be gained in other ways, but without
self-directed effort there is not much intellectual virility.
Good pay, like some other good things, comes to the man
who compels it. To make oneself indispensable, real,
forceful, with a many-sided interest in men as well as in
specialised learning, is the remedy for low salaries. As
college men, we get all that we are worth on the average.
Our fault is that we are in the average. We need more
individuality.

In so far as the universities can remedy this, it would
lie in the encouragement of men to take their advanced
work in actual centres of inspiration. No one university
has many such. Let the fellowships lead men to the few.
Or let them be travelling fellowships, available at the
best centres of inspiration in this or any other country.
Or, if the choice among departments be too delicate a
matter for university officials to undertake, let the dis-
tribution of fellowships be confined to the men who already
are on the ground. These men, in one way or another,
have shown their confidence, have chosen their master.
If the university wishes now to smooth their path to
success, it could give pecuniar}- assistance without hiring
them to go where they do not wish to go. There is no
nobler ambition for a great investigator than to hope from
a school of science to continue his own kind, by his own
method, his own inspiration, the contagion of his own
love of knowledge. In no way can this be done save by
letting like come to like, by opening the way from his
own kind to find the way to their master. In this our
present fellowshipr system is failing, and this failure is
showing itself in the cheapening of virility and the
cheapening of originality among our doctors of philosophy
as compared with our young workers of a generation ago.
An eminent teacher of physics said lately : —
" The numbers of doctors' degrees in -physics bear no
relation to the eminence of the professors who grant them.
They depend soleh' on the number of fellowships offered,
on the number of assistantships available. In the institu-
tion which has conferred the greatest number in recent
years, almost every one of these is draw-n by the stipend
offered ; scarcely one by the unquestioned greatness of the
leading professor."

The primary fault seems to be in our conception of
research, which tends to point in the direction of pedantry
rather than that of scholarship. Not all professors have
this tendency, only those who are neither great scholars
nor great teachers. It is, or ought to be, a maxim of
education that advanced work in any subject has greater
value to the student, as discipline or as information, than
elementary work. Thoroughness and breadth of know-
ledge give strength of mind and better perspective. They
give, above all, courage and enthusiasm. With each
vear, up to a certain point, our universities carry their
sfudies further toward these ends, and the student responds
to each demand made on his intelligence and his
enthusiasm.

Then research begins, and here the teacher, as a matter
of duty, transforms himself into the pedant. Instead of
a closer contact with nature and her problems, the student
is side-tracked into some corner in which numerical exact-
ness is possible, even though no possible truth can be
drawn from the multiplicity of facts which may be
gathered.

This sort of research, recently satirised by Prof. Grant
Showerman in the Atlantic Monthly, is not advanced work
at all. It may be most elementary. The student of the
grammar school can count the pebbles in a gravel bank
to see what percentage of them lie with the longest axis
horizontal as easily as the master can do it. That is not
research in geology, however great the pains which may
be taken to ensure accuracy. The student may learn
something. All contact with gravel teaches something of
the nature of rocks, as all reading of Plautus teaches
something of poetry ; all contact with realities gives some
reality as a result. Yet there is no result involved in the
case above indicated in the investigation itself. We know

o:)'

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

that if flat stones are free to fall, the longest axis
will approach horizontally, and that is the end of the
matter.

Mr. Showerman's suggested comparison of the "pre-
fixes in P to be found in Plautus," "the terminations in
T of Terence," and " the sundry suffixes in S," is scarcely
an exaggeration of the kind of work assigned to many of
our research students. Such work is in itself absolutely
elementary. It teaches patience and perhaps exactness,
although, where the student finds that error is just as
good as truth in the final round-up, he is likely to lose
some of " the fanaticism for veracity " which is the
central element in the zealous comradery of the extension
of human knowledge. So long as the " new work " on
which our doctors of philosophy address themselves is
found in material rejected by scholars because a study of
it cannot possibly lead anywhere, so long will these
doctors be neither teachers nor enthusiasts. They will
justify the clever sneer as to the turning worm and the
graduate student. Elementary facts about raw material
is not the advancement of knowledge. They are killing
to those who have a capacity for something better. The
listing of " Terence's terminations in T " is a type of
work which, at the best, bears the same relation to re-
search that forge-work bears to engineering. It is worth
while to the engineer to know what it is like and to be
able to handle a hammer if need be. Moreover, a
hammered-out horse-shoe is an actual reality. But to
make a horse-shoe, even one of a form never seen before,
is not the final thesis for which the engineer enters the
university.

Much of the graduate work in non-mathematical sub-
jects receives an appearance of accuracy from the use of
statistics or other forms of mathematics. This seems to
make the results " scientific." Mathematics is a science
only when its subject-matter is science — when it deals with
results of human experience. At other times it is simply
a method — a form of logic. A mathematical enumeration,
or even a formula, does not give exactness where it did
not exist before.

The statistical enumeration of the " prefixes in P " or
the pebbles in the bank is held to give the method of
research. It teaches patience and accuracy, two funda-
mental virtues in the progress of science. Patience, per-
haps, if the student persists to the bitter end. Accuracy,
certainly not. Soon&r or later the student will discover
that to multiply by ten one of his columns of figures, or
to divide another by five, will have no effect on his final
conclusion, for there is not going to be any conclusion.
He will then learn to supplement his tables by the quicker
and more satisfactory method of guesswork. He turns
from the methods of pedantry to the method of journalism.
At the best, he will find that the less laborious methods
known as qualitative have the advantage over quantitative
methods, where matters of quantity have no real signifi-
cance.

No one should begrudge any amount of time or strength
or patience spent on a real problem. In that regard,
Darwin's attitude towards the greatest of biological
problems is a model for all time. But we should believe
that there is a problem, and that our facts point towards
the truth in regard to it. A fact alone is not a truth, and
ten thousand facts may be of no more importance. A
horse-shoe is not an achievement. Still less are ten
thousand horse-shoes. " Facts are stupid things," Agassiz
used to say, " unless brought into connection by some
general law." In other words, facts signify nothing,
except as the raw material of truth.

A graduate student of an honoured philologist in a
great university lately explained her graduate work to me.
A chapter in Luther's Bible was assigned to her, another
to each of her fellows. This was copied in longhand, and
after it all the variant German versions of the same
chapter. Her work was to indicate all the differences
involved. There may have been something behind it all.
The professor may have had in mind a great law of
variance, a Laut-verschiebung or Entwickelung of pious
phraseology. But no glimpse of this law ever came to
the student. More likely, the professor was at his wits
end to find some task in German which had never been
accomplished before, and which had never before occurred

to any German taskmaster. No wonder the doctoi
degree is no guarantee of skill as a teacher! Among ti
first essentials of a teacher are clearness of vision ai
enthusiasm for the. work. This is not cultivated by thi
methods. It is not even "made in Germany." 'J 1
" law of time relations of iron and sulphuric acid " ni:
be developed in a year's work by dropping a thousai
weighed shingle nails into a thousand test tubes i>t
sulphuric acid, each having the amount requisite to turn
the whole into an iron sulphate. The length of the period
before each shingle nail disappears and that before tlv:
resultant liquid becomes clear can be measured. It may
even be proved that the cleaner the nail the more quickly
it dissolves. But all this is not chemical research. It
gives no wider grasp on the marvellous processes of
chemical reaction, and no greater enthusiasm for chemical
work or grasp on chemical teaching.

If the counting in Plautus of the prefixes in P is a
tyj>e of the only sort of research that the classical know-
ledges permit, then let them go without research. Lit
them fall back on the charms of Latin verse, the surprisi s
of Latin wit, the matchless power of description of which
the Greek language is capable, and the monumental
splendour of the oldest of the story-tellers, who brought
even the gods into his service. Let literature be litera-
ture, and science science, and enthusiasm will precedi>
and follow any real advance in knowledge. Let th ■
student be free to learn, and not to grind. Let him gn
with the masters of his own free will, not as he is hir' >'
by the pedants. As a final result we shall have again
schools of thought and action in America, and the
doctor's degree will not be a hindrance in the profession
of university teaching.

When our graduate work is really advanced work, under
men who know the universe in the large as well as in the
small, its great movements as well as its forgotten dust
heaps, we shall have our American schools of science, and
the Darwins will again " walk with Henslow " over fields
as green as were ever those of Cambridgeshire.

With the failure of the enthusiasm of the teacher we
have a lowering of ideals on the part of students. They
come too often to look on science as a career rather than
as an opportunity, to do that which in all the world
they would rather do, that which they would die rather
than leave undone. Too often, in the words of John
Cassin, " they look upon science as a milk cow rather
than as a transcendent goddess."

The advent of the elective system, thirty years ago, bore
a wonderful fruitage. Men, soul-weary of drill, turned to
inspiration. Teachers who loved their work were met by
students who loved it. The students of science thirty
years ago came to it by escape from Latin and calculus
with the eagerness of colts brought from the barn to a
spring pasture. . In regions of eternal spring these colts
do not show this vernal eagerness. Now that science is
as much a matter of course as anything else, there is not
this feeling of release ; and the feeling that one to whom
the secrets of the woods and hills, the story of the sea
and the rocks, have been made known, belongs to a
chosen class, disappears when these matters are made open
to everyone. Scientific knowledge, as the result of con-
tinued endeavour and of persistent longing, is more appre-
ciated than when it comes as an open elective to all who
have completed English 3 and Mathematics 5.

In one of the poems of James Whitcomb Riley this
sentence is expressed :—

" Let's go a visiting back to Grisby's Station,
Back where we used to live, so happy and so poor."

" So happy and so poor " the American college once
was that the student, the teacher, and nature were all
together, a'l hand in hand. It was this which made at
Munich the " Little Academy," concerning which Agassiz
once spyoke so eloquently. It was the contrast with great-
ness in the most simple surroundings that gave the school
at Penikese its unique position. As to this school, I once
used these words : — ■

" With all appreciation of the rich streams which in
late years have come to us from many sources, and
especially from the deep insight and resolute truthfulness
of Germany, it is still true that ' the school of all schools

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

January 12, 191 1]

NATURE

359

which has had most influence on scientific teaching in
America ' was held in an old barn on an uninhabited
island, some eighteen miles from the shore. It lasted for
three months, and in effect it had but one teacher. The
school at Penikese existed in the personal presence of
Agassiz ; when he died, it vanished I

Contact with great minds is not so common to-day as
it was when the men of the Old School were the leaders
of the new. The enthusiasm of struggle, the flash of
originality, grows more rare as our educational machinery
becomes more perfect. If our present system fails, it is
in the lack of personal contact and personal inspiration.
If we cannot create new Darwins, the raw material being
found, it is because they cannot walk with Henslow.
Henslow is somewhere else, perchance in some Govern-
ment bureau of science, or, it he is present, he has too
much on his mind to be a good walker. We do not value
him enough to make him free.

We have too much university in America, and too much
of what we have in boys' schools. The university as such
is a minor affair, an exotic attachment. Should a great
teacher, a real man of God, of the God of things as they
are, arise in the faculty, he becomes a department
executive- More than half his students are of gymnasium
grade, and nine-tenths of his teaching is done by young
men, men who have not made their mark or who have
made it only as cogwheels in the machine. Too often
these are caught in the grind, and are never able to show
what they might have been if their struggles had been
towards higher ends. Smith teaching Zoology lo ; Brown,
Botany 7 ; and Robinson, Geolog}' 3, cannot lead their
students or themselves to look on nature in the large or
to see the wonderful vistas beheld by a Lyell or a Rum-
bokit. The university in America is smothered by the
arflege. The college has lost its refinement of purpose
through coalition with the university. The two are tele-
scoped together, to the disadvantage of both. The boy
has the freedom and the facility of the university when he
can make no use of it. The university man is entangled
in the meshes of the college. University facilities we have
enough for ten times — twenty times — the number of
students. We go into the market to hire young men to
avail themselves of them. There is no corresponding
emphasis laid upon men, and men of the first rank are no
more numerous to-day than they were in the days of
' _ issiz, Lowell, Longfellow, Gray, Holmes, Dana, Silli-
, Gibbs, Leidy, Goodwin, Angell, White, and Goldwin
:th.

: is the man who makes the school, and completes the

ain of heredity from the masters of the last centurj- in

1 Europe to the masters of the twentieth century in

: -America. Excellent as our facilities are, complete as are

j our libraries, our laboratories and our apparatus, easy as

I is our access to all this, we have only made a beginning.

\ Another ten years will see it all doubled. What we have

is far from complete. But the pity of it is, our students

I will not guess its incompleteness. Half as much or ten

[ times as much, it is the same to them as the doubling of

1 the bill of fare at the Waldorf-Astoria would be unnoticed

the guests. A still greater pity is this, even the

hers will not know the difference. They can use only

..ar they have time and strength for. The output is no

I greater for the helps we give. The greatest teacher is

one who is ruler even over his books, and who is not

'thered by them.

-nthusiasm is cultivated by singleness of purpose, and
in our system we make provisions to distract rather than
to intensify. There is a learned society, to which manv
j of us belong, Sigma XI. Its value depends on its ability
^ to make good its motto, Spoudon Xynones, " Comrades in
^ Zeal." We whistle to keep up our courage in the multi-
tude, not of dangers, but of distractions, and if we whistle
m unison we may keep step together. This society in
: a cooperative way, the same spirit in different places,
stands for enthusiasm in science. Now enthusiasm comes
I from struggle, from the continuous effort to do what you
. want to do, and for the most part in the way you want
j to do it. Hence comraderv in zeal should make for
, individuality, for originalitj-.

The most serious indictment of the "new school" in
"~"nce is its lack of originality. Even its novelties are

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

not original. They are old fabrications worked over, with
a touch of oddity in the working. The requirements for
the doctor's degree tend to curb originality. But these do
not go far. A man may be original and even in a dress
coat in the daytime may be rated as summa cum lauda.
The greatest foe of originality is timeliness. Rather,
timeliness is evidence of lack of originality, of lack of
individual enthusiasm.

When a discovery is made in botany the young botanists
are drawn to it as herrings to a searchlight, as moths to
a lantern. In Dr. Coulter's words, " they all dabble in
the same pool." Not long since the pool was located in
morphology ; then it was in embryology ; then in the fields
of mutative variations ; now it is filled with unit characters
and pedigreed cultures.

I would not underrate any of these lines of work or
any other, but I respect a man the less when I see him
leaving his own field to plunge into one which is merely
timely, into one in which discovery seems to be easy, and
the outlook to a career to be facilitated.

.All honour to the man who holds to his first love in
science, whatever that may be, and who records his gains
unflinchingly, though not another man on earth may notice
what he is doing. Sooner or later the world of science
returns to every piece of honest work. The revival of
the forgotten experiments of the priest Mendel will illus-
trate this in passing. Hundreds of men are Mendelians
now who would never have thought of planting a pea or
breeding a guinea-pig had not Mendel given the clue to
problems connected with these things.

The man of to-day, busied with many cares, looms up
smaller than the man of the Old School who walked with
Henslow and then walked with nature. In this thought
it is easy to depreciate our educational present.

Homer, referring to the Greeks of earlier times, assures
us " There are no such men in our degenerate days." I
have never verified this quotation — the men of our days
are too busy to verify anything — but we may take the
sentiment as characteristic. From the days of Homer
until our own time, the man of the Old School has always
found the times out of joint. Perhaps in getting so
elaborately ready we are preparing for a still more brilliant
future. It may be that books, apparatus, material,
administration, and training are all worth their weight in
men, and that modern educational opportunities are as
much better than old ones as on the surface they seem to
be. I know that all these misgivings of mine represent
no final failure. Each generation has such doubts, and
doubts which extend in every direction. The new strength
of the new generation solves its own problems. The new
men of the new schools of science will master the problems
of abundance and of distraction even as ours solved the
problem of hostility and of neglect. The man is suf)erior
to the environment, and the man of science will do the
work he loves for the love of it. In this love he will
develop the abundance of life in others as in himself,
and this is the highest end of all our striving.

The atmosphere of a great teacher raises lesser men to
his standard. It perpetuates the breed. It was not books
or apparatus that made Dollinger or Agassiz or Bro<^s
successively centres, each of a school of research. It was
the contagion of devotion, the joy of getting at the heart
of things, the love of nature, the love of truth. Some-
times, in our wealth of educational opportunity, we long
for the time when, as of old, the student had the master
all to himself, the master unperplexed by duties of
administration, not called hither and thither by the duties
of his station, but giving himself, his enthusiasm, his
zeal, and his individuality to the student, not teaching
books, but how to make books our servants, all this time
master and student struggling together to make both ends
meet, and sometimes succeeding, " so happy and so poor."
So it was in the old time, and so it shall be again w^hen
the new demands and the new wealth find their adjust-
ment. And to find this we shall not go back to Grigsby's
Station, nor yet to Penikese; for the scholars that are to
be shall rebuild the .American universities in their own
way, as the scholars of to-day are restoring the University
of Cambridge, and in a greater or less degree all other
universities in all other lands where men know and love
the truth.

ki

36o

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

London. — A large number of university courses of
advanced lectures in science subjects are in progress or
announced. In botany, a course of ten lectures on the
history of. British botany will begin on January 20 at
University College. The first lecture of the course will
be by Mr. Francis Darwin, on " Stephen Hales," and the
work of other famous botanists will be described in later
lectures, the lecturers being Profs. Vines, Bower, Farmer,
Lang, Oliver, Scott, Dr. Arber, Mr. Praeger, and Mr.
Henslow. Dr. W. N. Shaw, reader in meteorology, will
begin a course of eight lectures on climatology, with
special reference to British possessions, on the same day
at the London School of Economics. Several courses of
advanced lectures in physiology are announced. Prof.
E. A. Minchin will begin a course of twenty-one lectures
on the protozoa at the L^niversity on January 16 at 5 p.m.
A course of three lectures on the comparative anatomy of
the vertebrate ear, by Mr. R. H. Burne, will begin on
January iq at the Royal College of Surgeons. The times
of the lectures in each case will be 5 p.m., and admission
will be free, without tickets.

During the temporary absence of Prof. Starling, F.R.S.,
owing to ill-health, Dr. W. M. Bayliss, F.R.S., has been
appointed acting professor of physiology in University
College, London.

It is announced in Science that Harvard University is
to receive i2,oooZ. from the will of the late Mrs. William
O. Moseley, and that a gift of ioo,oooL has been made to
Dartmouth College by Mr. Edward Tuck.

The degree of D.Sc. as an external student has been
granted to Arthur Slator, of University College, Notting-
ham, and Birmingham and Leipzig Universities, for a
thesis on " Studies in Fermentation," and other papers.

We learn from Science that, as a memorial to her
husband, Mrs. Edward H. Harriman, of New York City,
has endowed with 20,oooZ. the chair in forest management
in the Yale Forest School. Mr. Andrew Carnegie has
agreed to give to the Maria Mitchell Memorial Association
a sum of 2000Z. toward the establishment of a research
fellowship in astronomy, on condition that the sum of
loooZ. required to complete the fund of 5000J. be sub-
scribed. The progress made in ascertaining the approxi-
mate value of the Wyman bequest for the Graduate
College of Princeton University confirms the original
estimate of between 400,000?. and 6oo,oooZ.

A COURSE of six free public lectures is to be given at
University College, Gower Street, W.C., by Lieut.-Colonel
Ernest Roberts, introductory to the study of Indian
sociology, on Tuesdays at 4.30 p.m., beginning on
February 21 next. A course of eight lectures, free to all
internal students of the University of London, is to be
given by Dr. H. H. Dale in the Physiological Institute,
University College, on Fridays at 4.30 p.m., commencing
on January 20. The London County Council has arranged
two courses of ten lectures for teachers, which are free to
London teachers, to be given on Wednesdays at 6 p.m.,
beginning on January 18, at University College. One
course is on scientific reasoning and its cultivation, the
lectures being given by Dr. A. Wolf, and the other on
models to illustrate the geometry of space, the lectures
being given by Dr. L. N. G. Filon, F.R.S.

The Philosophic Faculty of the University of Marburg
has conferred the degree of Doctor Honories Causa upon
Mr. Ernst Leitz, of Wetzlar, the principal of the well-
known firm of manufacturers of microscopes, microtomes,
and other optical and scientific instruments.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

London.
Faradav Society, December 13, toio. — Mr. F. W. Harbord
in the chair. — J. Svtfinburne : Separation of oxygen by
cold. The problem of separating oxygen from the air is
not the same as making liquid air. To separate oxygen
from nitrogen involves doing mechanical work, which is

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

converted into heat. A rectifying plant may be ci
sidered as an apparatus, which takes in heat substanti.:
at the boiling point of the liquid with highest boil!
point, and gives it out at a lower temperature near ;
boiling point of the most volatile liquid. An air separa
thus takes in heat at 90° A, gives out heat at about 82^
and at the temperature of the works, say, 273° A. i
Linde process may be regarded as a rectifying plant
this sort, and a thermodynamic engine, in which a gas
compressed so as to liquefy at 90° A under pressure, :><
to evaporate at 82°, thus supplying the heat at the boil-
ing point of oxygen and absorbing it at the boiling point
of the air. Such a process is generally considered
irreversible, but is, in fact, nearly reversible, and there-
fore economical. Assuming an efficiency of 40 per cent.,
the cost of oxygen comes out approximately 15. a ton on
a large scalf. This ought to lead to its use in blast
furnaces and other cases where an extra high tempera-
ture may be important. — Dr. H. J. S. Sand and W. M.
Smalley : A new apparatus for the rapid electro-analytical
determination of metals. A glass-frame anode for use
with silver and nickel kathodes. In order to reduce the
amount of platinum employed, a pair of electrodes has
been designed which, while retaining as much as possible
the essential features of those previously described, con-
tains as little platinum as possible. The anode has been
made largely of glass, so that the total weight of platinum
has been reduced to about 5 grams. Special care has been
taken in the design to render it as little fragile as possible.
For copper determinations a kathode of silver is employed,
which has been designed so that it can be made without
much difficulty with the facilities usually available in a
chemical laboratory. For zinc determinations a kathode
of nickel was employed. The results of copper and zinc
depositions are substantially as good as those obtained
with platinum electrodes. The time required for deter-
mining 0-3 gram of copper is about seven minutes. A
stand for holding the auxiliary apparatus required in
electro-analysis is also described.

Geological Society, December 21, 1910. — Prof. W. W.
Watts, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — T. O.
Bosworth : The Keuper marls around Charnwood
Forest. The area under consideration includes the towns
of Leicester, Loughborough, Coalville, and Hinckley.
The Charnian rocks project through a mantle of Triassic
deposits, which once completely covered them. The
quarries have been opened in the summits of the buried
hills. A quarry is so worked that its outline follows the
contour of the buried hill ; consequently, the section pre-
sents but a dwarfed impression of the irregularity of the
rock-surface. On the buried slopes and in the gullies are
screes and breccias, and bands of stones and grit are
present in the adjacent beds of marl. All these stones are
derived only from the rock immediately at hand. Where
exposed, the Charnian igneous rocks are deeply weathered
and disintegrated, but the same rocks beneath the Keuper
are fresh right up to the top. The Keuper marls lie in a
catenary manner across the gullies. There has been
almost no post-Triassic movement in Charnwood. All the
points of contact of any one bed with the Charnian rocks
lie on one horizontal plane. The inclination of the strata
must, therefore, be due to subsequent sagging. _ The
Upper Keuper deposits accumulated in a desert basin, of
which parts were dry and parts were occupied by ever-
shifting salt-lakes and pools. In these waters the red
marls were laid down. The abundant heavy minerals are
garnet, zircon, tourmaline, staurolite, rutile, magnetite.
The grains are intensely worn. The quartz-grains are
sometimes wind-worn. The false bedding is mainly from
the south-west. The ripples indicate prevalent south-
westerly winds. — R. L. Sherlock : The relationship of
the Permian to the Trias in Nottinghamshire. The con-
formability or unconformability of the Bunter to the
Permian has been much discussed, but it is generally con-
sidered that there is a small unconformity between them.
In this paper, a section on the Great Central Railway
near Anneslev is described. It shows a gradual passage
from the Middle Marl into the Lower Mottled Sandstone.
Detailed mapping has confirmed this conclusion. From
Nottingham to Mansfield the Middle Marl retain? -^

January 12, 191 1]

NATURE

301

:niform character and thickness, but at Mansfield it is
pparently absent. At the same place the limestone be-
omes sandy, forming the Mansfield Sandstone. These
,vo phenomena can be best explained by supposing that
: river deposited a sandbar at Mansfield during Permian
;mes. North of Mansfield the Middle Marl becomes
ormal again. Near Cuckney, the Upper Magnesian
Limestone first appears as a very thin bed, and the lime-
stone arises as thin lenticular bands in the passage-bed.
It is believed that the Upper Magnesian Limestone and
Upper Marl of the northern part of the outcrop are the
time equivalents of the Bunter of South Nottinghamshire.

t^oyai Microscopical Society, December 21, 1910. — Mr.
E. J. Spitta, vice-president, in the chair. — ^W. R.
Traviss : A small microscope lamp, particularly suited
for opaque objects and dark-ground illumination with high
powers. The light used was a small inverted incandescent
burner carried at the extremity of a short arm, that could
be easily moved up and down on a standard. The light
could be brought very close to the table or raised to
illuminate opaque objects on the stage. — M. J. Allan :
An easy method of treating printing-out paper (P.O. P.)
for all kinds of photography. The author recommends
that the prints be washed in a strong solution of salt,
then placed in a saturated solution of hypo, after which
they are to be washed in running water. — C. H. Higg^ins :
\ new system of filing slides.- — .\. j\. C. E. Merlin : The
measurement of Grayson's new ten-band plate. The plate,
comprising ten bands running from i/ioooth to 1/ 10,000th
of an inch, had been ruled by an improved machine, and
was found to be much better even than Grayson's earlier
productions. The author in measuring the bands used a
selected objective of 1-32 N-A.. having an initial magnifi-
cation of 143 on a lo-inch tube. S. Nelson-Powell screw
setting micrometer, which is alone suitable for the pur-
pose, was used. The result obtained was that the varia-
tion from the mean in the spacing of the lines did not
exceed i '230,000 inch. The mean diameter of the lines
was 000002488 inch. The author also made a series of
measurements with i-inch, J-inch, and ^-inch objectives,
and came to the important conclusion that low powers
were unsuited for micrometry. — ^Jas. Murray : Some
African rotifers — Bdelloida of tropical .Africa. Thirty-
three species of bdelloids were obtained from dried moss
sent by Mr. .A. .Allan and Sir Philip Brocklehurst from
British East -Africa. Nine of the species are new to
science. Several of them have very distinct characters
not previously noted for any bdelloids. Harbrotrocha
caudata has a tail-like process, the function of which is
unknown. The animal secretes a protective shell, and the
" tail " is enclosed in a slender tube open at the end, so
that the shell has two openings. ^. acornis has no trace
of spurs, otherwise universal in the order. Several other
species approach it in this respect, having the spurs re-
duced to minute papillae. H. auriculata, when feeding,
has at each side of the head a peculiar ring-like auricle,
giving it the appearance of a two-handled vase. The
nature and function of the auricles remain unknown.
Their form, even, is difficult to interpret, as they present
aoparently contradictory appearances from different points
of view. The bdelloids take a very important place in
moss-faunas. In every country they are abundant, and in
most regions there is a fair proportion of peculiar species.
When more fully known the bdelloids seem likelv to prove
a group of hitherto unsuspected importance, both in point
of numbers and diversity of forms. .Ml these moss.'
dwellers can revive after desiccation. The adult animals
become dormant when deprived of moisture, and revive
when remoistened. It is not, as Zacharias concluded from
his experiments in 1886, that the survival of the species
is effected by means of eggs.

Manchester.
Literary and Philosophical Society, December 13, iqio.
— Mr. Francis Jones, president, in the chair. — Miss
Margaret C. March : Preliminary note on Unio pictorum,
v. tumidus, and D. cygnea. The form of the British
unionids can be shown to be dependent on current and
soil, and is therefore useless for systematic purposes when
taken alone. The umbonal markings of these animals

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

merge into one another, and are therefore useless
specifically. Phylogenetically, they show that U. pictorum
is most archaic, anodon least, tumidus being intermediate.
The edentulousness of American anodons illustrates
heterogeneric homaeomophy. The ornament and dentition
of unionids show relationship to trigonids, and a descent
from a pre-trigonid ancestor. — D. M. S. Watson : Notes
on some British Mesozoic crocodiles. The author dis-
cussed some systematic and nomenclatural difficulties,
recording the occurrence of a new variety of Metrio-
rhynchus hastifer in the Corallian of Headington, of
M. hastifer itself in the Kimmeridge Clay of Britain,
and discussed Petrosuchus laevidens and Steneosaurus
stephani. — Prof. F. E. Weiss : Sigillaria and Stigmari-
opsis. The author cKhibited some specimens of axes of
Sigillaria associated with stigmarian bark. From the re-
peated occurrence of these specimens it was suggested that
they represented the base of the aerial or the subterranean
axes of Sigillaria, probably of the Eusigillaria type. The
secondary wood was more copiously developed than is
general in the aerial axes. The primary wood was of
sigillarian type, so that these stigmarian axes have centri-
petal primary wood, and their pithcasts would be striated
like those described for Stigmariopsis. It was noticed that
in some instances small axes were found in contiguity,
and apparently in continuity, with the main axes. These
smaller axes resemble the ordinary stigmarian axes very
nearly, and do not show the centripetal primary wood of
the main axis, but only a few fine tracheids in the pith
region.

P.ARIS.

Academy of Sciences, January 3. — M. Armand Gauiier
in the chair. — The Fanny Emden prize (3000 francs).
This prize will be awarded for the current year for the
best work dealing with hypnotism, suggestion, and
generally physiological actions capable of being exerted
at a distance from the animal organism. In the special
circumstances, memoirs on this subject will be received
up to June I. — M. Bertin : The general laws of
accelerated or retarded motion of a ship following on a
change in the power of the engine. The formulae
developed from theoretical considerations are compared
with experimental results obtained by the vessel Patrie ;
the agreement is satisfactory. — Pierre Termier : Remarks
on the geological map of the Alps. — M. de Forcrand :
The thermochemical study of some binary compounds of
the metals of the alkalies and alkaline earths. A table
is given, summarising recent determinations by various
authors, giving the heats of solution and formation of the
chloride, brcwnides, iodides, and fluorides of lithium,
calcium, strontium, barium, sodium, potassium, rubidium,
and caesium, and some general conclusions are drawn
based on these data. — Ernest Esclang^on : A rotating
governor for fixed or variable velocity. The method of
regulation, described and illustrated, has been designed for
the control of meridian and equatorial telescopes. It
permits of easy regulation when in actual motion. — G.
Tzitx^ica : The W congruences. — Michel de Domeczky :
The theory of symmetrical functions.— C. Popovici :
Stable permanent movements. — Leinekugel le Cocq : The
general theory of two indeformable suspended solids, from
which are derived formulae applicable to all systems of
rigid suspension bridges. — O. Boudouard : The testing of
metals by the study of the damping of vibratory move-
ments. Details of experiments on specimens of iron and
steel containing up to i-o per cent, of carbon, and the
thermal treatment of which is exactly determined. — C. E.
Quillaume : The definition of the practical electrical
units. — A. Lebedefr : The extraction of zymase by simple
maceration. A simple method is described of obtaining
zymase not requiring the use of costly materials. — L.
Bruntz and L. Spillmann : The physiological significance
of the vital coloration of leucocytes. The so-called vital
coloration of leucocytes appears to represent, as in phago-
cytosis, a defensive physiological action, and this general
phenomenon is carried out both in vertebrates and inverte-
brates by identical processes. — Henry P^nau : The cyto-
logy of Bacillus megatherium. — D. Roudsky : The possi-
bility of rendering Trypanosoma lewisi virulent for other
rodents besides the rat.

{62

NATURE

[January 12, 191 1

New South Wales.
Linnean Soci»'ty, Novcm' er 30. 1910. — Mr. C. lledley,
president, in the chair. — Dr. R. Greig-Smith : The

permanency of the characters of the bacteria of the
Bacillus colt group. Twelve races of bacteria of this
group, upon their isolation from rachitic stools, showed
diverse cultural characters. They were cultivated for
seven months, and again examined. The activities
towards dextrose and mannit were found to be the most
permanent. The permanency of the other characters was
lactose, neutral-red, motility, milk, • growth on gelatin,
saccharose, the power of fermenting, which is easily
acquired and presumably easily lost. — Dr. R. Qroig-
Smith : Contributions to our knowledge of soil fertility.
Part i. : The action of wax solvents and the presence of
thermolabile bacteriotoxins in soil. Water extracts from
soil a substance which is filterable through porcelain and
toxic to bacteria. The toxin is destroyed by heat, by
sunlight, and by storage. It disappears from air-dried
soil, and decays in aqueous solution. It is not destroyed
by salts such as sodium chloride or potassium sulphate.
Soils vary in the amount of toxin they contain, good soils
containing less, poor soils more. The particles of soil
are covered or " waterproofed " with soil-wax or " agri-
cere," which consists of a mixture of saponifiable and
unsaponifiable bodies. With the removal of the " water-
proofing," the soil nutrients are more easily dissolved by
soil water and attacked by bacteria. — W. W. Frogrsratt :
Notes on fruit-flies (Trypetidae), with descriptions of new
species. Fifteen species, referable to the genera Ceratitis,
Dacus, and Rioxa (Trypeta), are treated, including seven
new. — T. G. Sloane : Carabida; from Dorrigo, N.S.W.
With an appendix : Tenebrionidae from Dorrigo, by J. H.
Carter. — W. M. Carne : Note on the occurrence of a
limestone fauna at Grose Valley, Hawkesbury district. —
R. J. Tillyard : Some remarkable Australian Libellulinae.
Part iii. : Further notes on Camacinia othello, Tillyard.
The female, not before known, is described, and a figure
of its wings given. The range of the species is extended
from Cooktown to Torres Straits and Port Darwin. An
intermediate form, from the Aru Islands, connects this
species with the Malayan and East Indian C. gigantea,
Brauer. — T. T. Flynn : Contributions to a knowledge of
the anatomy and development of the Marsupialia. No. i.
The material investigated was furnished by an adult
female Thylacinus with three advanced young in the
pouch. The external features of the young are described,
together with the genital organs of both the adult and the
young.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THUR'^DAY. January 12.

Royal Sdciety, at 4.30.— The Absolute Fxpansion of Mercury: Prof.
H. L. Callendar, F.R.S , and H. Moss.— The Density of Niton (Radium
Emanations) and the Disintegration Theory : Dr. R. W. Gray and
Sir W. Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. — The Charges on Ions in Gases, and
some Effects that Influence the Motion of Negative Ions : Prof. J. S.
Townsend, F.R.S. — The Distribution of Klectric Force in the Crool<es
Dark Spare : F. W. Aston. — The Measurement of End Standards of
Leneth : Dr. E. P. Shaw.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Adjo7trned discussion :
Submarine Cables for Long Distance Telephone Circuits : Major
W. A.J. O'Meara, C.M.(;.

Mathematical Society, at 5.30.— A Property of the Number 7 : T. C.
Lewis. — A Mode of Representation of an Electromagnetic Field as due
to Singularities Distributed over a Surface : Prof. H. AL Macdonald. —
On the Fundamental Theorem in the Theory of Functions of a Complex
Variable: Dr. W. H. Young. — On the Fundamental Theorem relating to
the Fourier Constants for given Functions : Prof. E. W. Hobson.

FRIDAY, January 13.
Royal Astronomical Society, at 5. — Verification of the Centre Yard
and Three Centre Feet on the R.A.S. Tubulir Scale: H. B. Darling.—
(i) Proper Motion of Small Star near 17 Lvrae ; (j) Measures of a Faint
Proper Motion Star : S. W. Burnham. — Periodic Discordance between
the R.A's. of the Fundamental Catalogues and those of the Greenwich
Standard Clock Stars : W. G. Thackeray. — Micrometical Measures of
Double Stars : Rev. T. E. R. Phillips.— Observations of Halley's Comet :
J. Tebbutt. — An Adjustable Compensation for an " Invar " Pendulum :
R. Inwards. — A suggested method of Determining the Stellar Brightness
of a Faint Comet : H. Knox Shaw. — (i) The Magnitude Equation of
the Mean Greenwich Observer, from Comparison of Greenwich Standard
R.A's. of Clock Stars for igoowith Boss's Preliminary General Catalogue ;
(2) Standard Mean R.A's. of Clock Stars for i860, based on 12-hour
Groups from Greenwich Transit Circle Observ.Ttions in 1853-67 : W. G.
Thackeray.— Pr«>*aW^ Papers: The Bearing of the Principle of Rela-
tivity on Gravitational Astronomy : W. de Sitter. — Nova Lacertae
(Espin) : F. A. Bellamy.

NO. 2150, VOL. 85]

MONDAY, January 16.

Royal Geographical Society, at 8.30. — The Michael Sars North
Atlantic Deep Sea Expedition : Sir John Murray, K.C. B., and Dr.
Hjort.

TUESDAY, January 17.

Royal Institution, at 3.— Heredity : Prof. F. W. Mott, F.R.S.

Royal Statistical Society, at 5.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — /)/Vkjj;<5« : (i) The Strengthen-
ing of the Roof of New Street Station, Birmingham ; (3) The Recon
struction and Widening of Arpley Bridge, Warrington : W. Dawson.
WEDNESDAY, January 18.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8.— The Dutch Labour Colonies: J. C.
Medd.

Royal Meteorological Society, at 7.30. —Ordinary Meeting. — At
7.45 Annual General Meeting. — Presidential Address : The Present
Position of British Cli ratology : H. Mellish.

Roval Microscopical Society, at 8.— Presidential Address: Pro*". J .
Arthur Thomson.

Entomological Society, at 8.

THURSDAY, January 19.

Royal Society, at 4.30. — Probable Papers: The Action of D. lactic
teragenes on Gluco'-e and Mann-tol. Part II. : G. S. Walpole — Th':
Pharmac^ological Action of South African Boxwood {Goniomn Kavtassi)
Dr. W. E. Dixon. — Auto.igglutination of Red Blood Cells in Trypano-
somiasis : Dr. W. Yorke. — The Transformation of Proteids into Fats
during the Ripening of Cheese (Preliminary Communicatior.) : M.
Nierenstein. — The Action of X-rays on the Developing Chick : J. F.
Gaskell.

Royal Institution, at 3.- Recent Progress in Astronomy: F. W.
Dvson, F.R.S., Astronomer Royal.

Linnean Society, at 8. _ _'

Royal Geographical Society, at 5. — Research Meeting. Neolithic
Villages in Thessaly : Mes rs. Wace and Thompson.
FRIDAY, January 20.

Royal Institution, at 9.— Chemical and Physical Change at Lou
Temperatures: Sir James Dewar, F.R.S.

Institution of Mechanical Engineers, at 8. — Modem Electrical
Dock-equipmert, with Special Reference to Electrically-operated Coal-
hoists : W. Dixon and G. H. Baxter.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — The Design and Constructiot.
of Keinforced-concrete Arches : G. F. Walton.

CONTENTS. PAGF

Migratory Birds 329

Principles of Analytical Chemistry. By Dr. H. M.

Dawson 330

More Mosquitoes 330

Philosophy 331

Hfredity. By E. H. J. S. . . 331

Early Egyptian Remains 332

Photographic Practice 332

Stars in Season. By W. E. R 333

A Pair of Tiger Books. By R. L 333

Our Book Shelf 334

Letters to the Editor: —

The Recent Earthquakes in Asia.— Dr, W. N. Shaw,

F.R.S. ; Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S 335

Singularities of Curves and Surfaces. — A. B. Bassett,

F.R.S. ; T.J. I'a. B. .336

Scottish Natural History.— T. A. Harvie Brown . 336

The Origin of Man. — Charles E. Benham . . . 336

Colliery Warnings. By Prof. Henry Louis . . 336

Soured Milk and its Preparation. Lactic Cheeses.

{Illustrated.) By Prof. R. T. Hewlett . -.338

The British School at Athens. (Illustrated.) By

H. R. Hall 339

Korean Meteorology — Old and New. {Illustrated.) 341

The Admission of Women to the French Academies 342

Notes . 342

Our Astronomical Column : —

The January Meteors 34^

Nova Laceitas. {Illustrated.) 34^

Comets Due to Return in 191 1 • 34^

Preliminary Results derivtd from Radial- velocity

Determinations ... 348

Stellar Magnitudes . .... 348

Prize Subjects Proposed by the Pans Academy of

Sciences for 1912 349

Halley's Comet. {Illustrated.) 349

On the Origin of Slavery and Parasitism in Ants 351
Temperature Changes and Solar Activity. {Illus-
trated.) By M . . 352

London County Council Conference of Teachers.

By G. F. D 353

The Making of a Dai win. By Dr. David Starr

Jordan . . . 354

University and Educational Intelligence 360

Societies and Academies . 360

Diary of Societies 362

NA TURE

;63

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 1911.

RADIO-THERAPY.

Diseases of the Skin, including Radiotherapy and

Radiumtherapy. By Prof. E. Gaucher. Translated

and edited by Dr. C. F. Marshall. Pp. xii + 460.

(London : J. Murray, 1910.) Price 15s. net.

A FULL account of the use of X-rays and radium
- *• in the treatment of various diseases of the
skin is given in this volume. The most recent de-
velopments in radium treatment are described by
Wickham, Degrais, and Dominici. X-ray treatment
is described by Gastou and Zimmern. The illustra-
tions are mostly from wax models in the St. Louis
Hospital Museum and from Prof. Gaucher's private
collection.

The treatment of vascular naevi by radium is fully
described and illustrated. The radium salt mixed
with finely powdered sulphate of barium is spread
with varnish in a thin layer on a metal plate. The
treatment consists in the application of this apparatus
to the naevus, the dosage being- regulated according
to the form and depth of the naevus. In flat naevi large
doses may be given by direct application for short
periods, the dose being timed to cause a certain degree
of curative inflammatory- reaction. Another method
is to give smaller doses filtered through screens which
absorb the less penetrating rays, longer exposures
being given in this case. There is no reference in the
book to the new method of treatment by the applica-
tion of sticks of solid carbon dioxide.

In cavernous naevi containing large blood-vessels
the doses used must not be sufficient to produce in-
flammation of the surface. The results are very satis-
factory, the naevi being decolorised and levelled, and
the final results on the whole better than those ob-
tained by am- other known means.

In the treatment of cheloid, or scar tissue tumours,
very favourable results are obtained both bv X-ray and
by radium treatment. Radium is less liable to cause
dermatitis, and may therefore eventually supplant the
X-rays in the treatment of cheloid.

Coming now to the important subject of the treat-
ment of cancer, the ven,- malignant form of growth
known as sarcoma, though occasionally greatly re-
duced in size by X-ray treatment, is seldom cured,
and this treatment should on no account be relied
upon where there is any chance of success from opera-
tive removal of the growth. Treatment by radium
"lay also be tried, but its value remains to be proved ;

jparent improvement is frequently obtained bv its
use.

Coming to the skin cancers, or epitheliomata, elec-
tricity may be applied in various ways — the electric
>park, X-ray treatment, and fulguration. The electric
spark treatment is applied by connecting a naked
electrode with a high-frequency resonator. The
method has been successfully employed in small epi-
theliomas of^the skin. Its action is mainly destruc-
tive, while it has the advantage of promoting repair
by cicatrisation. The procedure consists in riddling
the diseased tissue with small, verj- short sparks.
NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

Fulguration is a method of using the sparks from
a high-frequency resonator by means of Keating-
Hart's special electrode for the treatment of growths
which are widely and deeply ulcerated, and too great
in extent to be destroyed by the cautery. The opera-
tion is painful, and must be performed under local
or general anaesthesia. The special electrode consists
of a hollow metallic rod sliding in an ebonite sheath,
and a bellows for blowing a current of carbonic acid
gas or air through the rod to prevent the excessive
production of heat. The ulcerated surface is sub-
jected to the action of sparks which are usually 7 or
8 centimetres in length. This causes the blood-vessels
of the healthy surrounding parts to contract, while
the tumour itself is softened within a few minutes.
Surgical treatment is then applied, the softened
masses of growth being cut or scraped away. The
sparking is then repeated carefully and energetically
until all growth has been destroyed. A single applica-
tion is usually sufficient, but any focus of recurrence
must be treated again. The results of this treatment
are not so good as appeared from the first accounts
of patients treated in this way, and the use of the
method does not appear to be extending.

The X-ray treatment of cancer is fully treated, the
various fgrms of apparatus for the production of the
high-tension current necessary to excite a Crookes's
tube being described. The methods of regulating and
measuring the dose are also given in full. The
author finishes by stating that

" the most ardent partisans of radiotherapy recognise
that the X-rays are not always successful in the treat-
ment of epithelioma. Some epitheliomas are rapidly
modified by radiotherapy, while others remain un-
affected. In the results published, it is necessary to
take into account the age of the tumour, its surface,
extent, and depth, its situation as regards accessibility
to the action of the rays, and also the technique
employed, which varies with different operators. In
short, radiotherapy may be used in certain cases on
the chance of a successful result, provided it is not
employed too late ; but we must not have too much
confidence in this method."

Radium treatment of cancer is fully described by
Dominici.

The properties of the alpha-, beta-, and gamma-rays
are described, and also the method of eliminating the
less penetrative rays by filtration through sheets of
lead of various thicknesses. The salts of radium are
used mixed in small or large proportions with a salt of
barium (sulphate or bromide). This is mixed with
varnish and spread on metal cm- linen. In some cases
discs or square sheets of metal are covered with the
varnish containing radium ; in others rods are used,
the ends of which are bulbous, oval, cylindrical, or
spatulate. Applications can thus be made to surfaces
of various form or to the interior of passages. Another
form of apparatus consists of discs or squares of lint
covered on one side with the radium varnish and
enclosed at the borders in a metal frame ; these can
be adapted to the shape of the affected region. "

The radio-activity of radium is usually compared
with that of uranium. If uranium be taken as the
unit the activity- of pure radium is two million. In
the case of a mixture of radium and barium salts, the

N

3<54

NATURE

[January 19, 191 i

activity of the mixture is inversely proportional to the
quantity of the barium salt. In the treatment of
cancerous tumours, apparatus of 500,000 activity are
used. Such an apparatus usually contains from 4 to
10 milligrams of powder, consisting of one part of
radium salt to three of barium salt. Cancers suitable
for radium treatment range from those of small size
to those of 20 to 30 square centimetres in area. The
apparatus may be used in two different ways, either
by the so-called dry method, consisting of short, fre-
quently repeated applications causing resolution of the
diseased tissue without external destruction, or the
destructive method in which the apparatus is left in
place from seven to ten hours, causing extensive
destruction of the morbid tissue followed by cicatrisa-
tion in eight to ten weeks.

For cancers which extend, deeply filtration of the
rays is employed by the interposition of a half to
several millimetres thickness of lead. In this way
only the ultra-penetrating rays (the gamma-rays and
the hardest beta-rays) are allowed to enter the tissues.
Long exposures are then given varying from 24 to 120
hours. These ultra-penetrating rays produce very
little change in the healthy cells of the part, while
they have a selective action on the cancer cells, lead-
ing to their destruction. The progress of a successful
case is as follows : — After a short time (three to eight
days) the tumour commences to diminish in size.
Cicatrisation then begins and is completed in two
to four weeks, or longer in obstinate cases. In
the case of ulcerating tumours, a certain amount of
discharge occurs during all the stages. For large and
deeply-extending tumours the method of "cross-fire"
is usually employed, two or more radium apparatus
being applied at different points around the tumour
in such a way that the ultra-penetrating rays cross in
the depths of the tumour. In this way the deeper
parts of a growth can be subjected to the influence of
the gamma-rays far more effectively than with a single
disc of radium.

The general conclusion is to the effect that most
cancerous growths can be reduced in size by the appli-
cation of radium. Some of the less malignant forms
of growth can apparently be cured, while in the more
malignant cases the temporary improvement is of
short duration, and is followed by further extension
of the growth.

The treatment of lupus is described— the method of
using sunlight concentrated by means of a large hollow
lens formed of two plates of glass 10 or 12 inches in
diameter, one of which is flat and the other convex,
the cavity being filled with sulphate of copper solution
to absorb the heat rays. The use of the electric arc
lamp as described by Fin sen arose naturally from the
solar method, and is now too well known to require
description. In the case of both the sunlight and the
electric arc it is recognised that the violet and the
ultra-violet rays are those principally concerned in the
curative action. The mercury-vapour lamp, being
particularly rich in violet and ultra-violet rays, is very
effective, particularly when a tube of quartz is used
in place of glass. It is far less expensive than the
Finsen arc lamp, and has taken the place of Finsen
lamps for many purposes. X-ray treatment and
NO. 215 1, VOL. 85]

radium treatment have also been employed in the
treatment of lupus. The author considers light treat-
ment the most efficacious, while radium has not been
employed long enough for its value to be estimated
in the case of lupus.

Ringworm is now almost universally treated with
the Rontgen rays. A full account of the technical
details of this method is given, and the precautions
necessary to prevent injury to the patient. Th-
object of the method is to accomplish the removal ot
all the diseased hairs from the affected area of the
scalp. It is found that a properly applied dose of
X-rays results, after a fortnight, in the loosening of
the hairs, which then fall out leaving a perfectly
bald area which can be readily and effectively treated
by antiseptic applications. When there are numerous
patches of ringworm scattered over the scalp it is
necessary to produce epilation of the entire scalp.
For this purpose the scalp is divided into ten or
twelve areas which are exposed in turn, care being
taken to prevent overlapping, as this would result in
the administration of an excessive dose to some parts
of the scalp. Dermatitis would appear in the over-
exposed portions, and permanent baldness would prob-
ably result. After a correct dose the hairs begin to
grow anew after two or three months, and the new
hairs are free from the disease. By the X-ray method
of treatment the cure of a case of ringworm is com-
pleted in three months, whereas the older methods of
treatment by local applications extended for periods of
two years or even longer. In the case of the children
of the poor treated in public institutions the saving of
public funds that has resulted from the introduction
of the X-ray treatment of ringworm has been very
considerable, and the advantage to the education of
the children is self-evident, for while there are any
infected hairs on the head it is necessary for the
children to be rigorously excluded from intercourse
with other children.

Many other diseases are described in which elec-
trical methods of treatment have been used with suc-
cess. The methods are now firmly established, and
the range of their utility is being defined with ever-
increasing accuracy. A. C. Jordan.

DEDUCTION AND DENUDATION.

Geographical Essays. By Prof. W. M. Davis. Edited

by Prof. D. W. Johnson. Pp. vi + 777. (London

Boston, New York, and Chicago: Ginn and C^

n.d.) Price 12s. 6d. net.

PROF. D. W. JOHNSON has done good s'
vice to science by editing this collection
the valuable memoirs by which Prof. W. M. Daw
has done so much to advance physical geography and
improve geographical education. The volume includes
twenty-six papers hitherto scattered in twenty-one
serials. The first twelve contributions are essays and
lectures on geographical pedagogics; the remaining
fourteen deal with various principles of physiography.
It would perhaps have been more convenient if the
two series had been issued separately, for the volume,
though containing no plates, is heavy for its size, and
while the physiographic essays may be read with great

January 19, 191 i]

NATURE

O'-D

dvantage by advanced students of geology and

_»ography, the educational section is of most use to

different circle of readers. The author's criticisms

t teachers and text-books would probably have been
Setter confined to a work expressly fcM" teachers, as it

- not always good for the intellectual discipline of
-tudents to have their often scant}.- faith in their in-
>tructors still further reduced. Geographical educa-
tion should, moreover, proceed on such different lines
in countries in different stages of development, that
its discussion is of more local interest than that of

hysical problems, which are of universal application.

1 he educational essays should, however, be read by

■.11 geographical teachers, who must benefit from their
high ideals and valuable practical suggestions.

The fourteen physiographic essays in this volume

how the development of Prof. Davis's views on
denudation. The earliest in date deals with the rivers
of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and led to his well-
known classification of rivers according to their rela-

ion to the original slope of the land. The wearing
away of the land to a plain sloping slowly to the sea
is brought out in two papers on the peneplain and on
base level, and they lead to the geographical cycle due
to the interaction between uplift and denudation. The
course of the geographical cycle in an arid climate is
discussed in a memoir first published by Prof. Davis
in 1905. .\mong the other papers included are those
on glacial erosion in France, Switzerland, and Nor-
way (1900), on the sculpture of mountains by glaciers
(1905), on the mountain ranges of the Great Basin,
and on the remarkable instances of river capture in
the valleys of the Seine, Meuse, and Moselle.

The most striking feature in Prof. Davis's
get^raphical writings is his devotion to the
deductive method. He rejects emphatically the view-
that geography is to be advanced chiefly "by observa-
tion, description, and generalisation." To use those
methods only is, he says, to walk on one foot. He
claims that invention and deduction are as necessar}-
to geography as to any other science. Many of his
valuable results are due to his keen insight and not

o his method, which cannot be unduly adopted with-

ut altering the positicm of geography in the circle of
-ciences. The ver>- name geography implies that the
■subject is descriptive rather than deductive, although
-<:)me deduction is required by all schools of
geographers. But it has hitherto been found con-

enient to limit geographical work mainly to obser\-a-
tion, description, and generalisation, restricting ad-
vanced deductive methods to the special problem of
-geography — the relation of the earth to man. The
subject-matter of geography is so enwmous that it
seems reasonable as well as convenient that there
should be a special science and societies devoted to
the mapping and description of the earth as it is,
leaving its evolution and explanation to other sciences.
Geolc^y, on the other hand, is a " logos," not a
"graphe"! and henCe requires a more intimate
connection of observation and inference than does
physical geography. Much that Prof. Davis calls
geography has been generally regarded as geology.

The distinction that has been so long established and
"las worked so well in this countr}-, is shown by Prof.
NO. 2 15 1, VOL. 85]

Davis himself to have been accepted also in America;
for he is professor of geolog\' at Harvard and not
of geography. Most of his physiographic essays
are quite appropriate to a geological school, and they
have been more read in this countrv- by geologists
than by geographers. Four of them were published
in geological and six in geographical journals.

Prof. Davis, however, regards geology- and
geography as essentially the same. "They are parts
of one great subject," he says (p. 196). " It is a mis-
fortune that we have no English word to include both
geography and geology " (p. 198). " To set them
apart " he describes as an " obsolescent system "
(p. 204). Prof. Davis, moreover, restricts geology to a
minor section of the joint subject ; he regards it fp. 37)
as the sequence of events in the earth's history, and he
regrets that such questions as rock weathering are not
included in geography. The geographer must, of
course, know some of the elementary facts of geology-,
as he does of meteorology and physics ; but he has so
many difficult problems connected with man on the
earth that he may conveniently refer the study of
complicated physical causes to astronomy, meteorology
and geology-. The abandonmenf of the conventional
boundary between geography and geology would
probably prove ultimately detrimental to both sciences.

The classification of some of Prof. Davis's memoirs
as geology- instead of geography does not lessen their
high value. Probably no living writer has done so
much to improve the interpretation of denudation.
His deductive method and his keen insight have
enabled him in studying the history- of river systems
to unravel confused tangles of facts, and by skipping
intermediate phases to go back to stages of which
most geologists thought that no traces could be surely
recc^nised in existing geography. The two chapters
on glacial erosion illustrate the advantas^es and the
dangers of the deductive method; for according to
some geologists, it has led Prof. Davis to attach
undue weight to certain striking features of mountain
form, and to overlook features which must be in-
cluded in a complete explanation. Prof. Bonney's
j presidential address to the British Association has
brought the controversy on glacial erosicMi to a head.
It mav be hoped that the authoritative and masterly
statements on both sides will lead to an agreement
as to the main facts, but no settlement can be ex-
pected until the arguments of those who limit the
efficacy of glaciers as eroding agents have been
directly answered. J. W. G.

TECHMCAL ORGAMC AXALYSIS.
Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis. Vol. iii.,
Hvdrocarbons, Petroleum, Aromatic Acids, Explo-
sives. Edited by- W. A. Davis and Samuel S.
Sadtler. Fourth edition, entirely re-written. Pp.
x + 635. (London : J. and A. Churchill, 1910.)
Price 21S. net.

THE original "Allen's Commercial Organic
Analysis " had established a place of eminence
in all analy-tical and technological laboratories and
was a book— it may be said still is a book— of every--
day reference. At the same time the trend of modem

;66

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

chemistry and the rapid advances which are taking
place owing to chemical research and improved
methods prevent any book, however well up-to-date
on its publication, from holding its place unless it is
continually revised. In this respect Allen's book re-
quired revision along with other reference books of a
similar nature. The work has now been taken up
by new editors, and when this is the case one natur-
ally scrutinises somewhat carefully the new edition
to ascertain whether real improvements have been
made. It must be said at once that the revision of
another man's work is much more difficult than to
start to write a book de novo, and the attempts
which one naturally makes to leave in paragraphs
untouched which were written ten years ago and in-
corporate them with new material, the reverse of easy.

The editing is being jointly carried out by Mr.
W. A. Davis, of London, and Mr. Samuel S. Sadtler,
of America. As British and American methods of
analysis are not always quite similar this editorship
strikes one as being a wise, but at the same time
rather difficult arrangement. The individual sections
are, as is always the case in reference books of this
nature, written by different collaborators. In this
volume Dr. F. C. Garrett deals with hydrocarbons
of the aliphatic, olefine, and acetylene series and of
tars. This section, also under acetylene, includes the
valuation of calcium carbide and a reference to the
method of Lunge and Cedercreutz in the Zeitschrift
fiir anorganische Chemie is given. The abstract of
the method, however, is hardly sufficiently full.
Surely such books as the one under review are written
to enable the reader to carry out estimations without
having to refer to the original literature. We do not
mean that all processes for the analysis of a given
substance should be given, but surely one — the one the
writer of the section considers the best — should be set
out in detail. The others need be only briefly referred
to, or the references to the original literature given.

The processes of tar analysis differ so considerably in
detail in different works and with the various pro-
cesses of distillation — that is to say, high- or low-
temperature distillation — and the quality of the coal,
that probably the author is right in giving a more
or less general survey of the subject. We think,
however, that the tars produced from the water-gas
process and coke-oven tar might have been described
in greater detail.

Mr. Sadtler has compiled the section on bitumens,
and treats of the distillation of petroleum, ozokerite,
asphalt, petroleum and shale products, cyclic hydro-
carbons from coal tar, coal tar naphtha, and other
similar products. This section is fairly full, and occu-
pies 223 pages, that is to say, rather more than one-
third of the book. On the whole the section on petrol-
eum oils is very good. The subject is a big one,
but most of the ground is covered in a quite satisfac-
tory manner. One can see that the author is largely
writing at first hand, and although he quotes many
authorities, he usually lets the reader know which he
considers is the most trustworthy method to adopt.

Mr. Sadtler is also responsible for anthracene and
its associates and for the phenols. The latter section
is naturally of great importance owing to the extended
NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

employment of phenols and phenolic derivatives for
disinfecting and antiseptic purposes. The subject is
treated in a broad and comprehensive manner, and
deals not only with phenols and creosotes from coal
tar, but also from various other sources, such as blast-
furnace tar, shale-oil tar, and so on.

Mr. W. A. Davis is responsible for the sections on
naphthalene and its derivatives, and phthalic acid and
phthaleins, Mr, W. P. Dreaper for gallic acid and its
allies, and Mr. Edward Horton for the aromatic acids.

Taken as a whole, the volume has been well
brought up-to-date, and will, we think, still maintain
its place as an invaluable book of reference in the
laboratory, particularly of the technical chemist. Its
one fault to our mind is that the authors are apt to
be rather too discursive and rather disinclined to pur
the analytical particulars in a concrete form. . The
book professes to deal with commercial organic
analysis, but sometimes one has to read a very long
way before coming to any anahtical facts. Of course,
it is of great assistance to read all about the proper-
ties of the substance, but the exact analytical methods
are of the utmost importance.

By these remarks we do not wish to detract from
the merits of a most valuable work, but to point out
where the succeeding volumes might, in our opinion,
be strengthened and made even more valuable.

F. M. P.

T AS MAN I AN SKULLS.
Dioptrographic Tracings in Four Normal of Fifty-two
Tasmanian Crania. By Prof. R. J. A. Berry and
A. W. D. Robertson. (Melbourne, Transactions of
the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. v., part i.) (Mel-
bourne : Kemp, 1909.)

WITH the death of " Lalla Rhook " in 1876 one
of the most interesting of human races passed
out of existence. " When we reflect," write the
authors of this atlas, '" that the Tasmanian aboriginal
carried into our own times the primitive culture of
Palaeolithic man and many of the structural peculiari-
ties of Homo neanderthalensis we realise, the scien-
tific Importance of the study of Tasmanian remains."
They have made by far the largest contribution to tht
material on which our conception of the Tasmanian
race must be based, and made it at a most unexpected
period. In his well-known monograph on the Tas-
manian race, published two years ago, Sir William
Turner gave a detailed list of all the skulls then
known, seventy-nine in number, and was of opinion
that further additions were unllkeh'. The authors 01
this atlas have been successful In finding forty-two
hitherto unknown specimens, thirty-three of which
they discovered in various private and museum collec-
tions in Tasmania, while nine they unearthed from a
native burial ground. In preparing and publishing an
atlas which contains 212 accurate tracings of these
crania, the authors had two objects in view : they
wished to make the material thus discovered available
for the study of anthropologists throughout the world ;
they also wished to secure a permanent record of
crania which, being chiefly in the hands of private
owners, are liable to be lost or destroyed.

January 19, 191 1]

NATURE

3^7

The authors have thus rendered a signal service to
the cause of anthropology, nor must we overlook the
liberality of the Royal Society of Victoria for under-
taking the expensive work of publishing these
elaborate records. It is especially pleasing to note that
a strong school of physical anthropology is springing
up in Melbourne, one that is keenly alive to the neces-
sity of studying the native races as they now are, and
of securing permanent records of their physical char-
acters.

The publication under review may be described as
a craniological monograph of a new type ; there is
rractically no letterpress, no columns of measure-
ments, merely tracings from which measurements may
!>e estimated. In brief, the authors have made a
large addition to Tasmanian records, but added
nothing to the story of this extinct native race. Ver}'
likely they intend to give their interpretations of these
tracings when they come to deal with their investiga-
tions of the Australian natives. Still, we are of
opinion that the scientific value of the present publica-
tion would have been greatly enhanced if the authors
had included the results of the elaborate study they
liave made of this new collection of Tasmanian crania.

PUILOSOTHY.
i) Wolffsche Be griff shestimmun gen. Ein Hilfshuch-
lein beim Studium Kants. By Prof. Julius Bau-
mann. Pp. iv + 56. Price i mark.
(2) Wilhelm von Humboldts aiisge'ji'dhlte philoso-
phische Schriften. Herausgegeben von Johannes
Schubert. Pp. xxxix + 222. Price 3.40 marks.
13) Fichte, Schleiermacher , Stcffens i'lber das Wesen
der Universitdt. By Eduard Spranger. Pp. xlii +
291. Price 4 marks.
4) Banich de Spinoza. Ethik. Siehente Aufiage.
By Otto Baensch. Pp. xxxii + 315. Price 3.40
marks.
^^) Encyklopddie der Philosophie. By A. Dorner.
Pp. vii4-334. Price 6 marks.

(Leipzig : Verlag der Diirr'schen Buchhandlung,
1910.)
I) \ COMPILATION of Christian Wolff's defini-
■t\ tions, by the professor of philosophy at
' rottingen. Dr. Baumann made this compilation
^lany years ago, for his own needs, purposely confin-
ng himself to the problem of the theon.- of know-
ledge. Recently, when re-reading Kant's *' Kritik der
reinen Vernunft," he took up his compilation and re-
' c>gnised the parallelism with Wolff. This little book
- therefore now published as a help to the study of
Kant. It contains useful definitions, with references,
f terms such as Etnpfindung, Vorstellung, Wahr-
ehmung. Idee, Be griff, which are the chief elemen-
iry difficulties in the way of the student of Kant, and
f German philosophical writers in general.
{2) This selection of Humboldt's philosophical writ-
ngs is intended to spread the knowledge of his many-
-ided nature and powers among a wider circle of
-aders than has hitherto been reached. Those who
vish to go more deeply into his treatment of the sub-
lets may be referred to the great standard edition of j
is works, which appeared during the course of last {
NO. 2 15 1, VOL. 85]

year. The present volume contains chosen specimens
on such diverse subjects as Goethe's " Hermann and
Dorothea," " Latium and Hellas, or Considerations
on Classical Antiquity," " Philosophy of Language,"
" Philosophy of Religion," the " Bhagavad-Gita," and
"Pedagogy." The matter seems, naturally, a little
old-fashioned, and the aesthetical parts appeal chiefly
to readers who make a special study of the history- of
German literature. Humboldt was a humanistic
philosopher, leaving behind him the individualism and
general aesthetic hurly-burly of the " Sturm and
Drang " period.

(3) Another book of chiefly historical interest, con-
sisting of reprints of various writings of the three
authors named, concerning ideals of university teach-
ing. The centenary of the Universit}- of Berlin, which
was recently celebrated, gives the suitable occasion.
Dr. Spranger furnishes an introduction in which he
compares Berlin with other universities. The former
" was born in an hour of great changes : this birth in
the living flux of things, permeated with the
thoroughly modern spirit, gave her living power, and
made her a model to her older sisters, who are but
now stripping off the old forms, and growing into the
new."

(4) In his " Biographical Histon,- of Philosophy,"
G. H. Lewes said that he never hoped to find foothold
in the boundless morass of metaphysics, after he once
fairlv saw the reasons which rendered Spinozism un-
acceptable. The present edition of the famous
" Ethics " (the seventh in German translation from
the original Latin) seems to indicate that there are
readers still to be found for the writings of the subtle-
minded though intensely spiritual Jew, to whom — as
justifiably as in the case of Novalis — the term "God-
intoxicated" has been applied. The translator writes
an introduction, in which he remarks that " Spinoza's
philosophy is the most impressive concentration of the
thought of the seventeenth centun,- into a coherent
view of the world and of life," even though those
times produced Descartes and Leibniz. And modern
philosophy, for the most part, will certainly agree.

(5) Dr. Dorner, who is professor of theology at
Konigsberg, is a follower of Hegel rather than of the
great analvst whose name is inevitably recalled by
Konigsberg. The present volume, which is not an
encyclopaedia in the English sense, is a metaphysical
work dealing chiefly with the theon.- of knowledge
and doctrine of categories. The following sketch will
give the author's general attitude.

The progress of philosophy seems the same now as
in antiquitw Kant occupies the same position in
modern philosophy as Socrates did in the ancient.
After Socrates came Plato and Aristotle, to whose
svstems our modern philosophy of the Absolute corre-
sponds. Then came the Stoics and Epicureans, with
a revulsion to the practical side of things. The
modern analogue is found in those thinkers who lay
emphasis on feeling and will. The chief difTerence
between old and new is, that the subjective side is
now much more in the foreground, which tendency
shows itself particularly in the importance assigned
to psychology. Some, indeed, candidly regard it as
the central science. Also, in modern life the empirical

:68

NATURE

[January 19, 191 i

sciences, and history, play a much greater part than
in antiquity. Result : mysticism and agnosticism.
Prof. Dorner combats both. The physical sciences
themselves point the way to metaphysical principles ;
the problem of philosophy is not merely epistemology
or the making of a world-conception out of the dis-
parate elements of knowledge and experience, but is
rather the search for a unified metaphysic by which
the fundamentals of the world and of the spiritual life
may equally be grounded in an Absolute Being.

AUERICA^ TEXT-BOOKS OF MATHEMATICS.

(i) College Algebra. By Prof. H. L. Reitz and A. R.
Crathorne. Pp. xiii-l-261. (New York: H. Holt
and Co. ; London : G. Bell and Sons, 1909.) Price

(2) Trigonometry. By Prof. A. G. Hall and F. G.
Frink, Pp. x+ 146 + 93. (New York : H. Holt and
Co. ; London : G. Bell and Sons, 1909.) Price
75. 6d.

{3) First Course in Calculus. By Prof. E. J. Town-
send and Prof. G. A. Goodenough. Pp. xii + 466.
(New York : H. Holt and Co. ; London : G. Bell
and Sons, 1908.) Price 12s.

THESE books are the first three of a series which
is intended in the first place for students taking
a university course in engineering, and also, to a cer-
tain extent, for mathematical students. It will be
noticed that each book has two authors, who have
been selected to represent the interests of readers of
both classes.

(i) and (2). The chief novelty in these books is to
be found in the variety of examples, selected from
very different subjects. Thus, as an example on
evaluating algebraic expressions ("Algebra," p. 24),
the student is asked to verify in a few cases a formula
for the day of the week, which (after an obvious
simplification) can be written ^ —

2+J> + 2g + [% (^+l)] + s + [is]-2r + [\r]=t {mod. 7)

where t is the day of the week (Sunday being i and
Saturdav 7), and the date is the pth day of the 5th
month in the year loor + s. The reader interested in
such matters may find it instructive to reconstruct this
formula, of which the most interesting feature is the
part depending on q; it will be found that starting
from March (and ignoring February) the lengths of
the months recur after intervals of five months, and
this is the basis of the formula.

The problems proposed in the trigonometry are
chosen so as to illustrate the practical difficulties of
surveying so far as possible. Great stress is laid on
the advantage of making a form for numerical cal-
culations, before starting to use the tables at all. One
useful consequence is that, in the typical examples
worked out, the logarithms to be added are placed in
vertical columns, as would be done in practical work;
writers of text-Books are very apt (in order to save
space) to arrange such logarithms horizontally. The

1 The notation is that of the theory of number* : that is, f-f] denotes the
integral part of .r, and y=z means that y- z is divisible by 7. Note that
January and February are regaided as belonging to the /rez'ious year, with
the values 5?= 13, 14.

NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

result is that imitative readers are liable to arrange

their work in the same way, with disastrous results.

The last ninety-three pages in the trigonometry

contain a good set of five-figure tables. The table

of logarithmic functions, however, makes no special

provision for finding the log sin and log tan of small

angles ; a very simple rule applies to four-figure or

five-figure tables (with a difference of i' in angle),

namely —

log sin O = log[ sin a 4- (log fl-log a)

and this (or some similar rule) ought to be given in
all tables which do not provide a special table for the
first few degrees. The table of squares is interesting,
as it gives the exact squares from i to looo*, without
occupying more space than an ordinary four-figure
table ; this is effected by following the arrangement of
Crelle's multiplication tables, where every number in
the same horizontal line is terminated by the same
two digits. Both in the algebra and trigonometry
certain of the best-known power-series are given and
used for numerical calculations; but the authors of
the algebra are content to refer to the calculus (No. 3)
for proofs, while in the trigonometry some proofs are
provided, which would not be accepted nowadays. It
might be better definitely to cut out all such proofs
from books on trigonometry ; in modern teachinjg the
elements of the calculus are certainly regarded as
easier (and more generally useful) than the "calculus-
dodging " of the old-fashioned books.

(3) Compared with recent English books having
similar titles this book contains fuller treatment of
the applications of the calculus to applied mathe-
matics; for instance, centroids, moments of inertia,
resultant fluid pressure, are considered at some
length, as exercises on integration.

As in the other books of the series, a large variety
of illustrative examples will be found; thus the expo-
nential function is connected with the chemical
problem of inversion of cane-sugar. The theory of
maxima is illustrated by the efficiency of a rough
screw, the speed of signalling in a cable, and the
h.p. transmitted by a hemp-rope.

In dealing with the Taylor's series derived from a
given function, care is taken to point out that the
series may converge without being equal to the
function ; this is a point quite commonly overlooked
in the theory, and possibly an example would have
helped to emphasise it.^

As might be anticipated from the character of the
series, a good deal of stress is laid on methods for
approximate integration, such as Simpson's rules and
other similar methods, and several examples are given
of their appHcation to irregular solids such as rails.
It seems strange, however, that the exact form
of Simpson's rule is not mentioned, for finding the
volume and centroid of a railway embankment (or the
slice of an ellipsoid) in terms of the areas of the
ends and the area of the central section.

The use of infinite series for finding an integral
(-t)"«"

i Thus, Pringsheim's function 2-

l(i+.r2«-^")

has the Taylor's series

e-''-jr2e^''^+x*e ""...: but if a>i, although both series converge for
all tea! values of x, they are unequal except for x = o. For instaiice, if
a = 2, Jtr=2, it will be found that the first series is less than o'log, while the
second is greater than 0-133; on the other hand if a = i, x = k, both series
are equal to 0*434 (nearly).

January 19, 191 1]

NATURE

369

is also classed by the authors as "approximate in-
tegration"; this is a view which does not seem alto-
gether satisfactor\\ At any rate, the nature of the
approximation involved in using an infinite series is
certainly different from that associated with the use
of Simpson's rules. Incidentally, at least one
example (p. 379), in which the integration is effected

by a series \\\yl{y-\-c)\d?> integrated over a circle), is

easily reduced to finite terms in the form,

Some of the integrals proposed for evaluation by the
aid of series are not very easy to evaluate directly ; for
instance (p. 380), the elliptic integrals,

r /" and r ''■^ ..

Both of these can be expressed in various forms, but
the series which are more immediately suggested are
not ven,- suitable for ordinary calculations; in par-
ticular the second of them suggests the binomial ex-
pansion of {i — x*)-i, but the resulting series is quite
hopeless for numerical work. Of course, there are
several ways of transforming the integrals before con-
version to series ; but such transformations might well
be suggested in the questions, or the reader may not
succeed in guessing what to do first.

In reading the chapters on applications to plane
curves one cannot help regretting some of the old-
fashioned geometrical types of proof; no doubt the
older books contain much that is not only unsound,
but incapable of being made sound. But in spite of
this, a geometrical treatment is more attractive to
the ordinary reader, and in many cases the proofs can
be made reasonably accurate by the aid of very little
additional analvsis.

T. J. I'A. B.

BOOKS ON NATURE-STUDY.

(i) Der Natiirfreund am Strande der Adria und des
Mittelmeergebietes. By Prof. Carl I. Cori.
Pp. viii+ 148 + 22 plates. (Leipzig: Verlag von Dr.
Werner Klinkhardt, 1910.) Price 3.50 marks.
(2) The Aims and Methods of Nature-Study. A Guide
for Teachers. By Dr. John Rennie. With an in-
troduction by Prof. J. Arthur Thomson. Pp. xvi +
352. (London : \\'. B. Clive, University Tutorial
Press, Ltd., 1910.) Price 3^. 6d.
' "pROF. CORPS volume is not intended to give
-L descriptions of the systematic characters and
organisation of marine creatures, but rather to be a
companion to direct the attention of the nature-student
to the more commonly occurring marine organisms
and to the chief phenomena associated with
them. After a brief account of the past history
of the Mediterranean and Adriatic, the author
passes to the consideration of the animals
of the beach — Arenicola, Sipunculus, Solen, Venus,
Echinocardium, Synapta, Carcinus, &c. — the chief
Teatures and theoretical points of interest associated
^vith many of which are indicated. While dealing
ith Annelids, the author directs attention to their
lationship to the Crustacea and to the theory of the
Annelid ancestry of vertebrates. Modifications of
NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

structure correlated with certain habitats, as illus-
trated, for example, by sessile molluscs, and the
habits of animals, e.g. the shamming death and auto-
tomy of crabs, are dealt with in an interesting manner.
The description of the abundance of life on the beach
leads up to remarks on the origin of life in shallow
water, '"die Geburtsstiitte alles Seins." The lagoons
and their flora and fauna — Mysidae, Carcinus, Car-
dium, Labrax, Anguilla, &c. — and the Zostera
meadows, with their e-xtensive and characteristic
fauna — Virbius, Spadella, Turbellaria, Cerianthu-.,
Sepia, pipe-fish, sea-horses, &c. — are the subjects of
two chapters.

The account of Sepia contains interesting references
to the antiquity and former greater abundance of
species of Cephalopods in the period when the Ammon-
ites flourished, and to the power of colour change,
owing to which "spiegelt sich sozusagen die Seele der
Sepia auf ihrer Haut ab." Throughout the volunvi
the author brings before the reader observations on
the mode of life, the food and special points in the
physiology of the animals under description ; for in-
stance, he points out that in Trachinus, the weever-
fish, the spreading of the spines and the assumption
of the defensive attitude are dependent chiefly on
stimulation of the tail. The organisms of the rocks
and rock-pools are then considered, attention being
given to boring animals, e.g. Pholas, Paracentrotus,
the former boring by chemical, the latter by mechan-
ical means.

The concluding chapters give accounts of the larger
organisms obtained by dredging, and in the plankton
(Rhizostoma, some Siphonophores, Ctenophores, and
Salps) and on the high sea (fishes, dolphins, &c.;.
The figures are for the most part excellent, but a
few, for instance, those of Aphrodite, Arenicola, and
Balanoglossus on Taf. vi., are capable of improve-
ment. A few errors of spelling occur in the names
of the animals figured, e.g. pilleata (for pileata),
forscalea, Litorina, and Echineis. But these are only
slight blemishes, and do not seriously detract from the
value of this excellent work, which cannot fail to
stimulate the interest and imagination of the nature-
lovers for whom it is intended.

(2) Dr. Rennie aims at imparting a definite con-
tinuity of principle to the teaching of the subject of
nature-study and to this end he outlines series of care-
fully graded courses. He holds rightly that the facts
need to be carefully grouped or arranged in sequence,
according to principle, in the mind of the teacher
(although the principle need not always be enunciated
to the pupils), for only in this way can the teaching
be effective. Four school courses are suggested,
namely, for pupils of seven or eight years, eight or
nine years, n«ne to twelve years, and seniors, all of
which are arranged on a seasonal plan and deal in
turn with plants, animals, weather studies, calendars,
and general considerations. Several chapters are
devoted to excellent object-lessons on common living
things, e.g. frogs and toads, birds and their eggs and
feathers, the mole, shells, the snail, caterpillars and
moths, earthworms, gnats, buttercups, common fruitP
and seeds, trees, ferns, &-c. Then follow elementarv
studies of some common rocks, suggestions for a

Z70

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

school garden, studies on insects of economic import-
ance, &c. The lessons are objective and practical,
and from the stores of trustworthy information which
they contain the teacher can select those topics most
applicable to the locality and conditions under which
he works. The volume is a plea for care and method,
and we can recommend it to those teachers who desire
to develop their work in this subject along sound lines.
There are 178 illustrations, for the most part good,
but several of those of insects might have been more
carefully executed.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

An Introduction to Biology for Students in India. By
Prof. R. E. Lloyd. Pp. xviii + 298+15 plates.
(London : Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.) Price
4 rupees (or 5^-. 4^.)

This little book does not pretend to be a complete
introduction to biology, and the title is perhaps some-
what misleading-. It deals exclusively with certain
invertebrate types and certain generarprinciples, and
appears to have been designed for the use more
especially of Indian medical students. The author
tells us in his preface that the book was written some-
what hurriedly, because it was urgently needed. The
types dealt with have very properly been selected from
the Indian fauna, and the work is' evidently based very
largely upon personal observations, for which the
author deserves due credit. Some of the animals
described, such as the fresh-water sponge, the
scorpion, and the mosquito, are not usually dealt with
in elementary text-books.

The work is of a strictly elementary character, but
at the same time suffers somewhat from being rather
too much up-to-date. Thus the chapter on heredity
is practically confined to Mendelism. The author is
not always happy in his definitions. He tells us
that "the anterior end of an animal is that at w-hich
the mouth opens; the posterior end is where the anus
is to be found. But difficulties sometimes arise in
using these terms; for example, in a gasteropod
mollusc, the mouth and anus open in the same direc-
tion." Surely it would be more correct to say that
primarily the anterior end is carried foremost when
the animal moves about, while the posterior end comes
hindmost. It is difficult to excuse the spelling of the
word " Foramenifera," and the statement that the
shells of these animals are "always perforated by
minute round apertures " is very misleading. Another
misspelling against which we must protest is "chord,"
for "cord," in the case of the nerve-cord of Annelids.
This is a mistake which is frequently made bv elemen-
tary students, doubtless on the analogy of " noto-
chord," which, of course, is really a Greek word.

It must not, however, be forgotten that this is a
pioneer work written under great disadvantages. It
shows a considerable amount of originality, both in
scope and treatment, and should prove useful to those
for whom it is intended. A. D.

Botany for High Schools. By Prof. G. F. Atkinson.

Pp. xv + 493. (New York : Henry Holt and Co.,

1910.)
When it is found that a school text-book of botany
of average size contains, in addition to a course of
morphology dealing with growth and work of parts of
the flowering plant, a series of life-histories drawn
from all the plant divisions and accessorv chapters
on ecology, economic plants and plant breeding, the
question naturally arises whether careful exposition
is not being sacrificed to variety. There are certainly
objections to the inclusion of the life-histories frorn
NO, 2151, VOL. 85]

the lower cryptograms, as they are too sketchy to
suffice for practical work ; also the range and variation
are too complex for the ordinary schoolboy or girl,
while many teachers would prefer a good course of
physiology or a grounding in the classification of
vascular plants as an item in training.

Nearly half the book is devoted to the first part, in
which the author presents a well-arranged account <
the activities of the plant. The morphology of tli
vegetative organs is not so well ordered, and there ai
several unsatisfactory passages, such as the confusio
between stem and shoot, unacceptable definitions (
"decumbent" and parts of a leaf, and a misuse <
cambium in describing the stem of the maize plant.
The flowers, methods of pollination, and seed dispersal
are treated at some length. The later chapters
suffer from excess of generality or a tendency to
the introduction of specialised topics, but it should
be added that it is the author's intention to presei
outlines that are to be filled in by the teacher's lecturc-
and practical work.

Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. New series.
Vol. X., 1909-10. Pp. 300. (London : Williams
and Norgate, 1910.) Price 105. 6d. net.
The Aristotelian Society exists for the systematic
study of philosophy, as to its historic development
and as to its methods and problems. It is an ari-
tocratic body — intellectually speaking — consisting c
about one hundred members, among whom are Mi
A. J. Balfour, Mr. Haldane, Prof. Sorley, Dr. Stout
Dr. Bernard Bosanquet, and Dr. Shadworth Hodgsor
In the latest volume of Proceedings there ar.
papers on " Sensations and Images," by Prof. Alex-
ander; "The Subject-matter of Psychology," by Mr.
G. E. Moore; " Epistemological Difficulties in Ps}
chology," by Dr. William Brown; "Kant's Account 1
Causation," by Mr. A. D. Lindsay; " Bergson -
Theory of Instinct," by Mr. H. Wildon Carr ; " Scienc
and Logic," by Mr. E. C. Childs ; " Some Philosophical
Implications of Mr. Bertrand Russell's Logical Theory
of Mathematics," by Mr. S. Waterlow; and two in-
teresting papers on "Are Secondary Qualities Inde-
pendent of Perception?" by Dr. Percy Nunn and Dr. 1
F. C. S. Schiller respectively. The former takes up .j
a position of vigorous realism, while the latter, with "
all his accustomed attractiveness of style — even when
dealing with very technical matter — hopes to convince
Dr. Nunn that philosophical salvation lies in human-
ism, for which, the old terms idealist and realist have
almost ceased to have meaning or interest. Dr. Nuni:
has a curious and rather novel argument in favour o!
there being possibly something really " there," in
some hallucinations. He instances our old friend the
"stick bent in a pool." To the eyes, it is bent, to
the touch it is straight ; in other words, its visual
characters are not in the same position as its tactual.
May we not therefore see a real thing which, to our
other senses, is elsewhere? It is certainly a sugges-
tive analogy, though risky.

Hdusliche Blumenpflege. Eine Anleitung cur Pflcge
dcr dankbarsten Zimmer- und Balkon-Pflanzen.
By Paul F. F. Schulz. Pp. vii-l-216. (Leipzig:
Quelle and Meyer, n.d.) Price 1.80 marks.
According to the author plant culture in the home is ||
not sufficiently practised in Germany, and the object ^
of the present work is to arouse more interest in the
pursuit. Certainly if the plants for which instructions
are given can be grown in the house, many having
the time and taking a keen interest in flowers would
be inclined to try their skill. The list includes
Abutilon, Camellia, the Alpenrose, Bouvardia, Clivip,
Monstera deliciosa, and Odontoglossum grande, in
addition to the palms, geraniums, hydrangea, Cacta-

January 19, 191 1]

NATURE

371

ceae, and other plants that are generally recognised to
be suitable for the purpose. The chief essentials to
success are carefully prepared soil, good lighting,
judicious watering, and, in many cases, an unheated
room for winter storage; the good results observable
in cottage rooms are quite in accord with the last
condition.

The author first instructs in general processes, such
as watering, potting, sowing, and the like, and then
gives special directions for each plant or group of
similar plants, arranging them according to habit.
The instructions are full, clear and explanatory, so
that anvone with an ambition for cultivating such
plants as those named above without a greenhouse
will be well advised to consult the book and work
upon the lines indicated.

Flashes from the Orient, or a Thousand and One

Mornings with Poesy. In four books. Spring,

Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Book third.

Autumn. By John Hazelhurst. Pp. x + 280.

(London and Aylesbury : Hazell, Watson and Viney,

Ltd., 1910.) Price 15. 6d. net.

Readers familiar with Mr. Hazelhurst's sonnets on

summer will turn with interest to his verses dealing

with subjects suggested by the phenomena and events

connected with the fall of the year. His subjects

range from •" Enthusiasm " to " Misery," and from

"The Sewing Machine" to "The Dome of Heaven";

and he finds music in them all.

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 Inheritance of Acquired Characters.

I AM rather disposed to think that Prof. Judd is right
In saying that this " and similar problems were constantly
"present to Darwin's ever-open mind." They seem to me,
indeed, to underlie the whole of the discussions in the
second volume of the " \'ariation of Plants and Animals
under Domestication"; and I believe it is generally con-
sidered that Darwin put forward his theory of " pan-
^ nesis " to account for the cases where some amount of
rect influence of the environment appeared to be
.herited.

The passage which Prof. Meldola quotes from the sixth

dition of the " Origin " occurs word for word in the

first (p. 44). It is interesting to note that in the interval

between the two Darwin never saw any ground for alter-

■ ig the statement, though he modified others on the same

age. I can have little doubt that, at any rate so far as

!ants are concerned, " the source of his . . . authority

r " it is to be found in Alph. de Candolle's " great and

^mirable work," as Darwin calls it (" Origin," sixth

lition, p. 89), " G6ographie Botanique raisonn6e."

i hat appeared in 1855, and there is abundant internal

vidence to show that it received from Darwin the most

rrentive study.

Great and admirable it certainly is, but it is impossible

>t to feel in reading it that, perhaps in the whole history

t science, there has never been a more striking case of a

>up manque. For de Candolle had the same problem

^fore him as Darwin, and he attacks it by the same

■^thod of patiently accumulating and sifting facts. He

,'asps the action of variation, heredity, and of cultural

lection, but he fails to grasp the idea that nature might

•perate on the same lines as the cultivator, and natural

lection constantly e.ludes him as it did Herbert Spencer.

It is true that de Candolle does not absolutely reject the

ffect of the environment, but he was led to the con-

usion that it would act, if at all, with such extreme

' Jwness as to be practically ineffective. It is difTicuIt to

~,:ve a brief quotation, but the following may suffice : —

NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

"Toutes les fois qu'il a 6t6 question de I'influence du
climat sur les v6g6taux, je me sais efforc^ de combattre
I'opinion d'une acclimatation, c'est k dire d'un changement
dans la nature des espies qui les rende, apres quelques
generations, plus aptes k r^sister au.x influences d^favorables
d'un climat. J'ai applaudi au mot spirituel de du Petit —
Thouars : ' L'acclimatation, cette douce chimfere de la cul-
ture ' " (pp. 1087-88).

It must I think be evident that, though he does not
actually quote it, Darwin, from his use of the word
" chimaera " ("Variation," ii., 313), has this passage in his
mind. But he goes on to show that the problem is at once
solved by natural selection. He states this, however, with
his usual caution : — " Though habit does something towards
acclimatisation, yet . . . the spontaneous appearance of
constitutionally different individuals is a far more effective
agent " (loc. cit., 314), and though he appears, in the main,
to have relied on de Candolle, he took some trouble to in-
vestigate the question for himself : — ^" Can we feel sure
that our kidney-beans are not somewhat hardier? I have
not been able, by searching old horticultural works, to
answer this question satisfactorily."

I think, then, that it was upon de Candolle's conclusions,
supported by his own investigations, that Darwin based the
pregnant sentence which Prof. Meldola has quoted. .And
how pregnant every word in the book is can be little appre-
ciated except by those who have more than a bowing
acquaintance with its pages.

I cannot but agree with Prof. Judd that modern evolu-
tionary theory had its root in Lyell. Nor do I think that
in the cold light of history it will seem to " be going
too far ... to assert that if the Principles of Geology
had not been written, we should never have had the Origin
of Species." If the possession of Darwin is the glory of
Cambridge, it is pleasant for a member of the sister
university — though it says little about it — to know that it
is secure in that of Lyell.

W. T. Thiselton-Dyer.

Witcombe.

Palaeolithic Shaft-straighteners.

Ix a previous communication to Nature (vol. Ixxiv.,
p. 372, 1906) I directed attention to some Eskimos' arrow-
straighteners which present a closer resemblance to th^
famous batons de Commandement of the Magdalenian age
than any which had been previously described.

Last summer, when my friend Sir. Marrett and I were
returning from Toulouse,
where we had enjoyed the
hospitality of the French
Association, we stayed at Peri-
gueux on our way to some
of the painted caves of Les
Eyzies. We were fortunate
in our choice of an hotel, for
our host, M. L. Didon,
proved to be an enthusiastic
investigator of the caves in
the neighbourhood. His col-
lection of .Aurignacian bone
implements, obtained by him
from the Aurignacian station
of Castelmeule, is the finest I
have seen, and, I should
think, unrivalled anywhere.
M. Didon informs me that he
has completed its description,
which will be published in the
course of the winter.

The number and variety of
the bone implements obtained
from this single locality,
dating from a period so long
anterior to the Magdalenian,
greatly impressed us, but the
objects which most aroused
my interest were three shaft-

straighteners (see Fig.V These, while presenting a general
resemblance to the Magdalenian batons, make a still
nearer approach to those of the Eskimos previously re-

372

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

ferred to. M. Didon was kind enough to allow me to
make drawings of them for publication, and in the accom-
panying figure at B, C, D they are shown side by side
with the Eskimos' shaft-straightener described by Dr. Boaz
(Franz Boaz, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., xv., p. 84,
Fig. 117, 1901). They are all reduced to the same
scale. The larger holes are no doubt intended to be
used upon the shafts of javelins or lances ; the smaller
ones are of an appropriate size for arrows. The largest
hole in A is 24 mm. in diameter, in B 21 mm. ; the small
hole in C is only 10 mm.

The most important feature in these implements is the
obliquity of the holes ; their axes are not perpendicular,
but strongly inclined to the face of the implement.
Singularly enough, in the more artistic haton de Com-
mandement of the Magdalenians this refinement is absent,
and the hole goes straight through.

The ridges produced by the drill in boring these
Aurignacian straightcners are still preserved, except on
two opposite sides of the hole, where they have been worn
away by use.

Whatever may be the ultimate verdict upon the Magda-
lenian " batons," there can be no question as to the nature
of their Aurignacian homologues, since in no essential
feature do these differ from the shaft-straighteners of the
Baffin's Bay Eskimos described by Dr. Boas.

A similar straightener has been described and figured
by Maska from the Kulna cave near Sloup, in Moravia.

'Oxford, January 7. W. J. Sollas.

The Turkestan Earthquake of January 3-4.

Some details of the seismographic and magnetographic
records of the great earthquake of January 3 may be of
interest to readers of Nature. The three oscillation phases
as seen on the seismogram are comparatively large. They
commenced suddenly, each with a westward displacement,
at iih. 37m., iih. 44-5m., and iih. 48-5m. p.m. re-
spectively. The large waves (third phase) then continued
for 23-5 minutes, producing rapid oscillations of the boom
at an average of 35 mm. double amplitude, indicating
14-4'' arc swing of the pillar. But these suffered an early
interruption of 5 minutes by an apparent interference of
two systems, reducing the amplitude to a minimum at
iih. 54m. p.m. The recovery was immediate and sharp,
as if by the arrival of a second train of large waves,
resembling closely the effect of the initial shock of the
first large waves.

The maximum amplitude may have occurred between
midnight and 8 minutes after, during which interval the
registering light-spot travelled frequently beyond the limits
of the camera aperture. But there is a probability that
the maximum occurred precisely at midnight ; and this is
supplied by the mechanical effects upon the three magneto-
graphs, each of which shows a clear maximum oscillation
at midnight.

As on former occasions, the bifilar suspension of the
horizontal force magnet was much more sensitive to the
shakes than the unifilar declination or the vertical force
balance. The bifilar responded to the first preliminary
earth-tremors, and did not come to final rest for half an
hour. Its record shows two groups of lines. The first
contains three clear oscillations, marking the beginning,
middle, and end of the first tremors. The second group
contains five oscillations, including the maximum ; and
there is a smaller oscillation near tJhe middle of the inter-
vening lull at iih. 50m. p.m., the commencement of the
large waves. The other two curves show only the last
group, containing the maximum.

We have therefore on the horizontal force curve oscilla-
tions responding to the three initial shocks of the first
and second earth tremors, and of the large waves. To
these may be added the maximum oscillation at midnight,
as probably responding to a sudden increment of the large
waves.

The bifilar sus{>ension, being a torsion balance against
the horizontal force, is naturally more sensitive to sudden
vertical movements of its pillar than to horizontal or
slower vertical displacements.

Walter Sidgreaves, S.J.

Stonyhurst College Observatory, January 11.

NO. 2 15 1, VOL. 85]

As given by the Milne-principle seismograph here, the
commencement of the phases of this quake were as
follows: — Preliminary: both N. and W. boom, 11.34 p.m.
Second: N. boom. 11.40; W. boom, ii-39-5 Principal:
N. boom, 11.52-9; W. boom, 11.52-8.

The actual maxima were: — N. boom, 110-8 mm. at
11.58-7; W. boom, 131-0 mm. at 11.55, and 127-6 mm. at

II.58-3-

l here were 30 after-shocks on the N. boom, lasting until
5.11 a.m., and 37 on the W. boom, lasting until 5.26.

F. Edward Norris.

Woodbridgc Hill, Guildford, January 17.

The Markings f Mars.

May I mention on behalf of my relative, Mr. J. H.
Worthington, to whose previous letter M. Antoniadi has
replied in Nature of January 5, that he is at present away
on an eclipse expedition to the Pacific Ocean, and out of
reach of correspondence ?

A. M. Worthington.

I The Paragon, Blackheath, S.E., January 17.

Fireball of January 9.

The Rev. W. F. A. Ellison, of Fethard Rectory, near
Waterford, saw a splendid meteor on January 9 at 7h.
35m. G.M.T. The apparent path was near Aries and
Cetus from 25° + 3° to 27°— 13°. Motion very slow, the
whole duration being at least seven seconds.

The flight was directed from the radiant of the January
Quadrantids, and it is possible that the fireball formed one
of the larger fragments of that stream. But this is un-
certain, and another observation is desirable to discover
the true radiant. From Cornwall the meteor must have
been a very fine object, and must have attracted the notice
of many persons, though 1 have seen no published descrip-
tion of it,

W. F. Denning.

THE ADMISSION OF WOMEN TO THE PARIS
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

IN our last week's issue we gave an account of
the action taken at the quarterly plenary meeting
of the five academies of the Institute of France on
January 5, in relation to the proposal of the Academy
of Sciences to elect Madame Curie to the vacancy on
the physical section of that body caused by the death
of Monsieur Gernez.

A Paris correspondent has sent us a copy of the
Temps containing a remarkable letter from M. Dar-
boux, the permanent secretary of the Academy of
Sciences, giving the reasons and motives of the
academy for their decision. We have not space ior
the whole letter, which is admirable from start to
finish, but M. Darboux insists upon a point missed
in all the preceding polemic, which should have
an important bearing upon the general question raised
by it.

After referring to the magnificent work done by
Madame Curie, and the honours which have been
showered upon her, he points out that her proposed
election as a working member of a busy academy
is a matter of great importance, not so much t
Madame Curie as to the academy itself.

•'Tant de litres, tant de r^sultats memorables
obtenus dans un si court espace de temps donneraient
certes a Mme. Curie le droit de reclamer comme une
recompense meritee le siege occupe naguere par son
mari. Mais un siege a notre Academie est plus et
mieux qu'une recompense. S'il donne une satisfac-
tion legitime et quelques droits, il impose aussi dc

January 19, 191 i]

NATURE

373

devoirs etendus. Pour examiner k ce f>oint de vue
la candidature de Mme. Curie, il est necessaire que
nous rappelions rapidement ici, pour le grand public
qui I'ignore quelque peu, le role et le fonctionnement
dc I'Academie des sciences.

'• Des cinq Academies qui composent I'lnstitut de
Ftance. elle est peut-etre celle qui a la tache la plus
active et la plus lourde. Certes, comme la notre, les
autres Academies ont des prix a distribuer, moins
nombreux et moins varies peut-etre ; mais le soin de
juger des concours et de distribuer des recompenses
est bien loin de former notre principale occupation.
Dans ses seances hebdomadaires du lundi, I'Academie
&oute avec interet les communications, souvent nom-
breuses, de ses propres membres ; mais elle revolt en
outre une foule de travaux, venus de Paris, de la
province, de nos colonies, de I'etranger. II n'est pas
rare qu'une de nos seances recueille urie centaine de
communications ayant les origines les plus diverses.
Les comptes rendus de nos seances paraissent le
samedi de chaque semaine, cinq jours seulement apres
la seance ; ils contiennent presque toujours de 50 a
100 pages in-4°, oil se trouvent exposees les recherches
les plus neuves, les plus interessantes. On peut
affirmer, sans crainte d'etre dementi, que cette publi-
cation si rapide, si soignee, constitue le moyen d'action
le plus puissant dont dispose aujourd'hui une societe
savante. J'ajoute que depuis trois ans, notre con-
frere le prince Roland Bonaparte a confie ^ I'Academie
des sommes importantes, destinees a provoquer et
^ subventionner les travaux scientifiques les plus
m^ritants.

*• Pour accomplir cette tache f^conde, pour distWbuer

tous ces prix, toutes ces subventions, pour apprecier

si rapidement la valeur des communications qui lui

parviennent, r.\cademie a ^videmment besoin de faire

appel a toutes les competences. Ou trouvera-t-elle

un savant plus autorise que Mme. Curie pour lui

donner un avis sur ces travaux relatifs a la radio-

rivite, dont le nombre grandit si rapidement?

"D 'autre part, ces chercheurs qui peuplent le

boratoire si prospere de Mme. Curie, qui travaillent

- us sa direction, devront-ils se resigner a voir leurs

efforts et leurs travaux m^connus ou negliges? N'y

a-t-il pas un interet Evident a ce que le chef qui

' —pire leurs travaux soit admis, comme ses autres

Ilegues de la Sorbonne a les presenter, a les

fendre dans les commissions de prix, a les proposer

ur des subventions ; en un mot, h. remplir dans

ute son ^tendue la fonction d'un membre titulaire

I'Academie des sciences?"

♦ ♦ ♦ * *

"Nous nous contentercMis de remarquer, en ter-
minant, que. s'il arrive souvent a notre pays de
marcher k 1 'avant-garde des nations, dans le cas
actuel c'est I'etranger qui nous aura donne I'exemple.
Ne parlons pas, si I'on veut, des distinctions qu'a
regues de ce cote Mme. Curie, bien qu'elle ait ete
nommee membre actif de quelques-unes des academies
!iue nous avons enumerees plus haut. Mais nous
mmes alle dernierement a Rome, pour y assister
-:x seances de I'Association des academies, et nous y
avons vu la comtesse Ersilia Lovatelli sieger, en
qualite de doyenne de la section d'archeologie, h
icademie royale des Lincei, qui joue en Italie le
le de notre Institut. De meme, Icrsque nous assis-
, tions en 1900 aux fetes du second centenaire de
I I'academie des sciences de Berlin, une dame encore,
^tme. Elise Wendel, assistait k toutes les ceremonies
; titre de membre honoraire de I'academie. Nous
t^jourrion^ ajouter d'autres exemples; ceux-1^ sufTiront
a prouver qu'a I'etranger, on n'eprouve pas les
scrupules qui font hesiter quelques-uns de nos con-
freres."

NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

THE SOLAR PHYSICS OBSERVATORY.

"IITE have received the following Memorial and
'' * accompanying signatures and documents from
the hon. sec. of the British Science Guild, with a
request that we should print it, together with the
statement that the Memorial was handed to Mr.
Asquith's private secretan,- by Sir David Gill, K.C.B.,
F.R.S., president of the Royal Astronomical Societ)',
and vice-president of the British Science Guild, and
Sir A. Pedler, C.I.E., F.R.S., hon. sec, and that the
Prime Minister was pleased at once to grant the
prayer of the memorialists : —

MEMORIAL

TO

The Right Hon. the Prime Misister.

The Memorial of the undersigned Fellows of the Royal
Society and other bodies interested in the welfare of
British Science to the Right Honourable H. H. Asquith,
Prime Minister, and First Lord of the Treasury.

Sheweth

That in 1875 the Royal Commission on Scientific
Instruction and the Advancement of Science strongly
recommended the establishment by the State of an
Observatory for Solar Physics.

That in 1879 this recommendation was acted upon by
the Government.

That the accompanying letters from the Directors of
the Chief Obser\-atories and Meteorological Institutes in
Europe and the United States show (i) that the work
thus undertaken was of especial importance to the British
Empire with its territory distributed all over the globe ;
(2) that the results already obtained are of high value, and
promise eventually to lead to the better forecasting of
droughts ; (3) that the international character of the work
makes it important that it should be carried on in close
connection with a Government Department ; (4) that a
high-level site and free horizon are now essential.

That when a change of site of the Obser\atory became
necessary-, the Solar Physics Committee, a Consultative
Committee appointed by the Government to advise them
on such matters, selected a high-level site at Fosterdown
on land purchased some years ago by the War Office, but
no longer required by them. The Committee reported that
this site fulfils the requirements of modern astronomical
research.

And whereas, while we understand that the StJar
Physics Committee have not withdrawn their recommenda-
tion, the site in question is now advertised for sale on
December 13.

We, your Memorialists, therefore pray that the proposed
sale of the selected site may be delayed until full inquiry
has been made, and until a decision has been arrived at
with full knowledge of the questions involved.

And your Memorialists will ever pray.

Lansdowne, .\vebur}-, Rayleigh, Joseph D. Hooker,
James Dewar, Iveagh, Lochee, R. B. Clifton, William
Ramsav, J. A. Fleming, Fred T. Trouton, Arthur R.
Cushny, F. W. Oliver, J. Norman Collie, L. N. G. Filon,
E. C. C. Bah-, Henry Miers, Augustus Waller, William
White, Silvanus Thompson, A. Mostyn Field, J. Wolfe
Barry, William Crookes, J. H. Poynting, William Turner,
R. A. Sampson, Raphael Meldola, David Bruce, Lauder
Brunton, Arthur H. Church, Charles Chree, Dugald
Clerk, Wvndham Dunstan, E. H. Griffiths. J. Herschell,
W. M. Hicks, Fletcher Moulton. H. E. Roscoe, E. T.
Thorpe, William Tilden, E. Ray Lankester, W. H. Dines,
G. T. Beilby. C. A. Parsons, John Murray, Arthur A.
Rambaut, Blyth, Chichester, Jcrfin Cock'burn, Alfred
Keogh, J. Herbert Warren. George Burt, George Reid,
Baldwin Latham, W. F. Caborne, J. C. Bavard, E. Gold,
H. N. Dickson, M. W. C. Hepworth, R. C' K. Lempfert,
C. Theodore Williams, P. H. Cowell. Percy Davis, H. H.
Walmesley, T. C. Hudson, William Eraser Doak, John
A. Sprigge, Harold B. Dixon, James Crichton Browne,
H. G. Lyons. George Hartley Br\an, E. Tavlor Jones.
John Perr>-, James Stirling, Hugh L. Callendar, P. A.
MacMahon.

374

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

The letters appended to the memorial are from the
following : —

Astrophysical

covo Observatory,
Observatory of

(i) Directors 0/ Astronomical and
Observatories.

Sir David Gill, President of the Royal Astronomical
Society, formerly Director of the Royal Observatory, Cape
of Good Hope

Prof. Pickering, Director of the Harvard College
Observatory, U.S.A.

Dr. Hale, Director of the Mount Wilson Observatory,
U.S.A.

Dr. Backlund, Director of the Pou
Russia.

Prof. Ricc6, Director of the Royal
Catania and Etna, Italy.

Dr. Deslandres, Director of the Astrophysical Observa-
tory, Aleudon, Paris.

Prof. Max Wolf, Director of the Astrophvsical Observa-
tory, Heidelberg.

(2) Directors 0/ Meteorological and Physical Institutes.
Dr. von Hann, formerly Director of the Meteorological
Institute, Vienna.
Prof. Kayser, Director of the Physical Institute, Bonn.
Dr. Steen, Vice-President of the Meteorological Institute,
Kristiania.

(Copy.)

34 De Vere Gardens,

Kensington,
London, W.,
November 14, 1910.
Dear Lockver, —

At j'our request I have visited, in company with your
son, the site at Caterham to which you propose that' the
instruments at present mounted at South Kensington
should be transferred. As the result of this inspection I
venture to express my earnest desire that advantage should
be taken of this most favourable site.

It would be hard, in my opinion, to find a better one in
England. It is about 800 feet above sea-level, and over-
looks a wide and splendidly clear horizon. It is within
half an hour's walk of a railway station, and thence within
less than an hour's journey, by frequent trains, to Charing
Cross. The site is completely protected from the glare of
light from any neighbouring town, so that one great
desideratum for stellar work, that of a dark sky, is
secured. The contour of the neighbouring ground is such
as to secure immunity from the danger of houses being
built in the immediate neighbourhood. The surrounding
slopes are covered by trees which protect the surface of
the soil from the sun's heat, so that it is probable that
the disturbance to good seeing, caused by convection
currents, will probably be reduced to a minimum.

It is, I believe, a general experience in this country
that the best definition for solar observation occurs in the
early morning hours, and sometimes again in the late
afternoon. This seems to be due to the comparative
freedom from convection currents of air, in the morning
before the soil is heated up, and in the evening when a
condition of equilibrium is established, and it seems, so
far as can be judged from inspection of the site, that the
surroundings of the Caterham site are specially favour-
able from this point of view. There are other circum-
stances which point to the selection of the Caterham
site : —

(i) The ground belongs to the Crown.

(2) It is distant from any roads, and therefore free from
tremor.

(3) The atmosphere is free from smoke, and the site
above low-lying mist.

(4) It is the site of a now disused Ordnance store for
ammunition, provided with splendidly built and perfectly
dry casemates, which would form rooms of nearly uniform
temperature that could be used for spectroscopic research,
dark-rooms, &c., and there are other existing buildings
which could be utilised for observatory purposes, such as
stores and working rooms.

(5) The casemates themselves would afford, on their
upper surface, splendid foundations for instruments.

(6) There rs excellent local material on the ground suit-
able for concrete.

NO. 2 15 I, VOL". 85]

Thus the expense of establishing the observatory would
be greatly reduced by these pre-existing works and by the
natural facilities afforded by the site.

I have no doubt that the Meteorological Office can
furnish statistics as to the average amount of cloud and
sunshme, and little doubt that in this respect the con-
ditions are as favourable as any for the pursuit of Astro-
physical and Solar research.

That it is the duty of our country to provide for the
continuity of the work so well begun bv you I think no
man of science will dispute, and it would indeed be shame
to us, in the face of what other nations are doing, if \\v>
are left behind in the race which was so well begun
this country by yourself, and which has been contin
by you so successfully under conditions so unfavouns
In any change of site I venture to think it will b-
great mistake if the best possible site is not chosen, ;
1 do not think it is likely that a better site than that
Caterham will be found in these islands.
Yours sincerely,

(Signed) David Gill.

(Copy.)

Harvard College Observatory,

Cambridge, Mass.,

November 4, 1910.
My Dear Sir Norman, —

Your letter of October 20 is received. I hear with great
regret of the unfavourable changes which are proposed in
the Solar Physics Observatory. The list of your publica-
tions and of the important results contained in them is
very impressive. It seems to me that your persevering
and long-continued work in astronomy, extending over
nearly half a century, ought to be continued by you under
favourable conditions, if possible. Moreover, it is obvious
that the efficiency of the powerful instruments which you
have collected will depend very largely on the location in
which they are remounted. Every year this matter is I
receiving more attention among astronomers. The work I
of many instruments could easily be doubled by mounting
them in more favourable locations. The most serious
effect we have felt from the encroachment of the city of
Boston has been the illumination of the sky by the electric
light.

Yours very truly,

(Signed) Edward C. Pickering.

The Athenaeum,

November 7, 1910.
My Dear Sir Norman, —

You ask me for an opinion as to the value of the work
done under your direction at South Kensington, and the
importance of providing for its continuance under mor'
favourable conditions. As you know, I have not alw^v
agreed with you as to methods of observation and 1;
interpretation of results. But this has not prevented r,
from admiring your fertility and ingenuity in the formul
tion of hypotheses, and the activity of yourself and yo.
assistants in testing them. The large amount of wo:
done by your staff in the midst of- London should encourn^
those who see in the establishment of large mode-
observatories a menace to smaller institutions.

The importance of providing for the Solar Physi'
Observatory in the future seems to me so obvious that
can hardly believe the Government will fail to do s-
After permanence has been assured, the most vital poin
in my opinion, is to discover a sufficiently able direct-
to take up the work when you retire. Then come tl
exceedingly important questions of site and equipment,
cannot compare the merits of the two sites you mentio:
as I have not seen the one you prefer and you do n<
name the other. Other things being equal, high altitud-
minimum cloudiness, a clear and transparent sky, absern
of glare from street lights, and freedom from vibratio
are, of course, very important.

But the prime consideration is good definition of soln
and stellar images, without which the most refined wor'-
cannot be done, in certain classes of observations.

You refer to the need of a clear eastern horizon. O'
Mount Wilson (altitude, 6000 feet) it is essential that th'

JANUARY 19, 191 l]

NATURE

Oi D

sky should be clear within ten or fifteen degrees of the
eastern and western horizons, as the best definition of the
solar image is usually obtained from one to three hours
after sunrise and before sunset. At the Yerkes Observa-
tory (1200 feet) solar observations are not begun until
about 9 a.m. I have seen the definition as perfect there
at noon as at any hour of the day, though I believe the
average early morning definition would be better than the
average noon definition. I do not know what the corre-
sponding conditions are in England, but at Catania, and
on Mount Etna and Mount Hamilton, the early hours are
the best. In general, I believe the superiority of the early
morning and late afternoon hours' to be most marked on
mountain tops, and in hot countries where there is much
convection.

Trusting that the Government will make ample pro-
vision for the observatory, and establish it on a favourable
site,

I am,

Yours very truly,

(Signed) George E. Hale.
Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., &c.,

Director of the Solar Physics Observatory,
South Kensington.

(Copy.)

Observatoire Central Nicolas,
Poulkovo Gouvernment de St. Petersbourg,

Cabinet du Directeur,

November 1, 19 10.
Dear Sir Norman, —

I am deeply touched by the sad news of the danger that
threatens the continuity of your fruitful activity which is
recognised by the scientific world as having most success-
fully contributed to the development of our knowledge of
Solar Physics. Since the first foundation of chemical
analysis of the sun was laid by KirchhofT and Bunsen,
your name has been intimately associated with the pro-
gress of Solar Physics. The memorable year 1868, when
you and Janssen, independently of each other, taught us
how to conduct solar observations, is the beginning of a
new epoch in which the solar researches revealed the
most wonderful facts.

The connection between periodical activities on the
surface of the sun and terrestrial phenomena demands to
be investigated so as to give a trustworthy base for a
great part of the Meteorology. This investigation requires
great endurance, experience, and self-sacrifice, as the
results can be obtained only by means of continued co-
operations. Your organisation of the Solar Commission
to work on that line is just the way to realise the solu-
tion of this important question, and consequently it w-ould
be a great disappointment if a discontinuance should take
place.

I am convinced that the continuation of the institution
erected by you is an intense desideratum recognised by
every astronomer. If your observatory is to be removed
it should certainly be to a better place than it actually
occupies. I am therefore not able to comprehend why an
unfavourable position should be assigned to it. It seems
to me that you have so legitimate a claim on every^ kind
of support in your endeavour to promote science that such
a case would be absurd, and that everyone who recognised
the importance of the knowledge of Solar Physics and the
connection between terrestrial phenomena and the sun
would deeply deplore the interruption of your successful
activity.

Yours very sincerely,

(Signed) O. Backlund.

(Copy.)

R. Osservatorio di Catania ed Etneo,

Direzione,
Catania, le 31 octobre, 1910.
MoNsiECR LE Directeur,—

J ai appris avec une vraie peine que vous vous trouvez
en des grandes difificult^s a cause des changements qui
vont avoir lieu pour le site de votre tr^s important
Observatoire.

NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

II serait vraiment deplorable que vous n'ayez pas la
possibility de continuer et mSme de porter encore plus en
avant votre grande et splendide s^rie de travaux qui est
commence avec I'application du spectroscope a I'^tude des
j taches solaires et puis des protuberances, ce qui vous a
conduit i la d^couverte de la m^thode d'en faire I'observa-
tion en dehors des Eclipses, si f^conde en tous temps.

Et ensuite vlennent vos importantes etudes sur
I'enveloppe solaire, que vous avez appeie chromosphere, sur
la substance, alors inconnue, que vous avez nommee
helium, et puis les observatoires des eclipses solaires, ou
vous et Respighi les premiers, vous avez fait usage du
prisme objectif, qui a donne toujours des resultats de la
plus grande importance pour la physique et la Chemie du
Soleil.

Non content de tout cela vous avez porte vos recherches
sur les spectres des metaux et autres substances, pour faire
des comparaisons avec les phenomines solaires.

Et ce qui est bien admirable, tout cela a ete fait par
vous seul et avec vos moyens prives.

Ensuite par votre inepuisable initiative et sur votre pro-
position, I'Angleterre a fonde des stations pour I'observa-
tion photographique du soleil en des climats plus favor-
ables, dont le succ^s a ete tout k fait complet pour donner
la statistique de I'activite solaire. Et on vous doit aussi
retablissement a South Kensington des nouvelles et delicates
observations spectroheiiographiques.

Et passant k I'application pratique des etudes solaires,
vous avez entrepris de vastes recherches sur les relations
entre les phenom^nes solaires et les phenomfenes meteor-
ologues terrestres d'oii suivit la creation de la Commission
Internationale pour I'etude de ces relations, dont vous avez
ete elu President.

Et votre indomptable activite s'est portee aussi sur les
meteorites, sur les comites, sur les etoiles, et ainsi vous
avez ete conduit a fonder une nouvelle classification et
une nouvelle hypothfese sur I'origine des astres, tr^
appreciee par les savants.

Et enfin il ne faut pas oublier vos interessants recherches
archeologiques qui ont des relations tres importantes avec
I'astronomie ancienne et la chronologic.

Tout cela est apparu en plus que 200 publications, et il
parait vraiment impossible que cette grande production
scientifique soit I'ceuvre d'un homme seulement, et meme
en tenant compte de la collaboration de vos vaillants
ei^ves et aides. Et il faut ajouter que tout cela a ete
fait avec des moyens tr^s limites, avec des difficultes de
toutes sortes, en une installation excessivement modeste ;
je n'ai pas oublie ma surprise, lorsque j'ai eu le bon-
heur de visiter votre observatoire a South Kensington,
qui a une si grande renommee dans la science, de trouver
un ensemble des cabanes en bois et canevas, si modeste,
et je dirai mfeme si pauvre, pour IWngleterre qui est si
riche !

Mais j'esp^e que le changement que vous craignez
vous donnera au contraire un etablissement digne de
vous, de votre grand Pays, de la science que vous
cultivez d'apr^s 40 ans avec tant d'ardeur et de succfes, qui
a- suscite I'admiration de tout le monde scientifique;
et je suis sur que le nouvel observatoire sera encore mieux
situe pour repondre aux besoins de vos etudes et au progres
de I'Astronomie physique moderne ; c'est-a-dire qu'il
sera construit sur une place eievee, avec une atmosphere
plus pure et moins eclairee que celle de Londres.

Voili mes voeux les plus sincferes et les plus froides que
je vous envoie avec mes salutations les plus distinguee*
et les plus cordiales.

Votre ancient admirateur,

(Signed) A. Ricco.

Catane le 20 novembre, 1910.
Monsieur le President, —

En vous ecrivant a propos de la translation de votre

Observatoire j'ai manque de remarquer une condition

necessaire et qui certainement ne vous est pas echappee.

C'est la condition que votre nouvel observatoire domine

bien I'horizon Est, a fin de pouvoir commencer les observa-

I tions solaires le plus tot que possible apr^s le lever du

; soleil, de mani^re qu' elles puissent se rattacher a celles

i qui se font aux stations plus orientales que Londres, et

;76

NATURE

[January 19, 191 i

}X)iir avoir devant vous tdute la journ^e pour rdussir
it les accomplir lorsque le ciel n'est pas entiferement
serein.

Je me permette d'attirer votre attention sur ce point
important, parce que nous (^prouvons i Catane i'incon-
v^nient de ne pas avoir 1 'horizon Est tout ii fait libre.

Agr6ez, M. le Directeur, mes sentiments de la plus
grande consideration.

Votre tris d6vou6,

A. Ricc6.

(Copy.)

Observatoire d 'Astronomic Physique de Paris,

Sis Pare de Meudon,

Seine-et-Oise,
Meudon, le 30 octobre, 19 10.
Cher Monsieur Lockyer, —

J'apprends que votre observatoire de South Kensington
doit ^tre transf6r6 en dehors de la ville, en pleine cam-
pagne, c'est-i-dire dans un lieu plus favorable aux Etudes
solaires. Je vous adresse 4 ce sujet mes vives felicita-
tions, et je souhaite que le gouvernement anglais vous
donne largement les subsides n^cessaires, et vous permette
de cr6er une organisation nouvelle qui soit bien en rapport
avec I'importance toujours croissante des recherches
solaires.

Votre observatoire actuel de South Kensington est bien
mal pourvu ; la plupart des instruments sont anciens, et
tous les bailments sont en bois 16ger, cependant vous }'
avez fait de grandes choses, aussi bien sur les ^toiles que
sur le Soleil. La m^me remarque s 'applique k vos
premieres observations de Wimbledon, et k votre grande
d^couverte de 1868, qui nous a d^voiie 1 'atmosphere du
Soleil, et a etd le point de depart de toutes les recherches
actuelles, si etendues, sur le Soleil. Vous op^riez avec de
petits instruments que d^daigneraient nos etudiants
d'aujourd'hui.

Dans ces premieres recherches qui ont fix^ les m^thodes,
la valeur de I'homme pouvait supplier h. la faiblesse des
appareils. Mais, pour appliquer les m^thodes avec tout
le developpement qu'elles comportent, des installations
largement congues, des instruments de grande puissance
sont n^cessaires. On I'a bien compris en Am^rique, oil les
observatoires solaires sont magnifiquement organises
et aussi quelque peu en France ou le Parlement nous a
accorde r^cemment des credits extraordinaires. L'AUe-
magne. La Russie, I'ltalie et mSme I'Espagne ont suivi
le mouvement. Vous seuls, les Anglais, vous etes actuelle-
ment en arri^re, en retard, au moins en ce qui concerne
les installations, car votre observatoire, en fait, a et^ le
premier en date et I'initiateur des methodes.

Heureusement, I'utilite et la n6cessite d'une etude
complete du Soleil apparaissent i tous de plus en plus
evidentes, et vous avez contribue plus que personne k
creer cet etat des esprits par vos belles recherches recentes
qui devoilent une relation simple entre les protuberances
solaires et le regime des vents et de la pluie k la surface
de la terre. Certes tous les hommes, mfeme les plus
bornes, comprennent I'influence maitresse du Soleil sur la
terre, mais le lieu qui les nuit est beaucoup plus etroit
qu'on ne le suppose au premier abord. Toutes les per-
turbations solaires ont leur repercussion sur la terre et
son atmosphere, et si on veut demller les causes des
variations si complexes de notre atmosphere, il faut d 'abord
suivre avec le plus grand soin les variations du Soleil.

Ces dernieres raisons, et leur c6te utilitaire, ont frappe
tout particulierement les membres du Parlement et du
Senat fran(jais qui m'ont accorde des credits pour le
Soleil. Je leur ai parie aussi de vos recherches sur la
comparaison avec les etoiles, et sur la place du Soleil dans
la nature, recherches qui ont un inter^t surtout philo-
sophique.

Tels sont les renseignements que je puis vous fournir sur
les conditions faites en France a I'astronomie physique, et
solaire. Je puis les completer d'autres details, si vous le
jugez utiie.

Je vous souhaite le meilleur succfes dans I'oeuvre que
vous poursuivez pour le plus grand bien de la science, et
je vous prie d'agreer 1 'expression de mes sentiments
respectueuses et devoues.

(Signed) H. Deslandres.

NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

(Translation.)

The South Kensington Solar Physics Observatory under

the direction of Sir Norman Lockyer.

The discoveries and work of the South Kensington Solar
Observatory under the direction of Lockyer have bein
so unusually fruitful and numerous that it is quite
impossible to mention here even all of the most important.
Some of them are arbitrarily selected.

The discovery which brought Sir Norman Lockyer th--
first great reputation was certainly that which enabled
us to observe the prominences of the sun even without an
eclipse if his spectroscopic method were used. Another
discovery of undying renown was the finding of helium
in the sun, which twenty-seven years later Sir William
Ramsay proved to exist in the nitrogen of the earth's-
atmosphere.

That the absorption in sun-spots is increased was dis-
covered by Lockyer, and thereby the path was laid for
the only possible comprehension of the constitution of the
solar globe.

The exact proof of a great number of terrestrial elements
existing in the sun was of fundamental importance.

Doppler's principle was first applied by Lockyer to the
processes of movement in the sun's atmosphere. By this
means it became possible to recognise and investigate the
ascending and descending currents in the sun's atmosphere.
It was thus shown that in the sun similar meteorological
movements occur to those on our earth, but they are much
more powerful.

The use of the objective-prism without slit in solar
eclipses by Lockyer first rendered possible the exact in-
vestigation of the constitution of the chromosphere and
solar corona.

The investigations of the variability of the spectra of
the elements in the sun and in sun-spots with the spot-
period had great influence upon the scientific development
of the last decades. They went hand in hand with the
development of Lockyer's bold hypotheses of the dissocia-
tion of the elements. The great discovery that different
parts of the electric arc give different spectra for one and
the same element would alone have been of the greatest
influence.

Although the hypotheses have changed with time, the
substance of them has been accepted directly through the
most recent advances of physics and the cognisance of
electrons, and there is no doubt that they have been
directly of invaluable importance to the progress of science
through the objections to which they have given rise.

Quite as fruitful, contested and defended, are the views
put forth by Lockyer and South Kensington respecting the
formation of the universe from meteoric dust and gases.
The detailed studies respecting the emission lines of metals
under the application of the highest electric energy could
hardly have been made without them, and the numerous
excellent studies in detail of the different kinds of suns
found in the firmament in a different stage of develop-
ment, which we owe in recent years to South Kensington,
have all sprung from this leading point of view.

Even if those investigators are right who vehemently
contest many points of the hypothetical construction of the
development of the stars, a valuable core will still remain.
The full utility of the enormous materials collected re-
specting the spectra of the elements, of the stars, and the
sun will remain of lasting value.

The numerous ingenious improvements and inventions
in spectroscopic methods, spectroscopes, telescopes, and
apparatus which have emanated from South Kensington
are of the greatest utility.

The statistical investigations of the influence of the sun
upon terrestrial weather conditions proceeded hand in hand
with these astrophysical labours. After South Kensington
had shown that the higher radiation energy of the sun
occuned at the time of sun-spot maximum, and not at
the time of the minimum, the problem was attacked in
many different ways in order to show the influence of the
solar period upon terrestrial magnetism, pressure, and
temperature conditions of the earth's atmosphere, and
amount of rainfall. It was seen that success could only
be obtained if the conditions over the earth as a whole
were taken into account. The establishment of the Solar
Commission of the International. Meteorological Committer

January 19, 191 i]

NATURE

377

and the collection of observations from all stations round
the earth was the next step, and South Kensington became
the headquarters for this collective work, the results of
which have already began to bear the most interesting
fruits.

Although this short resume has only touched upon the
most striking pieces of work, it must, however, show
beyond doubt that the institution directed by Lockyer at
South Kensington has played a universally stimulatiog and
leading part in the scientific world.

Solar physics, and also astrophysics, are in England
closely connected with South Kensington Observatory — as
in France with Meudon, in America with Mount Wilson,
nnd in Germany with Potsdam. It forms for the scientific
'•^■putation of England an essential part, and if during
recent years it has not been able to keep pace in many
things with the largest institutions of other countries, it
was owing to the abnormally unfavourable position in the
smoke of the metropolis London and the relatively small
funds which have inconceivably been placed at its disposal.

(Signed) Dr. Max Wolf.

Heidelberg, October, 1910.

{translation^

Vienna,

November 1, 19 10.
My Dear Sir, —

I have learned with the greatest regret that the activity
of the Solar Physics Observatory will be interrupted, and
that, generally speaking, by the removal of the observa-
tory to an unsuitable place, with unfavourable atmospheric
conditions, there is danger of the continuance of the work
being hampered, the success of which, so far, has been
acknowledged in the widest circles.

Just at the present time, when all the larger countries
are about to take up the solar investigation inaugurated
■n England through them specially, or are thinking of
Joing so, when, especially in America, large sums are
•expended upon it, it seems inconceivable that injury-
should be contemplated to an observatory devoted to this
investigation, which can look back upon thirty-eight years
of such successful work, notwithstanding the small funds
at its disposal. Should England wish to put itself even
partially out of action in the cooperation in such a
promising field of inquiry? .An Empire w-hich extends
over the whole earth should at least support a work that
has done so much that is surprising and practically
important in the discovery of intimate relations between
atmospheric conditions of the remotest parts of the earth.

Your very numerous works and publications in the
domain of stellar and solar physics, which have long since
received the appreciation of distinguished astronomers,
have also placed investigators of terrestrial magnetism and
meteorologists under the greatest obligation. They have
shown us new methods and new aims. Especially is this
so in the indication of a short period in the solar and
meteorological variations on the earth ; the extension of
the Bombay-Cordoba " see-saw " of the variations of
atmospheric pressure over the whole earth ; the variations
in temperature and rainfall with solar changes in the
neighbourhood of the Indian Ocean (pulses in Indian rain-
fall at spot maximum and minimum) ; solar activity, 1833
to 1900, and the discovery of a period of about thirty-five
years in the same, with which magnetic and meteorological
periods (Bruckner's cycle) correspond ; the relations
between solar protuberances and the manifestations of
terrestrial magnetism, &c.

Meteorologists and investigators of terrestrial magnetism
must therefore express the most earnest desire that the
activity of the Solar Physics Observatory heretofore may
not suffer retrenchment in any direction, but, on the other
hand, that it may be extended.

With great respect, &c.,

(Signed) J. Hasn.

Bonn,

Humboldstrasse 2,

October 25, 1910.
Dear Sir Norman, —

I am sure that to everyone who knows something of
spectroscopy and astrophysics the name of yourself and
of the South Kensington Observatory are most familiar.

NO. 2 151, VOL. 85]

These names are so intimately connected with the progress
we have made in the last forty years, that even the
beginner must know them. I think it is impossible to
overestimate the services you have rendered to astro-
physics and astronomy.

When I first had the opportunity of seeing your observa-
tory— it is a long time ago, I think twenty years — I
admired that you have been able to do all this work in
such a place and under such poor conditions. Some years
ago, when I first heard that the place of your observatory
was needed for other purposes and that you should get a
new observatory, I was very glad, because I was sure that
the English Government would be happy of the opportunity
to give you the best available place and good buildings,
and so promote the most needed continuation of your work
in a better site. I was sure that the English Government
is aware of the high importance of astrophysics for human
knowledge and culture, and full of gratitude to you who
has speit a successful life to the promotion of this science
under such difficult conditions.

You can imagine how astonished I am to hear that
your Government will give you a site quite unfit for the
purposes of astrophysics. I can- only suppose that such a
plan has been taken into consideration -without, full know-
ledge of the importance and the needs of astrophysical
work. So I hope surely that the Government, when
better instructed, will change its mind and give you the
site you need.

In the last meeting of the International Union for Solar
Research, held this year in California, the L'nion resolved
to send messages to the Governments of Japan and
-Australia asking the erection of astrophysical observa-
tories. I am sure that every member of the Union would
second your claim for a well-situated new observatory.
I hope the English Government will hear the wish of all
the civilised nations not to interrupt, but to promote, the
work of yourself and of your observatory.

Please make any use you like of this letter.
I am, dear Sir Norman,

Yours most truly,

(Signed) H. Kavser.
Director of the Physical Institute of the University.

Det Norske Meteorologiske Institut,

Kristiania,
October 29, 1910.
Dear Sir, —

I am much obliged to you for the good opinion shown
by the value which you attach to a declaration from me
concerning the work of the Solar Physics Observatory.

After my return from Cambridge and London in 1904
I wrote an article in the Norwegian newspaper Aften-
posien expressing my admiration of your celebrated
observatory, and my opinion of the importance of its
splendid work for the future of meteorology. I venture
to give here subjoined a translation of that part of the
article which concerns the subject in hand.

" The man who has taken the initiative in the first
organisation of the new lines in meteorology is, as alreadv
mentioned, Sir Norman Lockyer, one of England's most
eminent men of science. He was born in 1836, and from
his earliest j-outh has worked at the study of what takes
place in the sun. In 1868 he discovered in the sun's
chromosphere a then unknown substance, helium, which
is now thought to be a gaseous modification of the now
famous radium. Lockyer has been an observer of almost
all the total eclipses of the sun during the last forty vears,
and in 1868 he found — simultaneously with, but independ-
ently of, the French astronomer, Janssen — a method of
observing the sun's prominences at any time by the aid of
the spectroscope — a very great step in advance, as formerly
this phenomenon could only be observed during the rare,
brief moments of a total eclipse.

" It was mainly due to Lockyer's perseverance that as
early as the 'seventies of last century an observatory,
exclusively for solar observation, was erected in India,
whose tropical position is especially favourable to that kind
of observations. At the same time a small phvsical-
chemical laboratory in South Kensington was given up to
him, and turned into the now so celebrated Solar Phvsics
Observatory, which, under Sir Norman's management, has
gradually risen to be a first-class scientific institution.

\7^

jVATC/RE

[January 19, 191 1

" The observatory, however, is not very easy to find
in the labyrinth of the world-city. It is well concealed
behind the great South Kensington Museum, in a back-
yard of the museum, with access to it through an
insignificant-looking side entrance in the Exhibition Road.
The observatory buildings themselves, five or six in
number, also present a very plain appearance, giving the
impression, when seen from a distance, of being part of
a travelling menagerie or circus.

" But on passing within these wooden walls and tent-
doors one is deeply impressed by the wonderful instruments
and apparatus with which Sir Norman Lockyer and his
son, Dr. William Lockyer, aided by a
staff of assistants, draw forth the sun's
secrets by astronomical, spectroscopic,
and photographic means. The instru-
mental equipment of the observatory is
probably unique of its kind, and in the
meteorology of the future the Lockyers'
Solar Physics Observatory in South
Kensington will rank among the first to
be counted with."

Since that time I have followed the
publications from the observatory with
much interest, observing the great pro-
gress in all branches of solar inquiry
and its relations to meteorological and
other terrestrial phenomena. It is my
sincere hope that the new position of
your observatory may be such that you,
dear Sir, and your admirable scientific
staff, may carry on your work on the
same lines as before, untroubled by
difficulties arising from local disturb-
ances.

I am, dear Sir,

Sincerely yours,

Aksel S. Steen.

Vice-Director of the Norwegian
Meteorological Institute.,

President of the Norwegian Geo-
graphical Society.

SOLWAY BIRDS .^

COUNTY histories of birds have
followed each other in such
rapid succession during the past feu-
years that the majority of those the
geographical situation of which gives
them special importance, have found
historians. This the latest addition
deals with the avifauna of Dumfries-
shire arid the Solway area, which is
to say that the neighbouring counties
of Kirkcudbright and Wigton are in-
cluded in the author's purview. Mr.
Gladstone's survey, therefore, covers
the whole of the very interesting
south-west corner of Scotland along
the shores of which the Solway ebbs
and flows.

The region is indeed very for-
tunate in its historian. He has sup-
plied all that the ornithologist can
wish to know concerning the
occurrence of its birds. His book
is also a meritorious production from tht pub-
lishers' and bookbinders' point of view. It is light to
hold and very attractive on account of its excellent
paper, bold, clear type, and the beauty of its illustra-
tions. Messrs. \\'itherby, the publishers, one of whom
is a well-known ornithologist, now appear as the
worthy rivals in London of the distinguished place
which the house of Douglas in Edinburgh has so long

* " The Birds of Dumfriesshire— a Contribution to the Fauna of the
Solway Area." By Hugh S. Gladstone. Pp. xcix+482. (London :
WUherby and Co., 1910.) Price 25J. net.

held for the production of ornate books on natural
history.

Mr. Gladstone has added interest to his work by
placing on record the names, with a short biography,
of each of the ornithologists of the county, of whom
from about 1650 there appear to have been a goodl\
number. Among them occur such well-known or dis-
tinguished names as Captain Clark Kennedy, Robert
Gray, Dr. Grierson, Sir William Jardine, William
Laidlaw (Sir \\'alter Scott's amanuensis), the Rev.
Hugh Macpherson, and Sir John Richardson.

Short eareJ Owl on the Nest, photographed by Mr. F. Barber-Starkey.
Dumfriesshire," by Hugh S. Gladstone.

From "The Birds of

NO. 2 15 I, VCL. 85]

naturalist to the Franklin Arctic expedition, and the
dfscoverer of Huxley.

The physical features of the county, which embraces
an, area of a little more than 686,000 acres of land sur-
face and 21,000 of water and foreshore, are very varied.
The northern part is mountainous, rising into hills
more than 2000 feet, •" intersected by glens and
valleys"; the southern "breaks into three great
' dales,' named from the Nith, the Annan, and the
Esk." The wide Solway firth is an area of special
importance to the natural history of the district, for

January 19, 191 1]

NATURE

379

provides vast feeding grounds for shore birds,
.ihough, in the absence of cliffs, rock-breeding species
;e scarce or absent. Dumfriesshire has been re-
forested to a wide extent since the earUer parts of
e last century. Consequently suitable habitats have
en provided tor many species which would not ether-
ise be included in its register, while '"hedge enclo-
-:res with rows, belts, or clumps of ornamental or
w ind-breaking ' trees have greatly encouraged the in-
viease of passerine birds." The firth opens its arms
also to welcome home-coming immigrants and birds
of passage. '"There is no doubt," as Mr. Gladstone
remarks, "that in comparatively recent geologic times
the Irish Channel was a great tidal river, of which
the Sol way streams were its northernmost tributaries,
and that this ancient river valley was the route by
w hich the birds went and came in long by-past ages —
a route which has left so strong an impression on
posterity that the birds travel along what is now a
broad sea-way."
The number of species recorded from Dumfries is
residents, 70; summer visitants, 31; winter visi-
nts, 31; occasional visitors, 30; very rare or acci-
ntal visitors, 56; or, in all, 218. One reads with
i cijret that eagles and harriers have ceased to nest ;
that martins, barn-owls, and swallows are scarer;
i>ut, on the other hand, it is pleasant to know that
ed flycatchers, tufted ducks, great spotted wood-
ckers, jays, woodcock, and peregrine falcons have
come more numerous. The author's biographies —
! of them just what they should be — of the different
ecies, abound with interesting observations. In
eaking of the dipper, by the way, Mr. Gladstone
cords that there has been a nest in a certain stream
■r 123 years in succession. There are a score of
•rronries in the county, and the list of rookeries is a
iig one, the site of some of them dating back for
ore than 600 years. Notwithstanding that 36,000
•'>ks have been killed in the last three years, the stock
ows few signs of decimation. Incursions of sand-
ouse and of continental crossbills are recorded, the
acter species nesting apparently only for a few seasons
after such visitations.

We commend heartilv "The Birds of Dumfries-
shire " to all British ornithologists, and especiallv to
'hose north of the Solway. The volume i? provided
ith what is too often forgotten in faunistic books.
n excellent map, and, with a ffood index, a sine qiid
I j non of a book of reference, if it is to be fully useful.
' ' By the courtesy of the publishers we are able to
xemolifv its illustrations by a specimen of the twenty-
ur full-page pictures which adorn it.

NOTES.

On Monday next, January 23, an important development

Oceanographical Science will take place by the inau-

iration of the Oceanographical Institute in Paris, which

i5 been founded and endowed by the Prince of Monaco.

1 Nature of April 14 and November 3, 1910, notices

'peared of the opening of the Oceanographical Museum

unded by the Prince at Monaco, and a description of the

museum and its objects was given by Mr. J. Y. Buchanan.

\\ ith the opening of the Institute next week, a further

velopment will take place ; for the Institute will now be

•mposed of, first, the Institute at Paris ; secondly, the

'iiseum at Monaco. The Prince has described the Museum

Monaco as the workshop, and the Institute in Paris as

? retail house. The Institute is French and interna-

>nal — French because its seat is in Paris, directed by a

trench administrative committee consisting of M. Emile

I.oubet, M. W. Darboux, M. Cailletet, Dr. P. Regnard,

Mr. Georges Kohn, and Mr. Louis Mayer ; international

NO. 2 15 I, VCL. 85]

because the scientific and technical direction is in the hands
of what is termed the "Comit^ de Perfectionnement," of
which the president is the Prince of Monaco, and the vice-
president Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, while the other British
members are Sir John Murray, K.C.B., and Dr. VV. S.
Bruce. The committee also includes the names of many
eminent French, German, Scandinavian, and other oceano-
graphers. While the Museum is under the direction qt
Dr. Jules Richard, the Institute in Paris is under the
administration of Dr. P. Regnard. Three professors are
connected with the Institute — M. Joubin for biolc^icai
oceanography, M. Berget for physical oceant^raphy, and
M. Portier for the physiolc^y of marine creatures. After
the opening of the Institute on January 23 the Comite de
Perfectionnement will meet, and future arrangements for
the development of the Institute will be duly considered.

Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S., has been elected a
foreign member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences,
Stockholm.

A Reuter message from St. Petersburg announces that
the Russian Academy of Sciences has conferred honorary
membership on Prince Albert of Monaco, and has elected
the following as corresponding members : — Mr. Bryce,
British Ambassador to the L'nited States ; Prof. Lorentz,
Leyden ; Prof. Strasburger, Bonn ; and Prof. Lewes,
.Albany.

.\t the meeting of the Paris .Academy of Sciences on
January 3, the incoming president, M. Armand Gautier,
comparing the practice of the Academy with that of the
Royal Society, mentioned the fact that during the half-hour
preceding the formal opening of each meeting of the latter,
the fellows meet in the ante-room for informal con-
versation, and he expressed the hope that a similar arrange-
ment could be organised for the Academy. This would
avoid the necessity for private conversations being carried
on during the actual meeting.

It is reported from Sydney that the Science Congress —
which, we suppose, is the Australasian Association for the
.Advancement of Science — has voted 1000/. for Dr.-
Mawson's Australian .Antarctic expedition, which is start-
ing in November for the purpose of exploring the regions
between Cape Adare and the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Land.
Three Australian citizens are each contributing 1000/. to
the expedition, and other generous help has been promised.

The report referred to in a paragraph last week (p. 342),
that the town of Prjevalsk in Turkestan was destroyed by
waves of the Issil-Kul Lake during the Vyernyi earthquake
of January 3-4, proves to have been incorrect. The towns
along the northern shore of the lake, however, suffered
severely, and fifty persons were killed. It will be noticed
that the position of the epicentre as given in Dr. W. N.
Shaw's letter (p. 335) is in the immediate neighbourhood
of the lake.

According to a Press message from Winnipeg, in-
formation has reached there from Fort Churchill, on
Hudson's Bay, that the schooner Jeanie, with fifteen geo-
logical surveyors on board, was wrecked on September 9,
19 10, in a gale near Wagner inlet. After suffering great
hardships the party reached Fort Churchill on December 1,
and is now on its way to Winnipeg by dog train. The
party left Ottawa last spring to investigate the flora and
fauna in the Hudson's Bay district.

.A Reuter message from Washington states that the
members of the U.S. Geodetic Survey who have been
examining Commander Peary's Arctic observat;n-is

;8o

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

declared, during the hearing of his request for retirement
from the Navy, that the explorer went within sixteen to
ten miles of the North Pole. It is also announced from
Washington that the House Committee on Naval Affairs
has reported favourably on the Bill retiring Commander
Peary with the rank of Rear-Admiral " on account of his
Polar attainment."

A Reuter message from Berlin states that, under the
presidency of the Minister of Public Worship, a meeting
was held there on January ii to draw up a foundation
scheme for the Emperor William Society for the Encourage-
ment of Science. According to the resolutions adopted,
membership will entail an entrance fee of loooi. and a
yearly subscription of 50Z. The society will be governed
by a general assembly, a senate, and an executive com-
Tnittee. The senate will consist of ten members elected by
the society, but the power to appoint additional senators is
reserved by the Emperor, as protector.

We learn from the Revue scientifique that the French
Budget for 191 1 provides various grants to learned societies
in France. Among these may be mentioned 1400 francs to
the mathematical society ; 1000 francs each to the societies
of anthropology, zoology, biology, and botany, the pre-
historic society, the Bordeaux society of sciences, and the
Rennes society of sciences ; 600 francs to each of the
societies of meteorology, mineralogy, and the Nantes
society of sciences. Grants of 500 francs are made to
three societies, of 400 francs to three societies, and 240
francs to one society. A grant of 25,000 francs is included
for the fund available to assist scientific research.

The director of the Meteorological Office announces that
the series of meetings commenced in 1905 for the informal
discussion of important contributions to meteorological
literature, particularly those by colonial and foreign
meteorologists, will be continued this year. The meetings
will be held on the following Mondays, at 5 p.m. ; —
January 23, February 6 and 20, March 6 and 20. At the
opening meeting on Monday next, Prof. Grossmann will
open a discussion on the relation between the tempera-
tures of the North Atlantic Ocean, and of North-West and
Central Europe. The subjects suggested for discussion at
subsequent meetings are as follows : — Meteorologische
Optik, J. M. Pernter; Cloud Report, Part ii., H. H.
Hildebrandsson ; scientific results of the Scotia, 1902-4,
R. C. Mossman ; Einfluss des Windes auf die Fahrt von
Dampfern, P. Heidke ; on the influence of the earth's
rotation on ocean currents, W. Ekman ; on the influence of
forests on rainfall and the probable effect of deboisement
in agriculture in Mauritius, . A. Walter ; climatological
diagrams, John Ball ; on the double diurnal variations of
the velocity of the wind at Nagasaki, Y. Tsuiji ; the
amount of radium emanation in the atmosphere, J. Satterly.

A CIRCULAR letter has been issued by the British
Executive Committee of the International Hygiene Exhibi-
tion, to be held in Dresden this year, directing attention
to the fact that the British Government has declined the
invitation to participate in the exhibition. All the chief
States of the world, with the single exception of Great
Britain, have accepted the invitation, and have voted sub-
stantial sums in aid thereof- The British committee is
therefore appealing for io,oooZ., which is necessary if
Britain is to be represented at the exhibition. Contribu-
tions, or promises Jhereof, should be sent immediately to
the secretary, 47, Victoria Street, S.W.

In a letter to the Times, January 11, the* chairman
(the Bishop of Ripon) and the executive committee of the
National League for Physical Education and Improvement
NO. 2 151, VOL. 85]

direct attention to three leaflets issued by the league deal-
ing with the question of a pure milk supply. These have
been prepared by Sir John McFadyean, Prof. Sim{)soki,
Mr. F. E. Freemantle, and Dr. J. F. Sykes. One leaflet,
intended for " farmers and other milk producers," con-
tains advice upon the care of cows, the precautions to be
observed by the milkers, the treatment of the cowsheds,
the cleansing of utensils, storage, and the danger of human
infection. In a second leaflet, " distributors and retailers "
are informed of the steps which they should take with
regard to dairies and milk shops, infection, contamination,
and souring, storage, and sale, utensils, and cleanliness
during delivery. The third leaflet contains a number of
hints for the benefit of " housewives and all consumers
milk."

An interesting observation, dealing with a very obscu
phenomenon of alcoholic fermentation, was communicated
at a meeting of the Institute of Brewing on January 9 by
Mr. O. Overbeck. In endeavouring to prepare a non-
alcoholic beer by removing the alcohol from ordinary beer
by a stream of carbon dioxide, Mr. Overbeck states that lie
found that the beer after this treatment recovered a part
of its alcohol content when cooled and aerated with carbon
dioxide. Thus, beers which after the removal of alcohol
contained only 02 per cent, of this substance were found
after treatment with carbon dioxide in the cold to contain
as much as i to 1-5 and even 2 per cent. As the liquids
were in all cases practically free from yeast, this remark-
able production of alcohol cannot easily be explained in the
light of our present knowledge. It may be due to some
purely chemical effect or to the presence of some unsus-
pected ferment in the beer, the action of which becomes
noticeable under the conditions of the experiment. Con-
firmation of the observations and further experiments on
the nature of the phenomenon will be awaited with great
interest.

The scientific career of Col. George Strahan, who died
last week at seventy-one years of age, is described in The
Times of January 16, as follows: "After serving for a
short time in the Irrigation Branch of the Public Works
Department in India he was appointed to the Survey De-
partment, in which he continued for the rest of his service.
The early portion of his survey career was passed in the
Topographical Branch, and many thousand square miles of
country in Rajputana and Mysore, as well as in other parts,
were surveyed by him and the officers under him. In later
years he was employed in the electric determination of
longitudes in India and between India and Greenwich, for
which work he was specially suited. He rose to be Super-
intendent of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, and also
acted for a short time as Surveyor-General."

Time was when the expression " the tsetse-fly " was
understood to mean simply the species Glossina 77torsitans,
Westwood. Indeed, the name is still often used in this
sense by many writers ; not long ago Prof. Kleine created
a sensation in the daily Press by the statement that " the
tsetse " did not transmit sleeping sickness, meanin^
thereby, G. morsitans, but producing the mistak
impression that he had proved G. palpalis to be innocent .
in the matter of spreading the disease. Oiie newspaper 1
even went so far as to state that Kleine had disproved an
connection between G. palpalis and sleeping sicknf-
Austen, in his standard monograph of the genus Glossina, ^
recognised seven species of tsetses, and acknowledged, sub- •
sequently, the validity of an eighth, G. tachinoidr^
Westw. In a paper noticed recently in Nature (Decemb
29, 1910, p. 279), Mr. Newstead brings the number cl

January 19, 191 1]

NATURE

3S1

lecies up to eleven, and proposes to distribute them
nongst three distinct genera. The problems involved are

> no means of purely academic interest, but have the

:most practical importance from the known fact that
fferent species of tsetses are instrumental in transmitting
- different species of trypanosomes that produce diseases

. man and animals, and it is a matter of urgent necessity
determine exactly the various species of these flies and

>? limits of their distribution.

Is its issue of January 6, the Times announces the
ant by the Treasury of 40,000/. to the Board of Agri-
, Iture and Fisheries for the encouragement of light
rse breeding in Great Britain. In administering the
ant, the Board will have the assistance of a special
ivisory Council. The purposes of the grant are five in
:mber, namely : — -(i) the award of premiums to stallions ;
• awards for the purchase of half-bred working brood-
ares for location in specified districts; (3) free nomina-
ns for suitable mares for service by premium or
proved stallions ; (4) the purchase — for re-sale — of
llions; (5) the voluntary registration of stallions. The
vards to stallions will be of two classes, viz. King's
miums and the Board's premiums, the former to be
en to stallions at the ensuing spring show in London,
d the latter to animals exhibited at other spring shows
selected by the Board. In an article on the grant in
Daily Telegraph of January- 11, it is stated that certain
rhorities consider that it will increase the supply of
rtters, cobs, &c., and ask what means are provided to
ate a demand for this increased stock. Owing to the
-ready development of motor traction, the demand for
light horses is not increasing, and will probably become
still smaller, so that unless the War Office is prepared to
increase largely its purchases, it is difficult to see where
breeders are to find a market.

P.4RT ix. of the fifth volume of the Annals of the South
African Museum is devoted to a revised list of the local
reptiles and amphibians, with descriptions of new species,
by Mr. G. A. Boulenger. In connection with this may be
mentioned a list of East African reptiles and amphibians,
by Mr. S. E. Meek, published by the Field Museum at
Chicago (Zool. Ser., vol. vii., No. 11), based on a collec-
tion made from 1905 to 1907.

According to the Egyptian Morning Xetvs of December
20, 1910, Captain Stanley Fk>wer has been unusually
successful in his eleventh coUeqting trip to the Sudan,
from which he returned with no fewer than 170 live
animals for the zoological gardens at Giza, tt^ether with
a number of museum specimens. The rarities include a
Sudani galago (Galago teng), a white-tailed mongoose in
which the whole tail is (abnormally) black, and a cow
buffalo from the Blue Nile, the last-mentioned race being
already represented in the gardens by a bull.

In our own Zoological Gardens it is intended to display
a special exhibition of African animals during the coming
summer. Some out of a series of birds collected for the
King were received at the gardens a few months ago, and
it is announced in the Field of January 7 that half a
dozen mammals brought home by H.R.H. the Duke of
Connaught. These include a couple of meerkets, two
specimens of the Cape zorille, or muishund, as the animal
is called by the Boers, a Sykes's guenon, and a Malagasy
ring-tailed lemur. These animals were presented to Prin-
cess Patricia of Connaught by the Chief Lewanika.

In British Birds for Januan,-, Messrs. Witherby and
Hartert, after referring to the distinctness of the English
jay (Garrulus glandarius rufitergum) from the txpical Con-
-NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

tinental representative of the species, announce that, in
their opinion, the Irish jay is likewise entitled to rank as
a local race. Compared with British specimens, the Irish
jay (G. g. hibernicus) has the feathers of the sides of the
head and ear-crests markedly darker and more rufous,
while there is a tendency to a similar darkening all over
the under-parts, and the crest is conspicuously darker.
The Irish jay is mainly restricted to Leinster and the
adjacent districts of Munster, although of late years it
has spread into the south of Ulster. The Irish repre-
sentatives of two other birds — the water ouzel and the
coal titmouse — have recently been described as local forms.
Whether we are any the forwarder for such splitting-up
of species may be a question.

We are indebted to Mr. W. H. Shrubsole for a copy of
an unpublished article on the contrast between the protec-
tion accorded to useful birds in Hungary and Great
Britain. The Hungarian Government employs the services
of an ornithological expert, and from the results thereby
attained has been enabled to draw up a series of enact-
ments which appear admirably adapted for the protection
of all species beneficial to the agriculturist. Hea\'}' fines
are enacted on the conviction of offenders against these
Acts, while rewards are offered to the writers of the best
essays on bird-protection. Other paragraphs in the Acts
prohibit the possession or transport of scheduled birds or
their nests and eggs. On the other hand, the British Acts
for the protection of wild birds are, in the author's opinion,
altogether inadequate. Attention is also directed to the
use in Italy of huge nets — some half a mile in length and
of great height — for the capture of swallows and other
migrattMA' birds.

Ix the issue of Nature of October 6 last (vol. Ixxxiv.,
p. 428) a letter was published from Prof. T. D. A.
Cockerell containing some interesting information concern-
ing the fur trade. Prof. Cockerell gave extracts from a
detailed synonymy contained in the retail catalogue of an
important American firm dealing in furs, which showed
how far the furs bought from shops may be identified
from the names under which they are sold. A letter to
the Morning Post of Januarv" 12, from Mr. E. M. Kirwan,
raises the same point, and offers a warning to the public
in the form of a list showing the proper names of the
various furs and the permissible descriptions sanctioned bv
the Fur and Skin Section of the London Chamber of
Commerce and the London Drapers' Chamber of Trade.
Mr. Kirwan 's list is as follows: —

Name of Fur. Permissible Description.

American sable Canadian sable c«- real sable.

Fitch dyed Sable fitch.

Goats dyed Bear goat.

Hare dyed Sable hare or fox hare.

Kids Caracul kids.

Marmot dyed Sable marmot, mink marmot,

or skunk marmot.

Mink dyed Sable mink.

Musquash dyed Mink musquash or sable

musquash.

Musquash pulled and dyed Seal musquash.

Nutria pulled and dyed ... Seal nutria.

Nutria pulled, natural Beaver nutria or otter nutria.

0|>ossum sheared and dyed Beaver opossum.

Otter pulled and dyed Seal otter.

Rabbit dyed Sable coney.

Rabbit sheared and dyed ... Seal coney or musquash

coney.

Rab'oit, w^hite Mock ermine.

Rabbit, white, dyed Chinchilla coney.

Wallaby sheared and dyed Skunk wallaby.

White hare Imitation fox <h- mock fox.

White hairs inserted in

foxes and sables Pointed.

o"-

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

In a recent number (December, 1910) which has reached
«us of the Leipzig Neue Weltanschauung Prof. Max Kasso-
-witz, of Vienna, criticises the views of those biologists
who consider that the main cause -of the origin of species
is to be found in natural selection. His objections are all
tolerably familiar. He points out, for example, that the
analogy from artificial selection is not complete. The
breeder selects characters from motives of curiosity and
the like, not because they are useful to the form dealt
with, but because they are useful or interesting to him-
self. Moreover, in order to maintain his artificially pro-
•duced race, he has to exercise a far more rigid selection
than can take place in nature. When left to themselves,
such strains rapidly revert. The Lamarckian explanation
must be resorted to, not merely for the atrophy and dis-
appearance of disused organs, but also for the enhanced
•development of frequently used parts. Evidence of this is
afforded by Darwin's comparison of the wing and leg
bones of tame and wild ducks. If it is once admitted,
the author remarks, that the changes produced by use or
disuse can pass over to the offspring by means of the
germ-plasm, there is no further reason for doubting the
•general transmissibility of acquired characters or the
influence of this principle on every change that takes place
in the course of the development of species. Natural
-selection, he declares, has not hindered the peculiar
susceptibility of mankind to certain forms of disease. In
these cases the working of a Lamarckian factor can be
traced, not of the nature of Darwin's pangenesis, to which
there are obvious objections, but more probably a circula-
tion of specific atom-complexes derived from the dis-
integration of protoplasmic molecules. Prof. Kassowitz's
contentions have been heard before, and abundantly
answered. Had he taken into account the results of
Mendelian research, it is plain that some of them would
never have been advanced. The concluding argument of
his paper, on the subject of disease toxins, is ingenious,
"but unconvincing.

A REVIEW of the development of the Ligulataj, i.e. the
■genera Selaginella and Isoetes, communicated by Dr. G.
Ritter to Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift (December
II, 1910), traverses the investigations by Bruchmann into
the various modifications of the prothalli and embryo in
■Selaginella, and describes similar stages in Isoetes.

The list of seeds of hardy herbaceous plants, shrubs, and
trees available for exchange with botanic gardens and
regular correspondents, annually published by the director
of Kew Gardens, has lately been issued in the usual form
as Appendix i to the Kew Bulletin, 1911. The list is a
short one, presumably reflecting the past unfavourable
season, during which the gentians and cotoneasters have
yielded the best results.

A SKETCH of the flora of the Samoa Islands is con-
tributed by Dr. F. Vaupel to Engler's Botanische Jahr-
biicher (Beiblatt, No. cii.), with reference to his collections
of plants gathered chiefly on the island of Savaii. The
flora falls into the Melanesian division of the Malayan
region while showing affinities with the floras of Australia
and New Zealand. In common with other insular floras
•cryptogams are abundant, and the ferns supply 200 species
as compared with 600 flowering plants. Two of the most
typical are Angiopteris evecta and the small tree-fern
Todea Fraseri ; Tmesipteris tannensis, two species of
Psilotum, and Botrychium daucifolium are reckoned among
the rarer pteridophyta. A unique feature of some of the
lagoons is the thick growth of Acrostichum aureum along-
side the brackish water, and a peculiar vegetation, consist-

No. 21-:, ":l. S^^

ing of a tangle of Gleichenia dichotoma, Pteris heterophylla,
and Imperata arundinacea penetrated by masses of
Lycopodiutn cernuum, covers the tufa soil on the plateaux.
Among phanerogams, the orchids are well developed, also
the dicotyledonous genera Psychotria, Cyrtandra, an!
Elatostemma.

Bulletin 124 of the West Virginia Experiment Station
deals with factors influencing the vigour of incubated
chickens. Incubators operated without moisture gave
rather better results than those where moisture was sup-
plied, but the author is not prepared to assert that the
difference is real. Indeed, this old controversy whether a
moist or a dry atmosphere should be maintained in an
incubator has not yet been satisfactorily settled. It has
been suggested that the chick embryos have a certain
power of adapting themselves to different degrees of
humidity during their development.

The Bulletin de la Socidtd d' Encouragement pour
rindustrie nationale (No. 9) contains an interesting report,
by M. Maurice Alfassa, on economic imperialism in Great
Britain, in which he deals fully with the efforts now being
made to promote cotton growing within the British
Empire and to study the problems to which it gives rise.
He advises that our African experiments should be closely
watched, as some of the conditions are not dissimilar to
those obtaining in the French African possessions, and
considers that if it is worth our while to try to raise
our own cotton it is equally worth while for France.

The current number of the .igricultural Journal of
India (vol. v., part iv.) is up to its usual level of interest,
and contains several well-illustrated articles dealing with
native agricultural practices, and with possible improve-
ments on them. Mr. Keatinge gives a well-written
account of the rural economy of the Bombay Deccan, both
in its western part, where there is a moderate rainfall and
a certain amount of irrigation, and where, consequently,
good garden crops can be grown, and in its eastern por-
tion, where a heavy black soil occurs, but rainfall and
irrigation are both deficient ; here the typical crops are
jowari and cotton. The population naturally follows the
water supply ; in the western part it is not uncommon to
find the cultivator living on his holding and working
industriously at it ; in the eastern part, however, the
cultivators' Houses are confined to the villages on account
of the public wells, and much less work is done on the
fields. A description is given in another article of the
new agricultural college at Coimbatore, Madras, and Mr.
Gammie reproduces the paper on cotton cultivation
India that he presented to the Brussels Congress last Ma

The monthly meteorological chart of the North Atlant
Ocean for January, issued by .the Deutsche Seewart
explains the good use made of radiotelegraphy for d
seminating weather and storm-warning notices to vessels
and small craft in the North and Baltic Seas, (i) The I
wireless station at Norddeich follows its time signal '
ih. p.m. by a short summary received from the Seewa:
of the weather conditions over Europe at 8h. a.m., wi;
forecasts for the above-mentioned localities. (2) Wh'
necessary, storm-warnings are sent to the same station,
and are received by vessels having wireless apparatus and
repeated by them by means of day and night signal -
(3) Storm-warnings are also sent by the Seewarte to i'
fishery cruiser in the North Sea, and repeated by ordina:
signals by day, and at night by searchlight, for the bene:,
of fishing-boats. (4) Storm-warnings intended only for the
Baltic coast are disseminated in a similar manner by the
wireless station at Biilk.

January 19, 191 i]

NATURE

38,

The descent of a sphere in a viscous liquid was studied

V Basset in 1887, but the equation of motion was only

ntegrated by successive approximation. Since that time

he subject has been discussed in the Alti dei Lincei for

107 by Prof. Picciati and Dr. Tommaso Boggio. In the

Juarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics,

so. 164 (1910), Mr. Basset gives a general investigation

f the problem, based on the work of the two Italian

writers. One notable feature of the work is that the

iscosity enters into the Stokes' current-function solution

: a way that it did not enter in the earlier solutions of

".e problems.

In a paper on the imaginary in geometry-, contributed

^ the University Studies, Lincoln, Nebraska, x., 1., Prof.

Ellery W. Davis discusses geometrical properties connected

with a mode of representing points in two-dimensional

space the coordinates of which are both complex variables.

He takes a so-called " black " point P' the coordinates

: f which are the real parts of the variables, and from it

iraws a " red vector " the compounds of which are the

maginary parts, the extremity being a " blue " point P*

he coordinates of which measure the real parts plus the

laginary coefficients.

I The Revue scientifique for December 31, 1910, contains
||e address delivered by M. H. Le Chatelier at the College
France on December 18 in connection with the cere-
jnies commemorating the centenary of the birth of
Jnault. In the course of his address M. Le Chatelier
ferred to several facts in the early life of Regnault not
toerally known. An orphan without means, he spent his
juth as an assistant in a fancy bazaar, and at the age
twenty-two entered as a student at the Ecole des Mines.
|e rose immediately to a prominent position as one of
most promising pupils, and at the qualifying examina-
3ns in May, 1834, after two years only of study, he
ssed brilliantly. For some strange reason the Govern-
ent refused to nominate him student engineer along with
is successful fellow-students, but insisted on a further
vo years' course at the Ecole. During this period he
lised himself by his chemical researches to the front rank
chemists, and it was only on the appointment of a
jvernment commission on the steam engine in 1843 that
commenced that series of measurements in the domain
physics which for accuracy remained unique for half a
entur}-.

In N.ature for August, 11, 1910, we directed the atten-

>n of our readers to a communication to the Vienna

|cademy of Sciences, which appeared in the Physikalische

ilschrift for July 15, and gave a preliminary account of

l»e measurements of quantities of electricity less than the

Jectron or " atom of electricity," by Dr. F. Ehrenhaft, of

"he University of Vienna. The complete account of the

Measurements is now available in the Siizungsberichte of

academy for May, 1910. Since our previous note, Prof.

[illikan has published in Science for September, 1910, an

count of his measurements of the charges on drops of

il produced by an " atomiser " or sprayer. He concludes

from them that the atomic charge of electricity is

49x10-" electrostatic units. Dr. Ehrenhaft points out

in his complete paper that many of Prof. Millikin's results

do not fit in with his conclusion. The June (1910) number

of the Sitzungsberichte contains Dr. K. Przibram's

measurements of the charges on the fine particles of mists

produced by electrolysis of a solution of potassium hydrate,

by the spark discharge in moist air, by hydrochloric acid,

or by phosphorus in moist air. His resuhs confirm those

of Dr. Ehrenhaft, so that there is a serious diflference of

<q)inion between the Viennese and other observers on the

NO. 2151, VOL. 85]

fundamental question of the existence of atomic charges uf
electricity.

The paper read by Major O'Meara, C.M.G., on sub-
marine cables for long-distance telephone circuits, at the
Institution of Electrical Engineers on January 12, when
Mr. Herbert Samuel, the Postmaster-General, was present,
will be welcomed by electrical engineers. The paper gave
in the first place a brief description of the first telephone
cable of notable length ; and after touching shortly on the
differences in subsequent cables laid across the Channel —
which varied very little from the original — proceeded to
describe the latest telephone cable laid last }ear between
Dover and Cape Gris Nez. This cable was specially
designed to improve the clearness of speech over the line,
and also to enable more distant parts of the Continent to
be in direct communication with England. To overcome
the indistinctness, to which all long-distance telephone
cables are liable, small induction coils are inserted in the
cable. The theory of this was first propounded by Messrs.
Heaviside and Pupin, and is embodied in the present " coil
loaded " cable. Two double coils are required for the four
conductors and are inserted at a distance of one knot
(1153 miles) apart, each coil being just under six ohms
resistance. The two coils nearest the ends of the cable are
only half a knot from the terminal instruments, this having
been found to give the best results. It is essential, having
regard to the maintenance of these cables, that the coils
should be evenly distributed, as in repairing cables inter-
mediate lengths have to be inserted. So long as the coil
spacing is not altered beyond five per cent, on either side,
no noticeable impairment to speech will take place. The
importance of this fact will be appreciated when the list
of repairs on existing telephone cables is taken into
account. It was doubtful when the cable was designed as
to how the mechanical difficulty of securing the coils in
the cable would be overcome, owing to the increase of size
at the points where the coils are inserted, and also the
difficulty of the increased thicknesses passing over the
drums when laying the cable. These difficulties were
successfully overcome and a special paying-out drum was
employed, the cable being payed out without passing it
under the dynamometer wheel. The paper gives a full
description of the laying of the cable ; and the complete
specification of the cable is contained in one of the many
appendices attached thereto. L"nder the previous existing
conditions, conversation could be carried on over a
distance of 250 miles, but with the new " coil-loaded "
cable a distance of 850 miles is possible.

TiTB current number (January 10) of the Comptes rendus
of the Paris Academy contains an account of a new general
method of preparing anhydrous metallic chlorides, bv Ed.
Chauvenet. The method recently proposed by Matignon
and Bourion, based on the use of a mixture of chlorine
and sulphur chloride, is efficient, but the method now^
proposed is simpler in that phosgene is used, a substance
commercially obtainable in the liquid form in bombs. The
oxide of the metal is placed in a boat, and heated in a
slow stream of the carbonyl chloride ; the metallic chloride,
if it is volatile, sublimes a little in advance of the boat in
crystals, the temperature required varying between 350° C.
and 650** C. Of the numerous oxides tried only silica was
unacted upon, a fact which will be of seri'ice in separating
siilca from other metallic oxides, such as the oxides of
tungsten, tantalum, or titanium. Titanium and tungsten
furnished oxychlorides, but in all the other cases examined
the pure anhydrous chloride was obtained.

At the students' meeting of the Institution of Civil
Engineers, held on January 6, Mr. G. F. Davidson read a

;84

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

paper entitled " The Measurement of Boiler Deformations."
The author described a novel and ingenious method of
ascertaining the deformation and corresponding stress by
means of a mirror attached to the point on the shell to be
examined and a telescope sighted on to the mirror, the
reflected reading of a graduated scale being observed and
the angular deflection thereby ascertained.

We learn from a note in the Builder for January 13
that M. Knauth, in reporting on the settlement in Strass-
burg Cathedral, states that the chief cause is the defective
condition of the foundations beneath the north tower. The
foundations consist of two walls running north to south
and east to west, and are constructed of rubble and cement
on argillaceous soil, in which some timber piles had been
driven. The piles are badly decayed, and the interior
pillar of the tower is said to be virtually unsupported for
a length of 2 metres, as a layer of vegetable earth is inter-
posed between the foundations and the base of the pillar.
Like many fabrics of the same class in this and other
countries, Strassburg Cathedral was built in different
epochs, one result being that the foundations have now
to carry loads greater than those contemplated by the
original designer. This point is illustrated by the state-
ment that the present foundation load is upwards of
25 tons per square foot. The remedy proposed is the
underpinning of all defective foundations.

A Blue-book has just been issued giving account of
the engine trials at the National Physical Laboratory for
the award of the prize of loooZ. offered by Mr. Patrick
Y. Alexander. These trials form the subject of an article
in Engineering for January 13, from which we gather
that six engines were entered, but only three arrived
before the date fixed. These were : — (i) the Wolseley Tool
and Motor-car Company, Birmingham ; (2) Messrs.
Humber ; and (3) the Aster Engineering Company,
Wembley Park (entered by Green's Motor Patents
Syndicate). Not one of these engines was able to fulfil
the conditions of the test fully. The first was pulled up
by a leak in the copj>er oil pipe leading from the pump
to the oil well, a defect which led to other mishaps. The
Humber motor ran steadily at 37 brake-horse-power at
1224 revolutions per minute for 113 hours, and then stopped
suddenly with one of the cylinders broken off and two
connecting rods buckled. The Green engine was more
fortunate. It had to stop for a new sparking plug, and
then ran, making approximately 31-5 brake-horse-power at
12 13 revolutions per minute, until the completion of the
twenty-four hours' run. In a special test of seven
minutes, the motor developed 36-4 brake-horse-power at
1390 revolutions per minute. The prize has not been
awarded, but we understand that the donor has generously
presented a cheque for 200I. to the makers of the Green
engine, which came nearest to the conditions of award.

Messrs. J. and A. Churchill have just ready for publi-
cation a new edition of another volume of " Allen's Com-
mercial Organic Analysis." It is vol. iv. under the new
arrangement, and has been rewritten under the editorship
of Mr. W. A. Davis and Mr. S. S. Sadtler.

Messrs. Williams and Norgate announce for earlv
publication a translation into English of Prof. Wilhelm
Ostwald's work entitled "Natural Philosophy." This
work, the translation of which will be revised bv the
author, gives a resumd of modern natural philosophy, based
not upon metaphysics, but upon the sciences ; and it aims
at providing a complete synthesis of the results of. the
specialisation of last centurv.

NO. 2 15 1, VOL. 85]

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

Nova Lacert^e. — A brief note in No. 4464 of ili
Astronomische Nachrichten announces that Prof. Max
Wolf has found a twelfth- or thirteenth-magnitude star in
the position of Nova Lacertae on plates taken some year-
ago at the Konigstuhl Observatory. The previous preseni
of a faint object does not, of course, necessarily preclud
the star discovered by Mr. Espin from being of th
" novae " type, although in most cases the pre-existem
of matter in the identical position is assumed rather tha
demonstrated; before the catastrophe which produces th
extraordinary outburst of light, the object is usually too
faint to be detected on our photographs.

'More precise spectrum observations than those yet pub-
lished will permit us to determine whether the outbur-
was of the catastrophic nature which produces typical
" novae " or whether it is simply a case of a peculiar
variable ; up to the present, the unfavourable English
skies, combined with the faintness of the object, hav
prevented definitive observations. Seven or eight brig!
lines have been observed at the Cambridge Observator\ .
and it is worthy of note that they have not the broad
appearance of lines seen in the spectra of novae.

It is to be regretted that the " nova " was not dis-
covered earlier, for we understand that Prof. Pickering
has found images of it, on plates taken about the end < ■
November, 19 10, showing it to be of approximately th
same photographic magnitude (about 5-0) as the star
9 Lacertae shown on the chart which we gave in last
week's issue ; on December 30, 1910, its magnitude was
about 7-0. Referring to these facts, at the Newcastle
Astronomical Society, Mr. Espin pointed out that for some
three weeks the star was visible to the naked eye, yet no
one observed it. It was not visible on the Harvard plates
on November 19, so that its rise to the fifth magnitude
must have been rapid. Mr. Espin suggests that these
observations conclusively prove the object to be a rea'
nova. A plate taken at Harvard in December, i8<S7.
although it shows faint stars, shows no trace of the nova.

Mr. Bellamy estimated the visual magnitude on
January 2 as 75, and recorded the colour as orange. It
will probably be found, as with other novae, that there is
a certain difference between the photographic and visual
magnitudes, due to the presence of radiations visually
inert, and this is suggested by the fact, stated by th
Astronomer Royal, that the photographs taken at Green-
wich show the image of the nova to be different in appear-
ance from the other star images shown on the same plates.

The Orbits of Several Spectroscopic Binaries. — Nos.
5-8, vol. ii., of the Publications of the Allegheny Observa-
tory contain the discussions of the orbits of variou-
spectroscopic binaries under investigation at the observa
tory.

In No. 5 Mr. R. H. Baker discusses the measures of
the spectrum of 30 H. Ursae Majoris as shown on fift\
plates taken with the Mellon spectrograph in 1908-10.
He finds that the observations are not so w'ell satisfied
by the preliminary curve computed on the assumption of
simple elliptic motion, but the agreement is improved by
the introduction of a secondary oscillation. As there is n*"'
trace of the secondary component on any of the plate?,
the resulting orbit must be accepted as preliminary ; the
period is 11-5832 days.

Thirty spectrograms of 57 Cygni are discussed by the
same observer in No. 6 of the Publications. These wef^-
taken in 1909, and a comparison of the results with earlier
ones secured in 1903 establishes the period as 2-8546 day.«.
The orbits of both primary and secondary components ar-
given separately and then combined, and it appears that
the masses are not very different.

Mr. Baker also reverts to the discussion of 0 Aquilae,
in No. 7, which, from a comparison of observations made
by M. Deslandres in 1901-2 with later ones made in
1907-8 by Mr. Baker, appeared to have a variable period.
The latter observer now finds that the two observation^
of 1901 are probably erroneous, and that the period of
6 Aquilae (17-1245 days) is constant. The orbit as pub-
lished is derived from single-prism plates, where the line?
are confused, and can be only an approximation to the
true elements ; the star is bright enough, however, for

le ^

January 19, 191 1]

NATURE

385

three-prism spectrographs, which would separate the lines

d enable better elements to be derived.

In No. 8 Mr. F. C. Jordan discusses the orbit of
Tt ,'\ndromed3e from measures of iii plates taken with
the Mellon spectrograph between August, 1907, and
October, 1909, and derives a period of 143-67 days. A
point of special interest is that this binary is a helium
star with a long period, and it has been shown that heliutn
binaries are sharply divided into long and short periods.
The latter are generally less than one month, whilst the
shortest of the former class is 116 days. The increase of
eccentricity with period is also notable, the mean periods
for the two groups being 838 and 147-1 dajs, whilst the
corresponding mean eccentricities are 0-19 and 0-41 re-
spectively. T Andromedae is a notable example, the

entricity of its orbit being 0-58. The point is a very

iking one, but the data are, as yet, too meagre to
arrant speculation concerning its possible significance.

The Discovery of Kepler's Laws. — The historj- of
Kepler's labours in working out his three laws of planetary
motions is interestingly told by M. Bigourdan in No. 23
of the Revue generale des Sciences. Refused as a divine,
Kepler pursued his study of mathematics, and was
appointed professor at Gratz in 1594, then being twenty-
three years of age. But in 1599 he was, as a Protestant,
expelled from Styria, and accepted a post under Tycho
Brahe. For a number of years he endeavoured to fit
Tycho Brahe 's wonderfully accurate observations into the
geocentric system which the latter upheld, but without
success, for there was always a residual error in latitude
of 8' or 9', and this amount Kepler believed to be
impossible in such careful observations. Then, after the
master's death, he worked away at the heliocentric idea,
and succeeded, eventually, in discovering the laws which
are the basis of our knowledge of orbital motions. In his
paper M. Bigourdan introduces many other points of
interest concerning Kepler's life and methods.

Bright Bolides. — The apparitions of several bright
bolides during the latter part of 19 10 are recorded in
Nos. 37—38 of the Gazette astronomique bv M. Birken-
stock, director of the Bureau Central M^t6orique. One,
recorded by several observers at different stations, appeared
about 8.45 (C.E.T.) on August 19, and, as seen at Novi,
was about three-quarters the size of the full moon ; it then
split into two parts, each half the size of the moon, and,
leaving a train, disappeared after a flight which lasted
fbree seconds. Other bolides were recorded on September

and 23, and October 8.

The Astrographic Catalogue, Catania Zones. — We
have received part i., vol. vii., of the Catania astro-
graphic catalogue, giving the positions of 8855 stars.
These have been determined from fifteen plates covering
the region oh. to 3h. in R..A., and +52° to +54° in
declination ; excluding repetitions, the net number of new
positions is 7872. Tables for the geometrical corrections
for zone +53°, with their arguments, and ten-year pre-
cession constants up to the year 2000, are also given.

CONFERENCES OF MATHEMATICAL

TEACHERS AND OF PUBLIC SCHOOL

SCIENCE MASTERS.

T^HE annual meeting of the Mathematical Association
was held at the London Day Training College on
January 11, and the science masters met in the same
building on January 11 and 12. The officials of the
college and of the respective associations made admirable
arrangements, which conduced to the success of the
gatherings both from the working and the social aspects.

Prof. H. H. Turner presided at the mathematical meet-
ings, and in his address gave a historical resume of the
recent advance of " the astronomical regiment " under
the leadership of Pickering, Stratton, Perrine, Melotte,
and Cowell. He described the discoveries of the new
satellites of Saturn and Jupiter, and the revelations into
the past of planets which resulted from an examination
of the orbits of these satellites. The members present,
rnostly teachers in schools, were greatlv interested in the
" news from the front " of the mathernatical armv. The

xNO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

annual report showed a large increase in membership and
an expansion of the Mathematical Gazette.

Mr. G. Goodwill read a paper on the teaching of
elementary mechanics, in which he recommended that
dynamics should precede statics, and that the idea of
change of velocity should be treated as a basal concept
necessary for a proper approach to the subject. He
showed an extremely simple ballistic pendulum used for
measurements of change of momentum. By abandoning
the usual uniplanar arrangement, he has at once simplified
the exercises and tangibly increased their didactic v^lue.

Canon J. M. Wilson described two fragments of ancient
geometrical treatises found in the Worcester Cathedral
Library. The first was written by Gerbert, who became
Pope Sylvester H. in 979. At that time Euclid was known
only to the Moors, and Gerbert failed in his attempt to
enter the University of Granada. The second fragment
dated from the early part of the twelfth century, and was
written by a monk of Bath named Adelhard or .-Ethelhard.
He succeeded in learning Arabic and entering the Uni-
versities of Granada, Cordova, and Seville by professing
to be a Mohammedan. The fragment discovered by Canon
Wilson proved to be part of a translation of Euclid from
the Arabic into Latin. This translation was used in all
the schools of Europe until 1583, when Euclid's own Greek
text became known.

Mr. A. W. Siddons presented an important report by
the Mathematical Association Committee " On the Teach-
ing of Algebra and Trigonometry " (published by Bell
and Sons, price 3d.). The report dealt with the function
of algebra in the school curriculum for boys who were
not likely to specialise in mathematics, and aimed particu-
larly at giving teachers opportunit>- to develop with their
pupils mathematical ideas of great educational value —
ideas drawn from mechanics, mensuration, solid geo-
metry, infinitesimal calculus, and more especially from
numerical trigonometry. Mr. F. W. Dobbs (Eton)
thought the recommendations went too far, whereas Mr.
Barnard said that the Rugby masters thought the sug-
gested syllabus was inadequate. Other speakers supported
the views of the authors, and the general effect of the
discussion was to strengthen the hands of the committee
and to endorse their conclusions. The meeting referred to
the committee a paper read by Mr. C. \'. Durell. who
urged that much commercial arithmetic should be omitted
in order to find time for work more productive of mathe-
matical intelligence.

.Among interesting exhibits were a projection of the
earth's surface on a cube, shown by Prof. Turner, a
celestial cylinder by Dr. T. P. Nunn, and apparatus illus-
trating Mr. Goodwill's paper. Prof. E. W. Hobson has
accepted the office of president for the coming year.

Sir E. Ray Lankester opened the science masters' meet-
ing with an address upon " Compulsory Science z'ersus
Compulsory Greek." The main question he desired to
raise was whether the right choice of subjects for study
was made in our public schools, and whether it was right
and proper, as he should suggest, to cease altc^ether the
cumbrous efforts to teach the Greek language to school-
boys and to substitute for it as a regular and necessarv
part of the curriculum a well-considered, duly adapted,
and skilfully designed course of instruction in natural
science — using that term in the most comprehensive sense.
The results of education were not transmitted by physio-
logical heredity. Every individual born had to begin its
education on a blank sheet. But man had created for
himself a gigantic and overpowering possession, a sort of
physical envelope of customs, taboos, traditions, laws and
knowledge, which, though not transmitted to new in-
dividuals at birth as part of their structure, was yet a
heritage by which man was educated. This heritage was
put into his jjossession by gesture ; by word spoken,
written, or printed ; by law ; by the training given in
the nursery and school : and by the experience of life.
Individuals did not start equal, and it was the business
of the educator to ascertain the various degrees of educa-
bilitv- in the young and to adapt the course of education
administered to them to their varying aptitudes. The
well-educated man was he who had been enabled most
fully to benefit by the accumulated inheritance of human
knowledge and experience, and to enter on manhood as
the heir of all the ages. The true Greek spirit was

;86

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

realised, was, in fact, reborn, and existed in our present
phase of civilisation in the splendid creations and the
self-reliant, hopeful, and sober enthusiasm of the men of
science of the nineteenth century. The Greeks, were they
able to visit us now, would have nothing but contempt
for our Greek compulsionists. At the conclusion of his
address he proposed a possible and desirable course of
-school education when compulsory science had banished
the usurper — compulsory Greek.

Sir William Tilden, in proposing a vote of thanks,
pointed out the advances made in the schools during recent
years, and mentioned that the boys who were compelled
to learn Greek were fewer than those obliged to study
science.

Sir J. J. Thomson was elected president for the coming
year.

Mr. A. Vassall read a paper on the education of
medical students, and explained the powers which the
General Medical Council actually possess, and referred to
further powers to which the General Medical Council
appear to lay claim. He deprecated any attempt on the
part of the Medical Council to dictate a syllabus of
■general, as distinct from technical, education. Prof.
Osier, in the course of the discussion, supported the view
that the early scientific training of medical students could
be undertaken by public schools.

In his paper on the experimental determination of the
equivalent of magnesium, Mr. W. M. Hooton explained
the complex reactions which actually occur when
magnesium is heated in a porcelain crucible. .As usually
performed, the products include, in addition to the oxide
of the metal, magnesium nitride and silicide, carbon, and
•possibly silicon. We should like to see more papers of
this type, for there are many text-book exercises in vogue,
both in class and in examinations, which call for careful
revision. Mr. Hooton did not only succeed in the
-analytical investigation — he further developed a revised
and satisfactory manner of performing this quantitative
exercise which is of considerable value in an elementary
course.

A good discussion was evoked by Mr. Eggar's paper on
teaching English in connection with science lessons. The
opener and Mr. Lewis, who followed, dwelt mainly on the
Taults prevalent in boys' notes, but subsequent speakers
■offered constructive suggestions for improvement. Prof.
R. \. Gregory asked that more prominence be given to
the romance of science. Scientific work of the last ten
years had been concentrated on the drudgery of the labora-
tory, and the inspiration of early days had been neglected.
This neglect was detrimental to scientific progress, and he
wished schools more effectually to cultivate interest in
the higher aspects of science. Dr. Gow (Westminster)
said that the difficulty in regard to accurate language was
felt in every branch of school teaching. After a long
and interesting debate, the chairman suggested the possi-
bility of a correlation report, to be drawn up in associa-
tion with teachers of English.

.Another useful debate arose on the question of "W^ave
Theory versus Rays " in the teaching of light, the respec-
tive protagonists being Mr. J. Talbot and Mr. C. F. Mott.
Dr. T. P. Nunn uttered a needed caveat against dogmatic
exposition of ideas relating to the aether, and showed how
simply some of the most useful formula; of optics could
be obtained by heuristic lessons without unverified assump-
tions. The outcome of the discussion appeared to us to
be that it was possible to secure the .presentation of useful
concepts of the wave theory to a class of boys of age
sixteen, and that the process was valuable educationally.

Mr. R. W. Sloley contributed a paper on teaching con-
cepts of energv and potential.

The exhibition of scientific apparatus and books was
of large extent and good quality. Twelve of the best
known firms in the trade had arranged extensive exhibits,
which included not a few novelties. There were also
about forty pieces of apparatus contributed by the members
of the association, in some instances the handiwork of
pupils. Half a dozen leading publishers sent their latest
books on science subjects, and it was satisfactory to note
the large proportion of advanced books which were shown,
^ost of the members and guests devoted a considerable
time to the examination of the exhibits, which were well

NO. 2 15 I, VOL, 85]

displayed, and suggested many practical aids to work in
laboratory and lecture-room.

In promoting social intercourse among science and
mathematical masters from various parts of the country,
this year's congress was even more successful than its
predecessors. Much of the credit for this must be given
to Mr. D. J. P. Berridge, who is retiring from the oftica
of honorary secretary after giving to the Public School
Science Masters' Association several years of hard,
successful work. G. F. D.

GEOLOGY OF THE BRITISH ISLES.
A .MONG the later memoirs of the Geological Survey of
■^ Great Britain, for which Mr. T. Fisher Unwin is
wholesale agent, is that accompanying Sheet 142 of th^
i-inch map, on " The Geology of the Melton Mowbray
District and South-east Nottinghamshire," by Messrs.
Lamplugh, Gibson, Wedd, Sherlock, and Smith (price
25. 3d.). The map (price 15. 6d.) is a good one for show-
ing the irregular distribution of boulder-clay across the
ridge of Middle Lias, and its cessation in the Vale of
Belvoir. Rhaetic beds are recognised above the " to
green marls " of the Keuper in the north and west. 1
the memoir it is pointed out that the Vale of Belvoir
must have lain in the glaciated region, but was an area
of stripping rather than of accumulation. Melton Mow-
bray probably stands over a concealed coalfield, which
has been proved by borings to the north-west, and which
may extend far to the south-east.

The tenth part of " The Geology of the South Wales
Coalfield " has also been issued by the Survey, and is
written by Messrs. Strahan, Cantrill, Dixon, and Thoma*
(price 2S.). It accompanies Sheet 229 of the map, whicf
appears both in " solid " and drift editions. Part of the
area was surveyed by Mr. B. S. N. Wilkinson, now
senior geologist on the Irish Survey. The features of
economic importance are dealt with in the description of
the coalfield, which appears in the south-east of the map,
and in chapter xv., on metallic ores, building stones, &c.
The subdivisions of the Ordovician strata, including t'"
Llanvirn series, are now shown in considerable detail ■
the colour-printed map, and Upper Tremadoc beds a
also recognised in a band south of Carmarthen tow
The Old Red Sandstone makes distinctly hilly couni.
along the coast, and is cut across its strike by the main
streams. The journey westward from Kidwelly thus
involves two picturesque but sometimes breezy ferri*^-
while the railway runs in milder Ordovician country
the north. The drift map shows patchy remnants of
sheet of boulder-clay, deposited by ice moving westwa
and southward down the Towy Valley, but disregard!
its local windings. In the extreme west of the area
probably came in from the north-west. It is sugges;
(p. 147) that the chalk-flints which are fairly common
the glacial gravels were derived from Cainozoic depo>;
which have been swept away.

Messrs. Lamplugh and Gibson have described " 1
Geology of the Country around Nottingham " (1910, pr;
25.), with an accompanying map, specially composed .^ot
parts of four sheets (price 15. 6d.). .Attention is directed
to points where local research is still required, a featiK-
of the memoir that will be welcomed in a district fame
for its amateur geologists. This official work has, ind.-i
been undertaken in an educational spirit, and is cert.i
to meet with a gratifying response.

Mr. H. J. Osborne White writes on " The Geology
the Country around Alresford " (19 10, price 2s.), and
colour-printed reproduction (price is. 6d.) is now issu
of the drift-sheet No. 300, first published in i8q8. T
district lies on the edge of the chalk of Salisbury Pla:
which is followed so picturesquely on the east by the higij |
commons of the Lower Greensand beyond Lyss and
Kingsley. A memoir describing the country that includes j
the village of Selborne, nestling in its vale at the foot ofj
the Lower Chalk escarpment, will appeal to manv
naturalists. Mr. O. White pavs special attention to t
zoning of the Chalk. Types' of soil and questions ■ _
water supply are dealt with in the concluding pages, and,
there are some interesting notes on river-capture (pp. 74!
and 75).

January 19, 191 1]

NATURE

387

The valuable series of memoirs on water supply is con-
tinued by one on Oxfordshire, by Mr. R. H. Tiddeman
(1910, price 25. 3d. J, and one on Hampshire and the Isle of
Wight, by Mr. \V. Whitaker (1910, price 5s.). Dr. H. R.
Mill contributes the chapters on the rainfall of the areas.

The Survey's " Summary of Progress " for 1909 (1910,
price 15.) contains, as usual, a record of new observations,
of which further details may be expected later. .\ number
of Devonian inliers have been found in the Culm-measure
area west of Dartmoor. Mr. Clement Reid is prepared to
correlate the well-known Bovey beds, with which even
Playfair was acquainted, with the lignites of the Rhine,
j and to assign them to the Upper Oligocene. They thus
I fill a gap in British geology above the Hamstead beds
of the Hampshire basin. " The Bovey flora . . . seems
! to be essentially the flora of the granite-ravines, with the
I admixture of a very few aquatic forms. . . . Marsh-plants
i are exceedingly rare " Cp- 18). The additions to our
i knowledge of the Isle of Mull are conspicuous (pp. 26-38).
i Upper Lias and Middle Jurassic beds have now been dis-
covered on Loch Don, thus filling part of the gap that
1 occurs at Carsaig between the representatives of the
j Jurassic and the Cretaceous (see also p. 57). " Corn-
] stones " in the Trias of Morvern (p. 35) indicate arid
conditions; and Mr. Maufe's tropical experiences are here
used to advantage. Detailed analyses of Devonshire clays,
derived from granite, are given on p. 59. The titanium
dioxide is usually more than i per cent., while zirconia
and vanadium sesquioxide are each about 0-03 per cent.
Mr. L. Richardson contributes an elaborate and well-
illustrated paper on " The Inferior Oolite and contiguous
Deposits of the South Cotteswolds " to the Proceedings
of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club, vol. xvii., 1910,
p. 63. He also discusses some of the hollows on the
Cotteswold scarp in a paper on glacial features (ibid.,
p. 40), and shows how the Ice age has probably left its
traces in the land-forms here, as in North Wales. Mr.
Richardson read his paper in 1909, and about the same
time Prof. W. M. Davis, to whose work on Snowdon he
refers, contributed a short paper on " The Valleys of the
Cotswold Hills " to the Proceedings of the Geologists'
Association (vol. xxi., p. 150). He points out that " when
the curves of a stream are too small for the curves of its
valley, a diminution of stream volume is to be inferred."
The Evenlode and other valleys on the back of the Cottes-
wolds are too large for their present streams, and this
may be due to their beheading by the recession of the
escarpment. But the author suggests that they may
formerly have been occupied by water escaping from small
lakes between an ice-front in the Liassic lowland and the
face of the Cotteswold cuesta. Such water would select
the pre-glacial valleys, and would enlarge them.

In tlie same journal (vol. xxi., p. 333) Messrs. C. R.
Bower and J. R. Farmery add to our knowledge of "The
Zones of the Lower Chalk of Lincolnshire," working up-
wards from the top of the Red Chalk or Hunstanton
Limestone. They see cause to differ as to the selection
of zone-fossils made by previous writers, and choose, going
upwards, Holaster suhglobosus, Terebratulina ornata, and
Holasier trecensis. Forty-three species are added to the
records from these beds, and a plate is given to show the
range of form in Discoidea cylindrica, from a pentagonal
type in the lower zone to a flattened one, with a circular
base, in the upper zone. Messrs. J. G. Hamling and
T. Rogers [ibid., iqio, p. 451) furnish a new coloured
geological map of North Devon, on the scale of three-
quarters of an inch to one mile.

In the same volume of the Proceedings of the Geolc^ists'
-Association, p. 489. Mr. M. A. C. Hinton summarises his
work on the British fossil voles and lemmings, and makes
some very interesting remarks on the climatic conditions
accompanying the maximum extension of ice in our
islands. He regards the "Great Ice Age" in Britain as
due to " glaciers formed in the mountainous districts,"
though it is not clear whv Britain in this respect should
differ so widely from Ireland or Scandinavia. His views
are in happy agreement with those of Dr. Scharff as to the
survival of Lusitanian members of our fauna through the
alleged destructive epoch of maximum glaciation.

R. F. Scharff (Proc. Royal Irish Academy, vol.
sect. B, No. I, price 15.) writes on " The

Or

^xvin., sect. B, No. i, price 15.)
x\0. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

Evidences of a Former Land-bridge between Northern
Europe and North America." His paper has a speciaL
bearing on the origin of the present flora and fauna of
Ireland. The author holds that land-bridges afford the
only means by which terrestrial species are permanently
transferred to a new habitat. He makes out a good case
for the existence of a connection between our islands and.
.America in late Pliocene times, and for the pre-GlaciaL
origin of our flora and fauna. Incidentally, there is much
that will interest workers on glacial climate, though the
view (p. 5) that " the Glacial period was primarily due
to the diversion of oceanic currents " will not explain the
simultaneous glaciation of Europe, North America, and.
the central .Andes. The only way out of this difficulty,
if we rely on ocean-currents, is to accept, with M. Stanislas-
Meunier (Revue des Idees, September 15, 1910, p. 2i9)»
the still more difficult proposition that post-Pliocene glacial
phenomena were separated, in various regions, by intervals-
of several thousands of years.

The Transactions of the Hull Geological Society for
1906-9 (1910, price 25. 6d.) show how local observation
ma\- be aptly stimulated. Mr. Sheppard most usefully
summarises, with numerous illustrations, recent publica-
tions bearing on the district. Mr. F. M. Burton has
issued a paper on " The Witham and the .Ancaster
' Gap ' " as a separate publication (London and Hull :
Brown and Sons, price i5.). Surely this would have found
better circulation through one of the northern scientific
journals. Something seems omitted in a critical passage ,
on p. 12, W'here the " clays of the Upper Lias and beds
of Marlstone " are said to have extended eastwards,.
" cuttfng through the Lower Oolite at Ancaster, and form-
ing the ' Gap ' there."

In the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of
London, vol. Ixvi., part iii-, issued in .August, 1910, Mr.
L. Moysey discusses (p. 329) Brongniart's genus
Palaeoxyris, as abundantly revealed in the Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire coalfield. The similarly problematic
organisms Vetacapsula and Fayolia are also found, the
former being known only from England. All three genera
are believed by the author to be egg-cases of fishes. The
society, as is well known, publishes abstracts of the dis-
cussions on its papers, a practice that should be universally
followed under careful editing. We gather that the types.
of fish that would produce such egg-cases are practically
absent from the beds where the three genera are found,
and that botanists may still rise up to claim these quaint
elongated bodies.

Miss H. Drew and Miss T. Slater (ibid., p. 402) describe
the " Geology of the District around Llansawel (Car-
marthenshire)," where little has been done since Sedgwick
wrote in 1854. The beds described are Gotlandian, and
include the whole Birkhill series, followed by Lower Gala
beds.

Mr. T. O. Bosworth's work on the metamorphism
round the Ross of Mull granite is referred to in the
Summary of Progress of the Geological Survey for 1909.
He now (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1910, p. 376) describes
the beautiful phenomena of injection of granite along the
foliation-flexures and other planes of weakness in the
surrounding garnetiferous mica-schists. The latter belong
to the Moine series of the Highlands- Groups of well-
bounded prisms of sillimanite occur as contact-products in
the schists, in addition to the ordinary fibrolitic type.
There are some indications in the long and interesting
discussion that the views of many Continental observers
as to the potency of metamorphism by injection are
spreading among workers in the British Isles.

Mr. G. W. ^Tyrrell, of Glasgow University, has pub-
lished several papers on the characters of igneous rocks
in southern Scotland. Writing on the " Intrusions of the
Kilsyth-Croy District, Dumbartonshire " (Geological]
Magazine, 1909, pp. 299 and 359), he points out that the
feeders of the laccolite of diabase in this district " appear
to cut " the Linlithgowshire intrusive rocks, which have
been regarded as of Cainozoic age. Since there is much
evidence that the Kilsyth Croy rocks are of post-Carbon-
iferous, but still Palaeozoic, date, the Linlithgowshire
series to the south must also be late Palaeozoic. Micro-
pegmatite veins occur through the diabases, and give cause
for an interesting discussion (p. 362) as to their origin in-

338

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

this and other cases, based on the suggestion of Daly
that igneous magmas are essentially basic at the outset.
In a paper on " The Classification of the Post-Carbon-
iferous Intrusive Igneous Rocks of the West of Scotland "
(Transactions of the Geol. Soc. of Glasgow, vol. xiii.,
p. 298), Mr. Tyrrell gives a useful account of the dis-
tribution of the various types. In cooperation with Mr.
N. Martin, he describes the geology of the Auchineden
district io the Kilpatrick Hills (ibid., p. 322), and con-
tinues (p. 337) with an account of the igneous rocks of
the vents and lava-flows. These prove to be olivine-
basalts, though the sills were previously thought to be
trachytic, on account of their fluidal structure and pale
crusts. They belong to the late Palaeozoic series. In a
notice of rocks near Ballantrae (ibid., p. 283), Mr. Tyrrell
points to a granulitic diorite as a dolerite or gabbro meta-
morphosed by a later intrusion of serpentine. There is a
pleasing sense of original outlook in these papers.

The Geological Survey of Ireland has issued a memoir
by Messrs. Kilroe, Hallissy, and Seymour on the soils of
the agricultural station at Ballyhaise (price is. 6d.),
accompanied by a map showing types of soil and the
underlying rocks, on the scale of eight inches to one mile.
The methods adopted by this Survey for the examination
of soils are fully stated. .Another memoir, by Messrs.
G. A. J. Cole and T. Crook (price is. 6d.), describes the
submarine geology of the west coast of Ireland, so far as
it can be known from the numerous rock-specimens
dredged up by the official Fishery Survey. The amount
of mingling of material by glacial drift-action appears to
be very small on the west coast. .Areas of Upper Creta-
ceous and Cainozoic limestone are indicated off the Kerry
coast. .As in the Ballyhaise memoir, a coloured map is
included in the publication.

Prof. Cole describes (Proc. R. Irish Acad., vol. xxviii.,
sect. B, 19 10, p. 113, price 6d.) the phenomena of weather-
ing on the surface of a sheet of fine-grained diorite near
Rathmullan, in Donegal, which is known as the " picture
rock " or " scribed rock." The residual spheroids lie in
box-like enclosures, the walls of which result from the
toughening of the rock by the development of amphibole
inward from its joint-planes.

In the Irish Naturalist for September, 1910, the Rosa-
penna area in northern Donegal is systematically de-
scribed. Among the papers on its natural history is an
excellent one on the geological structure, bv Mr. J. de W.
Hinch. ' G. A. J. C.

RUSSIAN MAGNETIC OBSERVATIONS.

TJNDER the title "Die Variationen des Erdmagnet-
^^ ismus " Prof. Ernst Leyst has written a paper,
occupying 250 pages and four plates, in the BtiUetin de la
Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou for 1909.
It deals with magnetic data from the Russian observa-
tories at Pavlovsk (St. Petersburg), Irkutsk, and
Katharinenburg, and with some corresponding data from
Potsdam and Greenwich. The paper contains valuable
statistical data for Pavlovsk, such as the secular changes
of all the magnetic elements from 1873 to 1906, and diurnal
inequalities derived from a 33-year period. Its main
object, however, is to investigate the relations borne to
terrestrial magnetism by sun-spot frequency and barometric
pressure. .A number of the data bearing on the sun-spot
connection should be useful, such as diurnal inequalities in
years of sun-spot maximum and minimum at the several
stations. But their utility would have been greater if the
numerical relationships between magnetic and solar pheno-
mena had been gone into more critically. . .A good deal
has been already done on these lines, even for some of
(he stations considered by Dr. Leyst, of which he seems
unaware.

The parts of the memoir having a chief claim to novelty
relate to the influence of sun-spot frequency on secular
change and on the annual inequality, and to the relation
between barometric pressure and the diurnal variations.
Dr. Leyst finds secular change of declination to be more
rapid near sun-spot maximum than near sun-spot mini-
mum at all the stations included in his research except
Katharinenburg. For the ratio borne by the rate of
secular change at sun-spot maximum to that at sun-spot

NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

minimum he finds nearly 2 : i at Greenwich and more than
3 : I at Irkutsk. In the case of the annual inequality
i.e. the variation shown in the mean monthly values ah.
elimination of the secular change — he concludes in pp.
206-7 that the range is increased at sun-spot maximum for
declination and inclination, but diminished for total force. '
As regards barometric pressure, Dr. Leyst finds the range >
of the magnetic daily oscillations, both regular and
irregular, at Pavlovsk to be larger on days of high,
barometric pressure than on those of lowest pressure, tli
phenomenon being specially conspicuous near sun-sp
maximum.

The author's zeal, as evidenced by the great amount oi
labour expended in his investigations, merits warm appre-
ciation. One's confidence, however, in his conclusions
would have been greater if the work had shown moi
distinct evidence of critical insight.

Lines of no secular change seem to traverse continen
with continuous velocity. Their passage must occur at son
stations in sun-spot maximum, and at others in sun-si>*)L
minimum, and must mark in either case a time when secular
change numerically considered is a minimum. In short,
secular change, while seldom varying rapidly with the geo-
graphical coordinates, is essentially a local phenomenon,
whereas sun-spot frequency is not. The secular change re-,
suits assigned by Dr. Leyst to Greenwich are certainly not.
fairly representative of sun-spot maximum and minimum
there. They show not the least resemblance to some which
the present writer has deduced for Kew from the longer
period 1860-1909. If a difference of the kind supposed by
Dr. Leyst does exist, it is in England, at least, of a com-,
paratively trifling character. As to the annual inequality,
that of declination — the element which ought to possess '
least uncertainty" — presents the suspicious features that the
ranges obtained have usually diminished as the number
of years included was lengthened, while the types obtained
at comparatively near stations have differed. In Dr.
Leyst 's case the results are derived from only two or three
groups of three-year periods at either sun-spot maximum
or sun-spot minimum, so that more than usual uncertainty
attaches to the elimination of the secular change. Of all
Dr. Leyst 's conclusions, that as to the relations between
the diurnal variations and the barometric pressure is un-
doubtedly the most remarkable. The figures which I
gives for declination and horizontal force show durii ,
summer, not a small, but a large difference between the
ranges of the diurnal inequality and the absolute ranges
(absolute maximum less absolute minimum) on days of
highest and on days of lowest barometer at Pavlovsk. In
winter the phenomenon is much less apparent, which leads
the author to regard the case as one of association and
not of direct cause and effect.

If confirmed, the result, it need hardly be said, would
be of great theoretical importance. A matured opinion on
the question could be attained only by a minute study of
observational data. Thus an independent investigation of
data from some second observatory by a -competent critic
is to be desired. Several theoretical considerations natur-
ally present themselves. Large absolute magnetic ranges
are intimately associated with highly disturbed conditions,
and such conditions are normally, at least, not local. High
or low barometric pressure, on the other hand, is an
essentially local phenomenon. A high at St. Petersburg
means a low somewhere else, often even within the con-
fines of Europe. If there is any such general association
as Dr. Leyst supposes, a high barometer at Pavlovsk must
be a symptom of a special set of conditions affecting an
area much larger than that the barometric pressure of
which is above the average. C. Chree.

THE MICHAEL SARS NORTH ATL.ANTIC
DEEP-SEA EXPEDITION, 1910.^
TN August, 1910, Sir John Murray offered to defray |
■'■ the expenses of an expedition to the North .Atlantic ;
with the Norwegian research steamer Michael Sars. Th
Norwegian Government, too, showed itself very indulg.
towards the enterprise, and placed the vessel entirely
our disposition ; and my colleagues, who have so 1< '
1 From a paper read before t!ie Royal Geographical Society on Januar\
by Dr. Johan Hjort.

January 19, 191 1]

NATURE

189

' taken part in these researches, Prof. H. H. Gran, Dr.
Helland-Hansen, Mr. E. Koefoed, and Captain Thor
Iversen, all signified their utmost willingness to join the
'^^ledition.

)n completing our preparations, we started off from
mouth in the beginning of April, 1910, after being
joined by Sir John Murray at that port.

During the four months that the cruise lasted, a great
' I was accomplished. Y<x oceanographic science it can-
but be interesting to learn that a little steamer, of
226 tons, could carry out so many and such multi-
>us researches right across one of the mighty oceans,
i I will accordingly give a few* figures to illustrate what
was done.

In the case of hydrc^raphical material, we collected
2400 water-samples, more than 900 of which were from
below the surface. At no stations we toc^ 937 tempera-
ture observations from below the surface, while as many
as 1625 observations of the surface temperature were re-
corded during the cruise. In addition, we obtained 258
measurements of currents and seven measurements of
light. For the study of vegetable plankton we made 140
ical hauls, and took 38 water-samples for filtering and
-amples for examining with the centrifuge. For the
_^ r plankton there were 95 vertical hauls with nets of
rent sizes, 193 horizontal hauls with silk nets, 80 hori-
:al hauls with pelagic trawls, and 18 hauls with a very-
large tow-net. Trawlings were undertaken on twenty-four
occasions at different depths.

Our being able to carry out so many investigations, in
spite of the fact that the ship traversed a distance of about
11.000 miles during the four months the cruise lasted,
shows that oceanographic expeditions can be undertaken
in small craft and for a relatively moderate expenditure ;
and this will most likely be a matter for consideration
when future expeditions are planned.

Hydrographical Investigations.

At no stations we collected material for determining
the temperature and salinity of the sea water. The
temperature observations have now been corrected, the
water-samples have been titrated, and the results are set
down in vertical sections and charts showing the distribu-
tion of temperatures and salinities at the different depths.
The distribution of temperatures and salinities in the sea
between Newfoundland and Ireland in the month of Julv,
1910. can be shown in a diagram. Throughout nearly the
whole section there is a layer with salinities of 35-5 per
mille in the uppermost 150-200 metres. Both salinities
and temperatures decrease in fairly regular proportion as
we descend, until we reach a uniform layer termed
"bottom water," in which the temperature is slightly
below 2^° C, and the salinity is about 349 per mille. It
is noteworthy that this salinity is exactly the same as
has been found in the bottom water of the Norwegian sea
during the previous investigations. During the cruise of
the Michael Sars in the Atlantic, this same salinity has
been discovered both between the Canary- Islands and the
.^ores, and between the Azores and Newfoundland, and
also outside the Bay of Biscay.

This uniform bottom water lies deeper in the eastern
portion of the North Atlantic, off the south coast of Europe
and the north coast of .Africa, than in the western or
north-western portion of the coast of America. East of
Newfoundland it attains a comparatively high level. This
would seem to indicate that the bottom water of the North
Atlantic comes from the north-western portion of that
ocean.

\ chart shows clearly the influence of the Mediter-
ranean : verv salt and comparatively warm water streams
out of the Mediterranean and sinks deeper down ; outside
Spain it mainly flows northwards, owing to the effect of
the earth's rotation; another portion seems to follow the
ordmary stream towards the south-west. . Between the
comparatively fresh cold water in the north-west and the
relatively warm salt water outside Spain a belt extends
from west of the .Azores as far as the Faroes and Iceland,
with fairly uniform salinities of -?; to 3^-; per mille, and
temperatures of 6° to 8° C.

^Vhen we compare our temperatures with those of the
^haUenger, we find that they agree most satisfactorily, so
NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

far as the deep layers are concerned, and the temperature
observations of the Challenger seem to have been very
good. When we look at all the stations from the cruise
of the Challenger in the summer of 1873, which are
situated in the neighbourhood of the Michael Sars' stations
of a summer thirty-seven years later, we find everywhere
that the water in the mid-layers was much w'armer in
1873 than in 19 10. The differences of temperature go up
to about 5° in the mid water-layers, but sink to o-i° and
0-4°, respectively, in deep water. This seems to indicate
that there are such very great fluctuations from year to
year in the degree of warmth in these mid-layers that they
even exceed the fluctuations in the seasons.

It is obvious that fluctuations of this kind in the degree
of warmth of the Atlantic Ocean are most important, and
need further investigation. In the Norwegian Sea such
fluctuations in water flowing in from the Atlantic have
been already previously investigated by the Michael Sars.

These determinations of the temperatures and salinities
of salt water will subsequently be utilised for dynamic
calculations. It will thus be possible to draw conclusions
as to the movements of the different water-layers. These
movements the expedition endeavoured also to investigate
by means of direct-current measurements with the propeller
current-meter which Ekman has constructed.

In the Strait of Gibraltar we tried first to anchor one
of the lifeboats fore and aft, as had often been done
previously in Norwegian waters. However, the strong
current broke the lines repeatedly. We accordingly
anchored the ship itself, with ij-inch steel wire and a
warp anchor, in about 200 fathoms. The ship lay thus
on April 30 from 2.30 a.m. until 5 p.m. During this time
we took seventy measurements at eight different depths.

A comparison of diagrams representing the conditions at
9 a.m., when the inflow into the Mediterranean was at its
height, and at 2 o'clock in the morning and 3 o'clock in
the afternoon, shows that the effects of the tidal water
are very great throughout the whole mass of water from
the surface to the bottom. During the inflow, the velocity
in the upper instreaming layer was about i metre per
second, while in the lowest west-flowing layer it did not
exceed one-third metre. During the outflow from the
Mediterranean to the Atlantic there was hardly any surface
current, whereas the outward current at depth had a
velocity of up to 2 metres per second. The real velocities
were actually greater, as the current generally ran in a
slightly oblique direction to the axis of the strait.

During our experiments with the large otter trawl on
the bank south of the Azores on June 12. our trawl stuck
fast on the bottom. Instead of immediately getting it
clear, this otherwise unfortunate circumstance was made
use of for taking current measurements. The ship was
thus anchored to the trawl at a depth of 668 fathoms
(1235 metres). In all, we tocJc ninety measurements at
various depths down to 800 metres. On a diagram show-
ing the current from hour to hour at a depth of 10 metres,
the tidal movements can be distinctly seen. The actual
main current ran southwards with a velocity of 8-9 cm.
per second. Another diagram shows the currents in the
different layers at three intervals of time : — (i) at 3.30
a.m. ; (2) at 7 a.m. ; (3) at 10.45 a-m- A comparison of
the three figures shows that at all the depths down so
far as 800 metres there were tidal movements. On the
whole, the currents in the dee|>er layers flowed in a con-
trary direction to the movements in the upper ones. There
was an astonishingly strong current at 800 metres at
3.30 a.m., but otherwise w'e found, as a rule, that the
current was strongest close to the surface, while at 100
metres there was a tendency to a minimum, and a
tendency to a maximum at 200 metres.

The measurements show, accordingly, that there can be
ver\- considerable tidal currents even down so low as 800
metres. The reason why they were so strong south of the
Azores is probably to a great extent that the bottom there
forms a large shoal, w-hich the water presses up against.

Similar investigations w-ith modern methods have never
been undertaken before either in deep water or in the
Strait of Gibraltar.

That there are tidal movements in the open sea and
such strong currents, even at depths above 400 fathoms
(800 metres), is interesting for many reasons, as it assists
us in understanding the ocean currents, the tide-wave, the

390

NATURE

[January 19, 191 i

distribution of living organisms, and the deposits along the
bottom of the sea.

It has long been a puzzle to find that at great depths
in the sea there are stones which are not covered by
deposits, though they must undoubtedly have lain at the
bottom for a long period of time. On the slopes of the
coast banks south-west of Ireland, we shot our trawl in
about 1000 fathoms (1797 metres), and found, inXcr alia,
numbers of stones.

Sir John Murray has given them to Dr. Peach for
examination. As mentioned in Sir John Murray's lecture
to the Royal Geographical Society in Edinburgh on
November 11, 1910, Dr. Peach "reports that fully 20 per
cent, are glaciated fragments. They consist of granite,
gneiss, shales, sandstones, chalks, limestones, and flints,
and some of these contain fossil remains. The condition
of these fragments shows that in many instances they
projected above the surface of the deposit in which they
were embedded. Dr. Peach has no doubt that these stones
were carried by ice during the later phases of the Glacial
period to the position in which they were found. They
almost all belong to the series of sedimentary, metamor-
phosed, and erupted rocks now found in situ in this
country and in Ireland. But the interesting question is,
Why have these fragments not been completely covered
up by the shells which are continually falling from the
surface? Telegraph engineers give reasons for believing
that in some localities and depths the rate of accumula-
tion is at least i inch in ten years ; at this rate all rock
fragments deposited during the Glacial period should have
been buried in the ooze far beyond the reach of the trawl.
Most probably the tidal currents, which our observations
showed to exist in deep water, extend right down to the
bottom and remove the small Globigerina shells from any
ridges. Still, there may be other explanations of the
facts " (Scottish Geographical Magazine, December, 1910).

Phytoplankton.

The phytoplankton of the Atlantic Ocean, in so far as
it can be collected with tow-nets, we know from Hensen's
expedition in 1889, the results of which, by the way, have
not yet been fully treated ; further, from the extensive re-
searches of Cleve. We have also received a valuable con-
tribution from G. Murray and Whitting ; the Valdivia
expedition, carried out by the greater part of its investi-
gations in the Antarctic and Indian Oceans, the researches
in the Atlantic being comparatively few. Our knowledge
regarding the distribution of species in the Atlantic is,
notwithstanding, still very incomplete.

The samples taken by tow-nets in the open sea could
not, any of them, compare irr quantity with what can be
obtained in the coastal waters in the Norwegian Sea. The
only exceptions are the series taken to the west of Ireland
and in the Bay of Biscay during April (stations 2, 3, 4, 7,
9, 10), where we met with large quantities of diatoms,
even down to depths of more than 100 metres.

The oceanic samples are, however, very rich in species,
there being, as a rule, at least fifty species in every single
sample from the upper layers down to a depth of 100
metres. Many of the species are so sparsely represented
that it has only been possible to find a few individuals,
but the majority of them have, in spite of their scanty
numbers, a wide distribution throughout the warm seas,
and they have also been found in the Indian Ocean
(Valdivia) and the Pacific (Kofoid). A few of them have
not yet been described, though most of them are known
from previous investigations. It will be a difficult matter
to characterise the groups of species according to their
geographical distribution within the area investigated; it
can perhaps be done when our material has been fully
treated, but certainly not as yet. All we can do at present
is to distinguish the subtropical species from those which
belong to temperate waters, and the oceanic species from
the ones which have their centre of distribution along the
coasts.

[The lecturer mentioned some instances of the occurrence
of interesting forms belonging to the most important
plankton-algae, and then described more particularly the
most important botanical discovery of the expedition, that
by centrifuging the sea-water large numbers of very small
algae, mostly Coccolithophorid.ne, were found. These go

NO. 2 151, VOL. 85]

through the meshes of the tow-nets, and have therefore nr.i
been considered by previous expeditions which only 1
tow-nets, notwithstanding that Sir John Murray, dii;
the Challenger expedition, had directed attention to their
importance.]

'lo sum up, the chief results are as follows: —

{i) The quantity of plankton in the open Atlanti
far less abundant than what is found in coastal seas.
, (2) At most of the stations where investigations took
place, the maximum of plant-substance was found at about
50 metres' depth ; it was, as a rule, scanty in the
immediate neighbourhood of the surface, but appeared to
be almost as abundant at 10 metres as at 50 metres.
There was thus about the same quantity of plants all the
way down from 10 metres to 50 metres.

At 75 metres the quantity was, as a rule, not more
than half what we met with at 50 metres, and at 100
metres there was only about a tenth part.

This was the case with oceanic water. Where there
was an admixture of coastal water, and an evident dis»-
tinction between the surface layer at depth, the surface
layer was comparatively richer in plants, and all the
limits had an upward tendency.

(3) The different species are distributed, each in its own
characteristic fashion, in regard to depth. The PeriiT
keep comparatively near the surface, the diatoms jir
the deepest layers, while the Coccolithophoridae affeci ....
intermediate position.

{4) The number of living plant cells in the open Atlantir
throughout the most densely populated water-!.;
(10-50 metres) varies, as a rule, between 3000 and 1.
cells per litre sea water. Of these, about half are Cot co
lithophoridse, the rest being Peridinea cells with a few
naked flagellates and a sprinkling of diatoms.

The Larger Organisms.
Deep-sea Fishes and Crustaceans.

Since the Challenger expedition laid the first foundatloi
pf our knowledge regarding the animal world of the •'
sea, many succeeding expeditions have bountifully a
to our store. .As an instance, I may mention thai
now know one thousand different species of deep-sea fi-
and that the German Valdivia expedition alone discovci^'
no fewer than sixty-three new species.

Regarding these many species, however, only very littl
is known. In the case of quite a number of them we ar
acquainted merely with one, or at most a few specimens
while we are in almost complete ignorance as to the!
biologv, their propagation, development history, growth
and outward conditions of life.

The view which generally prevails in literature nowaj
days is that tlie sea contains a motley abundance of fern '
either along its bottom or floating within its w:r
subject to a uniformity of outward conditions of exis:
— that is to sav, passing their lives in absolute darkn
and in a medium with constant temperatures and <
physical surroundings.

To biologists, this view concerning the animal lit
the deep sea has presented many difficulties. How >
Ithat in a constant medium of the kind conceived theii
exist side hy side so many distinct forms? -And hovl
again, can animals with large -eyes manage to live al-
side blind forms? Why are some species furnished
numerous highly developed light-organs, while in the <...
of others these are entirely wanting? .And_ how, tO(j
comes it that within the same groups of animals, na'
often in closely affinitive species, the colours vary
remarkablv, although the outer medium is the same?

These questions have become all the more pressing no :
that biological ocean research has discovered instanr<j
where in the same area of the sea there occur m-'-
different animal forms, each possessed of its own pecul
ties in mode of life, habitat, and other respects, so ;_
each species has its own characteristic area of distrib]
tion, even though it may occasionally be found togethi
with its neighbours in the same catch. Our study of
spawning-grounds of the cod family (Gadidae) in
North Sea and Norwegian Sea has shown us, for inst.
that each of seventeen species has its particular spaw
area, each species during the spawning period seekin;;
distinct characteristic depths, temperatures, and salin.

January 19, 191 1]

NATURE

391

'so that, just as from a morphological point of view the
.es may be characterised by a definite form or struc-
, so, too, it is possible to characterise it by certain
-defined conditions of existence. These conditions
acterise a given species quite as much as any morpho-
al description, and, in fact, for a proper conception
lie species both methods of investigation are supple-
:ary.

jw, if we wish to investigate the conditions of exist-
under which animals live, we must naturally first of
Ascertain where they live, which, in the sea, will be
imount to discovering the depth where they reside.

- alone can enlighten us regarding the conditions of
, the temperatures, and the salinities which are
isite for their existence.

ur knowledge regarding the haunts of the smaller

nisms has advanced greatly in recent years owing to

fact that we have made use of small closing nets.

with regard to the larger animals, especially fishes,

-till possess little knowledge, despite the great exer-

- made in this direction, above all others, by the
:e of Monaco and the \ald'\v\a expedition.

hen fitting out the Michael Sars expedition, I kept
in mind that one of the most important of all our
~ should be to try and develop a method which would
: more information regarding the vertical distribution
lep-sea fishes. '

e ideal instrument for capturing the larger pelagic

nisms would be a big tow-net or pelagic trawl which

1 be sunk closed to the requisite depth, then opened

towed at a carefully ascertained depth, and finally

i again and hauled in. Such an instrument would

ipabie of capturing many of the larger animals, and

ould secure them, too, at known depths. However,

an instrument of this kind would naturally be extremely

'complicated, too much so, in fact, to prove trustworthy

r our present system of working, and it would further

1 a great expenditure of time. It would not be

ble to operate many of these tow-nets simultaneously

■ngst other reasons, because of the slip-leads), and

-rquently it would be necessary to undertake a series

jof hauls at the different depths.

This being the case, I gave up the idea of trying to

-rruct any such instrument. A more practical plan

^d to be to try and tow a number of instruments

- uultaneously at different depths, and to compare the

; catches thus made with each other.

I Thanks to a practical arrangement, we succeeded in
I towing ten different instruments from two wire lines.
!The arrangement generally adopted was as follows : —

I silk net of i metre diameter

I young- fish trawl
I silk net of J metres diameter
I j'oung-fish trawl
I silk net of f metres diameter
I young- fish trawl
1 silk net of J metres diameter
I large tow-net of 3 metres diameter
(made of shrimp-net) or a young-
fish trawl

U ith this, or a corresponding arrangement, we carried
■out some long hauls at about thirty stations, as well as
ifrom the Canary Islands to the Sargasso Sea, and from
Newfoundland to Ireland. Some hauls were made in the
daytime and others at night.

J In this manner we collected a very large material, con-
sisting of many kinds of pelagic organisms — fishes,
cephalopods, crustaceans, medusae, &c. I will here merelv
mention a few instances of the evidences our material
affords as to the occurrence of these animals at different
depths. To illustrate the method employed, I will begin
lyith the remarkable and well-known Sternoptvchid
■■i^gyropelecus hemigymnus. Of this species we caught
;286 mdividuals at the different stations. The bulk
I occurred at depths between 150 and 500 metres; no in-
,aividuals were caught above 150 metres, and onlv about
j7 per cent, were taken at depths lower than 500 metres,
we assume, then, that these 7 per cent, were captured
1 NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

At the surface ...

» 50

metres...

«, 100

»>

» 150

)5

300

J»

500

}>

- 750

,,

,, lOCO

>»

. 1250

»»

1500

>> ...

during the process of hauling in the appliances, and that
none of them live at depths below 500 metres, we will
have an idea of the accuracy of our method. By far the
greater part were caught at a depth of 300 metres, where
we generally had out a |-metre silk net, whereas at 150
metres and at 500 metres the appliance used was, as a
rule, a young-fish trawl, that would have had a far
greater capacity for catching these fish. It seems, accord-
ingly, that the preponderating majority of the individuals
of this species is very strictly limited to an "' intermediary "
layer, situated at a depth of about 300 metres. A closer
investigation of the individuals captured at a depth of
150 metres shows that they were all caught at night.
This may be due either to an upward nocturnal wandering
or to chance, though on this question the smallness of
our material makes it unsafe to hazard an opinion ; in
subsequent investigations, however, it will be worth while
taking this fact into consideration. Among the individuals
captured in 500-metres water there must, at any rate, be
a few that were taken in the process of hauling in the
young-fish trawl through the intermediary layer above ;
still, there were far fewer found in the young-fish trawl,
which was towed in 1000-metres water — it seems evident
that there must also have been some individuals swimming
at the 500-metres depth.

This instance gives us a good illustration of our method,
with its deficiencies and advantages. It is obvious that
the greater the number of individuals we have to deal
with, the greater is the probability of obtaining trust-
worthy information, and the safer are the conclusions we
can deduce from our results. When, therefore, in what
follows, I proceed to give some instances of the distribu-
tion in depth of different kinds of fish, I will begin by
mentioning the commonest, or, at any rate, the most
numerously captured forms belonging to the species
Cyclothone microdon and C. signata.

Of these two species we caught altogether more than
7500 individuals, which were all measured and arranged
according to their length and the instrument in which they
were captured, so as also to obtain information regarding
the occurrence of the different sizes at different depths.

C. microdon was found during the cruise of the Michael
Sars in the northern Atlantic at every station where an
appliance was towed in depth below 500 metres. Above
500 metres it was only met with occasionally. A table
shows how, at a depth of 300 metres, we only came across
one individual (in the southern section). In depths from
500 metres down to 1500 metres its quantitative occurrence
appears to be fairly uniform.

In our northern as well as in our southern section we
found approximately the same number of individuals in
each of the three young-fish trawls, which we towed
simultaneously, viz. at depths of 500 metres, 1000 metres,
and 1500 metres.

When we next examine the size-distribution at the
different depths, we see that it is perfectly clear that the
smaller sizes are met with much higher up than the kirger
ones, which latter are mainly to be found at a depth of
1500 metres. In the northern section we find that at a
depth of 500 metres the greatest number of individuals
were 30 mm. in length, whereas at 1500 metres the
majority were 60 mm. .\t a depth of 500 metres we only
came across two that were more than 50 mm. in length.

The smaller and younger individuals, of a length of
20-30 mm., live, accordingly, to a preponderating extent,
1000 metres higher up in the water-layers than the
majority of the largest and oldest individuals.

Another remarkable fact which strikes us when we study
the table is that the average size of individuals is much
smaller at the same depth in the southern than in the
northern section.

C. signata resides in an intermediarj- layer, with maxi-
mum in the number of individuals at about 500 metres.
In the case of this species, too, we note that the younger
individuals are mainly to be found high up in the water
(notice particularly the southern stations), and that the
same size is to be found deeper in the southern section
than in the northern.

We have a remarkable parallel to the areas of vertical
distribution of these two fish species in the case of the
red-prawn species. These latter unite with the black
fishes in forming a populous and characteristic " com-

392

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

munity." We have come across no fewer than twenty-
six species of prawns, of which we shall here refer to
Acanthephyra miiltispina and A. purpurea.

A. miiltispina shared with Cyclothonc the peculiarity of
the largest and oldest individuals, being found in the nets
towed at greatest depths, say at iooa-1500 metres.
A. purpurea resembles Cyclothone signata in that its dis-
tribution is chiefly confined to an intermediary layer
between 500 metres and 750 metres in depth.

The instances I have given show the utility and exact-
ness of our method of working. Where we have to deal
with catches of great numbers of individuals, our errors
and inaccuracies will undoubtedly be very small. The
catches which the Michael Sars made of such forms as
Cyclothone and Acanthephyra were certainly most satis-
factory in this respect. But when we come to the catches
which the expedition made of scarce forms, or forms
more difficult to capture, then we are bound to own that
the method of working even of the Michael Sars is not
sufficiently effective. Still, it is interesting to examine a
few of the results yielded by the method we employed
with the object of discovering some conformity, or some
general rule, for the peculiar distribution of the different
organisms at different depths.

I will commence with the view I formed during the
cruise itself from the appearance of the catches on board,
which view I find has also, to a certain extent, forced
itself upon other observers, chief amongst whom I may
mention Prof. A. Brauer, to whom was confided the treat-
ment of the fishes of the Valdivia expedition. I found on
examining the catches from great depths that the black
and dark-red forms w-ere the all prevailing ones among
animals from the greatest depths.

Black-coloured pelagic fishes are few in number, though
they might be termed numerous if we take into account
what was previously known concerning " scarce " forms.
Gastrostomus bairdii, Cyemaatrum, and Gonostoma grande
were only caught at depths from 750 metres downwards.
The two species Gonostoma elongatum and Ptotostomias
guernei were caught at great as well as small depths, even
in some cases so high up as 150 metres below the surface.
The rule, then, that the black forms are only to be found
at great depths, cannot be said to hold good universally.

The question accordingly arises whether among the black
forms there may not be said to be groups or different
types. In common with several previous observers, I have
been struck by the fact that even the anatomical struc-
ture of the black fishes points to different modes of living.
When we compare, for instance, pictures of the above-
mentioned five species of fish, we see that, of the three
species which were only found at great depths, Gastro-
stomus bairdii and Cyemaatrum are quite without light
organs, and Gonostroma grande has but small ones, as is
also the case with Cythotlone microdon. In Gonostoma
elongatum and Ptotostomias guernei, the light organs are
much more developed (as is also the case with Cyclothone
signata). It is an interesting fact now to notice that
every single individual of these two species which was
captured higher up than 500 metres was caught at night,
which coincides with previous observations regarding black
forms, such as Idiacanthus and Astronesthes, v^'hich have
been caught at night right close up to the surface. We
may assume, accordingly, that among the black deep-sea
fishes there are several different modes of life, that is to
say, several different " biological types."

With the view of a better understanding of the occur-
rence of these black and red types in the sea, I have
endeavoured to compare their vertical distribution with the
intensity of the sunlight in different depths and at different
parts of the ocean.

We have seen that the upper limit for Cyclothone
microdon and the red crustaceans in the northern section
from Newfoundland to Ireland, or about 50° N. lat., was
approximately 500 metres below the surface, and we have
also noticed that the limit of depth for the same forms at
the southernmost stations, or about 33° N. lat., was some
200-300 metres deeper. In the Norwegian Sea I have
already previously investigated the intermediary pelagic
fauna, and found pelagic red prawns as well as the dark-
red fish Sebastes norvegicus at depths of about 200 metres
below the surface. Sebastes was taken, for instance, with

NO. 2 15 I, VOL. 85]

floating long lines in considerable quantities on a course
Jan Mayen-Lofoten — that is to say, in about 67° N. lat.,
at a depth of 200 metres — and it was even found, though
in decreasing quantities, higher up. Along the Norwegian
coast, in the fjords and sounds, we have a particularly
rich fauna of red crustaceans (especially Pandalus
borealis) residing at depths the maximum of which in the
north, at any rate, may be put at about 200 metres.
Now, if we calculate the depth to which the rays of the
sun penetrate, after passing through the same distance in
the water, assuming always that the rays are direct, and
that the rate of absorption is the same, we find that the
rays will have passed through the same distance to rf :ii li
a depth of 500 metres in 50° N. lat., that they will 1
through to reach 650 metres in 33° N. lat., or 300 m-
in 67° N. lat.

However, the transparency of the water varies greatly
in different regions. If we take the results of previous
observations during different expeditions, we may set
down the visible depth in the open sea as being, roughly,
50 metres in 33° N. lat., 40 metres in 50° N. lat., and
25 metres at the outside in the Norwegian Sea in 67° N.
lat. Taking this into consideration, we find that there
will be the same intensity from the retilinear rays

In 33° N. lat., at aliout 800 metres' depth
.) 50° ». M 500 „ „
,, 67° „ ,, 200 ,, ,,

The red and black animal forms, as has been found]
the investigations I have just described, have an up
limit in the different waters which corresponds evef
where with the same intensity of light.

During the Atlantic cruise of the Michael Sars we
undertook a series of measurements of the intensitv
light with a photometer constructed by Dr. Hell
Hansen ; to determine the intensity of the different co
rays. Dr. Helland-Hansen made use of panchroii
plates and gelatin colour-filters. The observation s<
and west of the Azores (that is to say, at the sout
stations) showed that the rays of light strongly aff-
the plate at a depth of 100 metres. The red rays ■
weakest here, while the blue and ultra-violet rays •.
strongest. At a depth of 500 metres the blue and ultra ^
violet rays were still distinctly visible, and at a depth Oj
1000 metres the ultra-violet rays were yet perceptible. ''
1700 metres, however, there was not the faintest trac
light, even after the plates had been exposed for :
hours in broad daylight. 1

In the above-mentioned deep, which denotes the uppp'
limit for the black and red forms during the daytime,
may after this, no doubt, assume that there are onl
be found chemically effective rays from the violet poi
of the spectrum. Now, seeing that the coefficien-
absorption for the red rays, as compared with the vi
is about in the proportion of 30 to i, and that our obs.
tions failed to trace any red rays at a depth of 500 me.
it follows that the red animals at this depth must 1
quite as invisible as the black ones. It is interesting t,
note, in this connection, that it is only at night that ^'^
black fish with large light organs are found high 11;
the water, and that red crustaceans in the Arctic re^i'
as was noticed by Scoresby in the case of Hymero^
glacialis, are to be found right up to the edge of th-
at the surface of the sea.

Above the region I have hitherto been describing, ^
its black and red forms, our parallel hauls have sb
us an equally characteristic, though very different, i;:
of pelagic fishes. Their peculiarity is that their bod
always more or less compressed from one side to the ot
In colour they are dark along the back and silver\
shining, with a bluish-violet gleam along the sides, '
eves are large and often telescopic, and most character
of all, I suppose, are their strongly developed light org.
characteristic forms are especially to be met with an
the families Sternoptychidae and Stomiatidae. Froi:
table showing the depth at which a number of these f<-
occur, it can be seen that 500 metres may be taken
their lower limit, and that the greatest number
individuals reside at a depth of 300 metres ; above
metres there were only a few found, and even tho>e '

[anuary 19, 191 i]

NATURE

0^3

met with in 150 metres, or higher up, were with
few exceptions taken at night.
.clothone iignata may be said to approximate to this
group so far as distribution is concerned, and this form
also has large, well-developed light organs. .\ closer
■^"Ti.vsis of the occurrence of these forms in different lati-
-; would probably reveal much of interest, though this
; be reserved for subsequent investigations.
is important to lay stress upon the fact that these
ng colours, remarkable light organs, and peculiar
telescopic eyes do not belong to the dark region in the
^ where the sunlight never penetrates, but, on the con-
', to a region where there are, at any rate, large
itities of the rays which are nearest to the blue,
, and ultra-violet portion of the spectrum,
ere has been a good deal of disputing as to whether
light emitted by the light organs was entirely pro-
by the vital energy of the organisms, or whether the
isiiis had the power of transforming the ultra-violet
of the sunlight into rays of lesser wave-length. The
ations I have described here cannot, of course, decide
ions of this kind, but they show, at any rate, that
light-emitting organisms live in a medium in which
are quantities of rays from the sunlight ; and we
;nise, further, in these forms a new biological type
■ganisms, a separate group with quite characteristic
rd conditions of existence,
higher we ascend towards the surface of the sea,
more varied become the forms and colours of the
nisms, and the more diversified become also, probably,
conditions of life. I have up to now only been able
CO examine a portion of the large material from the upper-
imost water-layers, and will merely mention a single group
fnm this region, namely, the larvae and young fish forms.
hese we have collected a very large quantity, amount-
to thousands. It has been impossible to determine
■ them all, as this will be a long and laborious task.
I A table shows how, out of 3600 transparent large
land young fishes, 90 per cent, were secured in the appli-
i ances operated from the surface down to a depth of 150
I metres. These forms are young stages of many different
I kinds of fishes.

i A very interesting and important question is the quantity

lof animals in the different depths. This question has not

i been much studied yet. I believe myself that the upper

'' ': 01 the red and dark-coloured forms is particularly

In the Norwegian Sea I found that the occurrences

-. .. rich intermediate pelagic life corresponded to a great

rise in the density of the sea water, and I explained this

i thus, that the food of the animals, sinking down from the

! upper layers, might accumulate there. The closer study

of our material may give more information about this

I interesting question.

I In my preceding remarks I have given a number of

I instances of the obser\^ations we were able to make regard-

! ing the depth distribution of fishes when we examine

material collected by means of parallel hauls. But it is

obvious, too, that this material can equally well be used

for ascertaining their horizontal or geographical distribu-

'•"", and it is only after studying simultaneously as well

vertical and horizontal distribution that we can

racterise the outward conditions under which they li%'e.

; If we look at the horizontal distribution as found by the

Michael Sars and compare it with previous observations

in the northern Atlantic, we shall get some idea of how

little knowledge we possess concerning the most ordinary

forms inhabiting the ocean between Europe and the coast

of the United States. I will base my comparison entirely

on Brauer's valuable summary of what was previously

known, and on the same instances that I have employed

when discussing the vertical distribution.

Black fishes and red crustaceans were caught at all the
stations during the cruise of the Michael Sars in the
.Atlantic wherever we lowered our appliances to a depth
of 500 metres.

Transparent young fish were captured over the whole
area of investigations, though in very varying quantities.

In the open sea over the greatest depths, the Scopelidae
are undoubtedly the most numerous group among the
voung fish. We find also many extremely interesting
forms with stalk eyes, telescope eyes, and so on. Amongst

NO. 2 15 1, VOL. 85]

those with telescope eyes there are many of a perfectly
transparent new form, which may in all probability be
assigned to the genus Dysomma. They were mostly
caught in the uppermost 150 metres.

When we have succeeded in determining these young
stages, we will be able to throw much light upon the life-
history of many important species of fish. The numerous
forms of the group Leptocephalidae will by no means be
the least interesting among them. The 195 individuals
that were found are believed to belong to no fewer than
twenty species, of which a good many are entirely new.

I have previously (in Nature of October 24, 19 10)
published a short description of a number of these Lepto-
cephalidae, which we were able to prove to be the larvae
of the European eel. These larvae (forty-four specimens
in all) have this much of interest in them as compared
with previous finds, that they were met with right out in
the Atlantic Ocean, far away from the slc^s where they
previously had been discovered.

Trawlings.

To operate the big trawl at the greatest depths of the
North Atlantic, about 2500 or 3000 fathoms, proved a very
difficult task. However, two of our hauls were quite
successful. The first was in the Bay of Biscay, at a
depth of 2500 fathoms. Our catch contained a number of
invertebrates, including holothurians of the genus Elpidia
alcyondae, sponges, and ascidians, and two fishes belong-
ing to the genus Macrurus.

The second haul, between the Canary Islands and the
Azores, at a depth of 3000 fathoms, yielded only a very
few living organisms. In the half-barrel of mud brought
up by the trawl we found thirty pumice-stones overgrown
with Stephanocylis and Limopsis, and there were also two
holothurians {Laetmogone violacea and Elpidia, sp.),
sertulariae, fragments of an umbellularia, an antipathes,
a spike of a cidaris, fragments of shell of argonauta, as
well as one Bulla tjmpanica of a whale, and two shark's
teeth, of which the first belonged to a carcharodon and
the second to an exyrhina. Of fishes there were one
Malacosteus, one Alepocephalus, one Leptocephalus, one
Argyropelecus, and a form not yet determined. All these
I believe to have been pelagic, and to have been taken
during the process of hauling in. Regarding one form
alone, there was doubt whether to class it as a bottom
fish or as pelagic, namely, an unquestionably new species
much resembling Ipnops murrayi.

Judging from the appearance of the trawl when being
lowered and when being afterwards hauled in, I consider
this haul to have been, technically speaking, a success,
and I cannot explain the catch otherwise than by sup-
posing that at those profound depths there was an absolute
poverty of animal life. It remains a question whether
all these great ocean floors are equally barren in regard to
animals, and especially fishes. So far as I know, the
literature on the subject only records the capture of a few
Macruridae from the greatest ocean deeps, this being all
the evidence that there is to favour belief in the occur-
rence of larger fish there. But is it perfectly certain that
even those are not also pelagic ? On several occasions
during the cruise our tow-nets captured over the greatest
ocean depths pelagic specimens of .Alepocephalus, which
is generally brought up by the trawl. In any case, the
animal life there must be extremely scant}- : and this is
borne out by the vertical hauls with our big net below
1500 metres, which I have referred to when discussing
Cyclothone microdon.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

Cambridge. — The professor of mineralog}' has, with the
consent of the Vice-Chancellor, reappointed Mr. A.
Hutchinson to be demonstrator in mineralogy and
assistant curator for five years from January i.

Dr. Hobson has been appointed chairman of the
moderators and examiners for the Mathematical Tripos,
Part ii., 191 1.

Mr. C. E. Inglis has been appointed chairman of the
examiners for the Mechanical Sciences Tripos, 1911.

394

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

Durham. — Mr. P. J. Hcavvood, mathematical lecturer,
has been appointed to the professorship of mathematics in
succession to Prof. R. A. Sampson, F.R.S., who was
recently appointed Astronomer Royal of Scotland.

Dr. Frederic S. Lee has been appointed head of the
department of physiology at Columbia University, New
York, on the retirement of Prof. J. G. Curtis. He has
been connected with the University since 1891, having
successively held the posts of demonstrator, adjunct pro-
fessor, and research professor.

By the will of the late Mr. W. S. Steel, of Philiphaugh,
Selkirkshire, the sum of 5000Z. is to be set aside for the
establishment of " The Strang Steel Fund," the income of
which is to be applied for the advancement of education
in Selkirkshire, including the burgh of Selkirk. Mr. Steel
also bequeathed 5000Z. to Glasgow University to found a
scholarship for promoting research in any department of
science the University may consider desirable, and the
income of 2000Z. for the purchase of books for the library
of the University.

The Regent Street Polytechnic, London, is being rebuilt
this year at a cost of 90,000/. The rebuilding fund was
inaugurated by a grant of 20,oooJ. from the London
County Council and a loan of 20,000/. from the City
Parochial Foundation. The 50,000/. needed to complete
the fund has been subscribed and promised with the excep-
tion of 2500/., which has been reserved so that as many
old members, scholars, students, &c., of the polytechnic
may have the opportunity of participating in the scheme.
Donations of i/. to 100/. may be sent to the secretary of
the polytechnic, 309 Regent Street. Among donations to
the rebuilding fund may be mentioned Lord Leith of Fyvie,
30,000/. ; Mr. Howard Morley, 5000/. ; and Lord Howard
de Walden, 3500/.

The report of the principal of the Huddersfield Technical
College, read at the recent distribution of prizes to. students
of the institution, is a record of steady progress. Not
only was there during last session a substantial increase
in the number of both day and evening students, but also
in the fees paid and the grants received from the Board
of Education. In addition to the strictly technical part of
the work of the colleges, courses of instruction are pro-
vided which enable students to graduate at the University
of London. At the conclusion of his report the principal
suggested an enlargement of the sphere of usefulness of
the institution during the daytime, and consideration is
being given to the possibility of expanding the work of
the college in the following directions : — the more vigorous
conduct and better organisation of the day commercial
department ; the establishment of day classes for appren-
tices in various trades ; day classes in mining for workers
employed on night shifts ; trade schools of dressmaking,
millinery, or cloth mending ; and the opening of a home-
making centre, to be worked in conjunction with the
department of domestic economy.

At the convocation of the University of Chicago on
December 20, 19 10, a letter from Mr. John D. Rocke-
feller to the president and trustees was read. In the
letter, which is printed in Science for December 30, Mr.
Rockefeller announces that he has had 2,000,000/. set
aside for the University of Chicago, and that it is to be
delivered to the University in ten equal annual instal-
ments, which began on January i of this year. Each
instalment is to bear income to the University from the
date of such delivery only. The letter goes on to point
out that Mr. Rockefeller believes that it is better for a
university to be supported and enlarged by the gifts of
many rather than by those of a single donor, and he states
that the University of Chicago has received in addition
to his own gifts more than 1,400,000/. from citizens of
Chicago and the West. With his latest generous gift, Mr.
Rockefeller says he has completed the task he set before
himself as regards the University ; and his letter con-
tains his resignation from the board of trustees, and the
announcement of the resignations of his personal repre-
sentatives. " I am acting," the letter says, "on an early
and permanent conviction that this great institution, being
the property of the people, should be controlled, con-

NO. 2 1 51, VOL". 85]

ducted, and supported by the people in whose generous
efforts for its upbuilding I have been permitted simpl}- to
cooperate." A resolution of appreciation of Mr. Rocke-
feller's generosity, adopted by the trustees, states that
altogether the sums received from him amount to
7,000,000/. The trustees, too, are able to say in their
resolution : — " Mr. Rockefeller has never permitted the
University to bear his name, and consented to be called
its founder only at the urgent request of the board of
trustees. He has never suggested the appointment or
removal of any professor. Whatever views may have been
expressed by members of the faculty, he has never indi-
cated either assent or dissent. He has never interfered
directly or indirectly with that freedom of opinion and
expression which is the vital breath of a university, but
has adhered without deviation to the principle that while
it is important that university professors in their con-
clusions be correct, it is more important that in their
teaching they be free."

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

London.
Royal Society, January 12. — Sir A. Geikie.K.C.B,, president,
in the chair. — Prof. H. L. Callendar and H. Moss ;

The absolute expansion of mercury. — Dr. R. W. Gray
and Sir W. Ramsay : The density of niton (radium
emanation) and the disintegration theory. — Prof. J. S.
Townsend : The charges on ions in gases, and some
effects that influence the motion of negative ions. The
experiments on charges on ions in gases which had
previously been made with air only have been extended to
oxygen, hydrogen, and carbonic acid. The value of the
quantity Ne for the negative ions is in all cases very near
the value 1-22 x io'°, which corresf>onds to a charge, c,
equal to the charge on a monovalent atom. The '
were produced by secondary Rontgen rays, and it
found that when non-penetrating rays were used the v
of Ne for the positive ions was practically the sam'
for negative ions, but is much larger when the penetra;
rays are used, showing that in this case some of
positive ions have double charges. The motion of
negative ions is considerably changed by carefully -
ing the gaSes, and the results of the experiments ma}
used, in conjunction with the determinations of the veloci-
ties made by Mr. Lattey, to determine the apparent mass
of the negative ion, which diminishes at low pressures as
the electric force is increased. For a given force, the
pressures at which the effect of drying becomes appreciable
is higher in hydrogen than in oxygen, and much less in
carbonic acid than in the other gases. — F. W. Aston :
The distribution of electric force in the Crookes dark(
space. The method used in the investigation is one due
to J. J. Thomson, and consists in shooting a beam oi
homogeneous kathode rays transversally through the _dis-i
charge, and observing the deflection of the beam at variou<^
points. The results so obtained are free from the v
serious objections which may be urged against
" sounding-point " methods used by previous observ
The electric force in the negative glow is found to
negligibly small, while within the Crookes dark space ^
is satisfied within experimental error by the simplq
formula fiiD-x), where D is the length of the darl^
space, X the distance from the kathode, and fi a constant
This result indicates the presence of a uniform charge o
positive electrification within that region. The distribu
tion is the same for all gases, pressures, and current'
used. By integrating the forces so obtained, the potentia
fall across the dark space is calculated, and is fouml
all cases to agree within experimental error with
actual potential between the electrodes. The large an.
abrupt fall of potential at the surface of the kathodn
found by other investigators is probably a result of far'"
methods, an explanation of which is suggested. — Dr. V
Shaw: The measurement of end-standards of length.
continuation of work published in Roy. Soc. P
(December i, 1905). In recent years the authoritie'-
the National Physical Laboratory have been required
measure and test end-standards with unprecedf
accuracy. As a result, the faults of the standards and
the measuring machines have come to light. In th

January 19, 191 1]

NATURE

395

n.irvr an account is given (i) of improvements in the
leness and parallelism of the standards ; (2) of changes
oduced in the author's measuring machine to cope
1 the more accurate standards. It is easy to get con-
:nt readings of length provided the standard is not
. ed ; but if, as is required, the standard is moved, it
L difficult mechanical problem to provide a movement
^- nearly parallel that the readings before and after move-
ment shall be consistent. Curves and tables are given
?h.>\ving the degree of accuracy at present obtained. A
It advance in refinement is expected on the present
5 of work.

Linnean Society, December 15, 1910. — Dr. D. H. Scott,
1 R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. O. Stapf : Report
the International Botanical Congress, held at Brussels
May 14—22, 1910. The Linnean Society ap{x>inted five
gates for the congress with the view of having the
rent departments concerned in the discussion on taxo-
lic nomenclature so far as possible represented. The
gates were Messrs. Arber (fossil plants). Cotton (algae,
ens, and fungi), Gepp (MUsci and Hepaticae), Henr\"
ves and Dr. Stapf (phanerogams and vascular crypto-
s, and Mr. H. Groves also Charceae). Phytogeography
- not taken especially into account, as Mr. Tansley,
delegate of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, joined
::on iii. — R. W. H. Rowr : Non-calcareous sponges
n the Red Sea, collected by Mr. Cyril Crossland. The
~^nt report contains descriptions of seventy-seven
ies, belonging to fort\-four genera, of which thirty-
species and four genera are new to science. The
1 sponge fauna of the Red Sea now includes no fewer
1 187 species, but this includes certain forms only
'd in the Gulf of .Aden. The Red Sea sponge fauna
vs a very great similarity' to that of the Indian Ocean,
ewer than eighty species being found common to the
regions. Of these eighty species, sixteen occur along
coasts of East Africa or on the islands near by, twentv-
• occur in Ceylon, and no fewer than thirtj-one in the
: Indies and Australia. As a result, the Indo-
ralian region, as defined in the report on the
axonia of the Challenger expedition, has been enlarged
include the whole of the Indian Ocean and the adjacent
seas, and it is suggested in this report that a division
into western and eastern areas can be made along the
sixty-fifth meridian of east longitude. The fauna of the
Red Sea, not only as regards sponges, but in general also.
'■ ^-s a very close relationship both in character and
:es with that of East Africa, and that of Ceylon with
Australian fauna. .Another interesting feature of Mr.
Crossland 's collection is the presence of three species
previously only known from the Mediterranean area, or,
at any rate, the North .Atlantic. It is suggested that
these forms have migrated thence into the Red Sea
through the Suez Canal. — R. S. Adamson : Notes on the
comparative anatomy of the leaves of certain species of
Veronica. Thirty-eight species of the genus, natives of
New Zealand, have been examined, which show great
variation of form. .All are more or less xerophilous and
evergreen. One of the most noticeable features is the
formation at the leaf-insertion of a patch of cork-cells
which completely cuts off the continuity of tissues except
for the bundle ; these cells are formed by a phellogen. and
may appear in the first year of the three during which the
leaf persists. The species show, in general, a series of
increasingly xerophilous types of leaf structure, from
forms with large leaves with normally differentiated meso-
phyll, through those with quite hom<^eneous structure, lo
forms with scale-like leaves with corresponding anatomical
modifications. The less xerophilous species have hyda-
thodes at the leaf-apex that may be modified in various
ways ; these are absent in the more xerophilous forms.
Stomata are protected in various ways, especially bv
cuticular expansions over the pore, and bv deoression of
the guard-cells below the surface. The xerophilous nature
of the leaves can be correlated to some extent with the
climatic conditions in the native habitats.

Mathematical Societv. Tanunrv t2.— Dr. H. F. Bj»k«*r,

president, in the chair.— T.C. Lewis: .A property of the

number 7.— Prof. E. W. Hobson : The fundamental

theorem relating to the Fourier constants for given func-

NO. 215 I. VOL. 85I

tions. — Prof. H. M. Macdonald : The integration of the
equations of propagation of electric waves. — Dr. \V. H.
Young : The fundamental theorem in the theorv' of func-
tions of a comple.x variable. — Miss H. P. Hudson : The
3-3 birational transformation in three dimensions (second
paper).

Paris.
Academy of Srien«^e8, lanuary o. — M. Armand Gautier
in the chair. — Emile Picard : A singular integral equa-
tion.— A. Laveran : The resistance of goats and sheep to
trypanosomiases : the long duration of acquired immunity
following these diseases. Both sheep and goats are
susceptible to most of the trypanosomiases, but the attack
is usually slight and followed by cure, whilst in most
other animals the termination is fatal. The serum of a
sheep two and a half years after cure from an attack
of T. dimorphon is active, and protects mice against the
attack of the same organism. Similar results were
obtained from the serum of the goat. — M. de Forcrand :
Some probable chemical properties of radium and its
ccMnbinations. From thermochemical data for the metals
of the alkalis and the alkaline earths, and the position
of radium in this series, thermochemical data are calcu-
lated for radium and its compounds. From these data it
is reasonable to assume that the hydroxide will be a little
more stable than bar\ta, but a little more easily dissoci-
able than sodium hydroxide ; the oxide RaO should be
easily converted into the peroxide RaO, at a red heat, and
radium carbonate should be decomposed with some diffi-
culty at a red heat. The existence of a hydride (RaH,) is
also predicted. — M. Luixet : The variable brightness of
certain stars of the tv'pe of 5 Cephei. On the basis of
certain assumptions, the changes in brightness are calcu-
lated, and the curves thus obtained compared with the
experimental data, with satisfactory' agreement. — Charles
Nordmann : The effective diameters of the stars.
Starting with the effective star temperatures determined
by the author's stellar photometer, the effective diameters
of ten stars are calculated. It is found that stars the
effective temperature of which are higher than that of
the sun have the smallest diameters, the contran.' holding
for stars cooler than the sun. — M. Le Fort : An interpola-
tion fomnula established with a view to some practical
applications. — M. Zietnbinski : The relation existing
between the thrust of a pronulsive helix when fixed and
when attached to a body in motion in the air. — Pierre
Weiss : A new pro(>erty of the magnetic molecule. If the
molecule Fe,0, in magnetite possesses four degrees of
freedom of rotation, the value of the specific magnetisa-
tion at the absolute zero will be 97-7, very near to the
value 95-9 obtained by Kamerlingh Onnes at the tempera-
ture of liquid hydrogen. FrtMn the experiments described,
it is found that at certain temperatures the magnetic
moment of the molecule increases suddenly by quantities
bearing a simple numerical relation to the magnetic
moment of the molecule at low temperatures. — L.
D^combe : The definition of entropy and of tempera-
ture. Monocyclic systems. — J. de KowraUski and J.
de Dzierxbickl : The influence of functional groups on
the spectrum of prt^ressive phosphorescence. The sub-
stances studied were examined in alcoholic solutions (con-
centration 0-05 normal) at about — 190° C. The acids
examined included benzoic, the three toluic, three amido-
benzoic. three oxybenzoic acids, and also benzonitrile and
/)-tolunitrile. — Witold Bronie«wski : The electrical proper-
ties of the aluminium-magnesium alloys. The experi-
ments included measurements of the electrical resistance,
thermo-electric power (against lead), and the variation of
the thermo-electric power with temperature, the data
obtained being given in the form of curves with the per-
centage of magnesium as abscissae. The probable exist-
ence of the compounds -AlMg and .Al.Mg, is indicated,
but the existence of Al,Mg and AlMg,. described bv earlier
workers on the same subject, could not be confirmed. —
Ed. Chauvenet : .A general method for the preparation
of anhydrous chlorides (see p. "^S^). — J. B. Senderens :
Ketones derived from the three isomeric toluic acids. The
method for preparing ketones, based on the catalytic action
of thoria. described by the author in a previous paper, has
been applied to the preparation of fifteen cresyl-al'-vl-
ketones. The densitv, boiling point, and melting --'^'nt
of the semicarbazone ^re "'ven for each ketone. — M.

396

NATURE

[January 19, 191 1

Lanfry : A new thiophene compound, C,jH,Sj, and some
of its derivatives. The new compound was isolated from
the products of the reaction of sulphur and naphthalent
vapour when passed through an iron tube at a red heat.
Its composition is probably either phenothiophen'e or
phenodithiophene. An account is given of the behaviour
of the new compound on oxidation. — A. Wahl : The
condensation of acetic ester with its higher homologues.
Contrary to the views held up to the present, the con-
densation of acetic ester with its homologues by means
of sodium is possible in certain cases. Details are given
of the preparation of butyrylacetic ester by this reaction.
— Jean Dybo«vski : A new source of natural indiarubber.
A method of utilising Jeloutong, resulting from the
coagulation of the latex of Dyera costulata. — L.
Blaring^hem : The rules of Naudin and the laws of
Mendel relating to hybrids. The examples described are
not in accord with Mendel's laws, but fully agree with
the rules given by Naudin in 1861. — Jules Laurent : The
physical conditions for the i-esistance of the vine to
mildew. — Ren6 Maire and Adrien Tison : Researches on
some Cladochytriaceae. — P. Chause and L. Pissot : The
process of caseification in human tuberculosis. — Ch.
Janet : The existence of a chordotonal organ and of a
pulsatile antennary vesicule in the bee, and on the
morphology of the head of this species. — Alfred Ang^ot :
The value of the magnetic elements at the Val-Joyeux
Observatory on January i, 191 1. — Alfred Angrot : The
earthquake of January 3-4, 191 1. The earthquake, the
epicentre of which appeared to be in Central Asia, was
recorded on the seismograph of the Pare Saint-Maur
Observatory, and was the most violent hitherto recorded,
the amplitude being outside the range of the recorder for
about six minutes. The vibrations of the ground were
sufficient to disturb the magnetographs. — Louis Fabry :
The earthquake of January 3, 191 1. Details of the
records of the seismograph at the Observatory of
Marseilles. — Henri Bourgret : Remarks on the preceding
communication.

Calcutta.
Asiatic Society of Bengal, December 7, 1910. —
P. C. Ray and Jitendra Nath Rakshit : Methylamine.
nitrite. When mercuric nitrite solution is treated with
dilute ammonia, a precipitate of dimercurammonium
nitrite is formed, and ammonium nitrite remains in solu-
tion (Trans., 1902, Ixxxi., 644). Recently a solution of
mercuric nitrite was similarly treated with dilute methyl-
amine. The precipitate which was thus obtained proved
on analysis to be dimercurammonium nitrite, pure and
simple. The fijtrate, amounting to about 25 c.c, was
distilled in a vacuum at temperatures gradually raised
from 45° to 50°. — Hem Chandra Das-Gupta : The occur-
rence of Maestrichtien fossils at Kacch Station (in British
Baluchistan).

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY. January 19.

Royal Society, at 4.30. — The Action of B. lactis eerogenes on G\\ico^e
and Mann'tol. Part II. : G. S. Walpole — The Pharmarological Action
of South African Boxwood (Goniotitti Katnassi) : Dr. W. E. Dixon. —
Autoagglutination of Red Blood Cells in Trypanosomiasis : Dr. W.
Yorke. — The Transformation of Proteids into Fats during the Ripening
of Cheese (Preliminary Communication): M- Nierenstein. — The Action
of X-rays on the Developing Chick: J. F. Gaskell.— (i) Experiments
to ascertain if Antelope may act as a Reservoir of the Virus of Sleeping
Sickness {Trypanosoma gatnbicnse)\ (2) Experiments to ascertain if the
Domestic Fowl of Uganda may act as a Reservoir ot the Virus of
.Sleeping Sickness (^Trypanosoma gavthiense): Colonel Sir D. Bruce,
F.R.S., and others.

Royal Institution, at 3.— Recent Progress in Astronomy: F. W.
Dvson, F.R.S. , Astronomer Royal.

I-iNNEAN Society, at 8.

RovAL Geographical Society, at 5. — Research Meeting. Neolithic
Villages in Thessaly : Mes;rs. Wace and Thompson.
FRIDAY, January 20.

Royal Institution, at 9. — Chemical and Physical Change at Low
Temperatures: Sir James Dewar, F.R.S.

Institution of Mechanical Engineers, at 8. — Modem Electrical
Dock-equipment, with Special Reference to Electrically-operated Coal-
hoists : W. Dixon and G. H. Baxter.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — The Design and Construction
of Reinforced-concrete Arches : G. F. Walton.

TUESDAY, January 24.

Royal Institution, at 3. — Heredity : Prof. F. W. Mott, F.R.S.

Roval Anthropological Institute, at 8. 15. — Anniversary Meeting.

MiNERALOGiCAL SOCIETY, at 5. 30. — On Kaolin: F. H. Butler. — On
Si-hwartzembergite : Dr. G. F. H. Smith and Dr. G. T. Prior. — An

Improved Form of Total Refractometer : A. Hutcbinsoo. — A Case

Electrostatic Separation : T. Crook.
Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — Sand-movements at Newcastle

P^ntrance, N.S.W. : C. W. King.— Fremantle Harbour- works, Western

Australia: C. S. R. Palmer.— The Bar Harbours of New South WaK-

G. H. Halligan.

WEDNESDA K, January 25.
Royal Society of Arts, at 8.— Motor Transport in Great Britain ana

the Colonies : H. M. Wyatt.
Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, at %.— Adjourned discus-

S!Oh: Notes on Chilian Mills in Russia: H. C. Bayldon. — Notes on

Placer Mining, with Special Reference to Hydraulic Sluicing : N. A.

Loggin.
Geological Society, at 8.— 1 he Skomer Volcanic Series (Pembrokeshire) :

H. H. Thomas. — Some African Evidence for the Planetismal Hypothesis :

E. H. L. Schwarz.
British Astronomical Association, at 5.

THURSDAY, January 26.

Royal Society, at ^.-^o.— Probable Papers : Memoir on the Theory of
the Partitions of Numbers. Part V. Pariitions in Two-dimensionals
Space: Major P. A. MacMahon, F.R.S. — '1 he Origin of Magnetic
Storms: Dr. A. Schuster, F.R.S. — On the Fourier Constants of a
Function: Dr. W. H. Young, F.R.S. — On the Energy and Distribution
of Scattered Rontgen Radiation : J. A. Crowther. — On some new Facts
connected with the Motion of Oscillating Water: Mrs. H. Ayrlon.

Royal Institution, at 3. — Recent Progress in Astronomy : F. W.
Dyson, F.R.S., Astronomer Royal.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Long Distance Trans-
mission of Electrical Energy : W. T. Taylor. — Extra High Pressure
Transmission Lines : R. Borlase Matthews and C. T. Wilkinson.
FRIDAY, January 27.

Royal Institution, at 9. — Radioactivity as a Kinetic Theory of a
Fourth State of Matter: Hrof. W. H. Bragg, F.R.S.

Physical Society, at 5 (at Univeisity College). — A Demonstration of
Phase Difference between the Primary and Secondary Currents of a
Transformer by means of a Simple Apparatus : Prof. F. T. Trouton,
F.R.S. — A Note on the Experimental Measurement of the High Fre-
quency Resistance of Wires : Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S.— (i) The
Measurement of Energy Losses in Condensers traversed by High
Frequency Oscillations ; (2) Some Resonance Curves taken with Impact
and Spark Discharges : Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., and G. B. Dyke. —
Council Meeting at 4.30 p.m.

SATURDAY. January 28.
Essex Field Club, at 6 (at Essex Museum of Natural History, Stratford^
— Exhibition of Coloured Phot' graphs of Alpine Flowering Plants:
Somerville Hastings. — Note on the Occurrence of Stony Beds under-
lying Harwich Harbour : Percy 1 hompson. — On a Pre-historic Interment
found near Walton-on-Naze: Hazzledine Warren.

CONTENTS. PAGE

Radio-Therapy. By Dr. A. C. Jordan 363

Deduction and Denudation. By J. W. G 364

Technical Organic Analysis, By F. M. P 365 1

Tasmanian Skulls 366

Philosophy 367

American Textbooks of Mathematics. By

T. J. I'a B 368

Books on Nature-Sludy 369;

Our Book Shelf 37°

Letters to the Editor: —

The Inheritance of Acquired Characters. — Sir W. T.

Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S 37i

Palaeolithic Shaft-straighteners. {Illustrated.) — Prof.

W, J. Sollas, F.R.S 37i

The Turkestan Earthquake of January 3-4. — Rev.

Walter Sidgreaves; F. Edward Norris . . 372
The Markings of Mars. — Prof. A. M. Worthing-

ton, C.B., F.R.S 37^

Fireball of January 9. — W. F. Denning . . . . 37-
The Admission of Women to the Paris Academy

of Sciences 3'

The Solar Physics Observatory 3:

Solway Birds. {Illuslrated.) 3^

Notes . . ... 3'

Our Astronomical Column : —

Nova Lacerta? 3^41

The Orbits of Several Spectroscopic Binaries .... 384

The Discovery of Kepler's Laws 3^

Bright Bolides 3^

The Astrographic Catalogue, Catania Zones . .3^

Conferences ot Mathematical Teachers and of

Public School Science Masters. By G. F. D. . 3^,

Geology of the British Isles. By G. A. J. C. . . 38t
Russian Magnetic Observations. By Dr. C. Chree,

F.R.S 38'

The Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-sea Ex-
pedition, 1910. By Dr. Johan Hjort 3^'

University and Educational Intelligence 39.

Societies and Academies 39

Diary of Societies 39'

NO. 2151, VOL. 85]

NATURE

\97

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 191 1.

THE SCIENTIFIC MEN OF AMERICA.

11) American Men of Science. A Biographical Direc-
tory. Edited by J. McKeen Cattell. Second edition.
Pp. viii + 576. (New York: The Science Press,
1910.)

(2) Leading American Men of Science. Edited by
D. S. Jordan. Pp. vii + 471. (New York: Henry
Holt and Co., 1910.) Price 1.75 dollars net.

THESE two books bear very similar titles, but they
are nevertheless of totally different character,
for whilst the first is an exhaustive dictionary of all
the men of science at present living in the United
States and Canada, the second consists of a series of
biographical sketches of seventeen men of science who
have all passed to the majority, but the period of
whose activities range from the time of the founda-
tion of the American Republic until last year. Prof.
Simon Newcomb, who contributed one of the sketches
to this volume, is himself the subject of another, and
he died as lately as June 11, 1909.

(i) Turning our attention to the first volume, we
may say at once that it constitutes a most valuable
record. Under each name are given all the particu-
lars which can be crammed into a small paragraph.
We are informed not only as to the nature of each
man's present position, but also as to that of every
other position which he has occupied since graduation,
and an outline of the nature of his contributions to
scientific knowledge is appended. A full list of his
degrees and other academic distinctions is likewise
given. For the compilation of such a record no one
could be better fitted than the editor, Prof. McKeen
Cattell, who has taken such a large part in the
organisation of American science, and is sometimes
affectionately nicknamed by his colleagues, " the Lord
Pooh-Bah of American science." The only doubt
which rises in one's mind as to the utility of so com-
plete a work is occasioned by the ver\- frequent
changes of position which occur in the American
scientific world; for whereas in the older Eastern
universities the tenure of a chair is almost as secure
as in Europe, it is of the slenderest character in many
of the newer institutions. Cases are not unknown of
a newly-appointed president "sacking" almost
half his staff, but the situation is not without its
compensations, for dismissal by no means connotes
disgrace, and the discharged members of the staff
usually succeed in finding other posts before long.
The book which we are considering now appears
in its second edition, but its first edition was issued
in 1906. If it is to serve as an accurate guide to the
addresses and positions of American men of science
a new edition every year will be required. To
^ the alphabetical list of names. Prof. Cattell has
added about fifty pages dealing with the conclusions,
I at which he arrived by the use of statistical and
i graphic methods on the mass of material out of which
' the book is constructed. We may be permitted to
hesitate before accepting Prof. Cattell's belief in the
I possibility of quantitatively estimating the "amount"
I of scientific ability which an investigator possesses.
NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

Prof. Cattell secured the cooperation of 120 "leading
men " of science, to whom were submitted the names
of their colleagues in their respective sciences. These
names were then arranged in order of merit by each
of them, and the final position of each man of science
in the scale of merit was determined by the average
of the positions assigned him by this " judicial com-
mittee " of his colleagues. It seems to us that the
"probable error" involved in these estimates is so
large as to vitiate almost entirely the value of the
tables. Some of the minor conclusions, however,
which Prof. Cattell draws are of interest. Judged by
the number of scientific positions and by the number
of men of science born there, Boston and the surround-
ing parts of the State of Massachusetts are still the
intellectual centre of the country. The States of the
middle west rank high when we consider the very
recent origin of their universities, whilst the south
constitutes, relatively speaking, an '"intellectual
desert."

Prof. Cattell has some weighty words to say about
the inadequacy of the remuneration doled out to those
who give their lives to scientific work. Next to the
"bearing and rearing of children," he considers that
creation in science and art is the most important
ser\-ice that can be rendered to the State, and he adds
that

" No one can know that his work is of value except
by the reflected appreciation of others, and in the
existing social order the most adequate expression of
this appreciation is direct payment for services ren-
dered."

And again : —

" If the scientific man in the government service
receives the salary of a clerk and is subject to the
orders of a superior he will be treated like a clerk,
and in the end will deserve no better treatment."

Space forbids us to pursue this important subject
further, but now that the daily Press is endeavouring
to find reasons for the aggressive vigour of the Ger-
man nation in commercial matters, there is irre-
sistibly recalled to the writer's mind the occasion on
which he joined in the International Zoological Con-
gress in Berlin. On that occasion the Imperial
Government placed at the disposal of the congress
both Houses of Parliament. Important members of
the Cabinet were deputed to assist at the general
meetings, and the streets of Berlin were cleared by
a police force, whilst the Kaiser " reviewed " a pro-
cession of members of the congress. The imagination
staggers in the attempt to picture this state of affairs
in England, but one cannot help wondering whether
the attitude of respect to pure knowledge displayed
in such acts has not just as much to do with Ger-
many's success as her judgment in the matter of
tariffs.

(2) The seventeen essays contained in the volume
entitled " Leading American Men of Science " are of
very unequal merit. Some of them, notably that by
Mr. Slosson on Count Rumford, and those by Mr.
Stone on the two American ornithologists, Wilson
and Audubon, are charmingly written, and a great
deal more interesting than most " short-story "
romances, but others, possibly on account of their less

398

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

interesting subject-matter, are much duller compila-
tions. The title "American" is given its vv^idest pos-
sible connotation, for whereas Benjamin Thompson,
later Count Rumford, was born in America, and with
American versatility, served on both sides in the Revo-
lutionary war, yet the whole of his scientific career
was passed in Europe, and in London he founded the
Royal Institution ; on the other hand, Louis Agassiz
was born in Switzerland, and only went to America
as a man of science of established reputation when
he was forty years of age. The word " leading "
also by no means always signifies pre-eminence in
research, for amongst the seventeen immortals we find
the names of chemists like Silliman, and zoologists
like Baird and Goode, who are remembered rather for
their successful efforts to build up scientific institu-
tions than for "epoch-making" research. The two
last-named are associated with the development of the
United States Fish Commission, and Dr. Goode, in
addition with the building up of the National Museum
in Washington.

But amongst the most interesting biographies from
certain points of view is that of Prof. Willard Gibbs,
who devoted his life to the working out of abstruse
principles in mathematical physics, and produced
results of such high importance th&t American
students studying physics in Berlin were set to master
the work of their own fellow-countryman, about
which they had previously known nothing. That in
a country so full of "hustle" and of the utilitarian
spirit, a position should be found for such a man in
which the sole duties were to instruct four or five
advanced students in his speciality, augurs well for
the intellectual future of America. A similar feeling
is called to one's mind by the case of a brilliant
investigator prematurely cut off, whose name has
been, as we think, unadvisedly, omitted from this list;
we refer to Prof. Charles Ward Beecher, of Yale, who
described the anatomy of Trilobita. In his case also
his teaching duties were light, and did not extend
over more than five or six weeks in the year, and all
the rest of his time was devoted to research ; and the
tangible results of his researches in palaeontology,
after they had been described in publications, were
deposited in the museum, which was in this way built
up. If with Prof. Cattell we consider that

"if he is to be regarded as a benefactor who makes
two blades of grass grow in the place of one his ser-
vices would be immeasurably greater who could enable
two men of science to flourish where one had existed
before,"

then the University of Yale, to which Prof. Willard
Gibbs also belonged, must take high place in the
rank of benevolent institutions.

One of the most valuable features of the volume
under review is the account which it gives of the in-
vestigations of those of its subjects who were renowned
for research. This account is presented in such a way
as to be intelligible to the reader who is not a specialist.
The editor, President Jordan of Leland Stanford
University, has prefixed a preface in which are some
things well worthy of being emphasised. "In the ex-
tension of coordination of human experience," he says,
" lies the only permanent wealth of nations. And in
NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

this view is found the keynote of the present volume."
Again : —

"As we understand better the universe around us
our relations to others and to ourselves, the behaviour
of our race becomes rationalised. It becomes possible
for us to keep ourselves clean and to make ourselves
open-minded, friendly, and God-fearing."

The spirit to which these lines give expression and
which is reflected in the lives recorded in this volume
is the better leaven of democracy. While to many at
a distance the American Republic seems a seething
mass of blatant and utterly unscrupulous commercial-
ism in which the professor is regarded by the rich as
a mere hired servant, and by the poor as a half lunatic
" crank," yet on a nearer view it is seen that his dis-
interested devotion to truth does not fail of its reward,
for nowhere else in the world are the dicta from the
professorial chair given such wide publicity by the
Press, and nowhere else have they such influence with
the " sober second thoughts of democracy."

E. W. M.

lue fabric of pharmacy.

Chronicles of Pharmacy. By A. C. Wootton. Vol. i.,
pp. xii + 428. Vol. ii., pp. v + 332. (London: Mac-
millan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price, two vols., 21s.
net.

IN the preface to this very interesting and attrac-
tive work, Mr. Wootton tells his readers that his
original intention was to trace back to their authors
the formulas of the most popular of our medicines,
but that during the course of his researches he was
tempted to stray into various by-paths. Few of those
who take up the " Chronicles of Pharmacy " will re-
gret that the author succumbed to such temptation and
extended his investigations beyond the limits to which
he had originally intended to restrict them.

The title is well chosen. The work does not pro-
fess to be a systematic history of pharmacy but a
series of contributions in which the author shows how
kings, quacks, philosophers, priests, men of science
and others have contributed to build up the fabric of
pharmacy and mould it into its present form. It has
been well said that no subject can be thoroughly
grasped and properly appreciated until its history is
known, and this is undoubtedly true of pharmacy,
yet how few pharmacists have any adequate know-
ledge of their profession or of the long series of modi-
fications through which many of the preparations they
daily handle have passed before acquiring the com-
position given to them to-day? Such information
Mr. Wootton now off^ers them, and in a form so
fascinating that, having once commenced to read, it
is difficult to lay the work aside until the end is
reached. From first to last the attention of the reader
is riveted to the subject by the romance which the
author has so skilfully delineated.

The work is divided into twenty-four chapters.
From the first, which deals with the myths of phar-
macy, the author passes to pharmacy in the time of the
Pharaohs, of the bible, of Hippocrates, of Galen, of
the Arabians, and of Great Britain. "Dogmas and
Delusions," "Masters in Pharmacy," "Royal Phar-
macists," "Chemical Contributions to Pharmacy,"

JajSuary 26, 191 1]

NATURE

399

and ■' Medicines from the Metals " complete the first
volume. Of the ten chapters in the second volume
the most interesting are "Animals in Pharmacy,"
"Some Noted Drugs," "Familiar Medicines," "Noted
Nostrums," and " Names and Symbols."

The state of pharmacy in the time of the Pharaohs
is illustrated by a very concise but sufficiently com-
plete account of the celebrated Papyrus Ebers, which
is made more realistic by the reproduction of one of
its pages. Comparison of the preparations prescribed
in this historically invaluable collection of recipes with
those employed in this country three thousand years
later affords food for reflection ; such comparison is
easy, for several of the paragraphs are literally trans-
lated, and can be read side by side with several from
Cockayne's " Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Star-
craft," which soon follow in the same volume. The
chapter in which these are quoted (" Pharmac\- in
Great Britain ") makes ver>- interesting reading fw
British pharmacists. Here the reader is introduced
to a number of celebrities who have taken active part
in the development of pharmacy in this country', and
is made acquainted with the circumstances that ulti-
mately resulted in the formation of the Pharmaceu-
tical Society of Great Britain.

But perhaps the most interesting and certainly the
most novel chapters in the work are the three that
deal with " Noted Drugs," " Familiar Medicines," and
"Noted Nostrums." In them the author was at his
best, and it is not difficult to see that these were the
chapters that lay nearest his heart. They constitute
the first systematic attempt to compile a historj' of
preparations and medicines the names of many of
which are household words. Black draught, diachv-
lon plaster, Dover's powder, sal volatile, htera picra,
and many others are discussed. The expert will
speedily realise the lengthy and patient investigation
that must have been needed to discover and sift the
facts here presented in small compass. Full use has
evidently been made of the literar\- treasures in the
libran,- of the Pharmaceutical Society, where Mr.
Wootton was frequently to be seen deeplv engaged
in the study of old volumes. Probably few phar-
macists are aware that the original formula for
diachylon plaster was compiled during the reign of
the Emperor Tiberius, or that hiera picra could be

rchased in Rome or Alexandria two thousand years

^ ^ as it can be in London to-day; in both cases the

principal constituents have remained the same though

the adjuncts have varied. So also the chapter on

Voted Nostrums " contains most instructive accounts

remedies so familiar to the pharmacist as James's

tever powder, Ward's paste, St. John Long's liniment,

^^ arburg's tincture, and others. Moreover, it is im-

-sible to read these chapters without insensibly
-<-4uiring a considerable knowledge of the changes
through which pharmacy itself has passed.

Mr. Wootton 's "Chronicles of Pharmacy" must be
regarded as a ver\- valuable contribution to the history
of pharmacy, particularly in this countn.-. It is
written in scholarly style, is of abscM-bing interest, and
ihows abundant evidence of painstaking research.
Though the pleasure felt in perusing it is tempered
\^ith regret that the author should not have lived
NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

to see the publication of his work, it is fortunate he
should have had, in Mr. Peter MacEwan, an accom-
plished literar}' friend, able and willing to undertake
the task of revising the proofs before the work was
finally submitted to the public.

Henry G. Greenish.

THE CHICAGO TEXT-BOOK OF BOTANY.
A Text-Book of Botany for Colleges and Universities.
By Prof. J. M. Coulten, late Prof. C. R. Barnes
and Prof. H. C. Cowles. Vol. i., Morphology and
Physiology. Pp. viii + 484 + xii. (New York:
American Book Co., 19 10.) Price 2 dollars.

IT is a difficult task, nowadays, to write a text-bo<^
of botany, because the subject has become so
large as to render it impossible to treat even the more
important sections of it within reasonable limits of
space. Any attempt of this kind must be judged on
the basis laid down by the authors, and from this
point of view we think the new Chicago text-book has
scored a distinct success.

The subject-matter is divided into morphology-,
dealt with by Prof. Coulter, physiology by the late
Prof. Barnes, and ecolog>- by Prof. Cowles. In the
volume just issued the first two topics are treated.
The section of ecology will, we understand, be pub-
lished shortly. The book as a whole is organised on
the general plan of study pursued at the Hull
Botanical Laborator>- of the University of Chicago,
and general interest will be aroused in its appearance
since this laboratory- is one of the most active centres
of botanical research in America.

We confess to a feeling that the subject has suffered
from compression, but it may be taken, after all, that
the text-book is rather a reminder than a source of the
more important topics of instruction given in the
lecture-room and the laboratory-. One feels this, espe-
cially in the portion dealing with morphology. Prof.
Coulter must have found it a hard task to pick out of
the immense mass of material just the matter that
would best ser\^e his purpose, but we fancy that many
who belong to a class more advanced than those who
are officially known as students, will find the book
useful. He has, we think, very- successfully eluded
the rather stereotyped grooves, and has modified
the perspective of his part of the work. There is a
freshness, and that indefinable sense of first-hand
acquaintance with the matter in hand, which in spite
of the inevitable brevity imposed by limitations of
space, cannot fail to appeal favourably to the reader.

.■Vfter a general survey of the various groups of plants,
in which not only the results of recent work are incor-
porated, but a large number of new figures are in-
troduced. Prof. Coulter concludes w-ith a chapter on
organic evolution. It need scarcely be said that the
pages devoted to this question are interesting, but
we feel inclined to join issue with the author on one
point. In dealing with variation, he says that the
difference between what is known as natural selec-
tion and mutation consists in the fact that the former
deals with fluctuating variations which are small,
while the latter depends on large variations. But
surely the matter is not really a quantitative but a

400

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

qualitative one. Fluctuating variations may be (and
sometimes are) very considerable, while mutational
changes may be extremely small. The difference be-
tween them may perhaps be best appreciated by say-
ing that a fluctuating variation is the outcome of
a changed environment on an otherwise unchanged
mechanism, whilst a mutation is the result of a
changed internal mechanism, and even with a con-
stant environment the product will not be identical
with that of the unchanged type reacting with a
similar environment. It is the change of the vital
machinery which necessarily will shift the metabolism
of the organism into a new channel, and henceforth
will produce a new form, stable, until once more the
constitution, or chemico-mechanical framework of the
race, undergoes further modification. The change
itself may be small or it may be large, but it is
essentially in its occurrence at all, and independently
of its magnitude, that the production of a mutation
depends. Furthermore, that to this new constitution
is owing the circumstances that mutants are on such
a different plane from fluctuating varieties so far as
reversions are concerned. It may be argued that this
smacks rather of hypothetical statement than of proved
explanation of the facts, but it may be urged that
fluctuating variations and mutations at any rate do
express distinct kinds of variations, that these are
not merely quantitatively different, and that it is
therefore probable that they depend on the existence
of different factors, in the two categories.

The second portion of the volume deals with plant
physiology. It is written in the incisive style we
have been accustomed to expect from the late Prof.
Barnes; the arrangement of the material is good,
and the mode of presentation appears to us to be
very well suited to the requirements of those classes
of students for whom it is designed. A cautious
attitude which is much to be commended on general
grounds is observed towards many "explanations" of
physiological phenomena. Many interesting data not
commonly met with in works of this kind are in-
cluded, and render the book valuable to student and
teacher alike.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that we
expect the " Chicago Text-book " to take its place
as a valuable addition to the class books of botany,
and we hope the appearance of the concluding part
may not be long delayed. J. B. F.

PRACTICAL ZOOLOGY.
Leitfaden fiir das zoologische Praktikiim. By Prof.
Willy Kiikenthal. Funfte umgearbeitete Auflage.
Pp. viii + 320. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1910.)
Price 7 marks.

IT is a significant fact that no British zoologist
has yet thought it worth while to write a text-
book of practical zoology on the lines of Prof.
Kiikenthal's admirable work, which has now reached
its fifth edition. The reason is perhaps to be found
in the fact that zoology is so very lightly esteemed
by those who have the ordering of our educational
system. For this no doubt zoologists themselves are
largely to blame. The specialisation of original re-
'search during the last twenty years has led to the
NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

accumulation of an enormous number of facts, which,
though valuable and interesting in themselves, are
from the educational point of view to a very large
extent redundant.

The student is expected to familiarise himself with
a vast mass of minute morphological, embryological,
and systematic details, as well as with a great deal
of more or less speculative matter, much of which
has not yet stood the test of time. He can scarcely
see the wood for the trees, and realises that the
subject has become one of the most difficult, if not
quite the most difficult, which he can take up for
examination purposes. At the same time, the almost
complete absence of zoology from our school curricula
renders the subject comparatively useless from the
point of view of the student who is qualifying him-
self as a teacher. In Germany the study of zoology
appears to be much better appreciated, and this is
probably largely due to the fact that teachers treai
it more reasonably and do not expect their students
to accomplish an impossible task.

The work before us affords an excellent survey
of the animal kingdom from the laboratory point ot
view. It is divided into twenty "Kurse," each deal-
ing with a special group of animals. We do not
know how long each " Kursus " is supposed to
occupy, but the subject-matter dealt with in each
would in this country be regarded as far too much
for a single practical class. Thus the frog, the
pigeon, the lizard, and the rabbit are each dealt with
in a single "Kursus," and so are no fewer thar
thirteen types of Protozoa. Each "Kursus" consist-
of technical instructions, a general review of the
group or groups dealt with, and a special description
of selected types.

The plan of the work is very well carried out, an '
the numerous illustrations are excellent. Students o
Marshall's "Frog," or Marshall and Hurst's Zoology
would no doubt regard the treatment of types as ver
superficial, but it is at any rate an open question
whether it is not more important to gain a really
comprehensive first-hand knowledge of the animal
kingdom than to attempt to deal with a very small
number of types in great detail. It must be
borne in mind that Prof. Kukenthal's book is appar-
ently intended for students of " Hochschulen^" wli
are only taking a single year's work in zoology. Fui
those who are able to take two or three years we do
not doubt that the mode of treatment adopted in
the English text-books above named would be prefer-
able for the first year, but a work such as that under
review, sufficiently amplified, is badly wanted for
more advanced students in this country. A. D.

lONISATION OF GASES BY COLLISION.
The Theory of lonisation of Gases by Collision. By
Prof. John S. Townsend, F.R.S. Pp. xi-h88.
(London : Constable and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Pri
35. 6d. net.

IN various papers published during the last ten
years Prof. Townsend has developed a theory of
the ionisation of gases by collision, and has published
experimental results which give it strong confirma-

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

4ai

tion. In this small book he now gives a connected
statement of all his work.

The phenomena attending the passage of electricity
through gases are in many cases ver}- complex, but
it has certainly been evident of late years that the
fog which has covered the field of exploration is be-
ginning to lift. Here and there we are able to see
clearly for a little way and to grasp the relations of
various points to one another. The simple and satis-
factor}- theorv^ of ionisation by collision, which Prof.
Townsend has worked out, is an instance of this
improvement. He shows in the first chapter of hi§
book how electrons set free by the action of ultra-
violet light or other agents from one wall of an
ionisation chamber grow in number as they are
enided across the chamber by a sufficient electric

■rce. Collisions with gas molecules add fresh elec-
ons to the stream, and when the force is not too

reat the number which eventually reach the opposite

all is an exponential function of the width of the
hamber. He bases his explanation on the assump-
tions that (i) an electron must acquire a certain velo-
city before it can ionise a gas molecule by colliding
with it ; (2) a successful collision adds one, and only
one, electron to the stream; (3) an electron after a
collision, successful or not. has lost all the energy- it
previously possessed, and starts its career afresh
These assumptions can hardly be quite accurate, and
the remarkable agreement between the calculated and
the experimental results seems almost more than there
is any right to expect. It is quite a satisfaction to
find that the agreement does not hold in extreme
cases, and that the failure is, as the author points
out, in the right sense. The third assumption is cer-
tainly not always true; Prof. Townsend has himself
shown, in later papers not discussed in this book, that
an electron can acquire considerable energy in an
electric field when moving through a very dry gas; in
other words, that the electron does not then give up
all its energy at each collision. Again, it is interest-
ing to find that electrons are not to be supposed to be
incorporated with the atoms with which they collide;
or at least that it has been found possible to ignore
such an effect. If the idea is a correct one, it seems
unlikely that j8-rays can ever be incorporated w^th
atoms with which they collide. Thus the undoubted
success of Prof. Townsend's theor}- opens up further
questions of great interest.

In the second chapter it is shown that the positive
ions must acquire far more energy- than the negative
before they can ionise. It is only when the electric
force is very- great that the influence of the positive
ion is perceptible. When, however, the force reaches
a certain value the combined action of the positives
and the negatives is sufficient to multiply a small
initial ionisation indefinitely, and there is a "dis-
charge." The " sparking potential " can be calcu-
lated from the ionising coefficients of positives and
negatives, as previously found by experiment, and
here again there is an excellent agreement between
calculation and actual test. A careful explanation is
also given of the difference between the sparking
potential and the potential necessan,- to maintain a
discharge once started.

NO. 21/^2. VOL. 8a1

The argument of the book iy generally quite clear,
but there are occasional obscurities. On p. 23, for
example, the statement is confused, though essentially
accurate of course. ** The element dy of these paths *
is not a proper phrase.

The book is a welcome record of very useful and
interesting work.

TWO PHOTOGRAPHIC ANNUALS.
(i) Penrose's Pictorial Annual. The Process Year

Book. Edited by W. Gamble. Vol. xvi., 1910-11.

Pp. X+192. (London: A. W. Penrose and Co.,

Ltd., n.d.) Price 5s. net.
(2) The British Journal Photographic Almanac, 191 1.

Jubilee issue. Edited by George E. Brown. Pp.

1348. (London : Henry Greenwood and Co., n.d.)

Price IS. net; cloth, 15. 6d. net.
(ir^T^HE Process Year Book" has for its
* -■- object the display of specimens of work
done by each of the many and various processes of
reproduction. Care is taken that each process is
represented by a sample obtained with the maximum
of efficiency of that process. The volume thus gives
the reader an idea of the standard of the workman-
ship of to-day attained in each case, and also a com-
parison between the different kinds of results that
can be secured.

There is no doubt that many of the processes of
reproduction of to-day are really very fine, and a
glance through these pages will probably make the
reader think that it seems scarcely possible to pro-
duce better work. Yet those who are closely asso-
ciated with the subject, and they are the people who
know the true failings, take a somewhat pessimistic
view. Thus the editor in last year's annual was of
the opinion that the beautiful processes were on the
downward grade, and in this volume he states "it
cannot be said that the situation is much changed."
The race for speed and large output, coupled with
no time or desire to experiment, are among the
reasons he gives for this halt, cw rather retrograde
movement.

Nevertheless the volume before us demonstrates
that a ver\' high stage of efficiency has already been
reached, and it is possible . that because such rapid
progress in advancement as previously made is not
maintained now, this pessimistic view is held.

The amount and quality' of the work embodied in
this volume is a credit, not only to the editor, Mr.
William Gamble, but to the publishers, Messrs. Percy
Lund Humphries and Co., Ltd., and the proprietors,
Messrs. A. W. Penrose and Co., Ltd. A large
number of brief but interesting chatty articles on
various branches of the subject are interspaced amcwig
the large number of illustrations, and the variety
and high standard of the latter are to be highly
commended.

Every trouble has been taken to give credit to those
who have contributed to the volume, and it may be
said that this issue even excels the very excellent
volumes which have been noticed before in these
columns.

Not only will the book be of high interest to all-

402

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

acquainted with reproduction processes, but it should
be consulted by those who wish to gain an idea of the
many methods available. As a picture book alone
the volume is cheap at the price of 5s.

(2) This very serviceable publication celebrates its
jubilee in the present year. This series of almanacs
commenced its life as a wall or sheet calendar, and
appeared as a supplement to the British Journal of
Photography in the year i860. The current volume
is decidedly bulky, and weighs 275 lb. Appropri-
ately, it passes in review its past history, and con-
tains a number of portraits of editors and publishers,
past and present.

Our photographic readers are all familiar with the
g-eneral nature of the contents of recent issues, so
that it is not necessary to recapitulate these. The
epitome of progress, contributed by the editor, is a
conspicuous feature as usual, and gives a verv use-
ful set of classified abstracts of papers, communica-
tions, and articles describing the progress made in
technical photography, which have appeared in the
British and foreign Press during the twelve months
ending October 20, igio. This alone occupies about
140 pages. Another subject treated, most helpful to
those who cannot make themselves acquainted with it
first hand, is that which deals with recent novel in-
troductions in photographic apparatus ; the eightv-six
pages devoted to this are deserving of close attention.
The formulae for photographic processes, covering
sixty-seven pages, and the instructions for the use
of commercial photographic materials, occupying
sixty-five pages, are valuable features to have brought
together under one cover. The various tables —
chemical, exposure, optical, &c. — and the directory of
photographic bodies and societies, all of which are
brought well up-to-date, seem to show the mass of
useful material embodied in this almanac.

No mention has yet been made of the useful and
well-indexed advertisements, which take up nearly
two-thirds of the 1348 pages, that compose the
volume. These in themselves are very handy for
reference. The jubilee number is thus a fitting
volume for the occasion, and should, as usual, be in
every photographic studio or laboratory.

GEOLOGY AND LANDSCAPE.^
Geologische Charakterbilder . Edited by Prof. Dr. H.
Stille. Heft ii., Grosse erratische Blocke im nord-
deutschen Flachlande. By F. Wahnschaffe. Pp.
v + 6 plates. Price 3.60 marks. Heft iii., Das
Karstphanomen. By A. Grund. Pp. iii 4- 6 plates.
(Berlin : Gebriider Borntraeger, 1910.) Price 4.80
marks.

* I "HE object of these " Charakterbilder " is to provide

i

geologists with a series of illustrations of natural

phenomena, which shall be accurate and typical. The
authors are selected for special knowledge, and supply
several pages of text, printed on sheets of the same
size as the plates. The plates, however, are loose,
and can be used in the work of small classes, or can
be framed for laboratories.

Herr A. Grund deals with the features of the
karstlands, and surely a grey instead of a brown tint
NO. 2152, VOT.. 85]

would have done more justice to the pictures that he
has brought together. Except for welcome patches of
terra rossa round the dolinas, sometimes perhaps turned
up newly by the plough, the impression of the karst
is eminently white or grey. A few dark trees, them-
selves almost colourless, break or serve to emphasise
the monotony of the slopes. The author aptly com-
pares the dolinas to the valleys of normal areas; they
are the channels that lead off the water in a pernn
able land. The character of a plateau is, moreovn
preserved without marked local dissection, in a district
where there can be no considerable surface-streams.
A peneplane, once established, long remains a pent-
plane. An interesting discussion is given in con-
nection with plate ii., as to why the limestone or karst
areas of higher latitudes, as in Moravia or Cham-
pagne, are covered with vegetation, in opposition to
those of the Mediterranean region. The chief factor
is held to be weathering by frost, which soon cumbeiv
the surface with blocks that promote a soil. Signs
of mechanical weathering are almost absent in the
barren karstlands. A typical polje is shown from
Herzegovina in plate vi., with its alluvial floor con-
trasting sharply with the desolate limestone hills. In
this case the form of the basin is attributed, as in
many Bosnian examples, to the deformation of a
valley-floor by earth-movements.

Herr Wahnschaffe had a simpler task in describini,
in the previous part, a number of large erratics found
on the North German plain. The greatest of these,
a mass of garnet-mica-gneiss, occurs in a churchyard
at Gross-Tj'chow in Hinterpommern, and measures,
above ground, 374 m. in height, iS'go m. in lengtl
and ii'25 m. in breadth. The thick-set fir-woods thai
surround most of these wanderers from Scandinavia |
form " Charakterbilder " in themselves. The author 1
provides a clear, brief essay on the history of the {
theorv of glacial transport, beginning with Playfair
in 1802. G. A. J. C.

FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN.
Der Stand unserer Kenntnisse vom fossilen Menscheti.
By Prof. W. Branca. Pp. viii4-ii2. (Leipzig:
Veit and Co., 1910.) Price 2.50 marks.

WITHIN the last few years there has been a
marked recrudescence of interest in the stud\
of the fossil remains of man, and the stream of litera-
ture relating to the subject has suddenly become s.
voluminous that the torrent threatens to overwheli
those readers who cannot devote their whole time t
its perusal. In these circumstances any attempt i'
summarise and criticise this recent work is likely t.
meet with a hearty welcome, even though, as tli
author of this work frankly admits, it is far froni
complete.

Like the compiler of an analogous report on the
same subject in this country (SoUas, presidential
address to the Geological Society, 1910), the author of 1
the book under review is a geologist, and as such h^
deals in a critical spirit with the determination of th
age of the remains of diluvial man, insisting upon thi
need for placing chief reliance upon stratigraphic
evidence, secondarily on that afforded by associated

i

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

40-

animal remains, and least of all on the productions
of man's industry.

He deals mainly with evidence which has come to
light since 190 1, when he discussed the whole sub-
ject at the International Zoological Congress.

After describing the distinctive features of the two
main cranial types found in diluvial times — the higher
or Cro-Magnon type, '" which still persists in Europe,"
ind the lower or Neanderthal type, "which still per-
sists in Australia " — he describes specimens from
Cheddar, Terra d'Otranto, Monteferrand-Perigord,
Mentone, and Galley Hill as examples of the former,
and those from Krapina, Vezere, Heidelberg, and
Correze of the latter, but makes a third (intermediate)
group to include some of the Mentone crania.

There is no reference to the Gibraltar skull or to
any recent English writings, except those of Mr.
Macnamara; but he quotes at length from Rutot's
memoirs on the Galley Hill skull, which assign to it
a singularly great importance as "the geologically
oldest diluvial human remains," taking care to add
•if M. Rutot is right."

After a destructive criticism of Ameghino's supposed
Tertiary remains of man found in South America, he
discusses the question whether the inferior type of
diluvial European cranium is older than or ancestral
to the higher type, and comes to the conclusion that
there are many difficulties in the way, including the
possibility that the higher type of skull may be older
than the lower type.

He argues against the derivation of man from any
such anthropomorpha as the existing man-like apes.
There is an interesting chapter on fossil anthropoid
apes, great stress being laid, and quite justiv so, on
Schlosser's recent discovery in Egypt of a diminutive
Oligocene anthropoid — Propliopithecus Haeckeli.

Startling surprises await the reader as he approaches
the close of this sober, critical, and characteristically
thorough teutonic analysis of the state of our know-
ledge of fossil man, for he finds a chapter devoted to
the serious discussion of whether Pithecanthropus
may not be the bastard offspring of the union of a
woman and a male Gibbon ! And no sooner has he
recovered from the effects of this speculation than the
author launches into a polemic against what he calls
" the fanatics of the Church and monism " — the chief
""clerical fanatic" being the genial and popular ento-
mologist, Father Wasmann, and the "monistic fana-
tic," Prof. Haeckel. He ends the work with a con-
fession of his attitude towards the Christian religion !

G. Elliot Smith.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Schopetihauer-Daru'in: Pessimismiis oder Optimis-
mus. By Gustav VVeng. Pp. 189. (Berlin : Ernst
Hofmann and Co., 191 1.) Price 2 marks.
The author desa-ibes the " struggle for existence " in
somewhat lurid language, as a preparation for the
Introduction of the doctrine of his master, Schopen-
hauer. The weak go to the wall, the fit survive. In
a few millenniums there will be nobody but the happy
strong. Life is a game, a gladiator-fight, and the
survivor is the best. The process is unmoral or im-
moral, but " the end justifies the means."
After some clever cut-and-thrust at the progress-enthu-

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

siast, in the style of Carlyle's remark that it may be
progress backward, towards the devil and the pit, Herr
Weng indicates his own opinion as follows : — "The
exact sciences confirm Schopenhauer's Pessimism in
every detail. Therefore can he alone of all philo-
sophers satisfy our Reason and our indestructible meta-
physical needs, without denying nature-knowledge, or
forcing on us religious fairy-tales . . . this philosophy
knows no continuance of individuality after death.
For it, the individual is a form of objectification ot
the Will to Live." This will to live must be denied ;
thus only can the contradiction which has arisen
between moral law and natural law (struggle for life,
immoral survival of the strong) be resolved. The end
of the scientific progress-philosophy — Darwinian
evolution — is pessimism : the choice is between a
scientific pessimism with no redemption, and a philo-
sophic pessimism which does admit of putting things
right.

The foregoing condensation will give an idea of this
rather one-sided yet readable little book. Its criticism
of the evolution theory is itself open to criticism, for
though that theory issues in pessimism from the purely
materialistic point of view ('" nature red in tooth and
claw with ravin," cruel, pitiless of suflfering) it does
not follow that the point of view is the right one.
There may be meaning and purpose in all suffering,
and an optimistic philosophy may be possible by ex-
tending the principle of development into a spiritual
world. The assumption that the world exists for our
education, says Emerson, is the only sane solution of
the enigma. J. A. H.

Die experimentelle Grundlegung der Atoniistik. By

W. Mecklenberg. Pp. viii+143. (Jena: G.

Fischer, 1910.) Price 2.50 marks.
This book is an extended reprint of articles which
have recently appeared in Die yaturiuissenschaftliche
Wochenschrift and were written with the purpose of
giving an account of the recent additions to our know-
ledge about molecules, their mean free path, radius,
mass, &c., It is intended in the first place for
chemists and physicists who have not time to consult
original papers, but as the mathematics are exceed-
ingly simple, the author hopes it may be suitable for
a semi-popular audience.

There is first an account of the different means of
obtaining molecular data from the kinetic theory of
gases. Also, it is shown how the radius of the mole-
cule may be calculated from the molecular refraction
or from the constant of Van der Waals's
equation. Then follows a section on the
Brownian movement, in which the recent work
of Perrin and Svedberg is described. There is also
an account of the ultramicroscope and the continuity
of suspensions and solutions. Finally, we have a
section, which is fully up-to-date, on the more hack-
neved subject of electrons and the atomic theory of
electricity. At the end of the book there is a list of
references and an index of names. The book is thus
very complete, and gives a large amount of informa-
tion for its size, and the style is clear and interesting.

.According to the author, it has been the chief
fimction of the recent physics and chemistry- to prove
the existence of atoms by direct experiment, the word
atoms being used in the widest possible sense ; be-
fore, it could only be inferred indirectly. Hence the
title of the book, "The Experimental Founding of
the Atomic Theory." In this his point of view appears
to us somewhat artificial. While we have now no
doubt a much stronger faith in atoms, yet that has
come only in the train of other ideas, and does not
accurately describe the change in our outlook.

The table mentioned on pp. 25 and 40 as being at the
end of the book is really at p. 64.

404

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

Kant and His Philosophical Revolution. By Prof.

R. M. VVenley. Pp. ix + 302. (Edinburgh: T. and

T. Clark, 1910.) Price 35.
In a letter to Stiigemann, in 1797, Kant made a
seemingly arrogant remark. He said : " I have come
with my writings a century too soon ; after a hundred
years people will begin to understand me rightly, and
will then study my books anew, and appreciate them."
And indeed the estimate and the prophecy were sup-
ported by the most brilliant historian of modern
philosophy, and by the writer of the best book on
Kant in our tongue — by Kuno Fischer and Edward
Caird, namely.

The prophecy no doubt refers to the " Critiques,"
but Kant's contributions to science are important
also. The "Cosmogony" — admirably translated by
Hastie — is an astonishing book. It forecasts the con-
ception of evolution, and its scheme is adjustable to
all discoveries since made. " Law replaced Lucretian
chance, simplicity expelled Cartesian involution,
mechanism dispersed the clouds of mysticism raised
by Malebranche." Herschel and Laplace were anti-
cipated, and their very errors avoided with marvellous
intuition. Where Kant made mistakes, it was inevit-
able, often owing to lack of mathematical resources,
as in his calculation (for the first time) of Saturrf's
diurnal period.

In metaphysics, Kant's fame is, of course, that of
a destroyer. He demolished the various famous
"proofs" of God, freedom, and immortalitv. So far
as reason goes, the analysis of the first and most
famous "Critique" compels an agnostic attitude, and
"man is thrust back powerless in face of his own
most characteristic expressions and need." In the
later works, they are justified as postulates or neces-
sary hypotheses of the practical reason, giving occa-
sion to Heine's famous sneer.

Prof. Wenley gives an excellent sketch of the con-
dition of Germany in Kant's time, both intellectual
and materia], and his careful bibliography will be of
use to many students. The style is popular and lucid
- — a difficult thing to manage in an exposition of a
writer who uses such terrible terminology as we find
in the "Critique of Pure Reason."
Plant Life in Alpine Sivitzerland, being an Account in

Simple Language of the Natural History of Alpine

Plants. By E. A. Newell Arber. Pp. xxiv + 355 +

xlviii plates. (London : J. Murray, 1910.) Price

7s. 6d. net.
It is exceedingly true, as the author remarks, that a
large number of visitors to Switzerland are aroused
to great enthusiasm by the masses, brilliant colouring,
and variety of the Alpine flowers. Whether their
enthusiasm is sufficiently deep to induce biological
inquiry and observation in many cases is doubtful,
but the author is likely to be quite content if only a
small proportion is led to take an intelligent interest
in the information which he has set out with evident
care and admirable clearness. Also, it may be ex-
pected that not a few botanists will be glad to avail
themselves of the author's introduction to Schroeter's,
Christ's, and Bonnier's studies.

The details are marshalled under genera, while the
genera are arranged according to habitat, so that the
chapters treat of alpine pastures, meadows, marshes,
forests, and the ihigh alpine region. Biological
features provide the chief themes, among which may
be noted pollination, structural modifications, colour
and colour variation discussed in connection
with the gentians, fruit of the anemones and
Geum and contractile roots of Veratrum ; cushion,
carpet, and rosette plants are dealt with in the chapter
devoted to the high alpines, although it is intimated
that rosette plants are quite as numerous in lower
alpine localities. A very large number of genera are
NO. 21^2, VOL. 85]

included ; of these, the willows, Scilix reticulata and
Salix herbacea, would generally escape notice, while
the Papilionatae and louseworts would attract more
attention than they receive here. In the last chapter
the author presents an interesting sketch of modern
hypotheses regarding the origin of the Swiss alpine
ilora. A glossary and an introductory account of floral
structure are supplied in the appendices ; these should
render the book intelligible to readers who have had
no botanical training, as the author's style is simple
and explicit. Finally, a word of commendation should
be accorded to the excellent illustrations and the
useful diagrams, the latter prepared by Mrs. Arber.

Index to Desor's Synopsis des Echinides Fossiles,
By Dr. F. A. Bather, F.R.S. Pp. 46. (London :
The Author, at "Fabo," Marryat Road, Wimble-
don, 1910.)
By the publication of this index Dr. Bather has sup-
plied a long-felt want and has done a valuable service
to all students of living and fossil echinoids. Need-
less to say, he has carried out his important task
with great care and thoroughness. The scheme
adopted for the main part of the work is that which
is employed by Mr. C. D. Sherborn in his well-known
"Index Animalium " ; that is to say, the first part
of the index contains all generic and trivial names
alphabetically arranged, while the second part sets
forth the generic names, each one followed by an
alphabetical list of all the trivial names which have
been associated with it in the " Synopsis." Certain
pages of Desor's work appeared in more than one
issue and on varying dates, and d«e regard has been
paid to these irregularities by a quotation of actual
dates immediately following the page references in
question in both parts of the index. Another impor-
tant feature is the indexing of the plates, on which
appeared some names that are not to be found in the
text.

Systematic workers have always experienced much
difficulty in ascertaining the dates of issue of the
various fasciculi of the " Synopsis," and of the re-
issue of cancelled and revised pages, and it is therefore
a matter for great satisfaction that the author has
been able to include in this index a note on the dates
of publication, contributed by such a high authority
as Mr. Jules Lambert. It so often hanoens that
nomenclatural accuracy is dependent on bibliographical
precision that a special value attaches to Mr. Lam-
bert's note and to an exhaustive collation, supplied
by Dr. Bather, which immediately follows it.

Man's Redemption of Man. By Prof. W. Osier,
F.R.S. Pp. 60. (London : Constable afid Co.,
1910.) Price IS. net.
An address delivered by Prof. Osier to students of
the University of Edinburgh in July last is here pre-
sented to a wider public. The message is that of the
gospel of science. By observation and thinking, the
Greek philosophers grasped great principles and
arrived at brilliant generalisations, but not until the
secrets of nature were searched out by experiment did
the scientific redemption of man begin. The mastery
"Of Earth and Water, .\ir and Fire," is to be obtained
by following the experimental method; and through
it the conquest of disease and suffering may be_ con-
fidently anticipated. Unnecessary pain was banished
by the introduction of anaesthetics, Listerian surgery
has revolutionised the treatment of wounds, while
cholera, yellov^' fever, malarial fevers, and other
epidemic diseases have been brought under control.
Tuberculosis has yet to be stamped out, and the
campaig-n must be carried on until it is in the same
categorv with typhus fever, typhoid, and smallpox. _

The occasion' on which Prof. Osier delivered his
lay sermon was the Edinburgh meeting of the

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

405

National Association for the Prevention of Tuber-
culosis. The trumpet-call is shdrt, but its clear notes
should inspire confidence in the ranks of the small
army now fighting against ignorance and disease.

G.

Weather Instruments and How to Use Them. By
D. VV. Horner. Pp. 48. (London : Witherby and
Co., 19 10.) Price 6d. net.
This handy little work is intended chiefly for
amateurs, but it includes descriptions of instruments
required for a " second-order " station, while difficul-
ties which the author thinks are apt to " scare off "
novices are avoided. It contains much that is in-
teresting and useful, but its reading leaves us with
the impression that persons wishing to take up the
■subject seriously might at once turn to the handbooks
ind instructions issued by recognised authorities,
^ome instruments and methods not suitable for
econd-order stations are also included, and, naturallv
ill so small a work, no tables are given. Under air-
pressure the necessity of using accurate barometers is
pointed out. Reference is also made to the so-called
Fitz-Roy barometer, which, like the Gladstone bag.
Is, we believe, only a trade name ; as it is easilv read,
it may. however, be useful to the ordinary individual,
who merely uses the barometer as a " weather glass."

Killing's Press Guide and Advertisers' Directory and

Handbook, 1911. Pp. xiv + 457. (London: James

Willing, Jun.. Ltd.) Price js.

This is the thirty-eighth year in which this concise

j and comprehensive index to the Press of the United

i Kingdom has appeared. The volume also contains a

! list of the principal colonial and foreign journals and

a variety- of general information.

Field and Colliery Surveying. A Primer Designed for
the Use of Students of Surveying and Colliery
Manager Aspirants. By T. A. O 'Donahue. Pp.
xii + 263. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1911.)
Price 3s. 6d.
A REVISED and enlarged edition of this book was pub-
lished in 1909, under the title, "Colliery Surveying."
The opportunity has been taken with this new issue
to make further additions and to change the title so
as to direct attention to the prominence given in the
work to field surveying.

Solutions of the Examples in an Elementary Treatise
on Conic Sections by the Methods of Coordinate
Geometry. By Charles Smith. Pp. ivH-377.
(London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price
I05. 6d.
The master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge,
here provides a "key" to the examples in the new
edition of his "Treatise on Conic Sections bv the
Methods of Coordinate Geometrv," published re-
cently.

T.a Metallographie appliquee aux produits Siderur-
giques. By U. Savoia. Pp. x + 218. (Paris:
Gauthier-Viilars, 1911.) Price 3.50 francs.
This is a French translation from the Italian, and
as the English equivalent has already been noticed in
Nature (December 15, 19 10, p. 202) nothing further
need be said, except that the work of rendering into
French seems to have been carefully done, and that
there are altogether ninetv-four- illustrations in the
text.

Key to Hall and Stevens's School .Arithmetic. Part II.
By L. W. Grenville. Pp. 174. (London : Mac-
millan and Co., Ltd., 19 10.) Price 6s.
Busy teachers, and students working alone, will wel-
come these well-arranged solutions to the examples
va the second part of Messrs. Hall and Stevens's
"School .Arithmetic."

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

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 Inheritance of Acquired Characters.

In his very friendly notice of my little book. Prof.
Meldola has invited readers of Nature to furnish an
explanation of the source of a very " pregnant " passage
— the only one dealing with the subject in question — in
the " Origin of Species." Sir \V. T. Thiselton-Dyer has
clearly shown that the problem must certainly have been
in Darwin's mind at least four years before the writing
of the " Origin," when he was absorbed in the reading of
the great work of .Alph. de Candolle, and afterwards while
writing tlie " \'ariations of .■\nimals and Plants."

But, thanks to that important work, " The Founda-
tions of the Origin of Species " — by the publication of
which Dr. Francis Darwin has placed all students of the
history of science under such deep obligations — I think it
is possible to trace the actual " genealogy " of the passage,
and to detect its origin, at a far earlier period.

In the pencil-written sketch of 1842 there occurs the
following sentence in the equivalent position to the passage
in question : —

" Most of these slight variations tend to become
hereditary " (" Foundations," p. i).

It is true that this sentence was erased by Darwin, but
that this erasure was only due to the fact that he con-
sidered it unessential in the very brief outline of tlie
theory of natural selection which he then " permitted "
himself to make is, I think, proved by the circumstance
that the statement appears in the enlarged and carefully-
written draft of 1844 in the following terms : —

" Most organic beings in a state of nature vary exceed-
ingly little : I put out of the case variations (as stunted
plants, &c., and sea-shells in brackish water) which are
directly the effect of external agencies and which we do
not know are in the breed or are hereditary " (" Founda-
tions," p. 81}.

The italics are Darwin's own. The context, I think,
proves that " little " in this passage, like " slight " in
the earlier one, refers to the individual variations, and
not to their accumulated result.

In the first edition of the " Origin," and in all sub-
sequent editions, as Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer points out,
the statement runs : —

" Some authors use the term ' variation ' in a technical
sense, as implying a modification directly due to the
physical conditions of life ; and ' variations ' in this sense
are supposed not to be inherited " ; he then goes on to
refer to dwarfed shells, &c.

Now to realise what was at the back of Darwin's mind
in writing these several passages, I think we must go
back to the great controversy at the beginning of last
century between Cuvier and his followers and the
adherents of poor old Lamarck. The position taken up
b\- the anti-evolutionists was that^ while they admitted
the transmission by inheritance of small variations, they
stoutly denied that great changes in structure and habit,
such as were required by Lamarck's theory, could be so
transmitted.

Lyell. when he first read Lamarck's great work in
1827, was greatly fascinated by it, and down to 1830, and
some time after that, became convinced (as his letters to
Sedgwick, Whewell, and Herschel show) of the truth of
the doctrine of organic evolution. But, as was the case
with Darwin, a few years later, his ideas on the subject
underwent many vacillations. He paid frequent, and
sometimes prolonged, visits to Paris, where Cuvier showed
him much kindness, inviting him to his receptions. Lvell,
then still young and an ardent admirer of Cuvier's
palaeontological work, could not fail to be impressed by
the arguments of the distinguished Paris circle, and we
especially find that their studies of the Egyptian
mummified animals and of the anatomy of the races of
dogs had a very strong influence on his mind. Thus it
came about that in 1832, when he wrote the second

4o5

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

volume of the " Principles," Lyell not only rejected the
theory of Lamarck, but went far towards abandoning,
for the time, any idea of " the transmutation of species."

It is scarcely necessary here to recall the fact that this
second volume of the " Principles," so full of discussions
bearing on the changes in organic life, reached Darwin
in South America, just at the time when he was startled
by discovering the relations between the living and recently
extinct mammals of that continent. From that time forth
Darwin no longer regarded the question of evolution with
indifference. In the critical period between the return
of the Beagle, in 1836, and the writing of the first sketch
of the theory, in 1842, constant intercourse took place
between the two friends : "I saw more of Lyell," says
Darwin in his autobiography, " than of any other man,
both before and after my marriage " (in 1839). In their
frequent discussions, Darwin would become fully
acquainted with the arguments of Cuvier and his school,
which are, indeed, very clearly and trenchantly reproduced
in the first three chapters of the second volume of the
"Principles," which Darwin called his "own true love."

These facts borne in mind, I think we can have no
difficulty in realising the source of the statements made
by Darwin. I think the sentences may be paraphrased as
follows :- —

" Anti-evol-utionists a<im»( the inheritance of small varia-
tions. Well, the inheritance of such small variations is
al| I require for my theory of Natural Selection. I can
afford to concede the non-inheritance of the greater .
variations."

But it is interesting to notice that in the sentence about
plants and sea-shells following the passage in question,
and in his discussion of the appearance and inheritance
of a sixth digit in man, &c., Darwin was not satisfied
that only small variations were transmitted.

It was the remembrance of facts like these that led me
to suggest- that the subject was " constantly present " in
Darwin's mind. Prof. Meldola, thinking of the more
acute discussion of the question aroused in 1885 by Weis-
mann's declaration that no acquired characters are in-
herited, naturally expressed doubt on the subject, and I,
of course, admit that this phase of the question, in all
probability, never presented itself to Darwin, or at least
never demanded his serious consideration.

Kew. John W. Judd.

The Transference of Names in Zoology.

" As the preparation of an official list of Nomina con-
servanda is now under consideration by the International
Commission on , Zoological, Nomenclature, it may not be
out of place to direct attention to a point that seems to me
of orime importance in this connection, although it has
received little notice from recent writers on nomenclatural
reform.

. It is simply this — while the rejection and replacement of
familiar names for well-known animals is, of course, an
inconvenience to zoologists, it is a trivial matter in com-
p.irison with the grave possibility of confusion that arises
when the names are used in an altered sense. In the
former case we merely multiply synonyms, and, unfor-
tunately, they are so numerous already that a few more
hardly matter ; in the latter case there is a real and
serious danger of ambiguity. Thus, at present, a writer
who mentions Trichechus may be referring either to the
walrus or the manatee, Simla may mean either the orang
or the chimpanzee, Cynocephalus may be either a
" flying lemur " or a baboon, and so on through all the
grreat groups of the animal kingdom until we come to
Kolothuria, which may refer either to a sea-cucumber or
to a Portuguese man-of-war. Cases like these seem to
me to be on an entirely different plane as regards practical
importance, from those in which an old name is simply
rejected ; even if the shore-crab is to be called Carcinides
for the future, we have only the additional burden of
remembering that it was once called Carcinus.

A striking (if somewhat exceptional) instance of the
pitfalls that are in preparation for future students is found
in the section on Crustacea in Bronn's " Thierreich "
(Bd. v., Abth. ii.). On p. 1056 there is an allusion to
*' Astacus," and on the following page to " A!?tacus

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

(=Homarus)." In the bound volume (unless the part-
wrappers have been kept in place) there is nothing to show
that a change of authorship intervened between those two
pages, and that, while the second " Astacus " refers to the
lobster, the first indicates the crayfish.

If the International Commission could bo persuaded to
consider first those names that are threatened with trans-
ference, before proceeding to deal with those that arc
merely in danger of replacement, they would, I believe,
secure the support and cooperation of many zoologists who
have doubts as to the practicability of the schemes lately
put forward. W. T. Calman.

British Museum (Nat. Hist.), Cromwell Road,
London, S.W., January 23.

Sex Relationship.

It seem.s a pity that writers should allow their political
bias to influence their work, and especially that they
should not at least ascertain the facts of a case before
writing about it.

In his article on " Sex Relationship" in Nature of
January 5, Dr. R. J. Ewart said, in commenting on the
present excess of females over males : — " The result of
this is to produce in a community a section of women who
cannot possibly perform that function for which they were
fashioned. Their energies are naturally directed into-
other spheres, as evidence of which we see the revival of
the movement for political recognition. The agitation is
no new one, and apparently is dependent for its strength
and virility on the position of the sex pendulum," &c.

Now, first, it may be observed that women are no more
fashioned to perform a single function than men are ; their
natures are as complex, their brains as varied as men's —
in fact, " God Almighty made 'em to match the men."

Secondly, the excess of females of all ages over males
in this country is between one and two millions, while
five million women earn their own livelihood. Thus a
large number even of those who perform " the function for
which they were fashioned " are obliged to " direct their
energies to other spheres," quite irrespective of any
excess of females.

Thirdly, there is no revival of the movement for political
recognition — it has culminated. Since it first began with
any vigour, in 1867, it has gone steadily on, and its greater
activity during the last five years has been due to the
genius and courage of two women, who had the politicaf
insight to realise that, by some curious quality in the
psychology of men, the only tactics that are successful in
obtaining a reform of the franchise are militant tactics.

Fourthly, the countries in which English-speaking
women have already gained their political freedom are
not those in which there is an excess of women over men,
but are the comparatively new countries — New Zealand,
Australia, and some of the western States of .America.

Dr. Ewart errs in attributing to a purely physical cause
a movement which really arises from a mental and moral
awakening — and, indeed, his whole article is full of un-
supported assertions and loose reasoning ; but I should not
have ventured to criticise it had he not so clearly allowed
his judgment to be warped by his political bias.

Hertha Ayrton.

41 Norfolk Square, Hyde Park, W., January 9.

I AM sorry that my little paper should have been takerr
as prompted by political bias. I am sure that its possible
influence on the Suffragette question never entered my
head. I should be quite willing to answer any question
Mrs. Ayrton may care to put to me should she care to
write me privately. I am not willing to enter upon a
public correspondence. R- J- Ewart.

The Health Department, Municipal Buildings,
Middlesbrough, January 12.

The Origin of Man.

The reference in " Dodsley's .'Vnnual Register for 1767."
mentioned in Nature of January 12 (p. 336), is to James
Burnett, Lord Monboddo, whose speculations as to the
simian origin of man excited so much ridicule amongst

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

407

his contemporaries. Boswell reports a saying of Johnson
in 1773 :— " Other people have strange notions, but they
conceal them. If they have tails they hide them, but
Monboddo is as jealous of his tail as a squirrel."

Burnett's work " On the Origin and Progress of
Language," in which these speculations are put forward,
only began to appear in 1773, but his views were evidently
familiar at an earlier date. He became a Lord of Session
in 1764. Cecil H. Desch.

University of Glasgow, January 16.

[Mr. F. GiLLMAN, Brook House, Matlock, has sent a
letter to the same effect. — Ed. N.ature.]

POPULAR ORNITHOLOGY.^

IX producing yet another book on the birds of
Great Britain '■ the editor points out that one
result of the growing interest taken during recent
years in the study ot ornithology is a considerable
addition to our knowledge of the habits of British
birds ; that as no comprehensive British work on the
subject has appeared since those of Yarrell (revised
by Newton and Saunders) and Seebohm, this know-
ledge is only available by searching through a large
and scattered literature ; that the new edition of the
Naumanns' work leaves unrecorded many of the
observations on the habits of our birds that have
been made in our own and other countries, and that
tfiere is therefore place for a work that will bring
together from every source, foreign and native, all
the available information of any importance concern-
ing the habits of British birds. To do this, and to
do it in a form interesting alike to the student of
animal life and the general reader, is the chief object
of the present undertaking. This is to say the least
an ambitious project. In carrying it out the editor
will have the assistance of the following writers,
J. L. Bonhote, William Farren, the Rev.
F. C. R. Jourdain, W. P. Pycraft, Edmund
Selous, A. Landsborough Thomson, and Miss Emma
L. Turner, who have been left to arranee and treat
the matter within each section of a chapter written
by them " in the way best suited to his style and tem-
perament, thus avoiding cut-and-dried uniformity with
its resulting aridity."

The plan of the book differs in some important
particulars from that generally adopted. Each chapter
deals, not with a species, but a family, thus not only
emphasising the relationship of the species, but facili-
tating comparative treatment and avoiding unneces-
sary repetition of statements that apply equally to the
whole family or genus. In many cases it has been
found advisable to divide the chapter into sections.
In the present volumes all the finch genera are taken
together " owing to the marked similarity in the
general habits of the species," while the crow family
has been divided into groups. But when we find the
magpie and the jay grouped together for the same
reason as the finches and the raven separated from
the crows, and all three from the rook and the jack-
daw (which are taken together), it is quite evident
that " rigid uniformity in arrangement has not been
attempted."

The information most often needed for reference is
placed at the head of the chapter, under the title of
"Preliminary Classified Notes," and refers to each
soecies separately. These comprise (i) description of
plumage ; (2) distribution ; (3) migration ; (4) nest and
eggs and information as to incubation, number of
broods, &c. ; (ji) food; and (6) period of the year during
which the species sings. So far as we can judge from
the present instalment, these have been carefully pre-

1 "The BritUh Bird- Book. An Account of all the Birds. Nests and Eee*
fonnd m the British Isles. " Edited hy F. B. Kirkman. Vol. i., pp. xviii-!-
150: vol. 11., pp. 140. (London and Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack,
1910.) Price loj. M. net.

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

pared, and contain accurate and concise information,
a detailed account, however, of the geographical dis-
tribution, as expressly stated in the preface, lying
outside the scope of this work, which professes to
deal comprehensively only with their habits. Those
portions of the chapters treating of the habits gener-
ally, and forming the greater part of the volume,
are somewhat gossipy and discursive in character, and
even bordering in parts on the whimsical, while their
popular character may be indicated by a reference to
the devotion of two-thirds of a page to such matter
as an account of Charles Dickins's ravens.

Mr. Selous makes the startling statement that
young goldfinches are not fed apparently more than
once in an hour. But in a footnote we are .told that
the observations (on which the statement is founded)
were, it is true, made in the United States, and the
Latin name of the goldfinch was not given in the

Fig. I — Blueheaded Wagtail's Nest and Young in Grass.
British Bird-Book."

From ' ' The

original paper. " Still, it seems probable that what
applies to the North American' species of goldfinch
would apply to our own." Wild speculations on prob-
abilit\' of this kind seem to be a waste of space. The
"American goldfinch," as a matter of fact, is quite
a different bird from our goldfinch, and is closely allied
to the siskin. It is a pity that the author of this
section did not learn its Latin name. We do not
think this portion of the work will supersede our old
friend "Newton's Yarrell."

The second volume treats of the buntings, larks,
wagtails, pipits, the creeper and wren, in the order
named, the treatment often inclining to the fanciful.
In other places the grouping of the species, often
diverse except in name, seems to have raised a slight
difficulty, and some species — the shorlark, for in-
stance— might well have received a fuller notice. Of

4o8

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

its habits in winter, however, we are told "little is
known." But further research into literature and
inquiry among observers should surely have corrected
this.

A smear on the general attractiveness and beauty
of the second volume is unfortunately to be noticed
in the shape of a footnote wherein one of the con-
tributors indulges in a petulant attack on reviewers.
As the editor expressly repudiates responsibility for
the statements made in the note he is doubtless alive
to their exceedingly bad taste ; but why deface the
pleasing pages of the book with an acrid expression of
pique which can only be of interest to one person in
the world?

At the end of the work there are to be chapters on
rare British birds, classification of British birds, dis-
tribution and migration of British birds, bird watch-
ing and photography, and bibliography. With regard

Photo by E. L. Turner.

Fig. 2, — Tree-creeper's Nesl tn a crevice in a Tree. From " The British
Bird-Book."

to the illustrations, the artists include Winifred Aus-
tin, G. E. Lodge, H. Gronvold, G. E. Collins, and
A. W. Seaby. The coloured plates in the present
volumes are exceedingly pleasing and charming in
every way, and they certainly do answer the purpose
for which they have been designed. Their object is
to supply something more than a portrait of each
species for purposes of identification. Each picture
is, with few exceptions, to offer a study of some habit
of the bird or of one of its most characteristic and
striking attitudes ; it is to show the bird in its natural
surroundings, and the thirty-four plates in these
volumes are, on the whole, quite a success. In addi-
tion, we have a coloured plate of eggs, numerous
photographs of nests and eggs and young, an outline
map of the world, showing the six zoo-geographical

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

regions, and a diagram explaining the names, of the
various external parts and portions of the plumage of
a bird. An inde.x is promised at the end of the book,,
which is to be completed in twelve of these sections or
volumes.

The twenty plates of eggs which, with very short
letterpress, are meant to supplement the " Sketch
Book of British Birds," can hardly be said to be worth
publication.*

The book is, in fact, too cheap. We cannot expect
twenty coloured plates for five shillings, and the cheap
reproduction has been a failure. Yet it was hoped
that by having a faithful representation of one normal
specimen of each species a key would be furnished by
which identification might be made comparatively
easy. This hope would have been better sustained,
poor as the figures are, had they been correctly
named. But, turning to plate iii., we find the egg of
the black-throated thrush referred to the rock thrush
and vice versa, that of the "American thrush " {Turdus
migratorius) to the redwing, that of the redwing to
the missel thrush, and that of the missel thrush to
the American thrush ; while on plate xv. the eggs of
the purple sandpiper and little stint do duty for one
another. We have not had patience to go through
all of them. This deplorable confusion has been
caused by the careless insertion of the reference
numbers. But it is fatal to the key, and will prove
fatal to the beginner's attempt to identifv eggs. A
few lines of letterpress are devoted to each species.
Turning to that relating to this plate xv., we find the
wood sandpiper called the wood " tattler," an American
name not in use in England, and the information that
the pectoral sandpiper is an American species the nest
of which is built on high grassy slopes in Lapland f
Tt is no longer correct to say that the eggs of the
knot are still unauthenticated.

THE SEA-OTTER.''

SOME twenty years ago, in the days of the Bering
Sea question. Captain Snow was well known as
an authority on certain of the fur-seal fisheries of
the North Pacific, and he was, and still is, known
as one of the few authorities on the geography of
the Kurile Islands. He has now written a pleasant
book telling some of his manifold adventures in
this region of the world, and, above all, relating his
experiences in pursuit of sea-otter. There is an in-
terest,, which amounts to fascination in this singular
animal. Fifty years ago it was comparatively plenti-
ful all round the coast of the North Pacific, from
California and Oregon to Kamtschatka and the
Kuriles, though doubtless already much less abundant
than in Steller's time, more than a hundred 3-ears
before. But nowadays it has dwindled to very small
numbers, here and there among the Aleutian and
Kurile Islands, and these small numbers dwindle more
and more every year. I know of no living naturalist
who has seen the creature in its haunts, nor has any
zoological garden ever possessed it. Once upon a
time, Ijy the way, I spent a fortnight on Copper Island,
at the north end of which, five or six miles from my
hut, was a large rookery of sea-otters ; but while I was
provided with passports giving me perfect freedom of
access to the seal-rookeries, there was no word said
about sea-otters ; and day after day a polite functionary-
made excuses and apologies, a Cossack guard made

1 "British Birds' Eggs." By A. F. Lydon. Pp. 62-f 20 plates. (London:
S.P.C K., 1910.) Price 5^.

2 "In Forbidden Seas." Pecollections of Sea-Otter Hunting in the
Kurils. By H. T; Snow, F.R.G.S. Pp. xiv-f303. (London: Edward
Arnold, 1910.) Price i2,y. 6if. net.

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

409

neither the one nor the other, and I came away with-
out ever seeing the sea-otter.

While allied to the ordinary otters, the sea-otter has
many peculiarities of structure which have scarcely
vet been sufficiently weighed and discussed. Its
small, but irnmensely powerful skull seems dispropor-
tionate to its big body ; its forepaws are diminutive,
while its hind ones are long and almost seal-like ; its
teeth are unique in their great smooth, rounded
crowns, with which the animal crunches the crabs,
sea-urchins, and shell-fish that make up most of its
diet. Its fur is the finest and richest of all furs, soft,
deep, and silky, uniform in colour save for the white
or grey head, jet black in the finer skins, or inter-
spersed with sih-er\- hairs in the finest of all. A full-
grown animal measures 4 to 43 feet in length, but the
skin of such an animal easilv stretches out to 6 feet

walk the toes are doubled back undo- the sole (see
illustration).

The mother otter swims upon her back, carrying
her pup in her forepaws.. When she dives for food
she leaves the pup floating on its back, but when
chased she dives with it, gripping it by the scruff of
the neck, like a cat with its kitten, and she never
deserts her pup until the poor little beast is perhaps
drowned by her constant diving.

Captain Snow gives us some account of the number
of otters killed in the Kuriles, which number between
1872 and 1 88 1 varied from about 300 to 1500 a year.
In the next decade (1882 to 189 1) about 1200 were
taken in all, by both foreign and Japanese schooners ;
between 1892 and 190 1 about 800 were taken, and frcHti
1902 to 1909 only about 350 in all. We may compare
these figures with Captain Hooper's statistics for the

Sea Otter. From " In Forbidden Seas."

in length or more, and is worth nowadays something
like ;£r3oo or ;£^400.

The habits of the sea-otte^are very singular. His
natural home is on the great^eds of " kelp " (Macro-
cystis), which fringe the rocky coast of the North
Pacific, and these great kelp beds make calm
water, though the surf be roaring and breaking just
outside. The kelp beds are dense enough for the
otters to lie up>on, and here in old days they were so
tame that they used to '"stand with head and fore-
paws out of the water," staring at the hunter and his
gun. The creature is handy with its forepaws, and
"has been again and a^ain described ever since
Steller's time as dandling and nursing its young in
them ; it holds its food almost as a squirrel does, and
T>oxes its young or its companions, like a couple of
cats at play. But its hind feet are for swimming
•onlv; it walks with difficult}', generally drawing up
its hind feet both together and jumping forward, and.
■as Captain Snow assures us, when it attempts to

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

Aleutian Islands, where more than 58,000 otters
were taken in the twenty-four years from 1873 to
1896.

But for statistics and other technical details we
must go to Hooper and Stejneger, Elliott and Allen,
for statistics are not much in our good Captain's line.
He is a sailor and an adventurer, and wherever otters
were or seals, there was his Treasure Island.
He has much to tell and very little to conceal. We
hear of his love episodes with this or that young lady
whose name ended in San (" it was always happening
in those days "), and again of his raids, not bloodless,
on Japanese or Russian " rookeries " ; for he would
seem to have been early aware that "there runs na
law of God nor man to the north of forty-three." In
short, our gallant Captain belongs to a very lovable
and all but vanished type, rarer even and better than
the sea-otter, the good old delightful breed of the
pirate and the robber.

D. \Y. T.

4IO

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

THE MINNEAPOLIS MEETING OF THE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION.

I"' HE sixty-second meeting of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science was held
on December 27-31, 1910, at Minneapolis, Minnesota,
under the presidency of Dr. A. A. Michelson, of the
University of Chicago.

The membership of the association lives for the
most part in the large educational and scientific
centres of the more eastern States, and, as a result,
the larg^e attendance always obtained at Boston, New-
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washing^ton could
noi be expected during the Christmas holidays at a
point so far removed as Minneapolis, which, by the way,
is about thirty-six hours bv rail from New York or
Washington. There was, therefore, an attendance of
approximately between seven and eight hundred. As
often happens, however, with the smaller meetings
the interest was quite as keen, if not keener, and
the quality of papers presented reached the usual high
standard.

At the opening session, held on Tuesday night,
December 27, addresses of welcome were delivered
by Dr. Cyrus C. Northrop, president of the University
of Minnesota, and Mr. Wallace G. Nye, president of
th° local Chamber of Commerce. President Michel-
son made an address in reply, after which the retiring
president, Dr. David Starr Jordan, president of the
Leland Stanford Junior University, delivered his
address on "The Making of a Darwin," published in
Nature on January 12. The people of Minneapolis
were present in numbers and the audience at this
session was very large.

All the meetings were held in the buildings of the
University of Minnesota, one of the largest, most
progressive and wealthiest of State universities. The
handsome and admirably equipped buildings are con-
centrated in a reasonably compact campus, and no
time was lost in going from one section to another.
This was in striking relief from conditions existing
ill previous years. In Boston the meeting places were
distributed through Harvard University, Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology, and Harvard Medical
School, all very widely separated.

Apart from the opening meeting, there were only
two other gfeneral sessions, one devoted to an
address by Mr. A. B. Stickney, on the subject,
" Should Practical Agriculture and the Physical
Development of Childhood be Added to the Curri-
culum of the City Public Schools? " in the neighbour-
ing city of Saint Paul, on Wednesday night; the other
by Mr. William Alanson Bryan, on Thursday -night,
on the subject of "The Volcano Kilauea."

Probably on account of the distance involved, many
of the affiliated societies which customarily meet with
the American Association for the advancement of
Science met at other cities, but the following were
present and listened to excellent programmes : —

.'\inerican Chemical Society, American Physical Society.
American Psychological Association, Botanical Society of
America, Botanists of the Central States, Entomological
Society of America, American Association of Economic
Entomologists, American Federation of Teachers of the
Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Association of Horti-
cultural Inspectors, American Mathematical Society
(Chicago Section), American Microscopical Society,
American Nature-study Society, American Phytopatho-
logical Society, SuUivant Moss Society, Western Philo-
sophical Association, American Society of Zoologists
(Central Branch).

Following the policv first formulated by the council
three years ago, and reiterated by the council this
year under formal resolution, the sections of the asso-
ciation, as a rule, did not present long programmes

NO. 2152, VOL. 85I

of shorter and more technical papers; but, aside from
the addresses of the vice-presidents, devoted their time
to the general discussion of topics of broad interest
and conducted symposia on four subjects.

The addresses of the vice-presidents (presidents ot
sections) were as follows : —

A (Mathematics and Astronomy), Ernest W. Brown,
Yale University, New Haven, Conn., " The Relations of
Jupiter with the Asteroids." B (Physics), Louis A. Bauer,
Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C., " The Broader
.'\spects of Research in Terrestrial Magnetism." C (Chem-
istry), William McPherson, Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio, " The Formation of Carbohydrates in the
Vegetable Kingdom." D (Mechanical Science and
Engineering), John F. Hayford, College of Engineering,
Evanston, Illinois, " The Relations of Isostasy to Geodesy,
Geology, and Geophysics." E (Geology and Geography),
Reginald W. Brock, Geological Survey of Canada, Kings-
ton, Canada, " Northern Canada." F (Zoology), William
E. Ritter, Marine Biological Laboratory, San Diego,
California, " The Controversy between Mechanism and
Vitalism: Can it be Ended?" I (Social and Economic
Science), Byron W. Holt, New York, N.Y., " Causes and
Effects of High Land Values." K (Physiology and Ex-
perimental Medicine), Charles Sedgwick' Minot, Harvard
Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, " The Method of
Science."

The principal symposia were as follows :■ — Section K
presented a series of excellent papers by well-known
experts on "Disease Due to Filterable Organisms,"
including two papers on the mysterious Rocky Moun-
tain spotted fever, another on "Acute Anterior Polio-
myslitis," and another on "Yellow Fever, Dengue
Fever, and Pappataci Fever." In the same sym-
posium, general attention was given to animal
diseases, plant diseases, and experimental diseases.
The diseases of domestic animals considered were
rabies and hog cholera.

Under the Section of Mechanical Science and
Engineering, an important symposium was held on
the subject of aeronautics, the papers for the most
part being technical; but the list included an "Appre-
ciation of Dr. Octave Chanute and His Work in
Engineering and Aeronautics," an historical paper on
the " Earlv Attempts to Navigate the Air," a sug-
gested programme of aeronautical research at the
colleges, and a paper on "Technical Education in
Aeronautics."

Many joint programmes were held between the sec-
tions and the affiliated societies. An important con-
ference on botany teaching was held bv all of the
botanists present, and the question of the water supply
of Minnesota was discussed by the geologists. Ques-
tions of sewage pollution and the smoky atmosphere
of western cities and many other practical topics were
discussed in the Section of Chemistry. Section L
(Education) joined with the American Psychological
Association in discussing general questions relating to
school children.

No actions of great importance were taken bv the
council aside from the resolution looking to the
generalising and broadening of the sections and the
restriction of purely technical programmes to the
affiliated societies.

Two British subjects, and members of the British
Association, were in attendance and were made
honorary members for the meeting. They were Dr.
Marie C. Stopes. of the University, Manchester, and
Prof. A. H. R. Buller, of the LIniversitv of Manitoba.

The general committee designated Washington as
the place for the next meeting, with recommendations
that Cleveland and Toronto be chosen in the succes-
sion indicated for following meetings.

The following: officers were elected for the Wash-
ington meeting : —

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

411

President — Charles E. Bessey, University of Nebraska,
Lincoln, Nebraska.

Vice-presidents. — A, Mathematics and Astronomy, Edwin
B. P"rost, Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin ;
13, Physics, Robert A. Millikan, University of Chicago,
Chicago, Illinois; C, Chemistry, Frank K. Cameron, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. ; D,
Mechanical Science and Engineering, Charles S. Howe,
Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio ; E,
Geology and Geography, Bohumil Shimek, State Uni-
versity of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa ; F, Zoology, Henry F.
Nachtrieb, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minne-
sota ; G, Botany, Frederick C. Newcombe, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan ; H, Anthropology and
Psychology, George T. Ladd, Yale University, New
Haven, Conn.; I, Social and Economic Science (vacant);
K, Physiology and Experimental Science, William T.
Porter, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.; L,
Education, Edward L. Thorndike, Columbia University,
New York, N.Y.

Permanent Secretary. — L. O. Howard, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.

General Secretary. — ^John Zeleny, University of Minne-
sota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Secretary of the Council. — Theodore S. Palmer, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, W'ashington, D.C.

Secretaries of the Sections. — A, Mathematics and Astro-
nomv, George A. Miller, University of Illinois, Urbana,
Illinois; B, Physics, Alfred D. Cole, Ohio State Uni-
versity, Columbus, Ohio ; C, Chemistry. Charles H.
Herty, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C. ;
D, Mechanical Science and Engineering, George W.
Bissell, Michigan Agricultural College, East Lansing,
Mich. ; E, Geology and Geography, F. P. Gulliver, Nor-
wich, Conn. ; F, Zoology, Maurice .A. Bigelow, Columbia
University, New York, N.Y. ; G, Botany, Henry C.
Cowles, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois ; H,
Anthropology tnd Psychology, George Grant MacCurdy,
Yale University Museum, New Haven, Conn. ; I, Social
and Economic Science, Fred C. Croxton, 1229 Girard
Street, Washington, D.C. ; K, Physiology and Experi-
mental Medicine, George T. Kemp, 8 West 25th Street,
Baltimore, Maryland ; L, Education, Charles Riborg
Mann, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

Treasurer. — R. S. Woodward, Carnegie Institution,
Washington, D.C.

SCIENCE AND POTTERY.''

THE English Ceramic Society, founded about
ten years ago, had its origin in a be-
lated attempt, made by a few enlightened manu-
facturers, to introduce scientific method into
the conduct of one of our most important in-
dustries. There is a proverbial connection be-
tween the potter and his thumb, and in no other
leading manufacture in this country is the rule of
thumb so dominant or so repressive as it is in that
of pottery. The ceramic art as practised in England
is for the most part empirical, and is therefore highly
conservative ; changes are few and progress is corre-
spondingly slow. At the same time, in certain
respects, the industry has reached a higfh degree of
mechanical perfection. English china is a product
sui generis, and its merits are widely recognised, even
by those w^ho decline to regard it as a variety of
porcelain. In the manufacture of the highest quali-
ties of earthenware no nation has hitherto surpassed
us. But signs are not wanting that our supremacy
is challenged, and each succeeding decade sees the
struggle becoming more and more acute. The in-
dustry is, in fact, between the upper and the nether
millstones of conflicting tariff systems. Industrial
conditions in the Potteries are, in some respects, with-
out parallel in any other manufacturing district. In

I Transactions oft^'e F.nilish Ceramic Society. Vol. ix. Session 1Q09-10
(StoVe^nn-Trent. Staffor-lshire : Published by the Society ; Longton : Hughs
and Harber, Ltd., 1910.)

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

no other staple trade of like magnitude is to be found
so numerous a class of small manufacturers — persons
of little or no capital and employing few hands — some
of them no more than the members of their own
famines. These are for the most part ignorant of
anything beyond the ordinary technique ot their art.
Even in the case of larger concerns, it was, until of
late years, rare to meet with any evidence of practical
recognition of the scientific principles underlying the
industry. Such a condition of things cannot possibly
tend to' development in the art itself, or to improve-
ment in the welfare of the workers engaged in it.

Ceramics is a branch of applied chemistry and
physics, of chemical engineering in its most com-
prehensive sense. That this fact is beginning to be
slowly appreciated may, we think, be inferred from
the gradual increase in the number of the members
of the English Ceramic Society. The society started
in 1900-1 with 29 members; in 1909-10 its numbers
were 261, but of these, it ought to be said, a certain
fraction are engaged in American and Continental fac-
tories. But, after all, this growth in numerical
strength is hardly commensurate with the value and
importance of the society's objects, or with the in-
fluence it may be expected to exercise upon the
development of the industr\- with which it is con-
cerned. In the United Kingdom there are some 550
potteries ; of these 329 are concentrated in the group
of towns known as the North Staffordshire Potteries.
It is not unreasonable to expect that in the case of an
institution centrally situated and in close proximity to
Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, and Tunstall,
there would, after ten years of existence, be a mem-
bership equal at least to the number of factories in
the neighbourhood. That such is not the case is only
one more instance of the supineness and indifference
of our manufacturers, as a class, to the bearing of
physical science, its methods and its teaching, upon
their industries.

Of the general character of the twent>'-two con-
tributions to the scientific work of the society con-
tained in this volume we have nothing but commenda-
tion to offer. They all bear directly on problems of
practical interest to the potter. The papers of Mr.
Fowler on the control of kiln and oven gases ; of
Messrs. Cobb and King on the fluxing power of the
common oxides ; the papers by Dr. Mellor on cylinder
grinding, vitrification of clays, surface factors, soften-
ing temperatures of lead silica glazes, and the two
excellent papers by Mr. Thomason, on the toxic possi-
bilities of fritted lead glazes and on white lead and
plumbism are of permanent value as additions to cera-
mic literature. The latter papers are of special in-
terest at the moment in relation to the question of
lead-poisoning in pottery manufacture. Mr. Thomason
points out that the official returns from such factories
as are working under the 5 per cent, standard of
solubility, as defined by the method prescribed by Sir
Edward Thorpe, and adopted in the Home Office
special rules, show no cases of plumbism amongst
workers in the prepared glazes, and that the informa-
tion available from the Continent is to a similaf effect.
It has been objected to this method that it bears no
real analog}- to what actually goes on in the human
system. Mr. Thomason effectually meets this objec-
tion. After a careful experimental inquiry of which
full details are given in the papers, and in which, so
far as possible, all the conditions known to occur in
the animal body were separately and collectK'ely
studied, Mr. Thomason concludes that the solubility
of a glaze in the stomach is properly gauged by the
official method, and that the figures so obtained are
fair statements of its toxic possibilities.

These papers were evidently not ver\' pleasant hear-

412

ITATURE

[January 26, 191 1

ing to at least one member of the Ceramic Society, and
were somewhat carpingly criticised by Mr. Bernard
Moore, a representative of the manufacturers on tlie
late Departmental Committee. How Mr. Thomason
effectually disposed of Mr. Moore in the course of the
subsequent discussion, will be evident to any unpre-
judiced reader.

It is not to be expected that in such a, journal as
we are noticing there would be much reading pour
tire. But in the concluding paper, which tells of
a visit paid by the society to a white-lead works,
where the members seem to have been most hospit-
ably entertained by the proprietors, there is a very
distinct flavour of comedy. After the luncheon, one
of the senior members of the party made an attempt
to express the gratitude of the society to their quondam
hosts. Unfortunately the speaker had evidently been
much perturbed by the sight of a lavatory basin
marked "leadless glaze," and this untoward circum-
stance, combined with the influence of "a sumptuous
table " from which the party "had almost succeeded in
abolishing that ' dangerous element,' water," led him
to make an ill-mannered and vituperative attack upon
what he was pleased to call "a band of faddists who
had little better with which to occupy their meddle-
some minds" than to bring down upon the trade "a
perfect plague of inspections, committees^ arbitrations,
and commissions." But the orator "took heart of
grace. He did not despair " so long as they had such
friends as Mr. Bernard Shaw on the Lead Commis-
sion." Mr. Shaw is as ubiquitous as King Charles's
head, but it is a little hard on him to confound him
with Mr. Bernard Moore, with whom he has little in
common. The sorry thing is that the silly speech
reflects the attitude of a not inconsiderable section
of the manufacturers to what is a great and crying
evil in tbeir industry.

AN INSTITUTE OF HUMAN PALAEONTOLOGY.

THE Prince of Monaco, as is well known, is a
scientific man of high attainments, more
especially in the sphere of oceanography.^ His own
researches and those conducted under his auspices
have been of first importance. A short time ago an
account was given in these columns of the beautiful
and well-equipped Museum of Oceanography wTiich
he erected at Monaco, and in last week's Nature
(p. 379) mention was made of the Oceanographical
Institute founded and endowed in Paris by the Prince.
As stated in another column, the institute \vas in-
augurated on Monday, Januarv^a^, and it is hoped
to give an account next week' of the opening.

In 1872 M. Emile Riviere discovered the first Palaeo-
lithic skeletons of the Baousse-Rousse caves ("The
Red Caves ") or Grimaldi caves, as it was decided they
should be called at the International Congress of
Anthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology at Monaco
in 1906. Later investigations revealed fresh remains,
and the Prince himself in 1907 discovered the fourth
grave, that of the two famous "Negroids." The
Prince took great interest in these important dis-
coveries, and generously assisted in the work which
was mainly conducted by the Canon de Villeneuve,
Profs. Boule, Verneau, and Cartailhac. A great deal
has been written on these finds in various journals,
and the official reports have been published by the
Prince in two volumes ; he has also established a
Museum of Archaeology at Monaco. The Prince was
so much impressed by the wonderful mural engrav-
ings and frescoes of Palaeolithic age which adorn so
many caves in central and south France and north
Italy that he commissioned Dr. Emile Cartailhac and
I'Abbc^ H. Breuil to make a thorough investigation of

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

them, which, with his customary munificence, will be
I)ublished in a series of sumptuous monographs, of
which the first " La Caverne d'Altamira a Santillanc
pres .Santander (Espagne)," has recently appeared. In
the current number of V Anthropologic (tome xxi.,
p. 725), it is stated that the Prince has decided to
founa in Paris an institute of human palaeontology.
In a letter to the Minister of Instruction announcing
his decision he says that he has come to feel that
greater prominence should be given to the study of the
mystery which shrouds the origin of mankind, and
that a methodical basis of archaeological investigation
is required. " Et je pensais que la philosophic et la
morale des soci^t^s humaines seraient moins incer-
taines devant I'histoire des generations, ^crite aver
leur propre poussiere." Having seen that oceano-
graphy was fittingly domiciled in Paris and Monaco,
he gave some attention to the requirements of human
palaeontology.

The Prince goes on to state his intention of found-
ing in Paris a centre for the pursuit of studies based
on systematic excavation. The site for the institution
has been selected, and the staff and a financial board
of management appointed. The munificent founder
adds that he has endowed the '* Institut de Pale-
ontologie humaine " with the sum of 1,600,000
francs, and proposes to make over his col-
lections to it conditionally. The Prince, desirous
of securing the most favourable terms of existence for
this foundation, begs the Government to recognise its
value and approve its statutes. A. C. H.

NOTES.

Tuf. death of Sir Francis Galton at Grayshott House,
near Haslemere, on January 17, marks another link broken
with the greater leaders of nineteenth-century science. Sir
Francis passed away quietly after only a few days' illness,
clear in mind, and able within a few hours of his death
to question his physician humorously as to the statistics
available for the reputed action of strjxhnine as a drug.
By his own desire his body was interred at Clavendon, near
Warwick, a peaceful country churchyard, close to the
house which had once been the home of his mother
(Violetta Darwin), and still remains a spot with much of
artistic interest to those who value the family history of a
noteworthy scientific stock. The funeral took place an
Saturday, January 21, the Master of Trinity College (repre-
senting the University of Cambridge and the college) and
the vicar of Clavendon taking the service. Among the
relatives and friends present were Miss E. Biggs, Mr. and
Mrs. E. G. Wheler, Father Charles Galton, S.J., Major
Hubert Galton, Miss Violet Galton, Mrs. Moilliet, Major
Guy Lethbridge, Mr. Geoffrey Butler, Mr. A. F. G. Butler,
Charles Galton Darwin, Miss A. Jones, and Prof. K. Pear-
son. The Royal Society was represented by Sir George
Darwin and Mr. William Bateson, the former also repre-
senting the Royal Meteorological Society ; Prof. A. Dendy
represented the University of Tendon and King's College ;
Major Leonard Darwin, the Royal Geographical Society :
Dr. Charles Chree, the Kew Observatory ; and Dr. David
Heron, the Galton Eugenics Laboratory. We hope next
week to publish some account of Sir Francis Galton 's life
and work.

The two principal candidates for the vacant seat in the
Paris Academy of Sciences caused by the death of M.
Gernez were Mme. Curie and Prof. E. Branly. At the
meeting of the academy on Monday, January 23, Prof.
Branly was elected to the vacancy by the narrow majority
oT two votes. In the first ballot he received 29 votes
against 2S civen to Mme. Curie, and in the second 30

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

413

votes wert given to him, while Mme. Curie received the
same number as before. We congratulate Mme. Curie
upon the substantial support she secured, and trust that
before long her claims to a seat in the academy will
receive their rightful recc^nition. The narrow mai^in by
which she lost election on Monday may, we suppose, be
taken to mean that the academy is about equally divided
as to the eligibility of women for membership, and that
Mme. Curie may expect to be elected on a future occasion.
As scientific work must ultimately be judged by its merit,
and not by the nationality or sex of its author, we believe
that the opposition to the election of women into scientific
societies will soon be seen to be unjust and detrimental
to the progress of natural knowledge. By no pedantic
reasoning can the rejection of a candidate for member-
ship of a scientific society be justified if the work done
places Jthe candidate in the leading position among other
competitors. Science knows no nationaliti.-, and should
rec(^nise no distinction of sex, colour, or creed among
those who are contributing to its advancement. Believing
that this is the conclusion to which consideration of the
question must inevitably lead, we have confidence that the
doors of all scientific societies will eventually be open to
men on equal terms with men.

The inauguration of L'Institut Oc^anographique de
Paris took place on Monday evening, JanuarA* 23, in the
presence of the President of the Republic, M. Falliferes,
and a distinguished gathering, presided over by his Serene
Highness the Prince of Monaco as president of the council
of administration. Among those present were Prince and
Princess George of Greece, Prince Louis of Monaco,
Prince Roland Bonaparte, ex-President Loubet, the
members of the Government, Ambassadors and Ministers
Plenipotentiary of the foreign Powers, and the members
of the Conseil d 'Administration and Comit^ de Per-
fectionnement, including, among others. Dr. Paul Reynard,
director of the institute ; Dr. Jules Richard, director of
the museum at Monaco ; Prof. Chun, of Leipzig ; Prof.
" -gesell, of Strassburg; M. Thoulet, of Nancv ; Sir John
rray, K.C.B., F.R.S. ; Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, F.R.S. ;
i Dr. W. S. Bruce. Short addresses were delivered by
Prince of Monaco; ^L Maurice Faure, "iiinister of
Public Instruction and Fine Arts; M. Armand Gautier,
president of, and in the name of, the Academy of Sciences ;
M. Liard, vice-rector of, and in the name of, the Uni-
versity of Paris ; and M. Perrier, director of the Museum
d'Histoire naturelle. M. Henri Bourfe, aide-de-camp to
the Prince of Monaco, also showed some excellent lantern
illustrations and kinematograph views of the Prince's
oceanographical investigations on board the Princesse
Alice. After the formal proceedings, the assembled com-
pany proceeded to inspect the institute, an account of
ch, with its aims and object, will appear in a sub-

-uent issue.

~-iR Joseph LARNfOR, FlR.S., Lucasian Professor of
thematics at Cambridge and secretary- of the Royal
iety, has accepted the invitation of a meeting of the
onist Part}- to become the L'nionist candidate for the
ancy in the Parliamentary representation of Cambridge

Mversity. The prospect which this selection offers of
luding among the members of the House of Commons a

-n of distinguished eminence in the scientific world, is
»cially gratifying, in view of the necessity of keeping

:ore the Government and the legislature the need for a
^ neral adoption of the methods of science in the affairs of

" Empire. It is refreshing to find the value of scientific
;jrcss rtiven prominence in an election address. Sir
^ V -ieph refers in his address to the progress of scientific
NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

knowledge during the last half-century, and to the part
which Cambridge has played in promoting the advance-
ment of this newer learning. He adds: — "But modern
scientific discovery advances with accumulated force :
better organisation and knowledge, in order to take full
advantage of the resources that are available for this
country, is still one of our foremost problems in the face
of the competition of other nations ; and our University
is destined for an even wider sphere of work and influence
than has fallen to us in the past. It should be our aim
to supply leaders of industn.- who possess not only special
attainments, but also that temperament of scientific inquhy
which exalts industrial pursuits and is the most potent
influence For their progress."

According to a statement issued to the Press by Mr.
William Willett, the originator of the so-called Daylight
Saving Bill, the Home Secretary, Mr. Winston Churchill,
" cannot conceive of any argument now which would cause
him to doubt the wisdom of passing the Daylight Bill into
law." Mr. Churchill is therefore prepared to make a
speech in favour of the Bill when it comes again before the
House of Commons. He considers that as agriculturists
form only about eight per cent, of the population, their
objections may be disregarded, " in order to bring within
the reach of the other ninety- per cent, of the population the
blessings of sunlight and fresh air in their leisure hours."
Mr. Churchill is, in fact, prepared to support a measure
which will convert Greenwich time into German time at
stated inter\-als, not because he has taken competent
opinion as to the consequences of such an Act. but because
he thinks a majority desires it. In the building and
engineering trades, and in the Government's own dock-
yards, the working hours are already adjusted to the
seasons, without legislative interference, so that the sugges-
tion that agriculturists are the only people who do not
want the Bill is altogether misleading. The daylight
effects of the difference in latitude between London and
Edinburgh are apparently not to be considered in these
days of hasty and unnecessary legislation. Consideration
of these effects would show at once that North Britain
should be excluded from the provisions of the Bill. The
promoters of the Bill refer to the advantages which would
be obtained by altering the hours of work at different
seasons of the year according to those of daylight. But
it does not seem to occur to them that all the advantages
could be secured in a much simpler way without the in-
describable confusion and inconvenience which would be
caused by frequent interference with clock-time. We
believe that if the measure which Mr. Willett persistentlv
puts forward is ever put upon the statute book, it will
make us the laughing-stock of the civilised world. L'nable
to change our customs, we are to deceive ourselves into
doing so by moving the hands of clocks in months pre-
scribed by Act of Parlianient. Such methods may l>e
appropriate for lodging-house servants, but they are
unworthy of the dignity of a great nation. It is peculiarlv
unfortunate that a Cabinet Minister should permit his
name to be used in connection with such a proposal at the
present time, seeing that a Bill to make Paris official time
coincide with Greenwich time has been approved by the
French Chamber of Deputies, the Senate Committee and
the Cabinet, and will in all probabilit>- become law. We
cannot believe, in the face of such facts, that Parliament
will entertain seriously the proposed periodic change of our
time-standard which Mr. Churchill is said to regard with
favour.

Tjte concluding part (No. 10) of last year's volume of
the Keiv EuUetin contains identifications cf new Lauraccre

414

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

by Mr. J. S. Gamble, new orchids by Mr. R. A. Rolfe,
and. a new genus of Leguminosa?, Leptoderris, by Mr.
S. T. Dunn. The new genus is practically a segregate
from Derris, which it resembles in fruit, and comprises
fourteen species, all derived from tropical .Africa. An
article by Mr. W. J. Bean provides a fourth set of garden
notes on new trees and shrubs. An Alpine variety of
Erica arborea is noted for its hardiness. Chinese intro-
ductions include Acer griseum, a striking trifoliate maple,
Bcrberis parvifolia, a distinct species, and Sarcococca
ruscifolia, a euphorbiaceous evergreen with habit recall-
ing Butcher's broom. Two illustrations depict Fothergilla
major, an American shrub highly decorative when in
flower, and Pistacia chinensis.

The starting of the Australian Antarctic Expedition
seems now assured by the subsidies promised by the
Australian Association for the Advancement of Science.
The expedition will be under the command of Dr. Mawson,
and it will enter the Antarctic field which now promises
the most useful results. Many attempts have been made
to discredit the existence of Wilkes Land, and it is obvious
that Wilkes reported land farther to the north than it
exists ; nevertheless, his narrative offers convincing
evidence that his expedition met land in that part of the
Antarctic region. The Shackleton expedition has proved
the extension of the land further west from Cape Adair
than any other expedition, and Dr. Mawson proposes to
follow this coast-line further to the west, which was one
of the unfulfilled parts of the programme of the Discovery
expedition. The German .Antarctic Expedition, under
Prof, von Drygalski, established the existence of con-
tinental land south of Kerguelen. No accessible part of
Antarctica offers such promising results as that selected
by Dr. Mawson. The development of wireless telegraphy
has already led to the suggested establishment of an
Australian meteorological station on that part of the
Antarctic coast, and this observatory may be hoped for
ultimately.

Foreign newspapers announce several losses that
various scientific institutions have just sustained by the
death of members on their respective staffs. Foremost
among these is M. Gustave Leveau, by whose death the
Paris Observatory loses its oldest oflficial, who for more
than half a century participated in its work and shared
its renown. He had served under Le Verrier, Delaunay,
Mouchez, Tisserand, Loewy, and Baillaud, a long list
recalling the various changes in the direction of activity
pursued at the national observatory. M. Leveau, who
rendered important services in various departments of
celestial mechanics, will be best remembered for his re-
searches into the motion of the comet of D 'Arrest, the
perturbations of which he regularly calculated, and at
each return prepared an ephemeris. He belonged to the
school of Le Verrier, and his tables of Vesta and other
researches show the effect of his master's influence. Not-
withstanding his mathematical work, he gave assiduous
attention to the routine of the observatory, taking part
mainly in the meridian observations. The director of the
Leipzig Observatory announces the death of F. W.
Hermann Leppig, who since 1867 has worked strenuously
to forward the interests of that institution. The work of
the deceased astronomer was mainly confined to meridian
observations, time distribution, and in the meteorological
service. The death of M. Roz^, astronomical lecturer at
the Ecole Polytechnique and professor of mathematics in
Ihe Ecole de physique et chimie, is also announced.
Since 1859 he had been attached to the Ecole Poly-

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

technique, and for more than forty years, had taken part
in the tutorial work.

The conference on sleeping sickness recently held :,
the Foreign Office was convened. Router's Agency learn-
by the British Government as a result of representatioi
made of the danger of the spread of sleeping sickness i
consequence of the construction of the Rhodesia-Katan^
Railway, which runs from the north of Broken Hill to l!
Congo frontier and beyond. The delegates to the confr;
ence were M. Melot, representing the Belgian Governmet
Dr. van Campenhout, of the Colonial Office in Bruss< 1
Dr. Sheffield Neave, representing the Rhodesia-Katant
Railway, Dr. Aylmer May, representing the Charten
Company, Dr, Bagshawe, of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau,
and representatives of the British Foreign and Colonial |
Offices. As the result of its deliberations, the conferem
concluded, with regard to the necessary precautions y
the case of new railway extensions, that it is essential
that the route of these lines should be inspected for j
Glossina palpalis, that maps of the fly areas be prepari >!
that railways should cross the fly belt at the narrow
points and not follow them, that there shall be no static
buildings, or stopping-places in the G. palpalis area, m
that labourers on the railways should be recruited und
such condition as to avoid infection. During the workii
of railways, it is recommended that, there shall be constant
supervision and inspection, that passenger carriages, I
trucks, &c., shall, so far as possible, have openings coven '•
with fly-proof gauze, and that as G. palpalis probal
does not exist south of the Congo-Zambezi watershed, t'
Rhodesia-Katanga Railway shall be* worked in tv
sections with" the view of avoiding the possibility of can
ing the fly from one area to another.

Mr. C. B. Holman-Hunt, curator of the Selangor f
Museum, has been appointed assistant entomologist in tl
agricultural department of the Federated Malay States.

We learn from the Revue scientifique that Bar.
Reinach has provided the Frankfort Physical Society wi
the funds necessary to establish a seismological obser\.
tory on the Feldberg, in the Taunus range. Dr. F. Link
will be the director of the observatory.

The Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters, ai
Arts has awarded to Dr. L. A. Bauer the Charles Lagraiu
Prize for the period 1905-8, of 1200 francs, on account
his various researches in terrestrial magnetism. T
academy has also awarded the decennial prize of 50.
francs for researches in physics and chemistry to M. \ an ,
der Mensbrugghe, for his work on the molecular physics |
of liquids.

According to the Revue scientifique, the Krupp Socii :
has given Prof. Emil Wiechert, of the University ■
Gottingen, 10,000 marks to enable him to conduct exp* ;
ments in aerodynamics ; and also 6000 marks to Pr<
Leopold Ambronn, of the same university, for the c<>
struction of a new photographic apparatus.

The Geological Society of London will this year aw;i
its medals and funds as follows : — Wollaston medal, Pr.
Waldemar C. Brogger ; Murchison medal, Mr. R. 1
Tiddeman ; Lyell medals, Dr. F. A. Bather and Dr. A. V
Rowe; Bigsby medal. Dr. O. Abel; Wollaston fund, Pn
O. T. Jones; Murchison fund, Mr. E. S. Cobbold ; :i^
the Lyell fund, Prof. C. G. Cullis and Mr. J. F.
Green.

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

415

The second annual Simple Life and Healthy Food Con-
nce and Exhibition will be held in the Caxton Hall,
>tminster, on March 21-24. The objects of the con-
nce and exhibition are to simplify modern life, to
.)duce into homes healthy food and hygienic decora-
;<, to teach rational physical culture, and to inculcate
live of simple and beautiful architecture.

Announcement is made of another gift of 2,000,000/.
. -ented by Mr. Carnegie to the Carnegie Institution at
-hington. It is stated that Mr. Carnegie's total gifts
hat foundation amount to 5,000,000/., and his total
factions to nearly 40,000,000/. The gift from him is
. announced of a new telescope, with a 100-inch lens,
the observatory on Mount Wilson, California.

At a meeting of the executive committee of the British
^i ;• nee Guild, the question of the annual dinner was con-

' red in connection with the visit of the Colonial
niers for the Imperial Conference of the Colonial
niers. It was stated that the report on the
hronisation of clocks had given rise to a very wide
assion by the newspapers and Press. A committee

- appointed to deal with the question of the prize essay
:i the best way of carrying on the struggle for exist-

and securing the survival of the fittest in national
:irs.

HE announcement has been made of the discovery of

ancient fossil Archaeocyathus in material collected in

irctica by the Shackleton expedition. The identifica-

■ >n was made some months ago by Dr. Griffith Taylor,

ha is the author of a monograph on the Archaeo-

hineas of South .Australia, and is a member of the

-ent British Antarctic Expedition. As Archaeocyathus

- a marine animal, it, of course, does not supply any
lence bearing on the presumed land connection between

\ustralia and Antarctica. The evidence for that hypo-
sis is based on the distribution of land animals in the
hern hemisphere and on tectonic evidence.

\ CORDING to a Reuter message from San Francisco,

Eugene Ely succeeded, on January 18, in an attempt

ily in a Curtis biplane from Self ridge Field, twelve

s south of San Francisco, and to land on Ihc deck of

cruiser Pennsylvania, lying twelve miles from the

-t. Shortly afterwards he returned in his aeroplane to

starting point. The flight was made close to the

' r, and the aeroplane approached the cruiser's bows.

Ely flew past the ship for a distance of about a

ired yards, and then circled back, rising slowly, and

Ily settled lightly. The flight occupied sixteen minutes

ig and fifteen minutes returning.

At the Royal College of Surgeons on February i Dr.
W. Edridge-Green will deliver the first of two lectures
"Colour-vision and Colour-blindness." The second
ure will be given on February 3. Two lectures will
lelivered by Prof. W. d'Este Emery on " The Immunity
Reaction in Relation to Surgical Diagnosis " on
ruary 6 and 8, and on February 10 Prof. Benjamin
■re will give one lecture on new views on the chemical
•mposUion and mode of formation of renal calculi, and
nietabolism of calcium in gout. Prof. G. Elliot Smith,

^ S., is to give three lectures on "The History of
nmification " on February 13, 15, and 17. The con-
ator of the college museum. Prof. Arthur Keith, will
ver lectures on "The Anthropology of Ancient British
-'3 " on Februar\- 20, 22, 24, and March i and 3.

V CONTRACTOR employed by the Okehampton Rural
rict Council for the repair of roads recently removed

nes from an ancient monument, known as King's Oven.
NO. 2152, VOL. ^^i

Attention having been directed to this action, the CounciK
while admitting that the contractor should not have
removed the stones, suggested that the Duchy of Cornwall
should bear the cost of restoring the stones. The Secretary
and Keeper of Records of the Duchy has informed the
District Council that in future permission to take stone
must be obtained before it is used for road mending, and
that the Duchy counts upon the support and assistance of
the local authorities in the protection and preser\'ation of
ancient remains. The District Council has, we are glad to
know, decided to take steps to replace the stones.

The annual general meeting of the Royal Meteorological
Society was held on January 18. After the report of the
council had been read, the president, Mr. H. Mellish, said
that the completion of the third decade since the society
undertook the collection of climatological observations
suggested that the moment was opportune for taking stock
of the data which had been collected in the British Isles,
and of the progress which has been made in reducing
and discussing them ; he therefore devoted his address to
a consideration of the present position of British
climatology. The following officers were elected for the
ensuing year : — President, Dr. H. N. Dickson ; vice-
presidents, F. Druce, H. Mellish, R. G. K. Lempfert,
Colonel H. E. Rawson, C.B. ; treasurer. Dr. C. Theodore
Williams ; secretaries, F. C. Bayard, Commander W. F.
Caborne, C.B. ; foreign secretary, Dr. R. H. Scott,
F.R.S.

The Northern Whig for January 19 contains a full re-
port of a meeting held by the Belfast Naturalists' Field
Club to commemorate the life-work of the late Samuel
Alexander Stewart. The Rev. C. H. Waddell, Mr. R.
Lloyd Praeger, and the president of the club, Mr. R. J.
Welch, dwelt on various aspects of Stewart's career. Mr.
Waddell and Mr. Praeger have also contributed sympa-
thetic notices, accompanied by a bibliography and a
charmingly characteristic portrait, to the Irish Naturalist
for October, 1910. Belfast is justly proud of having
numbered Stewart among her citizens for more than
seventy years. It is one of the ironies of fate that his
death, at the age of eighty -four, was caused by a street
accident, but he had already retired from his post at the
museum of the Belfast Natural History Societ}-. His
career was outlined in N.^ture for June 30, 1910, and the
recent meeting shows that the impression made by the
energy and temperament of the man will not be lost
among naturalists in Ireland. Those who knew his
welcoming smile, and who discussed with him questions
of botany or geology, felt that they were in the presence
of a mind as beautiful as the open-air studies to which he
pointed out the way.

Proceeding upon the reports of three committees and
a Royal Commission, Mr. J. C. Medd presents in the
Quarterly Review (January) a rational criticism of
ways and means with reference to the extension of forestry
areas and improved methods of cultivation in the British
Isles. As examples of small beginnings, allusion is made
to the purchase of the Inverliever estate in Argvllshire, of
a forestr\- station at Avondale, and of estates at Aghrane,
Dundrum, and other localities in Ireland. In common
with most critics, Mr. Medd comments upon the failure
of the commission to consider a scheme of cooperation
between the State and private owners, and instances a
number of advantages that would attend such an arrange-
ment ; in this connection he mentions approvingly the
scheme of copartnership advocated by Lord Lovat. ^^'ith
regard to difficulties in the way of an extensive general
scheme, it is pointed out that it would be unwise to dis-

Hii

4i6

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

j)lace remunerative sheep farms and sporting estates by
prospective forests of unknown value. The author touches
on the need for information with respect to cost of planta-
tions, facilities for training woodmen, and the possibilities
•of turning nature-study classes in the country schools to
practical advantage. Cognate to the subject of the article
Is the announcement, last week, of the formation of an
English Forestry Association, with Lord Clinton as the
first chairman, for the purpose of organising the market
for English timber, encouraging its use, and assisting in
the establishment of local wood industries in suitable
•districts.

The annual meeting of the Entomological Society of
London was held on Wednesday, January i8, when the
officers and cpuncil for the forthcoming session, 191 1-2,
were elected. Owing, however, to the death of Mr. J. W.
Tutt, the president-nominate, no successor to the outgoing
president. Dr. F. A. Dixey, F.R.S., was chosen, and a
special general meeting will be held later in the year for
that purpose. Meanwhile, the following fellows were
elected to act as officers and members of the council : —
Treasurer, Mr. A. H. Jones; secretaries. Commander J. J.
Walker and (in place of Mr. H. Rowland-Brown, who
resigns after eleven years' service) the Rev. G. Wheeler ;
librarian, Mr. G. C. Champion ; other members of the
council, Mr. R. Adkin, Mr. G. T. Bethune Baker, Prof.
T. Hudson Beare, Dr. M. Bdrr, Dr. F. A. Dixey, F.R.S.,
Mr. H. St. J. Donisthorpe, .Mr. J. H. Durrant, Prof.
Selwyn Image, Dr. K. Jordan, Mr. A. Sich, Mr. J. R.
te B. Tomlin, and Mr. H. J. Turner. The president, in
the course of his address, dealt with certain problems of
general biology on which special light had been thrown
by entomological study, notably the demonstration that
permanent races, differing from the parent stock, could
l)e produced by artificial interference with the germ-plasm.
This Jbad been surmised from early experiments of Weis-
mann, followed by Standfuss and Fischer, and had now
been placed beyond doubt by the careful work of Tower
in America, who had also shown that the new form might
stand in Mendelian relation with the stock from which it
sprang. Other topics touched upon in the address were
the psychophysical character of the material presented to
the operation of natural selection, a point particularly
•emphasised by Prof. Mark Baldwin, and, in connection
w;ith this, the special interest attaching to the communities
of the social Hymenoptera, where the group rather than
the individual appeared as the unit of selection.

A FORM of treatment of wasting diseases of young
•children has been recently introduced by M. Quinton. It
•consists in the injection every second day of 10-30 c.c.
of pure fresh sea water, sufficiently diluted with distilled
water so that the mixture is isotonic with human blood.
Considerable success is claimed for this treatment, and,
according to the Morning Post of January 16, M. Quinton
lately visited London in order to arrange for the establish-
ment of a dispensary for the trial of his method.

With the December (1910) number, the Journal of
Hygiene completes its tenth volume, and contains indexes
of authors and of subjects to the ten volumes issued, in
addition to several important papers. Messrs. Glenny and
Walpole find that vulcanised rubber has the power of
absorbing mercury biniodide and mercuric chloride from
weak solutions, in some cases almost completely. Dr.
Peters in an elaborate paper discusses the natural history
of epidemic diarrhoea, one of the most important con-
clusions being that the milk supply plays little or no part
in its propagation, and that boiling the milk gives no
protection.

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

According to a note in the Times last week, plague-
infected rats are still being met with in Suffolk and over
an extended area, and for the purpose of aiding the Local
Government Board in this connection, the Lister Institui
has detailed two bacteriologists for work in the distrii ;
It would be well if the authorities followed the exampl
of the United States Government in its campaign again-
the ground squirrels in California as described by Surgeon
McCoy in the December (19 10) number of the Journal of
Hygiene (x.. No. 4, p. 589). The squirrels are infectfd
with plague, and during 1909-10 150,000 of the rodent-
were e.xamined. The necessity for investigations on
large scale is apparent when it is stated that in one count \
more than 8000 squirrels were examined before anv
infection was discovered.

In vol. xxiii.. No. 4, of Notes from the Leyden Museum
Dr. E. D. Van Oort describes, under the name of Atiurv-
phasis monorthonyx, a new genus and species of gamt-
bird, obtained with other new birds, during the expedition
of Mr. H. A. Lorentz to south-western New Guinea. Th
genus name relates to the apparent absence of ta
feathers. It is not stated to what group the new bird :
related. Dr. Horst's description in this issue of a ne'
peripatus obtained during , the same expedition has be^i.
noticed already in Nature.

From a study of the local myriopods of the group
Diplopoda (Chilognatha), Dr. K. W. Verhoeff, in a paper
contributed to the Abhandlungen der naturwiss. Ges. Isis
for the first half of 1910, considers himself justified in
dividing Germany into three zoological provinces, from
north to south, which he calls north, central, and souii
Germany. Central Germany is further split into two sub-
provinces, from west to east, which are termed west
central and east central. Details of the distributional
grounds on which these divisions are based will be found
in the paper, but it may be noted that the distribution
of many groups of Diplopoda corresponds very closely with
that of particular geological formations.

According to an article contributed by Messrs. De
Drorein de Bouville and Mercier to the Revue generale
des Sciences for December 30, 1910, there has been a great
recrudescence and expansion on the Continent during the
past year of the salmon-disease known in France as
furonculosis. The disease, which attacks both salmon and
trout, together .with a few other fishes, such as pike and
carp, has been known on the Continent for about •
quarter of a century, and was carefully studied at Munici
in 1888 and the two following years. In June of la>
year the disease became more than usually prevaleiv
especially in Bavaria, where it made its appearance fu
the first time in 1909, and this recrudescence has givi'
rise to much anxietj- on the part of all connected wi'
fresh-water fisheries. The disease, of which the symptom-
are fully described in the article, is caused by the bacillus j
known as Bacillus salmonicida, but whether it was origin- ,
ally imported from America, or whether it be due to
pathogenetic development of a native organism, tli
authors leave an open question. It is noteworthy th..
rainbow-trout are particularly susceptible to furonculosis
which is fatal to a large percentage. This being so, tlv
authors recommend that the practice of stocking Europea-
rivers with exotic salmonoids, which are generally in
low state of vitality, and therefore prone to take diseas
should be discouraged. On the other hand, efforts shou
be made to restock salmon and trout streams with nati\
stock, which is the most fitted to adapt itself to local ccn-
ditions, and, further, that such fish should not be rein*-;-
duced into rivers from which they have completely dis-

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

417

appeared, as the causes which have led to the extinction
are probably still active. Whether the continental Bacillus
salmonicida is identical with the British B. salmonis pestis,
Patterson, is not stated in the article.

The annual volume for igio of the Bulletin of Miscel-
laneous Information, issued from the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, has now been published at the price of
45. 6d. Attention has been directed already in these
columns to the papers in separate numbers of the Bulletin,
and it is sufficient to say here that the volume contains
ten numbers, four appendices, and a complete index.

A LIST of Siamese plants compiled by Dr. C. C.
Hosseus, and published in the Beihefte zuni Botanischen
Centralblatt (vol. xxvii., part ii.), represents, as the
author points out, merely a contribution to the flora of
Siam, inasmuch as some of the provinces are entirely un-
explored. The author has received valuable help from
nany botanists in the identification of his specimens, and
as furnished indications of the regions from which each
species was obtained. The list shows a preponderance of
Leguminosae and Cyperaceae.

The latest part (vol. iv., No. 4) of the Records of the
Botanical Survey of India is devoted to the notes con-
tributed by Mr. I. K. Burkill with reference to a journey
nto Nepal. The author collected few novelties — three
species of Impatiens and an Eriocaulon — which is explic-
l able, as he traversed nearly the same route at the same
=oason of the year that Wallich took eighty-seven 3'ears
irlier. The notes relate chiefly to detailed features of the
getation and a comparison of the sdl, Shorea robusta,
jrests and flora of the hill tops in Nepal with those in
Sikkim.

Mr. .\skin Nicholas, writing from 31 Queen Street,

Melbourne, advances a curious explanation of Glacial

periods of geology. He suggests that " the Glacial period

corresponds with the period in which the moon lost its

water. To me it seems feasible that this would be

annexed by our planet by first forming a ring around

it, under which ring would be a perpetual shadow of

great width." But Mr. Nicholas's suggestion would not

explain either the geographical distribution of areas of

heavy glaciation or the recurrence of such glaciations.

^ Mr. Nicholas refers in the course of his letter to the

facial periods, and thus recognises that there have been

lore than one ; and the last was geologically so recent

liat it would seem most improbable that there should

>.ave been any important change in the condition of the

moon since that date. If the suggestion were valid, the

noon should also have lost its water once during pre-

ambrian, in Cambrian, and Carboniferous times. Mr.

Nicholas will find a discussion of the supposed causes of

glaciation in Chamberlin and Salisbury's " Geology,"

vol. iii., 1906, pp. 424-46.

La Nature for December 17, 19 10, contains a photograph
of the " Spectre of the Brocken," taken some time ago bv
M. Th. Moureaux on the terrace of the observatory of the
Pic du Midi. It shows in the centre of the corona the
hadow of the operator holding up the photographic
apparatus. On the summit of the peak and to the west-
ward patches of cumulus cloud were scattered over the
ky, and at times the sun shone out brightly on the rising
.ists. The author of the note (M. J. Loisel) states that,
-0 far as he knows, this is the first time that the spectre
as been photographed. He refers to M. Lancaster's
xperience at Uccle at the time of a thick fog in July,
1892, during which he saw his shadow projected by a lamp

te^ NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

burning in a room on the second floor, and all his move-
ments reproduced. M. Loisel remarks that it would be
interesting to observe whether the phenomenon would be
repeated in any thick fog, or only under special conditions.

We have received a catalogue of physical apparatus and
optical goods from Messrs. R. and J. Beck, which con-
tains a longer list of parts of optical apparatus, e.g.
lenses and prisms of glass or quartz, than we have seen
previously in any English catalogue. It will prove of
great help to those who are constructing apparatus for
special purposes. The most noteworthy larger pieces of
apparatus described are a lens-testing bench with all the
fittings requisite for the rapid examination of spectacle
lenses, and a large optic bench for interference and diffrac-
tion observations, which Messrs. Beck have made into a
universal instrument by providing it with a spectrometer
to fit on to one of the upright pillars, and with the lenses-
and polarising prisms necessary for the c^ticai examination
of crystals.

A COPY of the " Instructions of the Metropolitan Gas
Referees " for the year 1911 has reached us. These
instructions are practically identical with those issued last
)'ear, the only change being that the 10 cubic feet of gas
burnt for the determination of the total sulphur is allowed
to be burnt at a somewhat faster rate — 0-62 foot per hour
instead of 05. In the determination of the calorific value
of the gas. the calorie used is now specially defined as
" the amount of heat which will raise the temperature of
a litre of water one degree centigrade," the temperature
at which the water is measured not being stated.

Messrs. D. AprLETOX and Co. will publish shortly a;
new work of travel entitled "The Big Game of Africa,"
by Mr. R. Tjader, who has studied very closely the
characteristics of the big game which he has hunted, and
paid attention to the scientific side of the subject.

OUR ASTROXOMICAL COLUMN.

Meteors is February. — Mr. \V. F. Denning writes : —
" February is not a specially interesting one as regards-
meteors, but it has presented many brilliant fireballs in'
past years, and indications of several showers of some-
what important and active character.

" The writer has never made ver}' extensive observa-
tions in this month, but from the data he has secured
and from tlie paths of meteors observed by other persons
he has long regarded a shower of Aurigids as the most
prominent and richest stream of the period. The radiant
is about at 75° + 42°, and the time of visibility apparently
extends from Februarj- 5 to 23, but this is uncertain. The
meteors are slow and often bright.

" Observers would do useful work by watching the sky
on clear February nights, when moonlight does nott
materially interfere. They might secure useful evidence
as to the Aurigid shower, and would probably notice a
few of the fireballs which commonly appear at this time
of the year. The most remarkable fireball of modem
times appeared on February 22, 1909.

" This year the moon will not interfere in the evening
of February 22, and the paths of such meteors as are
seen should be carefully registered and other details
noted."

Nova Lacertje. — Observations of Nova Lacertje, made
at Bergedorf on January 2, are reported by Dr. Graff in
No. 4465 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. Two sets of
comparisons with neighbouring B.D. stars gave, for the
magnitude of the nova, 6-8, and its rose colour is com-
pared with that of Nova Persei in May, iqoi, being about
5-5° on Schmidt's scale of colour. Visual spectrum
observations gave C and F, probably, and brightenings in
the yellow and violet ; strong absorptions in the orange
and on the other side of F were also noted.

4i8

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

A New Variable or Nova (134.1910 Piscium). — What
may prove to be another nova is also reported in No. 44(>5
of the Astronomische Nachrichten by Hcrr E. Ernst. The
discovery was made, whilst comparing some minor-planet
photographs of the region near 42 Piscium, on a plate
exposed on September 13, 1907, and the image appears to
be that of a tenth-magnitude star, in the position
o = oh. 27-3m'., 8= -1-9° 30' (1855-0).

Eighteen other plates, taken during the period October,
1894, to October, 1910, fail to show any image in this
position, but one taken on the same evening shows the
image to be undoubtedly stellar.

Mass-ratios of the Components of Kruger 60 and
Castor. — In No. 5, vol. xxxii., of the Astrophysical
Journal, Dr. H. N. Russell discusses the mass-ratios in
the multiple systems Kruger 60 and Castor.

In the case of the former system. Prof. Barnard has
pointed out that the motion of the principal component
A is distinctly curved with respect to the distant optical
companion C, thus indicating that the faint component
B has a mass comparable with that of A ; from Prof.
Barnard's measures Dr. Russell has calculated the relative
masses. He finds that the mass of B is slightly greater
than that of A, although the magnitude of A is 9-7, whilst
that of B is ii-o; the ratio of the masses is 1-14 ±0-14.

In the case of Castor, Dr. Russell finds that in all
probability the " dark " companions in each of the two
spectroscopic binaries are much less massive than their
primaries, the ratio being greater than for any other
system yet investigated. The mass of the whole system
•s 6-5 + I-0 that of the sun, whilst, if it is the same in
each pair, the mass-ratio (primary/secondary) is about
6-5 in each case ; the parallax of Castor is concluded to
be approximately o-oS" ±0-03".

Double Stars. — Lick Observatory Bulletin No. 188 con-
tains a list of 100 new double stars discovered and
measured by Dr. R. G. Aitken with the 36-inch refractor.
This is the seventeenth list published by the same observer,
and includes Nos. 2201 to 2300 ; the sixteenth list appears
in No. 184 of the Bulletins.

Dr. Aitken makes some interesting remarks concerning
the colours of the components in some 5000 close double-
star systems he has examined with the large telescope.
Generally, he finds th^t cases of striking contrast are
comparatively rare, and he suggests that this may be due
to the fact that the apparent brightness of even faint stars
iti the field of 36-inch telescopes is considerable, con-
sequently the subjective phenomena recently discussed by
Dr. Louis Bell are not so effective as in smaller instru-
ments. Even in the case of A 2250, where the colour of
the primary is a striking orange-red, the faint companion
can only be described as a dull greyish-white, not blue.
In most cases both components appear to be white,
although the fainter one is perhaps more bluish than the
primary.

No. 4464 of the Astronomische Nachrichten contains a
long list of measures, made by Prof. Burnham with the
40-inch refractor at the Yerkes Observatory, of stars
selected from the General Catalogue for remeasurement
because some uncertainty or suspicion of change existed.
Appended to the measures are many interesting notes con-
cerning proper motions, existence of planetary and other
faint nebulse in the same region, or apparent discrepancies.

The United States Naval Observatory. — The report
of the superintendent of the Washington Observatory for
the year ending June 30, 19 10, contains, in addition to
the usual articles, several notes of special interest.

The observatory has decided to do what it can in the
observation of fundamental stars in connection with the
International Chart, but for the present cannot undertake
more than the observation of the historic fundamental
stars. A number of instruments no longer in actual use
have been collected into one of the domes as a museum.

Observations of Halley's comet were made from
November, 1909, to June, 19 10, but during the time the
comet was nearest the earth visitors to the observatory
were so numerous that the 26-inch and 12-inch equatorial's
had to be given up to their use ; three 5-inch equatorials
were also mounted at the Capitol, and two assistants
deputed to attend them.

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

Star Colours.— In No. 4, vol. xxxii., of the Astro-
physical Journal Mr. Innes has a note on Mr. Bell's paper
regarding the physiological factor in the determination of
the colours of stars in multiple systems.

Mr. Innes points out that modern observers do not
record the fantastic colours recorded by earlier observers,
but suggests that they should record colours on the modest
" Chandler " scale. He also cites a celestial example, con-
firmatory of Mr. Bell's laboratory results, where the near
approach of Mars — then 4 or 5 on Chandler's scale — gave
the yellow binary 7 Virginis a decidedly bluish appearance.
Mr. Innes also gives examples, however, showing that in
some cases the subjective effect apparently does not operate,
whilst in others an objective difference almost certainly
exists.

T//E IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRI-
CULTURE IN THE WEST INDIES}

I

N recent years the productions of tropical countrio
have formed an appreciable proportion of the raw
material for the manufacturing industries on which th-=
prosperity of this country depends. It is admitted tha: I
the British are in possession of some of the richest por-
tions of the tropics, and therefore their development is
matter of great imperial interest. Our responsibilities
can hardly be realised ; but if our commercial supremacx
depends upon the control of the tropics, we cannot relievr>
ourselves of responsibility either in' the interest of out
possessions or in our own interests.

It is proposed here to confine attention more particu
larly to the West Indian colonies, consisting of a grou;
of islands generally known as the British West Indies,
Bahamas, and Bermuda, together with the two consider-
able colonies on the mainland, viz. British Honduras and
British Guiana. By their situation in the western tropic-
and their entire dependence on agriculture, thes^
possessions form a natural group having a commoi
interest in the development of the products of the soii.
The West Indies, in the larger sense suggested above, ,
cover an area of 109,836 square miles, or a little less
than the British Isles. The population is estimated at '■
2,300,000. The value of the total trade is abou'
22,ooo,oooZ. Of their imports of manufactured and other
goods, they take 40 per cent, from the United Kingdom. 1
An increase in the total trade from 15,647,816/. in 1903 j:
to 21,429,301/. in 1909 is encouraging. It is anticipated i
that the twentieth century will witness the " regeneration
of the West Indies " and a return to some of their formei
prosperity. Already this is becoming true. Lord Crewe,
the late Secretary of State for the Colonies, was in a
position to announce in February last " that no West
Indian colony was now in want of grants-in-aid."
Further, all the' colonies have comparatively large sum-
in reserve to meet any ordinary emergency that ma\
arise.

Briefly stated, the circumstances that have combined to
bring about the new prosperity in the West Indies are a<
follows : — (i) the revival of confidence in the sugar indus-
try as the result of the abolition of bounties, and improved
trade relations with Canada ; (2) the increase in the pro-
duction of cacao in Trinidad, Grenada, and Jamaica :
(3) the development of the American fruit trade in
Jamaica ; (4) the introduction of the Sea Island cotton j
into St. Vincent, Barbados, and the Leeward Islands ; I
(5) the extension of the cultivation of limes in Dominica
and rice in British Guiana.

The Imperial Department of Agriculture in the West
Indies was created on the recommendation of a Royal
Commission consisting, of Sir Henry Norman (chairman).
Sir Edward Grey, and Sir David Barbour. In 1897, when
the commission visited the West Indies, many of the
colonies were in a depressed condition and a source of
anxiety to the Imperial Government and to those directlv
interested in them. The commission was charged, in thf"
first place, to inquire into the condition and prospects of
the sugar-growing colonies and " suggest such measures

1 .\b«trart o^ a. pap-r read berr.rc the Royal Colonial Institute on Ianitar\
10. by Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., late Imperial Cjmmissioner of Agr;
culture.

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

419

as would appear best calculated to restore and maintain
the prosperity of those colonies and their inhabitants." A
further subject of inquiry was : " Whether, in the event
of the production of sugar being discontinued or consider-
ably diminished, what other industries could replace it,
and be carried on profitably and supply employment for
the labouring population."

The commissioners recorded as their opinion that the
depression in the sugar industry was due " to the com-
petition of other sugar-producing countries, and in special
degree to the competition of beet-sugar produced under a
system of bounties." They submitted that "the best
immediate remedy . . . would be the abandonment of the
bounty system." In the meanwhile they recommended
certain special remedies, such as an improved steam com-
munication with outside markets and between the different
islands, and the organisation of* a scientific department to
assist the sugar industry and encourage, where conditions
were favourable, minor agricultural industries, together
with a general improvement in the system of cultivation
of the principal crops.

Most of the recommendations were sooner or later
adopted by the Imperial Government, including the creation
of an Imperial Department of Agriculture. For the latter,
on the motion of Mr. Chamberlain, funds were voted by
Parliament on .August 2, 1898. The average amount that
has been expended up to 1908 has been at the rate of
17,400/. per annum. Of this amount, some 5000Z. repre-
sented the cost of the head ofiice ; the remainder was
applied in grants-in-aid of botanical and experiment
stations, agricultural schools, and other educational
services in the individual colonies.

The duties entrusted to the department were of a varied
and far-reaching character. .Among them, the general
improvement of the sugar industry and the encourage-
ment of a system of subsidiary industries in localities
where sugar could not be grown, or where the conditions
were more favourable for the production of cacao, coffee,
bananas, oranges, limes, cotton, rubber, cocoanuts, sisal-
hemp, rice, nutmegs, pineapples, and other crops. In
addition, it was proposed that it should devote attention
to the improvement of the breed and condition of cattle,
horses, and small stock, and to the extension of bee-
keeping. Efforts were also made to bring the mass of
the people into sympathy with agriculture and trained
to regard the successful treatment of crops as the basis
upon which to build, not only their own welfare, but the
general prosperity of the colonies. With this view, a
prominent position was given to teaching the principles of
elementary science and agriculture, both in the primary
and secondary schools. .Associated with this policy was
the increased attention devoted to object-lessons, the
•ncouragement of growing specimen plants in pots and
boxes, and the establishment of school gardens. .Arbor
days for the public planting of ornamental and other trees
were also organised and assisted by the department.

The sugar investigations were mainly directed to
raising improved varieties of canes capable of withstand-
ing diseases that had rendered the continued cultivation of
the Bourbon cane impossible and obtain a larger vield of
sugar per acre. Valuable experiments have als'o been
carried on over considerable areas in testing the relative
value of pen and artificial manures, and in ascertaining,
by a continuous series of trials under skilled supervision,
in what quantities and at what stages of growth of the
canes such manures could be applied to the best advantage.
In addition, investigations have been carried on in the
chemical selection of the sugar-cane, in the treatment of
cane tops with germicides, and as to the effect of planting
at different distances and of improved tillage operations.

.A further improvement in the sugar industry has been
the establishment of central factories at .Antigua. Jamaica,
and also at St. Kitts. In the case of the factory at
.Antigua, it was recently stated " that out of 6000 "tons
of crystals shipped from the factory, 2500 tons represented
the gain due to improved methods of crushing the canes
and manufacturing the sugar," that is, the production of
sugar from a certain quantity of canes was increased bv
(he factory, as compared with the system hitherto in use,
by 40 per cent.

The annual production of sugar in the West Indies is
about 240,000 tons, of the value of 3,000,000/. In recent
NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

years an increasing amount of sugar and molasses has
been shipped at preferential rates to the Dominion of
Canada. In 1897 Canada took only 11,000 tons of sugar;
in 1909 it took 133,000 tons, or about 60 per cent, of the
total production of the West Indies.

the result of the policy pursued during the last twelve
years is shown in the fact that, while the total exports of
produce and manufactures of the West Indian colonies
have increased from 5,625,000/. to 7,195,360/., the exports
of the products of the sugar-cane (sugar, rum, and
molasses) have declined from 3,243,000/. to 3,037,660/.
On the other hand, the exports of other commodities, such
as cacao, fruit, cotton, Ic^wood extract, tobacco and
cigars, rice, coconuts, and rubber, have increased from
1,382,000/. to 4,157,700/. The recent Royal Commission
entirely concurs with the commission of 1897 as to the
danger of dependence on a single industry, and they
strongly support a continuance of the efforts that have
been made with such signal success to develop other
industries suitable to the soil and climate.

Several striking instances of the value of scientific
investigation for practical purposes have been placed on
record both as regards sugar, cacao, cotton, and other
industries. The cultivation of Sea Island cotton was
introduced in 1903. Since that time, 15,000,000 lb. of
cotton lint have been exported, of the value of 800,000/.
It is admitted that if fine Sea Island cotton had not been
obtained from the West Indies, several cotton mills in
Lancashire would have beeti compelled to work short
time. The total number of valuable economic plants dis-
tributed from the botanic and experiment stations have
reached 1,375,151, sufficient to establish about 10,000 acres
in permanent crops.

Agricultural education has been extended during the last
ten years, with the result that the W^est Indies are
now fully provided with the means for extending agri-
cultural knowledge amongst all classes of the com-
munity. Agricultural training schools and farm schools
have been provided for boys of the agricultural
classes, and the teaching of scientific agriculture has been
making steady progress in the secondary schools and
colleges. The department has also served a useful pur-
pose as a leading school of tropical agriculture. It is
acknowledged that there is no other organisation in any
part of the tropics where such diversified work is carried
on over so large an area and under such varying con-
ditions of soil and climate. Hence it is possible .to afford
a sound scientific and practical training to students in
the cultivation of crops suited to nearly all tropical con-
ditions. A gratifying proof of the value of the work of
the Imperial Department of .Agriculture has been the
formation of similar departments with well-equipped
laboratories and experiment stations in other parts of the
tropics ; also in supplying trained officers to take charge
of these departments.

The valuable services rendered to our tropical colonies
by the Royal Gardens at Kew for more than half a
century are deserving of special mention. The successful
introduction of cinchona into India and Ceylon, and more
recently of the rubber trees, which have made it possible
to establish the important rubber industries now exist-
ing in India, Ceylon, and the Federated Malay States, are
not the least of the achievements of Kew.

In a memorandum by Lord Islington, attached to the
report of the Canada and West Indian Royal Commission,
the following reference is made to the work of the Imperial
Department of .Agriculture : —

" I was deeply impressed by the value of the work done
by the Imperial Department of .Agriculture and by the
greatness of the possibilities which still lay before it ; the
revival of the cotton industry, and consequent restoration
of comparative prosperity to some of the small islands :
experiments with the sugar-cane ; the discovery and
destruction of insect pests — these were in themselves great
achievements. In my opinion, however, an even more
valuable work has been done in diminishing the prejudices
of agriculturists and inducing them to try new methods
and in inculcating the value of science and cooperation.
. . . The most successful fruit of the Report of the Com-
mission of 1807 has been the work of the Imperial Depart-
ment of .Agriculture, which has beyond doubt saved the
Home Government from appeals which could not wholly

420

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

be rejected, and would have cost more than the total out-
Jay on the Department."

In response to the strong recommendations of the Royal
"Commission, the Imperial Government has recently agreed
in principle to the continued maintenance of the central
•office of the department for a further period of ten yetirs
from April i. This will enable the department under Dr.
Watts (the present Commissioner) to continue to coordinate
the work of scientific agriculture in the \>''est Indies, to
.carry on research, and afford still further assistance in
^developing the resources of the colonies.

THE P^AT^Mi CAHAL IN 19 lo.*

'X'HE canal now being constructed by the American
•*■ Government in continuation of the work commenced
.by de Lesseps is 503 miles long from deep water in the
"Caribbean to deep water in the Pacific. Of this distance
34 miles is high-level with 8 miles sea-level at each end,
as shown on the accompanying profile. The water for
lockage is supplied by blocking the lower valley of the
Chagres River at Gatun with an earthen dam 7000 feet
long, 115 feet high, and about 2000 feet broad. This
consists of two heaps of broken rock enclosing the
hydraulic fill, i.e. silt pumped in wet and allowed to
<lrain. This packs tightly under the pressure of the atmo-
sphere, and secures the impermeability of the dam. The
heavy rock fills secure its stability against the lateral
pressure of the 85 feet of water which will be behind the

is overlaid with disintegrated rock and with clay to an
average thickness of 15 to 20 feet, and the rock 'itself in
places has open joints or seams, either vertical or sloping
towards the cut. Frequently the first sign of a landslide
is the bulging up or humping of the basalt rock at the
bottom of the cut, which sometimes rises 20 feet.
Simultaneously a crack appears on the soil above, which
is followed by foundering of the soil and clay, and very
often of the rock. Obviously, so long as humping of the
bottom occurs, it would be futile to let in water, as the
canal might be at any moment so reduced in depth as to
be unnavigable. It is proposed to deal with the difficulty
by flattening the slopes until gravitational equilibrium is
achieved, on the principle already referred to in the case
of the Gatun dam.

The author points out the existence of a gravitative
wave in landslides, and recommends the application of the
principjes and terminology of surface waves to their study.

In spite of the difficulty of the landslides, the opening
of the canal may be expected on the promised date, viz.
January i, 1915.

APPLIED GEOLOGY IN THE UNITED
STATES^

HE eight bulletins referred to below cover a wide

range of applied geology, and contain many valuable

additions to academic geology. Thus the memoir by

Messrs. Hillebrand and Schaller is a most important con-

ATLANTIC
DIVISION

CENTRAL DiyiSION

31-7 Miles

PACIFIC DIVISION

14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36
The Vertical Scale is exaggerated One Hundred Times ,

Profile of Panama Canal.

•dam. The height now attained by the dam is 70 feet.
The underlying ground is somewhat soft, but it has not
been squeezed up owing to-^e way the load has been
-spread. The sides of the dam, in fact, hold down the
iground so that the weight of the central portion cannot
squeeze it up.

The elaborate investigations of the engineers on the spot
have shown that the foundations are impervious, the
-earlier official reports to the contrary having been based
upon a misinterpretation of the borings. The area of the
lake which will be maintained between this dam and
that at Pedro Miguel will be 164 square miles, or twice
the size of the Lago Maggiore.

The dimensions of the locks are : length, 1000 feet ;
breadth, no feet. The minimum depths in canal and
locks will be 41 feet. The minimum bottom width in
the 8 miles of the Culebra cut, 300 feet. The rest of the
canal will have a bottom width of from 500 to 1000 feet.
The profile shows the greatest original elevation of the
ground to be 312 feet, but this is on the central line. On
the eastern side at the same place the escarpment began
at 534 feet. The bottom will he at 40 feet above mean
sea-level, so that the cutting here will be nearly 500 feet
deep. The depth of water in this portion of the canal will
be 45 feet, the surface being therefore 85 feet above mean
sea-level.

The principal difficulty in construction is caused by
landslides, brought about by the action of rain, of which
•90 inches falls in the year at Culebra. The basalt rock

1 Ab.';tract of a paper read before the Royal Society of Arts on December g
"by Dr. Vaughan Cornish.

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]'

tribution to knowledge of the minerals containing mercury.
It gives the result of a thorough research on kleinite,
montroydite, terlinguaite, and eglestonite. The two last
are proved to be .oxychlorides, and montroydite to be an
oxide of mercury, confirming the conclusions of Prof.
Moses, the founder of these species. Kleinite was named
in 1905 by Prof. Sachs, who described it as . an oxy-
chloride of mercury, but the day after his paper was

1 F. C. Schrader : Mineral Deposits of the Cerbat Range, Black Moun-
tains, and Grand Wash Cliffs, Mohave County, Arizona. U.S. Geo!.
Survey, Bull. 397. Pp. 226+xvi plates + 37 figs. (Washington, 1909.)

E. F. Burchard and C. Butts : Iron Ores, Fuels, and Flu xes of the Birm-
ingham District, Alabama, with chapters on the Origin of the Ores, by
Edwin C. Eckel. U.S. Geol. Survey, Buli. 400. Pp. 204 + + xvii plates,
-|-ig fiss. (Washington, 1910.)

W. F. Hillebrand and W. T. Schaller : The Mercury Minerals from
Terlingua, Texas. U.S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 405. Pp. 174+ vi plates +44
figs. (Washington, 1909.)

W. H. Emmons : A Reconnaissance of some Mining Camps in Elko,
Lander, and Eureka Counties, Nevada. U..*^. Geol. Survey, Bull. 408.
Pp. 130+v plates4-22 figs. (Washington, 1910.)

A. G. Maddren : The Innoko Gold-Placer District, Alaska, with Accounts
of the Central Kiiskokwim Valley and the Ruby Creek and Gold Hill
Placets. U.S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 410. Pp. 87-l-v plates. (Washington,
1910.)

F. L. Hess : A Reconnaissance of the Gypsum Deposits of California,
\vith a Note on Errors in the Chemical Analysis of Gypsum, by George
Steiger. U.S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 413. Pp. 37-|-iv plates-l-2 figs. (Wash-
ington, 1910.)

F. L. Ransome : Notes on some Mining Districts in Humboldt County,
Nevada. U.S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 414. Pp. 75-{-i plate-t-y figs. (Wash
ington, 1909.) r ,^ I

The Valuation of Public Coal Lands. G. H. Ashley : The Value of Coal
Land. C. A. Fisher : Depth and Minimum Thickness of Beds as Limiting
Factors in Valuation. U.S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 424- Pp- 75- (Washmgton,
1910.)

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

421

read, in Berlin Hillebrand announced that the mineral
is a mercury-ammonium compound ; it is a mixture of
mercury ammonium chloride with some sulphate or
oxysulphate. Some interesting photographs illustrate the
optical heterogeneity of the mineral. Kleinite is hexagonal
in symmetry, but basal sections are only singjj- refracting
when heated above 130° ; after cooling very slowly, in
process of years, again become biaxial.

Three of these bulletins (Nos. 397, 408, and 414) state
the results of inspections of western mineral fields where
mining was once more active than it is now. Mr. F. C.
Schrader describes the ore deposits of Mohave County, in
north-western Arizona. The country consists of a plateau
of pre-Cambrian gneisses covered in places by Cainozoic
volcanic rocks, and flanked by Palaeozoic sediments in the
valley of the Colorado River. The climate is warm, and
with a 5-inch rainfall and high evaporation there is little
surface water, and the rocks are oxidised to the depth of
usually from 200 to 600 feet. The mines are numerous,
but they are all hampered by the difficulties of access and
high costs, and so none have been worked very deeply. The
outcrops were removed thirty years ago. The mines belong
to two main types, one represented in the Cerbat Range,
occurring in the pre-Cambrian rocks, and the other, as in
the Black Mountain, found in the Cainozoic volcanic forma-
tion. The ores in the latter are found only in association
with chloritic andesites. The field shows many points of
interest, and the results will be watched with interest as
the mines go deeper. The plans suggest that some of the
ore shoots have been formed from ascending solutions.
The evidence available is insufficient to throw much light
on general problems, but Mr. Schrader's report will be
indispensable in the future development of the field.

Mr. \V. H. Emmons's reconnaissance on some mining
camps in Nevada also deals with small scattered mines of
which most of the direct evidence has been lost. Some
of them were worked fifty years ago, and mining was most
active during the silver boom of the 'eighties. The mines,
unlike those in Mohave County, yield a large variety of
minerals. The area consists of Palaeozoic sediments, rang-
ing from the Cambrian to the Carboniferous, which have
been invaded by Cretaceous granodiorites, and covered in
places by Miocene rhyolites, andesites, and basalts. One
series of mines consists of replacements in what the
author calls the " marbleised limestone " around the
Cretaceous granodiorites, and a second series occurs with
the Cainozoic eruptives, but only in association with the
andesites ; the basalts are always barren, and the rhyolites
are only productive when near andesite. The chief metals
in both series of mines are gold and silver. The gold is
relatively more abundant in the older lodes, where it is
associated with copper and lead. The mines only occur
where the rocks have been leached by hot water, and thus
prospectors recognise promising positions by the colour of
the weathered rocks.

Mr. F. L. Ransome has examined Humboldt County,

Nevada, of which the map prepared by the historic Survey

of the Fortieth Parallel is still the best. Mining began in

the district about i860 on ores of antimonial silver with

stibnite and cinnabar. In Copperwood Canyon small

\ eins of nickel and cobalt ores occur in an altered andesite

eside a diorite, probably of Cretaceous age. Mr. Ran-

ome shows his characteristic insight in the classification

f the ore bodies and in such illuminating diagrammatic

-ections as that of the Sheba mine (p. 42);

The gypsum deposits of California are described in a
short memoir by Mr. F. L. Hess. The gypsum is mined
for use as plaster and a fertiliser. Some of it occurs in
" gypsite, " a material conta^ping grains of gypsum too
-mall to be readily discernible to the eye. It is there an
fflorescent product, due to the evaporation of water,
which has percolated through underlying g}psiferous beds.
Some massive deposits formed by the evaporation of
shallow lakes and by precipitation in shallow sea water are
also of local commercial value. The veins of gypsum, in-
cluding both selenite and satinspar, have no intrinsic value,
but are worked as the cheapest method of holding mineral
leases on land which may \ield oil. Sufficient work is
done on the gypsum to maintain the lease without the
expense of boring for oil, and thus dodging the law bv
using one mineral to maintain an unfair claim to another.
The valuation of coal lands is a problem which has long

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

taxed the ingenuity of experts on mining law. In Bulletin
424 Mr. Fisher contributes to the discussion a summary
of the depth and minimum thickness of coal seams worked,
in various countries. The deepest coal mining recorded is
from 3937 feet, in Belgium ; the deepest in Britain is at
3483 feet, in Rams Mine, Pendelton ; and depths of more
than 3000 feet have been reached in France and Germany-
Forty years ago a British Coal Commission recognised
that mining would reach a depth of 4000 feet, but such,
is the wealth in fuel of the United States that coal bek>w
3000 feet is still disregarded in valuation. The United-
States, moreover, has not yet been driven to work such,
thin coals as are wrought in England and Belgium. The
thinnest English seams worked at present independently
are a cannel coal of 8 inches and ordinary coal 10 inches
thick. Seams 12 inches thick are worked in Belgium and
Scotland, where beds of less than 2 feet thick are worked
extensively.

The red iron ores in the Silurian rocks of Alabama,,
described in Bulletin 400, are second in importance in the
United States only to those of the Lake Superior dlstrict.
They are low-grade ores, but being near fluxes and fuel are
cheaply w<M-k^. The Clinton ores have generally been
regarded as a residual deposit due to concentration of iron
oxide by solution of a ferruginous limestone. This view
has been based upon the belief, due to Porter and I. C^
Russell, that the ironstones pass below into normal lime-
stone. This view has been accepted by many later
economic geologists, but is rejected by Eckel, as the ore-
is already being mined far from the outcrop, and has been
found in New York in bores ten to fifteen miles from the
outcrop, and nearly 1000 feet below the surface. The ore
is often oolitic and contains many marine fossils which
have been altered into iron oxide, but that this change
happened during the deposition of the rock is indicated
by several facts. Thus many of the oolitic grains contain
a nucleus of quartz grains surrounded by concentric layers
of iron ore, which is covered by carbonate of lime. A
fuller account and figures of the microscopic structure of
the ores would have been useful. .As the oolitic grains
have been cemented by iron oxide, some replacement
appears to have taken place after the formation of the-
bed. Mr. Eckel, however, produces weighty evidence in
support of his view that the ore is mainly of contemporary
origin, though recent work shows that other American
geologists reject this explanation, and regard the estimates
based on it as exaggerated.

The brown ores of Alabama are admitted by Mr. Eckel
to be epigenetic ; they are interbedded with Cambro-
Ordovician, Cretaceous, and Cainozoic rocks, but are all
of Cainozoic formation.

Mr. Maddren's report on some Yukon placer deposits
shows that the gold has been derived from lodes formed
by the intrusions of acid rocks in Mesozoic or Lower
Cainozoic times. The gold is usually coarse, but its con-
centration has been slow, because the cold acts as a
cementing agent, and the erosion of the frozen ground is
very slow. The report gives some interesting information
as to the relative extent of Glacial and post-Glacial
denudation in some Alaskan vallevs.

J. W. G.

ON THE SENSIBILITY OF THE EYE TO

VARIATIONS OF WAVE-LENGTH IN THE

YELLOW REGION OF THE SPECTRUM.'

"TJR. EDRIDGE-GREEN' has introduced a method of
"^ classifying colour-vision by determining the number
of separate parts or divisions in the spectrum within each
of which the observer can perceive no colour difference.
Movable screens are provided in the focal plane of the
spectroscopic telescope, by which the part admitted to the
eye is limited and the limits measured in terms of wave-
length. Beginning at the extreme visible red, more and
more of the spectrum is admitted until a change of colour
(not merely of brightness) is just perceptible. This gives-
the first division. The second division starts from the
place just determined, and is limited in the direction oV

1 .A.bs»ract of a paper read before the Royal Society on December S, 1910,
by Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S.
3 Roy. Soc Proc., B, 1910, vol. bucxii., p. 458, and earlier writings.

42 2

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

shorter wave-length by the same condition. In this way
the whole spectrum is divided into a number of contiguous
divisions, or patches, which Dr. Green terms mono-
chromatic.

" Tested with this instrument a normal individual will,
as a rule, name six distinct colours (viz. red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, violet), and will mark out by means
of the shutters about i8 monochromatic patches.
Occasionally we come across individuals with a greater
power of differentiating hues, to whom, as to Newton,
there is a distinct colour between the blue and violet,
which Newton called indigo. .Such individuals will mark
out a greater number of monochromatic patches, from
22 up to 29. The limited number of monochromatic
patches which can be marked out in this way is
at first surprising when we consider how insensibly
one part of the spectrum seems to shade into the ne.x.t
when the whole of the spectrum is looked at. The number
and position of the patches present, however, great
uniformity from one case to another."

Being curious to know into what class my own vision
would fall on this system, I was glad to be tested by
Dr. Green last July. The number of patches proved to be
17, a little short of what Dr. Green lays down in the
passage aBove quoted as normal. The limits of the actual
patches were as follows : —

780—635^—624—612—603—595—586—576—560—541—
521—509-500—489^-477-462-443—426.

Thus in the region of the D lines a patch including
wave-lengths between 595 and 586 did not manifest a
difference of colour. The interval between the D lines on
the above scale being o-6o, it appears that my " mono-
chromatic patch " was 15 times this interval.

While it is undoubtedly true that in this way of work-
ing no colour-difference was perceptible as the eye travelled
backwards and forwards over the patch, my experience
with colour discs and other colour-mixing arrangements
made me feel certain that under more favourable condi-
tions I could discriminate much smaller differences of
wave-length. Special ex{>eriments have since proved that
I can, in fact, discriminate by colour between points in
the spectrum so close together as the two D lines.

In order to compare two colours with advantage it is
necessary that each should extend with uniformity over a
considerable angular area, and that the two areas should
be in close juxtaposition. The requirements of the case
are sufficiently met by a colour-box (after Maxwell) such
as I described nearly thirty years ago.' In this form of
apparatus a second slit, placed at the focus, allows a
narrow width of the spectrum to pass ; but instead of
regarding the transmitted portion with an eye-piece, the
eye is brought close to the slit and focussed upon the
prism, which thus appears uniformly lighted with such
rays as the second slit allows to pass. The light thus
presented is, of course, not absolutely homogeneous ; it
Includes a mixture of neighbouring spectrum rays, the
degree of purity augmenting as the slits are narrowed.
With the aid of a refracting prism of small angle (set
perpendicularly to the dispersing prisms) the field of view
IS divided into two parts, which correspond to any desired
colours according to the ' situation of the two primary
slits. For the present purpose these primary slits lie
•nearly in one straight line, inasmuch as the two spectrum
colours to be compared are close together.

In making the observations on sensitiveness, one
primary slit, as well as the eye-slit, remains fixed, the
position being chosen so as to provide yellow light from
the neighbourhood of D. The second slit can be moved
as a whole while retaining its width.

The procedure is quite simple. If the colours seen are
strongly contrasted, the movable slit is displaced until the
difference is moderate. Marks may then be given : O,
denoting that the difference is uncertain; R,, that it is
just distinct in the direction of making the second patch
the redder; G,, that it is just distinct in the opposite
direction. Similarly, R,, G,, denote differences in the
two directions which are more than distinct, and so on.
After each observation worth recording, the position of the
movable slit is measured.

1 Nature, 1881, vol. xxv., pp. 64-66 ; "Scientific Papers," vol. i., p. 543
See also Nature, August 18, 1910.

In this manner, as the result of sets of observations
made on several days, it was found that a movement of
the second slit through 01 5 mm. was sufficient to carry
the variable colour from being distinctly redder than the
standard to distinctly greener. We may conclude that the
eye is capable of appreciating without fail a difference of
situation represented by 0-07 mm.

It remains to interpret the result in terms of wave-
lengths. By allowing light to enter at the eye-slit, ur
rather at a narrower slit superposed upon it, a spectrum
is formed at the other end the scale of which has to be
determined. It appeared that the distance from D to E
was 7 mm. The difference of wave-length between these
lines is 62-3. The perceptible difference is i/ioo of this,
corresponding nearly enough to the difference between the
D lines. I think I am safe in saying that I could dis-
tinguish the colours of the two D lines if favourably
presented to the eye.

This degree of sensitiveness, though not higher than I
had expected, is a little difficult to reconcile with the
monochromatic appearance of a portion of the spectrum
fifteen times wider. I suppose that the gradual character
of the transition is an obstacle to the recognition of differ-
ences. The question of angular magnitude may also enter.
No doubt a very small apparent magnitude would be un-
favourable. It is possible that in Dr. Green's apparatus
an eye-piece of higher power, with a corresponding
augmentation in the intrinsic brilliancy of the source of
light, would allow of an increase in the number of dis-
tinguishable patches. The experiment would be worth a
trial.

It will be seen that the existence of " monochromatic
patches " in the spectrum is far from meaning that thp
eye is incapable of making chromatic distinctions within
their range. I do not infer from this that the results of
the method are without significance. Undoubtedly it i^
possible by means of it to classify colour-vision, and such
a classification cannot be without interest, even if we fail
as yet to understand exactly what it means.

THE PROGRESSIVE DISCLOSURE OF THE
ENTIRE ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUN."^

T E soleil auquel est consacr6e cette conference est un
magnifique sujet d'^tudes. Tous les hommes sentent
plus ou moins claireinent que les destinies terrestres sont
liees 6troitement k celles du soleil, et qu'il est ndcessaire de
reconnaitre sa nature intime, son rayonnement total, ses
variations, en un mot son action precise et complete sur
nolle globe. Notre d^pendance vis-i-vis du soleil est
absolue, et r^cemment, elle a 6t6 r^sum^e d'une mani^re
simple par un homme politique frangais, maintenant
ministre dos finances, auquel je demandais un credit special
pour robservatoire de Meudon que je dirige, et pour les
recherches solaires. II refusait d'abord, en all^guant
I'acroissement continu des d^penses publiques. Puis, comme
j'insistais, il s'^cria : " V'ous avez raison, le soleil est notrc
tnaitre a tous ; il est impossible que nous ne fassibns pas
quelque chose." C'cst ainsi que I'observatoire de Meudon
a pu joindre k son budget ordinaire une somme suppl^-
mentaire, certes peu eiev(5e, mais qui est arriv^e au moment
opportun, et nous a beaucoup aid^s dans les recherches que
je vous pr^sente aujourd'hui.

L 'etude moderne du soleil exige en effet des installations
couteuses, des appareils compliqu^s et un personnel special
apte aussi bien aux observations physiques qu'aux observa-
tions astronomiques. Or le soleil luit pour tout le monde.
et miirit toutes les moissons ; et, k priori, il semble nature!
que tous les hommes de la plan^te apportent leur concouf^
aux recherches solaires. Partant de cette id^e, j'ai propose,
il y a quelques ann^es, k la Soci6te astronomique de Franc
une taxe sp^ciale ct g^n^rale pour le soleil — et d'ailleur=
tr^s minime. Si chaque fran<jais, ai-je remarqu^, donnait
par an un sou, un simple sou pour le soleil, la somme
totale serait encore eiev^e ; elle permettrait d 'assurer
I'enregistrement continu du soleil et de ses variations, non
encore realise, et done une connaissance plus approfondif
de I'astre. Mais les taxes nouvelles sont toujours_ plu-
nombreuses, et celle-li, bien que tr6s faible et tr^s legitime,

1 Discourse deliv-red at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on Fri
June 10, 1910, by Dr. H. Deslandres, Membre de I'lnstitut,

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

423

serait probablement 6cart6e. D'ailleurs, il faut bien le dire,
I'homme civilis^ actuel, le citadin surtout, s'occupent peu
dii soleil ; ils le rcgardent moins que rhomme primitif et
le sauvage qui n'ont ni montre ni almanach. La r6alisation
de cette id^e est r^serv^e pour la cite future, et pour un
dtat social plus parfait que le r.otre.

Le recours au gouvernement, is. la collectivity, est iiiie
habitude francjaisc. II vaut micux comme en Angleterre,
faire appel a I'initiative priv^e, i 1 'initiative d'hommcs
dclair^s et g^n^rcux. C'cst ainsi qu'a 6td fondle la Royal
Institution, qui a vu ^clore tant de belles d^couvertes et
tant de savants illustres. Ce bel exeniple doit §tre propose
a tous, et on sait qu'il a ^t^ largemcnt suivi en Am^rique
oil les pluS' grands observatoires, et surtout ceux consacr^s
au soleil, sont dus i de simples particuliers.

En fait, dans les cinquante derni^res ann^s, grace i de
grandes decouvertes, grace a l.'appui des gouvernements et
des M6c^nes, I'^tude du soleil a pris un d^veloppement
considerable. Les astronomes ont pu lui donner peu i peu
une organisation s^rieuse et permanente et mfeme lYtendre
k Tatmosph^re entiere de I'astre, jusqu'alors inaccessible.

La d^couverte principale sur le soleil est la variation
p^riodique de ses taches noires, variations que subissent
aussi les facules brillantes de la surface et 1 'atmosphere
entiere tr^s ^tendue. Le soleil entier a une grande oscilla-
tion g^n^rale ; et, fait plus curieux encore, cette oscillation
s'^tend i la terre et, tout au moins, k ses elements
magn^tiques.

L 'extension du ph^nom^ne solaire 4 la terre a une im-
portance capitale ; elle implique presque n^cessairement une
action sp^ciale, nouvelle, exerc^e par le soleil ^ur notre
globe : elle est la cause premiere de la grande faveur
actuelle des recherches solaires. Apres la d^couverte de
Sabine et Lamont sur I'accord de nos variations magne-
tiques avec le soleil, la science anglaise a accorde la plus
grande attention aux taches du soleil ; et \a Premiere elle
a organist I'enregfistrement photographique des taches et
des elements magn^tiques sur plusieurs points du globe, et
la concentration de tous ces documents dans un m^me
observatoire qui les relive avec precision. Les travaux
d 'Ellis et de Maunder sur la question sont bien connus et il
convient aussi de rappelor ceux de Lockyer et de Shuster,
qui ont rcconnu r^cemment dans les variations des taches
des p^riodes plus erandes et plus petites que la p^riode
principale de ii ann^es.

L 'action exerc^ par le soleil sur la terre est attribute
g^n^ralement aux taches ; mais elle peut avoir son origine
dans Tatmosph^re solaire qui a les memes variations ; d'oii
la n^cessite d'^tudier et de relever avec soin cette atmo-
sphere. Or, depuis pr^s de 20 ans. je me suis attach^ k la
reconnaissance de I'atmosphere entiere du soleil, et je vous
pr^sente aujourd'hui les r^sultats les plus r^cents, qui ont
mis au jour les couches sup^rieures de cette atmosphere
jusqu'ici inexplor^es.

Atmosphere des eclipses — au bord solaire exterieur.

L'atmosphere du soleil s'est montr^e k I'homme pour la
premiere fois dans les Eclipses totales, au bord solaire
exterieur. Elle forme alors I'anneau lumineux qui se
detache sur le fond du ciel devenu noir, en entourant le
disque lunaire, egalement noir. Elle comprend deux parties
distinctes, k partir de la lune et du bord solaire : la
chromosphere mince et brillante, de couleur rose, de laquelle
se detachent les pro^minences ^galement roses, et la
couronne, plus pal? mais tres etendue. Dans ce qui va
suivre, il sera question surtout de la chromosphere et des
preeminences.

En temps ordinaire I'anneau lumineux des Eclipses est
cache par 1 'illumination beaucoup plus vive de notre ciel.
L'ecran qui le masque est lumineux; pour I'ecarter,
I'astronome anglais Sir Norman Lockyer, a en le premier,
en 1866, I'idee de recourir au spectre, en admettant, ce qui
4tait probable, que 1 'atmosphere solaire fut gazeuse. C'^tait
une idee de genie, qui depuis a fait son chemin.

L'edipse de 1868 montre en effet que les preeminences
roses sont constituees en grande partie par I'hydrogene
incandescent qui emet les radiations de'yk reconnues dans
Ic laboratoire sous I'influence de I'etincelle eiectrique, et en
particulier une raie rouge intense appeiee H.- Et, apres
I'eclipse, Janssen au.x Indes, Lockyer en Angleterre, avec

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

le spectroscope et la raie rouge, retrouvent les pro^minences
et la chromosphere des eclipses. Ce resultat a excite un
enthousiasme legitime ; car la methode, a la fois simple et
feconde, est employee depuis 40 ans a la reconnaissance
journaliere de la chromosphere, des positions et des form's
des preeminences. Cette etude est mdme plus captivani-
que celles des taches ; car les preeminences ont les fermi s
les plus variees et les changements les plus rapides. Elh-
apparaissent a toutes les latitudes, et suivent aussi la
periode undecennale des taches, la duree du maximum
etant, il est vrai, plus lengue.

L 'etude spectrale du bord solaire, poursuivie en temps
ordinaire, ou mieux pendant les eclipses, fait aussi con-
naitre la composition chimique de la chromosphere, et aussi
la hauteur minime de chaque vapeur, estimee par la
longueur de la raie cerrespondante dans le spectre.

D'une maniere generale, les vapeurs k faible poids
atemique et les gaz legers s'eievent le plus haut ; tel est le
cas de I'hvdregene et de I'heiium. La raie la plus haute
dans ces deux gaz est la raie rouge Ho de I'hydrogene, les
autres raies de I'hydregene ayant des hauteurs et des edats
qui diminuent du rouge a I'ultravielet.

Mais les plus hautes de toutes sont les raies vielettes H
et K, tres brillantes, qui sent emises par les composes du
calcium. Comme le poids atemique et la densite de la
vapeur de calcium sent relativement eievees. le fait parait
assez etrange ; il est explique simplement, d 'apres les 'dees
de Lockyer, par une dissociation du calcium dans le soleil
et I'etincelle de nos laborateires. Les raies H et K, 4 tous
egards exceptionnelles. sont tres brillantes au bord solaire,
et assurent aisement la photographic des preeminences avec
les nlaques ordinaires.

D 'autre part, les vapeurs leurdes, qui sent de beaucoup
les plus nembreuses s'eievent peu dans Tatmesphere, et ne
sent aisement visibles que dans les eclipses. Elles ferment
la couche basse de la chromosphere, relativement fort
brillante, appeiee couche renversante.

Chromosphere projetee sur le disque, couche moyenne.

Tels sent les resultats principaux de la methode Lockyer-
Janssen. lis sont assuriment remarquables, mais, k cer-
tains egard^. incomplets. lis ne s'appliquent qu'i la partie
de la chromosphere exterieure au bord solaire, et mSme
aux vapeurs legeres, et eievees de ce bord. La partie
interieure au bord, ou projetee sur le disque, en projection
50 fois plus etendue, lui echappe. Or cette lacune a ete
comblee de i8q2 k 1894 par une methode absolumettt
generale, qui deceie toutes les vapeurs, leurdes eu legeres.
et leurs couches successives dans la demie-sphere entiere
tournee vers la terre.

Au bord solaire, les raies des vapeurs se detachent
brillantes sur le spectre continu de notre ciel ; mais, sur le
disque, ces raies sont noires, comme en sait, et le
spectre continu qui leur sert de fend est celui du soleil
lui-m^me et est beaucoup plus intense. A priori la difficulte
parait beaucoup plus grande.

Or les raies H et K du calcium presentent une exception
k cette regie, et le fait a ete annonce simultanement en
fevrier i8q2 par Hale et Deslandres. Ces raies noires sont
tres larges et meme les plus larges du spectre solaire ;
mais, aux points de la surface ou est une facule, elles sent
renversees, autrement dit elles ofTrent en leur centre une
raie brillante qui meme est double et se detache sur la
large raie noire aussi bien que la raie des preeminences au
bord exterieur. (Voir la Fig. i, qui montre la raie K et ses
composantes K,v, Kjv, K3, K^r, K,r.)

Le resultat a ete obtenu par Hale avec un spectroheiie-
graphe, appareil neuveau, assez cemplexe, qui isole une
radiation avec une sqfonde fente, et, par le mouvement de
cette fente lumineuse, fournit une image menechrematique
de I'astre. De men c6te, j'ai employe le simple spectro-
graphe ordinaire et des sections successives, mais en
preconisant I'emplei du spectroheiiographe.

Cependant les deux observateurs etaient en desaccord sur
un point capital. Hale plai^ait les vapeurs ainsi deceiees
dans la facule m^me, sous la surface ; je les pla(^ais au
contraire au-dessus dans I'ltmosphere meme. Or le spec-
trographe ordinaire, qui »<^unit tous les elements de la
question, permet de la resoudre ; il est, k ce point de vue.
superieur au spectroheiiographe.

424

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

La raie double Kj est brillante non seulement sur les
facules, mais sur tous les autres points du disque ou elle
est, il est vrai, plus faible et plus difficile k distinguer. De
plus, au bord, la raie brillante double Kj, au bord int^rieur,
est toujours nette en ce point, et est prolong^e a rext<5rieur
par une raie brillante double identique. (Voir la Fig. 2
ci-contre, figure sch^matique, qui montre bien 1 'aspect de
la raie double K,, au bord du soleil et aussi sur une tache.)

Cornme la raie K. ext6rieure au bord repr^sente par
definition la chromosphere, la conclusion est la suivante :
L'image de la raie A', avec le spectroheliographe reprdsente
la chromosphere entiere de I'astre projetie sur le disque.

D'ailleurs les images du calcium faites k Paris en 1894
et qui sont les premieres images completes, montrent des

Fig. I.— Courbe des intensitis du spectre solaire a remplacement de la large raie noire K. On a
repr^sent^ par des traits avec hachures les. positions des fentes des spectroh^liographes.

plages faculaires brillantes plus larges que celles de la
surface, et aussi les parties brillantes plus petites appel^es
maintenant flocculi, qui sont pr^sentes aussi bien aux p61es
qu'^ la lignateur — ^j'ai v^rifi^ la presence des flocculi aux
poles dans les annies de minimum et pendant la p^riode
und6cennale tout- entiere.

La raie brillante K^ reste double au bord ext^rieur jusqu'^
4' ou 5' d'arc, et, comme la chromosphere au bord est haute
de 10", on peut dire que cette image
repr^sente la chromosphere moyenne.

En resume, si le premier spectrohelio-
graphe ayant donnd des resultats a ^t^ /c\^^
realise en Amdrique, c'est en France / ^j^^
qu'on a reconnu pour la premiere fois la
chromosphere entiere du soleil.

Chromosphere basse.

Mais on peut aller plus loin. En 1893,
j'ai annonce que I'isolement d'une raie
noire ordinaire avec le spectrohelio-
graphe donnerait l'image meme de la
vapeur correspondante ; et, en 1894, j'ai
isoie avec le petit spectroheliographe
de faible dispersion, organise k Paris,
les bords degrades de la raie K, appeiees
KiR, et Kiv, et les raies noires voisines
les plus larges de I'aluminium, du fer
et du carbone. L'image obtenue differe
de pelle de K2 ; les taches masquees par
fois avec K, ont toujours lour ombre et
penombre bien nettes, et les plages
faculaires sont brillantes au centre
comme au bord, mais moins larges que
dans l'image K,. En fait, cette image
nouvelle est intermediaire entre l'image
de la surface et celle de la couche
moyenne chromospherique K,. Elle represente l'image de
la couche renversante entifere qui serait obtenue ainsi pour
la premiere fois.

J'ai ajoute qu'une dispersion plus forte permettraitd'isoler
les raies plus fines qui sont les plus nombreuses, et, en
particulier, la petite raie noire centrale K,, entre les deux
composantes K^. Cette raie K3 correspond a la couche
superieure de la chromosphere. La methode s'annonce
ainsi comme absolument generate ; elle fournit l'image de
toutes les vapeurs solaires, et aussi l'image de leurs couches
successives superposees, au moins lorsque la raie est
divisible en parties distinctes, ainsi que la large raie K.

Or le nombre des raies solaires s'eieve k 20,000; et,
d'apres Jewell, toutes les raies solaires offrent plus ou

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

moins la constitution speciale de cette raie typique du
calcium. Le champ nouveau offert k I'investigation
s'annopce comme extr^mement etendu.

Rechcrches ult^rieures. Grand Spectrohdiographe
d'un type nouveau.

Le programme de recherches, indique en 1894, est done
extremement vaste. II a ete applique en partie dans les
annees suivantes, et les progres ont ete reels si non tres
rapides.

En 1903, Hale et Ellermann, k I'observatoire Yerkes,
reprennent 1 'etude des raies noires, avec un spectrohelio-
graphe plus dispersif, et la poursuivent k partir de 1906 au
Mont Wilson avec des appareils encore plus puissants. lis
ont obtenu de magnifiques images et
toute une serie de faits nouveaux. Avec
les raies de la couche renversante, les
resultats sont k peu pres les memes que
ceux de 1894; mais les raies de I'hydro-
gene, et tout recemment la raie Ha ont
montre des phenomenes nouveaux, tres
curieux, dont il sera question avec details
un peu^plus loin.

Cependant la dispersion employee par
eux est seulement moyenne ; s'ils ont
isoie un nombre de raies bien plus grand
qu'en 1894, ils n'ont pas isoie les raies
fines ; et meme dans chaque cas, ils ont
isoie la raie entiere, ils n'ont pas separe
les parties distinctes de la raie et done
les couches successives de la vapeur.
Leur image est un melange de plusieurs images distinctes
et de plusieurs couches.

Je me suis propose de combler cette lacune, et de pour-
suivre jusqu'au bout le programme de 1894, en isolant
nettement les couches superieures non encore deceiees.
Devenu directeur de I'observatoire de Meudon en 1907, j'ai
pu diriger de ce c6te les ressources de I'observatoire, et,
d 'autre part la credit extraordinaire signaie plus haut, nous

Fig. 2. — (schematique). — J^, section faite par la fente du spectroscope dans le soleil dont la
chromosphere et la tache sont tres agrandies ; Ko, raie brillante, attribute aux vapeurs du
calcium, qui apparait au milieu de la large raie noire K du spectre normal ; elle est simple et
fine au-dessus des taches et a la partie sup6rieure de la chromosphere, et double sur les
autres points, 6tant alors divis^e en deux par la raie noire centrale K2.

a ete fort utile. Bref il a ete possible de construire un
grand spectroheliographe, aussi dispersif que le grand
spectrographe de Rowrland et un grand batiment special
capable de le contenir.

Le batiment comprend une grande pifece de 22 m. sur
6 m. ; son toit est en pierre et terre, ce qui assure la con-
stance de la temperature k I'interieur. II re^oit la lumiere
solaire d'un coelostat place au sud, constitue avec de vieux
appareils du passage de Venus, et d'un objectif ancien de
o'25 m. d'ouverture et 4 m. de distance focale. Ces pieces,
qui sont mediocres, ont ete utilisees par raison d'economie.
Le spectroheliographe, d'autre part, est d'un type nouveau,
et offre plusieurs particularites interessantes. II est asser
complique, au moins sur le dessin, car il comprend en

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

425

idalit6 quatre spectroh6Hographes diff^rents r^unis autour
d'un meme collimateur. Le premier est k trois prismes et
i deux fentes. avec una chambre de 3 m., et une image du
soleil de 85 mm. : le second est i r^seau et a deux fentes
avec une chambre de meme longueur. Le
troisi^me est une disposition diff^rente des deux
pr^cddents. Enfin le quatrieme, le plus puissant,
-est a trois fentes, a prismes ou k r^seau. 11
•comprend un premier spectrographe avec chambre
de 7 m., ainsi que dans I'appareil classique de
Rowland, ce qui permet d'isoler des raies tr^s
fines. Mais I'image solaire exigerait une pose
trop longue ; on la reprend avec une second
spectrographe qui le diminue au ddgr6 voulu, et
^limine la lumiere diffuse int^ieure. Le soleil
final a un diam^tre qui peut etre quelconque,
et, grace k certaines dispositions sp^ciales, i7 est
entier, ce qui n'est pas r^alis6 dans les autres
spectroh^lic^raphes de grande dispersion. Les
diamfetres habituels sont 6 cm. et 4 cm.

L'appareil, avec ses deux spectrographes, a
une longueur totale de 14 m., et, dans ces
conditions, reste immobile. II est meme le
premier spectroh^liographe dont toutes les
-parties sont fixes, la plaque ^tant mise a part.
Les pieces mobiles sont la plaque photographique
et I'objectif astronomique, qui sont mis en
mouvement a la vitesse voulue par des moteurs
^lectriques synchrones et des transformateurs de
vitesse speciaux.

La concordance des mouvements est assur^e
par des moyens ^lectriques, independants de la
distance, et le dispositif est present^ comme une
solution g^n^rale du spectroh^lic^raphe. Chacun
des quatre spectroh^liographes a ses avantages
particuliers, et le passage de I'un k 1 'autre se
fait en quelques minutes. L'observateur a ainsi
k sa disposition des moyens d'investigation
varies. D'une mani^re g^n^rale, les spectro-
h^liographes k deux fentes de 3 m. donnent une
image plus grande et plus riche en details. Le
grand appareil de 14 m. k trois fentes, donne,
avec une pose plus longue, une image plus petite,
mais beaucoup plus pure ; il permet d'isoler des
raies plus fines.

Les recherches avec cet appareil ont 6t^ pour-
suivies avec un jeune astronome de I'observa-
toire, M. d'.Azambuja, dont le nom est associ^
au mien.

Revilation de la coiiche supdrieure K^ du
Calcium.

En 1908 nous avons pu isoler la petite raie
noire centrale K, du calcium, et done la couche
-superieure de la vajieur. La Fig. i qui montre
la raie K et ses composantes permet de bien
juger le progres realise.

Jusqu'alors les spectroheliographes employes
isolaient en m^me temps 1 'ensemble des deux
■composantes brilliantes de Kj qui comprennent
la raie Kj, avec une fente de /t^ d'Angstrom.
L 'image, appel^ par nous image Kj,, ^tait un
melange des couches K, et K3 avec une pre-
dominance de la couche Kj, beaucoup .plus
brillante ; la couche superieure K, 4tait masquee.
Or, avec le grand spectroh^liographe, nous avons
pu isoler facilement avec des fentes de xiji
d'Angstrom et plus, isoler soit la raie K,, soit
I'une des composantes de K,, et avoir ainsi des
images de chaque couche bien pures et exemptes
de toute lumiere ^trangfere. Les fentes corre-
spondantes sont indiqu^s sur la Fig. i par des
traits avec hachures.

La vapeur de calcium qui au bord ext^rieur,
s'^lfeve plus que toute les autres, presente ainsi
dans 1 'atmosphere trois couches distinctes super-
poshes. Si on ajoute la surface, on a quatre
-couches, qu'il est int^ressant de comparer.

Lorsqu'on s'eleve a partir de la surface, les facules ou
plages brillantes de cette surface augmentent progressiv'e-
ment en 6tendue et en 6clat relatif. Les flocculi moyens
augmentent aussi, alorsque les petits disparaissent ou sont

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

k peine visibles. II en r^sulte un aspect particulier de la
couche Kj qui a premiere vue se distingue de la couche Kj,
photographi^e depuis 1892. (Voir les deux images K, et
Kj, du 18 septembre i9<^.) J 'ajoute que le r^seau sp^ial

CjiB.be superieure Kj du calcium.

Plate I.

.r.c :noyenr.e K2 »i- v,.i.>,.-....
-Images da 18 septembre. 1908.

de flocculi, appel6 par moi en 1894 riseau chrotnospherique,
et formd souvent, sur une 6tendue notable, de polygenes
juxtaposes par leurs cot^s et leurs sommets, est en gdo^ral
plus net dans la couche superieure.

426

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

D 'autre part les taches noires, qui sont le caractire prin-
cipal de la surface, diminuent progressivement, lorsqu'on
s'^l^ve et meme disparaissent.

Par centre apparaissent des lignes noires, invisibles dans
les couches basses, lignes souvent tr^s longues et appel^es
par moi filaments. En g^n^ral le filament est prolong(^ de
chaque c6t6 jusqu'au bord par d'autres lignes similaires,
moins noires, moins nettes, appel6es alignements. L'cn-
semble des filaments et alignements forme un veritable
r^seau sur I9 disque de soleil. Les filaments et los aligne-
ments sont un ph^nomfene nouveau, caract^ristique des
couches sup^rieures.

The director of the observatory gives notice that on fine
and clear Saturday evenings during the Lent full term
celestial objects will be shown through the Northumber-
land equatorial to any members of the University and
their friends who will come to the observatory between
8 and 10.30 p.m.

Fic. 3. — Roseau d'alignements relevi dans la couche sup^rieure de I'atmosphere solaire. Les
traits noirs pleins correspondent aux alignements noirs, continues et tres nets, appel6s /z/a-
jiients; les traits discontinus aux alignements similaires moins nets, et les traits pointings
aux alignements encore moins visibles et parfois discontinus. Les parties hach^es sont les
plages brillantes faculaires les plus larges.

Le filament a la meme importance que la tache de la
surface ; il persiste, comme elle, pendant plusieurs rotations
et, comme elle aussi, il est le si^ge de perturbations sp6ciales,
et est accompagn^ de pro6minences.

Dans une premiere ^tude j 'ai assimiM les taches aux
depressions ou cyclones de notre atmosphere, et les filaments
aux anti-cyclones ; mais je reviendrai plus loin sur ce
rapprochement, qui sera developp^.

{J^o he continued.)

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

Cambridge. — The degree committee of the special board
for biology and geology has co-opted Dr. Barclay-Smith
and Mr. R. H. Rastall as additional members of the
committee.

The special board for physics and chemistry has
appointed Mr. C. T. Heycock as assessor in chemistry to
the examiners for the Mechanical Sciences Tripos in 191 1.

Mr. George Winfield has been elected to the Benn W.
Levy studentship.

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

The most important resolution of the last Muslim
Education Conference, says the Pioneer Mail, related to
an appeal to Muslims for a fund to raise the Aligarh
College to the status of a Muslim university. The pro-
moters of the scheme hope that if requisite funds are
forthcoming a Muslim appeal for a
18 septembre, 1908. charter from King George when he

N goes to India will not fail. His High-

ness the .Aga Khan has given a lakh of
rupees, and other important donations
are promised.

A COPY of the report of the president
of the Johns Hopkins University, Balti-
more, U.S..^., for the year ending
August 31, 1910, has reached us. It
contains a brief summary of the prin-
cipal events in the history of the Uni-
versity during the academic year under
review, together with reports by pro-
fessors and others having charge of the
work in the various departments of the
University. There seemed, at the date
of the president's report, every proba-
bility that the University will benefit
by the offer of the General Education
Board to contribute towards the endow-
ment fund the sum of 50,000?., " pro-
vided that on or before December 31,
iqio, a supplementary sum of not less
than 150,000/. shall be contributed to
the University in cash or pledged to
the same by good and responsible per-
sons in legally valid subscriptions, pay-
able in cash in not more than three
equal annual instalments." At the
conclusion of his report the president,
Prof. Ira Remsen, writes : — " At the
time of this printing the signs are most
favourable."

The annual report of University
College, Reading, presented at the
annual court of governors on January
21, pointed out that the number of
students studying for university degrees
shows an increase from 95 in the
session 1908-9 to 117 in the session
1909-10. The other students number
1007. There is a deficit on the year's
working of 2016Z. The principal of
the college, Mr. W. M. Childs,
told the court that two years ago the college had a total
indebtedness on the new buildings of nearly 30,000/., but
owing to munificent anonymous donations last year,
amounting to 16,500/., that debt has- been brought almost
to vanishing point. In addition. Lady Wantage has pro-
vided a permanent endowment for Wantage Hall, which
she presented to the college some years ago, and that will
not only help to defray the cost of maintenance and
equipment, but will probably provide for scholarships and
bursaries, tenable at the college and the hall. Mr. G. W.
Palmer has granted the lease of a recreation ground for
twentv-one years rent free, and, thanks to Mr. .Alfred
Palmer, a new hall will soon be opened for women
students.

The annual meeting of the Association of Technical^
Institutions will be held, by the courtesy of the Stationers'
Company, at their hall on Friday and Saturday, February
10 and II. The company are generously entertaining the
members of the association and a few special guests to
luncheon on the Frid.iy. In the afternoon a vote of
thanks will be accorded to Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S..
the retiring president, for his services during the ye.nr
1910, and Dr. Glazebrook will move " that Sir Henry F.

January 26, 191 1]

NATURE

427

Hibbert be elected president for the year 191 1." Sir
Henry Hibbert will deliver his presidential address upon
" The Duties and Difficulties of Education Authorities so
far as Regards Evening Continuation Schools." The
formal business of the association will then be transacted,
including the election of the officers and council. On
Saturday morning there will be two discussions, one upon
the Board of Education's new regulations for the registra-
tion of evening and other students, to be opened by
Messrs. Crowther, Graham, and Sumpner, and the other
upon the course system, to be opened by Messrs. Coles,
Duthie, and Graham.

Is a message from Cape Town, a Times correspondent
points out that the agenda paper for the forthcoming
Imperial Education Conference includes a large number
of questions particularly concerning South Africa. Dr.
Muir, F.R.S., the superintendent-general of education in
the Cape Province, has suggested the following subjects,
which it is expected will be discussed : — school curricula ;
bilingualism in the case of white children ; the boy-scout
movement and its relation to nature-study ; problems con-
nected with the education of aborigines ; the collection
and dissemination of information regarding the cost of
instruction and cost of living in connection with advanced
technical colleges and ix>st-graduate departments of
universities ; the desirability- of the formation of a per-
manent imperial education bureau ; and arrangements for
the mutual recognition of teachers' certificates. The
director of education for the Transvaal has proposed for
discussion the problems arising from the use of two
languages as media of instruction, and the organisation
of education in sparsely populated districts. In addition,
one suggestion each from Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone
has been received, so that it would appear likely that
great prominence will be given at the conference to South
African educational needs.

Copies of the general and departmental reports for the
session 1909-10 of the Bradford Technical College have
been received. We notice that the total number of
students in attendance during the session under review
was slightly greater than in 1908-9, and that the college
is in the front rank in the country as regards the number
of day students in attendance. It is anticipated that the
additional facilities provided in the new buildings, which
are now approaching completion, will result in a decided
increase in the number of such students. A gratifving
feature of all the reports is the information provided
showing the interest in the college of the various manu-
facturers in the district. Their gifts towards the equip-
ment of the different departments and the other assistance
given b}- them to the principal and his staff are evidences
of their desire to make the college a centre for the
technical education of their workmen. Though the regu-
larity of attendance of evening students has been well
maintained, there are, the principal points out, many
causes of irregular attendance, the chief of which are
overtime in the mills, changes of residence, and ill-health.
It is not probable, he says, that a higher percentage
attendance can be attained until the question of the over-
time work of students is dealt with by legislation or in
some other general manner. The large and increasing
amount of testing and experimental investigation carried
out in the engineering department for k>cal firms and for
trade purposes is further evidence of the close connection
between the work of the college and the industries of the
neighbourhood.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

London.
Royal Society, January 19.— Sir A rchibald Geikie, K.C.B.,
president, in the chair. — G. S. Walpole : The action of
B. lactis aerogenes on glucose and mannitol. Part ii.
The " crude glycol " obtained by the action of B. lactis
aerogenes on glucose contains two optically inactive
2 : 3-butane diols, the diphenylurethanes of which melt at
199-5° and 157° respectively. The former constitutes well
over 90 per cent, of the material. If fructose be sub-
stituted for glucose in one of the flasks, the yield of
" crude butylene glycol " and acetylmethyl carbinol is of
NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

the same order as when glucose is employed. .Acetyl-
methyl carbinol is formed abundantly when the bacillus
is cultivated in a solution of butylene glycol in i per cent,
peptone in a current of oxygen. — Dr. W. E. Dixon : The
pharmacological action of Gonioma Kamassi (South
African boxwood). South African boxwood, Gonioma
Kamassi, has been employed occasionally in Lancashire as
a substitute few common boxwood in the manufacture of
shuttles ; it is stated that symptoms of poisoning have
occurred in a small proportion of the 'men engaged in
sawing this wood or finishing the chiselled shuttles. From
the wood an alkaloid can be obtained to about 0-07 pef
cent. This has a very characteristic physiological action,
which places it in the curare group of drugs. The
members of this group may be regarded as possessing
three actions in common : — (i) paralysis of certain nerve
cells ; (2) increase of spinal and medullary reflexes ;
(3) paralysis of motor nerve endings. Boxwood exerts all
these effects. It paralyses the nerve cells in the brain and
medulla, as well as those on the course of the vagus and
sympathetic nerves, and therefore after its exhibition to
animals the stimulant action of nicotine cannot be
obtained. In small doses the reflexes are increased, and
if an injection be made into a vein going to the spinal
cord of an animal, strychnine-like conx'ulsions are pro-
duced. Boxwood causes death by paralysing the respira-
tion ; this is central in origin, but it occurs at a time
when the phrenics and intercostals are depressed, though
not paralysed. Boxwood has no direct action on the heart
or on other form of muscle. Reasons are given for
believing that the recorded cases of poisoning are not due
to the specific action of the drug after absorption, but to
the effect of the drug in facilitating certain local reflexes,
principally of a respiratory nature, in the predisposed. —
Dr. W. Yorke : Autoagglutination of red blood cells in
trypanosomiasis. Autoagglutinin exists in small quantity
in the blood of many newmal animals. It is frequently
present in much greater quantity in the blood of animals
infected with trypanosomes. Reaction between auto-
agglutinin and erythrocytes takes place only at low
temperatures. The strongest reactions are obtained when
a suspension of washed enrthrocj^tes in normal saline solu-
tion is treated at 0° C. with plasma, which has been pre-
pared by defibrinating blood at 37° C. Autoagglutinin can
be removed from plasma by absorption with the er\-thro-
cytes of the same animal. The reaction between auto-
agglutinin and red blood cells is reversible, the clunips
disappearing on warming and reappearing on cooling.
Iso- and hetero-agglutinin are also often present in much
greater amount in the blood of infected animals than in
that of normal animals of the same species. From the
red blood cells of an infected animal, which have been
agglutinated in the cold by the plasma of the same animal,
an active substance can be extracted with normal saline
solution at 37° C. This substance agglutinates, not only
the red cells of the same animal and other members of
the same species, but also those of many animals of
different species. Observations of this kind indicate that
auto-, iso-, and hetero-agglutinin are not different highly
specific substances, but have closely related affinities.
That a clumping together of the red blood cells is fre-
quently observable in coverslip preparations of the fresh
blood of animals and man infected with trypanosomiasis
is due to the existence of an excess of autoagglutinin in
the plasma, which reacts with the en,throc}-tes to a certain
extent at the temperature (i5°-20° C.) at which the pre-
parations are usually made. It is to be inferred from the
information at present available that a marked degree of
autoagglutination of red blood cells is an extremely rare
occurrence apart from an infection with trypanosomes.
The phenomenon is therefore of some value as a diagnostic
sign. — M. Nierenstein : The transformation of proteids
into fats during the ripening of cheese (preliminary com-
munication). Contrary to the accepted view, it was found
that the so-called ripening of cheese is not accompanied
by a transformation of proteids into fats, the increase
of weight of the latter, as observed by other workers,
being due to the presence of free cholesterol, aminovaleric
acid, putrescine, and cadaverine in the etherial extract.
This investigation disproves one of the frequently quoted
evidences in favour of the theory that proteids ser\-e as a
source few the fat-formation in the animal body. — J. F.

428

NATURE

[January 26, 191 i

Gaskell : The action of X-rays on the developing chick.
No difference was observed in the action of X-rays upon
any one tissue rather than another. The action is con-
fined to the lowering of the mitotic activity of the grow-
ing tissues. If this diminution is not too great, complete
recovery occurs, and the chicks hatch out at the usual
time. If the diminution is above a certain degree, re-
covery does not take place, and further development is
arrested forthwith. The critical dose, which just prevents
recovery, varies . with the stage of development of the
embryo, decreasing as the mitotic index decreases. The
" mitotic index " as defined by Minot represents the
number of mitoses per looo cells in the various tissues of
embryos of various ages, and he has shown that through-
out embryonic life a rapid diminution of mitotic activity
is going on. He calls the figures obtained the mitotic
index for that particular tissue. — ^Colonel Sir David Bruce
and Captains A. E. Hamerton and H. R. Bateman.
(Sleeping Sickness Commission of the Royal Society,
Uganda, 1908-10.) Experiments to ascertain if antelope
may act as a reservoir of the virus of sleeping sickness
(Trypanosoma gambiense). It is known that the tsetse-
flies (Glossina palpalis) around the northern shores of the
Victoria Nyanza still retain their infectivity for sleeping
sickness, in spite of the fact that the native population
was removed from the lake-shore some three years ago.
A series of experiments was, therefore, carried out to
ascertain if the antelope, which are fairly common along
the uninhabited shores of the lake, were capable of acting
as hosts of the parasite of sleeping sickness. Eleven
antelope of the waterbuck, bushbuck, and reedbuck species
were obtained from a district where tsetse-flies and sleep-
ing sickness did not exist. Blood from these animals was
first inoculated into monkeys to ascertain if they were
already naturally infected with trypanosome disease.
They proved to be healthy in this respect. Tsetse-flies
(Glossina palpalis) that were known to be infected with
the virus of sleeping sickness were then fed upon each of
the eleven antelope. After about eight days the blood of
these animals was again inoculated into susceptible
animals, with the result that the latter became infected
with Trypanosoma gambiense in every case. In eight
out of the eleven buck under experiment Trypanosoma
gambiense appeared in their blood for a few days only
(some seven to twelve days) after they had been bftten by
infected flies. Flies that were hatched out in the labora-
tory, and had never fed before, were now fed upon the
infected antelope, and subsequently upon monkeys. After
an interval of about thirty days, required for the develop-
ment of trypanosomes within the fly, monkeys were in-
fected with sleeping sickness from the antelope by the
agency of Glossina palpalis in sixteen out of twenty-four
experiments. On dissecting the flies which had been fed
upon the infected antelope, it was found that io-8 per cent.
of them were infected with Trypanosoma gambiense. The
highest percentage of infected flies in any one of the
positive experiments was 2 1 per cent. ; the lowest was
1-3 per cent. Nine of these antelope infected with
Trypanosoma gambiense were under daily observation for
more than four months. They remained in perfect health.
Two of them (a waterbuck and a bushbuck) never showed
trypanosomes in their blood, although examined every day.
Both these antelope-infected flies fed upon them, one of
them as long as fifty-five days after its infection. No wild
antelope inhabiting the lake-shore has yet been found to
be naturally infected with Trypanosoma gambiense. —
Colonel Sir David Bruce and Captains A. E. Hamerton
and H. R. Bateman. (Sleeping Sickness Commission of
the Royal Society, Uganda, 1908-10.) Experiments to
ascertain if the domestic fowl of Uganda may act as a
reservoir of the virus of sleeping sickness (Trypanosoma
gambiense). There is evidence that tsetse-flies (Glossina
palpalis) feed on the blood of birds as well as that of
mammals inhabiting the shores of Victoria Nyanza.
Domestic fowls, as representing birds, were experimented
with in the search for possible hosts or reservoirs of the
virus of sleeping sickness. A series of twenty-one experi-
ments was carried out to ascertain: — (i) if these birds
can, like antelope, be infected with Trypanosoma
gambiense by the bites of known infected flies ; (2) if
birds so infected can transmit the parasite to newlv hatched
Glossina palpalis which had not fed before thev were
NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

allowed to bite the fowls ; (3) if these flies can convey
sleepmg sickness to normal monkeys. About 2000 flies
many of which had been proved to be infected with viru-
lent Trypanosoma gambiense, were fed upon twenty-one
domestic fowls. The results were negative in every case,
as ascertained by frequent microscopical examination of
peripheral and centrifuged heart's blood, and inoculations
of the fowls' blood into susceptible animals. Four hundred
newly hatched flies were fed upon three of the fowls which
had been bitten by infected flies. The former were sub-
sequently fed upon monkeys, with the result that they
failed to convey sleeping sickness from fowls to monkeys.
Two hundred and eighty-three of these flies were dis-
sected, and no flagellates could be found in them. Con-
clusion.— The Uganda fowl cannot act as a reservoir of
the virus of sleeping sickness.

Institute of Metals, January 18.— G D. BengouKh :
Report to the corrosion committee on the present state
of our knowledge of the corrosion of non-ferrous metaJs
and alloys, with suggestions for a research into the causes
of the corrosion of brass condenser tubes by sea water.
The report is intended to be a general review of present
knowledge of the subject of the corrosion of non-ferrous
metals, both in its practical and scientific aspects. The
theory of corrosion is considered in some detail, and an
attempt is made to lay a broader scientific foundation for
the whole subject. Two series of experiments are pro-
posed, which, in the author's opinion, should be taken in
hand at once. One series is of an empirical nature, and
is intended to test the validity of certain opinions held
on the subject by practical men, and especially swh
opinions as are in dispute between different authoriti
The other series, of experiments is of a purely scientii
nature, and is regarded as a means of elucidating certain
causes of corrosion that have hitherto been obscure.
—Engineer Rear-Admiral J. T. Corner : Some prac-
tical experience with corrosion of metals. Some of the
causes of corrosion of metals on shipboard are so
obscure, and the origin so difficult to trace, that a satis-
factory explanation is seldom forthcoming. Corrosion of
a minor character existed in the old wooden warships, but
when iron was used for shipbuilding the conditions were
different, and it was soon found that the ships' plates and
angles suffered from contact with the copper pipes and
bilge water, the Megaera being a case in point, where the
copper so affected the ship as to necessitate beaching her j
to prevent her sinking. Trouble from corrosion largely
increased about the time of the introduction of the electric
light afloat. Suggested causes of corrosion were con- |
sidered.— Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter and C. A. !
Edwards : A new critical point in copper-zinc alloys : its i
interpretation and influence on their properties, with an i
appendix, by C. A. Edwards, on the nature of solid I
solutions. A new critical point has been found in those i
alloys of copper-zinc which contain the )3 constituent.
The temperature of this point is 470° C. The physical I
meaning of this change is that the ;8 constituent decom- '
poses at 470° C. into the a and y constituents. In the ■
appendix to the paper, Mr. C. A. Edwards concludes that !
a metallic crystalline mass, often described as a solid solu- }
tion, is an intimate crystalline mixture, and whilst the I
primary crystals are so small that the mass appears quite j
homogeneous when viewed under the microscope, they ,
are sufficiently large to retain their identity.— Prof. A. j
McWilliam and W. R. Barclay : The adhesion of |
electro-deposited silver in relation to the nature of the |
German silver basis metal. This paper gives details of j
researches undertaken with the view of determining the i
nature of the adhesion of electro-deposited silver to the 1
German silver alloys generally used as a basis metal, and '
whether any differences exist between various grades of
alloys as to their suitability for use in the manufacture ^
of electro-plate which may be called upon to withstand !
rough usage. The authors find that under the severest
conditions of wear there is a great tendency for
thick electro-deposited silver coatings to strip from the j
alloys of high nickel contents known as firsts, that the !
plating adheres most firmly to the lowest grades known :
as fifths, but as these are generally too soft or too weak'
for the special purpose, the best medium is found some-i
where in the region of the alloys known as thirds. — H. J.

January 26. 191 1]

NATURE

429

Humphries and Prof. C. A. Smith : Some tests on
white anti-friction bearing metals. The authors, being
persuaded that friction tests on bearing metals as usually
conducted are for many reasons inconclusive, have
endeavoured to stimulate a search for a series of static
tests which shall be conclusive.

Manchester.

Literary and Philosophical Society. December 13,
1910. — Mr. Francis Jones, president, in the chair. — Miss
Margaret C. March : Preliminary note on Unio pictorum,
U. tumidus, and Onodonta cygnea. The form of the
British Unionids can be shown to be dependent on current
and soil, and is therefore useless for systematic purposes
when taken alone. The umbonal markings of these
animals, merge into one another, and are therefore useless
specifically. Phylogenetically they show that U. pictorum
is most archaic, Anodon least, Tumidus being intermediate.
The edentulousness of American Anodons illustrate?
heterogeneric homaeomorphy. The ornament and dentition
of Unionoids show relationship to Trigonids, and a descenl
from a pre-trigonid ancestor. — D. M. S. Watson : Notes
on some British Mesozoic crocodiles. The author discussed
some systematic and nomenclatural difficulties, recording
the occurrence of a new variety of Metriorhynchus hastifer
in the Corallian of Headington, of M. hastifer itself in the
Kimmeridge clay of Britain, and discussing Petrosuchus
laevidens and Steneosaurus Stephani. — Prof. F. E. Weiss :
Sigillaria and Stigmariopsis. The author exhibited some
specimens of axes of Sigillaria associated with Stigmarian
bark. From the repeated occurrence of these specimens it
was suggested that they represented the base of the aerial
or the subterranean axes of Sigillaria, probably of the
Eusigillaria type. The secondary wood was more copiously
developed than is general in the aerial axes. The primary
wood was of Sigillarian type, so that these Stigmarian
axes have centripetal primary wood, and their pithcasts
would be striated like those described for Stigmariopsis.
It was noticed that in some instances small axes were
found in contiguity, and apparently in continuity, with the
main axes. These smaller axes resemble the ordinary
Stigmarian axes very nearly, and do not show the centri-
petal primary wood of the main axis, but only a few fine
tracheids in the pith region.

January 10. — Mr. Francis Jones, president, in the chair.
— H. S. Holden : An abnormal fertile spike of Ophio-
glossum vulgatum. The spike in question exhibited a
branching structure comparable to a certain extent with
the condition normally characterising Oph. palmatum.
The various features of the vegetative anatomy all serve to
demonstrate that the condition described has arisen by a
process of chorisis or splitting, thus confirming the work
of Prof. Bower on the group to which the genus belongs. —
Dr. A. N. Meldrum : The development of the atomic
theory : (4) Dalton's physical atomic theory. The physical
atomic theory, otherwise the theory of " mixed gases," is
specially interesting because it marks a stage in the de-
velopment of Dalton's ideas. Both it and the experiments
connected with it arose out of the meteorological observa-
tions and studies of his early life. It reveals him as a
student of Newton, and as the upholder of a physical
atomic theory years before he formed the chemical one.
Dalton's theory of mixed gases was an attempt to explain
the diffusion of gases, especially of the oxygen and nitrogen
in the atmosphere. He ascribed diffusion to physical
forces, and not to chemical union, then the accepted
explanation in nearly all quarters. In the course of the
mixed gases controversy, Dalton had the support of
William Henry only, whilst his opponents, who held that
the diffusion of gases was due to chemical affinity, in-
cluded C. L. Berthollet, John Gough, Thomas Thomson,
and Humphrey Davy. The water vapour in the atmo-
sphere is a special case of the mixed gases question.
Dalton made observations of the dew-point, and used them
as a measure of the water vapour in the atmosphere. In this
way he raised " hygrometry to the rank of an exact science."
Dalton expresslv alluded to the hypothesis now associated
with the name of Avogadro as a possibility, but rejected it
on the ground that, if it were true, the density of a com-
pound gas must be greater than that of its constituent
elements, which was not always thp case. He knew that
nitric oxide and water vapour are lighter than the oxygen
thev contain.

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

Pabis.

Academy of Sciences, January i6. — M. Armand Gauiier
in the chair. — C. Quichard : Surfaces the normals of
which touch a quadric. — Gaston Darboux : Remarks on
the preceding communication. — E. Cahen : Prime {intigro-
entieres) series. — M. GIrardville : Increasing the stability
of aeroplanes by means of gyroscopes. The gjroscope
used in these experiments had a rotating mass of 58
kilograms, and a vekjcity of rotation of 6000 turns a
minute. Model aeroplanes, used as gliders without
motors, when fitted with the gyroscope governor were
found to be free from periodic oscillations, and re-
established equilibrium when disturbed. — ^J. A. Le Bel :
A singular heating of thin patinum wires. — A. Cotton :
The delicacy of intereference measurements and the means
of increasing them. Shadow interference apparatus. The
delicacy of the ordinary interference methods is much
increased by the use of polarised light, and means are
suggested for applying this to the determination of double
refraction. — ^Jacques Boselii : The resistance to the move-
ment of small non-spherical bodies in a fluid. Stoke's
theorem has been successfully applied to the study of the
movement of spherical bodies in a fluid ; in the present
paper the motion of red blood corpuscles has been studied.
Using the corpuscles of different shapes derived from the
blood of different animals, it has been found that, other
conditions remaining the same, the velocity of fall is
inversely proportional to the viscosity. — M. de Brosriie
and L. Brizard : The radiation of quinine sulphate,
lonisation and luminescence. As a working hypothesis it
is suggested that the scintillations, and perhaps the con-
tinuous light, are due to small electric discharges produced
at the moment of the sudden breaking of small crystals. —
M. Hanriot : Brown gold. This name is applied to the
product resulting from the action of acid upon a gold-
silver alloy. A study of the changes in volume produced
in this modification of gold by increase of temperature.
— G. Urbain : A new element accompanying lutecium
and scandium in the gadolinite earths. Celtium. From
the rare earths obtained by treating xenotime on the large
scale, impure ytterbium was extracted, and by the frac-
tionation of this a new element, lutecium, was isolated.
With the view of obtaining larger amounts of lutecium,
large quantities of gadolinite have been worked up. The
mother liquor resulting from a series of fractional
crystallisations from nitric acid contains a metal the
oxide of which is characterised by a ver\" low coefficient
of magnetisation. Spectrographic analysis revealed the
presence of lutecium, scandium, and traces of neoytter-
bium, calcium and magnesium, and a large number of
new lines due to a new element, for which the name of
celtium is proposed. — R. Fourtau : The metalliferous
layer of Gebel-Roussas (Egypt). A detailed description of
the zinc and lead deposits. — MM. Melchissedec and
Frossard : The buccal resonator. — M. Doyon, A. Moreli
and A. Pollcard : The isolation of hepatic antithrombine,
with a description of some of its properties. — Gabriel
Bertrand and F. Rogrozinski : Haemoglobin as a
peroxydase. The compounds of haemoglobin with oxygen,
carbon monoxide, and hydrocyanic acid, were compared
as regards their action as oxydases ; the catahtic power
of each of these compounds was found to be exactly the
same. — Aug. Michel : Autotomy and regeneration of the
bodies and el>"tra in the Polynoidians. — J. Granier and
L. Boule : The somatic kineses in Endymion nutans. —
L. Spillman and L. Bruntz : The eliminating rdle of
the leucocytes. The elimination of liquid substances
foreign to the organism is effected in three phases :
fixation, during which the liquids are fixed mechanically
by certain forms of leucocytes : transport, the white cor-
puscles carrying the fixed substances to the excretory
organs ; excretion, the excretory organs taking possession
of the products fixed by the leucocytes by a glandular
process. — H. CoMti&re : The Eucyphote shrimps collected
in iqio with the Bourse net by the Princesse Alice. —
E. RoMbaud : The biology ffid paecilogonic viviparity- of
the cattle-fly in tropical Africa (Musca corvina). — Ph.
Glang^eaud : The volcanic region of Forez and its rocks.
In the Forez region during the Miocene or early Pliocene
period more than eighty volcanoes were active. Th° lavas
from these show numerous ooints of similarity.' with those
of Limogne, Mt. Dore, and Velay.

430

NATURE

[January 26, 191 1

MelAOOrne.
Royal Society of Victoria; December 28, 1910. — Prof. E. W.
Skeats in the chair. — Bertha Rees : The structure of the
seed coats of hard seeds, and their longevity. The paper
deals mainly with the investigation into the nature of the
impermeable layer of hard seeds. The cuticularised layer
may consist either of culticle alone or may extend to a
varying depth in the wall of the superficial paUsade cells.
The cuticle is usually deposited on a basis of hemicellulose,
but in Acacia melanoxylon the basis is pectose. — Janet W.
Raff : Protozoa parasitic in the large intestine of
Australian frogs, part i. Hyla aiirea, H. ewingii, H.
peronii, Limnodynastes dorsalis, and L. tasmaniensis were
examined. The forms found most commonly were Nycto-
theus cordiformis, Opalina intestinalis, two new species of
Opalina, Copromonas subtilis. Trichomonas hatrachorufn,
and Trichomastix batrachorum. — ^J. T. Jutson : The
structure and general geology of the Warrandyte gold-
field and adjacent country. — J. T. Jutson : A contribution
to the physiography of the Yarra River and Dandenong
Creek basins, Victoria. The Yarra Flats area and its
extension south through Croydon and Port Phillip Bay is
a Senkungsfeld. The Nillumbik peneplain was uplifted so
gradually that the Yarra kept its old course to Temple-
stowe, and is antecedent to the present topography. —
A. C. Stone : The aborigines of Lake Boga, Victoria.
The paper consists principally of vocabularies and folk-
lore.— F. Chapman : Some supf>osed pyritised sponges
from Queensland. Two melon-shaped masses are com-
pared externally with Lithistid sponges. They are prob-
ably of Desert Sandstone (Upper Cretaceous age). —
F. Chapman : A revision of the species of Limopsis in
the Tertiary beds of southern Australia. Five species are
recognised (L. morningtonensis , Pritchard ; L. tnaccoyi,
n.sp. — L. belcheri, M'Coy non Adams and Reeve; L.
multiradiata, Tate; L. beaumariensis, n.sp. = ? L. forskali,
Tate non Adams ; and L. insolita, G. Sow). The latter
also occurs in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. — K. A.
Mickle : The flotation of minerals. The metallurgical
method of separation by flotation is due to an adherent
gas film on the granules of ore. An account of a large
series of experiments is given.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, January 26.

Royal Society, at 4.30.— Memoir on the Theory of the Partitions of
Numbers. Part V. — Partitions in Two-dimensionals Space : Major
P. A. MacMahon, F.R.S.— (i) The Origin of Magnetic Storms; (2) On
the Periodicity of Sun-spots : Dr. A. Schuster, F.R.S. — Atmospheric
Electricity over the Ocean : Dr. G. C. Simpson and C. S. Wright. — On
the Founer Constants of a Function: Dr. W. H. Youn^, F.R.S.— On
the Energy and Distribution of Scattered Rontgen Radiation : J. A.
Crowther. — On some new Facts connected with the Motion of Oscillating
Water : Mrs. H. Ayrton.

Royal Institution, at 3. — Recent Progress in Astronomy : F. W.
Dyson, F.R.S. , Astronomer Royal.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Long Distance Trans-
mission of Electrical Energy : W. T. Taylor. — Extra High Pressure
Transmission Lines : R. Borlase Matthews and C. T. Wilkinson.
FRIDAY, January 27.

Royal Institution, at 9. — Radioactivity as a Kinetic Theory of a
Fourth State of Matter: Prof. W. H. Bragg, F.R.S.

Physical Society, at 5 (at University College). — A Demonstration of
Phase Difference between the Primary and Secondary Currents of a
Transformer by means of a Simple Apparatus : Prof. F. T. Trouton,
F.R.S. — A Note on the Experimental Measurement of the High Fre-
quency Resistance of Wires: Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S. — (i) The
Measurement of Energy Losses in Condensers traversed by High
Frequency Oscillations ; (2) Some Resonance Curves taken with Impact
and Spark Discharges: Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., and G. B. Dyke.—
Council Meeting at 4.30 p.m.

SATURDAY. January 28.

Essex Field Club, at 6 (at Essex Museum of Natural History, Stratford).
— Exhibition of Coloured Photographs of Alpine Flowering Plants :
Somerville Hastings. — Note on the Occurrence of Stony Beds under-
lying Harwich Harbour : Percy Thompson. — On a Pre-historic Interment
found near Walton-on-Naze: Haziledine Warren.
MONDAY, January 30.

Royal Geographical Society, at 8.30. — Recent Explorations in Dutch
New Guinea : Dr. H. A. Lorentz.

Institute of Actuaries, at 5.— On Staff Pension Funds : The Progress
of the Accumulation of the Funds ; The Identity of a Valuation with the
Future Progress of a Fund ; The Manner of Dealing with Funds which
are Insolvent ; and Sundry Observations : H. W. Manly.
TUESDAY, January 31.

Royal Institution, at 3.— Heredity : Prof. F. W. Mott, F.R.S.

Royal Society op Arts, at 4.30. — The Tin Resources of the Empire:

^. Douglas Osborne.
Illuminating Engineering Society, at 8. — Dicussion on Library Light-
ing opened by J. Duff Brown and S. L. Jast.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — Further discussion: Sand
movements at Newcastle Entrance, N.S.W. : C. W. King. — Fremaptle
Harbour-works, Western Australia : C. S. R. Palmer.— The Bar Harbours
of New .South Wales : G. H. Halligan.

WEDNESDAY, February i.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8. — Examinations and their Bearing on
National Efficiency : P. J. Hartog.

Society of Public Analy.sts, at 8. — President's Annual Address. — Note
on the Detection and Estimation of Small Quantities of Antimony : Dr.
P. Schidrowitz and H. A. Gold.sbrough. — The Analytical and Micro-
.scopical Examination of Compound Liquorice Powder : G. E. Scott-
Smith and John Evans. — Commercial Analysis and Arithmetic : C. A.
Seyler.

Entomological Society, at 8.

THURSDAY, February 2.

Royal Society, at 4.30. — Probable Papers : (i) Experiments to investigate
the Infectivity of Glossina palpalis Fed on Sleeping Sickness Patients
under Treatment ; (2) Experiments to Ascertain if Trypanosoma gam-
biense during its Development within Glossina palfralis is infective : Col.
Sir D. Bruce, F.R.S., and others. — Further Experimental Researches on
the Etiology of Endemic Goitre : Captain R. McCarrison. — On the
Leaves of Calamites {Calamocladus Section) : H. H. Thomas. — Com-
plement Deviation in Mouse Carcinoma : Dr. J. O. W. Barratt.

Royal Institution, at 3. — Recent Progress in Astronomy: F. W.
Dyson.JF.R.S., Astronomer Royal.

LiNNEAN Society, at 8.

Rontgen Society, at 8.15. — The Work of Action of an Induction Coil:
Prof. Salomonson.

FRIDAY, February 3.

Royal Institution, at 9 — Grouse Disease : A. E. Shipley, F.R.S.
Geologists' Association, at 7.30. — Annual General Meeting. — President's

Address : Flint and Chart : W. Hill.
Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — Rivers and Estuaries : W. H.

Hunter, M.Inst.C.E.

CONTENTS. PAGE

The Scientific Men of America. By E. W. M. . 397
The Fabric of Pharmacy. By Prof. Henry G.

Greenish 39^

The Chicago Text-book of Botany. By J. B. F. . 399

Practical Zoology. By A. D 400

lonisation of Gases by Collision 400

Two Photographic Annuals 401

Geology and Landscape. By G. A. J. C 402

Fossil Remains of Man. By Prof. G. Elliot Smith,

F.R.S 402

Our Book Shelf 403

Letters to the Editor:—

The Inheritance of Acquired Characters. — Prof.

John W.Judd.C.B., F.R.S 405

The Transference of Names in Zoology. — Dr. W. T,

Caiman . . 406

Sex Relationship.— Hertha Ayrton; Dr. R. J.

Ewart 406

The Origin of Man.— Dr. Cecil H. Desch .... 40

Popular Ornithology. (Illustrated.) 4°?

The Sea-Otter. {Illustrated.) By D. W. T 408

The Minneapolis Meeting of the American Asso-
ciation 410

Science and Pottery 4"

An Institute of Human Palaeontology. By A. C. H. 412

Notes 412

Our Astronomical Column : —

Meteors in February 4^7

Nova Lacertse ' 4^7

A New Variable or Nova (134. 1910 Piscium) . . . . 4'8
Mass-ratios of the Components of Kriiger 60 and

Castor 418

Double Stars 4^8

The United States Naval Observatory 418

Star Colours 4^8

The Imperial Department of Agriculture in the

West Indies. By Sir Daniel Morris, K. CM. G. . 418
The Panama Canal in 1910. {With Diagram.) By

Dr. Vaughan Cornish .... 420

Applied Geology in the United States. By J. W. G. 420
On the Sensibility of the Eye to Variations of
Wave-length in the Yellow Region of the

Spectrum. By Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S, . . 421
The Progressive Disclosure of the Entire Atmos-
phere of the Sun. {Ilhistrated.) By Dr. H.

Deslandres 422

University and Educational Intelligence 426

Societies and Academies 427

Diary of Societies fT* . . 43°

NO. 2152, VOL. 85]

NA TURE

431

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 191 1.

THE ENCYCLOPjEDIA BRITANNICA.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica : A Dictionary of Arts,
Sciences, Literature, and General Information.
Eleventh edition. Vols, i.-xiv. (A — Italic.) (Cam-
bridge : University Press, 19 10.)
THE Encyclopaedia Britannica is of Scottish birth.
Its first edition appears in 1771. Its interesting
and rather chequered history occupies some three
pages of the present (eleventh) edition, and shows its
intimate connection with the land o*f its birth imtil
the reprint of the ninth edition issued by The Times
in 1898. Under the same auspices the eleven-volume
supplement to the ninth edition was issued, and, to-
gether with that edition, formed the tenth, in 1902,
and it is not a little curious to observe that the impres-
sion created by that issue appears to have been so
strong that few realise off-hand that the present new
edition has occupied eight years in the making. Its
preparation continued to be conducted from the office
of The Times until 1909, when the rights of publication
were taken over by the Cambridge University Press,
a step generally acknowledged to be peculiarly appro-
priate to the character of the work. It is proposed in
the present general notice to consider some of the most
notable characteristics of the work, such as distinguish
it from former editions and from other works of refer-
ence. For that it possesses such characteristics cannot
be questioned ; the new edition shows evidence of much
more than a simple reliance upon traditional form.

Probably the two leading ideals before the editorial
staff in preparing the eleventh edition have been (i)
to make the whole work easy of reference and self-
explanatory, and (2) to ensure that ever}' article should
possess, so far as possible, a permanent value, giving
preference (within reason) to the established fact over
the statement of the moment or over prophecy. The
Encyclopaedia Britannica has been traditionally dis-
tinguished for certain individual features, such as a
high literarA- standard and the existence of " omnibus "
articles — practically complete treatises — on each great
main division of knowledge. The simple addition of
many short separate articles, while sufficient to make
reference easier, might have tended to obscure the
literary standard and to duplicate the information con-
tained in the omnibus articles. But the old omnibus
article could not always be self-explanaton,' ; it could
not guide the unlearned reader along the main line of
his subject without taking him incidentally along the
branches, whereas the specialist, desiring to find a
particular branch, must follow up the main line to
reach it. It has now been assumed that the principal
function of such an omnibus article as "geolog}'" is
to indicate the main lines of that science, with free
reference to branches of the subject dealt with more
fully under separate headings. Thus the reader desir-
ous of studying the glacial period now finds that
heading in its own place, instead of having to search
the treatise on geology for it. Again, not even the
glacial period and the glacier itself fall under one
general head, but each has its own. By this method
it has been sought to ensure that the elementary
NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

student may find his elements, and the specialist his
special subject, unobscured the one by the other. The
single illustration given is that of a principle which
has been applied so far as possible in ever}' depart-
ment of the work.

The introduction of what has been called the "dic-
tionary feature " is of a piece with this same principle.
There are ver}- many terms which a specialist uses
naturally without considering that they may call for
explanation ; especially there are many the meaning
and connotation of which vary in general and in
particular application. Few such terms, and for many
others in commonest use, the origin of which is
peculiar or obscure, definitions on an etymological
basis have been introduced — often a short separate
article has been inserted for this purpose alone. This
feature is an expression of the ideal of making the
work self-explanaton,'.

The attempt to make every article as nearly as may
be of permanent value has imposed a heav}- responsi-
bility' on the editorial staff. The system of employing
statistics offers an illustration. In the previous
editions they were used very freely, and in many cases
simply for their own sake, the reader being left to
draw his own conclusions from them. It has now
been felt that this practice (subject, of course, to the
inclusion of certain essential figures like vital statistics)
is far rather the function of an annual register than
of an encyclopaedia, and that the proper encyclopaedic
function of statistics is to illustrate statements of fact,
so that they ought not as a rule to stand alone. They
have, therefore, been used much more sparingly than
before, and in many cases even without reference to
the latest figures available, when others better illus-
trate the particular point under notice.

On more general grounds, it is always difficult to
appraise a current event at its historical value, with
due allowance for its momentary' appeal to the minds
of men. Here again the editorial responsibiHt\- has
been heav\-, the heavier owing to the almost simul-
taneous publication of the complete work. For it may
be assumed, and ought to be remembered, that the
copy for twent>'-eight textual volumes of nearly a
thousand pages each cannot be kept under the editorial
hand until one month, or two months, or three, before
the date of publication, and the order be then given
to the printers. It may be taken for granted, for
instance, that the article on the kingdom of Portugal
was in its final form when the revolution created a
republic instead, and much of the article must be
recast. The result of the last general election was due
on a certain day ; the proper alphabetical place must
be held open in the text to include that result, while
the presses continued their work on either side of the
waiting page. We recognise something of the jour-
nalistic method here, in the judgment as to which
events of the moment are to be dealt with in this
way and which are not, and the journalistic experi-
ence of the editor, Mr. Chisholm, must have stood him
in good stead.

The simultaneous publication of the eleventh edition
is a remarkable achievement in various obvious ways ;
it has certain less obvious bearings on the character

432

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

of the book. It should be a guarantee, for instance,
of a well-balanced treatment of all subjects from A to
Z. Not a few great works of reference, including the
encyclopaedia itself in former editions, appearing
volume by volume over the period of a generation,
have shown signs (so to speak) of fatigue in about
the last quarter of the alphabet. In some instances it
may have been financial fatigue, in others merely the
realisation that the proportions of the first few
volumes, if maintained, would bring the completed
work to an impossible bulk. But the promise of
simultaneous publication disposed of any such possi-
bilities in the present edition, for in order to carry it
out the cost must have been counted and the scheme
laid out, not volume by volume, but for the whole
work at once. And this treatment of the whole con-
notes the similar treatment of every part, not merelv
as regards the laying-out of each group of main and
subsidiary articles, but as regards questions of general
policy. The illustrations are a case in point. The
editorial ideal has been to illustrate where illustration
is a genuine assistance or supplement to textual
description, and only in that way, not including
pictures simply for their own sake. So every sugges-
tion or possibility of illustration has been brought,
so to say, under one standard test.

It is the same with the maps. The tenth edition set
the precedent of an atlas volume. The editors of the
eleventh have put this precedent aside. Their view may
be open to criticism ; there are undoubtedly arguments
in favour of an atlas volume. But the advantage of
having the article on each important territory accom-
panied by its appropriate map has been considered
stronger. Moreover, the possibility of allocating to
each such territorial article its map according to a
graduated scale— double-plate, single-plate, or small
text map, coloured map or black only— has given the
geographical editors an opportunity in the direction
of proportional treatment which would have been
precluded by the construction of an atlas, at any
rate of the size of an encyclopaedia scheme.
At the same time, the proper indexing of the
maps has been undertaken, so that they may
fulfil the atlas-function. Here the editorial ideal
has been to set before the cartographers either the
actual text of the articles to be. illustrated or the most
precise instructions as the scope and orthography of
each map, to carry out the indexing in the editorial
office, and to apply as part of that process a careful
system of checking and correction. This method
presupposes the manufacture of a complete series of
new maps for the book; there has been no use of
cartographers' stock.

Mention of map-indexing leads to the subject of
text-indexing. The indexing of the tenth edition was
a great conception, and of course added enormously to
ease of reference. But it was an after-thought,
whereas the work of preparing the index entries for
the eleventh edition has proceeded concurrently with
practically the whole work, the pagination being added
at the last. It has been possible, therefore, to put
the indexing to an editorial use, in this way— that
when the index-references on any subject were put
together, they have been found sometimes to indicate
NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

the existence of unnecessary duplications or of incon-
sistencies of view or even of fact, between articles by
different authors — such duplications or inconsistencies
as could not possibly have been discovered by any
other editorial method.

The eleventh edition bears a clear international
imprint. If the conception of certain articles dealing
with subjects of world-wide interest be compared in
this and former editions, evidence will be found of
another editorial ideal. For example, on matters of
government, sociology, law and the like, it has been
sought to explain not British practice only, but
American and foreign as well. The work has an extra-
British reputation already ; it has palpably been
attempted to justify and increase that reputation.
The multinational list of contributors illustrates the
same ideal.

It has been said above that one tradition of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica is a high literary standard.
This has been preserved. No man reads a dictionary
or ordinarj' book of reference for its own sake as
literature. The editors of such works have no room
to ofTer their contributors any literary opportunity.
But while it would be unfair to forget that the problem
of the best utilisation of available space must have
been as constantly present to the editor of the Encyclo-
paedia Britannica as to the printer of a finger-prayer-
bcok, the fact remains that twenty-eight large volumes
do offer a literary opportunity ; if they did not, they
would not justify their existence. On any subject
capable of literary treatment (and few are not) the
Encyclopaedia appears to apply that treatment ; it is
impossible to turn many pages (except one should
light on such a topic as higher mathematics) without
reaching some subject or fact which is presented so as
to arouse the casual, as distinct from the special,
interest. The India-paper edition makes it possible to
do this without physical discomfort, and the production
of that edition is in itself an unprecedented achieve-
ment, for it must necessarily presuppose that paper-
mills of some half-a-dozen countries have been laid
under contribution to meet a demand of such magni-
tude, and that the printing must have been carried
out with a rapidity the possibility of which, as apply-
ing to India paper, was probably unrealised before.
On these grounds the manufacture of the book must
be pronounced admirable.

Such, then, have been some of the ideals of the
editors and publishers. There is. every evidence that
they view the finished work with enthusiasm, knowing
more than others can of the difficulties which have
been overcome; judged upon these general grounds,
their enthusiasm appears justified.

ELECTROMAGNETS.

Solenoids Electromagnets and Electromagnetic Wind-
ings. By Charles R. Underbill. Pp. xix + 342.
(London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price
Ss. net.

THIS is a book dealing generally with electro-
magnets, and so far as the author records experi-
mental results will be found useful, but the explanation
of the experiments is not given as fully as is desirable

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

433

in order that the reader may thoroughly understand
the theoretical deductions, and the latter themselves
are not always trustworthy. We find a good many
quotations with due acknowledgment of articles that
have appeared in the Electrical World of New York,
and if the author had exercised some care in the selec-
tion his book could only have benefited by it. Un-
fortunately, however, the necessity of carefully prob-
ing the correctness and relevancy of any article before
admitting it into his book does not seem to have
occurred to the author, and the result is that we find
statements in his book which often are quite useless
and sometimes even unintelligible. To give only a
few examples. On p. 152 is given a formula for the
inductance of a solenoid for which an accuracy of
half per cent, is claimed, but the author does not say
whether the result is obtained in cm. or in Henry.
Moreover, the formula is very cumbersome, and no
proof is given. On the next page another formula is
wrongly quoted from Maxwell, the exponent for the
number of turns per cm. length being given as four
instead of two. Also in this case the author does not
state whether L is obtained in cm. or Henry.

Another example of the want of criticism on the
author's part will be found on p. 32. Here he gives
us Mr. H. S. Baker's method of expressing the degree
of saturation of the core of an electromagnet. It is
as follows :- — Draw a tangent to the magnetisation
curve at the point for which the degree of saturation
is to be expressed as a ratio. Note the length cut off
on the B axis by the point of intersection of this
tangent. Then the ratio of this length to the value
of B at the selected point gives the degree of satura-
tion. Since the characteristic is nearly straight for
high values of magnetisation, this method of express-
ing saturation leads to the absurd result that Baker's
ratio becomes actually smaller for very high degrees
of saturation. A rule of this kind is absolutely use-
less and even misleading, and a little consideration
on the author's part would have shown him that he
had better not include it in his book.

A very bad slip in scientific principles occurs on
p. 16. There we are told in an equation that the
" Intensity of magnetisation " divided by the magnetic
moment gives the " Intensity of the magnetic field."
This is quite wrong, for the ratio is simply the in-
verse of a volume. Again, on p. 25, we are told that

■' the relation between the strength of a current in a
wire and the intensity of the magnetic field or mag-
netising force is expressed by the equation
H = o-2l/a."

This is only true if the wire be infinitely long, but as
in what precedes this statement not a word is said
about the length of the wire the statement as it stands
is misleading, and, in fact, meaningless.

Some of the terms used are not very familiar to
English readers. The author talks of Maxwells, Gil-
berts, and Gausses, but these, although used occa-
sionally by American writers, have never been sanc-
tioned by the international committee on nomencla-
ture. There is, moreover, no great necessity for
multiplying such terms. It is just as easy to say two
megalines as two million Maxwells, or an induction
of 15,000 lines as an "induction of 15,000 Gausses."
NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

Why the "Oersted" as representing the magnetic
reluctance of "one cubic centimetre of vacuum"
should be introduced is also not very apparent. There
is perhaps some excuse for the use of such terms in
the fact that others have done so before, but the in-
troduction of the term " activity " in substitution of
the generally used and perfectly understood term
"space factor" is surely quite superfluous. It will
also puzzle the reader to say what a "water shield,"
a "stopped solenoid," and a "fringed insulation" are
Such technical terms may be convenient for a par-
ticular workshop as short instruction to the workman,
but a scientific book is not the place to use them.

On the very important question of heating of coils
the information given is rather meagre. All we are
told on p. 299 is that a

" coil of ordinary dimensions may remain in circuit
continuously when the applied electrical power does
not exceed 050 watt per square inch of superficial
radiating surface."

A curious statement is made on p. 184 as regards
the time constant of two coils in parallel. The author
says that it is only one-quarter of the value for the
coils in series, but he has evidently overlooked the
fact that although the inductance is quartered, the
resistance is also quartered and therefore the time
constant remains the same. Gisbbrt Kapp.

ANALYSIS OF WINE AND OTHER
SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.
Traite cotnplet d'analyse Chimiqiie, appliqti^e aux
essais indiistriels. By Prof. J. Post and Prof. B.
Neumann. Deuxieme edition Fran^aise, traduite
d'apres la troisieme edition allemande. By G.
Chenu et M. Pellet. Tome Second. Troisieme
Fascicule. Pp. 497-916. (Paris : A. Hermann et
Fils, 1910.) Price 13 francs.

THIS part of Post and Neumann's work deals with
alcoholic beverages and some allied products.
Chiefly it is concerned with wine and beer, and the
original German text has been largely supplemented
by details of the French practice in the chemical
surveillance of these articles. Thus Gallicised, the
work is of special interest for those concerned with its
subject, inasmuch as it represents the experience of
two great wine-making countries and of one, at least,
fgmed also for its beer.

Dr. P. Kulisch, of Colmar, is responsible for the
original section dealing with wines ; but in view of
the importance of the subject in France considerable
additions have been made by the French translators.
The result may therefore be taken to indicate the best
practice in the two countries. At the outset are given
the definitions of wines and the descriptions of usual
manufacturing operations adopted by the International
Congress for the Repression of Food Adulteration
(Geneva, 1908, and Paris, 1909). Then follow direc-
tions for the chemical determinations required during
the preparation and fermentation of the grape-juice,
and the official methods prescribed in France and in
Germany for the analysis of the fermented product.
Detailed notice would be unprofitable here ; it must
suffice to say that full directions are given for apprais-
ing the various vinous constituents. Numerous illus-

434

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

trations of apparatus are shown, as well as tables
needed for the estimation of alcohol, sugar, and
"extract."

For the benefit of local authorities and others in
this country who are inclined to begrudge their
analyst his fees, it may be remarked that the French
prescriptions for the analysis of wine involve no fewer
than nineteen separate experiments or determinations,
whilst the German regulations require twelve for an
ordinary full analysis and twenty-six in special cases.

Having carefully obtained his analytical results in
any instance, how is the operator going to interpret
them? Some data for this purpose are given in the
text, but they are meagre, and might usefully be
supplemented. Even to the experienced, a record of
maximum and minimum values yielded with given
methods by genuine wine of different types would
often be of service.

One rather humiliating reflection is suggested on
looking over the various modes of examining wine.
The liquor " which maketh glad the heart of man "
holds jet some secrets which elude his skill as a
chemist. Much as chemistry has advanced since the
days when Pasteur carried out his " Etudes sur le vin,"
the palate is still an indispensable aid to such studies.
Just as the chemistry of the living plant transcends
in delicacy that of the laboratory, so the senses of
smell and taste can discern, and in some sort evaluate,
differences far too subtle for demonstration by balance,
test-tube, or polarimeter. Not only for the finer dis-
tinctions between vintage wines, but even sometimes
for detecting relatively gross adulteration, the organo-
leptic test of bouquet and aroma remains the best or
the only criterion.

As regards beer, there is little described that would
be new to a well-trained brewers' chemist. The sec-
tion, however, gives a concise account of the opera-
tions necessary for the chemical control of brewery
procedure, including the examination of water, barley,
malt, hops, and wort, as well as the finished beer.

The various distilled spirits and the liqueurs are dealt
with in an important division, which includes also an
accoQnt of pressed yeast — now a notable by-product of
alcohol distillation. Cider, perry, vinegar, acetic acid,
and methyl alcohol are other subjects treated in the
volume. C. Simmonds.

PRACTICAL PATHOLOGY.
Practical Pathology. A Manual for Students and
Practitioners. Bv Prof. G. Sims Woodhead. Fourth
edition. Pp. xxIi + 798. (London*: Henry Frowde
and Hodder and Stoughton, 1910.) Price 31s. 6d.
net.

THE practical pathology of to-day Is very different
from the practical pathology of twelve or fifteen
years ago, when the third edition of this book was
published. Nevertheless, the present edition, as re-
gards the scope embraced by it, remains much as it
was, viz., it is a guide for the post-mortem room and
a manual of practical morbid anatomy and histology ;
general pathology, with the exception of Inflammation,
is almost untreated. Prof. Woodhead has, however,
deliberately chosen this course, and in the preface
NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

explains that in its present form "Practical Path-
ology " has been found helpful to the medical student
in his class and ward work, and to the practitioner
who desires readily accessible data on the methods
and information which It contains.

The first 150 pages are devoted to post-mortem
examinations, and the methods of preparing tissues
for microscopical investigation. A judicious selection
has been made of the multitudinous methods for fix-
ing, hardening, and staining that have been devised,
and this part of the book should be most useful.

After this the phenomena occurring in Inflamma-
tion are discussed, and then the morbid changes met
with in the various tissues and organs are dealt with.
This method, while having the advantage of taking
the student through the principal alterations which
occur In a particular organ when diseased, has the
disadvantage that descriptions of processes which are
very similar in the various organs, e.g. tuberculosis
are repeated again and again, with a consumption 0;
space which might perhaps have been better utilised
for other subjects which have been omitted.

On the whole, the descriptions of the histological
appearances of morbid tissues are ample and accurate,
and all the commoner conditions are dealt with. We
fail to find any reference to endotheliomatous tumours,
which of late have assumed some Importance, and
no mention is made of the differentiation of ovarian
cystomata Into two varieties, nor of the fact that the
pseudo-muclnous cystadenoma on rupture frequently
gives rise to metastatic growths of the peritoneum,
which may become carcinomatous.

Nearly two pages are devoted to a description of
the so-called parasites of cancer, but the student Is
not warned that the parasitic hypothesis of the genesis
of cancer Is now largely discredited, and that these
so-called parasites may be peculiar forms of cell de-
generation. Nor is any mention made of modern
work on the cytology of malignant growths or of the
apparent transformation of carcinoma into sarcoma
bv a metamorphosis and overgrowth of the connec-
tive-tissue stroma.

With a little amplification on these and other points
by the teacher, the work should prove a most useful
class book on practical morbid histology. The beau-
tiful coloured drawings by Mr. Richard Mulr and
others are much to be commended, though occasion-
ally {e.g. Fig. 265, Tertian malaria) more is depicted
than will ever be found in any one specimen.

SYLVESTER'S MATHEMATICAL PAPERS.
The Collected Mathematical Papers of James Joseph^
Sylvester, F.R.S.. e-c. Vol. ill. (1870-83). Pj
xvI + 688. (Cambridge: University Press, 1909^;
Price i8s. net.

THE greater part of this volume consists of paper
on the theory of algebraic forms, and thei
substance Is now so familiar that it is needless
analyse them. But the reader who turns back
these classical memoirs Is charmed, as ever, by the
genius they display, and the extraordinary vivaclt\
with which they are written. Moreover, Sylvester's
habit of publishing in haste, while the hot fit was on

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

435

him, makes all his papers stimulating in a way
which encourages research. His scattered hints and
surmises, his digressions and scholia, his occasional
fantastic notes, all add to the fascination of his work.
Thus, to take an example quite at random, he con-
cludes a paper on irreducible concomitants by re-
marking : —

" I have always thought and felt that beyond all
others the algebraist, in his resarches, needs to be
guided by the principle of faith, so well and philo-
sophically defined as ' the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things unseen.'"

This might as certainly be ascribed to Sylvester as
a characteristic passage of " Sartor Resartus " to
Carlyle.

One of the memoirs on quantics deserves particular
notice; it is that which represents concomitants by
graphic symbols, such as those used in organic
chemistry. It is curious that this method, which at
one time engrossed Clifford as well as Sylvester,
should have been so barren in results. Perhaps the
most interesting things in the paper are Sylvester's
remarks on the possibilit}- of algebraic theorems
having corresponding propositions in chemistr\-; for
instance, he says,

"Hermite's law of reciprocity . . . amounts to
affirming in chemical language that in any com-
pound an arbitrarily selected group of «i tz-adic atoms
may be replaced by a group of n w-adic atoms ; but
how far this law of replacement has objective validity
in the chemical sphere, I am not able to say."

Among the arithmetical papers, of which there
are several, the longest, and one of the most interest-
ing, is that on the diophantine equation x^ + y^^Az'.
Although Sylvester did not reach so definite a result
as that stated by Lucas, he considerably extended
he theorems of Pepin, and the way in which he does
this is of a strictly elementary kind. Besides this, he
gives a beautiful proof of a fundamental theorem
connected with " residuation " of points on a cubic
curve; by the application of elliptic functions this
can be done in a line or two, but Sylvester's demon-
stration is far more instructive.

Another paper of interest is that on the distribution
of primes, in which he extends the method of
Tchebicheff, while several scattered notes on partis
tions, Farey series, and the theory of vulgar frac-
tions, contain hints which may very likely admit of
development.

One definite suggestion may be mentioned here
ic\. pp. 414-25). It is well known that Sylvester
proved, and generalised, Newton's rule for discriminat-
ing the roots of an equation j(x) = o. This rule
employs the coefficients of / and also those of a
derived function the coefficients of which are quadratic
in those of /. Now the question is whether there
may not be other derived functions, with coefficients
formed by some simple rule, which may settle those
cases in which Newton's rule is insufficient.

The care with which Dr. Baker performs his duty

as editor again deserves cordial recognition ; on .pp.

357-8 the sign + in several places seems to be a

misprint for - , and it is possible that a few other

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

such mistakes may have been overlooked, but con-
sidering Sylvester's great inaccuracy in proof reading,
the correctness of the text, so far as the present
reviewer has been able to test it, is remarkable.

G. B. M.

SXTVRE-STVDY AND ROSE PESTS.
(i) Battersea Park as a Centre for Nature Study. By
W. Johnson. Pp. 128 + map. (Published under
the direction of the Battersea and Wandsworth
Educational Council.) (London : T. Fisher Unwin,
1910.) Price IS. net.

(2) How to Know the Trees. By H. Irving. Pp.
vi+179. (London: Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1910.)
Price 35. 6d. net.

(3) Rosenkrankheiten und Rosenfeinde. By Dr.
K. Laubert and Dr. M. Schwartz. Pp. vi + 59.
(Jena : Gustav Fischer, 1910.) Price i mark.

THE pursuit of natural history observations on the
part of children in towns can be in man}* ways
more profitably directed in parks than in the open
countn.-, at any rate until such time as the children learn
how and what to note. Proximity to the schools, the
aggregation of many features within a small area, and
opportunities for repeated visits all favour the sys-
tematic use of advantages offered by the London public
parks. The chief opportunities for study in Battersea
Park (i) are provided by the birds, both wild and cage-
bound, insects, wild flowers, and trees. These themes
are well elaborated by Mr. Johnson with a knowledge
arising out of intimate acquaintance. In addition,
there are chapters on history, geography, and set sub-
jects for rambles, while other facts are collated in
the outline calendar, and a map serves for general
purposes, as well as for indicating the positions of
the large trees. The volume represents an effective
triple cooperation of an observant author, a well-,
guided educational council, and an interested pub-
lisher.

Although numerous books on trees are extant,
it is doubtful whether any one of modest dimen-
sions describes more precisely the ever-changing
appearances and distinctive features of the trees
than the volume provided by Mr. Ining (2).
•About sixty different kinds are described, some
very brieflj', when they are closely allied plants,
as the various pines, others, as the ash, at
great length, but in all cases full indications are
furnished of distinguishing characters. The illustra-
tions have appeared before, but they are so excellent
that they bear repetition. The author introduces but
few technical words, even to the extent of leaving out
the scientific names of the trees ; in the case of the
Himalayan pine the scientific name is required for
purposes of identification, and, generally speaking,
they are desirable. The book can be thoroughly
recommended.

In the volume on rose pests (3) Dr. Laubert deals
with fungi, and distinguishes seven definite diseases.
Rust, mildew, canker, and leaf blotch are the com-
monest, to which are added rot mould (Perotiospora
sparsae), a root disease {Roesleria sp.), and a Botry-
tis rot (Sclerotinia Fuckeliana). Two other diseases

430

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

of roses, leaf-spot {Septoria rosae) and tumour
■{Botryosphaeria diplodia) are not given. This part
of the book might have been condensed with advan-
tage. Dr. Schwartz has a more extensive task in
describing the insect pests, of which more than a
hundred are known. About fifty species are shortly
described and tabulated according to the parts of the
plants which they injure. The data given are as full
as could be expected, and remedies are mentioned.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Exercises in Metal Work. For Trade Preparatory
Schools. By A. T. J. Kersey. Pp. x + 70. (Lon-
don : G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1910.) Price is. 6d.
net.
Twenty-seven exercises in detail are contained in
this book, and hints for continuing thereafter a course
in metal-work suitable for pupils in trade preparatory
schools. The exercises are carefully graduated, at
first introducing the use of hand tools, and leading
up to some simple exercises in the use of machine
tools, such as drilling machines, shaping machines,
and turning lathes. The drawings are good, and
show in every case what is required of the pupil.
Some little omissions occur here and there; for
example, on p. 53 appear drawings of a V block as
an example of the use of a shaping machine. It is
customary to have a groove at the bottom of the V
in order to facilitate finishing its faces ; this has been
omitted. It is not, however, a grave objection to find
such details left out ; students possessed of average
intelligence will discover them, and, judging from the
preface, it is more than probable that the author had
this view before him in the production of the book.

We can commend heartily the reading of the
author's preface to any teacher or other person having
an interest in workshop classes. The value of a
sympathetic teacher cannot be over-estimated ; it is
often difficult for an instructor who has been trained
in an engineering works (and this is essential) to
realise the difficulties of the bov who has just left the
elementary school. Unless he bears in mind the mis-
takes and troubles of his own early apprentice davs,
he is apt to be impatient. Pupils should be en-
couraged to think out answers to home-work ques-
tions. Those appearing in the book are designed
with the view of cultivating the spirit of inquirv and
of teachinT pupils to think about their work, as mere
manipulative skill is of little value without this — the
true aim of all education, technical or otherwise.
We can commend this book as an intelligent attempt
to assist in carrying- out these broad-minded prin-
ciples.

A Lecture on Mendelism. By Dr. H. Drinkwater,
F.R.S. Pp. iii + 31. (London: J. M. Dent and
Sons, Ltd., 1910.)
In this book is given a popular lecture on Mendelian
heieditv, printed apparently with hardly any altera-
tion ; and considered as a lecture it is distinctlv good.
It is very simply and clearly written, and with the
help of the numerous diagrams and figures should
make the main outlines of the subject clear to those
who have no previous acquaintance with it. It has,
however, the unavoidable defect of a lecture, that to
avoid confusion essentials must be emphasised to the
exclusion of the less important; it would probably
have been improved by the addition of footnotes in
some places, amplifying or qualifying the statements
in the text. For example, the inference (p. 21) that
''plants and animals arc built up of a number of
indivisible unit factors uhon which their characters

NO. 2153, VOL. S5I

depend " (author's italics) surely requires a qualify-
ing note to the effect that such unit factors mav
equally possibly be superposed on a basis which i-
dilTerent in nature.

The figures and diagrams arc mostly clear and good,
and there are well-reproduced portraits of Profs. Bate-
son and Punnett, in addition to a frontispiece ot
Gregor Mendel. The representation of a wrinkled
seed in Fig. 5 is misleading, and the figure on thi
last page, illustrating the union of germ-cells, beside^
being rather obscure without further explanation,
contains an inaccuracy in reproduction which might
be confusing. Other small points which could be
improved are the explanation of the 3 : i ratio, and
the use of the symbols Fj, Fij, instead of the con-
ventional Fi, F2. We have perhaps unduly empha-
sised the small defects in what should prove an
excellent introduction to the subject for those whu
read of it for the first time. L. D.

The Application of Logic. By Alfred Sidgwick. Pp.

ix-i-321. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.)

55. net.
" Throughout this book ' formal ' logic is identified
not only with the logic which expressly calls itself
formal, or * deductive,' but with any logic which, like
the ordinary ' inductive ' logic, is, in fact, more
formal than it professes to be. Wherever actual
application and its difficulties are ignored, there is
formality of a harmful kind."

Accordingly, Mr. Sidgwick discusses such matters
as the ground of an inference, causal inquiries,
ambiguity, indefiniteness, error, begging the question,
distinction and definition, and thfe like, making con-
stant use of well-chosen illustrative cases, and writ-
ing always in attractive and lucid style. There is
some good protestation against slovenly modern usage
of words. Why should " transpire " be allowed to
mean "happen," "phenomenal" to mean "extra-
ordinary"? We are much to blame in this; 'tis too
much proved.

On general counts, Mr. Sidgwick views his sub-
ject from the point of view of Dr. F. C. S. Schiller.
Vcrgiftungen durch Pflanzen und Pflanzenstoffe : eiii

Grundriss der vegetalen Toxikologie fiir praktischc

Aerzte, Apotheker und Botaniker. By Dr. F.

Kanngiesser. Pp. iv + 49. (Jena: G. Fischer,

1910.) Price I mark.
This little work deals in a verj- concise form with
the toxic nature and effects of various plants and
plant-constituents ; it is, in fact, a brief outline of
vegetable toxicology.

In the first chapter the subject is dealt with from a
general point of view, the symptoms that usually
follow the ingestion of such poisonous or harmful
substances being considered, as well as the means
that may be adopted as remedies. In the following
chapters a short account of the .more important toxic
plants and plant-constituents is given, accompanied
in each case with the most striking symptoms it
produces.

The author has certainly succeeded in compressing
a large amount of information into a very small com-
pass, and has produced a work that will be useful
t) phvsician and pharmacist, especially to such as
reside in the country, where the accidental poisoning
of children bv eating toxic fruits and roots is unfor-
tunately no rare occurrence. The book is remarkably
free from error, but Lobelia inilata, Tanius communis.
Delphinium Staphisagria, Gratiola officinalis, and
some others might well have been included in the list
of toxic plants, while Dr. Mitlacher's verv useful work
on toxic plants and vegetable drugs might have found
a place in the bibliography.

Henry G. Greenish.

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

437

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 Naturb.
So notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

Colliery Warnings.

During the past thirty years, the Colliery Warnings
appearing from time to time in various leading news-
papers in the British coalfields have been vigorously, even
viciously, attacked by a few mining engineers and pro-
fessors of mining. Two excuses have been advanced as
an explanation of these onslaughts — warnings are held to
be an insult to the intelligence of miners, and, although
based upon recorded facts, they are diametrically opposed
to theory, to the common view, and to educated opinion.
It is the theory that forms the burden of a column article
on the subject in the Times of January 4, and it is the
theory which Prof. Henry Louis harps upon in N.\ture
of January 12, pp. 336-8.

One of the most remarkable features of the various
discussions has been the refusal of the theorists to accept
any facts unless these can be made, somehow or other, to
support the common view. Of Darwin it has been said
that *' he would destroy his theor)- rather than ignore a
Tact." It is a pity that many prefer to adopt the opjxxsite
principle, and are ever ready to dismiss facts which do
not support popular beliefs. When definite facts are
stated showing that the Colliery Warnings are issued
during the periods when nearly all our mining disasters
occur, the usual retort is that the cases have little or no
bearing on the matter, and yet if a misstatement is made
as to the atmospheric conditions, the theorists claim that
the accident is one that supports their view. Newspapers
are a fruitful source of error, especially in scientific
matters. The melancholy fact is that, with all the
" education " of the past fort}- jears, people appear to be
more ready than ever before to swallow the most ridiculous
statements appearing in the Press under the guise of
scientific information.

Here is Prof. Louis entering upon a crusade against
Collier\- Warnings because they are not in accordance
with his theon,-. Of course, the first impression the
general reader entertains is that the professor has mastered
the meteorology of the subject, but when, as a witness
before the Royal Commission on Mines, on May 27, 1908,
he was asked if he was acquainted with the official daily
meteorological reports, his reply was : " I have seen them,
but I am not familiar with them," an admission which
puts him out of court. Books of newspaper cuttings, on
the other hand, are far more entertaining than drj' official
reports, and it does not require much research to alight
upon definite statements that colliery explosions have
occurred under a low or rapidly falling barometer. The
most glaring of them is connected with the greatest mining
disaster the world has ever known — the explosion in the
Courriferes mine, within a few minutes of 7 a.m. on March
10, 1906, when about 1200 miners perished. Prof. Louis,
'loubtless, read the statement in the Colliery Guardian,
the organ of the mining engineers, that that frightful
calamity was accompanied by a " pronounced fall of the
barometer." The assertion fitted in exactly with the
theory, and therefore there could be no possible objection
to it. The statement, however, was most inaccurate. .\t
the ver}.- moment that the pit blew up. observations were
being taken all over France and neighbouring countries,
and almost before it was known that the disaster had
occurred, the Bulletin International du Bureau Central
Meteorologique de France had been prepared showing the
existence of a well-marked area of high pressure right
over France ; the barometer had been rising throughout
the previous night, it was rising at the time of obser\-a-
;ron, and subsequent reports showed that it continued to
tise for some time after the explosion. No amount of
iugglinfj with what was said in the papers can get over
ihe cold, dry record of facts. The official information
'« public property, which Prof. Louis and all who support
hint can consult at leisure and at trifling cost.

l< Mav and June. 1910. rpaders of the Scotsman were

treated to a discussion of the subject, one of the critics
giving the worst case in his long experience of such an
issue of damp in a mine in the east of Scotland '* that
the airways, &c., became so foul, the miners had per-
force to leave off work and clear out." This dangerous
outburst was said to be associated with the glass falling
an inch in the course of a few hours. It agreed precisely
with the popular notion of the external fitness of things.
In a subsequent communication the critic, to dispel the
doubt about the barometer having dropped at an unheard-
of rate, supplied readings said to have been obtained from
the Kew and Glasgow records. Unfortunately for the
theorists, the Glasgow values show that the decrease of
pressure on each of the two occasions relied upon was
exactly an inch less than was stated by the critic, the
barometer standing very high, in the first case perfectly
steady, changing only 0-005 '""^^ C*^^ 1-005 inches) in six
hours, and in the second case declining 01 12 inch (not
I- 1 12 inches) in six hours. These imaginary- falls of more
than an inch in six hours will have got into many a scrap-
book for future reference.

How determined the theorists are not to attach any
weight to evidence which is unfavourable to them is well
illustrated by the rash condemnation of the Seaham
records by a leading supporter of the low-barometer
idea : — " .As to Mr. (5)rbett's figures, they have given us
much amusement, as he got results flatly contradicting
simple scientific principles. The Germans at Saarbriicken
similarly." Facts obtained by careful observers in
different countries are thus not entitled to consideration ;
they only deserve to be laughed at because they are at
variance with preconceived notions.

Prof. Louis and his supporters are afraid that if they
give way on this question, a terrible fate awaits the
world — nothing short of casting Boyle's law to the scrap-
heap. But they can rest assured that no such dire
calamity is indicated. Boyle's law will for ever remain
unassailable ; what must go by the board and to the scrap-
heap is the method adopted by the low-pressure theorists
to support their views. Who first started the curious idea
that the barometer falls at the rate of 001 inch per
minute is not known, but it is the rate used by many
writers here and abroad. It was adopted by the Royal
Commission of 1879-S6, by Sir Frederick .\bel, by the
Colliery Guardian, and others, to show that an acre goaf
charged with a yard in depth of gas would foul a
ventilating current of 1000 cubic feet per minute to the
extent of 4-4 per cent., and the current is consequently
nearing the explosive point, which is from 5 per cent, to
7 per cent, of fouling. There are two ver>' serious objec-
tions to this conclusion. In how many mines in the
United Kingdom do the Government inspectors consider
1000 cubic feet of air per acre of gas as ample for
ventilating purposes? Has anyone ever known, within
the temperate zone, falls of the barometer at the rate of
0-6 inch per hour, or 14-4 inches per day? The alleged
fall of an inch in six hours at Glasgow, referred to above,
is a mere nothing compared with the stupendous rate
beloved of mining engineers. Continental experts who
.have studied the subject have decided that 004 inch
(i millimetre) per hour is a ven,- rapid fall. A rate of
006 inch per hour is far from being a common occur-
rence, and intervals of years may pass between falls of so
much as o-i inch in an hour. To prove their case, the
theorists have adopted a rate which is fifteen times greater
than a very rapid fall. Even if we apply 006 inch per
hour, or 0001 inch per minute, and keep to the 1000-foot
ventilating current, it reduces the fouling from 44 per
cent, to 044 per cent., a proportion which the firemen
would have very great difficult}- in detecting. There is
here no violation of Boyle's law, which teaches us that
the expansion of the gas is proportional to the diminu-
tion of pressure, not ten or fifteen times greater. In
general terms, it may be stated that with a nc«-mal
ventilating current no diminution of pressure in our lati-
tudes is sufficiently great to bring out from the open goaf
a volume of gas large enough to foul the ventilation to the
explosive point.

Now as to the high-pressure side of the question. Prof.
Louis strongly objects to Warnings against danger during
anticyclonic periods, for they upset his teaching ; but the
note in Nature of December 29 last, p. 277, shows that

NO. 2153, VOL'. 85]

438

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

there is a preponderance of explosions about the time that
the central areas of anticyclones lie over our own coal-
fields. Until Prof. Louis can prove that this statement,
made by an independent investigator, is wrong, those who
study the question with an open mind will not readily
acquiesce in his theory, which requires the presence of a
cyclonic area to bring about a disaster. True, Mr.
Dobson's report to the British Association, and the papers
to the Royal and the Meteorological Societies by Messrs.
Scott and Galloway, were based on the theory that a low
and falling barometer was necessary ; but a glance at
their diagrams is sufficient to show that accidents under
a high barometer were attributed to a falling barometer
at some other time, Mr. Dobson going so far away as a
fortnight from an explosion to get a barometric fall to
satisfy the theory. But when Messrs. Scott and Galloway
had completed their inquiry from the purely theoretical
side, the diagrams were ready, and the percentages of
accidents under different conditions had been worked out,
recourse was had to the very simple device of looking up
the facts. • Mr. Galloway was permitted to examine a
large number of report books kept at mines in Scotland
in 1873. To the amazement of the authors, they " found
that sometimes a sudden fall of atmospheric pressure has
taken place without causing gas to appear, and some-
times gas has suddenly appeared in considerable quantity
when the pressure was high and steady." Before the
Royal Commission of 1879-86, an experienced mining
engineer, Mr. F. Wardell, stated that from his own
observation explosions occurred generally on a rising
barometer ; and Mr. (now Sir) Henry Hall, the well-
known Inspector of Mines, declared : — " More of the large
accidents that have happened in my hands have happened
when the glass was high, than otherwise." Evidence in

an intimate relationship between the movements of the
barometer and the pressure of the gas existing in sealed-
up places in the earth — not the gas m the open goaf,
which is acted upon directly by the air-pressure. The
gauge inserted in the sealcd-up reservoir of the Hutton
seam showed that on every occasion when the barometer
rose, even as on March 24, 188 1, when it was at a very
low level, the imprisoned gas showed an out-bye pressure,
indicating that it was being compressed (Fig. i). When the
barometer was at its lowest, the compression ceased, and
the gauge indicated an in-bye pressure. Those who dis-
cussed the observations were mystified ; they could not get
over the facts disclosed, and the only escape from the
dilemma was by deciding that it« was all the fault of the
barometer — that it was riot sensitive enough to fall twenty,
thirty, or forty-eight hours sooner than it does ! No
physicist who has studied the action of the instrument
would admit that, even supposing there is any lag, it
would amount to as many seconds. It is a more reason-
able suggestion that the increase of barometric pressure-
weighs down the earth's crust, and this, acting upon the
imprisoned gas, increases its pressure. It is under these
high-pressure conditions that Colliery Warnings have bri r,
issued through three decades, and it is under these sani'
conditions that the worst explosions take place, for the\
are associated with great outbursts of gas flooding the
workings suddenly, and not with the almost inappreciable,
regulated flow of gas from the open goaf under a low and
falling barometer.

The Author of the Warnings.

Fig.

support of these statements could be multiplied to any
extent, and those who are interested in 'the question,
instead of treating the evidence as merely amusing, should
seriously endeavour to arrive at a reasonable explanation
of the appearance of dangerous volumes of gas in mines
when the barometer is rising or stands high.

There was a time when, no one guessed that the earth's
crust was always on the move, wobbling like a jelly ; but
Darwin started a new idea, declaring that the time would
come when scientific men would no more regard the earth
as immovable for any length of time than they would
believe in an everlasting calm in the atmosphere. Since
that declaration we have advanced a long way on the
road towards proving the earth's crust, no longer sup-
posed to be a rigid mass, liable to rise and fall under
the vast changes of atmospheric weight indicated by baro-
metric variations. To miners it has been a matter of
common observation that earth movements are of frequent
occurrence, , and the evidence before the Royal Com-
mission of 1879 showed that strong rock-roofs are either
actually forced down or become much curved, eventually
recovering their normal position when the gas-pressure is
diverted in some other direction. The great disaster at
Abercarne on September 11, 1878, when 268 lives were
lost, had been preceded by outbreaks of gas daily from
September. 5 to 10, consequent upon a. squeeze or settling
down. Since the beginning of the month high barometric
pressure had ruled — 30-25 inches at .Abercarne on the day
of the disaster.

The Seaham records demonstrate clearlv that there is

I AM delighted to find that my article on this subject
has drawn a reply from the Author of the Warnings,
though I must admit to disappointment at the character
of his letter. In my article I stated
certain facts as to the occurrence of
fiiedamp in collieries, and showed how
this gas must behave under varying
barometric pressure in accordance with
well-known physical laws ; to my
mind, there is only one proper way of
controverting conclusions thus arrived
at, and that is to show where I am
mistaken in my statement of facts, in
my enumeration of the natural laws,
or in my deductions from these
premises. This, however, is precisely
what the .Author of the Warnings has
not even attempted to do ; he has pre-
ferred to be guided by the old solicitor's
maxim : " When you have no case,
abuse the plaintiff's attorney."
I do not propose to follow the Author of the Warnings
in the personal tone that he has introduced into the dis-
cussion, except to, say that the theory — if theory it be — i
that a falling barometer is apt to correspond with an]
increase in the , percentage of firedamp in the air of J
collieries is certainly not my theory, and originated long]
before my time. As the .Author of the Warnings implies-j
that these views necessarily connect colliery explosions!
with a low barometer, it seems worth while repeating thatj
this is not my opinion ; all that I maintain is : —

(i) Barometric variations are only -a contributory cause,]
and a relatively unimportant one, of colliery explosions.

(2) A falling barometer, or, to be more precise, a flatten- j
ing downwards of the barometric gradient, is apt to be!
accompanied by an increase in the percentage of fire-rl
damp in the air of mines.

Thus W. Kohler has shown that a slow increase in'
the percentage of firedamp may be due to a steady high
barometer, or even to a slow rise following upon a
very rapid one, i.e. to a flattening of the barometri
gradient.

The Author of the Warnings appears to attach much
importance to the Seaham Colliery records. Seeing how
fiercely he has accused everyone else of only using such
facts as suit them, it might be expected that he, at any
rate, would be above reproach in this respect ; unfortu-
nately, however, it would be difficult to find a worse
offender than he is in the use he has made of these
records. In the first place, he ought to have made it
clear that these records do not show gas pressure in a

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

439

juine under normal conditions ; they were taken in a
sealed-off portion of Seaham Collierj" after an explosion
and an undergrour\d fire, and thus represent what took
place under an entirely abnormal condition of the mine.
Apart from this point, the Author of the Warnings con-
trives to give his reader the impression that Mr. Corbett's
Seaham Colliery records entirely favour his own views,
that high barometric pressure causes an increase in fire-
damp in mines ; so far from this being the case, how-
ever, Mr. Corbett's own words (Trans. North Eng.
Inst. Min. Eng., vol. xxxii., 1882-3, P- S^o) ^''^ • — ^" ^^
is well known that gas is frequently found in colliery
workings before any fall of the barometer commences.
, . . The barometer, so far as an indication showing that
gas may be expected, cannot be said to be reliable." In
the discussion of this paper, Mr. J. Daglish {ibid., p. 311)
said that he had made experiments at Hetton Colliery,
and that " the results he arrived at were precisely such
as were given by Mr. Corbett, namely, that there was no
connection whatever between the variations of the baro-
meter and the prevalence of gas in the galleries of the
mine." The chief witness cited in his favour by the
Author of the Warnings is thus seen to give evidence quite
directly against him when he is quoted correctly. Further,
if the .Author of the Warnings attaches the importance
ihat he appears to do to these records of pressure, why
does he not quote the verj- well known and much more
applicable experiments of Sir Lindsay Wood, who deter-
mined the pressure of firedamp in normal coal seams by
boring holes into them and inserting pressure gauges?
His general conclusions (Trans. North Eng. Inst. Min.
Eng., vol. XXX., 1880-1, p. 224) are : — " There is no
connection between the variations of the barometrical
column and the temperature with the quantities of gas
evolved " ; only in one set of tests, namely, at Eppleion
Colliery, was any connection traceable, and, respecting
these. Sir Lindsay Wood (ibid., p. 182) states : — " With
the barometer steadily rising, the gas pressure (with one
cr two exceptions, when there was an increase) steadilv
decreased. "

Personally, I attach relatively little importance to rec<M-ds
of pressure alone, even to such careful ones as those of Sir
Lindsay Wood, Nasse, Broockmann, &c. ; in the absence
of analyses, it is only a conjecture that the pressure was
caused by firedamp, and in the case of Seaham Collierv
it is quite likely that other gases were present in large
quantity. I hold that there is only one correct method of
attacking this question, as has already been pointed out
by Oberbergrat G. Kohler, and that is by svstematic
chemical analyses of the return mine air combined with
barometric obsenations, as has been done on several
occasions on the Continent, e.g. by Hilt at the Gemein-
schaft and Alt-Gourley pits at Aachen, and, above all, bv
AV. Kohler at the Grand Duke Frederick pits at Karwin.
All the observations corroborated each other, and agree
with the summary of W. Kohler: — "The proportion of
firedamp in the air of the mine decreases in general with
rising atmospheric pressure, and increases with falling
atmospheric pressure. The proportion of firedamp in-
creases the more rapidly the more steeplv the curve of
atmospheric pressure descends, and decreases the faster
the more steeply the curve of atmospheric pressure rises."
Harze in Belgium and Behrens in Westphalia have con-
firmed these conclusions in their elaborate works on the
subject. All this is the result of accuratelv observed facts,
into none of which "theory" enters. All workers and
observers in this subject have come to one of two con-
clusions, either that barometric variations have no decisive
influence on the evolution of gas, or else that a falling
barometric gradient increases the outflow of gas. Not a
single writer, so far as I know, shows that a rising
barometer increases the evolution of firedamp. Whilst
most English authorities hold the first view, the universally
held opinion in Germany is summed up thus bv the well-
known Saxon authority, E. Treptow : — " Im 'besonderen
^t es als erwiesen anzusehen, dass nach einem schnellen
Fallen des Barometers starkere Gasentwickelungen statt-
finden. Es ist daher die fortlaufende Beobachtung der
Barometerstande von grosser Wichtigkeit ; tritt ein Baro-
metersturz ein, so ist besondere Vorsicht geboten. Ein
Barometerfall von i mm. in einer Stunde "ist schon sehr
NO, 2153, VOL. 85]

bedeutend." (In particular, it may be looked upon as
demonstrated that, after a rapid fall of the barometer,
stronger evolutions of gas take place. The continual
observation of the height of the barometer is therefore of
great importance ; if a drop of the barometer takes place,
special caution must be observed. A fall of the barometer
of I mm. per hour is already very serious.)

It is facts like the above-quoted analyses that alone can
decide this question ; it is quite useless to inquire whether
the barometer was high or low at the time of any particular
collier}- explosion, because a serious collier}- explosion can
only be brought about by the fortuitous coincidence of a
number of contributory conditions, only one of which (and
in all probability a relatively unimportant one) can be
ascribed to the state of the barometer. The Author of
the Warnings implies that my views have been influenced
by newspaper statements as to the height of the baro-
meter at the time of the great Courrieres disaster ; but
not <K»ly do I, as I have said, regard such evidence as
useless, but, above all, I would not commit the crowning
absurdit}- of quoting in a discussion on firedamp the
Courrieres explosion, which is perfectly well known to
have been a coal-dust explosion in a non-fiery pit.

Perhaps the most interesting point in the letter of the
.Author of the Warnings is his explanation of the reason
why high barometric pressure must increase the per-
centage of gas in a pit ; he believes that the increased
pressure of the air squeezes down the earth's crust, and
squeezes the gas out of it. I presume that he wishes this
explanation to be taken seriously ; but surely he has over-
looked the very obvious fact that any increase of pressure
on the surface of the earth, tending to squeeze gas out,
is counterbalanced by an exactly equal increase of pressure
upon the face of the coal in the mine, tending to keep the
gas in, and that no variation of atmospheric pressure can
thus disturb the previously existing regime. Even if this
were not so, and if the crust of the earth could respond
to such pressures, they are too insignificant to have any
practical effect. An enormous fluctuation of barometric
pressure, such as a rise of i inch, would correspond to a
pressure on the earth's crust of only 70 lb. per square
foot, or a good deal less than that of an ordinary crowd
of people standing on the ground ; the very suggestion
that such a trifling weight can have any effect through
thousands, or even hundreds, of feet of strata is so absurd
as to require no refutation, and least of all to the mining
engineer who has had to timber underground workings,
and who knows that the roof pressure in a mine must be
gauged, not in pounds, but in tons on the square foot,
and that 70 lb. more or less will make no practical differ-
ence whatever. That such a theory should be relied on
in defence of the Colliery Warnings surely justifies their
opposition by mining engineers, and forms an emphatic
endorsement of the verdict of the last Royal Commission
— which, by the way, was not composed of professors of
mining or theorists — upon these Warnings as misleading
and serving no useful purpose. H. Louis.

The Afterglow of Electric Discharge in Nitrogen.

Ix a paper published in the current number of the
Physical Society's Proceedings, I showed that the vellow
afterglow produced by the electric discharge in rarefied
air is due to the oxidation of nitric oxide by ozone, both
substances being formed in the discharge. In a second
paper, in course of publication, it is shown that several
other oxidisable gases or vapours inflame spontaneouslv
when mixed with ozone at a low pressure, and bum with
phosphorescent flames of low temperature.

.\n afterglow in nitrogen has been recorded by Mr.
Perceval Lewis (Phys. Zeit., v.. p. 546, 1904) which is
obtained only with condenser discharges. This glow is
orange in colour, and possesses a visual spectrum of three
bright bands in the green, yellow, and red regions, in
contrast to the continuous spectrum of the glow which I
have traced to nitric oxide and ozone.

I have recently experimented with Lewis's nitrogen
glow, using the method, introduced by Dewar in 1888, of
drawing a continuous current of the gas through the
vacuum tube into another vessel on its way to the pump>

440

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

I succeeded at once in obtaining it, when the condensed
discharge was used. This glow has many interesting
properties, of which a preliminary publication seems
desirable.

I believe it to be due to pure nitrogen. Lewis states
that it cannot be obtained from atmospheric nitrogen, but
this does not agree with my experience. I have used
atmospheric nitrogen exclusively.

The glowing nitrogen is unaffected by silver gauze,
which quenches the ozone glows. It is destroyed by
mixing oxygen with it, but merely diluted by hydrogen or
ordinary nitrogen. When acetylene is led in, a bright
flame is produced at the point of confluence. This flame
replaces the original glow. It has a spectrum consisting
of the swan and cyanogen bands, along with others not
identified. If the nitrogen glow is led over iodine a
magnificent blue flame is produced, contrasting sharply
with the original orange glow. With sulphur the original
orange glow is quenched, but no other replaces it. The
sulphur becomes hot, and a metallic-looking sublimate is
formed along the tube.

The most remarkable phenomena, however, are with
metallic vapours, which give line sjjectra when the glow-
ing nitrogen is led over them. Sodium, potassium,
thallium, mercury, zinc, cadmium, and magnesium have
all j-ielded line spectra in this way.

Investigation is being pushed on as fast as possiLle, but
the facts so far obtained seem to point to the production
of a chemically active modification of nitrogen. It is
suggested, f)rovisionally, that the spectra are developed by
the chemical union of this active nitrogen with the various
metals and with iodine and acetylene. The orange glow
obtained with nitrogen only would, on this view, be due to
the transformation of the hypothetical active nitrogen into
ordinary nitrogen. R. J. Strl'TT.

Imperial College of Science and Technology,
January 30.

Singularities of Curves.

I HAVE not, at present, access to the books referred to
by " T. J. I'a. B." in his letter of January 12; but he

is altogether wrong in thinking that the singularity he
mentions cannot be investigated by the methods explained
in my " Geometry of Surfaces." An arbitrary line through
the origin has sextactic contact thereat ; but since the axis
of X has i2-tactic contact at the origin, the latter cannot
be an ordinary sextuple point, because no line through
such a point can have a higher contact than septactic.
The singularity is either a singular point of the sixth
order or one of lower order with coincident branches pass-
ing through it, and it illustrates the necessity of drawing
a distinction between ordinary multiple points and singular
points. The trilinear equation of the curve can be obtained
by eliminating t between /3 = ot% a7-;3^ = /8^(iH'''). The
factor 07-/3^ suggests the existence of tacnodal or other
branches of a similar character, and that the singularity
might be transformed into a simpler one lying on a curve
of lower degree than the sixteenth by using Cremona's
transformation,

a _ /8 _ 7

07' + )8''' /ay 7'2

before applying the methods of chapter iv. of my book.

But it would have been foreign to the plan of my
treatise to have introduced parametric methods when dis-
cussing singularities ; moreover, the method of which the
example is an illustration is only applicable to unicursal
curves, whereas my own methods are independent of the
deficiency. For example, the various singularities the
point constituents of which are nine nodes could not be
investigated by means of a unicursal curve without com-
plicating the problem by introducing additional nodes
isolated or in combination sufficient in number to reduce
the deficiency to zero ; and this might limit the generality
of the investigation, for when the nodes exceed a certain
number they are not arbitrarily situated, but lie on one or
more dianodal curves. A. B. Basset.

January i^.

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

Mr. Basset now admits that he has seen neither
Zeuthen's two papers of 1876 nor Jordan's book of 1893,
thus practically acknowledging the accuracy of my
criticism — that the treatment of singular points in his
" Geometry of Surfaces " is incomplete. With this
admission from Mr. Basset the matter ends, so far as 1
am personally concerned.

But I must enter a protest against Mr. Basset's infer-
ence that the methods of Zeuthen and Jordan are only
applicable to unicursal curves ; since Mr. Basset has not
read the work in question, his only reason for this state-
ment is the fact that the example in my first letter happens
to be a unicursal curve. This example was made up so
as to provide a simple illustration of the general methods ;
but these methods hold good for curves of any deficiency.

It is absurd to suggest that parametric methods cannot
be used for any algebraic curve ; of course, the coordinates
are expressed in the form of infinite series (convergent
near a particular point of the curve) instead of terminated
series. Mr. Basset's objection to using parametric
methods would be quite justified if he had provided us
with a satisfactory substitute; but he gives no systematic
plan for resolving an assigned singularity, and this is the
main object of the parametric method as used by earlier
writers. T. J. I'a. B.

FRANCIS G ALT ON.

February 16, 1822 — January 17, 191 r.

'T^riE death of Francis Galton marks, not only the
A removal of another link with the leaders of the
great scientific movement of the nineteenth century —
represented by Darwin, Kelvin, Huxley, Clerk-Max-
well, and Galton in this country — but something far
more real to those who have been in touch with him up
to the last, namely, the cessation of a source of inspira-
tion and suggestion which did not flag even to the day
of his death. The keynote to Francis Galton 's influence
over the science of the last fifty years lies in those
words : suggestion and inspiration. He belonged to
that small group of inquirers, who do not specialise,
but by their wide sympathies and general knowledge
demonstrate how science is a real unity, based on the
application of a common logic and a common method
to the observation and treatment of all phenomena.
He broke down the barriers, which the specialist is
too apt to erect round his particular field, and intro
duced novel processes and new ideas into man\' dark
corners of our summary of natural phenomena.

The present writer remembers being asked some
}-ears ago to provide a list of Francis Galton 's chief
scientific achievements for use on a public occasion.
It did not seem to hiin that a list of isolated contri-
butions, such as the establishment of anthropometric
laboratories, the introduction of the composite photo-
graph, the transfusion experiments to test pangenesis,
the meteorological charts and improved nomenclature,
the practical reahsation of the possibilities of finger-
print identification, the demonstration of the
hereditarv transmission of the mental characters rn
man, the law of regression, the idea of stirps, or the
foundation of the novel science of Eugenics, fully
represented the nature of the man. What is the spirit
of the contributions — large and small, almost two
hundred in number — which Francis Galton made to
the science of the last sixty years? ^ The unity of
those contributions lay largely in the idea that exact
quantitative methods could be applied, nay, rather
inust be applied, to many branches of science, which
had been held beyond the field of either mathematical
or physical treatment. In this manner his inspiration
and suggestion tended to give physical and mathe-
matical precision to a large number of outlying
sciences, to meteorology, to anthropology, to genetics,

1 His first contribution dates from 1849 and ccncerns a method of
printing telegraphic messages at the receiving station.

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

441

and to sociology. In this idea itself there is nothing
novel; many ol the world's great minds have realised
the same truth. What did Roger Bacon say towards
the middle of the thirteenth century?

'• He who knows not mathematics cannot know any
other science, and what is more, cannot discover his
own ignorance or find its proper remedies."

How was it echoed again, full two hundred years
later, by Leonardo da Vinci?

" Nessuna humana investigatione si po dimandare
vera scientia s'essa non passa per le mattematiche di-
monstrationi." Libro di pittura i. i.

We wait another century and hear Lord Bacon's
aphorism : —

■'The chief cause of failure in operation (especially
after natures have been diligently investigated) is the
ill-determination and measurement of the forces and
actions of bodies. Now the forces and actions of
bodies are circumscribed or measured by distances of
space, or by moments of time, or by concentration of
quantitv, or by predominance of virtue ; and unless
these four things have been well and carefully
weighed, we shall have sciences, fair perhaps in
theory, but in practice inefficient. The four instances
which are useful in this point of view I class under
one head as Mathematical Instances and Instances of
Measurements.''

The words actually used by Lord Bacon for his
third and fourth instances are "per unionem quanti
aut per praedominantiam virtutis." They cover verj-
fully the sociological, psychological, and genetic
phenomena which Francis Galton kept so closely in
view.

Another hundred years, and again a great thinker
echoes the same idea : —

" Ich behaupte aber, dass in jeder besonderen Natur-
lehre nur so viel eigentliche \\'issenschaft angetroffen
werden konne, als darin Mathematik anzutreffen ist."
Kant : Metaphysische Aitfangsgriinde der Naturu'issen-
schajt. Sammtliche Werke, Bd. iv., S., 360.
Leipzig, 1867.

Lastly, coming down to our own age, the great
contemporary of Galton, Lord Kelvin, wrote : —

"When you can measure what you are speaking
about and express it in numbers, you know something
about it, but when you cannot measure it, when you
cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a
meagre and unsatisfacton,' kind."

Clearly, then, Francis Galton was far from originat-
ing the idea that exact quantitative methods are
applicable far beyond the range of the physical
sciences. Wherein lies then his significance for the
science of to-day and, perhaps, more still for the
science of the future? Not solely in the fact that he
sketched in broad lines the manner in which quantita-
tive methods could be applied to many branches of
descriptive science, but that without being a professor
or teacher of students, he succeeded in creating a
school of enthusiastic disciples who, inspired by him,
have carried his work and his suggestions into prac-
tice in craniometry, anthropology, sociology, genetics,
and medicine. The elements in Galton 's character and
life which made this achievement possible for him
are manifold. Heredity, tradition, education,
economic independence, all played their parts, and not
least among these stands hereditary temperament.
No vounger man who knew Francis Galton at all
intimately failed to be influenced by his mar\'ellous
keenness, his wide but wise generosity of suggestion
and practical help, and above all, his equable and
lovable personality. His manifest pleasure and grati-
tude for the simplest little thing done for him ; his
complete respect for the time and duties of others,
■whether they were his friends or the servants of his

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

own household, produced a reverence which worked
its effect, not only on his immediate environment, but
upon the men who carried his inspirations and sug-
gestions into practical science.

The exact biological bearing of religious differen-
tiation upon the creation of human types has, perhaps,
never been fully studied. The doctrines of George
Fox drew together many men and women of a kindred
spirit, and the stringent regulations as to outside
marriage led not only to a union of similar natures,
but, we venture to think, almost created a biological
type. Not only did the Society of Friends unite men
religiously, but it produced special temperaments
genetically. Even to this day it is strange how men
whose families have ceased to be Quakers, yet find
that their common sympathies and temperaments arise
from Quaker descent. Galton owed the evenness
of his temper, his placid acceptance of criticism, but
his power of steady persistence in his own work and
his own views, very largely to his Quaker ancestry,
to the Galton and Barclay blood. The fact that
Galton was never in controversy was, of course,
partly due to the novelty of many of his methods and
ideas; they were beyond his generation, which left
them largely on one side. Even his work on the
heredity of the mental and moral characters in man
was looked upon as merely academic, and its real
bearing on social habits is only now being realised
and pressed home.

For one man who had read " Hereditary Genius "
(1869), "Human Faculty" (1880), and "Natural In-
heritance " (1889), there were ten who had studied
"The Origin of Species " or " Man's Place in Nature."
But the former were the natural sequel to the latter,
and Galton realised at once not only, as Darwin and
Huxley did, that the new doctrines applied to man,
but also that they must eventually be preached as a
guide to human conduct in social activities. Looked at
from this aspect, his labour to make anthropometry in
both its physical and psychical branches an exact
science ; his discover}' that new types of analysis are
wanted to replace mathematical function in biological
and social studies, and lastly, his advocacy of
Eugenics — the science of the right breeding and train-
ing of man — are seen to be successive steps in a con-
tinuous ascent. The positive conception that science
exists to serve man, and that its highest function is
not merely to supply his material wants, but to show
him how to elevate himself by obedience to biological
principles, was the crowning conception of his life.
He lived to see the wide appreciation of his teaching
in both Germany and .\merica, and, to perhaps a
lesser extent, in Great Britain. But he did not live to
see the controversies which will inevitably arise, as the
world in general more clearly realises that not all its
customs, not all its beliefs, not all 5ts supposed
morality and charity, are consonant with scientific
knowledge.

But if the fact that Galton was never in controversv
had partly a basis in the historic evolution of ideas,
it was also deeply rooted in his temperament, the
temperament of one portion of his stock. He con-
sidered criticism, not as it affected the reputation of
his own work, but as it affected his own estimate
of the validity of his own work, and he adopted it or
passed it by accordingly. Only once do I remember on
a public occasion a slight severity in his usuallv gentle
tone. A medical man of distinction, speaking obviouslv
without any knowledge of the literature of the subject,
had asserted that the supposition that the children of
parents with certain mental and moral peculiarities
would reproduce these features, arose from a totallv
false conception of what the laws of heredity are.
The mental and moral aptitudes were for the speaker

442

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

outside the purview of hereditary investigation.
Galton's reply was very simple : Much of what his
critic had said "might have been appropriately urged
forty years ago, before accurate measurement of the
statistical effects of heredity had been commenced,
but it was quite obsolete now."

That is the extreme limit to which Galton's Quaker
temperament ever, in the presence of the present
writer, allowed him to reply, and here it was a ques-
tion of checking a vague assertion which swept away
the best part of a man's life work unexamined. That
this calmness of mental attitude was very largely innate
and not due to environment, is well brought out by a
quaint little biography of the first eight years of his
life, written by his mother (Violetta Galton — half-
sister of Charles Darwin's father) when he went to
a boarding-school in 1830.^ His after-tastes and tem-
perament, his great good nature, his calm temper, his
resourcefulness and courage,- are sufficiently indicated
by a mother who was closely observant, but who could
have no knowledge of the future distinction of her
youngest child. A further fundamental factor of
Galton's mental outfit was his extraordinary mechani-
cal ingenuity. This may also have been a Darwin
heritage, for it has been shown by other members of
the stock. At the same time his paternal grandfather,
Samuel John Galton, was not only a statistician, but a
man of mechanical tastes and a friend of Boulton and
Watt, and the same form of ability was markedly
evidenced in another grandson, Sir Douglas Galton.

Francis Galton had the mechanical ingenuity^ which
makes a great engineer or experimentalist; his sug-
gestions were always of the simplest kind, and he
used the simplest constructions and the simplest
materials. Most of his friends will remember his
delight in some almost primitive solution of a
mechanical difficulty, that possibly they had themselves
pondered over and brought to him in despair. Nothing
worries the secretary of a scientific society or the
editor of a journal more than the vagaries of an author
who provides diagrams wholly unsuited to the page-
size of their publications ; Galton would be ready with a
photographic method of modifying the linear scales in
■difTerent ratios in two directions. Nothing is more
trying at lecture or theatre than the tall person or hat ;
Galton had his "hyperscope "—a simple tube with two
reflecting mirrors at 45° by which he saw over or
round them, and he would use it in a crowd when he
wished to see what was going on beyond it. Or he
would carry a wooden brick in a parcel with a long
string attached to it ; slowly lowering it in a crowd,
he would stand on his block of vantage, and raise it
again by its string afterwards without attracting
observation. Elsewhere it has been said that, if one
wanted to put a saddle on a camel's back without
chafing it, to manage . the women of a treacherous
African tribe, to measure a snail's shell, or to work
a theodolite in the midst of London traffic, Galton
w^ould tell you how it might be done.

Beyond mechanical ingenuity ' he had great wealth
of illustration ; what he could possibly represent to the
eye, he would do, for he had a firm belief that graphic
representation is more impressive than mere nurnbers.
Within a fortnight almost of his death, seated out-
doors in a shelter, he was discussing with the present

1 Would it be safe to suggest that Galton inherited froni his Danvin
mother his views on family history ? Is " T he Life History Album (Mac-
millan, 1884 and ,90^) with its spaces for observations and photographs of
the child, a lineal descendant of this biography with silhouette illustration i

2 This was of much value to him in his later travels. When hve years
old his mother took him into a field where the ser^-ants were trying to
catch some geese. Francis ionmediately ran among them and seizing the
old gander by the neck brought him to his mother muttering at the same
time to himself the lines from " Chevy Chase ":

" Thou art the most courageous knight,

That ever 1 did see "

S Many of the contrivances devised for his first Anthropometric Laboratory
are still in current use.

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

writer as eagerly and keenly as he would have done
twenty years ago, the best method of graphically
representing and comparing typical racial crania.

Through the last )'ears of life, apart from his
eugenic work, he was very busy in trying to deduce
quantitative measures of general likeness ; evidences
of this were given in his letters on portraiture to this
Journal, and in his attempts to make a graduated
scale of "blurrers," which like a photometric wedge
would equalise divergence until differentiation of the
two compared portraits became impossible. Photo-
graphs of members of the same family — "similar and
similarly situated," as the mathematicians have it —
"blurred" more readily than those of strangers in
blood. These things amount, not to complete fulfil-
ments, but to suggestions and inspirations. But
Francis Galton realised among the earliest that a
comparison of the individual organs and characters of
local races needs supplementing by a comparison in
some manner of two " index " numbers, which by their
deviation shall measure the similarity or diversity of
these races, each as a unit complex of many indi-
vidual characters.

Judged from the modern specialist standard, Galton
was, perhaps, not a "mathematician," but he had
enough mathematics for most of the purposes
of scientific observation, .and he knew how to
enlist mathematical aid w'hen he required it.
Few of those who have really studied his
work or come in contact with his singularly clear
and logical mind, would have wished his education
other than it was. The training in observation
provided by hospital clerking under a good clinical
teacher, could never have been replaced with profit
by years spent over symbolic analysis ; the man who
w'ould patiently watch the workman in a foreign
country plying his chisel or trowel in order to learn
differentiation of method in craftsmanship, and then
take a lesson himself in handling the tool in the
native way, was a born observer, whose talents lay in
other fields than the higher abstract analytic. Yet the
essential feature of his work was, and his reputation
with the future will largely depend on, his extension
of analytical methods to the descriptive sciences.
Without' Gauss the work of Quetelet would have been
impossible. Without Quetelet we should perhaps have]
missed Francis Galton, and from Galton and his
school the new methods have spread, and are spread-J
ing into the most varied branches of science ; in medi-
cine both treatment and diagnosis will be influenced
by them, in physiology and psychology their advan-J
tages are being admitted, in biology, anthropology,^
sociology and its latest offspring— eugenics— their im-
portance has been fully recognised. And wherein does
the validity of this new treatment consist? It lies
very simply in this, that Galton following Quetelet
recognised that causation expressible in terms at
mathematical function was not the only, or even the
chief category, under which men of science can work;
that exact methods were applicable to that looser relaj
tion or association, which now passes by the name of
correlation. To Galton is due the honour of having ^
reached the first simple measure of this relationship,
and in the earlier writings of his keen disciple Weldon,
we find it called "Galton's Function," a name whicr
had to be dropped as the conception becarne more
general and its types differentiated and classified. It
ceased to be possible to call after its discoverer
philosophical category wider than that of causation^'
and embracing causation as a subclass.

The historv— at least, the formal history— of "is dis-
covery is very suggestive of the man and his method.
He had been studying the size of organs in parents
and their offspring, and he formed what is now termed
a correlation table ; that numerical table he sought to

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

44,

represent grapnically, and to his delight and surprise
ihe rough contour lines, which he drew on the table
itself, had the appearance of a family of similar and
^.imilarly situated ellipses. The line which joined the
ineans of the organs of the offspring for a given organ
in the parent was seen to be straight, and to be the
locus of the points of contact of a system of parallel
tangents to the ellipses. Gallon had reached from his
^raph the fundamental idea of the simplest type of
correlation surface — the generalised Gaussian with
linear "regression," and he was not slow to realise its
great importance and its wide application to the inter-
relationship of contemporaneously varying or asso-
ciated phenomena. He summoned mathematical aid,
and with the help of Mr. Dickson determined the form
of the Gaussian frequency surface. Years afterwards
it was discovered that the mathematics of that surface
had been worked out by Bravais, in considering the
distribution of shots over a target. Nowadays we
know that there are frequency surfaces which are not
Gaussian. Wherein then does the transcendant im-
portance of Gallon's work lie? Why, in the fact that
he was not considering shots at a target, but that he
was seeking for a key to open a door for exact quan-
titative methods into the whole wide range of vital
phenomena. From Bravais' mathematical treatment
of the Gaussian surface nothing followed, until Galton
independently rediscovered it with no idea of shots at
a target in his mind, but with the idea of investigating
problems in genetics, in evolution, and in sociology^.

His work first pointed out to us how the whole field
of nature lay open to exact numerical treatment, if
we dropped the category of causation and adopted
that of correlation.^ Not from Bravais' mathematics,
but from the suggestion and inspiration of Gallon's
contour lines on his table of observations, has sprung
the whole body of modern statistical theor\-. The
problem of evolution, and the study of heredity, were
for Galton actuarial problems. Needless to say, he
did not place on one side the study of individuals, he
was ever in sympathy with individual observation and
experiment. But, as the late Prof. Weldon expressed
it in a sentence which had Gallon's hearty assent, " the
actuarial method must be an essential part of the
equipment of any man who would make and under-
stand such experiments." It was in this very sense
that Galton initiated the Royal Society ''Committee
for conducting Statistical Inquiries into the Measur-
able Characteristics of Plants and Animals." And for
a long time he had in mind the eventual foundation
and endowment of an experimental station for varia-
tion, heredity, and selection, treated by statistical
methods. If his gift to posterity be now found to
have taken another form from his original idea, the
change is not unassociated with his views on the
need for adequate statistical treatment, or with the
change of purpose and method which led to his with-
drawal from the Evolution Committee.

If we turn from the inspiration and suggestion pro-
vided bv Galton in many varied forms of inquin.' to
his actual contributions to our knowledge, two will
occur to the minds of most readers, not necessarily

^ " The conclusions .... depend on ideas that must_ first be well com-
prehended, and which are now novel to the large majority of readers and
unfamiliar to all. But those who care to brace themselves 'or a sustained
effort, need not feel much regret that the road to be travelled over is indirect
and does not admit of being mapped beforehand in a way they cau clearly
understand. It is full of interest of its own. It familiarizes us with the
measurement of \-ariabilitv and with curious laws of chance that apply to a
vast diversity of social subjects. This part of the inquiry may be said to
Tun along a road on a high level, that affords wide views in unexpected
direciions, and from which easy descents may be made to totally different
-goals to those we have now to reach. I have a great subject to write upon,
but I feel keenly my literary incapacity to make it easily intelligible without
sacrificing accuracy and thoroughness." — (Francis Galton. " Natural In-
heritance,"' rSSg, p. 2). It is those "easy descents" to "totally different
goals " which have proved very arduous, not because they were not obvious
and easy so soon as tbe "high level road" had been made, but because
they turned out to lead into strictly preserved but brgely unlilled '' strays."

NO. 2153, VOL'. 85]

because tney are the most important, but beciuse some
statement of them has crept into elementary text-
books and popular works on science. The first of
tnese is the oft-quoted " Law of Regressicm " ; it was
not originally a theoretical deduction but deduced by
Galton trom his own measurements and observations
on individuals. It amounts to the statement that if
in a stable population — i.e. one in which no selection
is taking place, and which is mating at random — a
group ot all the parents be selected which have a
character of a given intensity, then the average of the
same character in their offspring will be nearer to the
mean of the whole population than the parental value.
.As Galton stated this statistical result, it has been
over and over again verified by mass-investigations.
But it has been singularly often misinterpreted by
commentators. One group of them extended it into
a general law that all populations tend to regress to
mediocrity, if we suspend natural selection ; they quite
overlooked Gallon's statement that the population was
stable. No such general regression to mediocrit}' was
involved in Gallon's law of regression; it was a statis-
tical law of distribution of offspring resulting from
the stability of the population. Another group of
critics selected certain special parents, overlooking
Gallon's word "all," and endeavoured to show that
the law did not apply to their offspring, and must
therefore be erroneous. The fact is that the ver\' law
itself, when applied to the offspring of somatically
selected ancestry and not to all parents of the class,
shows the cessation of regression, and it is upon this
verj' cessation of regression for selected sub-classes
that the general stability of the Gallonian population
depends.

The second contribution to the theory of heredity
with which Gallon's name has been generally asso-
ciated is that termed the "Ancestral Law of Heredit\-."
The conception Galton had in mind was the following
one : in a population mating at random and stable in
character, what would be the average relation of each
class of individuals in the new generation to each
grade of their ancestry? Naturally, he measured the
relation by his new method of correlation, practically
bv aid of the steepness of his regression lines. The
degree of resemblance to successive grades of the
ancestry was found to diminish in a geometrical pro-
gression. The exact numbers reached by Gallon from
his data (J, ^, ^-, &c.) have not been verified by
further observation. But the fundamental features of
his method, the idea of applying multiple regression
and the diminution of the degree of resemblance in a
geometric series, have been found correct. Indeed, we
now realise that almost any delerminantal theory —
including that of Mendel — leads directly to Gallon's
Law of Ancestral Heredity as slated abov'e. No direct
test of adequate ^ character has yet been made on
Gallon's Law, as it is commonly cited — a form which
he originally stated himself with great hesitation
(" Natural Inheritance." p. 136), and which does not
appear wholly in accord with other parts of his obser-
vational or theoretical treatment. Strange as it may
seem, no one has yet worked out the relationship corre-
sponding to the usually stated form of Gallon's Law
for a simple Mendelian population breeding at
random ; the theoretical investigation of it is beset
with many analytical difficulties and not a few logical
pitfalls. All the criticisms of this law have turned
on results deduced from selected gametic ancestors.

It has been asserted with some plausibility,' that
Gallon's deductions would cease to be of any value

1 Certain investigations have been made, but in every case they will be
found not to fiilQl the conditions as to average relitions, wh'ch Galton laid
down. Gallon's own material for "Basset Honrds"is really inadtnissible,
for there is scarcely any doubt about the fictitious character of many of the
putative sires.

444

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

if we could discover the physiological causes of
heredity. To this, we think, answer may be made
that Nature does not work like the breeder by testing
gametic qualities. She proceeds by selecting- with
stringency certain grades of somatic qualities, and the
intensity of quality, not the gametic value of the indi-
vidual is her index to survival. Without some degree
of correlation between somatic character and gametic
value, the Darwinian theory must collapse.. This point
Francis Galton had ever in mind, and his views on
heredity, and his treatment of the subject, always
turned on the effect of somatic selection of the ancestry
in modifying the somatic characters of the offspring.
Hence the establishment of a definite theory of
physiological heredity would at once have to be fol-
lowed by a theoretical deduction from that theory of
the degree of resemblance between somatic characters
in ancestry and offspring in a population living under
natural conditions. The questions of fertility and
death-rate in such a population are actuarial studies.
No physiological inquiry as to heredity can supersede
those studies, but such an inquiry may well confirm,
or it may modify, the laws originally stated by Francis
Galton for populations mating at random. So far as
it is possible to judge at present, current physiological
theories of heredity tend rather to confirm than refute
Galton 's conclusions.

Of the work of the last decade of Galton's life, it
is possibly too early yet' to speak with any decisive
judgment. Darwin, writing to Wallace in 1857, uses
the following words : —

"You ask me whether I shall discuss 'man.' 1
think I shall avoid the subject as so surrounded with
prejudices, though I fully admit it is the highest and
most interesting problem for the naturalist."

Darwin's later writings testify that he did not avoid
the subject, but probably the existence of the pre-
judices to which he refers prevented him from accen-
tuating the direct practical bearing of the doctrine of
evolution on human conduct. The result of this
attitude of the earlier evolutionists was that their
strength was opposed to one wing only of the army
of intellectual inertia. Their critics were theologians
and metaphysicians ; there was no question raised of
the bearing of evolution on social habit. Evolution
appeared merely as a problem of a man's intellectual
attitude towards the universe, it was a philosophical
belief, not a practical code of conduct. Francis
Galton's Huxlev lecture of 1901 "On the possible
Improvement of the Human Breed under existing
conditions of Law land Sentiment," slender as it
seemed at the time, was really the clarion call which
told us that the time was ripe for the recognition that
the doctrines of evolution and heredity were more than
intellectual belief, they were destined to control the
conduct of men in the future and determine the rela-
tive efficiency of nations. Others may have thought,
some mav have said, the same thing before ; ^ but to
Francis Galton belongs the credit of havine said it at
the psychological moment, and said it with the em-

1 For example, Sir W. Lawrence wrote in iStq : — " The hereditary trans-
mission of physical and moral qualities, so well understooH and familiarly
arted on in the domestic animals, is equally true of min. A suoerior breed
of human beings could only be produced hy selections and exchi'sions
similinr to those so successfully employed in breeding our more valuable
animals. Yet.inthe human species, where the objc-t is of such conse-
ouence, the principle is almost entirely overlooked. Hence all the native
deformities of mind and body, which spring up so plentifnilv in our artificial
mode of life, are handed down to posterity and tend by their multiplication
and extension to degrade the race. Consequently the mass of the population
m our large cities will not bear a comparison with that of savage nations, in
which, if imperfect or deformed individuals should survive the hardships of
their first rearing, they are prevented bv the kind of aversion they inspire
from propagating their deformities" What finer text for the eueenist?
But Lawrence spoke to a nation still flushed with Waterloo, while Galton,
eighty-five years later, appealed to its grandchildren still smarting from
South African _ defeats, and dimly conscious that all was not well with
either its physical or mental vigour.

NO. 2153, VOL. 85 J

phasis that made many earnest men and women
understand its gravity. Later, in his paper of 1904,
"Eugenics: its Definitions, Scope, and Aims," Galtoa
more closely defined the lines of development he had
in view for the new science : —

" Persistence in setting forth the national importance
of eugenics. There arc three stages to be passed
through : firstly, it must be made familiar as an
academic question, until its exact importance has been
understood and accepted as a fact; secondly, it must
be recognised as a subject the practical development
of which deserves serious consideration ; and thirdly, it
must be introduced into the national conscience, like
a new religion. It has, indeed, strong claims to be-
come an orthodox religious tenet of the future, for
eugenics cooperate with the workings of Nature by
securing that humanity shall be represented by the
fittest races. What Nature does blindly, slowly, and
ruthlessly, man may do providently, quickly and
kindly. As it lies within his power, so it becomes his
duty to work in that direction ; just as it is his duty
to succour neighbours who suffer misfortune. The
improvement of our stock seems to me one of the
highest objects that we can reasonably attempt. We
are ignorant of the ultimate destinies of humanity,
but feel perfectly sure that it is as noble a work to
raise its level in the sense already explained, as it
would be disgraceful to abase it. I see no impossi-
bility in eugenics becoming a religious dogma among
mankind, but its details inust first be worked out
sedulously in the study. Over zeal leading to hasty
action would do harm, by holding out expectations of
a near golden age, which will certainly be falsified
and cause the science to be discredited. The first and
main point is to secure the general intellectual accept-
ance of eugenics as a hopeful and most important
study. Then let its principles work into the heart of
the nation, who will gradually give practical effect to
them in ways that we may not wholly foresee."

We have cited the whole paragraph, for it is essen-
tially typical of the man, and some word of his
message to his nation may fitly appear here. Con-
spicuously moderate in tone, the study at each point
placed before the market-place, it was, indeed, a won-
derful appeal for a man more than eighty-two years of
age to make from the public platform. It signified that
the time was ripe for the labours of the biologist to be
turned to the breeding of man. Galton called upon
the biologist, the medical man, and the sociologist to
grasp what evolution and heredity mean for man, to
make out of their science an art, and work thereby
for the future of their nation. Nor has that appeal
miscarried ; its effect may be traced even amid the din
of controversy and clash of diverse opinions in almost
every recent book, or discussion of hereditv or evolu-
tion. Those of us, who initially doubted the wisdom
of propagandism beyond the acaden>ic field, have lived
to see a very wide public impression made, not only in
this country, but notably in Germany, America, and
some of our colonies. If that movement remains
within the lines Galton assigned to it — " no over-
zeal leading to hastv action" which will "cause the
science to be discredited " — then we firmly believe that
to the future Galton's life will appear as a rounded
whole — the youth of experience and observation, the
manhood of development and discovery of method, the
old age of practical application.

His school and disciples have lost a leader, but not
before he had lived to put the final touches to his
work. Of his generosity and helpfulness, his personal
modesty and simplicitv of nature, many of those who
came in touch with him can bear evidence by remem-
bered talk, by letter, and by act. Someday, perhaps,
these things may be put together as a memento of

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

445

the man whose teaching has just ended, but whose
life-work has only beg^un to run its course. Rewards
came to Francis Galton— medals, honorary degrees,
corresponding memberships of many learned societies
— they came unsought, but not unappreciated. His
very modesty made him take an almost childlike joy
in these recognitions of his worth, and the present
writer remembers with what pleasure, but a few weeks
ago, Galton showed him his recently received Copley
medal. But these things were not of the essence of
his life. Few men have worked so little for reputa-
tion and so much for the mere joy of discovering the
truth. His three chief pleasures in life were first to
discover a problem, secondly to solve it bv a simple
but adequate process, and thirdly to tell a congenial
friend of the problem and its solution. What he
cared chiefly for was the sympathy of men who appre-
ciated his special type of work and understood its
relation to human progress. Had he spoken of him-
self and his feelings, which he rarely did, he would, we
think, have described his purpose in life much in the
words of Huxley : —

'To promote the increase of natural knowledge,
and to further the application of scientific methods
of investigation to all the problems of life to the best
of my ability, in the conviction which has grown
with my growth and strengthened with my strength,
that there is no alleviation for the sufferings of man-
kind except veracity of thought and action, and the
resolute facing of the world as it is when the garment
of make-belief, by which pious hands have hidden its
uglier features, is stripped off."

But in Uie fulfilment of his purpose Francis Galton
was an optimist. He believed that man can not
only physically control his environment, but with fuller
biological knowledge his future development. Not on
this or that contribution to the records of science, but
on the justification of this belief, will depend his fame
in the roll of the ages. There are some of us who
believe that among the great names cited at the com-
mencement of this paper, Galton 's will not be the last,
for he has given an inspiration which will grow to full
fruition. Our country- has been the land of dominant
scientific ideas rather than of massive contributions to
the records of science — gravitation, the survival of the
fitter, the electromagnetic theory- — may we yet add —
the biological control of human development? If so,
the name of Francis Galton will be closely associated
with the coping-stone of the edifice, which had its
foundations first securely laid by his half-cousin,
Charles Darwm.

MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS AND PRE-
HISTORIC CULTURE IN THE WESTERN
MEDITERRANEAN.^

A MONG the many questions to which the atten-
-^*' tion of the British School at Rome is now
directed none is of more interest and importance than
the exploration of the megalithic remains and primi-
tive culture of the western Mediterranean which is
now in progress.

Sardinia, much the, most promising field of study,
is in the hands of Dr. Mackenzie, the value of whose
report is greatly increased by the admirable plans pre-
pared by Mr. F. G. Newton. First among these
remains come the Nuraghe or fortified towers, of
which more than one type has been identified. The
most primitive form is perhaps the simple strong
tower of circular shape, to which succeeded the tvpe

1 " Papers of th- BritisS School at Rome," Vol. v. Pp. xiv+471+47
plates. (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 42J. net.

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

represented by that of Voes, a massive triangular
building, having four circular chambers on ihe ground
floor and a central unroofed courtyard opening mto a
massively constructed corridor leading to smaller
inner rooms. Above this was a second storey, now
ruined, which may have formed the living part of
the house and the abode of the women, while the
lower floor was occupied partly by guards and at-
tendants and partly used as storehouses. These forms
soon develop into more complex types, until we reach
an elaborately fortified enciente with massive corner
towers, like that of Nossia. Dr. Mackenzie reason-
ably suggests that in the Bronze age the lords of
these Nuraghe may have possessed only limited
sovereignty, and that these elaborate fortifications
were designed in the event of incursions by the neigh-
bouring local chiefs.

The chief interest of the report lies in the fact that
for the first time a seriation of the dolmens is
attempted, and that these are now brought into rela-
tion with the Nuraghe. First comes the dolmen in
its primitive form, familiar in western Europe — a
massive slab resting on upright supports and forming
a rude chamber. The next stage is illustrated by the
monument at Maone, which, instead of being a mere
cella with vertical supports, is partly hewn into the
sloping rock, partly built up with rough coursed
masonry, on the top of which rests the cover-slab.
Then comes the form, represented by the dolmen of
Su Covecco, which is on the ^^oint of being elongated
and becoming a so-called "Giants' Tomb." In the
latter the apse-like arrangement persists, but the
cella and well of the enclosure are much extended,
and exhibit a whole series of cover-slabs instead of
the single massive stone in the primitive dolmen t}pe.
The structure thus often simulates the form of an
inverted boat, like the Naveta tombs of the Balearic
Islands, which gained their name from this fact.
They were perhaps designed to symbolise the boat
which conveyed the souls of the people, immigrants
from beyond the sea, to a place of rest across the
ocean. But the original dolmen t}pe seems to have
survived into this later period, and in one case the
tomb is provided with a secret entrance, which
may have been intended for subsequent interments,
while the smaller portal hole in the front was re-
served for the periodical rites in honour of the ancestral
spirits.

Mr. Peet's report on the prehistoric period in Malta
is mainly devoted to a criticism of the views of Albert
Mayr, who regarded the culture of prehistoric Malta
as mainly /Egean. Mr. Peet, dealing in succession
with the arguments based on the use of overlapping
or splayed masonry, the occurrence of the spiral form
of ornament, and the baet\iic or pillar worship, points
out that none of these have special .^gean or
Mycenaean provenience, and while not denving the
existence of ^gean culture in Malta, he regards it
impossible to attribute all that appears in the island
to this source.

It may be hoped that the establishment of a new-
society- for the promotion of Roman studies will give
a fresh impetus and supply increased resources for
the sur\-ey which has been so well started by Dr.
Mackenzie and Mr. Peet.

THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.

'T' O La Nature for December 11, iqto, M. Lucien
-•■ Fournier contributes a well illustrated article on the
flight of birds. One of the pictures, showing various
positions taken by the wings of gulls in flight, is here
reproduced. Three other of the illustrations, namely

446

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

a flight of gulls, a stork leaving its nest, and a flying
vulture, are particularly good.

The author separates birds into four groups, accord-
ing to the characteristics of their flight, as follows : —
(i) Wings always flapping; (2) flapping alternating
with downward gliding ; (3) Flapping and gliding with
maintained level ; (4) gliding and soaring only.

This classification can hardly be considered satis-
factory. It is suggested that a bird can fly without
any expenditure of work provided that there is even
a slightly variable wind, and the article concludes with
the hope that the day is not far distant when (by
proper automatic devices to take advantage of wind
variation) flying machines will be able to do without
engines.

In reality no bird or flying machine can maintain

SCIENCE AND LITERATURE.

A N eloquent address on language and literature was
■^*- delivered on January 27 by Lord Morley of
Blackburn, as president of the English Association.
Parts of the address dealt with the relation between
science and letters, with particular reference to the
use of scientific knowledge in poetry, and the anti-
thesis between documentary fact and artistic style.
Science aims at concise and truthful expression ; and
while Lord Morley testified to the value of its influence
upon literature, he doubted whether scientific ideas
had inspired even Tennyson to the best verse, whether
the desire for fact scientifically recorded is not a mis-
fortune in the treatment of modern history, and
whether concentration upon scientific truth has not a

A group of Gulls in flight, showing various positions of the wings of birds.

its level or rise in still air or in a uniform horizontal
wind without the expenditure of power, and although
it is true that power may be gained from the air by
a proper utilisation of the differences of the horizontal
velocity in the different regions traversed, these differ-
ences w-ould have to be large even for the sustenance of
long-winged birds, and there is no direct evidence that
this kind of flight is habitual with them.

It is not improbable, however, that with their long
experience birds have found out its possibility, and the
skimming of some birds near the surface of the waves,
where the variations of velocity are great, may be a
case in point, but there can be little doubt that when
flying at a considerable height birds depend for their
support on an upward component in the velocitv of the
wind. A. Mallock.

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

deadening effect upon emotional conceptions and plea,
sures.

Lord Morley's tribute to some scientific masters of
clear and simple exposition resigns us to his subse-|
quent conclusions. Keats could not forgive optics forj
robbing the rainbow of its wonder and mystery, and]
Lord Morley seems to suggest, that the literary art]
which deals with scientific studies and results is not of |
the highest. But poetry is imagery, and new images
of Nature, are made possible by every discovery of the'
attributes and meaning of the things around us. The
poetry which neglects advances of natural knowledge
becomes conventional in form and substance, concern-
ing itself only with the wonders of childhood because
it does not understand the higher and grander
mysteries which science has failed to penetrate. His-

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

447

tory is concerned with the accumulation and con-
sideration of facts with the view of arriving at correct
conclusions from them ; and in this respect it must be
studied by the methods of science, though the human
factor makes the problems more difficult than when
material things only are involved. There is, how-
ever, no intrinsic reason why Gibbon's majesty of
historic conceptions, and the symmetric grandeur of
his design, should not be combined with such great
learning as was displayed by Lord Acton. Accurate
knowledge must surely not be considered as antithetic
to perfection of style.

The instance of Darwia's loss of interest in poetr)'
and music proves little. A wide search through the
biographies of distinguished men of science will only
reveal two or three cases in which devotion to studies
of Nature has resulted in the atrophy of aesthetic
faculties. Close concentration upon any particular
subject often leads to indifference to the aims and
work of others ; but this is as true of art, or poetr)-, or
music, as it is of science. There is less reason for
believing that the man of science has usually no taste
for literature, music, or other forms of refined and
imaginative expression, than there is for concluding
that artists, musicians, and poets have no interest in
the attentive study of natural objects and phenomena.
If science and documentary evidence are responsible
for an age of prose, it is because the poets have been
spinning cobwebs from their brains when they ought
to have been learning something of the spirit and
achievements of science. These are they who, having
never entered upon scientific pursuits, are, to use
Herbert Spencer's words, "blind to most of the poetry
\>\ which they are surrounded."

Subjoined are some extracts from Lord Moriey's
address —

Let me offer a few words on the effects of the relations
of letters and science. We may obviously date a new
time from 1859 when Darwin's " Origin of Species "
appeared, and along with two or three other imposing
works of that date launched into common currency a new
vocabulary. We now apply in every sphere, high and
low, trivial or momentous, talk about evolution, natural
selection, environment, heredity, survival of the fittest,
and all the rest. The most resolute and trenchant of
Darwinians has warned us that new truth<» begin as rank
heresies and end as superstitions ; and if he were alive
to see to-day all the effects of his victory on daily speech,
perhaps he would not withdraw his words. That great
controversy has died down, or at least takes new shape,
leaving, after all is said, one of the master contributions
to knowledge of nature and its laws and to man's view
of life and the working of his destinies.

Scientific interest has now shifted into new areas of
discovery, invention, and speculation. Still the spirit of
I lie time remains the spirit of science, and fact and
*)rdered knowledge. What has been the effect of know-
ledge upon form, on language, on literary art? It adds
boundless gifts to human conveniences. E)oes it make an
inspiring public for the master of either prose or verse?
Darwin himself made no pretentions in authorship. He
once said to Sir Charles Lyell that a naturalist's life
would be a hap^y one if he had only to observe and never
to write. Yet he is a writer of excellent form for simple
and direct description, patient accumulation of persuasive
arguments, and a noble and transparent candour in stating
what makes against him, which, if not what is called
style, is better for the reader than the finest style can be.
One eminent literary critic of my acquaintance finds his
little volume on earthworms a most fascinating book even
as literature. Then, although the controversial exigencies
of his day affected him with a relish for laying too lustily
about him with his powerful flail, I know no more lucid,
effective, and manful English than you will find in
Huxley. What more delightful book of travel than the
" Himalaya Journals " of the great naturalist Hooker,

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

who carried on his botanical explorations some sixty years
ago, and happily is still among us?

Buffon, as man of science, is now, I assume, little
more than a shadow of a name, and probably even the
most highly educated of us know little more about him
than his famous pregnant saying that the style is the
man — a saying, by the way, which really meant no more
than that, while nature gave the material for narrative, it
is man who gives the style. Yet the French to this day
count him among the greatest of their writers for order,
unity, precision, method, clearness in scientific exposition
of animated nature, along with majestic gifts of natural
eloquence. Then comes the greatest of all. Whatever the
decision may be as to the value of Goethe's scientific con-
tribution, this, at least, is certain, that his is the most
wondrous, the unique case of a man who united high
original scientific power of mind with transcendent gifts
in flight, force, and beauty of poetic imagination.

As for science and the poets, only the other day an
attractive little book published by Sir Norman Lockyer
shows how Tennyson, the composer of verse unsurpassed
for exquisite music in our English tongue, yet . followed
with unflagging interest the problems of evolution and all
that hangs upon them. Whether astronomy or geology —
terrible muses, as he well might call them — inspired the
better elements of his beautiful work, we may doubt.
An English critic has had the courage to say that there
is an insoluble element of prose in Dante, and Tennyson
has hardly shown that the scientific ideas of an age are
soluble in musical words. Browning, his companion poet,
nearly universal in his range, was too essentially dramatic,
too independent of the scientific influences of his day, too
careless of expression, to be a case much in point. Tenny-
son said of him, he had power of intellect enough for all
of them, "but he has not the glory of words." Whether
he had or not, science was not responsible.

I should like to name in passing the English poet who,
in Lowell's words, has written less and pleased more
than any other. Gray was an incessant and a serious
student in learned tongues ; and his annotations on the
" Systems of Nature," by Linnaeus, his contemjjorary,
bear witness to his industry and minute observation as
naturalist.

In prose fiction was one writer of commanding mind,
saturated with the spirit of science. Who does not feel
how George Eliot's creative and literary art was impaired,
and at last worse than impaired, by her daily associations
with science? Or would it be truer to say — I often
thought it would — that the decline was due to her own
ever-deepening sense of the pain of the world and the
tragedy of sentient being?

Let us look at the invasion of another province by the
spirit of the time. The eager curiosity of all these years
about the facts of biology, chemistry, physics, and their
laws has inevitably quickened the spread both of the same
curiosit}' and the same respect, quickened by German
example, for ascertained facts into the province of history.
Is the pure scientific impulse — to tell the exact truth with
all the necessary reservations — easy to combine with re-
gard for artistic pleasure?

The English writer of our own Immediate time, with
the fullest knowledge and deepest understanding of the fact
and spirit of history, would, I think, be pronounced by
most critics with a right to judge to be the late Lord
Acton. Acton's was a leading case where knowledge and
profundity was not matched by form. His page is over-
loaded, he is often over-subtle, he has the fault — or shall
I call it the literary crime? — of allusiveness and indirect
reference — he is apt to put to his reader a riddle or a
poser, and then to leave him in the lurch. Here is
Acton's own account of the historian's direct debt to the
methods of science : — " If men of science owe anvthing
to us," he says, " we may learn much from them that is
essential. For they can show how to test proof, how to
secure fulness and soundness in induction, how to restrain
and employ with safety hypothesis and analogy. It is
they who hold the secret of the mysterious property of
the mind by which error ministers to truth, and truth
irrecoverably prevails."

Where the themes and issues are those of scientific
truth, that prose should be unemotional is natural. Everv-

448.

NATURE.

[February 2, igii

body knows Darwin's own account, how, as the laborious
vears passed, he so lost his taste for poetry that he could
not endure to read a word of it ; Shakespeare became so
dull it nauseated him, and music set him thinking too
energetically on what he had been working at, instead of
giving him pleasure. If all this loss was the price of
years of fruitful concentration in the master, who can
wonder if the scientific and documentary age is an age
of prosed

NOTES.

We are delighted to learn that the sum of 25,000!.
required for the purchase of the site for new chemical
laboratories at University College, London, has now been
obtained, thanks to a generous gift of 4500Z. from Mr.
Ralph C. Forster, The Grange, Sutton, Surrey. He is
a member of the firm of Messrs. Bessler, Waechter,
and Co., merchants, of Salisbury House, E.C. He was
Sheriff for the county of Surrey in 1906. The total sum
required for the purchase of the site and the erection of
the laboratories was 70,000/. It is estimated that a
sum of between 45,000!. and 50,000!. is still required
for the erection of the buildings. It is hoped that this
object will commend itself to the generosity of some
public-spirited citizen, who will come forward with what
is required to complete the scheme.

The Chemical Society of France has recently elected the
following foreign honorary members : — A. v. Baeyer,
Munich; Emil Fischer, Berlin ; P. Guye, Geneva; L.
Henry, Louvain, Belgium ; C. Istrati, Bucharest ; A.
Lieben, Vienna ; Louguinine, St. Petersburg ; Raphael
Meldola, London ; Patern6, Rome ; Sir Wm. Ramsay,
London ; and Ira Remsen, Baltimore. The late Prof. S.
Cannizaro had also been nominated by the council, but
his death prevented his nomination being confirmed by
the general meeting of the society.

An international committee of representative men of
science of distinguished eminence has been formed to
raise the funds necessary to celebrate appropriately the
jubilee of Prof. Gaston Darboux's connection with French
university education, the distinguished work he has done
for mathematics, and his services as permanent secretary
of the Paris Academy of Sciences. Donations may be
sent to Prof. Guichard, the general secretary of the inter-
national committee, at the Sorbonne, Paris. It is pro-
posed to present Prof. Darboux with a medal, reproducing
his portrait, together with an address signed by the sub-
scribers. Subscriptions of 25 francs will give the right to
a medal in bronze, and of 50 francs to a medal in silver,
which will be reduced reproductions of that to be offered
to Prof. Darboux.

The death is announced, in his seventy-first year, of
M. E. A. L6veill6, formerly president of the French
Entomological Society.

The president of the Bureau des longitudes in Paris for
the present year is M. G. Bigourdan. M. B. Baillaud is
the vice-president, and M. H. Andoyer the secretary.

O.N Wednesday next, February 8, a portrait of Prof.
W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., will be publicly presented to
the University of Manchester by the subscribers. The
presentation will take place in the Whitworth Hall of the
University at 4 p.m.

At a meeting of the research department of the Royal
Geographical Society on Thursday, February 16, Prof.
Edgeworth David, C.M.G., F.R.S., who was geologist on
Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, will submit

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

his views on certain important Antarctic problems, namely,
climate, physical structure, tectonic relations with th<'
Andes, &c.

Four lectures on plague will be delivered on February
14, 15, 16, and 17 by Dr. F. M. Sandwith, Gr^sham pro-
fessor of physic, at the City of London School, Victoria
Embankment, E.C. The lectures are free to the public,
and will begin each evening at six o'clock.

At a recent general meeting of the Liverpool Astro-
nomical Society it was resolved to raise a special fund for
the purpose of a memorial to the late Mr. R. C. Johnson,
whose long connection with the society, in which he filled
the positions of secretary and president, and his servicc^
in the interests of astronomical science, suggest that somt-
permanent recognition of his work should be made.

A MEMORIAL in marble to the late Sir John Evans,
K.C.B., has been placed by his friends in the parish
church of Abbot's Langley, Herts — a parish in which Sir
John resided for sixty years of his life. The inscription
on the tablet records not only the eminence of Sir John
Evans in science, but likewise the high administrative and
judicial positions he held in the county.

During the last fifty years Profs. Luiji Palmieri,
M. S. di Rossi and others, have, with tromometers, micro-
phones, and various other contrivances, endeavoured to
record the internal murmurings and thunderings of
Vesuvius, Etna, and other volcanoes. One of the last
professors of vulcanology at the Royal University of
Naples was H. J. Johnston-Lavis, whose work has been
chiefly directed to the mineralogy and petrology of
volcanoes. Now it is rumoured that Italy is to have a
Vulcanological Institute, for the establishment of which
the chief governments will be invited to contribute 60,000/.
Mr. Immanuel Friedlaender, who resides in Naples and
has recently published a work on the volcanoes of Japan,
has promised, it is said, 4000Z. towards this fund..

The centenary of the foundation of the publishing firm
of B. G. Teubner, of Leipzig, will be commemorated on
Friday, March 3. A large number of representatives of
science and education have been invited to take part, and
hotel accommodation is being arranged on behalf of those
who have accepted the invitations.

An oversea flight of about a hundred miles was made
by Mr. McCurdy on January 30 with an aeroplane of the
Curtis type, weighing 750 lb. and possessing a 6o-horse-
power motor. Mr. McCurdy attempted to fly from Key
West, Florida, to Havana, a distance of about no miles
across the Florida Straits. When about ten miles from
his destination he had to descend on account of the lubri-
cating oil having been exhausted.- The aeroplane was
equipped with pontoons, which enabled the descent upon
the sea to be made without injury to it or the airman.

The British South Africa Company, Reuter's Agency
states, has decided upon the despatch of a special com-
mission to investigate sleeping sickness in Rhodesia. The
commission will consist of Dr. .Aylmer May, principal
medical oflicer of northern Rhodesia ; Dr. A. Kinghorn,
of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine ; Dr. Leach,
of the Northern Rhodesian Medical Service ; Mr. O.
Silverlock, entomologist ; and Mr. Jollyman, bacteriologist.
As explained in Nature of December i (p. 147), it i>
believed that in north-eastern Rhodesia and Nyasaland
sleeping sickness is not transmitted by Glossina palpalis,
but is probably carried by G. morsitans, a species which,
unlike G. palpalis, is not confined to well-defined and

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

449

limited areas in the neighbourhbod of water, but is dis-
tributed over large districts.

According to a Times correspondent at Tiensin, a slight
earthquake shock was experienced there at 8.45 a.m. on
January 25. .\ Reuter message says that on January 28
the eruption of a volcano at Taal caused at Manila three
strong earthquakes, and nearly a hundred lesser shocks.
A later message states that towns for a radius of twenty
miles are suffering from a rain of mud and stones, due to
the volcanic eruption at Taal. Five small villages in the
Taal district appear to have been destroyed by a great
wave, and no fewer than 400 lives were lost in that region.

The preliminary reading of the Bill fc«- making official
time in France coincide with Greenwich time was accepted
in the French Senate on January 26, on the understand-
ing that the Paris meridian should still be adopted for
naval, astronomical, and cartographical requirements.
Decided advantage will accrue from the introduction of
uniform time in western Europe, and the Bill before the
Senate will be widely welcomed. The essential article of
the Bill reads : — " Official time in France and in Algeria
shall be Paris mean time put back nine minutes and
twenty-one seconds."

On Thursday next, February 9, Dr. P. Chalmers
Mitchell will begin a course of three lectures at the Royal
Institution on " Problems of Animals in Captivity," and
on Saturday, February 11, Dr. Thomas G. Jackson will
deliver the first of three lectures on " Architecture : the
Byzantine and Romanesque Period." The Friday evening
discourse on February 10 will be delivered by Sir Sidney
Colvin on " Robert Louis Stevenson," on February 17 by
Prof. Henry E. Armstrong on " The Stimulation of
Digestive .Activity," and on February 24 by Prof. Jean
Perrin on " Mouvement Brownien et Reality Moleculaire "
(in French).

The theatre of the Museum of the Yorkshire Philo-
sophical Society in York has for several years been a
subject of concern to the council. Though larger than
most of the theatres belonging to the principal London
societies, it is often inconveniently overcrowded. This
state of things, we learn from the Yorkshire Herald of
January 19, is now in a fair way of being remedied. The
president of the societ}-. Dr. Tempest .Anderson, has
decided to apply to the building of a new theatre a sum
of money left to him by his sister, the late Mrs. Percy
Siaden, to be used for some scientific purpose. The well
of the present theatre will be boarded over with either a
permanent or movable floor, and this hall will thus become
available as a reception room for use before or after the
lectures, and also for smaller meetings. The new theatre
will be built at the west side of the present building, space
being reserved in front of it for a further enlargement
of the museum. The proposed theatre will be about
79 feet long and 47 feet wide, and will comfortably seat
nearly 400 people. Between the higher tiers of the seat-
ing and the basement hall a workroom (39 feet by 26 feet)
will be provided.

The Research Defence Society was founded three years
ago to make generally known the facts as to experiments
on animals in this country, and the regulations under
which they are conducted : the immense importance of
such experiments to the welfare of mankind, and the great
saving of human and animal life and health which is
already due to them. Under the presidency of Lord
Cromer, and by ihe untiring efforts of the honorary secre-
tar}-, Mr. Stephen Paget, the society has done and is doing
NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

excellent educational service in the cause of science and
humanity. From a short statement just issued of its work
during the past year, it appears that since January last
twenty-one pamphlets and leaflets have been published by
the society upon such subjects as Pasteur, science, and
medicine ; plague in India ; diphtheria and antitoxin ;
sleeping sickness; Malta fever ; and humanity and science.
There has been a very great increase during the year in
the quantity of pamphlets and leaflets distributed, and in
the number of addresses and popular lectures, and lantern
lectures, given by members of. the society in all parts of
the country. A large number of the publications has been
distributed among public libraries and similar institutes,
and also sold in the ordinary way of publication. There
are now nearly four thousand members, but it is hoped
that many more people in sympathy with its aims will
become members or associates of the society, and help to
extend its educational work.

M.\NY attempts have been made to synchronise the
phonograph or gramophone with the kinematc^raph, so as
to be able to reproduce simultaneously the sounds of the
voice, as in singing and speech, while the movements of
the face and the bodily gestures of the singer or speaker
are depicted on the screen. The difficulty has been two-
fold : how to obtain the exact synchronism and how so to
intensify the vocal sounds, or rather the mechanism for
recording the vocal sounds, as to allow the sound-recorder
to be placed at something like the same distance from the
speaker as that between the speaker and the kinemato-
graph. The difficulties, however, appear to have been
surmounted by M. Gaumont. In La Nature of December
31 last, an interesting description is given of a meeting,
on December 27, of the Paris Academy of Sciences, at
which, by means of M. Gaumont 's method, there appeared
on the screen an image of M. d'.Arsonval which made
gestures and delivered an explanatory speech. The details
of the method are not fully developed, but they are to be
made public without delay. It appears that M. Gaumont
has been struggling with experimental difficulties for more
than eight years. We may soon have in our homes the
chefs-d'oeuvre of our theatres played by our best actors,
and even lectures by famous professors may not be
restricted to their class-rooms, but the speakers may be
both seen and heard at so much a yard. Such reproduc-
tions are to be called phonoscenes. We may well say
with Dominie Sampson — ^"prodigious"!

The syllabus for the first half of the present year of
the North London Natural History Society provides plentj'
of opportunities for those members who wish to do serious
out-door work in their subject, as well as to attend lectures
and meetings for discussion. The session opened on
January 10, when Mr. M. Greenwood, the president,
delivered his presidential address, taking for his subject
" Science from the Non-professional Standpoint." He
laid great emphasis on the value of amateur science, and
reminded the members that it has been said the amateur
is the glory of British research. " Remember that the
greatest biol<^ist our country has produced, Charles
Darwin, was an amateur." Mr. Greenwood summarised
the leading principles of a great man of science as patience
in labouring, impartiality in judging, absolute candour in
stating the conclusions to which his researches lead him,
and a resolute scorn of the idols of the market-place. The
function of science in the life of a non-professional student
is of high importance, he said, and that to draw the
utmost advantage from his work it is well for such a
student to concentrate his energies upon a limited number
of subjects, and, above all, to devote original, independent

450

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

thought to whatever he undertakes. " The fundamentally
valuable thing in scientific study is the mental attitude it
engenders. It is doubtless true that we, as a nation, do
not spend enough money on pure research and technical
instruction ; but behind and beyond all this lies our chief
national sin — a contempt for scientific reasoning, a striving
after short cuts to knowledge, and a slovenly omniscience,
as witnessed in our love for examinations and worship of
success, qua success." Particulars concerning the society
may be obtained from the secretaries, Messrs. S. W.
Bradley and T. R. Brooke, 12 Warren Road, Chingford,
N.E.

Dr. F. Gron makes some remarks in I' Anthropologic
•^Tome xxi., p. 625) on the prehistoric operation described
by Prof. Manouvrier by the term "T sincipital." This is
a T-shaped groove of variable depth that is found in
■certain Neolithic skulls, which extends along the sagittal
and lambdoidal sutures. Skulls of all ages, from pre-
historic to recent times, and from many countries, have
been collected which show indubitable evidence of trepana-
tion. These perforations are generally admitted to be
surgical operations in order to alleviate pain or to cure
certain diseases. Celsius, speaking of malaria of the
eyes, refers to a curative operation of cutting the skin by
sagittal and frontal incisions, but Dr. Gron does not con-
sider that this is the same operation as that under con-
sideration. He directs attention to the fact that all the
skulls found in France with the " T sincipital " are those
of women, and puts forward the view that it was not a
prehistoric operation undertaken for medical reasons, but
a form of punishment of which the vestige is found in
the stigmata of historic times. The author adds : —
" Certainly this opinion is only a hypothesis."

In an interesting paper presented to the research depart-
ment of the Royal Geographical Society on January 19,
Messrs. A. J. B. Wace and M. S. Thompson discuss the
"distribution of early civilisation in northern Greece in rela-
tion to its geographical features, and in particular the
communications through the mountain passes and the
forests of Thessaly, which in ancient times seem to have
■extended over a much wider area than that which they
occupy at present. These remains generally take the form
of high or low mounds, most of them situated in the
plains, but a few are to be found in the foothills. Both of
these types must be distinguished from the conical
mounds covering Hellenistic tombs, which extend into the
prehistoric area. The civilisation of the race occupying
these sites is of a primitive type, widely different from
the more advanced Mi'noan culture of the south, which
apparently reached northern Greece in its latest phase, and
■did not replace the local cultures. The co-existence of
this northern Neolithic culture with the use of bronze
further south must be taken into account in considering
the usually accepted view that the Achaeans were invaders
from the north.

The expedition of the Duke of the Abruzzi to the
Karakoram Himalayas is described by Dr. Filippo de
Filippi in the January number of the Geographical Journal.
In spite of many difficulties, much useful and important
work was accomplished. Sedimentary and crystalline
rocks were found, constituting different portions of the
region traversed, and peaks rising well above 20,000 feet
occurred in each. Measurements at the beginning and
end of the expedition on the Baltoro glacier gave the
average movement as 5J feet a day during June and July ;
some articles of equipment left on the upper Goodwin-
Austen glacier by the Eckenstein-W^ssely-Guillarmod ex-

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

pedition in 1902 furnished another means of measurement,
and here the movement was less than a mile in seven
years, or an average rate of barely 2 feet a day. Aneroid
observations were found to be unsatisfactory, but valuabl'
work was done by photogrammetry supplemented by theo-
dolite observations, and in this way much was accom-
plished in spite of the unfavourable weather.

Bulletin No. 19 of the Agricultural Research Irstitute
at Pusa is devoted to a list of the vernacular, scientific,
and English names of the commoner Indian insects.

The Scientific American for January 7 contains a long
illustrated article on the New York Zoological Park, which
embraces an area of 264 acres, and contains at the present
time more than 5000 wild animals. That the park is
highly appreciated by New York people may be inferred by
the fact that 1,614,953 persons passed the turnstiles last
year. Attention is specially directed to a huge open-air
bird-cage, with a ground-area of 152 by 75 feet, and a
height of 55 feet, and enclosing three fair-sized forest trees
and a pond of 100 feet in length. Naturally, the authori-
ties have endeavoured to exhibit a representative series of
the animals of North America, among which at the pre-
sent time a special feature is the show of the various forms
of huge brown bears inhabiting Alaska. A new and note-
worthy exhibit is the herd of six musk-ox calves, five of
which were recently received from Ellesmere Land, Green-
land, as the gift of Paul J. Rainey. " Miss Melville," the
sixth specimen, arrived a year ago from Melville Island:
These six constitute the only live herd of these animalb
in captivity.

In its January issue, the American Naturalist prints
an address on " organic response," delivered by Dr. D. T.
Macdougal, the president, before the meeting of the
Society of American Naturalists held at Ithaca, N.Y., on
December 29, 19 10. The article is of such length that it
is difficult to give a precis of its scope within the normal
limit of a note in this column. The chief subject is,
however, the changes undergone by animals and plants
under different conditions of environment, especially as the
result of artificial transportation or tnansplantation. After
alluding to the peculiar suitability of micro-organisms with
a short life-cycle to experiments of this nature, and the
results obtained therefrom. Dr. Macdougal refers to the
difference in the breeding habits of the spotted salamander
according as to whether it lives at high or low levels, the
species being viviparous under the former and ovovivi-
parous under the latter conditions. It is added that if the
Alpine black salamander be kept in a high temperature, its
larva; resemble those of the spotted species when in its
lower habitat, whereas if the spotted kind be kept in a
low temperature, its reproductive habits and young
approximate to those of its black relative. Attention is
next directed to the results obtained by transporting
beetles to habitats unlike their own, after which comes a
fuller account of the American experiments in regard to
growing selected kinds of plants at different elevations and
under different conditions of climate and soil. These
experiments are being conducted on a very extensive scale,
large " xero-montane-, " " montane," " maritime," and
other types of plantations having been established in
California, Arizona, and elsewhere. For the results of
these our readers must refer to the address itself.

In the latter part of the article on sexual dimorphism
in plants, published in the Biologisches Centralblatt
(November 15, 1910), Prof. Goebel describes some
anomalous features observable in flowers of the Compo-
sitje. Generally, as in Calendula, the female ray florets

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

451

are larger than the hermaphrodite or the male tubular
florets. But in Homogyne alpina, Cotula coronopifoUa,
and species of Xanthium the female flowers are smaller.
In Petasites nivetis, which is dioecious, the inflorescence of
female flowers grows considerably after the flowering
period, while the inflorescence of male flowers remains
small ; jet the female flowers individually are much smaller
than the male, especially in the corolla. The author
suggests that these anomalies may be explained as the
result of two opposite tendencies, the one to enlarge the
corolla for show, as in the ray florets, the other, frequent
in unisexual flowers, to reduce the corolla.

A VIVID sketch of two botanical excursions in the south-
west region of West Australia is communicated by Captain
A. Dorrien-Smith to the Journal of the Royal Horticultural
Society (vol. xxxvi., part ii.), where the author says that
the magnificence of the flora surpasses that of any other
region he has visited. In the neighbourhood of Cape
Naturaliste, Banksia grandis, B. attenuata, a blue
Leschenaultia, and Templetonia retusa were conspicuous.
The finest display was encountered at Warrangup Hill
(2800 feet), in the Stirling Range, where a giant white
Epacrid, Lysinema ciliatum, tall bushes of a pink-flowered
Protead, Isopogon latifolius, and the golden-flowered
Dryandra formosa attracted special attention. Another
vegetation sketch, ecological rather than floristic, in the
same number deals with rare wild flowers in the west of
Ireland, in which Mr. Lloyd Praeger describes, and in
some measure explains, their peculiar distribution. The
article is recommended to students as an admirable essay
on a unique and instructive combination of ecological
problems.

Having regard to the recent consummation of the Union
of South Africa, Prof. H. W. Pearson took advantage of
an opportune occasion to lay before the biological section
of the South African Association for the Advancement of
Science during last November, in his presidential address,
the great desirability and advantages of a South African
National Botanic Garden. In the first instance, Prof.
Pearson, while assigning due credit to the work of existing
institutions, notably the Natal Botanic Garden ably ad-
ministered by Mr. Medley Wood, pointed out that none of
these provides sufficient area or is situated in a suitable
locality for an establishment or State department, which
should comprise not only horticultural departments, an
experimental garden and herbarium with library, but also
a museum of economic products, research laboratories and
a staff of technical assistants and plant collectors. Chief
among the arguments advanced are the non-existence of a
garden where the unique plants of South Africa are
grown and investigated, the necessity for the study of the
veld vegetation with a view to the improvement of the
fodder grasses, and the desirability of extended botanical
exploration.

The Rev. M. Saderra Mas6, who has for many years
studied the earthquakes of the Philippine Islands, is now
turning his attention to the subterranean noises known in
other countries under various names, such as mist-poeffeurs,
marinas, brontidi, retumbos, &c. In the Philippines many
terms are used, generally signifying merely rumbling or
noise, while a few indicate that the noises are supposed to
proceed from the sea or from mountains or clouds. Most
of the places where they are observed lie along the coasts
of inter-island seas or on enclosed bays ; very few are
situated on the open coast. The noises are heard most
frequently at nightfall, during the night and in the earlv
morning, especially in the hot months of March, April, and

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

May, though in the towns of the Pangasinan province they^
are confined almost entirely to the rainy season. They are
compared in 70 per cent, of the records to thunder. With
rare exceptions, they seem to come from the mountains
inland. The instances in which the noises show any
connection with earthquakes are few, and observers usually
distinguish between them and the low rumblings which
occasionally precede earthquakes. It is a common opinior»
among the Filipinos that the noises are the effect of waves-
breaking on the beach or into caverns, and that they are
intimately connected with changes in the weather, generally
with impending typhoons. Father Saderra Mas6 is inclined
to agree with this view in certain cases. The typhoons in
the Philippines sometimes cause very heavy swells, which
are propagated more than a thousand kilometres, and hence
arrive days before the wind acquires any appreciable force.
He suggests that special atmospheric conditions may be
responsible for the great distances to which the sounds are
heard, and that their apparent inland origin may be due to
reflection, possibly from the cumulus clouds which crowr*
the neighbouring mountains, while the direct sound-waves
are shut off by walls of vegetation or inequalities in the
ground.

The Berne correspondent of the Morning Post
(January 20) states that a fall of what has been called
" black " snow, which occurred recently in the Lower
Emmen Valley, has caused a great deal of interest im
Switzerland. The most reasonable explanation put for-
ward is that in certain conditions of weather snow may
take an appearance of blackness which is quite deceptive.
It appears that after the snowfall there was a slight thaw,
and a very fine rain fell. While it was still raining, the
" Bise," a piercing cold and dry north or north-east wind,
set in, and froze the rain on the surface of the snow.
Underneath the crust of pure ice thus formed there was-
a small air-filled space, and the light when reflected from;
the snow beneath produced to the eye a dark appearance.
We find that in the " Glaciers of the Alps " (p. 204)^
Tyndall refers to another optical effect caused by the con-
dition of the snow on the Montanvert in winter, in which
" the portions most exposed to the light seemed least
illuminated, and their defect in this respect made them
appear as if a light-brown dust had been strewn over
them."

According to usual practice, Dr. H. R. Mill has com-
municated to the Times Qanuary 17) a preliminary state-
ment of the general character of the rainfall of 1910, and
also an abridged summary of the same to Symons's
Meteorological Magazine for January. As we have already
referred (January 5) to statistics prepared from another
source, we need only quote here some of the leading
features shown by Dr. Mill's first examination of about
3000 records of the British Rainfall Organisation. The
results, which are exhibited by maps, and by carefully
prepared tables for stations and districts, show that the
British Isles, as a whole, had an excess of 8 per cent. ;
Wales had an excess of 17 per cent. ; southern England,
16 per cent. ; Ireland, 9 per cent. ; northern England and
Scotland, less than 5 per cent. The relatively Tvettest area
was in portions of Somerset and Monmouth, where the
excess exceeded 30 per cent. A /ery wet area extended
through Devon and Cornwall, along Dorset, Wiltshire,
Hampshire, and Sussex, also to Hereford and part of
Wales, but in many places the rainfall was below
the average, especially on the coasts. The year had one
of the wettest Februaries and one of the driest Septembers
on record. Dt. Mill remarks that the relation of two dry

452

N'ATURE

[February 2, 191 1

years followed by a wet year, which prevailed for England
and Wales for twenty-one years, including 1909, has now
completely broken down, and that it seems possible that
the swing of the pendulum is carrying us into a period of
predominating wet years, corresponding to the wet period
of 1874-83.

In the Memorie del R. Istituto Lomhardo di Scienze e
Letterc Signor A. M. Pizzagalli has published a memoir,
"La cosmogonia di Bhrgu," an investigation of the rela-
tion of the rosmogonic myth to the epics of India. The
cosmogony of Bhrgu is part of one of the subdivisions of
the twelfth book of the Mahabharata ; it is in the form
of a dialogue between two legendary persons, Baradvaja
and Bhrgu, the former asking questions, the latter answer-
ing them. It deals with the origin of all things in the
animal as well as in the vegetable world, which are sup-
posed to have the same composition and to be essentially
identical. It shows how the vital flame combines with
the earth-element to form the body of the individual, while
the soul, an efflux of the Supreme Being, pervades and
rules the body and endows it with various qualities. A
complete translation of the dialogue is given ; there is
nothing astronomical in it.

" The Structural Design of Aeroplanes " forms the
title of a paper' read before the Institution of Civil
Engineers of Ireland by Prof. Herbert Chatley about a
twelvemonth ago, and now reprinted (Dublin : John
Falconer, 1910). In it the author endeavours to apply
exact mathematical methods to the calculation of the
stresses in the sustaining framework of an aeroplane, as
well as in the supporting surfaces. In view of the
number of deaths that have resulted in the past year from
breakages of aeroplanes, the alternative causes frequently
being instability, it ought to be evident that the only way
of placing the problem of aviation on a satisfactory basis,
and of preventing future fatalities, is by encouraging the
further development of investigations such as Prof.
Chatley 's, and by determining exeprimentally the un-
known data which such investigations show to be neces-
sary in order to complete the solutions of such problems—
the latter being evidently a comparatively easy task. In
the discussion on the paper, however, we notice the usual
want of appreciation of the methods of exact science on
. the part of so-called " practical men."

M. Gilbert Maire contributes to La Revue des I dees
for November 15, 1910, an account of an interesting
medico-psychological study of Prof. Henri Poincar^ under-
taken by Dr. Toulouse. " Owing to the wide public interest
which has been aroused, especially in France, by
Poincar^'s writings on the philosophy of science and on
the concepts of mathematics, many readers will wonder
how and under what conditions Poincar^ originates his
investigations. It is evident from the present account that
when absorbed in a problem Poincar6 has often, like many
another genius, become oblivious to matters of everyday
life. What seems, however, to have most impressed Dr.
Toulouse was that Poincar^'s discoveries were not arrived
at as the result of a concentration of mental effort, but
that they have come on him spontaneously, often when
his thoughts have been turned in quite different directions.
For this kind of faculty Dr. Toulouse has proposed the
name "auto conduction." Whether a new name was
really needed, or whether the same faculty has already
been recognised and described under other names, is a
matter on which there may be more than one opinion.
At the same time, the fact that Poincar^, and probably
many ether philosophers, and especially mathematicians,
NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

became suddenly inspired by new ideas (and, indeed, find
it impossible to throw these ideas on one side, even
temporarily, until they have developed them), affords an
interesting problem for the psychologist, and Dr.
Toulouse's examination may well direct attention to this
problem.

The four numbers of the Journal of the Royal Society
of Arts ending with that of January 13 contain the text of
the Cantor lectures on industrial pyrometry which hav^'
been delivered before the Society by Mr. C. R. Darling.
The last two lectures concern themselves mainly with tho
simplified forms of the platinum thermometer, the thermo-
junction, and the radiation pyrometer, which have been
constructed for use in works where observational skill on
the part of the users cannot be taken for granted. Several
of the methods described have received attention in these
columns as they have been developed from those suitable
for more accurate work.

More than forty pages of the number of Hitnmel und
Erde for December 30, 1910, are devoted to addresses on
the principle of relativity which have been delivered before
scientific societies in Germany during the past year. Th<-
first of these, delivered by Prof. E. Cohn, of Strassburg,
before the Scientific and Medical Society of that city, aim
at a clear exposition of the principle to an audience 1
whom it was comparatively unknown, and it succeed -
admirably in its object by the help of experiments per-
formed with an ingenious model designed for the purpose.
The second, delivered by Prof. H. Poincar^, of Paris,
j before the Scientific Society of Berlin, goes somewhat
more fully into the reasons which have led to the extension
I to general physics of a principle as old as Galileo and
! Newton, that our knowledge of the motion of any body
can only be of its motion with respect to some other body.
When this principle is traced to its logical conclusion in
relation to the known facts about the speed of light, it
leads to the denial of most of the laws of the old
mechanics. The units of mass, length, and time on one
moving body will differ from those on another moving
body by amounts which depend on the relative motions of
i the bodies with respect to each other. Prof. Poincar6 is
not disposed to accept the principle as fundamental
throughout physics, and points out many of the difficulties
which still have to be overcome before it can be regarded
as altogether satisfactory.

W'E have just had the opportunity of trying the " tab-
loid " preparations of Messrs. Burroughs Wellcome and
Co. as specially arranged for colour photography by the
single-plate (or screen-plate) processes. They give excel-
lent results, and the uniformity which the use of tabloids
ensures eliminates a fruitful source of uncertainty that too
often spoils the work of those who use such plates at
irregular intervals. The formulae given are suitable for
the Autochrome, Thames, Ominicolore, and Dufay plates.
The cartons are three only— the developer, the reversing
compound, and the intensifier, the last often being un-
necessary.

A paper on the inversion of cane-sugar under the
influence of acids and neutral salts, by Mr. Noel Deerr,
has been issued as Bulletin No. 35 of the Agricultural and
Chemical Series of the Experiment Station of the Hawanan
Sugar Planters' Association. The author has determmed
the influence of twenty-three different salts upon the rate
of inversion of cane-sugar by hydrochloric and other acids.

The Bio-Chemical Journal of January 17 contains an
article, by Prof. B. Moore, " In Memory of Sidney Ringer

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

453

[1835-1910]. Some Account of the Fundamental Dis-
coveries of the Great Pioneer of the Bio-chemistry of
Crystallo-colloids in Living Cells." This may be regarded
as supplementing the biographical notice of Ringer's
career, and of his work as a clinician, which is to be
found in the British Medical Journal of October 29, 1910.

We have received from Messrs. E. Merck, of Darmstadt,
a copy of the third German edition of their *' Index " of
pharmaceutical preparations. Eight years have elapsed
since the second edition was issued, and the index now
forms a handsome volume of nearly 400 pages. Copies of
the new edition can be procured from the London agent
of the firm.

The properties of binary mixtures of some liquefied gases
are described in the Journal of the Chemical Society by
Dr. B. D. Steele and Mr. L. S. Bagster, of Melbourne
University. The mixtures chosen were those of sulphur
dioxide with hydrogen bromide, and hydrogen sulphide
with hydrogen bromide and with hydrogen iodide. The
vapour pressures were plotted for a series of temperatuies
from —35° to —75°. A mixture of hydrogen sulphide and
hydrogen bromide in the proportion of 60 to 40 was found
to have a minimum vapour pressure (or maximum boiling
point, analogous to those observed in mixtures of water
with the halogen acids), in spite of the fact that the solu-
tions are non-conductors and have given no evidence either
of ionisation or of association. Mixtures of hydrogen
sulphide and hydrogen iodide, on the other hand, gave
direct linear relationships between total vapour pressure
and composition (of liquid) and between the vapour
pressures of the two constituents and the concentration of
the liquid, thus adding another to the very short list of
pairs of liquids which obey Raoult's law throughout the
whole range of compositions.

The fourth volume of the Journal of the Institute of
Metals is now available. It has been edited by Mr. G.
Shaw Scott, the secretary of the societ\% and copies may
be purchased at the offices of the institute, price 215. net.
The greater part of the volume consists of the papers of
scientific interest read at the annual autumn meeting of
the institute held in Glasgow last September^ abstracts of
which were published in Nature of September 29 (vol.
Ixxxiv., p. 421). These papers are in the volume supple-
niented by written communications from eminent authori-
ties after the papers were read. The first May lecture,
which was delivered by Prof. W. Gowland, F.R.S., is
also included, together with a series of abstracts of papers
relating to the non-ferrous metals and the industries con-
nected with them.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

Splendid Meteor ox January 25. — Mr. W. F. Denning
writes : — " St. Paul's Day, January 25, has been noted
in past years for occasionally supplying very large meteors,
and it has maintained its character this year.

" A fireball was seen at yh. 5m. p.m. by Mr. J. L.
Haughton, of Birmingham, falling very slowly from the
region of Aldebaran in Taurus to * Orionis. The meteor
was more brilliant than Venus at her best, but there were
some clouds in the sky, which prevented the best effects
being observed and interfered with the accuracy of the
record. Near Leeds, Mr. J. H. Park witnessed the meteor
sailing very slowly along from the north-west to south-
east, and passing south-west of the Pleiades. The heavens
WTe much overcast, and only a few stars visible.

■' The probable radiant of the fireball was in Cepheus
at 330° + 58°, and it apparently belonged to the same
stream as that which supplied the magnificent fireball of
January 25, 1894. The recent one passed from over Mon-

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

mouth to Wiltshire at a height of about 83 to 46 miles,
but additional observations are required."

Nova Lacert^.— In No. 4466 of the Astronomische
Nachrichten Dr. Max Wolf publishes a reproduction of
the region about Nova Lacertae from a photograph taken
on January 2 with an exposure of thirty-one minutes.
The reprocluction covers a circular region of 1° diameter,
with the nova at the centre, and shows stars to about the
fifteenth magnitude; the B.D. comparison stars are
especially marked. The earlier plates on which a star
of magnitude twelve or thirteen is shown in the nova's
position were taken on July 15, 1904 (exposure 3h. 46m.)
and January 9 and 11, 1894 (2h. 30m. exposure), the former
with the Bruce and the latter with the 6-inch telescope.
In No. 4467 of the same journal the result of a compari-
son of positions of this faint object and the nova is
announced, and it seems reasonably certain that they are
identical — that the star took part in the catastrophe pro-
ducing the nova.

The identity is confirmed by Prof. Barnard, who, in
No. 4468 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, states that he
has found the image of a fourteenth-magnitude star in
the place of the nova on plates taken on August 7, 1907,
August 22 and 24, 1909, and October 11, 1893. On the
first-named plate the position of the image agrees within
oois. in R.A. and o-i' in dec, with the nma's position
as determined with the 40-inch micrometer. In the 40-inch
telescope the nova has two distinct and sharp foci, such
as were also exhibited by Nova Geminorum (1903). the one
being 8 mm. further from the object-glass than the other.
Prof. Barnard has never noted this peculiaritv' in other
stars, and ascribes it to the great brilliance of the crimson
Ha line of hydrogen, as shown on the Yerkes spectro-
grams.

For January 10 and 16 Prof. Millosevich gives the
magnitude of the nova as 7-4 and 7-7 respectively.

Dr. Miinch obtained a spectrogram with a 15-cm.
objective prism used with the Zeiss triplet of the Potsdam
Observaton.' on January 6 and 7, and the same prism
was used, by Dr. Eberhard, in connection with the 30-cm.
reflector on January 8. The plates show a continuous
spectrum crossed by a number of bright lines. The
hydrogen lines Ha-H»j are bright and very broad, and
there is a very bright band at A 4654. A broad absorption
band appears on the more refrangible side of H7, a bright
emission line is seen at X 4056, and near it. at A. 4045,
there is a distinct absorption line ; the K line is much
fainter than would be expected from the brightness of the
emission lines.

A plate taken by Prof. Hertzsprung on May 22, 1910,
shows no trace of the nova, which was then certainly
fainter than the eleventh magnitude.

M. Felix de Roy, Antwerp, found the magnitude of the
nova on Januarv' 7 to be 7-8, and the colour was about
6<' on Osthoff's scale. A telegram from Herr Mewes,
Breslau, states that the nova was exceedingly red on
January 14.

Absorbing Matter in Space. — In No. 5 of the Trans-
vaal Observator)- Circulars Mr. Innes discusses the blank
region of the sky around the star S. Corona Aust., and
suggests that the apparent vacuity may be the result of
the interposition of an absorbing medium which cuts off
the light of the stars behind it. Messrs. Innes and
Worssell find that in one part of the region the field of
the 9-inch refractor (25') includes no star of any magni-
tude. The latter also considers that he is able to detect
a distinct difference in tint on passing the border of the
blank and starry parts of the sky ; the region is probably
unique. Some of the stars appear to be surrounded by
nebulous matter, but the small dark patches — seen on a
photograph reproduced on Plate xxii. — are the most re-
markable objects. Mr. Innes suggests that all the pheno-
mena could be best explained by supposing that irregular
sheafs of gas, some of which are dark and <^aque, others
slightly luminous at their extremities, cover the region.
Where this gas is impenetrable no stars are seen ; rifts in
it allow other stars to appear ; and where it is slightly
luminous the stars behind it appear with circumjacent
nebulosities.

In 1899-1901 the tenth-magnitude star Cor.D.M.
— 36° 13208 was recorded by Mr. Innes as " not seen,"

454

NATURE

[February 2, J911

iiut Mr. Worssell found it visible — and probably variable —
in 1909-10, its iiiagnitude ranging from ii-o (1909 July 21)
to \2-2 (1909 September 5). This star lies on the border
of the abnormally tinted patch of the sky, and it is
suggested that its disappearance in 1899-1901 may have
ijeen due to a slight extension of the obscuring medium,
which is now retreating.

Photographic Determinations of Stellar Parallax. —
To No. 5, vol. xxxii., of the Astrophysical Journal Prof.
F. Schlesinger contributes the first part of a paper on the
photographic determinations of stellar parallax made with
the Yerkes refractor. Previous parallax determinations
have usually been made with short-focus instruments, and
it occurred to Prof. Schlesinger, in 1902, that the errors
■of observation might be greatly reduced if much greater
focal lengths were employed ; the cooperation of the Yerkes
authorities and the Carnegie Institution rendered this
possible, and 327 plates, relating to twenty-five different
regions, were secured, and have been reduced for the
purposes of the present papers.

In this first paper Dr. Schlesinger describes in detail
the apparatus and methods employed in securing the
photographs. The question of using screens, for the
sharpening of the stellar images, was considered, but it
was decided not to use them, as difficulties might be intro-
■duced ; also, it was found that, with the 40-inch objective
used with Cramer Instantaneous Isochromatic plates, they
were really unnecessary. A special movable plate-carrier,
adjustable in two directions by means of screws, was
employed, and the coincidence of the optical axis and the
geometrical centre of the plate was investigated ; it was
'found that they were separated on the plate by about
'8 cm. (about fourteen minutes of arc), but the final effect
was negligible, and, as the radical correction of the tilt
would have interfered with other instruments used with
the 40-inch, no attempt was made to correct it. The
focussing each evening was done visually by means of an
■eye-piece sliding on a graduated scale. The " hour-angle
error," produced by atmospheric dispersion, was
■eliminated, so far as possible, by choosing the hour-angle
at which each plate was exposed ; it was also deemed
advisable to use the telescope on one side of the pillar
■only, in order to eliminate "optical distortion." After
several experiments an ingenious " rotating disc " occult-
ing shutter was employed for reducing the brightness of
the parallax star to that of the surrounding comparison
sTars.

Many other interesting points are discussed bv Dr.
"Schlesinger, but space does not permit of their being
mentioned here. It may, however, be added that the scale
•of the plates is such that i mm. corresponds to 10-6'', and
"that 20 cm. X25 cm. plates were used.

Lines in the Spectra of Nebula. — No
"Lick Observatory Bulletins contains
•discovered photographically by Dr.

the great nebula of Orion he finds lines at A 3734 (faint),
A 3722 (v. faint), \ 3712 (v.v. faint), and X 3704 (v. faint),
all of which he ascribes to hydrogen ; another line is
suspected at A. 4137.

In N.G.C.7027 lines were found at X 6301, X 654.8, and
^ 6583, the latter two making a conspicuous triplet with
Ho, which is very bright in all the nebulae that ha%-e been
-observed.

Utilisation of the Sun's Heat. — In the January
number of L' Astronomic — to which title the Bulletin de
la Societe astronomique de France has reverted — Prof.
Ceraski describes and illustrates a very simple thermo-
electric pile which he made and which gives sufficient
current to ring an electric bell whenever the sun shines.
He also suggests, hesitatingly, that if made up in sufficient
numbers and placed in suitable localities, batteries of such
■piles might be employed in utilising the solar radiations.

PROPOSED CALENDAR REFORM.
pROPOS.\LS for reformation of the calendar have been
somewhat numerous of late years, and few of the
proposers appear to have a full sense of how much trouble
and inconvenience any alteration would cause, and, of
course, the more radical the change is the greater this

of the
1 list of nebula lines
W. H. Wright. In

would be. Mr. T. C. Chamberlin, indeed, who puts forth
another scheme in the number of Science for Noveinbp'-
25, 1910, admits that it is important that if any alterati-
is adopted, its advantages should be so great and
unique that no further modification of it would ever appea,
desirable.

Now all the alterations lately proposed, including tl
one before us, are of a far more drastic kind than ti
Julian and Gregorian reforms, which only aimed ..
securing that the monthly and other dates in the calendar
should correspond to the season of the year, the whol
length of the calendar year being of the same length a-
a tropical year. Even in the time of Julius Caesar it wa
known that the length of the latter was a few mi nut
less than 365^ days. Following the practice of the <>'
Egyptians (and guided partly by the advice of Sosigene
when he made the Roman calendar wholly solar, he pro
ably thought that it would be better, because simpler,
take the length of the year as 365^ days, and that I'n
would secure the correspondence with the seasons for
sufficiently long period. .As time went on, of course, ti
difference between this and the true length became mo:
accurately known.

The ecclesiastical authorities, in arranging the cycl
for the observance of Easter, considered it essential tha
though that feast was movable on account of its beiii.:^
taken as dependent on the Jewish Passover, which wa~
regulated by the moon, yet it was necessary to take thr>
moon the full of which followed the vernal equinox, and
to give that equinox the date which it had (or was sup-
posed to have) at the time of the first great Council of
the Church, that of Nicasa. To do this it was necessary,
I not only to alter in future the length of the calendar year,
but to drop the days, then ten in number, by which th*
date of the equinox had changed since the time of thi>
Council.

The Gregorian alteration, then, was introduced in 1582 :
but the Reformation of the Church, which had then been
accepted in many countries in the north of Europe, led
to this change being opposed by them, though it wa
ultimately adopted all over western Europe, and cons
quently in North America.

But the changes we are now called upon to discuss an^
of a very different nature. Most of the proposers seem
to think there would be very special advantage in makini^
artificial arrangements by which the days of the week
should correspond to those of the month, which, of course,
could only be effected by making every month 28 days (or
4 weeks) in length. Some would increase the number of
months in each year to 13, and as 13x28 = 364, suggest
that the correspondence might be maintained by treating
one day as a dies non, which would have to be made two
in leap-years. But it would not be possible to treat a day
as dies non in any complete sense. It could, of cours
easily be made a holiday, but even in holidays all mi:
do something, and manv a great deal.

The peculiarity of Mr. Chamberlin 's plan seems to be
to retain our 12 months, but at the end of each quarter,
or period of three months, to insert a week with a special
designation, the thirteenth week of the year to be called
Easter week, the twenty-sixth Julian week, the thirty-
ninth Gregorian week, and the fifty-second Christmas
week. The idea seems to be that a week is needed at
the end of each quarter for arranging accounts and other
matters.

Having set forth the salient points in this fresh attempt
at symmetry in the calendar, we leave it to our readers to •
form their opinion about whether changes of this drastic
nature would procure advantages comparable with the
trouble caused. Many, no doubt, will be reminded of the
famous interrogatory of Lord Melbourne.

The same remark, in the writer's opinion, may be made
of another proposal by M. Grosclaude, of Geneva, for
which the approval of a congress at Brussels is claimed.
According to this, the year would consist of four Quarters,
each containing thirteen weeks ; but while the first two
months of each quarter would have only thirty days, the
third would have thirtv-one. This would give the year
364 days ; the remaining dav (two, of course, in leap-year^
would be made up as in Mr. Chamberlln's plan.

W. T. L.

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

February 2, 1911]

NATURE

455

MODERN ARGENTINA."^
17 EW countries outside the British Dominions are more
-*■ interesting to the inhabitants of Great Britain than
the Argentine Republic. Enormous amounts of British
capital are invested there — some 170,000,000/. in the rail-
ways alone, indeed Great Britain has financed most of
the developments — about a quarter of our imported food-
stufTs come from there, and a number of young English-
men go out to find employment on the great estancias.
At present the bulk of the population centres round
Buenos Aires, the enormous hinterland being only thinly
populated, and in many regions not thoroughly explored.
And yet the country is not new ; it has a history of three
centuries, two of which, however, were under the old
Spanish regime, when only Spanish emigration was per-
mitted, and the few adventurers and officials who went out
preferred the life of the town to that of the country.

The administration in 1907 very wisely determined to
take stock of the present agricultural position, and a
scheme for a census, or, more strictly, a great inventory,
was drawn up. It was, however, necessary to proceed
cautiously, and for some time an advertising campaign
was conducted informing the people exactly what informa-
tion was wanted, and why. The census was taken in
1908, and the results are now published ; there are two
volumes of figures, and one volume devoted to monographs
dealing with the physical conditions, the agriculture, and
the people.

From these volumes we learn that the Argentine is now
growing at a good, but not very rapid, rate. Of its
4,500,000 inhabitants in 1900, about a million were
foreigners, nearly half being Italians, followed by
Spaniards and Americans ; under 22,000 are English.
The exports are wheat, maize, linseed (.Argentine being the
chief producer of this) and other cereals, meat, both
chilled and tinned, hay, quebracho (used for tanning), and
similar commodities, the total value being in 1909
79,000,000/. Formerly it was mainly a grazing country,
but of late years crops have been grown extensively.

The wheat supply from the Argentine has an interest-
ing history. As in other newly settled countries — e.g.
Canada — wheat is one of the earliest crops the newcomer
grows, because it requires but little capital and trouble,
and is always saleable. But wheat does not necessarily
remain the staple crop ; in the more closely settled parts
of Canada mixed farming comes into greater prominence,
and in the .Argentine wheat gives place to lucerne, which
yields valuable hay, and is also excellent for cattle food.
In improving land, the usual method is to plough it up and
sow maize, then linseed, then wheat, and finally lucerne,
which is left for hay and the cattle, the colonist moving
on to break up more ground. There is this difference
between the .Argentine and other new countries, that in
the Argentine much of the land is already owned by
absentee landlords, who put in a manager — commonly an
Englishman, who does well as a rule — but do not them-
selves take any part in the development. The system is
admittedly bad, but it is a legacy from the old days, and
is not easily displaced. The agriculture is, however,
sound ; lucerne enriches the soil in nitrogenous organic
matter, and leaves it in a fertile condition for any sub-
sequent arable crop that may be taken.

Geolc^ically, the surface of the country is mainly derived
from Tertiary and later formations ; the .Archaean occurs
only in small and isolated patches ; the Silurian occurs
extensively in a few districts ; the Devonian runs from
north to south, and contains a certain amount of coal :
the lower Triassic has not yet been found, but the Jurassic
has, and agrees well with the formation as found else-
where. It is, however, not prominent in the Argentine,
and has not been found east of the Pampean ranges and
on the plains. The Cretaceous system is well marked,
running north to south, but does not cover a wide tract
of country. The great plains and the Pampas are formed
of loess, a fine-grained sand varying from light to dark

1 Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, December. 1910.

Argentine Republic — Aencultural and Pastoral Census of the Nation.
Stock-breeding and .Agriculture in 190S. V"l. i., Stockbreeding, pp xviii +
4'5 ; vol. ii., Agriculture, pp. x+441 ; vol. iii.. Monographs, pp. XCV+705+
xlivplates.

Live Stock and .Agricultural Census of the Areentine R<'DubIic, May,
1908. 5 maps. (Buencs Aires : Argen'ine Meteorological Office, igoj.)

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

grey in colour, and containing calcareous nodules ; the
origin of this deposit is not settled, but the current idea
seems to be that sea water, fresh water, and wind have all
played an important part in its formation. One general
feature is that the soil is so rich in salts that it not
infrequently deposits a white efflorescence containing,
sodium chloride and sulphate with other salts. Nine
different groups of flora are distinguished : the Antarctic
forest in the south, consisting mainly of beech with some
cypress; the Patagonian, in a dryer region, comprising
herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees ; the Pampean, in a
moister region, absolutely without trees, consisting of
Gramineae, Composite, and Leguminosae ; then further
north, in another dry region, the Chanar, or bush flora,
especially mimosas ; and further north again the sub-
tropical region, the garden of the Argentine. Of the other
four regions, one in the north-west is desert and one in
between the rivers is bush. Why the Pampas should be
without trees when trees occur in the surrounding dryer
regions is not clear.

Turning again to the agriculture, cattle are of great
importance, but sheep, as in other countries, are diminish-
ing in number. The stock is being steadily improved ;
some of our best pedigree bulls and rams are imported,
and the Argentine buyer never hesitates to secure what
he considers suitable animals, whatever the price may be.
The decrease in the number of sheep is considerable, and'
i is attributed to two causes : certain " worms " have
; proved very fatal, and the sheep have been found to injure
I lucerne, and therefore have lost favour with the-
' estancieros. This result can only be regretted ; sheep are
I as much wanted as ever, and they are a very valuable
! support for the agriculture of a country. To cut them
i out is to narrow the basis on which the system of agri-
,, culture is built.

It is clear that the Argentine has some serious problems
to face, but the rapid increase in its volume of trade and'
in its area of land under cultivation justifies the hope that
continued progress will be made, and that the country will
still retain its high rank among the food-producing
countries of the world.

MET.IBOLISM IN DIABETES MELLITUS.^

T^HE depth of the tragedy into which the most recent
investigators of the disease " diabetes mellitus,""
whose observations are described in the memoir referred
to below, have inquired, is sufficiently indicated by the
fact that seven of their ten " severe cases " have died"
since coming under observation in the early part of 1908.
Diabetes is considered as being primarily a disturbance of
nutrition tending to develop a condition of starvation, and
yet it will be noted that in six of these cases the fatal
result is attributed to "diabetic coma." Diabetic coma
is in no sense due to any deprivation of nutriment experi-
enced by the central nervous system, but rather to a very
real poisoning assignable to an appearance in the bloo^
of unusual chemical compounds or to an appearance of
compounds in an unusual quantity w-hich are normally
pr&sent only in minute traces. Nutrition, in short, is not
only deficient, leading to a great emaciation of the
patient, but is also disordered, leading to death by
internally developed poisons. Medical treatment of this
disease, its causation having been fully developed prior to
the arrival of the doctor, is therefore directed to maintain
nutrition in very adverse circumstances by expert adjust-
ments in the diet, and to secure the elimination, or at
least neutralise, the effects due to the presence of these
poisons. .As a valuable contribution to our knowledge of
the principles underlying such treatment, this account of
the extremely precise and varied observations of Benedict
and Joslin will meet with a wide welcome.

Everyone, taught by numerous and by no means reticent
guides to the true ritual of diet, is aware that diets neces-
sarily contain certain nitrogenous materials, " proteins ""
and certain non-nitrogenous materials, " fats and carbo-
hydrates." Almost as many know that the diabetic
patient is incapable of dealing with more than a minimal
quantity of carbohydrate material. In his alimentary

1 "Metabolism in Diabetes Mellifus." By F. G. Penfdict and E. P.
Joslin. Pp. vi+234. (Washington, U.S.A. : Carnegie Institution, 1910.)

456

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

canal carbohydrates are dealt with as efficiently as ever,
and the sugar into which they are there converted is
absorbed into the body-fluids in normal fashion. There
is, however, reason to believe that, once in the body-
fluids, this sugar has almost completely lost its normal
significance^ Instead of being the most readily available
of the fuels that are oxidised, and together form the only
source of energy for all the mechanical work performed
by the body, and within the constituent parts of the body,
this sugar is now an almost useless commodity, and is
further a harmful adulterant tending to accumulate within
boundaries through which it is swept at none too great
a pace by mechanisms primarily adapted for the excretion
of a different class of material.

In addition, too, there is the sugar which is formed
within the tissue-cells by chemical change in the proteins
that form another of the absorbed . fuels of the body. This
further quantity of sugar has the same character and
meets with much the same alteration in significance, and
so it follows that the proteins absorbed from the diet and
the proteins formed, within the body cease on this account
to possess their original value to the economy. Nor is this
all, since there is some reason to believe that the remaining
class of fuel, the fats, is— th's probably as a secondary
consequence — not so well dealt with as normally. Incom-
plete oxidation of the fats is by some, at least, considered
as in part responsible for that rancidity of the blood which
finally determines the onset of diabetic coma.

The picture of trouble due to these manifold disturb-
ances in the utilisation of fuel must be limned even still
more gloomily if the conclusions of Benedict and Joslin
are to meet with acceptance. They find that the diabetic
patient is the site of more extensive processes of oxidation
than the normal person in similar circumstances. Nothing
that thev say prevents us from continuing their statement
into the necessary corollary, that the " efficiency " of the
internal mechanisms of the diabetic patient is lowered.
Within these patients a greater usage of oxygen and waste
of heat accompanies such performances of mechanical
work, such internal displacements of matter, as coincide
with the periods of rest during which these observations
were made. The diabetic patient, already handicapped by
his incapacity to utilise fuel, is still further handicapped
by the necessity for utilising a greater quantity of fuel.

Now, in the present writer's opinion, there is nothing
in their experimental results to support such a conclusion
further than the point where the same fact is seen as
true for the normal person with the same relation between
bodv-surface and body-weight. Benedict and Joslin do
indeed themselves discuss the possibility that the. peculiarity
which they discover in the diabetic patient is no more
than a peculiarity of the emaciated person, but they dis-
miss this possibility as incapable of explaining differences
of the magnitude they observe. . It is a pity, however, that
they have not brought their opinion to the test of a
quantitative calculation, since the point is of great import-
ance to our. knowledge of the normal person as to our
knowledge of the diabetic patient. If it is true that in
this respect the diabetic patient is no more and no less
than an exaggerated normal person, then physiology is
obviously in '^their debt for an extension of physiological
Inquiry to limits not readily attainable in the ordinary
way. •

This very definite statement of opinion is, it is held,
based soundly upon the fact that their experimental results
may be referred to several criteria other than the par-
ticular one used, by the authors,, which not only bring
the diabetic patient on to the same level of value as the
normal person, but also serve to make the results obtained
from their normal persons far more congruous than the
authors have made them appear. Indeed, their suspicions
might well have been excited by the fact that their method
of arranging the e?cperimental results (per kilogram of
body-weight) leads to greater discrepancies when dealing
even with normal persons than are found when the results
are left in the form they were actually obtained (per
individual person).

The interested reader of these most valuable experi-
mental data, and the authors themselves, will gain rather
than lose respect for the exact outcome of prolonged,
highly skilful, and enterprising labour when they observe

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

the manner in which the results can be marshalled into
line by the adoption of a new artifice. This will be found
to be 'the case when the quantities of physical and chemical
change observed per unit of time are divided, not by W
(the weight) and expressed per kilogram, but by H ^JW
(the height multiplied by the cube root of the weight i.
Whatever the meaning of this new divisor and form of
expression, it is a fact that it places the diabetic patien;
upon the self-same level as the normal person so far a^
his dissipation of heat and oxygen requirements are con
cerned. A very probable meaning is that the results af
thus referred to the extent of the body-surface, and thai
per square metre of surface the loss of heat is the sam<
Accepting for the time being this probability as a faci .
then the surface of the body in the emaciated as in th
normal person is equal to 29 H ^/W. Making use <>;
this formula, we can express the results of these exper;
ments as is found below : —

Examined in the " Chair Calorimeter.

,- ,, , . , Heat (kalori'-
He t (kalor.e-) dj^^jpated per
f issipated per ,^^^ ^^j^^

kiloaramand ofsurlace

per hour p^^ hour.

Severe cases of diabetes 1-40 4021

Mild cases 1-21 3»^>3

All cases i-33 39-7»

All normal persons 1-21 3990

J. S. Macdonald.

THE ICE AGE IN CORSICA.'

DR LUCERNA has made an elaborate study of the
physiography' of the mountains which occupy so
large a part of Corsica, and culminate about 2700 m.
above sea-level. Brought up, evidently, at the feet of
Prof Bruckner, he has no difficulty in recc^msing the
ore-glacial valley floors and the successive deepemngs due
to the advancing glaciers of the Giinz, Mindel, Riss and
Wurm times. The existing moraines, of course, chietty
bf^long to the last of these, and he is able to identify, as
has been done in the Alps, the Buhl, Gschnitz and Daun
stages of retreat. The height of the snow-line appears to
have varied with the locality, but was generally rather
lower than in the southern parts of the Maritime Alps : »
in more than one place it was about 1650 m., which would
signify a sea-level temperature nearly 17 F. lower than
that of Ajaccio at the present day. In the valleys,
terminal moraines occur, these, of course, being at variou-=
levels ; for example, in one case at 1350 m., in another

low as 750 m. J- ^ 4. Ti

As the deepening of the valleys, according to U..
Lucerna, was a feature hardly less notable than in the
Alps— in one vallev it amounted, during the Mindel and
Riss episodes only', to as much as 85 m.— the advances
of the ice gave rise to great masses of gravel, form-
ing terraces in the lower districts, each of \yhich the
author assigns to its proper date. Nothing could be more
complete. But perhaps some sceptics will suggest that
though a cliff terrace on a valley flank indicates, not onlv
a deepening, but also some change in the conditions ot
erosion, it does not prove a glacier to have been the agent,
and that in Corsica, as in the Alps, very much that is
set down to the work of ice may quite as well have been
pre-glacial. , . ,. ., ^

The second part of Dr. Lucerna's memoir discusses the
sea-level in Corsica. During the Glacial epoch the island
was gradually rising, and a raised beach or terrace corre-
sponds with 'each of its episodes. The Gunz terrace, near
Aiaccio, is about 70 m. above sea-level, the Mindel nearly
40 m., the Riss about 27 m., and the Wurm perhaps
n m. Even the Biihl level can be detected still nearer
the sea. The coincidefices are curious, but space does not
permit an enumeration of the facts from which the con-
clusions are drawn. If they do not always convince the
reader, they will, at anv rate, prove that Dr. Lucerna s
memoir is a most laborious study of Corsican physio-
graphy.

1 Dr." Roman Lurerna: " Die F.i..zeit a"J".V^°'-fi''='.":.d ^f^^e^hahe" der
exogenen Naturkrafte seit dem Ende H.r D>luv,alz»it ^ Abhandluneen der
k k Geographischen Ge^ellschaft In W,en. .v. Band, 1910, No. 1). fp-
vi + i44-i-x;iiplates. (Wien : R. Lechner, 1910).

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

457

THE PROGRESSIVE DISCLOSURE OF THE
ESTIRE ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUx\^
Rivelations de la couche supirieure de I'hydrogene.
T 'AXNEE suivante, en 1909, nous avons, d'Azambuja
et moj, ^tudi6 avec les m^mes appareils les raies de
I'hydrogene et surtout la raie rouge H,. Ces raies
ont 6t6 Isoldes d6}k avec le spectroWliographe par
Hale et Ellermann, qui ont obtenu des r^sultats
fort curieux. En 1903 ils ont reconnu que, avec
H^, Hy, Hi, les plages faculaires ne sont plus
brillantes par rapport au fond, comme avec le
calcium, mais sont souvent noires au contraire.
Avec Ha, iso\6 en 1908, on a en plus tout autour
des taches des series de petites lignes, qui donnent
parfois I'impression nette d'un tourbillon, et que
Hale a decrites ici meme dans une conference
sp^iale. De plus ces images de H„ sont magni-
fiques et tres riches en fins details.

Cependant ces images americaines de H„ sont
obtenues par I'isolement de la raie entiere, et j'ai
annonce en 1908 qu'elles devaient etre un melange
de deux ou trois images et couches distinctes. En
eflfet, d'apr^s Rowland, la raie H, est doublement
renversee, comme la raie K du calcium, mais plus
faiblement. Sa largeur avec les parties d^grad^es
est I •* 24, et o^ 90 sans ces memes parties. II
faut done s'attendre a des images quelque peu
differentes, lorsqu'on isole les diflfdrentes parties
de la raie.

Or nous avons v6rifie nettement ce fait, et
meme, contrairement a notre attente, les differ-
ences entre les images de I'hydrogene sont relative-
ment plus grandes qu'avec le calcium.

Les resultats exacts sont les suivants : —

Si on isole avec H. la partie d^gradee pr^s des
bords, qui correspond k K, du calcium k une
distance du centre comprise entre ^^ et ^\
d'Angstrom, on a le r^sultat de 1903, c'est-4-dirc
les plages faculaires noires par rapport au fond.

Avec le milieu de chaque moiti^, entre les dis-
tances yVo et yVj^ d '.Angstrom, I'image est toute
differente ; elle offre les principaux caracteres des
images americaines de 1908, et en particulier les
groupements de petites lignes qui constituent ce
que Hale a appel6 les Solar Vortices.

Enfin, avec le centre de la raie, on a une
troisieme image differente des deux autres, beau-
coup plus pale et simple, qui correspond k la
couche superieure de I'hydrogene.

Or, et ce point est important, cette nativelle
image offre les memes filaments noirs que la
couche K3 du calcium. Quant aux plages facu-
laires, sur cette image, elles ne sont jamais noires
mais brillantes ; elles sont moins etendues qu'avec
Kj, et correspondent aux maxima de lumi^re de
ces memes plages dans la couche Kj, maxima qui
different de ceu.x des couches K, et K,. Les
parties les plus noires et les parties les plus
brillantes sont les memes. (Voir les images con-
jugu^es de K, et de H., obtenues le 11 septembre
1909, les 21 mars et 11 avril 19 10.)

De plus nous avons isoie aussi les differentes
parties de la raie bleue H« de I'hydrogene, moins
^levee dans 1 'atmosphere que la raie H. et nous
avons obtenu des images qui montrent presque
exclusivement les plages faculaires en noir, comme
la partie degradee de la raie rouge H «, et qui
corresf)ondent done a une couche basse.

Finalement, on est conduit k conclure que
I'hydrogene offre, comme le calcium, au moins
trois couches distinctes superposees, qui sont pour
la premiere fois clairement separees.

Cependant, dans ce qui precede, i'ai explique les
differentes parties d'une meme raie, et les differ-
entes images par le jeu ordinaire de remission et
de 1 'absorption dans les gaz, en admettant, comme
il est naturel, que la densite du gaz et la largeur
de la raie diminuent lorsqu'on s'eieve dans I'atmo-
sjrfiere. Mais on a objecte que la dispersion anomale

1 Di«coarse delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, on Friday-
Jone 12, 1910, by Dr. H. Deslandres, Membrede I'lnstitiit. Cbotinaed from
p. 426.

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

pouvait jouer aussi un role et expliquer au moins
en partie les particularites des images. Or, a mon avis,
la dispersion anomale, certes, doit intervenir, mais faible-
ment, et est negligeable dans une premiere etude. Les
raisons serieuses k I'appui de cette assertion, seraicnt ici
trop longucs a developpcr. D'ailleurs si on a reconnu dans

\'

^-5^

\

Couche superieuFC de I'hydrogene.

Couche moyenne de I'hydrogene.
Plate II. — Inxages du 22 septembre, 1909.

le laboratoire la dispersion anomale avec la raie H. de
I'hydrc^ene, on ne I'a pas constatee avec les raies du cal-
cium. De plus, comme le centre de la raie ne subit pas la
dispersion anomale, I'objection ne s 'applique pas aux images
de la couche superieure, qui nous occupent surtout ici, "

458

NATURE

[February 2, 19 11

Les filaments noirs qui se retrouvcnt les mdmes avec le
calcium et I'hydrog^ne, sont bien un ^16ment caract^ristiquc
des couches sup^rieures. Quelques uns avaient 6t6 d^jik
cntrevus ou signal6s par Hale dans les premieres images

Ccuche sup^rieure du calcium.

Couche sup^rieure de I'hydrogene m^langde a une petite portion de la couche
Plate III. — Images du 2r mars, 1910.

complexes de K et de H„ sous le nom de longs flocculi
noirs, et pr^sent^s comme dus tr^s probablement aux
couches ^lev4es. On a en effet darrs ces conditions les
filaments les plus importants dont la raie noire est ti6s
NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

large. En fait la reconnaissance complete des filaments et

de leurs propri6t6s ne pent 6tre abord^e qu'avec les images

memes des couches supdrieures.

Un autre ^16ment important de ces derni^res couches est

la plage faculaire brillante qui se retrouve au

mfeme point que sur la surface, mais avec des

formes diff^rentes.

En r6sum6, si on consid^re les quatre couches
form^es par la surface et 1 'atmosphere, les parties
les plus brillantes restent au-dessus des facules.
Mais les parties les plus noires ont des positions.
tres diff(5rentes sur la surface et dans la couche-
sup^rieure. En bas ce sont les taches et en haut
re sont les filaments, qui ont une surface noire
totale' sup^rieure i celle des taches. II convient
de mesurer I'aire des filaments aussi exactement
que celle des taches.

Recherches sur les mouvements de V atmosphere.

Spectro-enregistreurs des vitesses.
Le filament noir attire surtout 1 'attention, et a
bien, comme il a 6t6 dit plus haut, une import-
ance au moins ^gale a celle des taches. Quelle
est done I'origine, quelle est done la nature de*
ces longues lignes noires? Une r6ponse precise-
est bien difficile, et il suffit de rappeler notre in-
certitude k regard des taches qui sont ^tudi^es
depuis 300 ans. Cependant avec le filament, la
recherche peut €tre plus facile. La surface, qui
porte la tache, est comprise entre I'intdrieur du.
soleil, qui nous ^chappe et les couches basses com-
plexes de I'atmosph^re ; mais la couche sup^rieure,
k laquelle est li^ le filament, est plus libre, plus.
d6gag^e, et peut avoir une structure et des mouve-
ments plus simples.

Et en effet, nous avons obtenu r^emment k.
Meudon sur le filament quelques r^sultats dignes-
d'int^ret et grace k I'emploi d'un appareil special,
organist jusqu'ici a Meudon seulement et appel6-
Spectro-enregistreur des vitesses. Cet appareil
que j 'emploie depuis 1892, a et^ en 1907 large-
ment* am^lior^. II d^c61e, comme son nom.
I'indique, les mouvements radiaux des vapeurs
solaires, en juxtaposant les petits spectres de
sections successives 6quidistantes sur le disque
solaire, avec une seconde fente large et des mouve-
I I ments discontinus automatiques. Cet enregistreur
f" I est un complement oblige du spectroh^liographe et
est au moins aussi utile. II d^c^le, outre les
vitesses radiales, les formes g^n^rales de la vapeur,
les details de la raie enti^re et en particulier la
largeur de la raie Isolde, largeur trfe variable d'un
point a I'autre de I'astre. II r^v^le les points oii
le spectroh^liographe est en d6faut ; car ce dernier
ne peut, avec une fente de largeur constante, isoler
i J , exactement une raie de largeur variable ; en un
^ ' mot il enregistre tous les 616ments qui ^chappent
au spectrohdliographe et permet d 'interpreter
surement ses r6sultats.

Sur les dpreuves obtenues avec la raie K,
I'examen k I'oeil nu montre aussitot que ies
mouvements radiaux sont en g^n^ral plus notables
sur le filament que sur les points voisins ; parfois
meme toutes les raies Kj du filament sont inclin6es
dans le meme sens ; ce qui annonce un tourbillon
a axe horizontal, qui peut etre oppos^ au tourbillon
k axe vertical admis dans les taches. Mais, k
cette agitation succede, comme avec la tache, un
calme relatif. Si alors, on mesure avec soin les
d^placements et la vitesse radiale de K, lorsqu^
la vapeur est au centre du soleil, on trouve qu
la vapeur est ascendante et avec une vitesse sou
vent sup^rieure k la vitesse ^quatoriale de rota-
tion (soit 2 km. par seconde). Le fait a ^t^
v^rifie sur plusieurs filaments. Les taches et les

aoyenne. filaments mis il part, les vitesses verticales dans
la couche sup^rieure sont notables et souvent du
mSme crdre que la vitesse ^quatoriale de rotation.

La grandeur de ce mouvement vertical ^tonne moins si on

remarque que la masse de gaz qui est I'atmosphere repc:-

sur un foyer intense de chaleur.

Des mesures analogues ont ^t^ faites avec soin au centr-

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

459

<lu soleil sur les facules et les flocculi, et le r^suitat a 6te
inversQ. La vapeur, au contraire, a un mouvement
descendant et les parties relativement noires autour sont
ascendantes. D'une maniere g^n^rale aux points brillants
de rimage K, de la couche sup^rieure, la vapeur
descend; elle monte la ou I'image est relativement
sombre ; ce qui est assez logique, car la vapeur
qui descend se comprime et s'^chauffe; celle qui
monte se d^tend et se refroidit.

Cette propri^t6 reconnue d^ja sur un grand
nombre d'dpreuves est importante ; car elle
explique la structure sp^ciale de ces couches atmo-
sphdriques, qui s'annoncent comme divis^s en
courants de convection juxtaposes, exactement
comme les liquides de nos laboratoires chauflf^s
uniformement par le bas.

Les flocculi brillants forment souvent sur une
^tendue notable et avec nettet^ des polygenes
juxtaposes par leurs sommets, et tout semblables
aux polygones qui constituent les cellules tour-
billons des liquides, si bien etudiees en France par
Besnard.* Comme la vapeur descend sur les
flocculi brillants et s'^leve dans des intervalles,
chaque polygone solaire est aussi une cellule tour-
billon. Quant aux autres flocculi du mfime soleil
ils offrent des polygones moins nets ou incomplets,
ou encore, mais plus rarement, ont des formes tout
h fait irr^gulieres.

D 'autre part, les filaments et alignements sont
probablement la limite de tourbillons cellulaires
plus grands, superposes aux pr^edents dans la
couche sup^rieure, et dont les taches occuperaient
le centre. Cette disjjosition est en accord avec les
mouvements de cette couche pres des taches
reconnus par I'astronome anglais Evershed. On
s'explique alors aisement pourquoi les taches sont
des points et les filaments des lignes parfois tr^s
longues. La question, par ces recherches. est done
ddja un peu 6claircie ; elle sera, semble-t-il, 61ucid6e
completement par des mesures continues de vitesses
radiales, mesures ^tendues au disque entier de
I'astre, et malheureusement tr^ longues.

Reconnaissance des filaments polaires.

Je terminerai par une nouvelle propri^t^ des
filaments recemment reconnue a Meudon et public.
L'observatoire a deji les images de la couche
superieure pour plus de 20 rotations entieres de
I'astre, et il est possible d'^tudier la distribution
des filaments. lis apparaissent a toutes les lati-
tudes ; mais, aux p61es, en g^n^ral, ils sont groups
sur une courbe plus ou moins circulaire, souvent
non confondue avec un parallele, et qui entoure le
p61e. Cette courbe polaire de filaments est parfois
Tiettement dessinee au deux poles ; mais en g^n^ral
elle est nette seulement a un seul, et se d^place
d'un pole a I'autre. Cette courbe polaire 6tail
particulierement nette et forte en avril dernier au
p61e sud. (Voir les deux images du 11 a\Til et la
Fig. 4, qui represente les filaments de quatre jours
diff^rents.)

Ces filaments polaires sont accompagnes de
pro^minences, et sont en accord avec les maxima
secondaires de preeminences qui ont d^ja ^t^
signal^es aux p61es. lis peuvent aussi Stre en
relations avec la forme particuliere de la couronne
solaire au moment du minimum et avec I'inclin-
aison souvent constat6e de I'axe coronal par rap-
port a I'axe ordinaire de rotation.

Parfois, la courbe polaire est accompagn^ du
c6t6 de r^quateur d'une ligne de filaments
paranoics, qui est r^unie a la courbe par des fila-
ments ou alignements inclines ; et on a ainsi une
disposition analogue k celle des bandes de la
plan^te Jupiter.

Enfin la zone polaire de filaments, oil la vapeur.
comme on I'a vu plus haut, est ascendante, peut
Sire rapproch^e de la zone des taches et facules

1 Cette disposition par polygones jnxtaposfe est parfois tres nette sur le
Soleil presque entier. I.'epreuve K3 du 18 Septembre, 1908, presente dans
rhemisohere sud, pres du centre, quelques-uns de ces polygoDes, rcunis par
leurs c3tis et lenrs «ommets ; mais, une image plus nette et plus grande est
nteessaire pour les bien voir.

voisine de I'^quateur, et oii la vapeur est au contraire
descendante. On est conduit k supposer dans la couche
superieure une grande circulation meridienne, un grand
courant general de convection, analogue a celui qui exisle

.^- /

Couche superieure du caldnm.

Couche soperienre de rbydrogene melang^e ^ une petite paniedc la couche moyeime.
Plate IV. — Images du 11 avril, 1910.

sur la lerre dans chaque hemisphere entre la latitude de
35° et le p61e.

Le temps manque malheureusement pour developpcr
toutes les consequences de ces premieres observations.

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

46o

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

Mais les faits pr6spnt(5s suflisent k montrer le grand intdret
des <5tudes sur I'atmosph^re solaire supdrieure et la
n^cessit^ de les continuer.

L 'atmosphere solaire est la seule que nous puissions
observer dans son ensemble et dans scs couches successives.
Nos appareils enregistreurs donnent en quelques minutes
son aspect g^n^ral et ses mouvements principaux ; ^ ce
point de vue, elle nous est mieux connue que 1 'atmosphere
terrestre que nous observons seulement dans ses parties
basses et sur une ^tendue restreinte, mSme avec I'aide du
t^l^graphe.

20 mai, 1909.

iSjuin, 1909,

Fig. 4. — Images de lacouche superieure de I'atmosphere solaire qui montrent les filaments noirs
caract^ristiques et en particulier les filaments polaires. Ces images, obtenuts avec I'aide de
d'Azambuja, out t\i. relevees sur les epreuves monochromatiques du soleil obtenues avec la
partie centrale des raies Ha de I'hydrogene ou K du calcium. Elles montrent seulement les
filaments noirs sans les alignements. Les plages brillantes des Epreuves au-dessus des
facules n'ont pas 6t6 representees.

Mk. Frank Howson has resigned the lectureship in
physiology in the College of Medicine of the University
of Durham to accept a similar appointment at Sydney,
New South Wales.

Dr. T. J. Mac.vamara, M.P., Parliamentary Secretary
to the Admiralty, will distribute the awards of prizes and
certificates at the Battersea Polytechnic, and deliver an
address, on Tuesday evening, F"ebruary 28.

Mr. James Lees, assistant lecturer in the faculty of

engineering at the University of Bristol, has been

appointed to the post of lecturer in

engineering in the South African College,

Cape Town.

The annual distribution of prizes to
students of the City and Guilds of London
Institute will be held on F"ebruary 17 at
the Mansion House, the Lord Mayor pre-
siding. Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., of
the -National Physical Laboratory, will
deliver an address.

It is announced in Science that the fund
.>f 150,000/. for the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity is now complete. This insures the
payment to the fund of a further 50,000/.
offered conditionally in February of last
year by the General Education i3oard, as
was explained in our note last week on the
report of the president of the Johns
Hopkins University for the year ended
August 31, 1910.

Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus has resigned
the post of director of the American .
Museum of Natural History, New York,
which he has held since 1902, and has
accepted an appointment as " business
manager " of the University of Wisconsin.
The post is a new one, the University
having recently decided to divide the
administrative work between the president
and an ofificer of this name. The office
will be entirely separate from academic or
leaching functions.

The Drapers' Company has made a grant'
of 15,000/. for the erection of a new wing
for the department of applied science of thej
University of Sheffield. The new building
will be used to house the mining sectioil
and the research department for the silvefl
and allied trades. The council of the Uni-
versity on January 27 passed a resolutior
thanking the Drapers' Company, and exJ
pressetl a desire to associate the name
the Drapers' Company with the extension^
as a record of the company's generosity.

Le r^seau de courants de convection et les filaments
curieux reconnus dans les couches hautes du soleil, peuvent
se retrouver aussi sur la terre, et c'est ainsi que I'^tude du
soleil peut nous apprendre k mieux connaitre notre propre
atmosphere.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

Cambridge. — The Adams prize for 191 1 is awarded to
Prof. A. E. H. Love, F.R.S., formerly fellow of St.
John's College, for his essay entitled " Some Problems of
Geodynam'cs."

The adjudicators of the Hopkins prize awarded by the
Philosophical Society for the period 1900-3 have awarded
the prize to Prof. J. H. Poynting, F.R.S., for his re-
searches on the transmission of energy in the electric field
and on the pressure exerted by radiation.

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

The Birmingham Education Committe
has decided to recommend the Cit
Council to increase the grant to th
University of Birmingham from one halfpenny in ^Ii
pound to an amount equal to one penny in the pound ol
the assessable value of the city, which it is expected wi|
amount to about 12,000/. The Education Committee ha
agreed also to suggest to the University authorities th
need for increasing the number of scholarships availabi
for persons who would not otherwise be able to tat
advantage of the University teaching.

The following gifts and bequests for higher 'educatic
in the United States have been announced recently
Science. An old student, who does not wish his nar
disclosed, has given 20,000/. to the University of Pent
sylvania for the endowment of a chair of physiologies
chemistry. It will be known as the " Benjamin Rus
chair of physiological chemistry." Dr. Alonzo E. Taylo^
formerly of the University of California, will be the firs
occupant of the chair. The University of Vermont ha<
received 13,593/. from the Rockefeller Foundation, repre

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

461

senting the first instalment of a gift of 20,000/. made to
the University on condition that an additional 8o,oooi.
was raised. The 8o,oooZ. has now been subscribed, and
the amount 54,200/. has been collected. The total amount
is to be added to the endowment fund for the general uses
of the University. Mr. William Blodgett has given to
Columbia University two farms near Fishkill, N.Y., to
be used in connection with the work in agriculture. By
the will of Mrs. Martin Kellogg, Yale University receives
a bequest of io,oooZ. from the estate of the late Mr.
Martin Kellogg, who was formerly president of the
University of California.

Lord Curzon of Kedleston" was on January 25 in-
stalled as Lord Rector of Glasgow University. The sub-
ject of his address was " East and West : a Retrospect
and a Forecast." After a brilliant review of the ethno-
graphic and historic differentiae of Asia and Europe, he
proceeded to estimate the probabilities as to their future
relations. Some had argued that we in Europe " have
given to Asia little that she values, or, if left to herself,
would not cast away. Our education, it is said, she has
only borrowed to turn against us ; our religion she re-
jects ; our civilisation she despises ; she is indifferent to
our science ; she will manufacture our implements for her
own protection ; she will dispute our hegemony, defy our
authority, dispense with our agents, undersell our produce,
and end by annexing our trade." Lord Curzon gave in
detail his reasons for disbelieving this prediction. Among
others, he recalled the fact that " the inventions of science,
which we are told that the East is to retain for its own
selfish use, are not confined to producing the comforts, or
conveniences, or even the destructive implements that are
employed by man. They have, on the whole, a unifying
and softening influence. The electric telegraph, the rail-
way, the steamship, the Press, the post, travel to and
fro — all these are agencies which tend to bring men
together rather than keep them apart. Medical science
has shown itself to be so valuable an instrument of social
influence and fusion, that it has been permanently grafted
on to missionary enterprise. The common share in this
heritage of science would render it very difficult for the
East to shut itself successfully off again from the West,
or to pursue a policy of selfish exclusion. Even were the
dependent portions of the East to recover complete
political autonomy, the Western would be always " within
its gates." " Some of those whom I have the honour of
addressing here may be called on to play a part in the
future evolution of the great drama which I have
endeavoured to describe. If so, I would ask them to bear
in mind three things — never to look down on the East
or the Eastern ; to remember that the progressive eleva-
tion of_ the East is still the noblest work with which the
West is charged ; and to realise that each individual
European in Asia is not merely a soldier, but a standard-
bearer of his race. In a Chinese temple at Canton there
stands a venerated gilt statue of a man with a benevolent
expression on his features and a black hat on his head.
He is supposed to be the Venetian Marco Polo, and to
be thus honoured by the Chinese because he taught the
West to understand and to respect the East. Be it yours,
if you have the opportunity, to earn a similar reputation."

A CONFERENCE of about forty delegates of the provincial
joint committees of European schools in India was held
early in January at Calcutta, under the presidency of Sir
Robert Laidlaw. In addition to delegates from every
province in India, including Burma, we learn from the
Pioneer Mail that several prominent education officials
were present and took part in the discussions. Several
speakers pointed out the inadequacy of the educational
facilities offered for the children of Europeans in India,
and eventually some fifteen resolutions were adopted.
One resolution urged that in view of the great and in-
creasing difficulty of finding suitable occupations for the
children of the domiciled community, as well as for other
and higher reasons, this conference regards it as urgently
necessary that European schools should be enabled to
provide a more efficient and complete training, physical
and intellectual, than they have hitherto given, and that
to such improved general education should be added
instruction especially devised to prepare scholars for their
chosen professions in life. Another recorded that the
NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

conference regards a more efficient staff, especially in the
lower classes of schools, as an indispensable condition of
improvement in education. Whilst considering it neces-
sary that for the present qualified teachers should, as
hitherto, be brought from abroad, the conference regards
it as equally necessary that such efficient training should
be provided in India as should make it possible for locally
recruited candidates to equip themselves fully for the
teaching profession, and, further, the conference considers
" that every qualified teacher should enjoy a reasonable
salary increasing with long service, some provision for
retiring allowance, and fair security of tenure." A third
resolution pointed out that the conference regards the
adequate and complete education of the domiciled com-
munity as one of the primary responsibilities of the
Government of India, and considers that in view of the
necessary larger cost of that education the imperial
revenue must bear a larger share than heretofore. At the
same time, it acknowledges the duty both of the Christian
churches and the domiciled community to assist the
Government financially and otherwise to a much greater
extent than in the past. Regarding the curricula of Indian
universities as unsuited to European students, the con-
ference strongly urged the establishment of a Central
European College affiliated to the University of London,
and staffed, for the present, by fully equipped teachers
from abroad. To this college, it was decided, may suit-
ably be added classes for the training of secondary
teachers.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

London.
Royal Society, January 26. — Sir Archibald Geikie, KC.B.,
president^ in the chair. — Major P. A. MacMahon :

Memoir on the theory of the partitions of numbers.
Part V. : Partitions in two-dimensional space. — Arthur
Schuster : The origin of magnetic storms. The paper
contains a critical examination of the theory that mag-
netic storms are caused by streams of electrified corpuscles
ejected from the sun. If the electro-kinetic energy of such
storms be calculated, it is found that, when the magnetic
field produced is comparable with that observed in mag-
netic storms, the energy is enonnously great compared
with that obtained by mere addition of the energies of the
separate corpuscles. Even if during violent storms, when
the magnetic force may be of the order 0004 C.G.S., the
corpuscles had an initial velocity nearly equal to that of
light, the energy required to establish the magnetic field
would be sufficient to reduce the speed to less than 4 kilo-
metres a second before the swarm reaches the earth, the
passage between the sun and the earth taking about a
year. In this calculation the cross-section of the swarm
is assumed to be determined by the effective duration of
the magnetic disturbances which it is supposed to produce.
If the swarm be reduced m cross-section the energy belong-
ing to it would be diminished, but for a given magnetic
force the density of the corpuscles in the swarm must
then be correspondingly greater. This leads to the con-
sideration of the effects of electrostatic repulsion between
the particles. It appears that if H be the magnetic effect,
the electrostatic acceleration at the edge of a swarm of
electrons must be greater than 5Xio''H. This accelera-
tion would be sufficient to drive a corpuscle in the first
second through a distance equal to more than the diameter
of the earth. It follows that, even taking account of
electromagnetic attractions between the corpuscles, a
swarm of corpuscles, when sent out from the sun in a
definite direction, would soon be dissipated to such an
extent that no sensible magnetic disturbance could be
produced. Finally, the electrostatic effects, which would
be observed on the surface of the earth in each magnetic
storm, are discussed, and here the calculation also leads
to the conclusion that the theory criticised is untenable.
i If magnetic disturbances are produced by rays emanating
from the sun, it can therefore only be in an indirect
manner. We may imagine that the injection of corpuscles
ionises the upper portions of the earth's atmosphere, and
consequently renders the already existing electromotive
forces more effective, or we may imagine that the appwoach
towards the earth's magnetic field of highly conducting

462

NATURE

[February 2, 191 1

material containing ions of both kinds acts by induction.
The effect of such induction would primarily be an increase
in the horizontal and a diminution of the vertical forces,
while the currents induced in the earth, tending to
diminish the horizontal forces, would, owing to their inertia,
die out more slowly, so that a semi-permanent effect would
be left after the storm. This agrees with observation,
but there are at present not enough data available to
test the sufficiency of the explanation. — Arthur Schuster :
The periodicity of sun-spots. In this communication, the
sun-spot records of the last ten years are discussed in so
far as they have a bearing on the results previously sub-
mitted to the society. It appears that the period of 479
years discovered by the author is confirmed, but that the
evidence does not support the periodicity of 4-38 years,
which had been previously described as doubtful, nor that
of 8-36 years, which during the first half of last century
seemed active. Attention is directed to the independent
discovery of the period of 4-79 years in the declination
range of the magnetic needle at Munich by Mr. Oppen-
heim. — Dr. G. C. Simpson and C. S. Wrigrht : Atmo-
spheric electricity over the ocean. This paper contains
the results of observations made on the voyage . from
England to New Zealand on Captain Scott's .Antarctic
ship the Terra Nova. The investigation is divided into
four parts. The first part deals with the electrical
potential-gradient over the ocean. It is found that the
gradient has its chief maximum in the evening and its
chief minimum soon after midday. The afternoon mini-
mum is remarkable because, though observed at many
stations on land, it has often been ascribed to the dis-
turbing effect of dust. In view of the present results, this
explanation does not seem correct. The minimum, which
is observed at 4 a.m., and which has been considered the
principal one in observations taken on land, is only feebly
developed at sea. The numerical value of the potential-
gradient was found, on the average, to be about 80 volts
per metre, and is therefore approximately the same as
that observed on land. The second part of the investiga-
tion deals with the quantity of radio-active products which
are found in the air. The observations show that these
products are decidedly fewer at sea than on land, and a
specially low value, both north and south of the equator,
is found in latitudes from 30° to 40°. This is ascribed
to the fact that the air in these latitudes is supplied by
pure air descending from the upper parts of the atmo-
sphere, while it is mainly the air which has passed over
land which carries radio-active products with it. In the
third part of the investigation, the number of free ions
in the air are measured, and here again it is found that
the ionisation over the sea is smaller than that over land.
In the concluding part of the paper the spontaneous ionisa-
tion in a closed vessel is measured. Though part of the
effect is ascribed to a real effect of air becoming conduct-
ing by itself, some of the results obtained indicate clearly
that when the ship near land was exposed to radio-active
emanation, the observed ionisation showed an increase for
several hours afterwards. — Dr. W. H. Young : The
Fourier constants of a function. In this paper the possi-
bility of treating the Fourier series of a function f{x) in
various circumstances, as if it were convergent and
integrable term by term, when multiplied by another
function, is illustrated by the application of this fact to
the determination of expressions for 1a„n~'i anH '%h„n~'>,
a„ and hn denoting the Fourier coefficients of /(.r), and
q having a non-negative value. The formulae are shown
to be valid for any function that has bounded variation
in an interval containing the origin, and is elsewhere sum-
mable, provided only that q is greater than zero. — J. A.
Crowther : The energy and distribution of scattered
Rontgen radiation. Experiments have been made to deter-
mine what fraction of the incident radiant energy is
scattered per unit mass of a radiator when primary
Rontgen rays fall upon it. From the numbers obtained a
value has been deduced for the number of electrons per
atom of the radiating substance. The value obtained
agrees closely with that previously deduced from experi-
ments on the scattering of homogeneous $ rays, being very
nearly three times the atomic weight of the substance.
The distribution of the scattered radiation has been
measured. It reaches a maximum forwards and back-
wards along the line of the primary beam, and falls to a
NO.. 2153., VOL. 85]

minimum at right angles to this direction. At an\
angle with the primary beam there is always a preiKHJw , -
ance of scattered radiation in the forward direction. Thi-
preponderance increases the more nearly we approach th>'
line of the primary beam. — Mrs. Hertha Ayrton : Some
new facts connected with the motion of oscillating water.
The author's explanation of the origin of ripple-formin
vortices having been contested, she has made further 1
periments to prove the two propositions on which it rest,
viz. that when water oscillates over a submcrgi d
obstacle : — (1) during the whole of any single swing .1
diminution of pressure is established close to the uppi r
part of the lee side of the barrier ; (2) while the wav r
is falling below the mean level, in the half of the troui
where the obstacle is, there is a back pressure against i
flow on its lee side below the area of diminished pressiu
Experimental proof of these pressure conditions is gi\
by means of an obstacle in the form of a hollow wat<
tight box, of which the top and one side are covered wiih
thin guttapercha tissue diaphragms, the air being expelled
and the box partly filled with water. These pressure con-
ditions cause a jet to flow down close to the lee side of an
obstacle during the first part of a swing, and a vortex to
form during the second by upsetting the equilibrium of
water, in the lee of the obstacle, that would otherwi-
remain at rest. The back pressure extends only to t'
limits of this slack water, i.e. to the line where the low
water flowing over the obstacle strikes the bottom. A
trough with an artificial end fitted with diaphragms is
used to show that such pressure conditions are not con-
fined to submerged obstacles, but come into existence clo>';
to any solid where water, in oscillating, is moving away
from it, and wherever two masses of water are flowing
away from one another, as at the node of a stationary
wave. These variations of pressure give rise to jets and
vortices near the surface of oscillating water wherever it
meets the end of a vessel, and at every node ; it is these
jets and vortices, and the streams that feed them, that
cause the residual whirls previously found by the author
in oscillating water. The most important proof of this is
that when the trough is rocked, so that there is much
bottom motion but very little rise and fall, and, conse-
quenth', only feeble jets and- vortices, the author's residual
whirls are insignificant, while Lx>rd Rayleigh's, beneath,
develop to their full length and height even in deep water.

Geological Society, January 11. — Prof. W. W. Watts,
F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Miss G. R. Watney and
Miss E. G. Welch : The zonal classification of the
Salopian rocks of Cautley and Ravenstonedale. The dis-
trict described lies north-east of Sedbergh and west of
the Dent fault. Below are Valentian rocks (A and B
divisions of the Stockdale shales). The Wenlock beds are
most fully developed in some streams entering the river
Rawthey from the south. The detailed succession of these
is given, and confirmatory sections are described in other
parts of the district. The Ludlow beds are found mainly
in the northern part of the area, where the geology is
simpler. A comparison is instituted between these beds
and those in the Welsh borderland, and those of Wenlock
age in southern Sweden. A description of a Cyrtograptus
intermediate in character between C. rigidus and C.
symmetricus, and of a new Monograptus from the Nilssoni
beds of Wandale Hill, is given in a palaeontological
section. — Herbert Bolton : A collection of insect remains
from the South Wales Coalfield. Nine examples of insect
remains, all, with one exception, blattoid in character.
Seven are described as new species. The insect remains
are referable to three horizons, one at the base of the
upper series of the Coal Measures, and two in the upper
part of the Pennant series. The suggestion is put for-
ward that possibly Carboniferous cockroaches were not
only phytophagous in habit, but frequented decaying
Cordaites leaves in order to feed upon the Spirorbis. The
presence of archimylacrid and orthomylacrid forms is
considered indicative of an advance in insect develop-
ment in the British Carboniferous beyond the palsEO-
dictyopteran types, while their abundance in the Pennant
and upper series of the South W'ales Coalfield may justify
the hope of finding more primitive forms at a lower
horizon in the same coalfield.

February 2, 191 1]

NATURE

46.

Royal Microscopical Society, January i8.— Prof. J. Arthur
Thomson, president, in the chair. — Prof. J. Arthur Thom-
son : Presidential address : the determination of sex.
The president discussed, historically and critically, five
theories or sets of suggestions, (i) It has been suggested
that environmental condition, operating on the sexually-
undetermined, developing offspring-organism, may, at
least, share in determining the sex. The evidence in sup-
port of this has in great part crumbled before criticism
and before the counter-evidence of cytologists and
Mendelians. (2) It has been suggested that the sex is
quite unpredestined in the germ-cells before fertilisation,
and that it is then settled by the relative condition of the
gametes (as affected by age, vigour, &c.), or by a balancing
of the inherited tendencies which these gametes bear,
neither ovum nor spermatozoon being necessarily decisive.
The evidence in support of this is very far from satis-
factory. Vet in view of some sets of experiments, of
R. Hertwig in particular, it seems rash to foreclose the
question. (3) It has been suggested that the sex is pre-
destined at a very early stage by the constitution of the
germ-cells as such, there being female-producing and male-
producing germ-cells, predetermined from the beginning,
and arising independently of environmental influence.
The evidence in support of this is ver\' strong, both on
experimental and on cytological grounds. (4) It has been
suggested that maleness and femaleness are Mendelian
characters, and one form of this very attractive theory is
that femaleness is dominant over maleness, and that
females are heterozygous as regards sex and males homo-
zygous as regards sex. But there are grave difficulties as
well as very striking corroborations. (5) It has been
suggested that environmental and functional influences,
operating through the parent (or, in short, the parent's
acquired peculiarities), may alter the proportion of
eff^ective female-producing and male-producing germ-cells,
as, for instance, in Russo's experiments on rabbits. This
possibilit}- remains tenable. Prof. Thomson argued in
support of the thesis that there is no sex-determinant at
all in the usual sense, but that what determines the sex
of the offspring is a metabolism-rhythm, a relation between
anabolism and katabolism, or a relation between the
nucleoplasm and the cytoplasm. Many sets of facts con-
verge in the inference that each sex-cell or gamete has a
complete equipment of both masculine and feminine
characters, of which there are doubtless chromosomic
determinants. It may be that the liberating stimulus
which calls the masculine or the feminine set into ex-
pression or development is afforded by the metabolism-
rhythm set up in the cytoplasmic field of operations. It
may be that this metabolism-relation — between nucleo-
plasm and cytoplasm doubtless, and likewise between
anabolism and katabolism — leads, first and necessarily, to
the establishment of ovaries or of spermaries, and secondly,
either directly or through the gonads with their internal
secretions, to the expression of the contrasted masculine or
feminine characters.

Paris.

Academy of Sciences, January 23. — M. Annand Gautier
in the chair. — L. E. Bertin : Additional remarks on the
general laws of retarded or accelerated motion in ships.
— A. Miintz and E. Laine : The nitrates in the atmo-
sphere of the Antarctic regions. A series of determinations
of the nitrates in snow and rain in southern latitudes have
been carried out by R. E. Godfroy, accompanying Dr.
Charcot's Antarctic expedition. Expressed in milligrams
of nitric anhydride per litre, the amounts found varied
between 01 and 0-4, with an average of 023. These
results are compared with the data of Boussingault in
Alsace. Lawes and Gilbert at Rothampstead, and Muntz
and Marcano at Caracas, in the tropics. It was especiallv
desired to obtain figures for the proportion of nitrate in
rain and snow during the occurrence of the aurora
borealis, but owing to the absence of this phenomenon at
the stations occupied by the expedition, these data were
not obtained. — M. Branly was elected a member in the
section of physics in the place of the late M. Gernez.—
Ernest Esclangron : A system of fixed or differential
synchronisation. An improvement in the svstem of
governing recording chronographs. The synchronising
wheel, making approximately one revolution per second,

NO. 2153. VOL. 85]

carries two poles of soft iron, and these pass at each
revolution in front of two electromagnets, the latter being
actuated by the controlling clock. If the wheel carrying
the electromagnets is slowly rotated, a differential move-
ment is obtained. If driven so as to make one revolution
in twenty-four hours, for which purpose an tM-dinary clock
movement is sufficiently accurate, the synchronising wheel
can be controlled to give one revolution per sidereal
second. The system can also be applied with advantage
to the control of an equatorial. — P. Idrac : First observa-
tions on the new star in Lacerta. The spectrum of this
star, discovered December 30, 1910, has been studied and
photc^raphed at the Observatory of Meudon with the
arrangement already used for the stud}' of the Halley and
Innes comets. Five hydrogen lines are brilliant, and also
a strong band about X = 464. As regards the classification
of this star, it might be either a variable star of long
period or a new star ; the great brilliance of the hydrogen
lines appears to rather favour the second hypothesis. —
C. Russyan : The system of generalised canonical
ordinary differential equations and the generalised problem
of S. Lie. — Paul Levy : Differentials of functions of plane
lines. — U. Cisotti : The dynamical reaction of a liquid
jet. The dynamical reaction of the liquid jet does not
depend on the form of the vessel in the neighbourhood
of the orifice. In the particular case where the jet is a
continuation of the axis of the vessel, the reaction of the
liquid jet is entirely supported by the bottom of the vessel.
— ^Jean Becquerel : The magnetic modifications of the
absorption and phosphorescence bands of rubies, and on a
fundamental question of magneto-optics. The nine
different principal cases described by H. du Bois and Elias
are shown to be reducible to five ; the anomalies are
shown to depend on a faulty orientation of the crystal
with respect to the optic axes. — A. Senouque : Experi-
ments in wireless telegraphy from an aeroplane. There
is no difficult}" in sending wireless messages from an
aeroplane provided that the sending instruments are
sufficiently strongly built to resist the disturbing influence
of the vibrations of the motor, and are sufficiently light
in proportion to the supporting power of the aeroplane. —
Pierre Weiss : The rationality of the ratios of the mag-
netic moments of the atoms, and a new universal con-
stituent of matter. By the assumption of the existence of
a substance magneton, possessing a definite magnetic
moment, the experimental results of Kamerlingh Onnes
and Weiss, Weiss and Foex, P. Pascal and other workers,
are readily explained. Magneton is regarded as a universal
constituent of matter. — C. E. Guillaume : The anomaly
of the expansions of nickel-steels. The effect of chromium
and manganese in altering the expansion of nickel-steels
is discussed, and the results given in graphical form. —
Eugene Bloch : The discharge potential in the magnetic
field. The modern theory of disruptive discharge, in the
few cases to which the calculation can be definitely applied,
appears to be in complete accord with the obser\ed facts.
The rule of interkathodic action given by M. Gouy appears
to fail in certain cases. — Jean Meunier : A new property
of copper, and on the active flameless combustion of gases
or convergent combustion. — J. Boug^ault : The trans-
formation of phenyl-a)8-pentenic acid into its yS-isomer.
The action of solution of caustic soda on the a3-acid did
not give the expected /37-isomer, but the 75-isomer. The
identity of the latter acid was established by its iodo-
lactone and by the conversion of the lactone into the corre-
sponding phenyl-7S^entenic acid. This is the first ex-
ample of such a transformation. — Georges Dupont :
Acetylene pinacone. This substance was prepared by the
action of acetone on the magnesium comfxtund of dibromo-
acetylene, and a description is given of its behaviour
towards dehydrating agents and towards the halogen acids.
— Pierre Breteau : A method for the complete destruc-
tion of organic matter in the detection and estimation of
mineral poisons. The material is heated with strong
sulphuric acid, as in a nitrogen determination, in a current
of nitrous fumes. The oxides of nitr<^en are obtained by
the action of sulphur dioxide upon nitric acid. If the
sulphur dioxide is taken from a cylinder of the liquid
gas, the production of the oxides of nitrogen is under
perfect control ; 300 grams of organic matter can be ccwn-
pletely destroyed in four hours by this method. — O.
Lignler and A. Tison : Are the Gnetales apetalous

464

NATURE

[February 2, 191 i

Angiosperms? It is concluded that the flowers of Gnetales
are clearly Angiosperms, but, contrary to the views usually
held, represent organs in course of reduction. — Marcel
Mirande : The action upon green plants of some sub-
stances extracted from coal-tar and employed in agri-
culture. Various mixtures are sold of substances extracted
from coal-tar for use as insecticides or antiseptics. It is
shown that discretion must be employed in the use of
such substances, as under certain conditions they may be
harmful to plants. — Ren6 Maire and Adrien Tison :
Some PlasmodiophoraceoD. — Eugene '?ittard : An analysis
and comparison of the dimensions of the skull and face
in gipsies of both sexes. — Ch. Gravier : Some animals
parasitic on the Madrepores of the genus Galaxea. — L.
Bordas : The morphology and histological structure of
the digestive apparatus of the larva of the Lepidoptera. —
Paul Marchal : The parasites of the olive-fly in Tunis.
A description of Optus concolor, a parasite of the olive-
fly, and the part it may play in destroying this fly, and
thus indirectly protecting the olive crop. — R. Robinson :
The aponeurotic cavities of the intercostal muscles and
their signification in physiology and medicine. — Ch.
Vaillant : A new method of determining by radiography
whether an infant, supposed to have been born dead, has
really lived or not. After replying to various criticisms,
the author adduces additional facts in support of the views
put forward by him on this subject in 1908. — Marc
Romieu : Plasmatic reduction in the spermatogenesis of
Ascaris megalocephala. — Gabriel Bertrand and M.
Javillier : The influence of manganese on the develop-
ment of Aspergillus niger. Salts of manganese are shown
to possess a markedly favourable influence on the develop-
ment of this mould. — L. Bounoure : A comparative study
of four digestive diastases found in some species of Coleo-
ptera. — M. Groth : The primary of Sierra Morena.

GOTTINGEN.

Royal Society of Sciences. — The Nackrichten (physico-
mathematical section), part v. for 19 10, contains the
following memoirs communicated to the society : —

July 9. — K. Willy Warner : The propagation of currents
in cables with an imperfect dielectric.

July 23. — H. Weyl : Ordinary linear differential equa-
tions with singular regions and their proper functions.
— L. Lichtenstein : The integration of a definite integral
with respect to a parameter. — K. Lerp : The sources of
error in the Kaufmann-Simon method of determining the
specific charge of an electron. — F. Bernstein : The last
of Fermat's theorems. — O. Toeplitz : The theory of
quadratic forms with an infinite number of variables. ^ —
F. Bernstein : The second case of the last of Fermat's
theorems.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, February 2.

Royal Society, at 4.30. — Experiments to investigate the Infectivity of
Glossina palpalis Fed on Sleeping Sickness Patients under Treatment :
Col. Sir D. Bruce, F. R.S., Captains A. E. Hamerton and H. R.
Bateman, and Dr. R. van Someren. — Experiments to Ascertain if Try-
panosoma gambiense during its Development within Glossina palpalis is
infective: Col. Sir D. Bruce, F.R.S., and Captains A. E. Hamerton,
H. R. Bateman, and F. P. Mackie. — Further Experimental Researches
on the Etiology of Endemic Goitre : Captain R. McCarrison. — On the
Leaves of Calamites (Calamocladus Section) : H. Hamshaw Thomas.
— Complement Deviation in Mouse Carcinoma : Dr. J. O. Wakelin
Barratt.

Royal Institution, at 3. — Recent Progress in Astronomy : F. W.
Dyson, F.R.S. , Astronomer Royal.

LiNNEAN Society, at 8.

RoNTGEN Society, at 8.15. — The Woik of Action of an Induction Coil:
Prof. SalomoDson.

FRIDAY, February 3.

Royal Institution, at 9. — Grouse Disease : A. E. Shipley, F.R.S.
Geologists' Association, at 7.30. — Annual General Meeting. — President's

Address : Flint and Chart : W. Hill.
Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8.— Rivers and Estuaries : W. H.

Hunter.

MONDAY, February 6.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8. — Brewing and Modern Science : Prof.

Adrian J. Brown.
Aristotelian Society, at 8. — Value and Reality : Miss H. D. Oakeley.
Society of Chemical Industry, at 8 (at King's College). — The

Chemistry of the Lead Chamber Process : Dr. F. Raschig.
SqciETY^OF 5.NGINEERS, at 7.30.— Presidential Address : F. G. Bloyd.

NO. 2153, VOL. 85]

TUESDAY, February 7.

Royal Institution, at 3.— Heredity : Prof. F. W. Molt, F.R.S. ■

RovAL Anthropological Institute, at 8.15.— Recent Theories about 1
Palsolithic Man : J. Gray. ■

Zoological Society, at_ 8.30. — On the Structure and Function of lli
Gas-xlands and Retia Mirabilia associated with the Gas-bladder of so;
Teleostean Fishes, with Notes on the Teleost Pancreas : Dr. W. N. I
Woodland. — Skulls ol Oxen from the Roman Military Station at New
stead, Melrose : Prof J. Cossar Ewart, F.R.S. — Plankton from Christma-
Island, Indian Ocean. I. On Copepoda of the Family Corycaeida: :
George P. Farran. — On some New Zealand Spiders: H. R. Hogg.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — The Detroit River Tunnel,
between Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Canada : VV. J, Wilgus.

WEDNESDA Y, February 8.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8.— Some Nigerian Head-hunters : Captain
A. J. N. Tremearne.

Geological Society, at 8. — Investigations pursued in conjunction with
Mr. R. E. Priestley, in the Course of the IBritish Antarctic Expedition
of igo7-o9, more especially the Investigations connected with Glacial
Geology: Prof. T. W. Edgeworth David, C.M.G., F.R.S.

T//1/RSDAY, Fkbrvarv g.

Royal Society, at 4.30. — Probable Papers: (i) Certain Physical and
Phjsiological Properties of Stovaine and its Homologues ; (a) The Effect
of some Local Anaesthetics on Nerve : Dr. V. H. Veley, F.R.S., and
W. L. Symes. — (i) Experimental Researches on Vegetable Assimilation
and Respiration. VIII. A New Method for Estimating the Gaseous
Exchanges of Submerged Plants ; (2) Experimental Researches on
Vegetable Assimilation and Respiration. IX. On Assimilation in Sul ■
merged Water-plants and its Relation to the Concentration of Carb .;.
Dioxide and other Factors; Dr. F. F. Blackman, F.R.S., and A. M.
Smith.

Royal Society of Arts, at 4.30. — Indian Superstitions: R. A. Leslie
Moore.

Roval Institution, at 3. — Problems of Animals in Captivity : P. Chalmers
Mitchell, F.R.S.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Adjourned discussion :
Long Distance Transmission of Electrical Energy : W. T. Taylor. —
Extra High Pressure Transmission Lines : R. Borlase Matthews and
C. T. Wilkinson.

Mathematical Society, at 5.30. — The Application of the Mathematical
Tneory of Relativity to the Electron Theory of Matter : E. Cunningham.

FRIDAY, February 10.
Royal Institution, at 9. — Robert Louis Stevenson : Sir Sidney Colvin.
Royal Astronomical Society, at 5. — Anniversary Meeting.
Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8.— Rivers and Estuaries : W. H.
Hunter.

CONTENTS*. PAGE

The Encyclopaedia Britannica 431

Electromagnets. By Prof. Gisbert Kapp 432

Analysis of Wine and other Spirituous Liquors.

By C. Simmonds 433

Practical Pathology 434

Sylvester's Mathematical Papers. By G. B. M. 434

Nature-study and Rose Pests 435

Our Book Shelf 436

Letters to the Editor:—

Colliery Warnings. {With Diagram.)— Th^ Author

of the Warnings ; Prof. H. Louis 437

The Afterglow of Electric Discharge in Nitrogen. —

Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S. 439

Singularities of Curves. — A. B, Basset, F.R.S. ;

T. J, I'a. B 440

Francis Galton 440

Megalithic Monuments and Prehistoric Culture in

the Western Mediterranean 445

The Flight of Birds. {Illustrated.) By A. Mallock,

F.R.S 445

Science and Literature 446

Notes . . . . ■ 448

Our Astronomical Column : —

Splendid Meteor on January 25 453

Nova Lacertse 453

Absorbing Matter in Space 453

Photographic Determinations of Stellar Parallax . . 454

Lines in the Spectra of Nebulae 454

Utilisation of the Sun's Heat . 454

Proposed Calendar Reform. By W. T. L 454

Modern Argentina 455

Metabolism in Diabetes Mellitus. By Prof. J. S.

Macdonald 455

The Ice Age in Corsica 45^

The Progressive Disclosure of the Entire Atmos-
phere of the Sun. {Illustrated.) By Dr. H.

Deslandres . 457

University and Educational Intelligence 460

Societies and Academies 461

Diary of Societies 4^4

NA TURE

465

THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 9, 191 1.

STUDIES IN PHYSIOLOGY.

Physiology the Servant of Medicine, being the Hitch-
cock Lectures for 1909, delivered at the University
of California. Berkeley, Cal. By Dr. Augustus D.
Waller, F.R.S. Pp. viii+ 143. (London : Univer-
sity of London Press and Hodder and Stoughton,
1910.) Price 55.

WHATEVER may be the place of lectures in the
education of youth, the endowments of lecture-
ships for occasional addresses by distinguished men
have proved of eminent service. And this not in
science only, as the GifTord, Bampton, and other
lectures bear witness. Of such happy advantage this
bright little book is one more instance. Such
an invitation serves both as a stimulant and a pur-
pose to a man of science or learning, in the phrase
of Prof. Waller (p. 66), to bring to "a kind of nodal
point, or focus, several lines of thought"; and, more-
over, to set forth for the intelligent world some
summary of a life's impressions, which otherwise he
might never have been led to do; and, as should be
in such a work, this set of lectures contains matter
of both practical and of theoretical value — matter, that
is of both immediate and of future service to
mankind.

Many of us in times past have wasted some little
sympathy — quite uncalled for — with ardent physio-
logists, such as the late Burdon-Sanderson and our
present author, who. in spite of laborious work in the
field of electric biology, did not for a time seem to be
engaged on a ver\- remunerative task. In the field of
therapeutics, for example, electric work seemed — apart
from certain points or diagnosis — not to come to verv*
much; But no one can read these lectures without
being reinforced in the better judgment that if the har-
vest seemed long in coming it is now fuM of reward ;
and this little book, by a master of the subject,
shows us lucidly and in perspective the useful and
interesting results which are being attained. In
the first lecture we read, from the starting point
of the isolated muscle, the effects of ether, alcohol,
and chloroform, in the electrical language of the
cardiac muscle, as illustrated in part by the " torture "
of "Jemmy." The point of view of this chapter is
to illustrate how chemical changes in living tissues
are signified and can be measured by the electrical.
Lecture ii., starting from the isolated nerve, reads
the language of nervous matter in the same mani-
festation. Lecture iii. is pharmaceutical, with a
notable discussion of anaesthetics. Lecture iv. is
full of facts and arguments on the photo-electrical
response, not of the retina only, but also of green
leaves and animal and vegetable tissues generallv.
The breadth of view, and this evocation of answers
from all sides of nature, speak eloquentlv of the
various and comprehensive talents of the author.
Lecture v. may be for him the acme of his treatise,
for in it he develops and emphasises his well-
known contrast of the precious uses of general
anaesthetics, with the intimate perils of their ordinary
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

application ; but in no pessimist spirit, in the assur-
ance rather that under scientific guidance these uses
can be had without the perils. How great under
rule of thumb these perils have been, and still may
be he does not hesitate to declare with the authority
which belongs to one in whom to the talent of scien-
tific discover}' are added the practical dexterity of the
mechanic and the enthusiasm of humanity. Prof.
Waller believes that he has eliminated "idiosyn-
crasy " ; and he anticipates a like dismissal for the
"status lymphaticus." The last chapter — an appen-
dix—is reserved for some notes and general reflec-
tions arising out of what has gone before, reflections
full both of insight and accomplishment.

I had marked many passages for especial notice,
but I see that in such a quest I should soon trespass
beyond my limits. I will rather engage the reader of
this notice to procure the little book for himself,
advice which I offer, not only to medical, but fo
all readers of N.ature; for it is the note of a master
of his subject that in addressing a larger public he
can make it intelligible to ever}- trained mind what-
ever its pursuits. And the paragraphs are full of
happy and illuminating sidelights ; for instance, on the
"line of beauty" (p. 65), I have heard Watts say
more than once that for the painter the line of beauty
is one which cannot return into itself. From the
time of Haller, or indeed from Harvey, physiology has
been ver\- fortunate in its exponents, a good fortune
which it still enjoys. Clifford Allbutt.

THE PINES OF AUSTRALIA.
A Research on the Pines of Australia. By R. T.
Baker and H. G. Smith. (Technological Museum,
N.S.W., Technical Education Series, No. 16.) Pp.
xiv + 460. (Sydney: William A. GuUick, Govern-
ment Printer, 1910.)
THE joint authors of this book are both officers
of the Technological Museum of New South
Wales, acting in the botanical and chemical depart-
ments respectively, and also joint authors of a similar
"research" on the genus Eucalyptus, published some
years ago. Beginning with the title of the present
work, we question its appropriateness, though there
mav be local considerations which justify its adoption.
To what extent the names " Moreton Bay Pine,"
"Cvpress Pine," &c., are used, outside of books, is
uncertain. Here, in the northern hemisphere, the
term pine is by no means applied uniformlv. but its
use is restricted to the Abietaceae, no member of which
is a native of Australia. A criticism of this kind is
easily put forward, but it is difficult to find a more
suitable and popular name, as the family designation,
Coniferae, is equally open to objection, in view of a
classification based on relatively recent researches.
Mr. Baker, however, might have consistently used
the term Coniferae, inasmuch as he accepts and em-
ploys the classification and terminology of Bentham
and Hooker's "Genera Plantarum," in which the six
groups, Cupressineae, Taxodieae, Taxeae, Podocarpeae,
Araucarieae, and Abietineae are regarded as tribes of
one family or natural order — the Coniferae. All these
groups, except the last, are represented in the indi-

Q

466

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

genous vegetation of Australia, and eleven of the
thirty-two genera described by Bentham and Hooker
are in part, or wholly, Australian, with a total of
thirty-seven species. Of these Araucaria and Agathis
(Dammara) are the only genuine cone-bearing genera ;
the former being also represented by recent species
in Brazil and Chili, and the latter is spread over the
Malayan Archipelago and extends to New Zealand
and some of the Pacific Islands.

Coming to the plan of the book and the treatment
of the subject, it should be explained that the main
object of the investigations was to ascertain, describe,
and illustrate the " commercial possibilities " of the
various species of the Australian Coniferae. The genus
Callitris (otherwise Frenela) — to which Mr. Baker
applies the popular name Cypress generically, in spite
of his title — as now generally circumscribed, is almost
restricted to Australasia (Australia and Tasmania).
Two species, however, occur in New Caledonia, a fact
overlooked apparently by Mr. Baker. There are
eighteen Australian species, and they are spread over
the whole country. Its nearest allies are African, and
they have sometimes been referred to the same genus ;
but Mr. Baker, following other authorities, retains the
North African Tetraclinis, and the South African Wid-
dringtonia, which he diagnoses anew. Callitris is the
only genus of Coniferae of general dispersion in Aus-
tralia, and the vast areas covered by some of the species
will come as a surprise to most botanists. Mr. Baker
gives very full details of the distribution of the Aus-
tralian Coniferae, but more especially within the State
of New South Wales. Callitris glauca is found in all
the States, "but nearly always away from the coast."
Ten pages are devoted to its distribution in New South
Wales, where it is known to occur in eighty-seven
counties, covering hundreds of thousands of acres.
C. glauca is perhaps the most important of all the
small trees of Australia, as its timber (as well as that
of other species of Callitris) is impervious to the
white ant.

This species is illustrated by about thirty figures,
from the habit of growth of the individual to the
anatomy of the various parts. Altogether the work
contains 296 figures of anatomical structure and
chemical secretions, all photographic reproductions,
some in colour and mostly of excellent quality. In
addition there are about seventy unnumbered plates
or full-page illustrations, some of which are scenic,
others individual trees, while others represent her-
barium specimens of the natural size. Unfortunately
an indfex to the figures and plates is wanting. There
are also three maps, one of which illustrates the
distribution of the Coniferae of New South Wales so
far as at present known. In the compilation of this
map the authors had the assistance of about 130
persons, mostly schoolmasters and mistresses. Assum-
ing that they aff^orded trustworthy information, it is
evidence of an interest in natural history not easily
paralleled. As already mentioned, the chemical com-
position of the various products, the results of very
protracted investigations, is given in considerable
detail. In addition there is much practical informa-
tion. Comparing the number of species cited, it will
be seen that an average of twelve pages is devoted to
NO. 2154, VOL. S::!

each; more or less, according to their importance
Much space is devoted to anatomy and chemistry, and
more might have been profitably given to morphology
and a discussion of the theoretical structure of the
female cone and the male catkin of the earlier writers.
The term gymnosperm is mentioned, but no definition
follows, and for a description of the family the reader
is referred to Bentham and Hooker's "Genera
Plantarum," as Mr. Baker considers it "would be
superfluous to repeat it," losing sight of the fact that
this classical work is expensive and accessible to com-
paratively few persons, besides not being up-to-date
in many details. W. B. H.

PRACTICAL INORGANIC CHEMISTRY.
A Manual of Practical Inorganic Chemistry, including
Preparations and Qualitative and Quantitative
Analysis, with the Rudiments of Gas Analysis,
specially adapted to cover Preliminary and Inter-
mediate University Courses and the First Three
Stages of the Syllabus of the Board of Educatioti.
By Dr. A. M. Kellas. Pp. viii + 347. (London:
H. Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton, 1910.)
Price 55. net.

THIS volume belongs to the series of Oxford medi-
cal publications, in which an " Introduc-
tion to Practical Chemistry " was published by the
same author in 1909. A comparison of the two
volumes shows that nearly two hundred pages of the
texts are identical, and there can be little doubt that
the type set up for the earlier publication has been
used in the production of the major portion of the
present volume.

Amongst the new matter may be noted a section
dealing with preparative work of a more advanced
character. The preparations described include the
chlorides and oxides of. sulphur, phosphorus, and
silicon, the chlorides of iron, aluminium, and tin,
bleaching powder, potassium chlorate, chromate,
bichromate and permanganate, sodium nitrite, cal-
cium hypophosphite, and sodium thiosulphate. The
list of metallic compounds, of which the mode of pre-
paration is described, has, moreover, been extended
so as to include practically all the inorganic com-
pounds in the British Pharmacopoeia. A summary of
these compounds is given, in which the impurities to
be looked for are in each case indicated. This exten-
sion is evidently designed for the special purposes of
pharmaceutical students, and can scarcely be regarded
as an enlargement in the scope of the work from a
chemical or an educational point of view.

In the section dealing with the identification of acid
radicles, the reactions of some thirty-three acids are
given in the Manual as compared with sixteen in the
Introduction. The short section devoted to quantita-
tive analysis in the. latter has been expanded from
about twenty-five to sevent3--five pages in the new
volume, and in addition to several new gravimetric
estimations, the commoner volumetric methods are
described. This and the last section, in which the
author gives an account of the apparatus and methods
used in quantitative gas analysis, represent the
greater part of what is not to be found in the previous
volume.

FiEBRUARY 9, 191 1]

NATURE

467

The new matter is presented in a very lucid form,
and from the instructions and detailed explanations,
which are intended to lighten the work of the teacher,
the average student should find little difficulty in
working intelligently in the laboratory- without much
supervision.

In connection with the formulation of chemical
changes, a brief reference is made to the theory of
electrolvtic dissociation, and the reader is informed
that the reactions involved in analysis are, as a rule,
ion reactions. If this is really the case, it is difficult
to justify the author's use of ordinary chemical equa-
tions in oreference to ionic equations, even if it be
admitted, that, in some cases, the representation of
oxidation and reduction changes is not quite so simple
when the ions are taken into consideration.

In view of the undoubted merits which the bo<^
possesses, it is distinctly unfortunate that nearly two-
thirds of the contents should be a mere copy of a pre-
vious and ver\- recent publication. There is nothing
in the titles of the two books to suggest such a large
measure of identity in respect of text and diagrams
to prospective purchasers, and it is to be regretted that
the publishers should have seen fit to proceed to pub-
lication in this particular way. H. M. D.

MATHEMAllCS .4XD OPHTHALMOLOGY.
The Prescribing of Spectacles. By A. S. Percival.
Pp. vi+159. (Bristol: John Wright and Sons,
Ltd. ; London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton,
Kent and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 55. 6d. net.
"TAR. A. S. PERCIVAL is one of the most eminent
■L' of the comparatively few English ophthalmo-
logists who have shown the requisite knowledge to
treat mathematically in an exhaustive manner optical
problems connected with the eye. The ordinary
student of ophthalmology is content to accept on
authority- the results obtained by others, or at most
to study such geometrical expositions as may be
readily understood. Indeed, he is generally wholly
incapable of comprehending an analytical proof, and
nothing is so abhorrent to his mind as an algebraical
formula. It is greatly to be deplored that more
emphasis is not laid upon the acquirement of a good
knowledge of physiological optics, a subject which
necessarily forms the very foundation of ophthal-
mology. Moreover, by far the greater part of everv
ophthalmic surgeon's work consists in the correction
of errors of refraction, of defects in muscle balance,
and other problems of an essentially optical nature.
Only those who have given assiduous attention to the
mathematical conditions presented by these problems
can appreciate the help which this arduously acquired
knowledge gives them. It is a humiliating fact that
many practising opticians are far better equipped in
this respect than most c^hthalmic surgeons, and if the
latter seriously expect to hold their own against the
encroachments of the former they must outrival them
on their own ground.

Dr. Percival's little book will prove of valuable

service in the task. All the common problems which

daily confront the surgeon in ordering spectacles for

errors of refraction and defects of muscle balance are

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

discussed, and the underhnng principles lucidly ex-
plained. In most cases mathematical proofs, culled
from the author's work on optics and other original
papers, are set forth. Dr. Percival's name is specially
associated with the formulae for periscopic glasses,
and the inquiring student will here be enabled to find
out how the formulae were arrived at, and why such
lenses are to be preferred. A few paragraphs, such
as the pinhole test of ametropia, might have been
omitted as of little practical value, and the student
would do well to read Maddox's book on the " Ocular
Muscles " in conjunction with the chapter devoted to
the subject in this work. The author's advice is
always founded on a secure scientific basis, and such
paragraphs as the following show that he is not car-
ried away by purely theoretical conceptions. In speak-
mg of the association between accommodation and
convergence he says : —

"Clearly, if the relation between the two functions is
unfitted for present requirements, and if there is no
sufficient faculty of adaptation that can be brought
into play by training, we should make the glasses
suit the patient, instead of vainly attempting to make
the patient suit the glasses."

And again : —

'• In conclusion, I would say that although few
patients will require such a complete examination as
is here suggested, yet it is well to investigate the
relationship of these functions of convergence and
accommodation whenever symptoms still persist after
the correction of any refractive errors and hyperphoria
that may exist."

We can cordially recommend the book, and we hope
that it may stimulate many ophthalmic surgeons to
acquire a more profound knowledge of this branch of
their subject.

THE BEETLES OF INDIA.
The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and
Burma : Coleoptera Lamellicornia {Cetoniinae and
Dynastinae). By G. J. Arrow. Pp. xiv + 322 + ii
coloured plates, and 76 illustrations in the text.
(London : Taylor and Francis, 1910.)

I'^HE beetles of India are an enormous subject, and
the volume before us only deals with two sub-
families of the great group Lamellicornia, the first
of which, though comprising the well-known and
extremely interesting rose-chafers, is only represented
by a few species in Britain, while the Dynastinae,
though a few species are found in southern Europe,
is not represented in the British fauna at all. Two
hundred and eighty-seven species of these two sub-
families are here described as belonging to the Indian
fauna, but the editor's estimate of these being "'per-
haps less than one-sixth of the great ' series ' of
Lamellicornia," is perhaps somewhat too high, when
we consider that the Lamellicornia include the whole
of the chafers, the saa'ed beetles, and the stag-
beetles.

Mr. Arrow has been fortunate in receiving the
cooperation of the curators of most of the principal
entomological collections in Europe and India, and
of many enthusiastic and experienced collectors in
India and Ceylon, and his work may therefore be
taken as a trustworthy epitome of what is at present

468

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

known relating to his subject. The glossary of tech-
nical terms which follows the preface will be useful,
and there is also a comprehensive introduction of
upwards of thirty pages in which the structure is
fully described, and clearly illustrated by diagrams.
These are points which are frequently too much
neglected by entomological authors, but which are of
real practical importance. Besides general remarks
and a section on structure, the introduction deals with
larvae, vocal organs, sexual dimorphism, food and
habits, and classification. The Lamellicornia beetles
are mostly vegetable feeders, or dung or carrion
beetles, and some of them, like our own cock-
chafers, are very destructive to grass in the larval
stage, and to leaves of trees when mature. Some,
chiefly belonging to the groups described in the present
volume, inhabit the nests of ants and termites in the
larval stage, and are tended by these insects for the
sake of their secretions, while the dung and carrion
beetles are general scavengers.

The Lamellicornia, as their name implies, are dis-
tinguished by their short lamellated antennae, which
may be observed in a well-developed and character-
istic form in our common cockchafers. Mr. Arrow
recognises three main families, the Scarabaeidae,
Passalidae, and Lucanidae. The Passalidae are not
European ; the Lucanidae are the stag-beetles. The
Scarabeeidae are divided into two smaller divisions,
the Pleurosticti, with four subfamilies represented in
the Indian fauna, and the Laparosticti, with eight.

The general arrangement of the volume is similar
to that adopted in previous volumes of the " Fauna of
India," and need not be further commented on here.
Eight species are represented on each of the coloured
plates.

We congratulate Mr. Arrow on the completion of
an excellent piece of work, and hope that entomolo-
gists , may have reason to be grateful to him for a
long series of equally excellent volumes.

W. F. K.

ELECTRIC MOTORS.
Electric Motors. Continuous, Polyphase, and Single-
phase Motors : Their Theory and Construction. By
Henry M. Hobart. Second edition, entirely re-
written, revised, and enlarged. Pp. xxiv + 748.
(London : Whittaker and Co., 19 10.) Price 185.
net,

THE first edition of this work appeared in 1904.
Since then remarkable advances have been made
in electrical engineering. A foremost place in this
progress must be given to electric motors, and more
especially to that class employing commutators, in con-
nection with both single- and poly-phase alternating
currents. Indeed, the electrification of railwaj's has
made the variable-speed single-phase motor with a
good starting torque indispensable, for at present the
single-phase system alone seems to fulfil the require-
ments of main line electric traction. Also the poly-
phase induction motor is no longer to retain the great
disadvantage in the matter of speed regulation, which
makes it inferior to the continuous-current shunt
motor, for successful means are now known whereby
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

the speed may be varied economically over a wide
range.

Both these problems are discussed in the present
edition, and form part of the new material contained
therein, but we find the treatment is mainly descrif)-
tive and too general to be of much use to anyoiv
seriously engaged in the design or manufacture of
these machines. Admittedly the subject is a difficult
one, at any rate, more difficult than the design of
ordinary continuous-current and induction motors.
Nevertheless, in a book on the theory and construc-
tion of electric motors room ought to be made for a
proper scientific study of these recent developments.

Coming to the other and major part of the boolc
dealing with more or less standard motors, we do not
find much improvement on the first edition. To a
scientific engineer the author's style is too round-
about, illogical, and non-mathematical. A German
engineer would probably call it " unpedagogisch." For
instance, the author treats the principles of desij^n
by means of examples. Surely the classical way of
developing formulae from the theory, followed by prac-
tical details, and illustrated by examples, is far better.
Nor — to judge from his examples — does the author
appear to have kept pace with the times. We can
onlv think that many of the designs, both of continu-
ous- and alternating-current motors, have long since
been repudiated by their respective firms.

The methods of calculation advocated by the author
are often open to objection, but to cite instances would
take us too far, as the list before us is really too long
to choose from. We think enough has been said,
however, to show that, while appreciating the im-
mense amount of information the writer has collected,
we cannot agree he has produced a book which can be
regarded as a standard treatise on the theory and
construction of electric motors for the use of students
or scientifically-trained engineers.

Stanley P. Smith. '*

1

THE GEOLOGY OF GERMANY.
(i) Lehrhuch der Geologic von Deutschland. Eine
Einfiihrung in die erklarende Landschaftskunde fiir
Lehrende und Lernende. By Prof. J. Walther. Pp.
xv-t-358. (Leipzig: Quelle and Meyer, 1910.)
Price 7.60 marks.

(2) Geologic von Deutschland und den angrenzenden
Gebieten. By Prof. R. Lepsius. Zweiter Teil,
Lief, ii., Das nordliche und" ostliche Deutschland.
Pp. vi -I- 247-548. (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1910.)
Price 10 marks.

(3) Geologic von Ostpreussen. By Prof. A. Torn-
quist. Pp. vii-l-231. (Berlin: Gebruder Born-
traeger, 1910.) Price 10 marks.

(i) T)ROF. WALTHER has been fortunately com-
-L pelled to write an account of the geology of
Germany, in furtherance of the scheme to which he
stands committed. He is one of those educational
leaders who believe that knowledge of literature and
of cosmopolitan science is insufficient for the citizen.
The Fatherland itself, solum patriae, must be under-
stood in order to be loved. We rhust not begin and
end with arranging minerals in cabinets and pointing

February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

469

out their technical applications. Let us appeal rather
to the country round the pupil's home. We want,
says Prof. Walther, a wider opening of doors and
windows. He would play, like the famous piper of
Hameln, a tune full of the magic of the world. The
school must follow him, when the sun reveals the
peaks of far-off ranges, and when the wind swirls
the dust in clouds across the slopes. It must follow,
when the rain furrows the farmlands, and the roar-
ing stream undercuts its trembling banks. Nature is
ready to reveal its beauties, small and great, and com-
parison with other lands will yet increase a love of
home.

With such stirring words this vigorous work sets
out. The illustrations are almost all from places
that the author knows. They have been drawn
with brush or pencil by Herr Weszner from
photographs and other trivial sources, with an art
that seems coarse at first sight, but which grovv's
very quickly on the reader. The painter has under-
stood his author — note the simple desolation of the
• Baumfriedhof " among the dunes (p. 5), the ceme-
tery of trees ; the renowned quarry of Solenhofen
(p. 94), on a plateau above the village, where the
level strata appeal so temptingly beyond the woods ;
or the vivid little sketch (p. 256) of Karlsbad crowded
in its ravine ; and compare this last with the glimpse
of Regensburg (p. 293), seated like an island in the
alluvium, as one sees it for the first time in descend-
ing from the hills. The essentials are all there, just
as in the text, which is pure literature. The geological
map, however, is far too severe and uncommunicative.
Even the German sclioolboy might hesitate before a
group of towns named Mii., La., Er., and Rud., in the
countn,- east of Eis., which we conclude is Eisenach.
The Porta Westfalica is figured, and might well be
named; we seek it on the Weser between Ha., the
city of the piper, and Mi., probably the place of the
;"men who fought." W'e have some acquaintance
with the Vistula, and can look with interest on Th.,
Mbg. (recalling a Watergate on the Nogat), and even
Di., a railway junction ; but we cannot recover Cu.
We are writing far away from atlases, and there is
no need for so many puzzles in a work that connects
geography and geology. But this shall be our only
grumble, though we believe that another map on
p. 125, full of attractive river courses, is on only one-
tenth of the scale ascribed to it. Theoretical ques-
tions are not overlooked by the author, when once he
has aroused interest in the origins of things. We are
brought to contemplate the yielding but sustaining
Untergrund on p. 28 ; we gaze on a ncrth pole in the
middle of Greenland during the Ice age (p. 113); and
we picture intelligent apes using eoliths in the Miocene
period (p. 128). Throughout its first two sections
the book stands successfully apart from most of our
attempts at " nature-study." While we are apt to
insist on the beaut\- of things, Prof. Walther makes us
know that they are beautiful by his telling of them.
In the third section, he leads us to a closely written
description of the origins of German landscape ; but
we still come across vivid touches that enable us to
realise the past. We should like to quote the descrip-
tion (p. 171) of the volcanic cloud caught bv westerlv
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

winds above the crater of the Laacher See, or the
passages that trace the history of the granite tors
which rise on the Fichtelgebirge through the woods
(pp. 242-3). Teachers will select and enlarge the de-
scriptions of their special areas; but they will learn
to adopt a comprehensive view of natural phenomena
that will fit them, in Walther 's opinion, to live upon
this living world.

(2) Prof. Lepsius has carried his great work on the
geology of Germany to the end of its second volume,
and it remains a storehouse of well-chosen references
to original research. Some of these must have found
their way into the book almost during its passage
through the press. The author was never a mere
compiler, and in the present part he adds greatly to
the interest of his subject by a full discussion of
recent views on the deposits of the north German
plain. He holds that there is no doubt as to the
advance of ice from Scandinavia over this vast area ;
but he will not countenance the suggestion of inter-
glacial epochs. The evidence for these he regards as
local, and as supporting his belief in prolonged Scan-
dinavian glaciers, rather than in a continuous ice-
sheet (p. 477, et seq.). He does not accept Greenland
as an existing parallel for what occurred in northern
Europe, and quotes Schwarz with approval as to the
maximum thickness of an ice-flow (p. 475). He sees
the cause of the Ice age in geographical conditions,
and attributes the Dwyka Conglomerate of South
Africa (p. 514) merely to the elevation of a mountain
chain. He allows of great movement of blocks of
chalk by advancing ice, but does not accept the
evidence for plucking action. All this shows that the
author's spirit aims far beyond mere description, and
that he is quite prepared to champion views which
others have set aside. We have dwelt on this part of
the book rather than on the fine and detailed descrip-
tion of the Harz area (pp. 286-410), where Prof.
Lepsius critically reviews the work of Lossen, on
the basis of personal obser\ations. His readiness to
adopt new views where he holds them to be justified
is never left in doubt, a good example being his treat-
ment of the mingled t\pes of igneous rocks on the
margin of the granite of the Harz (p. 350)- Nor does
he shrink from controversy, when he. claims to have
converted an eminent colleague (p. 443) to his un-
doubtedly sound opinions on the famous Saxon granu-
lites. Prof. Lepsius has now furnished us with one
of the most serviceable reference books on the geology
of Central Europe.

(3) Truly the geologist is happy anywhere. Prof.
Tornquist writes on the geology of Ostpreussen with
enthusiasm. This remote province, as he justly re-
marks, is known to few besides those that dwell in
it, but to them its ver\- expanse is beautiful. In his
handsome volume we learn much stratigraphy from
the fossiliferous pebbles that are embedded in the
covering of glacial drift. \\'e hear of interesting
formations that are reached by borings, and the mantle
of clays and sands seems to the student to cover
fascinating mysteries. The derived fossils are beau-
tifully illustrated, and the amber, with its included
insects, is ascribed mainly to the Lower Oligocene
of Samland (p. 98). The discussion of the drift leads

470

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

to an account of the oscillations of the margin of the
Scandinavian ice, and the formation during a resting
epoch of massive terminal moraines. A block of
Miocene sediments with undisturbed bedding, includ-
ing brown coal, and 30 metres thick, has been found
at Georgenswalde, as a transported inclusion in the
boulder-clay (p. 150). Marine clays with Yoldia and
many other molluscs are regarded, in opposition to
recent views in Sweden, as older than the maximum
extension of the ice. These beds seem, indeed (p. 156),
to have been deformed by the pressure of the ice.
One great forward movement of the glacier- front, and
one retreat, broken by pauses and small oscillations,
are held (p. 159) to explain the phenomena in Ost-
preussen. During a pause, which Prof. Tornquist
explains by the sinking of the ice into yielding glacial
deposits in a great depression in the south-east of the
province (p. 175), the pre-Glacial marine sands and
the earlier ground-moraines are said to have been
pressed up as a ridge, just as the growth of the
dunes along the northern coast has pressed up modern
marine beds out of the sea {cf. p. 209). The
photographs give vitality and interest to a strange
monotonous country, which we well remember, as we
crossed it under grey September clouds. The view of
Neidenburg (p. 167) reminds us of the gravels washed
from the retreating ice, and of the last villages of
Prussian Poland, joined by tracks of trampled sand.
On this broad outwash plain, the white-capped Cos-
sack riders, night and day, keep the boundary between
east and west along the fenceless fields.

Grenville a. J. Cole.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

Orchids. By James O'Brien. Pp. xii+114. (Lon-
don and Edinburgh : T. C. and E. C. Jack, n.d.)
Price IS. 6d. net.
In the preface to this little book it is observed that
householders in suburban districts who have but one
conservatory may, if they choose, keep it furnished
with orchids at a less expenditure of time and money
than is needed for the usual occupants of such
structures. Frankly, we doubt it. The same thing
has been written many a time before and
doubtless many a confiding householder has tried
to do it, but so far as we can judge the successes
are few and far between. The author of this work
has devoted his life mainly to the study and cultivation
of orchids, and, like most experts, is apt to take
for granted a knowledge of certain fundamental prin-
ciples which for himself require as little consideration
as breathing, but which are nevertheless absolutely
essential to success. It is over these that the average
suburban householder with no special training comes
to grief. No doubt it can be done, especially by
persons with abundant time on hand, and plenty of
enthusiasm ; but not by the ordinary City man who
has to leave his orchids — their shading and ventilation
■ — to the tender mercies of the jobbing gardener or the
occasional attentions of a distracted housemaid from
ten to six, the most important part of the day in
orchid culture.

But whilst we cannot support the optimistic views
as thus expressed by the author, we can strongly
recommend his book. It gives a condensed, but
wholly admirable, account of the history of orchid
cultivation, of the structure of orchid flowers, of the
principles of building orchid houses, and the best short

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

account we have yet seen of how to cultivate these
plants. Many who have themselves spent years
amongst orchids will read the book with profit and
pleasure. It is well printed, and is illustrated by eight
coloured pictures made from plants grown in the
famous collection of Sir G. L. Holford, at Weston-
birt. They represent the acme of the orchid cultiva-
tor's art.
Practical Mathematics and Geometry. By E. L.

Bates and F. Charlesworth. Pp. viii + 446. (Lon-
don : B. T. Batsford, 19 10.) Price 35. net.
This book has been written with the view of meeting
the recent addition to the Board of Education
examination syllabus, which unites arithmetic, alge^^
bra, and practical drawing under the heading of " Pre-
liminary Practical Mathematics." In deciding the
question as to the best teacher for the combined
course the following points cannot be ignored. The
mathematical teacher as a rule cannot be entrusted
to teach draughtsmanship — one of the most important
lessons a young technical student has to learn, and
one whichj! if spoiled at the start, is rarely remedied
later. On the other hand, the engineering teacher is
apt to attempt to specialise in mathematics too earlv;
again, his time is generally fully occupied with hir
own special work.

The book before us contains 4^6 pages crowded full
of matter presumably considered essential for a first^
year's evening course. It includes mathematical work
up to quadratic and other equations, logarithms and
variation, and plane and solid geometrv up to the
projections of simple solids and their sections. There
is little attempt to coordinate the mathematical and
drawing work.
Introduction a la Metallographie Microscopique. By

Prof. P. Goerens. Edition Fran^aise traduite pat

Prof. A. Corvisy. Pp. 227. (Paris : A. Hermann

et Fils, 191 1.) Price 10 francs.
The English translation from the German edition of
this work appeared more than two years ago, and was
reviewed in Nature, vol. Ixxviii (1908), p. 387. The
present book, however, is not identical with any pre-
vious issue. It is a careful revision by F. Robin, and
is in advance of its predecessors in several respects.
The arrangement is somewhat more logical, the de-
scription of the measurement of temperature by
thermocouples being followed at once by a section
devoted to the methods employed in studying the
microscopic structure of metals, and the remainder of
the book is occupied bv an account of the constitution
of alloys, illustrated 'by a very large number of
examples. The iron-carbon alloys are dealt with in
detail in a separate section. The most important
additions of new matter are descriptions of many
series of binary alloys, which have been studied during
the last three' or four years, and a large number of
beautiful reproductions of photomicrographs of the
structure of metals.

Das Radium und die Farben. By Prof. Dr. C.

Doelter. Pp. viii+i33. (Dresden: Theodor Stein-

kopff, 1910.) Price 4 marks.
This is a useful summary of the very numerous
observations which have been made on the colour
phenomena produced in minerals by the neighbour-
hood of radio-active bodies. Although the facility
with which experiments can be made with radium
(at least bv the fortunate possessor of an adequate
specimen of that substance) have given a specia
prominence to observation made with it, it is well
known that analogous colorations are produced by
kathode and Rontgen rays, and by ultra-violet light.
These subjects are included in the book, which con-
tains a full bibliography.

February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

471

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.]

Drainage and Malaria.

The writer of the paragraph upon Drainage and
Malaria in the " Notes " of Nature for September 15,
1910, is evidently unaware that the facts as they relate
to Klang and Port Swettenham, the two stations men-
tioned, lend themselves to a quite dififerent interpretation
from that put forward. The idea conveyed by the para-
graph referred to is that two intensely malarious places
have been freed from malaria by drainage alone, with a
- iving of more than 400 lives per annum.

A study of the reports that have been published from
time to time .by Drs. Travers and Watson, the medical
officers who claim to be responsible for this remarkable
achievement, reveals the following facts.

Klang is the principal town in a district of that name
In the Federated Malay States. Port Swettenham is a
new port situated five miles from Klang. It was opened
in 1901. The total population of Klang district for 1901
was 18,110, of which 3576 belonged to Klang town. In
iqo3 the population of Klang and Port Swettenham
together was estimated at about 4000.

From i8q8 to 1904 the total deaths registered in the
town and district together were as follows : —

1898 iS^g 1900 190T 1902 T903 1Q04
Total deaths ... 475 5=8 780 998 547 543 612
Rate per 1000 ... 26-3 310 430 55-4 303 30-1 34-0

It will be seen from this table that the mortality rose
very markedly in 1900 and 1901, and fell sharply in 1902.

."Vn analysis of the returns shows this to have been due
to an extraordinary temf>orary increase in the mortality
of Klang town during these two years. The following
table gives the mortality in the towns from 1900 to 1904
compared with that of the rest of the district : —

igoo 1901 1902 1903 1904

Towns i"^°^^' 474 582 144 "5 122

\ Per 1000 ... 132-5 1627 364 287 30-5

nUrrJrf '"^°*^* 306 416 402 428 490

^'^"*"\ Per 1000 ... 21-8 297 287 30-5 350

A consideration of these figures indicates that some special
Influence must have been at work in Klang~town to cause
the appalling mortality of 1900-1, and the history of local
events gives the clue to this.

At one time Klang was both port and railway terminus
of the district, but in 1897 it was decided to construct a
new port five miles beyond Klang. The site chosen was
a mangrove swamp partially submerged by every high
tide ; and for the reclamation of this, the making of
railway embankments and the construction of approaches
to the wharves and building sites, earth had to be brought
from a distance. While the work was in progress, the
coolie labourers employed suffered severely from malaria,
which increased in severity as the work approached com-
pletion. The health of the town was also affected, and
when at last the new port and railway were opened on
September 15, 1901, and a large number of Government
servants and others connected with the shipping were
transferred from Klang to quarters at Port Swettenham,
many of them contracted malaria.

This appears to have seriously alarmed the authorities,
wfio had remained unmoved at the fearful mortality that
had taken place before the opening of the new ix>rt, and,
as a result, steps were taken to draw up a scheme for
the drainage of both stations. Meanwhile, quinine was
freely administered as a prophylactic with such good
effect that a marked improvement was recorded even
before the drainage schemes could be executed. The
epidemic which had raised the mortality to such a frightful
figure in iqoo and 1901 declined very rapidly after the
opening of the port and railway, and the total number of
deaths during 1902 was less than one-quarter of those
in 1901.

To those acquainted with conditions in the tropics, the

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

occurrence of an epidemic of malaria during the con-
struction of a new port and railway, and its disappearance
after the completion of the work, occasions no surprise,
for it is just what has happened hundreds of times in the
past.

In the East, the coolie labourers employed on such
works are drawn almost entirely from the poorest and
most ignorant classes of the population ; they are often
brought long distances and set down in a country in
which the climate, and even the food obtainable, differs
greatly from that to which they are accustomed ; if housed
at all, they are generally crowded into temporary huts,
but frequently they are left to find what shelter they can ;
they have often no one to look after them when sick, and
no means of obtaining food if for any reason they are
unable to work. Their work is arduous and their pay
small, and owing to the fact that they generally try to
save money for the support of dependants at home, it is
no uncommon thing to find them attempting to exist upon
a miserably insufficient diet. Camped as they usually are
upon the site of the work, their surroundings are almost
always highly insanitary-, for there is rarely any pretence
at a conservancy system, and sometimes no proper water
supply ; and if much earth-work is going on, the numerous
pools of water formed during the rainy season speedily
become the breeding places of countless swarms of
mosquitoes. In these circumstances it is not surprising
that coolie labourers on large public works should be
decimated by outbreaks of epidemic disease. But what-
ever happens to the coolies, the work has still to go for-
w-ard, so that as long as it is in prepress there is con-
tinual immigration of new labourers to fill the gaps caused
in the labour force by sickness, desertion, and death.
This continual immigration is a further source of mis-
chief, for the constant introduction of gangs of susceptible
newcomers into camps which have already become hot-
beds of disease increases the trouble, just as the addition
of fuel to a glowing fire increases the blaze.

Those who, like the writer of this letter, have watched
the course of epidemics of this kind among Indian coolies,
cannot fail to trace in the history of events at Klang and
Port Swettenham a similar occurrence. It may be re-
marked that the epidemic at these places began among
the labourers on the work, and increased in severity as
that work progressed ; it occasioned a fearful mortality,
such as is never seen except in conditions similar to those
described above ; and just as its origin can be traced to
the construction of the new port and railway, so also can
its decline be traced to the completion of this work. Once
a big project of this kind is finished, the labour force
rapidly disperses, immigration of the class of labour
employed ceases, a settled population takes its place, and
conditions as regards health rapidly approach the normal
once more.

In these circumstances it becomes difficult, if not
impossible, to estimate the value of the drainage projects
that were carried out at Klang and Port Swettenham
after the decline of the epidemic, for it is certain that
in any case there was bound to be a great improvement
after the completion of the work on the new port and
railway, and the dispersal of the labour force engaged on
their construction. The only legitimate method of test-
ing the results of the drainage of the two stations is the
comparison of the mortality rates of Klang prior to the
commencement of construction work for the new port
and railway with those recorded after the introduction of
the drainage schemes, and until this has been done it is
misleading to claim these places as demonstrating the
value of drainage in combating malaria.

As for the statement that more than 400 lives per
annum have been saved bv the drainage of Klang and
Swettenham, it is an absurd fiction based on the ridiculous
assumption that but for the drainage schemes the
enormous rate of mortality recorded in 1901 would have
continued unchecked. Chas. A. Bextley.

Bombay, October 22, 19 10.

I HAVE read with interest Dr. Bentlev's interpretation
of the figures relating to the anti-malari.il works at Klang
and Port Swettenham oublished by Dr. Travers and
myself, and I am familiar with Dr. Bentlev's valuable
paper on the human factor in malaria. This factor is.

472

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

undoubtedly of profound importance in certain outbreaks ;
but at Klang and Port Swettenham the sequence of events
was not to be explained by Dr. Bentley's theory, and he
has, I think, overlooked two points in my published re-
ports which at once set aside his explanation of the
figures.

The suggestion is that the origin and sustaining factor
in the outbreak was a camp at Port Swettenham densely
populated with coolie labour, the coolies of which not only
suffered severely from malaria, but also infected the other
inhabitants of the port and of Klang, and that when the
construction works at the port were finished at the end
of 1901, the camp was broken up, the coolies dispersed,
and the epidemic subsided.

If this theory be correct, we should naturally expect to
find evidence of a severe outbreak among construction
coolies at Port Swettenham during 1901.

As a matter of fact, not only was there no outbreak
of malaria among coolie labourers at Port Swettenham,
but there were actually no camp coolies. There is
abundant evidence that this was the state of affairs,
although, as the port was not opened until the end of
the year, it was not unnatural for Dr. Bentley to suppose
such a camp existed.

To explain, I may say that most of the earth construc-
tion was finished at the end of 1895 (Dr. Travers gives
the date of beginning work as 1897, but this is a slip ;
see journal of Tropical Medicine, 1903). The wharves
were finished at the end of 1900. The only works then
remaining to complete the port were three iron goods-
sheds and the passenger railway station, for which skilled
labour was required. This was not forthcoming, and
these few buildings were not finished until September 15,
1901, when the port was opened. Through trains were,
however, running from June, 1901.

On my first visit to Port Swettenham, in January, 1901,
instead of finding a great camp of coolies as suggested
by Dr. Bentley, I found only some twenty or thirty
persons. Instead of poorly paid coolie labourers, there
were high-paid Chinese artisans. Except for these few
Chinese, occupying one of a series of empty huts formerly
occupied by the construction coolies, the place was
deserted. The Government quarters on each side of the
main road also stood empty, and were not to be occupied
until some nine months" after my first visit to the port.

This is a condition of afTairs so completelv different
from what is demanded by Dr. Bentley's theory, that the
theory obviously becomes untenable ; and to show that
such was actually the state of affairs in 1901, I now give
some extracts from published reports.

A. — Evidence of date of beginning works.

"The extension of the Klang line from Klang to Kuala
Klang (former name of the Port) was commenced on
January i, 1895, and at the date of writing (April, 1896)
is nearing completion. It is not proposed to open this
line until the wharves at the mouth of the river have
been completed " (see Report of Resident Engineer, Rail-
ways for 1895, Selangor Government Gazette, 1896).

B. — Evidence that wharves were completed at the end
of 1900, and that remaining work was for artisans, who
•were difficult to obtain and keep at Port Swettenham.

"The works remaining on hand are the passenger
station and goods-sheds, which are being pushed on as
fast as the difficulty of keeping skilled labour at this
unpopular, spot will permit. It is anticipated that the
whole of the work will be completed bv the middle of the
present year " (see Administration 'Report for 1900,
Selangor Government Gazette, 1901).

C- — Evidence that artisans were not poorly paid and
were scarce.

Under the head of "Labour" in the Administration
Report on Selangor for the vear 1900 (Selangor Govern-
ment Gazette, 1901), the 'British Resident wrote :—

More serious difficulty is caused by the great dearth of
artisan and mechanical labour, the available number of
skilled workmen having declined rather than advanced.
• •.• The mechanic of this country is almost alwavs . a
Chinaman. He can do good work, and is well paid for
It, and is consequently very independent. Latterly
employers even of their own nationality have been quite
unable to get the men thev require, "and works of all
description have suffered in consequence."
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

D. — Evidence that there was no great coolie population
at Port Swettenham in 1901.

" I was not surprised that the construction coolies had
suffered severely from malaria, and although at the
beginning of 1901 few coolies were actually living in Port
Swettenham, I formed a very unfavourable opinion of it
owing to the short residence necessary to infect new-
comers." This is an extract from my Official Report to
Government on the anti-malarial works at Klang and
Port Swettenham. It was published in the Selangor
Government Gazette, April, 1905, and reprinted in the
Indian Medical Gazette of September, 1905. Dr. Bentley
has, I think, overlooked this report.

E. — Evidence that there was no great epidemic of
malaria at Port Swettenham in the early half of 1901.

If there was a great epidemic of malaria at Port
Swettenham among coolies in 190 1, one would expect to
find evidence of it in the admissions to hospital. Now,
in my articles in the Journal of Tropical Medicine in
November and December, 1903, and .April, 1905, a table
appears giving the monthly admissions to Klang Hospital
of cases of malaria from the port. The numbers were
as follows: — ^January, 3; February, o; March, 3; April,
4 ; May, o ; June, 5. During the six months, conse-
quently, which Dr. Bentley supposes to have seen the
culmination of a malaria outburst which almost
annihilated Klang and Port Swettenham, the cases of
malaria admitted to the hospital from the vortex of the
storm numbered no more than 15. Dr. Bentley can
scarcely have noticed these figures.

So far from Dr. Bentley's suggestion being correct, the
figures show that the construction coolies had left Port
Swettenham long before the great outbreak arose among,
the Government population, and those connected with the
shipping who went to reside there after the port was
opened. The epidemic at Port Swettenham, which arose
in 1901 after the port was opened, was not among, or in
any way connected with, poorly paid construction coolies,
but among Government servants and their families, the
shopkeejjers, and the well-paid loading labourers (iSo in
number) who were transferred from Klang. Beyond these
there was no population at the port. The outbreak began
nine months at least, to my personal knowledge, after the
construction coolies had left, and consequently it is
impossible to attribute the subsidence of the outbreak to
their departure.

With regard to Klang town, I cannot quite gather
whether Dr. Bentley means it to be understood (a) that
construction works and a coolie camp existed at Klang as
well as at Port Swettenham, or (6) that the coolies from
Port Swettenham infected Klang town.

If the former, I may say at once that no such works
or such a coolie camp existed at Klang.

If the latter, why should Klang, formerly so susceptible
of infection, be now immune? In the nine years which
have passed since the outbreak in Klang, there has been
an enormous increase in the populations of the towns and
of the district. Places with much larger populations than
that of Port Swettenham in 1901, or even to-day, and
places much nearer than Port Swettenham to Klang, have
been devastated with epidemics of malaria. Malarial sub-
jects from these surrounding neighbourhoods now enter
Klang in far greater numbers than nine years ago from
Port Swettenham. Yet the residents of Klang do not
suffer from malaria, and statistics show that malaria is
hardly ever contracted in Klang to-day. Of 455 Klang
children examined in 1909, thirteen only showed evidence
of malaria. Of these thirteen, not one but had recently
come to Klang, and had a history of malaria before
arrival in the town.

I may remark, in passing, that when he asserts that
the authorities remained inactive until " alarmed by the
fearful mortality " at the new port. Dr. Bentley does less
than justice to Dr. Travers and the administration, since
the- Klang scheme, which was to prove so dramatic a
success, had already been approved before the occurrence
of the Port Swettenham outbreak.

Dr. Bentley also suggests that the credit for the
improvement of the health of Klang may be ascribed to
quinine. Quinine, as a matter of fact, was freely adminis-
tered at Port Swettenham in 1901, but no public distribu-
tion of quinine as a prophylactic was undertaken at Klang.

February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

47,

Not a single grain during all these years was given except
10 my hospital and private patients actually suffering from
malaria.

Dr. Bentley thinks it a " ridiculous assumption " that
the high death rates of 1900 and 1901 would have re-
mained unchecked but for the measures recorded. If he
will do me the honour of reading my forthcoming book,
he will find it proved (as I venture to claim beyond dis-
pute) that in many places in the neighbourhood of Klang,
so long as the Anopheline factor remains undisturbed,
these high death^-ates do, alas ! without any " absurd
fiction," continue. In view of the large increase of
population, we are justified in assuming that, but for the
measures taken, malaria would have claimed many more
than four hundred victims during each of the years under
review ; and Dr. Bentley will find that the two cases of
anti-malarial works, the reports of which have incurred
his criticism, have been paralleled strikingly in numerous
instances.

It is commonly assumed that to rid even small tropical
towns of malaria by anti-malarial operations presents in-
surmountable difficulties, and that to attempt such a
campaign over extensive rural areas w-ould be tilting at
windmills. It can be shown, however, that in the
Federated Malay States planters have, quite unconsciously,
been carrying out great anti-malarial works over far
greater areas than Klang and Port Swettenham, for the
benefit of much larger populations, at only a small frac-
tion of the exp>ense, and with complete success. Indeed,
one cannot help suspecting that great anti-malarial works
are constantly being carried to a successful conclusion by
those whose last idea would be that they were carrying
out great sanitary works ; and in view of what has
already been achieved it would be rash to deny that the
future may have in store for us the final expulsion of
malaria from the whole of what is, even to-day, one of
the most malarious portions of the tropics.

Malcolm Watson.

Klang, Federated Malay States, December 27, 19 10.

Studies of Magnetic Distutbacces.

In the number of Natlre for August ii, 1910, Dr.
L. A. Bauer published some results of investigations of
magnetic disturbances, forming an abstract of papers pub-
lished in Terrestrial Magnetism, xv., Nos. i and 2.

In these papers Dr. Bauer treats a number of problems
of the greatest interest for the study of terrestrial mag-
netism ; but in my opinion there are certain points of a
fundamental nature which it would be w^^ll to take up
for discussion, partly because certain of his results differ
■considerably from those of other investigators in this field.

Dr. Bauer treats the " positive equatorial storms " of
May 8, 1902, and January 26, 1903, and concludes from
a mathematical analysis "that for both disturbances the
-\stenis of disturbance forces which it would be necessary
:o superpose upon the earth's own magnetic field were
Diecisely of the same character as the earth's. In other
words, were we to assume electric currents as constituting
the disturbance systems, then, as in the case of the earth's
field, the currents would have to circulate from east to
■west if they are positive ones and in the contrary direc-
tion— from west to east — if they are negative or such as
would be produced by moving negative charges. Further-
more, for both disturbances the electric currents would
Tiave to circulate chiefly in the regions above the earth "
<Nature, loc. cit., p. 192).

I am not quite sure of what is meant by the expression,
that the disturbance field is precisely of the same character
as the earth's own field. For a real similarity, which
would allow conclusions to a similarity in origin of the
two phenomena, we should have provided the following
relation

P = feT (l)

■where P is a vector representing the perturbing force at
a certain place, T is the total force of the earth's per-
manent magnetic field at the same place, and fc is a
constant. The relation (i), however, is not even approxi-
mately fulfilled for any of the principal groups of disturb-
ances treated by Birkeland in his work, " The Norwegian
Aurora Polaris Expedition, IQ02-1903," not even for the
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

equatorial storms considered in Dr. Bauer's paper, so
that the similarity assumed by Dr. Bauer cannot mean
that relation (.i) is fulfilled.

Then when Dr. Bauer, from the similarity between the
earth's own field and the field of the positive polar storms,
concludes that the disturbance current systems must circu-
late round the earth in the same direction as that which
may be supposed to produce the permanent field of the
earth, this conclusion is not justified without further
proof, for the two similar fields show great differences.
I While the forces P and T have the same direction near
the equator, this is no longer the case nearer the poles,
where their vertical components have opposite directions.

It seems also difficult to understand how the direction
found by Dr. Bauer can be brought into harmony with
his statement that the greatest part of the current is to
be found above the surface of the earth. For suppose
that an electric current — circulating around the earth and
above its surface — shall produce the observed perturbing
force directed towards the north, it follows from .Ampere's
rule that the current must pass from west to east, or in
the direction opposite to that found by Dr. Bauer. So
long as we regard external systems as forming the primary
cause of disturbances, this result must hold even if we
take into account the magnetic permeability of the earth
and the effect of induced currents.

Dr. Bauer states that the disturbance systems probably
always can be supposed to originate from one internal and
one external current system, and for the equatorial storms
he has given the mathematical method for separating the
two systems.

The separation was carried out for the perturbation of
May 8, 1902, and " the surprising result revealed itself
that the internal currents went in the same direction as
the external ones, the latter being about three times the
strength of the former."

Now two systems of this kind, keeping on simul-
taneously, must in some way be physically connected ; but
it seems rather difficult to see how this connection could
be produced, for, as Dr. Bauer himself rightly remarks,
the internal currents cannot be induced currents. Thus it
seems that merely simple physical considerations will
make the result very improbable, and besides, I think that
objections can be made to the way in which it is
deduced.

I am not going into details regarding the validity of
the mathematical method, but I am merely going to show
by an example that the method used by Dr. Bauer cannot
be trustworthy.

The equations for the internal systems (see Terr. Mag.y
XV., No. I, p. 26) are simply expressing the forces on the
surface of a sphere uniformly magnetised along a certain
diameter. Suppose, now, that in a plane, perpendicular
to this diameter and passing through the centre of the
sphere, there was a circular current concentric with the
sphere and with a radius large compared with that of
Ihe sphere. The magnetic field of the current in the space
occupied by the sphere would be nearly uniform, and if
the sphere was made of a homogeneous material it would
be uniformly magnetised. In other words, the equations
which should express a field due to an internal system
will in this case express a field actually caused by an
external one. The system of equations, however, which
according to Dr. Bauer should express the field due to an
external system, will not even approximately be able to
express an external system of the kind here supposed. I
think this will be sufficient to show that the result of the
separation will require further proof.

I should also like to say a few words regarding the
direction of the circular current of negative corpuscles
which may be formed round the earth in the plane of the
magnetic equator. These currents play an impcM-tant part
in the kathode ray theory of Prof. Birkeland. and it is of
importance that no misunderstanding should exist on this
point.

Dr. Bauer arrives at the conclusion that the direction
of motion of the negative corpuscles of such a current is
from east to west. I have not from his short note been
able to follow his argument, but a simple consideration
will show that the corpuscles will encircle the earth in a
direction opposite to that found by Dr. Bauer.

Suppose a negative corpuscle is moving in the plane of

474

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

iho magnetic equator and describing a circular orbit con-
centric with the earth. The magnetic force due to the
earth's magnetic field is directed towards the north, and
the deflecting force must be directed towards the centre to
keep the corpuscle in its orbit. Applying the well-known
rule for electromagnetic deflection, we find that the
corpuscle, if negative, must move from west to casi.

The question regarding the simultaneity of the occur-
rence of the positive equatorial storms is a very important
one for their physical explanation, for if it takes a time
of several minutes for the pulse to travel round the earth,
we must suppose that the currents producing the effects
are near the earth compared with its diameter, while
simultaneity of beginning would indicate very distant
systems. The question of simultaneity can only have a
definite meaning in the case of the abruptly beginning
storms, e.g. the positive equatorial storms {" S " storms),
and perhaps the cyclo-median storms. The polar storms,
on the other hand, usually set in gradually, and near the
auroral zone, where they are strongest, they are of a very
local character ; sudden changes at one station may have
no corresponding sudden change at another ; but in the
case of these polar storms (cf. Birkeland's work) it is
often found that the centres of disturbance fields move
slowly, usually along the auroral zone.

It has usually been assumed that the positive equatorial
storms set in simultaneously all round the world. The
question is very carefully examined in the work of Birke-
land, referred to above, for the storm of January 26,
1003. Looking at his figures, we notice that correspond-
ing serrations show small differences in time at different
stations, amounting to two or three minutes ; but these
differences are equally great for neighbouring stations as
for more distant ones. The differences for neighbouring
stations, which must be due to some error, are not so
much caused by faults in the measurements on the time
axis and the identification of corresponding points on the
curves ; they are rather to be considered as faults sticking
to the magnetogram itself, for if we take out the time of
several points of the disturbance, the time differences for
corresponding points for two stations come out nearly
constant.

Dr. R. L. Paris and Dr. Bauer, who have made a
great amount of valuable work on the subject, have tried
to eliminate the error by collecting neighbouring stations
into groups, and then taking the difference between the
average time of each group, and they arrive at the con-
clusion that the occurrence is not simultaneous. But so
long as the differences between the groups are of the
same order as the actual possible error of determination, it
seems very dangerous to conclude to a non-simultaneity.
Moreover, Mr. Krogness, by comparing the times of
beginning of a number of storms at Potsdam with the
corresponding times given by Dr. Paris for a group of
stations on the western hemisphere, has found almost
perfect simultaneity.

I think, then, that the present position of the question
cannot be expressed in a better way than by the follow-
ing statement taken from Prof. Birkeland's work : —

" We may conclude from this that the serrations appear
simultaneously, or rather, the differences in time is less
than the amount that can be detected by these register-
ings. " L. Veg.ard.

University of Christiania, January 14.

Sir F. Galton and Composite Photography.

May I be permitted, as an intimate friend of many
years and under deep obligations to the late Sir Francis
Galton, to say a word upon a matter which is perhaps not
sufficiently emphasised ? I refer to his very deep and last-
ing interest in composite photography, and his conviction
of its scientific value. He considered it capable of and
well worth systematic development. This was a frequent
subject of conversation between us ; and he told me many
times (sometimes with reference to the original contribu-
tions to photography of my brother, Colonel Stuart-
Wortley) that he felt the method ought to be developed,
not as a newspaper curiosity, but as a serious aid to
sociology, and especially to the studv of heredity.

Prof. Bowditch, of Harvard, told me that he found

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

an unaccountable indifference on the subject in America,
while he entirely shared Galton 's view of its possibilities.

If anyone could be found to take up the matter seriously
there can be no doubt that the pioneer would be richly
rewarded. In our last talk, a few weeks before his death,
Sir Francis himself told me of really sensational results
from the few experiments he was able to make with a
comparatively primitive instrument. For instance, he told
me he had collected photographs of Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert and all their children. To his great sur-
prise, the composite gave the likeness of Princess Alice
and no one else. But this was only one of many equally
suggestive results. Victoria Welby.

Duneaves, Harrow, February 3.

Darwin and the Transmission of Acquired Characters..

It is difficult to understand how anyone well acquainted
with Darwin's works can come to any other conclusion
than that he firmly believed in Lamarck's principle of the
transmission of characters acquired by use.

Two clear examples may be cited from " The Descent
of Man " (second edition) : —

(i) "As the voice was used more and more the vocal
organs would have been strengthened and perfected
through the principle of the inherited effect of use "
(P- 87). ^

(2) " There is no more improbability in the contmuea
use of the mental and vocal organs leading to inherited
changes in their structure and function, than in the case
of handwriting, which depends partly on the form of the
hand and partly on the disposition of the mind ; and
handwriting is certainly inherited " (p. 88).

In this matter Darwin was a true disciple of the great
French naturalist to whom Prof. Judd refers with such
scant respect. E. A. Parkyn.

January 30.

I REGRET that your correspondent should imagine that,
in writing the words "poor old Lamarck," I showed
" scant respect " for the great French naturalist. On the
contrary, I desired to express the deep sympathy I felt for
this grand pioneer in evolution, who, in old age and blind-
ness, found his splendid achievements, for the time being,
discredited by the work and arguments of his successful
rival, Cuvier. In the little book which has given rise to
this correspondence, I have insisted upon the splendid
contributions of Lamarck, not only to botany and zoology,
but also to geology, and have shown how the hostility
towards his work, felt at first by Lyell and Darwin, was
in the end modified, and his great merits acknowledged
by both of them.

I quite agree with your correspondent that the passage>
he quotes — and many similar ones may be cited — show
that Darwin accepted the Lamarckian views as to the
transmission of acquired characters to a certain extent.
Darwin's tendency was, however, to insist that individual
variations were always "slight" or "exceedingly little,"
to use his own words In the passage to which reference
has been made in the " Origin of Species," it would
almost seem that he suggests that " variation " had been
used in two different senses by authors — variations that
could be transmitted and variations that could not be
transmitted — and that he demurs -to the distinction. I
agree with Prof. Meldola, however, in thinking that, in
all probability, the view put forward by Prof. Weismann
in 1885, that no acquired character is directly inherited,
never fairly came under Darwin's consideration.

In discussing questions of this kind, it is important to
realise, so far as is possible, what was the current opinion
at the time Darwin wrote. Now Baron Cuvier, his
brother Frederick, and their followers — whose writings
so greatly influenced naturalists in the early years of the
nineteenth century — all freely admitted the transmission,
by inheritance, of acquired characters, habits, and instincts
in domestic animals like dogs ; what they denied was th.-it
any of the variations so transmitted, so far a« the experi-
ence of 2000 years showed, were of a fundamental
character.

That Darwin not only accepted the idea of the trans-
mission of acquired characters, but even speculated on

February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

475

the mechanism by which it might be accomplished, is
shown by "is invention of the " provisional hypothesis "
of jjangent^is, has been justly pointed out by Sir William
Thiselton-Dyer. In introducing this hypothesis Darwin
ivrote : —

" A multitude of newly acquired characters, whether
injurious or beneficial, whether of the lowest or highest
vital importance, are often faithfully transmitted . . . and
we may on the whole conclude that inheritance is the
rule, and non-inheritance the anomaly " (" Variation of
Plants and Animals," popular edition, p. 454)

No mistake can be greater, as it appears to me, than
one prevalent at the present day — namely, that by the
newer developments of evolutionary theory in Weis-
mannism, Mendelism, &c., Darwin's results are in any
way superseded. On the contrary, I firmly believe that
had Charles Darwin lived, no one would have more gladly
welcomed these new developments than would he ; for he
would have rejoiced to follow the investigations of the
particular methods by which variations are transmitted,
the possible limits of individual variation, and the laws
Ti-hich govern their appearance.

Kew, February i. John W. Judd.

Glacial Erosion.

The reviewer of " Geographical Essays," by Prof.
\V. M. Davis, writes in Nature of January 19 : — " Prof.
Bonney's presidential address to the British Association
has brought the controversy on glacial erosion to a head.
It may be hoped that the authoritative and masterly state-
ments on both sides will lead to an agreement as to the
main facts, but no settlement can be expected until the
arguments of those who limit the efficacy of glaciers as
eroding agents have been directly answered."

I do not think that those who, like myself, hold that
glaciers are powerful eroding agents would shrink for a
moment from directly answering their opponents'
■criticisms. The most direct answer is that the deposits
formed by glaciers are a direct measure of glacial erosion.
I distrust ail theoretical opinions based upon the study of
ice as a " rock.," In the early days of geological science
it was difficult to convince the many that the "purling
brook " and the " babbling river " had frequently ex-
cavated the deep valleys and gorges through which they
run.

Do the opponents of glacial erosion really contend that
the enormous deposits of boulder clay which cover such
extensive portions of England, Scotland, and Ireland are
not the results of glacial erosion? I say boulder clay
advisedly ; tor there are immense deposits of laminated
clay with or without boulders, sands, and gravels, which
some may argue have no connection with glaciation.
Here, however, I should again differ, for many years of
careful study in the field have convinced me that nearly
all these superficial or "drift" deposits are the result of
glacial erosion.

Taking the " glacial " deposits themselves as a measure
of glacial erosion, and concluding that we must look for
marked effects in the areas from which the material was
eroded, what do we find? We find surface lowland
features, valley gradients, valley forms, and entire valleys
and gorges, which are not such as are produced by the
erosive action of water, rain, and frost.

The opponents of glacial erosion have been too much
guided by glacial action, as now seen in such mountainous
areas as Switzerland. The puny glaciers now found there
cannot be compared, so far as the effects they produce
are concerned, with the great confluent glaciers which
once occupied the valleys.

It is a pity that in this country the conviction which
so many hold concerning glacial erosion and climatal
changes should have resulted in the stagnation of glacial
geology as a science, for it cannot iS denied that if
glaciers have done very little as agents of change, there
must be very little to study.

Glacialists of the active school cannot but feel grateful
to such workers as Prof. James Geikie, Prof. W. M.
Davies, Prof. R. S. Tarr and others, for keeping the lamp
burning- R. M. Deeley.

Inglewood. Longcroft Avenue, Harpenden,
January 18.

Hardly anyone disputes that the passage of ice over
the British Uplands swept away all the loose rock materials
and redeposited them in the Lowlands as glacial drifts.
The controversy is not as to the removal of the loose
debris, but of the excavation of basins in fresh hard rocks.
•As Mr. Deeley states, the opponents of glacial erosion
have written extensively ; but certain serious difficulties
that have been advanced by Prof. Bonney, Prof. Garwood,
and others, do not seem to me to have been directly
answered. I share Mr. Deeley *s gratitude to the three
geologists whom he names for their important contribu-
tions to glacial geology. J. W. G.

An Unconscious Forecast by Joule.

The following remarks by Joule in his paper on the
changes in temperature produced by the rarefaction and
condensation of air (Phil. Mag., May, 1845J are worthy
of notice : —

" The beautiful idea of Davy, that the heat of elastic
fluids depends partly upon a motion of particles round
their a.xes, has not, I think, hitherto received the atten-
tion it deserves. I believe that most phenomena may be
explained by adapting it to the great electrochemical dis-
covery of Faraday by which we know that each atomic
element is associated with the same absolute quantity of
electricity. Let us suppose that these atmospheres of
electricity, endowed to a certain extent with the ordinary
properties of matter, revolve with great velocity round
their respective atoms. ..."

" The phenomena described in this paper, as well as
most of the facts of thermochemistry, agree with this
theory ; and in order to apply it to radiation we have only
to admit that the revolving atmospheres of electricity
possess, in a greater or less degree, according to circum-
stances, the power of exciting isochronal undulations in
the ether which is supposed to pervade space."

In the idea of the " atmosphere of electricity " revolving
round the atom, we have the substance of J. J. Thomson's
corpuscular theory, while the electromagnetic mass of the
revolving " atmospheres of electricity " would certainly
cause them to be " endowed to a certain extent with the
ordinary properties of matter." -Again, the last phrase of
the extract is simply the modern idea of electromagnetic
waves in the aether.

The premature birth, in this short quotation, of three
of the most startling advances of modern physics is not
a little remarkable. B. A. Keen.

University- College, London, January 25.

The Sailingr-Flieht cf Birds.

In a letter to Nati.re in February, 1876, I suggested
that the sailing-flight of birds and the flight of flying-fishes
could be explained as tobogganing under almost perfect
conditions, and in 1889 the late Duke of Argyll accepted
this, in a letter to the Spectator, as a correct and
sufficient explanation. My old friend the late Prof. H. N.
Moseley, a member of the Challenger staff, held the view
that a quivering, imperceptible to the eye, of the wings
and fins was the true explanation. I do not know which
explanation has been generally accepted, but I would
suggest that a kinematographic picture of the flving-fi«h
ought to settle the question finally, if it is not alreadv
settled.

I said in my letter : — " By means of a suitable
mechanism for changing the inclination of the wing-planes
every few seconds the sailing-flight of the albatross, I
believe, might be simulated without much difficultv." Has
not the aeroplane done this? R. Abbay.

Earl Soham Rectorv, February i.

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

A Morning Meteor.

.A METEOR equal in brightness to the Pole Star, and of
much the same colour, was seen by me to fall from the
southern sky at 6.25 on the morning of Fridav, February 3.
Its path was one of ten degrees, extended along a line
midway between a Coronae Borealis and the planet Jupiter,
which at that time was shining lustrouslv some thirty-four
degrees south, and slightly east, of .Arcturus. The meteor
left a steel-blue train which remained visible for six
seconds. Joseph H. Elgie.

72 Grange .Avenue, Leeds.

476

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

INVESTIGATIONS OF PLAGUE.

THE terrible intensity of the outbreak of pneumonic
plague now raging in Manchuria, and the presence
of plague-infected animals within our own borders,
have called forth recently a number of communications
on plague in the daily press. A special correspondent in
The Times, in two well-informed articles (December
22, 1910, and February 6, 1911), summarises the situa-
tion, and gives an admirable sketch of the principal
facts concerning the modes of spread of plague. Dr.
L. W. Sambon has also contributed two letters on the
subject to our contemporary. He cites some inter-
esting historical references to the preventive methods
adopted during epidemics of plague, but it is a pity
that he has allowed himself to fall into error on some
essential points in the epidemiology of the disease.
He remarks, for example, that in his belief trans-
mission from man to man is probably more frequent
than from rat to man. If Dr. Sambon bases this
statement upon personal experience of epidemics of
bubonic plague, it must be said that his observations
are directly opposed to the experience of many com-
petent plague workers. Dr. Ashburton Thompson, an
accepted authority, has stated that in Sydney plague
owes nothing of its epidemic form to contagion from
the sick. The view that bubonic plague is not directly
infectious is held unanimously by authorities in India.

The Advisory Committee, appointed by the Secre-
tary of State for India, the Royal Society, and
the Lister Institute, has recently issued a further
volume of Reports on Plague Investigations in India
{Journal of Hygiene, vol. x.. No. 3). The volume
contains a number of articles which cannot fail to
interest all those concerned with plague administra-
tion. Briefly stated, It may be said that these investi-
gations confirm and amplify the conclusions already
recorded.

The first article deals with the experimental pro-
duction of plague epidemics among animals. In
earlier experiments guinea-pigs were used, and it was
conclusively shown that epidemics could not be pro-
duced amongst these animals except when rat-fleas
(.\. cheopis) were present in the godowns or small
huts in which the experiments were carried out.
Gotschlich criticised these experiments on the ground
that guinea-pigs, unlike rats, do not feed on the
carcases of their dead companions. He believes that
among rats, plague is chiefly spread by the healthy
animals feeding on the carcases of those infected with
plague. In order to test the validity of Grotschlich's
criticism, wild Bombay rats, previously freed as far as
possible from fleas, were used in the present series of
experiments. The results show clearly that epidemics
occur among these animals only in the presence of
fleas. The Commission found no reason for thinking
that alimentary infection played any part in the pro-
duction of these experimental epidemics. This conclu-
sion completely agrees with their observations on the
mode of infection in naturally infected rats.

The discovery by the Commission, in the early years
of their work, of chronic plague in naturally infected
rats, at first sight appeared to offer a plausible ex-
planation for the persistence of infection amongst the
rat population during the ofT-season, and for the re-
crudescence of the infection when the conditions again
became favourable for the epidemic spread of infection
amongst rats and human beings. From the evidence
available, the Commission showed considerable hesi-
tation in ascribing to these chronic plague lesions
any important part in the continuance and revival of
the rat epizootic. It leaned rather to the view that
the quiescent season is bridged over by sporadic cases
of acute rat plague. A great deal of fresh light has
been thrown upon this qu^s^'on in the volume under
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

review. A much more extensive experience of chronic
plague in rats in Belgaum, Poona, and Bombay has
fully convinced the Commission that the pathological
appearances described as chronic plague are stages in
the process of recovery from the acute disease. For
this reason, and because the term has been associated
with theories regarding the reappearance of the rat
epizootic, they regard the name "resolving plague"
as more appropriate. It is evident that the epidemio-
logical importance of chronic rat plague is on this
view considerably limited, if not, indeed, abolished.

An interesting contribution to the problem of the
spread of plague through districts with numerous
scattered villages, will be found in this, volume. The
collection and arrangement of the extensive data deal-
ing with the recent history of human plague in three
districts in the Punjaub and the United Provinces
were undertaken by Major Lamb, I. M.S., and a
statistical analysis of the results has been made by
Dr. Greenwood. While the conclusions drawn from
this survey are necessarily tentative, they are of value
in suggesting a rational basis for effective plague
administration in the thickly populated districts in
India. It would appear that reimportation of the
infective agent is more likely to be the cause of
outbreaks in the villages than recrudescence.
Again, a study of the distribution of infected villages
in maps showing the position of affairs month bv
month, suggests a dissemination of the infection from
various centres. The statistical evidence does not
point to the conclusion that the infection of a village
renders it more liable to be infected during the next
following epidemic.

The Commission has recorded its observations of
plague during the years 1908-9 in Belgaum and Poona.
The special reason for selecting these towns was that,
although not far distant from Bombay, the seasonal
prevalence of the human epidemics is different. It
had been already shown that in Bombay the rat-flea
prevalence varied at different seasons of the year, and
that the season of maximum rat-flea prevalence coin-
cided with the height of the epizootic. The intimate
relation between rat-flea prevalence and the spread of
rat and human plague is well illustrated in the present
observations. Moreover, the interesting fact is elicited
that a close connection appears to exist between the
flea prevalence and the hygrometric condition of the
atmosphere.

The results at Poona show that the adverse factors
which combine to bring an epidemic to an end are (i)
a decrease in the number of fleas, (2) a decrease in
the number of rats, and (3) an increase in the propor-
tion of immune to susceptible rats.

Mr. Sydney Rowland gives an account of his work
upon plague vaccines. This contribution, which is of
too technical a character to admit of a summary of
its contents, describes the results of an inquiry into
the immunising constituents of the B. pestis.^ The
results obtained are interesting, and suggest impor-
tant improvements in the method of preparation of
plague vaccines.

The volume concludes w-ith a brief statement of the
provisional conclusions reached by the Advisory Com-
mittee as the result of the investigations made under
their direction from 1905-9 into the mode of spread of
plague in India. The Committee concludes, that in
nature plague is spread among rats by the agency of
rat fleas, and that, in the great majority of cases
during an epidemic of plague, man contracts the
disease from plague-infected rats through the agency
of plague-infected rat fleas.

A perusal of this volume of reports must impress
fhe reader with the enormous amount of work en-
tailed in order to collect the evidence leading to these
conclusions. In this countrj- it is still little under

February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

477

stood, amongst even the intelligent public, that the
scientific study of disease can be eftectively accom-
plished only at the outlay of much time and money.
It is gratifying, therefore, to find that in the ably
written article on the outbreak of rat plague in Suffolk,
which appeared in The Times of December 22, 1910,
the writer emphasises this point with refreshing
candour. He insists that in a crisis of this kind, the
effort to cope with the situation must be a national
one, and that the Government must authorise the
expenditure of ample funds to provide for the estab-
lishment of a staff of experienced investigators and
administrators to deal with the problem. The history
of the organisation of plague measures gives ample
proof of the futility of adopting plans, however vigor-
ous, that are not based on clear conceptions of the
disease gained by scientific research.

iVHAT SCIENCE HAS DOSE FOR THE WEST
INDIES.

A LITTLE more than a year ago I told in these
pages, with a very sore heart, the story of what
the late Sir Alfred Jones had accomplished for the
West Indies by enlightened commercial methods. That
chapter is unhappily closed, for no one has succeeded
him. It is a more hopeful task which is now imposed
upon me — to give some account of what science has
done, and will continue to do. It is worth the telling,
and it is more than a mere record of success, but car-
ries a moral of far-reaching extent.

This journal, from its first number, has never ceased
to preach the necessity of applying knowledge to the
right conduct of human affairs. It continues to
preach, and in face of the stolid conservatism of
our methods, one might in a despondent mood think
with little effect. But if one looks back over long
periods it is not so, and the change in public opinion
as represented by governmental action is little short of
astonishing.

When I first became engaged in colonial work some
forty years ago, the doctrine of laissez faire was in
full swing. It was held that self-interest would deter-
mine whether an industry- would succeed or fail ; if it
failed it deserved to do so, and another would take
Its place. In either case it was best to leave it
severely alone. This is not the place lu discuss how
far such a doctrine is sound. But practically it is con-
tinually being abandoned. No industry is now free
from governmental interference, and such interfer-
ence is only tolerable if directed bv adequate technical
knowledge. Interference must always be of the
nature of restraint, and at any rate theoretically one
mav ask whether some compensation is not justified.
It can hardly be doubted that the community will
have more and more to provide knowledge for in-
dustry of the kind that self-interest is powerless to
provide for itself.

Mill, however, and other economists clearly saw
that academic economic principles were not univers-
ally applicable to agriculture. The reason is obvious :
the soil is not removable, but has to be utilised as
test it can, and where it is. If it went generally out
of cultivation food would fail. It was still, however,
left to laissez faire, except in some measure in India,
where the Government undertook the pioneering work
in regard to tea, cinchona, rubber, and some* other
staples, and then left their commercial development
to private individuals. In any other country but our
own the work of Rothamsted would have been pro-
moted by the State. There are undoubtedly advan-
tages in scientific research being left unfettered to
individual effort, but it is only the richest landowners,
such as Coke of Holkham, and the Dukes of Bedford,

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

who can afford to add to agricultural knowledge by
experiment. The average cultivator is powerless to
follow other than traditional methods. Vet it is in
the interest of the community that he should do
better in order that the maximum return may be
obtained from the land.

When this country began to acquire tropical posses-
sions, it was seen, however, that something more
than laissez faire was required for their economic
development. It was the Royal Society, at the hands
of its president, Sir Joseph Banks, who first took the
work in hand. Having the ear of the King, he was
able to use Kew, which was then the private property
of the Royal Family, for the purpose. The mutiny
of the Bounty was an incident in an attempt to add
to the cultural resources of the West Indies. An in-
direct result was the foundation of the great Dutch
colonial botanical establishment at Buitenzorg. When
it was decided that Kew should be maintained as a
national establishment, its colonial utility was appar-
ently one of the main reasons for the decision. In a
scheme which received the sanction of Parliament the
interests of "commerce" and "agriculture" were
recognised, as well as the supply '"of authentic and
official information on points connected with the
foundation of new colonies." Its functions in this
respect were steadily fostered by the Hookers, father
and son. The history of Kew thus affords one of the
earliest instances in this country of the recognition
of the duty of the State to promote scientific know-
ledge in the public interest. And the historic mean-
ing of the controversies which have occasionally
brought Kew prominently into public notice is simply
the attempt of a policy of laissez faire to arrest its
work.

But anything which is rooted in sound principles
cannot be checked, because their necessity insists on
asserting itself; and the West Indies again supply the
illustration. Obviously their chief asset is solar
energy. Our channel islands supply us with early
vegetables. In a rule-of-three sum the West Indies
stand for the channel islands of the North Atlantic
shores. Alfred Jones saw this, and started a line of
steamers to flood us with West Indian fruit. But
this is anticipating. In the 'nineties their condition
was the reverse of prosperous. And, if it is a paradox
that science was indirectly the cause of the mischief,
it happily was able to supply the remedy.

The Napoleonic empire left behind it two permanent
legacies — the French code and beetroot sugar. When
Napoleon's continental system closed the ports of
Europe to British colonial produce, the import of
tropical sugar was cut off. As sugar is a necessitv' of
modern food there was the strongest impulse to find
a new supply. I need not repeat a well-worn story.
The chemist and the cultivator lavished all their re-
sources on the unpromising beet, and ultimatelv de-
throned the sugar-cane. Then came the bounties
which flooded this country with sugar at scarcely
more than cost price, and drove cane-sugar out of
consumption.

There is a fundamental principle in agriculture :
never to trust to a single crop. Ireland trusted to the
potato and Ceylon to coffee, and both failed them ;
this was from disease. The West Indies trusted to
sugar, and in their case the ruin was economic. The
balance of solar energy being in its favour, on equal
terms the cane should at least hold its own with the
beet. But now comes the mistake and its moral. The
sugar content of the cane was held to be incapable of
increase; the methods of manufacture were often
archaic and wasteful. Beetroot-sugar was the product
of the most refined scientific skill in both directions.
It was the fable of the hare and the tortoise.

478

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

In the 'nineties then the West Indies had sunk
from prosperity to poverty. I heard it publicly stated
at a meeting in the City of London that annexation
to the United States was the only remedy. On some
of the islands the peasantry were clamouring for food.
And so things might have remained but for Mr. Cham-
berlain, who has never hesitated to cut himself adrift
from hide-bound prejudices, and, regardless of them,
to apply a practical remedy to an evil.

In 1897, after obtaining from Parliament some tem-
porary relief, he sent out a commission of inquiry, of
which Sir Edward Grey was a member, and to which
Sir Daniel Morris, then assistant director of Kew,
was attached as secretary. The Imperial Department
of Agriculture was established the following jear,
and Sir Daniel Morris left Kew to take up the duties
of conimissioner. In a recent paper before the Royal
Colonial Institute (see Nature, January 26) he has
given a full, and I think extremely modest, account of
what he was able to achieve. That paper will speak
for itself. My purpose is to show how success flowed
from the patient and persistent application of scientific
method.

The first thing was to see if the sugar-content of
the cane could be improved. Like many other plants
subjected to long cultivation, it was believed to have
lost the power of producing seeds. The Pacific Islands
had been ransacked without much success to find
more productive kinds which might have arisen pos-
sibly by bud-variation. The White Transparent cane,
which is regarded as a standard in the West Indies,
yields 2\ tons of sugar to the acre. As sugar-content
varies, like everything else, in individual plants, it was
suggested from Kew that an improved race might be
obtained by the process of chemical selection by which
the Vilmorins worked up the beet to a high standard
and maintain it at it. Some success was obtained,
but it was evident that it would be extremely slow.
By a stroke of good fortune a more rapid method was
discovered. About 1888, Mr. Bovell and Prof. Har-
rison noticed the spontaneous occurrence of seedling
sugar-canes in Barbados. It was found that the
sugar-cane did actually produce seed, though in so
small a quantity that it had been overlooked. As this
at once opened the door to seminal variation and
selection, the attention of the Colonial Office was at
once directed by Kew to the importance of the dis-
covery. The work was vigorously taken up by Sir
Daniel Morris, and from 1908 onwards seedlings have
been raised on a large scale by Mr. Bovell, and con-
tin uouslv selected from, as well as hybridised.

The result has surpassed expectation. One seedling
c^ne, for example, B. 3405, gave an increase more than
the standard of one ton an acre, representing a net
profit of ;^8. Dr. Watts, the present commissioner,
estimates that the benefit to Antigua and St. Kitts
alone would more than cover the expense of the depart-
ment. Much light has been thrown on the food require-
ments of the cane by carefully controlled experiment.
As might be expected, potash is found to be favourable,
but phosphatic manures to have involved monetary
loss. Dr. Watts, who has been the pioneer in the pro-
motion of central factories, has obtained an increased
production of 40 per cent, more than the " Muscovado
system." Nor is this all. The pests and diseases by
which the sugar-cane, like all other cultivated plants,
is attacked had to be combated. The Cambridge
School was drawn upon for mycologists and entomolo-
gists. Mr. Maxwell-Lefroy achieved a notable suc-
cess in discovering the means of controlling the
destructive moth-borer.

The upshot is that a moribund industry has been
given a new lease of life by bringing scientific method
to bear upon it. Laissez faire would say that the

NO. 2154, VOL. 85I

planters might have done it for themselves. But they
did not, and, in fact, could not ; a scientific campaign
can no more be conducted by amateurs than a mili-
tary one; the planters would not have known what
positions to attack, nor could they have found the
necessary men to do it nor directed them if they had.

Other industries had to be revived or created. Per-
haps the most important of these was the production
of Sea Island cotton with the generous help of the
United States.

Lastly, but by no means least, an efficient system
of rural education has been organised for the negro
peasantry. I have no hesitation in saying that it is
far in advance of anything which exists in the county
where I am writing.

And thus Sir Charles Lucas, speaking from the
perspective of the Colonial Office, is able to say that
*' while the eighteenth century saw the greatness of
the West Indies, the nineteenth their distress, the
twentieth century, he hoped, would witness their re-
generation."

But this is not the end of the story. What has
been accomplished in the West Indies has not been
without its effect as an object-lesson elsewhere. It is
to the credit of the Government of India that it has
been, as already remarked, in advance of its time in
pioneering work. It deprived China of the monopoly
of tea, and, with the help of Kew, it has created the
rubber industry of the East. But except as regards
forestry it has effected little in intensive cultivation.

Canning claimed that he brought the New W'orld to
redress the balance of the Old. The Department of
.\griculture for the West Indies has stimulated a new
activity in the East, where some of its trained officers
have found a larger scope for work. The recently
published " Report of the Board of Scientific Advice
for India " shows an awakeness and initiative which
would have been looked for in vain a dozen years
ago. W. T. Thisfxton-Dyer.

PICTORIAL NATURAL HISTORY.'

T N this little book the experience of the expert
*• photographer has been combined w'ith that of the
keen naturalist ; the result is a volume full of interest
to all lovers of the countryside. The publisher, in a
special preface, directs attention to the unusually
large number of illustrations, which are exclusively
reproductions of photographs taken by the author.
Mr. Douglas English's success with his camera has
been demonstrated on many previous occasions, and
in "A Book of Nimble Beasts" he certainly gives us
of his best. There are a number of pictures in this
volume which are probably unique, and the reader's
special attention is directed to the remarkable series
of photographs illustrating the life-history of the
sand-wasp {Odynerus spinipes).

The somewhat clumsy title is apt to give the im-
pression that Mr. English's book deals in the main
with the higher animals ; this is by no means the
case, and, indeed, some of the best pictures and
chapters deal with the lower forms of life.

The value of the illustrations is increased by the
fact that all are brought closely into connection with
the chapters which they illustrate, a somewhat rare
quality for a book of this type.

As m many recent books dealing with nature-study,
Mr. English's text consists of a series of short stories,
in the course of which the characteristic habits of
different animals are brought out with the utmost faith-
fulness, and it is a pleasure for the reviewer to record
the absence of any irritating zoological errors such as

1 "A Book of Nimlile Beasts." Bunny Rabbit, Saui'rel, Toad and
" tho-ie sort of people." By D. English. Pp. 319. (London : Eveleigh
Nash, 1910 ) Price 6s. net.

February 9,

1911]

NATURE

479

are so commonly met with in natural history books for
the young. For the "Book of Nimble Beasts"
addresses itself to children in particular, although it
will undoubtedly appeal to their elders as well.

Mr. English's style is peculiar, and, although the
majority of his stories are clearly narrated and read
well, he occasionally gets carried away by his enthu-
siasm for odd words and still more odd constructions,
so as to become almost unintelligible at times, as in
" the following passage from the last chapter on the
pygmy shrew : — " He missed both shrews, who, dash-
ing right and left of him, entangled him in double-
minded purpose. Rested the pygmy, shrunk to a rigid
wisp of apprehension, ear straining, muscle-tautened,
behind a flimsy screen of bark." Such passages are
fortunately rare, and the greater part of his text is
marked by great lucidit}\ It is difficult to single out
any particular story, among the best are " Bunny
Rabbit" and " Spinipes the Sand-Wasp."

Fox Cub. From ''A Book of Nimble Beasts."

The volume is tastefully bound, and both print and
paper good. The " Book of Nimble Beasts " will
prove a welcome gift for many a young naturalist.

ALCOHOL AND EUGENICS^

"TOURING the course of the year igio there issued
■*-^ from the Eugenics Laboratory of London
University a memoir, entitled ""A First Study of the
Influence of Parental Alcoholism on the Physique and
-Ability of the Offspring." The conclusion arrived at
by the authors (Prof. Karl Pearson and Miss Elder-
ton) was, broadly speaking, that parental alcoholism
has no such influence. A result so sensational and
so opposed to the opinions of many social workers
was bound to arouse a storm of hostile criticism. It
weakened one of the arguments against the excessive
use of alcohol, and was interpreted as being a direct
encouragement of vice.

(i) Prof. Pearson divides his critics into three

1 (i) "A Second Study of the Influence of Parental Alcoholism on the
Ph>-sique and Ability of the Offsprng." By Karl Pearson, F.R.S., and
Ethel M. Elderton. Eugenics Laboratory Memoirs, XIII. Pp.35. (Lon-
don : Dulau and Co., Ltd., igio). Price ts.

(2) " A Preliminary Study of Extreme .Alcoholism in Adults." By Amy
Banington and Karl Pearson, F.R.S., with ihe assistance of Dr. David
Heron. Eugenics Labcrator>- Memoirs, XIV. Pp. 55. (London : Dulau
and Co.. Ltd., igio). Price 4J.

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

classes: — (i) Paid officials and platform orators of
various temperance organisations ; (2) economists
(already answered in a supplement to the original
memoir) ; (3) men with medical training who have
written on the subject of alcohol. It is the last class
who are dealt with in the first of the two papers now
under consideration. Their attacks — for one can
hardly apply the term criticism to much that they have
written — are repulsed with considerable losses.
It is shown that many of the errors attributed by
them to Prof. Pearson and his fellow-author may be
found in an aggravated form in the investigations
quoted as evidence rebutting their conclusions. A
sample of this evidence is itself examined and its
complete worthlessness exposed. It consists of data
obtained by Dr. .MacNichoU in America, by Prof.
Laitinen in Helsingfors, by Demme in Berne, also a
curious piece of statistical work by Bezzola. The
defence and counter-attack are adrriirably conducted,
the writing is clear, so concise as to make
a summary impossible, and as entertain-
ing as some of the controversial essays
of Huxley. Yet while according this high
praise to the memoir, we regret the neces-
sity which compelled its production and
thus diverted from its proper channel of
original investigation any part of the
energies of the Eugenics Laboratory
staff.

It is with the greater satisfaction that
we turn to (2), in which the relations
between extreme alcoholism, mental
capacit}-, education, occupation, and re-
ligious profession are discussed. The
material on which the discussion is based
consists of the published reports of the
Langho, or Lancashire Reformatory, for
the years 1905-10. supplemented by
special information from Dr. F. A. Gill.
Particulars as to the age, number of con-
victions, religion, and education of 333
female inebriates were obtained this way,
and of the mental condition, physical
state, and conduct of 207 among them.
As the authors point out, results based
on numbers so small are not in an}- way
final ; they may, however, suggest a solution of the
problems, or at any rate indicate methods by which
they can be profitably attacked. They certainly em-
phasise the need for the publication of good records
of individual cases.

Perhaps the most pressing of the problems referred
-o is the relation of alcoholism to rnental defect. The
closeness of the association between the two is shown
very clearly in the memoir. In table x. 223 female
inebriates are classified with regard to their mental
state. Of these only 37 per cent, were of normal
intelligence ; 53 per cent, were defective mentally ; 6
per cent, very defective ; and 3 per cent, actuallv insane.
It is of the utmost importance therefore to determine
whether it is the intellectual deficiency which leads to
the alcoholism or the alcoholism which causes the
deficiency. Light can be thrown on this point bv
measuring the correlations between education age and
mental capacity, among the alcoholists. If it is the
abuse of alcohol which causes a progressive degenera-
tion of the intellect one would expect to find a sensible
negative correlation between mental capacit\- and agre
— mental capacity diminishing as age increases. No
such relation has been found, -\llowing for differences
of education the correlation between mental capacity
and aee is found to be 000610047. or quite
negligible.

48o

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

Questions of great interest are also raised in the
dicussion of the relation between alcoholism and reli-
gion. Of the female inebriates in Langho Asylum
quite one-half are Roman Catholics, while of the
populations from which they are draw'n not more than
one-third are of this denomination in Liverpool or
one-sixth in Manchester. These facts indicate that
the Roman Catholics in Manchester and Liverpool are
more given to alcoholic excess than the Protestants,
and it is suggested that a reason for this may be
found in a racial difference. The Roman Catholics
are largely Irish immigrants, and the Irish immi-
grants in the industrial towns of England are not the
most desirable specimens of their race. In this con-
nection it is noted that " the Irish district of Liverpool
... is one of the few instances in which during the
last twenty years there has not been a fall in the birth-
rate." Thus if alcoholism is due to an hereditary
deficiency the differential birth-rate in Liverpool (and
Liverpool is probably not exceptional in this respect),
must lead to its propagation to a disproportionate
extent. •!

That prostitution is in intimate association with
alcoholism and mental defect is shown also in the
tables of this paper. More than one-third of the
whole number of women dealt with were prostitutes,
but among these no greater proportion of mental de-
fectives was found than among the remaining
women. The Roman Catholic inmates of the asylum
included a relatively smaller proportion of prostitutes
than the Protestants, but this is due to the fact
that the total proportion of alcoholists among the
Roman Catholic community is greater, and not that
the proportion of inebriate prostitutes is less.

Since the publication of the memoirs here described
a further attack by Dr. Mary Sturge and Sir Victor
Horsley, in the " First Study of the Influence of
Parental Alcoholism on the Physique and Ability of
the Offspring," has appeared in The British Medical
Journal of January 14, and this has in turn given
rise to letters in The Times from both sides. Six main
errors are attributed by these critics to Prof. Pearson
and Miss Elderton. Firstly, they are accused of having
"committed the fundamental error of providing no
adequate control of their investigations into the con-
dition of the offspring of drinking parents." Secondly,
of the unscientific use of terms, particularly of the
term sober. These two criticisms cannot be con-
sidered independently. The memoir only claims to be
a comparison between the offspring of sober and of
alcoholic parents, therefore, if the term sober is used
in a definite sense differing from alcoholic, the control
provided is adequate for its purpose. A reference to
it will show that the word has been carefully defined,
and that the definition would be accepted by most
people. The second alleged instance of the unscien-
tific use of terms is that of the word "offspring" in
the title. As the critics rightly remark, offspring
might include persons of all ages, whereas only chil-
dren of school age are dealt with. This would hardly,
however, appear to be a justifiable ground for making
such a charge, since a "first study" of a subject does
not claim to deal exhaustively with the whole of it.

The third accusation is "selection by the authors of
a non-representative population." It is stated that a
slum population is dealt with in which 62*5 per cent,
of the families were tainted with drink or in receipt
of charitable aid, and that by selecting this population
the authors cut themselves off from the possibility of
making a comparison between the children of alco-
holic and non-alcoholic parents respectively. It is a
little difficult to see how the percentage to be placed
in either group affects the possibility of making a
valid comparison, nor is it explained how the receipt

NO. 2154, VOL'. 85]

of charitable aid affects the question. With regard
to the implied accusation that the data used were
selected in order to give results of a particular kind,
it may perhaps be remarked that as the chief difficulty
in the systematic study of biological questions affect-
ing mankind is to obtain trustworthy data on which to
work, the possibility of selecting data on any other
grounds than that of their trustworthiness does not
exist, and it may be conjectured that Prof. Pearson
and his colleague used all the evidence before them at
the time of writing the paper.

The fourth charge is "absence of any proof of
alcoholism beginning before the birth of the child."
In so far as there is reason in this charge it is due
to the deficiency of the data. The authors have had to
make an assumption concerning the state of the
parents before the birth of the children, namely, that
people who use alcohol excessively after the birth of
their children are very much more likely to have
been similarly addicted before and at the time of the
birth than those who do not. If this assumption is
correct, and few people would dispute it, it follows
that a classification according to the later habits
would be reasonably correct also with regard to the
earlier. A few parents would, no doubt, be placed in
the wrong groups, and although this would tend to
lessen any contrast between the offspring of the two
divisiorts, it could not eliminate it, nor, indeed, reduce
it seriously.

The fifth alleged error is "contradictory statements
by Miss Elderton and Prof. Pearson concerning the'
children of alcoholic parents — for example, their
physique, health, and higher death-rate." The contra-
dictory statements appear to be (i) that the death-rate
among the children of alcoholic parents is higher, (2)
that the health of the surviving children of this class;
of parents seems on the whole to be slightly better^
than of those of the sober class. It is difficult
to see in what respect the two statements are contra|
dictory, though it may be contrary to expectatioii
that the children among whom a larger proportion
deaths occur should be slightly healthier than tH
others. Prof. Pearson and Miss Elderton attribut
this partly to accident, overlaying, burns, and othe
causes arising from carelessness, partly to want
home care, to food defects, and to other factors pos
sibly toxic.

The sixth charge is "erroneous conclusion that th^
efficiency, as measured by wage-earning capacity,
an alcoholic male parent is at least equal to that of
less alcoholic male parent," which the critics descrit
as the chief generalisation raised by Miss Eldertoij
and Prof. Pearson. With regard to this, we wiJ
quote the letter to The Times of January 16 by th<
latter: "W'ill it be believed that in a memoir
forty-six pages scarcely more than half a page
given up to the wage problem, and we distinct!
state the purpose of that inquiry— namely, as a rouglj
test, that the alcohol users were not initially, phj
sically, or mentally, inferior to the sober." No cor
elusion such as that attributed to them was arrive
at by them. Incidentally, the charge is made
" imagining and publishing statistical data wher
none exist in reality " ; as an example of this we ar
told that Prof. Pearson has included in his table
seventeen porters, whereas only thirteen exist ijj
reality. " He therefore has invented for this trac
four imaginary individuals, though asserting throug'I^
out that he is quoting the Edinburgh figures." Th^
is what Prof. Pearson is accused of : what he ha4
actually done is to group as porters all those men in
the class defined by the Registrar-General as engaged
" in storage, porterage, and messages."

E. H. J. S.

February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

481

KOIES.
For the meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, which is to be held this year at
Portsmouth on August 30 and following days, under the
presidency of Sir William Ramsar, K.C.B., F.R.S., the
following presidents have been appointed to the various
sections : — Mathematical and Physical Science, Prof. H. H.
Turner, F.R.S. ; Chemistry. Prof. J. Walker. F.R.S. ;
Oeology, A. Marker, F.R.S. ; Zook>gy, Prof. D'Arcy
W. Thompson, C.B. ; Geography, Colonel C. F. Close,
R.E., C.M.G. ; Economic Science and Statistics, Hon. W.
Pember Reeves ; Engineering, Prof. J. H. Biles : Anthro-
pology. Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, F.R.S. ; Physiology, Prof.
J. S. Macdonald ; Botany, Prof. F. E. Weiss, with W.
Bateson, F.R.S., as chairman of the Sub-section of .Agri-
culture ; Educational Science, Rt. Rev. J. E. C. Welldon,
formerly headmaster of Harrow School.

In December, 1910, a circular, signed by Profs. R.
Meldola and W. J. Pope, was sent to a certain number
of the Fellows of the Royal Society inviting subscriptions
to a fund for the purchase of a portrait of Sir William
Crookes, by Mr. E. A. W'alton, of the Royal Scottish
Academy. We learn that the necessary fund, of which
Lord Avebury is treasurer, has now been raised, and that
the portrait will be presented to the Royal Society at a
meeting of the subscribers to be held at Burlington House
on February 16.

.\t the annual general meeting of the Royal .Astro-
nomical Society, to be held to-morrow, February- 10, the
gold medal of the society.- will be presented to Dr. P. H.
Cowell, for his contributions to the lunar theory and
gravitational astronomy.

.As Prof. Karl Pearson is unable to lecture at the Royal
Institution on March 3, the Friday evening discourse on
that date will be delivered by Dr. F. A. Dixey, his subject
being " Scents of Butterflies."

The Reale Accademia dei Lincei has unanimously elected
King Victor Emmanuel honorary president, in recognition
of his work on Italian coins, the ** Corpus Nummorum
Italicorum."

To the list of names of honorary foreign members of
the French Chemical Society, published in our last week's
issue (p. 448), should be added Profs. S'vante Arrhenius,
of Stockholm, and G. Ciamician, of Bologna. In the
same paragraph, for " Cannizaro " read " Cannizzaro."

The death is announced from Paris, in his seventy-first
year, of Dr. Achille Kelsch, member of the French
Academy of Medicine, and known by his work in epidemio-
logy and diseases peculiar to warm climates.

The Association of Economic Biolc^ists will hold its
tenth general meeting at Birmingham, in the University
buildings, Edmund Street, under the presidency of Prof.
Geo. H. Carpenter, on April 6 and 7. Non-members wish-
ing to attend may obtain particulars from the joint
honorary secretary, Mr. Walter E. Collinge, 59 Newhall
Street, Birmingham.

Mr. Hugh Chisholm, editor of the new edition of the
*' Encyclopaedia Britannica " ; Mr. F. W. Dyson, F.R.S.,
Astronomer Royal ; and Surgeon-General Sir .Alfred Kec^h,
K.C.B., Rector of the Imperial College of Science and
Technology, have been elected members of the Athenaeum
Club under the provisions of the rule which empowers the
annual election by the committee of a certain number of
persons " of distinguished eminence in science, literature,
the arts, or for public services."
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

The systematic study of the megalithic and other re-
mains in a district is a promising field of work for
members of local scientific societies. We are glad, there-
fore, to see that in one of the papers to be read before
the Cotteswold Field Naturalists' Club on February 14 at
the Technical Schools, Gloucester, Dr. .A. M. McAldowie
will deal with " .An AstroncMtiical Study of the Long
Barrows on the Cotteswolds, with Special Reference to
the Meridian."

At a general monthly meeting of the members of the
Royal Institution on January 6, the treasurer reported that
he had received 1200/., part of the legacy to the Royal
Institution of the late Miss Wolfe, and 62Z. 10s., a portion
of the legacy of the late Mr. C. E. Layton. The special
thanks of the members were returned to Dr. J. Y.
Buchanan for his donation of 100/. to the fund for the
promotion of experimental research at low temperatures.
The institution has recently received a gift of 1000/. from
Dr. Hugo Miiller.

The services rendered to forestry in the State of Ver-
mont by Dr. Lewis Ralph Jones have been recognised in
an exceptional way by the decision that the new forest
reserve shall be called the " L. R. Jones State Forest."
Dr. Jones was professor of botany at the University of
Vermont from 1889 until he resigned the post last year
to accept the chair of plant patholc^- at the University
of Wisconsin. During this period he secured the establish-
ment of the State forest nursery and the creation of the
position of State forester, besides promoting in other ways
the movement for better forest management.

The Manchester Museum has recently received, through
'\ the generosity of Mrs. Leo Grindon, the important and
i extensive private herbarium formed by the late Mr. Leo
Grindon, who was well known in Manchester as an
enthusiastic botanist and teacher, as president of the Field
Naturalists and Archaeological Society, and as lecturer in
botany in the Medical School until its incorporation with
the Owens College. The herbarium is arranged on some-
what unique lines, for each plant is acc<Mnpanied by-
numerous coloured and other illustrations, together with
much valuable printed matter in the fcwro of cuttings from
various botanical books and periodicals. The herbarium
is rich in specimens of garden plants, and affords valuable
evidence of the effects of cultivation on various species.
The gift is greatly valued by the committee and the
University authorities, not only as a specially valuable
instrument in botanical teaching, but also as a memorial
of a Manchester citizen who was a distinguished teacher,
and inspired much affection in the wide circle of his
acquaintance.

Gre.at interest attaches to an account, by Dr. E.
Trouessart, in L.a Nature of January 14, of the reported
discover}- in the Congo of a new mammal, which appears
to be known to the natives as the " water-elephant." A
herd of five of these animals was seen by Mr. Le Petit,
one of two explorers sent by the Paris Museum of Natural
History, on the nwthern shore of Lake Le<^x>ld 11.
Before the animals plunged into the lake, Mr. Le Petit
had the opportunity of seeing that they were smaller than
elephants — their height being estimated at 6 feet — with
much shorter trunks, smaller ears, relatively longer necks,
and apparently no tusks. Their footprints are also
different from those of elephants. In an interview
accorded to a reporter of The Daily Express, recorded in
that journal of February 6, Dr. Chalmers Mitchell ex-
pressed his belief in the authenticity of the discovery, and
suggested that the apparently new animal might represent

482

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

a primitive type of elephant. In this connection, it may
be pointed out that Mr. Le Petit 's description of the
animal accords almost exactly with the restoration of
Palaeomastodon, of the Lower Tertiary of the Favum,
given by Dr. C. W. Andrews on p. 22 of the " Guide to
the Elephants in the British Museum, Natural Historv."
The members of that genus are there stated to range in
height from 4 to 6 feet.

Mr. George Grey, whose death at the Nairobi Hospital
on F"ebruary 3, as the result of wounds received from a
lion, will be widely lamented in geographical and mining
circles, as well as by his many personal friends. His
exploratory work as a mining engineer is of scientific
as well as commercial value, the discovery and location
of the great mineral belts in North-western Rhodesia and
the Katanga district of the Belgian Congo being due to
him. Eleven jears ago Mr. Grey mapped out a hundred
copper mines from Kasanschi to the Kambone, as well as
the alluvial goldfields of Riiwe, rich tin areas, and other
valuable minerals, controlled by the Tanganvika Con-
cessions Company. His work added to geographical
knowledge and opened up a vast region to mining, com-
mercial, and pastoral enterprises.

Prof. D. Oliver, F.R.S., who completed his eightieth
year on February 6, was an active contributor to botanical
literature during his tenure of the position of keeper of
the herbarium and library at Kew Gardens, which he
vacated more than twenty j'ears ago. His earliest paper
in this connection was an article on the Indian Species
of Utricularia, published in the Journal of the Linnean
Society, vol. iii., in 1859. Among his numerous sub-
sequent publications, the more important have been : —
The Atlantis Hypothesis in its Botanical Aspect (1862) ;
On the Distribution of Northern Plants (1862) ; The
Structure of the Stem in Dicotyledons, part i. (1862);
part ii. (1863) ; Notes on the Loranthaceae, with a Synopsis
of the Genera (1863) ; Lessons in Elementary Botany
(1864), reprinted at frequent intervals, with a new edition
in 1881 ; Flora of Tropical Africa, vol. i. (i868) ; vol. ii.
(1871); vol. iii. (1877); First Book of Indian Botany
(1869) ; The Botany of the Speke and Grant Expedition,
part i. (1872) ; part ii. (1873) ; part iii. (1875) ; Enumera-
tion of Plants Collected by V. Lovett Cameron, Lieut.
R.N., in the Region about Lake Tanganyika (1876); List
of Plants Collected by Mr. Joseph Thomson on the Moun-
tains of Eastern Equatorial Africa (1885) ; with many other
papers of great value on African and Arctic plant collect-
ing especially. The excellent quality of Prof. Oliver's
work is well known ; the high appreciation in which it is
deservedly held may be gathered from the fact that, in
1884, the Royal Society bestowed on him one of its Royal
medals, and in 1893 he was awarded the Linnean medal —
the highest honour it can bestow — by the Linnean Society.

At a special general meeting of the Geological Society
of London on January 25, the following resolutions were
passed : — (i) That the space now occupied by the museum
be made available for the extension of the library.
(2) That it is desirable that the society's collections of
fossils, minerals, and rocks, with certain exceptions to be
subsequently specified, be offered to one or more of the
national museums, provided that guarantees be obtained
that the specimens will be properly registered and rendered
available for scientific purposes. (3) That it is not
desirable that the society should accept money for any
part of the collections, or in consideration of them.
(4) That the council be empowered to approach such
institution, or institutions, with the view of carrying the
NO. 2154, VOL. 85I

above resolutions into effect, and that the council shall
call another special general meeting to express approval
or otherwise of the arrangement proposed.

A COPY of the prize programme of the Soci^t6 Batave
de Philosophie exp^rimentale de Rotterdam for 1910 has
reached us. In it some forty-eight questions are pro-
pounded, and answers are invited which have necessitated
research work. The gold medal of the society, or its
monetary value, as the author of the selected thesis may
decide, will be awarded to the reply which is selected by
a general meeting of members of the society. Memoirs
should reach the principal secretary of the society not
later than February 1, 19 12, and should be in Dutch,
French, German, or English, and not in the author's
handwriting. The memoirs which are awarded prizes
will be printed and published by the society, and twelve
copies will be offered to each author. The questions for
solution range over most branches of science. A few
examples of the great diversity of subjects proposed are : —
an experimental research on the cause of phosphorescence,
particularly in lowly organised animal forms ; an experi-
mental study of the electrical properties of some metallic
alloys ; and an experimental determination, carried out
with the greatest care, of the atomic weight of at least
one element.

Sir Boverton Redwood, chairman of the Chemical
Industries Committee, Board of Trade (Exhibitions
Branch), announces in a circular letter that in the British
section of this year's Turin Exhibition chemical and
physical apparatus will be shown in a practical and novel
manner. Generally speaking, no means are provided at
exhibitions for demonstrating the utility of the instruments
exhibited, and it has been decided to improve upon this
plan by showing apparatus as it would be used in a
laboratory. Arrangements are being made by which, it is
anticipated, there will be on view at Turin at least two
well-equipped chemical laboratories, with such work going
on as will illustrate various processes. There will be
large space available for the display of chemical produc>
and apparatus not in use in the laboratories. In the court
devoted to scientific instruments, arrangements are in
hand for the display of apparatus ready for work, electric
supply, where needed, being provided. The equipment of
a large dark-room is under consideration, and here it i-
proposed to show apparatus, such as oscillographs,
spectroscopes, optical lanterns, and photometers. The'
organisation of these exhibits has been placed by the'
Exhibitions Branch of the Board of Trade in the hands
of Dr. F. Mollwo Perkin, under the direction of a joint
subcommittee of the Chemical Industries Committee an
the mathematical and Scientific Instruments Subcommitte-

Since the report of the British Science Guild on tli
synchronisation of clocks was issued, the following add;
tional information, showing how the post office ar
extending their operations, has been sent to the coii>
mittee by the post office representative : — The post offii
has had a system of synchronisation in perfectly successfii
operation at Leeds and Birmingham post offices for t!v
past eighteen months." In the former case, the system
has been utilised for the correction of a large four-faceef
turret clock, and, of course, in both cases the systen
controls clocks exposed, as at all post offices, for publn
purposes, over the posting boxes and in the public offices.
The system has been so successful that arrangements ar
being made for the clocks at the following post offices t.
be similarly dealt with : — Aberdeen, Belfast, Bristol.
Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Liverpocl.

February 9,

1911]

NATURE

4«3

At Aberdeen (where electric clocks on the magneta system
are already installed, in which case it is, of course, only
necessary to synchronise the master clocks) the synchro-
nising system has been extended by open wires to the
clocks at certain branch post oflices. Further, at Sheffield
an electric-clock system driven by a synchronised master
clock, which controls (in addition to the ordinary public
clocks referred to above) a large double-dial bracket clock
fixed outside the building, has been erected. A similar
system is about to be installed at Taunton. It is hoped
that before very long the post office will be in a position
to offer facilities to the public for the synchronisation of
clocks at such rental rates as should remove the main
objections which have been urged to the general adoption
of the principle.

In connection with the subject of the synchronisation of
public clocks, it is of interest to record that a time ball
4 feet in diameter has been provided on the summit of the
dome of Messrs. S. H. Benson's building on the west side
of Kingsway, and the ball is dropped at each hour by
electric current. Unlike time balls which only work once
a day, and require to be set up by hand daily before their
fall, this one is wound up quite automatically by an electric
motor shortly before each hour of daylight, and is released
precisely at every hour by the Greenwich time signal. It
was laid down as a condition by the architects that there
should be no shock or jar occasioned by the fall, and this
has been overcome by a system of counterbalancing,
whereby the acceleration due to gravity is neutralised just
befcre the ball reaches the bottom. The installation was
designed by Mf. Hope-Jones, and carried out by the
Synchronome Company, of 32-34 Clerkenwell Road, E.C.

.\ DEFINITE step towards the reorganisation of the irriga-
tion of Mesopotamia, so long neglected, has been taken by
the signing of a contract between the Turkish Government
and the firm of Sir John Jackson (Ltd.), contractors and
engineers, Westminster, for the construction of a large
dam at the head of the Hindia canal, as reported in daily
papers on January 31. This is a portion of the compre-
hensive scheme put forward by Sir William Willcocks, and
has for its object the turning back of the waters of the
Euphrates into its own bed instead of flowing down the
Hindia canal, whereb}- a large area of country has become
waterlogged. By this scheme water will be restored to
the Euphrates channel, which is now dry in summer, and
prosperity both on its bank and in the present marshy
tracts along the Hindia canal will be greatly increased.

Of the four quarter days of the old May year, Candle-
mas Day, February 2, has become less marked than the
rest. It would appear, however, from the following com-
munication to The Daily Mirror that it is yet observed in
Holland : — " Scheveningen (Holland), Thursday. — To-day
is. Woman's Day in Holland. Her slipper is in the
ascendant. Your Dutch ' vrouw ' is no believer in
suffragette dreams of equality, no clamant seeker after
votes for her sex. Only on one day in the year,
February 2, she claims absolute autocracy. For that one
day she is lord and master (baas). On awakening,
mynheer' discovers his wife's slippers hanging conspicu-
ously and ominously over his head. Throughout the day
she flaunts her brief spell of emancipation in his face, and
m the evening she gives a * feast,' and then coquettes and
contradicts and teases the very life out of him. At the
end of the evening he gets his reward. The slipper
domination is at an end. She acclaims him her king, her
all-in-all baas, and crowns him with flowers and gladly
slips back into her position as wife and lover."
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

The port of Hull is shortly to have a fisheries museum,
which will be appropriately situated in the western
division of the city, where the population and manufactures
are closely connected with the steam-trawl fishing indus-
try ; the cost of the building will be defrayed by Mr. C.
Pickering. .\ suitable site has been granted in the new
Pickering Park, and the Hull Museums Committee hope
for the cooperation of the owners of fishing vessels, &c.
The nucleus of the collection will be the fine collection
of models of fishing methods and appliances, and pre-
served specimens, recently presented to the Hull Corpora-
tion by the Japanese Government. These specimens are
all excellently made and are of great interest. It is sug-
gested that the museum should illustrate the growth and
evolution of the fishing and shipping industries at Hull,
and fishes, both from a natural history and an economic
point of view. Mr. Pickering has undertaken to help with
regard to models of various types of trawlers, specimens of
representative fish, &c. Such an institution should be of
great educational value to Hull.

A COMMLNICATION from Sir Harry Johnston, published
in Nature of December 15, 19 10, to the effect that three
living okapies were then on their way to New York, is
stated in the Field of January 28 to be incorrect. In
answer to an inquiry from that journal, the acting director
(Dr. H. Townsend) of the American Museum of Natural
History — to which institution the specimens were reported
to belong — states that no live okapies have been secured
by the museum collector in the Congo. We submitted the
note in the Field to Sir Harry Johnston, who replies as
follows : — " I have nothing to add to my original state-
ment or to the remarks on it in the Field of January 28
except to say that Dr. Bumpus, of the Natural History
Museum, New York, did in a letter of last October give
me the information regarding the capture of living okapis,
which I quoted textually in my review in Nature. I am
sure Dr. Bumpus made the statement on good foundation.
My review did not appear immediately it was sent in, con-
sequently the announcement when published was a little
old. What is really wanted by science is not any more
mounted skins of okapis, but the whole carcase preserved
for the careful dissection of the soft parts. This is even
more important than the exhibition of live okapis as a
curiosity."

The Lord Mayor presided over a public meeting, held
in the Guildhall on February 6, to consider the desirability
of the systematic destruction of rats and other vermin in
the interests of the public health as well as in those of
agriculture and commerce. In moving a resolution to this
effect. Sir James Crichton-Browne referred to the danger
from plague-infected rats, and remarked that while there
is no cause for panic, on account of the outbreak in
Suffolk, there is cause for anxiety so long as any rats
carrying the plague bacillus remain in the land. The
following resolution was also adopted upon the motion of
Sir Charles McLaren, seconded by Prof. G. H. T.
Nuttall : — " That urgent representations be made to the
Government as to the necessity for the immediate appoint-
ment of a Royal Commission for the purpose of inquiring
into (i) the increase of vermin and the steps to be taken
for their destruction ; (2) the question of what creatures
are or are not harmful to man and his industries ; and
(3) the safety and efficiency of the various viruses on the
market and other means advocated for such destruction."
It was decided to ask the council of the Royal Institute of
Public Health to take steps to give effect to the resolu-
tions adopted by the meeting.

484

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

His Majesty's battleship Thunderer was launched on
Wednesday, February i, from the yard of Thames Iron
Works, Ltd. As this ship is the larj^est floated for the
British Navy up to the present, the builders have to be
congratulated on the enterprise and courage which has
enabled them to overcome the diflRculties inherent to the
building of ships on the Thames. When finished, the new
ship will have a displacement of 22,500 tons; her length
is 545 feet and her breadth 88 feet 6 inches. Parsons'
turbines, to give a speed of 21 knots, are being constructed
at the builder's works at Greenwich. The launching
weight of the vessel and cradles was about 9600 tons, and
the ways were so designed as to keep the pressure under
2 tons per square foot. The inclination of the ways was
I in 16, and about 10 tons of tallow, together with oil
and soft soap, were used for lubrication. The launching
operation passed off without hitch of any kind, and the
vessel was immediately towed down the river to Dagenham,
where the firm have had constructed a new ferro-concrete
jetty for the purpose of enabling the ship to be finished.

A REPORT has just been published by Mr. F. Palmer,
chief engineer to the Port of London Authority, in which
is described a very comprehensive scheme for the improve-
ment of the Port of London. In a summary of the re-
port. Engineering for February 3 states that the net
tonnage entering the Port of London has increased in
Tecent years at the rate of about three million tons every
ten years. The maximum size of vessels using the port
has increased from to, 000 to 14,000 tons. The new scheme
in its entirety will cost about 14,500,000/., and provides,
among other improvements, for four new docks and re-
arrangements and reconstruction for those at present in
•existence. The depth of water in all will be increased,
and from the Millwall Docks seawards there will be a
channel 600 feet wide, giving 20 feet at low tide and
41 feet at high tide. Just above the Albert Docks this
Avill change to a channel of corresponding width, but of
10 feet greater depth, while a little lower it opens out to
1000 feet in width. As all the best docks at present are
fully occupied, but little additional tonnage can be
attracted except by the provision of new or improved facili-
ties, and there seems little doubt that many of the sug-
gested improvements will be carried out in the near
future.

In The Times of February 3 a correspondent says that
another attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean by airship will
be made early this year. The enterprise is being promoted
Tjy a German syndicate, and it is reported from Kiel that
the airship, named the Suchard, is practically complete, and
will, after trials, be shipped to St. Vincent, Cape Verde
Islands. The Suchard differs essentially from the Wellman
airship. The gas envelope is constructed more or less on
the lines of the Parseval dirigible, but it is of stouter
material. In length it is 195 feet, and its greatest diameter
Is 55 feet. The cubic capacity is 9400 cubic metres, and
an abnormally large air ballonet is fitted. Care has been
taken to devise a system of balancing which will keep the
vessel as nearly as possible at a uniform height. The
motive power will be supplied by two petrol engines of
200 horse-power, mounted in a boat slung beneath the
envelope. In the event of mishap to the envelope, necessi-
tating its being cut adrift, the motors can be employed to
propel the boat. The entire power plant and all the stores
are to be placed in this boat. A light upper deck or plat-
form is situated above the boat of the Suchard, which gives
access to the envelope. The promoters claim that they will
be. able to cross the Atlantic in three ways, namely, by

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

the dirigible, with the engines running and the trade w;
helping ; by balloon, fn the case of the failure of
engines ; or by motor-boat.

An article by Prof. G. H. Bryan in the Cor>h
Magazine for February deplores the loss of life by ;ii
plane accidents, and suggests that the trial-and-t
methods by which the development of aerial naviga;
has 'been accomplished do not provide the quickest or
best means of solving the problem of stability or of p
ducing machines by which the difficulty of flying will -
reduced to a minimum. " The difficulty of flv: :,<
straight," he remarks, " has been overcome, not b\
complete investigation of the problem of stability and
consequent construction of stable aeroplanes, but
aviators learning to balance themselves on more or '
unstable machines." Work is wanted in the laborat-
and experiments with models in the air, to provide
material required for the mathematical solution of the
problem of maintaining equilibrium in the air under various
conditions. While many valuable money prizes are off-
for successful flights, practically no encouragement
given to any mathematical or other purely scientific in-
vestigator to devote one or two years of fairly continuous
work to the study of the stability of motion of an aero-
plane. There are plenty of mathematicians who are
admirably equipped for such an investigation, but the
pressure of their everyday duties, or the necessity of earn-
ing a modest livelihood, prevents them from undertaking
the work except in their spare time. Prof. Bryan himself,
working with Mr. Harper, finds that in ordinary circum-
stances " a machine is less liable to overturn by pitching,
but some machines are more liable to overturn sideways
when gliding downwards than when flying horizontally."
He considers that most machines at present in use are
more or less unstable laterally, and that the methods by
which progress has been achieved have involved — to use the
title of his article — unnecessary " Wastage of Men, Aero-
planes, and Brains. "

The report of the Public Health Committee of the
London County Council, containing the report of the
medical officer of health of the county. Sir Shirley Murphy,
for the year 1909, has recently been issued. It contains
a mass of statistical matter of the utmost value, as well
as several special reports by the assistant medical officers
on subjects of importance in public health. Of the latter,
Dr. Hamer's on nuisance from flies and on the seasonal
prevalence of vermin in common lodging-houses is of
particular interest. A census of flies in selected localities,
the species to which they belong, their seasonal prevalence
and relation to intestinal diseases, are discussed.

An article referring to the Chinese tree originally named
Cupressus Hodginsii, by Mr. S. T. Dunn, appears in The
Gardener's Chronicle (February 4). Dr. A. Henry, in
consultation with Mr. H. H. Thomas, announces that
from an examination of further material they make it the |
type of a new genus, Fokienia, intermediate between |
Cupressus and Libocedrus. It agrees with Cupressus in j
the shape of the female cones, and is similar to '
Libocedrus in the unequally-winged seeds and general i
characters of the foliage. Another announcement in the ;
same issue relates to the discovery in a Dutch nursery |
of a fertile sport of the maidenhair fern Adiantum 1
Farleyense, often mentioned for its sterility, i.e. non-
production of spores. The new variety is said to be I
superior in other respects, inasmuch as it thrives at aj
lower temperature and bears the petioles more erect andi
rigid. '

Fehruart 9, 191 TJ

NATURE

48:

The difficulty of producing definite proof even for
elementary physiological principles is exemplified in the
two articles on the translocation of carbohydrates in plants
contributed by Mr. S. Mangham to Science Progress
(October, iqio, and January, 191 1). Formerly the opinion
was generallv accepted that, while albuminous substances
pass through the sieve-tubes, the carbohydrates travel
chiefly, if not entirely, through the parenchymatous cells
of the vascular bundle. In 1897 Czapek enunciated the
view, which is here affirmed, that the sieve-tubes furnish
(he path for rapid translocation of the assimilates as a
whole. The problem is discussed both with regard to the
structure of the conducting tissues, more especially of the
small veins in the leaf, and Jhe results of physiological
experiments. The weightiest arguments are derived from
the interpretation of Schubert's examination of the leaf-
veins and the author's experiments for tracing the sugars
in the tissues by the formation of osazones. The latter
method is only briefly indicated, but further details of the
process and results are promised ; meantime, the author is
justified in stating that he has furnished strong evidence
in favour of Czapek's theory.

We have received the Almanac for 191 1 published by the
Survey Department of Egypt. It has increased in size,
and contains a large amount both of statistical and general
information concerning Egypt and the Nile basin. Much
information relating to such important matters as taxation,
areas of jurisdiction, &c., which is not always readily
accessible to the public, is here included.

In the report upon the rains of the Nile basin and the
Nile flood of 1909, published by the Survey Department of
Egypt, Mr. J. I. Craig gives full details of the rainfall
and its effect on different parts of the river system. He
points out that certain anomalous variations of the level
of Lake Victoria in 1908 have been definitely traced to
instability of the gauge at Jinja, and are not to be con-
nected with possible crustal movements. The number of
stations has increased, there being now 96 in Egypt and
the Sudan, while data from 121 other stations in surround-
ing regions are utilised. In a final chapter he summarises
recent investigations into the possibility of predicting the
character of the flood.

In the January number of the Geographical Journal
Prof. T. Park describes the area affected by the Tarawera
eruption in New Zealand in 1886, its erosion since that
date, and the development of new vegetation. The sheet
of grey ash which then covered the dissected tableland on
the shores of Bay of Plenty has now been deeply scored
by rain, and many points of interest, such as the distribu-
tion of the black andesitic ash, may now be seen. Since
1890 the growth of vegetation, mainly bracken, tutu,
veronica tree fern, blue gum, and acacia, has been rapid,
some of the gum trees being now more than 30 feet high.

To the Bulletin of the St. Petersburg Academy of
Sciences of December i, MM. Dudetzky and Weinberg
communicate a short paper on the microstructure of hail-
stones. These were collected during a thunderstorm at
Tomsk (Siberia) on June 12, 19 10, were mostly spheroidal
in form, and generally 7 to 10 mm. in size. Their con-
centric spherical layers were alternately opalescent and
transparent, and divided according to the rays by a quantity
of air-bubbles, frequently oblong in shape. Many of the
stones consisted only of one layer, sometimes quite trans-
parent, in other cases milky. An interesting peculiarity
presented itself in some of the stones, formed of several
spherical layers, viz., the eccentricity of the milky central
grain. This occupied a lateral part of the hailstone, and
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

often formed but part of a sphere. In the stones examined'
it was difficult to indicate any relation between their
crystalline and physical structure. The only fact that could
be drawn from the visual study of the images of the thin
plates on a screen was a certain enlargement of the
crystalline grains with distance from the centre of the
central layer.

According to a paper by Dr. L. A. Bauer in the
January number of the American Journal of Science, it i»
proposed to take observations of the value of the gravita-
tional acceleration on board the American magnetic ship
Carnegie during her future voyages, beginning at Cape
Town in April next. The method to be adopted is that
suggested by Guillaume in 1894, and used on land by
Mohn and at sea by Hecker. It consists in the observa-
tion of the height of the barometer and the boiling point
of water with mercury thermometers of special construc-
tion, or with resistance thermometers. The principal
difficulty in obtaining accurate results is the " pumping "
of the barometer owing to the motion of the ship, and this,
it is hoped, will be overcome by the construction and
mounting of the instrument. The barometers and thermo-
meters are to be compared at intervals with standard
instruments, and observations in port are to be made on
land and on water, and are to be compared with the results
of pendulum observations wherever it is possible. By
these means Dr. Bauer hopes to secure results free from
the objections which can be urged against those of Hecker.

The new convertible Balopticon lantern, of which a
catalogue has been issued by the Bausch and Lomb Optical
Co., Thavies Inn, London, E.C., is designed for the pro-
jection of lantern-slides by transmitted light, opaque
objects by reflected light, and for microscopical and
vertical projection by the addition of the necessary attach-
ments. The apparatus appears to be very ingeniously
devised, as by its aid almost any projection work may be
carried out efficiently that would otherwise require much
larger and more complex arrangements. It must not be
forgotten, however, that the brilliancy of the picture to
be obtained with any projection apparatus depends
primarily on the power of the source of light, so that the
illuminant, particularly for opaque objects, should be an
efficient one. In the present instance this point has not
been overlooked, and as, in addition, the optical parts are
of a high order, the results to be obtained are in every
way satisfactory. Each one of the above-mentioned
methods of projection may be obtained almost instantly
as required, so that for lecture purposes, w^here objects of
a varied character are to be shown, the apparatus can be
used with ease.

The Builder for January 27 contains an interesting
account of a method of strengthening a bridge by means
of sheathing the steel trestles with reinforced concrete.
The bridge operated on is that carrying the Wabash Rail-
way over the River Missouri. Originally designed for the
moving loads prevalent at the time, the trestles were quite
inadequate for modern traffic requirements. After pre-
liminary experiments, all the columns have been converted
into octagonal reinforced concrete columns by applying
concrete embedding a spiral coil of No. 6 American gauge
wire wound with a pitch of 2 inches. The column bases
consist of a rectangular concrete block reinforced bv a
network of steel rods near the outer surfaces. The struts
bracing the four columns in each tower have been, cased
in concrete, the concrete being reinforced by eight half-
inch rods, around which is a wrapping of wire netting.
The connections between columns and struts are stiffened
by reinforced concrete brackets. The concrete used was
mixed in the proportions of one part Portland cement to

486

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

three parts of coarse sand. Tests conducted at the Uni
versity of Illinois show that the reinforced concrete column
possesses about double the strength of the plain steel
column prior to reinforcement.

The 'London representative of the firm of E. Merck, of
Darmstadt, desires us to say that the " Index " referred
to last week (p. 453) can be obtained at the address of
the London house, 16 Jewry Street, E.C., and that the
price of the book is ds. 6d.

' The first number of The Irish Review, a monthly
magazine of Irish literature, art, and science, will be
issued next month. The review will be for Ireland what
such periodicals as The Quarterly Review, The Edinburgh
Review, Le Mercure de France, have been for neighbour-
ing countries. It will compete with no existing periodical,
and will publish in its literary pages nothing of merely
ephemeral interest. In each number will be an authori-
tative article on a subject of scientific or economic research
33 applied to Ireland.

Messrs. Flatters and Garnett, Ltd., 32 Dover Street,
Manchester, have issued two new catalogues. One pro-
vides interesting particulars of a series of new lantern-slides,
and is supplementary to the catalogue of lantern-slides
published by this firm in November, 1909. Attention may
be directed specially to the slides illustrating plant associa-
tions, by Mr. W. B. Crump; bird photographs from recent
negatives ; and the reproduction and development of Pintis
sylvestris. The second list deals with optical lanterns and
accessories. One novel item in the latter is a combined
lantern-screen and stand which can be erected in two
minutes.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

Nova. L.icert^. — In his note to the Academy of Sciences
{Comptes rendus, January 23) describing the spectra of
Nova Lacertae secured at the Meudon Observatory on
January 15, M. P., Idrac directs attention to the great
width and the structure of the bright hydrogen lines.

Each of the hydrogen lines H/3-Hf extends over about
40 Angstroms, and in HjS, H7, and H5 there are strong
maxima at about 12 Angstroms from the centre of each
band towards the red ; the photograph is probably too
weak to show them in He and H^. The band at K 464
is as strong as the hydrogen lines, and has hazy borders,
its width being about 50 Angstroms ; there is also a
bright line at about \ 437.

The spectra secured are too narrow to show absorption
lines definitely, but one is suspected on the more refrangible
side of H7. Altogether, the spectrum appears to be of
the nova rather than of the long-period variable type.

Mars and its Atmosphere. — A number of drawings of
the surface features of Mars, reproduced and described in
Circular No. 5 of the Transvaal Observatory, are of
interest, inasmuch as they represent • the observations of
two unbiassed observers ■ using a 9-inch refractor under
favourable conditions. The observations were made during
the latter part of 1909 by Mr. Innes and Mrs. H. E. Wood,
and are depicted on forty -two separate discs ; Mrs. Wood
also contributes a composite map embodying the details
seen on her separate sketches.

Mr. Innes saw many fine and elusive shadings, but no
" canals," in the usual acceptance of the word, were seen
by him. He directs special attention to the two conju-
gate, diametrical, double canals usually shown crossing
Hellas, and states that he was never able to see more
than a curious curved shading. On the other hand, Mrs.
Wood, in her drawing of October 25 (No. 40) and on the
composite map, shows Peneus and Alpheus in their con-
ventional forms.

In Bulletin No. 180 of the Lick Observatory Prof.
Campbell and Dr. Albrecht describe the results secured in
an attempt to obtain evidence for Water vapour and oxygen
in the Martian atmosphere by the broadening or duplica-

NO. 2154, VOL. 8-~.

tion of the corresponding terrestrial lines on large-dis-
persion spectrograms. As red-sensitive plates are now
readily procurable, it was expected that this application
of the Doppler-Fizeau principle, which occurred to Prof.
Campbell in 1896, might prove fruitful. Spectrograms
were secured, some under excellent conditions, in January i
and February, 1910, with a specially designed grating-;
spectrograph made at the observatory, and the displace-,
ments of the lines carefully measured.

The results indicate that the amount of water-vapour
existing in the planet's atmosphere on February 2, 19 10,
was certainly less than one-fifth that existing above Mount
Hamilton, where the air temperature was 0° C, the
relative humidity was 33 per cent., and the absolute
humidity was 1-9 grams per cubic metre ; the zenith
distance at mid-exposure was 55°. The amount of oxygen
above unit area on Mars was, apparently, also small as
compared with that in the earth's atmosphere.

CoMETARY Theories. — In No. 4466 of the Aslronomische
Nachrichten Messrs. Roe and Graham, of the Syracuse
University, suggest a new theory of comets which they
believe to be based on phenomena in accordance with
modern mathematical physics. Briefly, it is that the sun,
as an intensely heated body in which violent chemical
action is taking place, emits abundant streams of negative
electrons, and so acquires a positive charge. Other bodies,
such as the earth and comets, will act similarly under the
action of some agent intimately associated with the ultra-
violet light radiations which they receive. As the comet
approaches the sun, the positive charge will tend to
increase, and the mutual repulsion of the charged particles
will overcome the relatively small cometary gravity, thus
producing streamers away from the comet and the sun.-
Various associated problems are discussed in the paper,
and various desirable lines of research are briefly
enunciated.

In No. 4468 of the same journal Prof. Eginitis also
discusses the physical constitution of comets as exemplified
by the phenomena attending the recent passage of Hallev's
comet. After May 21, 1910, the tail appeared to be miich
brighter than before, and Prof. Eginitis attributes this
to the fact that then we were looking at it by directlv
reflected solar light — the side illuminated by the sun's ravs-
was exposed to us. Therefore, he argues, the rnaterial
composing comets is but slightly luminous, and we only
see it clearly when it is acting as a reflector of the solar
light. From this it follows that the physical constitution
of comets is not purely gaseous— the comet is a mixture
of gas with solid corpuscles.

Polarisation in the Spectrum of o Ceti. — When, in
1898, it was found that the bright H7 line in the spec-
trum of Mira was triple, it was suggested that the pheno-
mena might be due to the Zeeman effect produced by
magnetic activity in the star. Polariscopic observations
were not then possible, and the faintness of Mira in 1890
defeated the preparations made for the maximum of that
year.

During the maximum of 1909 preparations were again
made at the Lick Observatory, and photographs were
secured, but no definite general conclusion accrued. As
Dr. W'right explains, in Lick Observatory Circular, N^'
183, the whole problem is hedged with grave diflTicult:
chief of which is that introduced by the possibly consid
able changes of direction of the magnetic field in the st
All that can be deduced definitely from his observatic
is that they show that the multiple character of the \\r
is not due to a magnetic field maintaining a const;
direction throughout the source.

The Earth's Action on Sunlight and Heat. — Mr.
James D. Roots sends us a pamphlet in which '
enunciates a theory to answer the question: "What ]■
comes of the Sunlight and Heat Absorbed by the Earth?
Mr. Root believes it is converted to " radio-activity, a
then by stages of change to electric current," which lea\
the earth at the poles, completing a continuous cycle «u :
to earth, earth to sun. The story is not so continuous,
and often consists of such statements as " The mn'
currents rotate t'ne earth," but it is reassuring to le.i-
that Sir J. J. Thomson, in one passage of his' " F.!
tricity and Matter," "almost grasps the truth."

February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

487

A

n

EXPERIMENTS ON COAL-DUST
EXPLOSIONS.^

PRELIMINARY record of experiments made wUh
coal dust, and other work of various kinds, carried
out by a committee of colliery owners on behalf of the
Mining Association of Great Britain, has lately been pub-
lished in an elaborate and splendidly illustrated volume.

In the introductory chapter the committee quotes the
remarks of John Buddie (1803) regarding " the shower of
red-hot sparks of the ignited dust which were driven along
by the force of the explosion," and those of Faraday and
Lvell (1884) : " There is every reason to believe that much
coal gas was made from this dust in the very air of the
mine, by the flame of the firedamp which raised and swept
it along, and much of the carbon of this dust remained
unburnt from want of air."- A general list is then given
of those who have taken part in the investigation since
1875 (not 1870 as stated), regardless
of chronological order, and reference is
made to the opinions expressed by the
Royal Commission, 189 1-4, and of a
committee consisting of the members of
the Royal Commission of 1906, which
is still in existence, and an advisory
board associated with it, to the effect
that experiments with coal dust should
be made on a larger scale than any
hitherto undertaken. The circumstances
which induced the Mining Association of
Great Britain to undertake to find the
necessary funds, which were estimated
at 10,000/., are also described.

The committee illustrates in cross-
section some of the different galleries in
which previous coal-dust experiments
were made, as well as those now being
employed in France and England,
and finally sums up the results
of the work of its predecessors
as follows : — " These galleries or
tubes have in no instance been of
sufficient size to allow of the
conditions prevailing in a mine
being, reproduced." " Neither
were they of sufficient length to
obtain the development of ex-
plosive force nor of sufficient
strength to resist the latter if
obtained. The inflammability of
coal dust had been demonstrated
by Faraday."

.Again, in the first paragraph

of chapter iii. the committee

says : — " As has already been

stated in the Introduction, one

of the most

~. — ._. ta|<iLi. cunHtn

;:--•«».-.. I»NITCK

-i.

^
^

, important
i=of this

Fig.

objects
inquiry
has been to
demonstrate a s
conclusively a s
possible the great
danger that exists
from the presence
of coal dust on
the roadways of a
mine, and by ensuring the absence of gas to definitely
establish the fact that it is not essential that firedamp in
addition to coal dust should be present for an explosion
to be propagated."

These historical references are singularly curt and in-
exact. Whatever may have been the actual motive that
dictated them, they have the appearance of being an
attempt to set aside any possible claim to having done
really useful work by those who occupied the field in the

- "Record of the First Series of the British Coal Dust Experiments, con-
ducted by the Committee .Appointed by the Mining Association of Great
Britain. A Record of the Experiments carried out during 1908 and 1900 at
U»e Altofts Experiments Station." Pp. viii-f 212. (London ; The Colliery
Guardian Co., 1910.) Price lor. net.

•* The itahcs are the reviewers.

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

interval between the time when Faraday showed by an
experiment that flame is enlarged when coal dust is allowed
to fall upon it and the present day. They appear to
simulate ignorance of the fact that the dangers due to the
presence of coal dust, both with and without the simul-
taneous presence of firedamp, was conclusively proved long
ago — the explosion at Altofts Colliery in 1886 {Proc. Roy.
Soc, vol. xlii. 1887) having been, itself, the culminating
proof on a gigantic scale of the second alternative.

Does the British colliery owner, as personified in the
committee, hope, by thus assuming the airs and manners of
Sir Oracle to conceal his own laches in having hitherto,
with few exceptions (of whom the late Mr. Archibald Hood
may be taken as the most brilliant example), contributed
nothing towards the solution of the coal-dust question, but
contented himself with classifying those who were bearing
the burden and heat of the day as faddists and theorists?

One can understand the grief and dismay of the French
Government engineers who, by their inept criticism of the
present writer's experiments and conclusions and of his
description of Penygraig explosion (1880) (Proc. Roy. Soc,
No. 219,. 1882), and by their own abortive experiments
with coal dust, lulled themselves and their fellow-country-
men to sleep twenty-eight years ago, on being rudely
awakened by the Courriferes explosion, with its holocaust
of more than iioo men.

One can sympathise with the confusion of the United
States Government engineers at being caught lagging in
the rear of an important movement.

But it is difficult to understand why one's own country-
men should be less generous than were the Prussian
Government engineers, who showed Sir VV. Thomas Lewis
and the present writer a most violent explosion of air and
coal dust, " without any admixture of firedamp," in their
gallery at Neunkirchen on October 25, 1884, frankly
avowed that they drew their inspiration from the present
writer's earlier work, volunteered the statement that he
was the inventor (sic) of the method of proving the
explosiveness of coal dust in an experimental gallery, and
added that his gallery of 1880-1 (for which the Govern-
ment Grant Committee of the Royal Society provided the
funds) had served as a model for their own.

These blots upon a work that is otherwise admirable
in many respects ought to have been avoided at every
hazard. There u'as plenty of room for the colliery owner
to come in with his gigantic apparatus to demonstrate the
dangers of coal dust to himself, his officials, and the com-
munity in general, without having to push others aside in
the process.

The demonstrations with the Altofts apparatus are so
overpoweringly convincing that, in the opinion of the
present writer, the Government ought to make it obliga-
torv on the part of everyone who holds a mine manager's
certificate to have seen them. They constitute, as the
committee itself properly observes, the most important
function of the apparatus, before which all the other
questions which it proposes to investigate pale into
obscurity.

The second chapter is devoted to a description of the
experimental gallery, the method of preparing the dust,
and the means of raising and igniting it.

That part of the apparatus (Fig. i) in which the
explosions are effected is a straight tube AB, 7 feet
6 inches in diameter, made up of the outer shells of
steam boilers with their ends abutting against, and fixed
to, each other, 600 feet long, open at one end, closed at
the other, and with a branch CD, 6 feet in diameter, also
made up of boiler shells, which extends at right angles
from the closed end of the tube AB to an exhausting
ventilating fan at E.

The branch CD is bent four times at right angles to
itself, and is provided with two relief valves at each l)end,
one at .A, and another opposite the junction at C, making
ten altogether, which open when an explosion takes place,
and thus protect the fan from injury*. A segment in the
bottom of the explosion gallery, with an arc •? feet wide,
filled with concrete, constitutes a level floor on which a
line of rails of 25-inch gauge is laid. The rails rest on
sleepers 3 feet apart, embedded in the concrete. Five rows
of wooden shelves, 5 inches wide by i-inch thick, fixed on
iron brackets, extend along each side of the gallery from

488

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

A, which is called the downcast end, to F, a distance of

.350 feet, which is shaded in the sketch.

For seven minutes before, and also while the experi-
ment is being made, the fan draws air into and through

-the gallery from its open end at the rate of between 50,000
and 60,000 cubic feet per minute-

The dust employed in all the earlier experiments up to
the twenty-fourth was obtained from the colliery screens,
but in all subsequent experiments (exclusive of some made
with dusts from other localities and from abroad) it has
been produced by grinding nut-coal from the Silkstone pit

>of Altofts Colliery in a disintegrator. The composition
and degree of fineness of the latter are as follows : —

Moisture

Volatile matter
Fixed carbon...
Ash

3'2I

33-68

57-60

5-51

Intercepted by
100 mesh 7 25

150 M 7"50

200 , , 3-00

240 „ 9-25

Finer 73 'oo

100 '00

The quantity employed in an experiment is 1 lb. per
; linear foot, or 0-39 oz. per cubic foot of air-space. It is
thrown on to the shelves by hand.

It is usually ignited by firing a charge of 24 oz. of
gunpowder, tamped with 8
inches of dry clay, from a hole,

2 inches in diameter by 2 feet l^-''" " ~
■9 inches deep, in a cannon, 1 > ;■ •: "

called the igniter, placed in the
middle of the floor, pointinij
upwards at an angle of from 32
to 35 degrees, facing towards the
mouth of the gallery and at a

distance from it of anywhere _ __\_— -^ ; _._
between 260 and 360 feet, as the
case may require. But when
it is desired to take special pains
to secure ignition, as, for ex-
ample, when visitors are present,
a second small cannon charged
with 4 oz. of gunjX)wder and

3 inches of clay-tamping, placed
at a point 90 feet nearer the
open end than the igniter in such
a position that it cannot ignite
the dust, is fired first so as to
raise a cloud of dust, which the
air-current then carries inwards
towards the larger cannon. Both
cannons are fired electrically,
the smaller one two seconds
before the larger.

The discharge of the smaller cannon drives a cloud of
dust 4 or 5 feet long out at the op)en end of the gallery;
that of the larger cannon drives out a similar cloud
between 30 and 40 feet long. Then comes a rush of dust,
followed immediately ' by flame, which shoots out to an
average distance of 156 feet, in some cases to 180 feet,
accompanied by a loud report, which is said to be heard
at a distance of 35 miles. Finally, the flame rises up and
'ramifies into the cloud of coal dust which preceded its
first appearance, now floating in the air above it, and a
..gieat volume of smoke and dust drifts slowly away.

In Fig. 2 the open end of the gallery is seen at the
•right-hand side ; the white areas immediately in front of
it and in the smoke-cloud represent the flame. Fig. 3 is
a nearer view of the mouth of the gallery ' when an
explosion is in progress.

All these phenomena, without exception, are identical,

•except as regards magnitude, with those produced with

mixtures of coal dust and pure air, " without the presence

■of inflammable gas," in the Royal Society gallery in

1880-1, in the Prussian gallery at Neunkirchen in 1884

■<see later), and in Hall's experiments in the Big Lady pit

in 1890, all of which the present writer has seen, as well

as the Altofts experiment.

On the other hand, the Altofts gallery is itself a mere
toy compared to one of the galleries, 5300 feet, or nearly
•twenty times as long, in Altofts Colliery, through which

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

the explosion sped in a straight line in 18S6 ; and as llie
committee's own experiments, described in part ii.,
chapter ii., have shown that the pressure and veloiiiy
increase rapidly with the length strewn with coal dust, it
seems somewhat absurd of the committee to propose to
make minutely correct observations of pressure, velocitv,
temperature, the size, shape, and composition of partii
of coked dust, and so on, with the idea that these obser\
tions will be of some practical value in solving question-
relating to colliery explosions, which they rather in-
definitely class under the far-reaching title of "chemii ■'
and physical phenomena."

A mine-waggon weighing 4J cwt., placed on the r;i
at a distance of 6 feet inside the gallery, ricochets alo
the surface of the ground in front to a distance of sevi
hundred feet when the explosion takes place. A simi
experiment was witnessed by Sir VV. Thomas Lewis ..
the present writer at the Prussian gallery at Neunkircli' .,
referred to above. The explosion itself is described in
Nature of November 6, 1884, p. 13, as follows : — " Ao/-
withstanding the entire absence of firedamp, there was a
true explosion of the most violent kind, and the clouds of
afterdamp which streamed from every opening darker
the air in the neighbourhood of the gallery for two
three minutes."^ A mine-waggon loaded with iron so ..c
to weigh 15J cwt., placed at the entrance to the gallery,
was driven up an incline rising at an angle of 4° to a

Fig. 2.— Flame issuing from Downcast End.

distance of 23 feet. The quantity of gunpowder used
the shot-hole was only 230 grams, or practically hall
pound. . .

The observations (p. 21) regarding the_ position
deposits of coked coal dust on timbers fixed in the gal',
to represent props in a mine are for several reasons, ■
of which is the baffling effect of the ventilating curr-
of no practical value as a means of throwing light upo::
the point of origin of an explosion in a mine.

Chapter iv., " On the Chemical Analysis of Coal Du?"
and chapter viii., entitled " Laboratory Investigation -
are intensely interesting and instructive, principally
account of the numerous, carefully thought-out devi
described in the latter for obtaining, collecting, :•■
analysing the volatile constituents of coal, and if publi?
as a separate pamphlet would form a valuable addii
to the library of everyone interested in the analysis
mineral fuels. The methods of estimating volatile mat-
ash, and fixed carbon are practically the same as tlT
recommended by Dr. Pollard in the Memoirs of the Gr-
logical Survey.^

In chapter v. the instruments intended " for invest:
gating the mode of propagation of coal-dust explosions
(which, stated in plainer language, means those
measuring pressure, velocity, and temperature, and '

1 The italics are the reviewer's.

2 The Coals of South Wales (1908), p. 7.

j February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

489

collecting samples of the afterdamp), are described and
illustrated. One of two methods of ascertaining velocity,
which appears to be fairly satisfactory, consists in fixing
strips of tin-foil, 4 inches long by \ inch wide, in a
horizontal position inside the gallery at intervals of 50 feet
from each other, which, on being melted successively by
the passage of the flame, break electric contacts in the
same order, the results being recorded by an instrument
of similar type to that usually employed for similar
purposes.

The manometer is ingenious, and appears to work satis-
factorily, but takes no account of negative pressure. It
should be supplemented by adding another much more
delicate instrument for the latter purpose.

No satisfactory instrument for reccM-ding temperature
instantaneously has yet been devised. On the other hand,
the contrivance adopted for collecting samples of after-
damp automatically is simple and efficient.

When there are obstacles in the form of " props and
bars " (presumably of similar dimensions to the timbers
employed for supporting the roof in the roadways of

The highest pressure recorded, viz. 100 lb. per square
inch, appears to have been in experiment 55, when a length
of 150 feet next the mouth of the gallery was free from
dust, the next following, 275 feet, strewn with dust, and'
the igniter was fired at the innermost end of the dust
zone, that is to say, at a distance of 325 feet from the
mouth, with presumably thirty-six sets of " props ancT
bars " forming obstacles in the path of the exptosion.
The manometers were in the same positions as in the
other experiments recorded above and below.

When there are no obstacles the pressures are much-
smaller, and appear rather to decrease than to increase-
with distance of travel, as shown below : —

B

Number
of expe-
riment

50

1 10

from Igniter

ft. lb.

125 ... II '9
150 ^ 9-8
27s ... 85

Distance

from igniter

ft.

225

250

• 375

Pressure

lb.

8-75

8-3
92

Fig.

-Flame bsuing from the Downcast.

mines) fixed at a distance of 9 feet apart in the gallery,
the pressure and velocity of the explosion are found to
vary more or less directly with the length of gallery
strewn with coal dust, through which the flame has to
travel between the igniter and the mouth. In giving rise
to greater frictional resistance, these obstacles apparently
raise the pressure and temperature of the air advancing
towards and rushing past them, and thereby promote a
more rapid and intense combustion of the coal dust.

Two manometers, \ and B, fixed at distances of 50 and
150 feet respectively from the mouth of the gallery, re-
corded the following maximum pressures per square inch
when the point of ignition was at the respective distances
from them shown in the following table : —

Number
of expe-
riment

Distance

from Igniter

ft.

54
53
62

Pressure
lb.

... 125 ••• 35
... 150 38

... 275 ... 43

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

Distance

from igniter

it.

225

250

375

Pressure
lb.
50

65
92

The records of velocity are as follows : —

First, with Silkstone coal dust and with obstructions in«
the form of " props and bars " in the gallerj' (pp. 155-6),
it is stated that the velocit}, between one contact-breaker
175 feet from the point of ignition and a second contact-
breaker at manometer .\ (200 feet distant from the firsts
was 2014 feet per second in No. 62 experiment, and that.
between the point of ignition and a point 275 feet distant
it was 475 feet per second in No. 53 experiment.

Secondlv, with the same coal dust and without obstruc-
tions, the velocities between six points — the first at the-
igniter, the second 59 feet, the third 109 feet from the
first, and so on, with an increase of 50 feet successively
up to the sixth— were 397, 2525, 72-5, 1190, and 222-S
feet per second respectively.

Thirdly, with South African coal dust, and presumablv
with props and bars in the gallerj-, the velocities^
between five points — the first 12 feet distant from the
igniter, the second 59 feet, the third 109 feet from the
first, and so on, with an increase of 50 feet, as in the
last case, up to the fifth — were as given below in feet per
second : —

490

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

N umber

ofexpe- 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 Page

riment
102 113-5 85-0 ... 1180 554-5 ... 191

104 I3S-5 3205 ... 1600 450-5 ... 196

105 632-0 52-9 ... 1250 143-5 ••• 200
Considered as a whole, these results are so discordant

that it is impossible to draw any other conclusion from
them than that either the instruments are at fault or that
there is some disturbing element at work, due, most
probably to variableness in the quantity of dust suspended
in the air in different sections of the gallery when the
flame of an explosion is traversing it.

Owing to the very nature of the experiment, it is
obviously impossible to provide that each section shall
always contain the same quantity of dust, mixed with the
same degree of uniformity in the air which occupies it,
at the instant an explosion is passing through it. It is
equally obvious that, unless that condition can always be
rigidly complied with, the results cannot be concordant as
between one section and another, although the sum of the
results may seem to be fairly uniform when one explosion
is compared with another. But the same absence of
uniformity must necessarily obtain in the workings of a
mine when an explosion is passing through it, and, there-
fore, if the aim of the committee is to reproduce that
phenomenon as nearly as possible in their artificial gallery,
the observed discordances show that they have already
succeeded in doing so.

The haulage roads, along which the coal is conveyed
from the working places to the shaft, contain larger
quantities of very fine coal dust than any other parts of
a mine, and ever since the time when the coal-dust theory
of great explosions was first propounded,^ they have been
recognised as the routes along which explosions, com-
menced at any point in a mine, travel to every other part
of the workings, however remote. This was well
exemplified in the plan which accompanied the description
of Penygraig Colliery explosion ^ (1880), previously re-
ferred to. It has also been recognised, of course, that
if coal dust could be prevented from accumulating in the
roadways, or be rendered innocuous by water or other
means, the range and disastrous effects of explosions
would be greatly limited. To prevent accumulation in the
first place by the employment of mine-waggons with dust-
tight bodies, ^lled only to the brim and provided with
covers, is obviously the best possible expedient that could
be adopted, and would be infinitely preferable to the pre-
sent careless system of carrying the coal in all sorts of
leaky or over-loaded waggons, from which it dribbles or
falls upon the roads, and is then ground or trodden into
the very dust which constitutes the danger.

Under existing conditions, as regards the mode of con-
struction of mine-waggons, the production of coal dust is
inevitable ; and although there is no legislative enactment
in this country compelling the mine-owners to do so,
many of them already water the dust in their haulage
roads once or twice a day in order to render it innocuous.
But in many other mines water cannot be used for this
purpose, as it causes the ground above or below the seam
to swell or fall to pieces, and consequently the dust is
allowed to remain dry. It has been proposed to give the
owners of the latter class of mines the alternative of
rendering the dust innocuous by covering it from time to
time with inert dust, or with a hygroscopic or other salt.
The committee have, accordingly, directed their attention
to the question of using inert dust for this purpose, and
made careful experiments, which are described in chapters
vi. and vii., to ascertain, first, the effect that dust of this
nature has in arresting the progress of an explosion, and,
secondly, the cost of applying it practically in Altofts
Colliery.

The inert dust for both purposes has been prepared bv
grinding _ the roof-stone of one of the seams of Altofts
Colliery in a roller-mill at a cost of 2s. per ton.

In the five following experiments a standard length of
275_ feet of the gallery was strewn with coal dust, the
Igniter was fired at the inner end of this zone, and the
space at its outer end, 150 feet in length, was treated as
follows : —

^ Proc. Roy. Soc, vol. xxiv., p. 354 (1876).
2 Loc. cit.

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

Number
of expe-
riment

55 •

57 •

5« .

62 .

116 .

Left dustleAS or strewn with
stone dust or coal dust

Pressures recorded
by ihe manometers

Du>tless

150

Stone dust Coal dust
ft. It.

150
100

50
50
50

H

lb.
40
40
31

395
337

A
lb.
100

9

17-5
84

9-18

In experiment 55 the flame passed just beyond the out' 1
end of the dustless zone; in 57 it penetrated 55 feet ini.;
the stone-dust zone ; in 58 it penetrated 54 feet into th^-
stone-dust zone ; in 62 it passed through the dustless and
coal-dust zones, and shot out 100 feet beyond the latter :
in 116 it penetrated 22 feet into the stone-dust zone.

These experiments show that a zone of stone dust
more efficient in arresting an explosion than a dustli
zone, and thus help to answer, but do not complet- .
solve, one of the questions still being considered by tl
Royal Commission on Mines, as to whether it is desira!
to compel the owners of mines in which water cannot 1^
employed for the purpose of laying the dust to surround
certain lengths of the main roadways with brickwork or
concrete, and keep these lengths continually wet.

In chapter vii. it is shown that it costs 1-85^. per yard
in Altofts Colliery and 2d. per yard in New Moss Collier} ,
which is under the same management, to " dress " th-
roadways with stone dust. The experience obtained in
Altofts Colliery, which is practically free from coal du-
in consequence of the fact that many of the mine-waggoi
are dust-tight, the remainder nearly so, that none are
filled above the level of the brim, and that the traffic is
very slow, is inapplicable to the case of most other mines
in which all, or nearly all, these conditions are exactly
the reverse, so that no conclusion as to the probable cost
in the latter can be drawn from it. At best it seems
rather a roundabout way of solving the question : first,
to allow coal dust to accumulate ; secondly, to cover it or
mix it with inert dust ; and, finally, to have to remove the
mixture when the accumulation ibecomes so great as to
commence to impede the traffic.

The '' Microscopical Investigations " described in
chapter ix. refer to the microscopical examination of
grains and aggregations of coked coal dust, grains of other
matter, and fragments of fibrous substances that have
been subjected to a high temperature, and are accom-
panied by twenty full-page beautifully coloured illustra-
tions, which remind one more of a birds '-egg book than
of^ a serious treatise relating to a subject connected with
mining. It is not easy to see how these investigations
are likely to affect the question one way or another, but
possibly the committee may be able to extract some
information from them that does not appear on the
surface.

Chapter i. of part ii., written by Dr. Wheeler, the
accomplished chemist and physicist attached to the testing
station, entitled " The Mode' of Propagation of Coal-dust
Explosions : Introduction," purports to " record the main
facts that have been established regarding the mode of
propagation of coal-dust explosions," but does not deal
with anything specially new or original.

The second chapter of part ii.-, and the appendix on
" Experiments with Welsh, Scotch, and South African
Coals," have been already referred to so far as seems t
be necessary in the present place.

The volume concludes with lists of the illustrations and
plates, and an index to the subjects, and is, as a whol'^
most creditable to the publishers. W. Galloway.

EXPLORATIONS IN NEW GUINEA.

A T the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on
January 30, Dr. H. A. Lorentz gave an account of
his latest journey in New Guinea, in the course of which
he succeeded in reaching the snow-covered peaks of the
main range. Much interest attaches to those regions in
the tropics where perpetual snow occurs, with their
transitions from the luxuriant vegetation of the equatorial
zone to the scanty flora of the snow-line, which on the
slopes of Wilhelmina Peak was reached at an altitude of

February 9> 191 1]

NATURE

491

about 4460 metres, and above this the mountain rose to
4750 metres. A former extension of glaciation in this
part of the range down to the altitude of about 4000
metres was shown by striae on the rock surfaces and the
presence of a small, typical glacier lake, though no
glaciers are existing in this part of the range now. The
•'xpedition encountered many difficulties in the journey
from the coast to the mountain ranges in the interior, but,
raught by the experiences of the first expedition, special
irrangements were made to push up the North river so
rar and so rapidly as possible to avoid the delays and
ickness incidental to a prolonged stay in the low and
narshy region.

Besides the geographical information obtained, much
vork was also done in zoology and botany. A thousand
birds' skins and ten thousand insects collected during the
expedition are now being studied at Leyden, and numerous
new species have been obtained ; the Australian character
of the fauna is well marked, and especially so among the
fishes captured in the North river.

The botanical collection, ranging from the tropical to
the Alpine flora,, shows a majority of plants having a
Malayan character, but there are so large a number of
endemic forms that New Guinea and the adjacent islands
seem to be separable as a botanical region from the
Soenda Islands. Savannas, consisting largely of intruding
species from North Australia, occur ; but the Alpine flora,
on the other hand, is said to be of a northern character,
resembling that of the mountains of Java, Sumatra, and
the Himalayas.

The Wilhelmina Peak is stated to consist of Alveolina
limestone, and generally the geological age of the forma-
tions traversed was of comparatively recent date ; eruptive
rocks were only met with near Geelvink Bay. .\ very
interesting collection of ethnological objects was obtained,
and many observations were made concerning the Papuans
living in the plains and those of the mountains.

The results of this expedition, together with those of
the British expedition now in New Guinea, should greatly
extend our knowledge of this region.

RADIO-ACTIYITY AS A KINETIC THEORY

OF A FOURTH STATE OF MATTER.^
'T'HERE are many points of resemblance between the
movements of the molecules of a gas and the move-
ments of those corpuscular radiations with which we have
become acquainted in following up the discovery of radio-
activity. In both cases we find that things of extremelv
minute dimensions are darting to and fro with great
yelocit>', and in both cases the path of any one individual
is made up of straight portions of various lengths, along
which it is moving uniformly and free from external in-
fluence, and of encounters of short duration with other
individuals, when energy is exchanged and directions of
motion are altered. There is even a resemblance in
the universality of each movement. The motion of mole-
cules is a fundamental fact throughout the whole of
our atmosphere, and, indeed, in all material bodies; the
motion of the radiant particles emitted by radio-active
substances is also widely distributed, and of great import-
ance. Taking Eve's estimate of the usual ionisation of
the air, we can calculate that in this room, in everv
second, some thousands of a and $ particles enter into
existence, complete their paths through all the atoms thev
meet, and sink into obscurity ; some of them, viz. the o
particles, as atoms of helium. These last move through
definite and well-known distances in the air. For ex-
ample, a third of those which are due to radium pro-
ducts move through a range of just above 4 cm., an equal
number have a range of just below 5 cm., and again an
equal number move through 7 cm., and the speed is so
great that the life of each a particle as such is completed
in about a thousandth-millionth of a second. They leave
their mark behind them in the ionisation of the air
through which they have passed, and in the heat into
which their energy has been commuted. The former effect
1.S easily detected by the sensitive measuring instruments

1 Discourse delivered at t^e Royal In«t tution on Friday, January 27, by
ProC William H. Bragg, F.R S. y ^. "X

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

which we now possess ; the latter is too small to measure,
and must be greatly increased by the aid of radium itself
before it can be investigated. But on a large scale, which
takes into account the distribution of radio-active material
through the earth, the sea, and the air, the effects are of
first-rate importance to the physical conditions of our
earth.

If we compare the movements a little more closely, w^e
find differences as interesting as the resemblances. The
motions which the kinetic theory of gases considers are
those of the molecules of which gases consist ; in the case
of radio-activity, the things which move are quite different.
They are sometimes electrons, which have come .to be
called 3 rays when their speed is great, and kathode rays
when it is somewhat less ; or they are y or X-rays, which
are new things to us ; or if as a particles they are helium
atoms, such as we have known before, they move with
excessive speeds which give them quite new properties.
In general, the radiant particles move hundreds of
thousands of times as fast as the gas molecules do, and
it is, no doubt, on account of this fact, as well as through
their usually extreme minuteness, that their power of
penetrating matter is so great. When two molecules of
a gas collide, they approach within a fairly definite dis-
tance, which we call the sum of the radii of the molecules,
and the approach is followed by a recession and new con-
ditions of motion. Each molecule has, as it were, a
domain into which no other molecule can penetrate. But
the defences which guard the domain are of no account
to the vigorous movements which we are considering now.
The radiant particles pass freely through the atoms, and
their encounters are rather with one or other of a number
of circumscribed and powerful centres of force which
exist within the atomic domain, and act with great power
when, and only when, approached within distances which
are small in comparison with the atomic radius. It is on
this account that the new theory opens out to us such
possibilities of discovering the arrangement of the interior
of the atom. Never before have we been able to pass
anything through an atom ; our spies have always been
turned back from the frontier. Now we can at pleasure
cause to pass through any atom an a particle, which is
an atom of helium, or a ^ particle, which is an electron,
or a 7 or X-ra\% and see what has happened to the particle
when it emerges again, and from the treatment which it
seems to have received we must tr>' to find out what it
met with inside.

The newer movement exists superimposed upon the
other. Its velocities are so great that the gas (or liquid
or solid) molecules are, in comparison, perfectly still.
There is, as it were, a kinetic theory within a kinetic
theor)' ; there is a grosser movement of gas molecules
which has long been studied, and in the same place and
at the same time there is a far subtler and far more lively
movement which is practically independent of the other.
Your vice-president. Sir William Crookes, was the first
to find any trace of it. The behaviour of the kathode rays
in the vacuum tubes which he had made showed him that
he was dealing with things in no ordinary condition.
Whatever was in motion was neither gas, nor solid, nor
liquid, as ordinarily known, and he supposed it must be
possible for matter to exist in a fourth state. We have
gone far since Sir William's first experiments. The X-ray
tube and radium have widely increased our knowledge of
phenomena parallel to those of the Crookes tube. But I
think we may still be glad to use Sir William's definition.

There ' is another ver\' striking characteristic of the
newer kinetic theory which differentiates it sharply from
the older. The experiences of any one of the radiant
particles in an atom which it crosses are quite unaffected
by any chemical combination of that atom with others ;
that is to say, by any molecular associations it may have.
Naturally, this simplifies investigation. We may, no
doubt, ascribe this state of things to the fact that a radiant
particle is concerned rather with the interior of the atom
than with the exterior, and that it is the latter which is
of importance in chemical action.

Let us take notice of one more important difference.
The molecules of a gas move with velocities which vary
at every collision, yet vary about a certain mean. But
the peculiar motion of the radiant particle is only tem-

492

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

porary. For only a very short time can any ray be
described as matter in a fourth state ; at the end of it the
extraordinary condition has terminated, the particle has
lost its tremendous speed or suffered some other change,
and the ray ceases to exist. Speaking technically, we are
dealing with initial, not permanent, conditions.

Let us now come back to resemblances between the two
kinds of motion, for there is one point of similarity which
is not quite so obvious as others I have mentioned, and
is, I think, of the greatest importance ; in fact, it is
largely on account of this similarity that I have ventured
to put the two theories together for comparison.

When the first experimenters in radio-activity allowed
their streams of rays to fall upon materials of various
kinds, they found that the irradiated surfaces were the
sources of fresh streams of radiation. The secondary rays
were sometimes of the same nature and quality as the
primary, sometimes not. Further, they found that the
secondaries, on striking material substances, could pro-
duce tertiaries, and so on. The examination of all the
variations of this problem — the investigation of the con-
sequences of changing the primary-, of changing the sub-
stance, and last, but not least, of changing the form of
the experimental arrangements — has been the cause of an
enormous amount of work. There is a large literature
dealing with secondary radiations of all kinds which, I
imagine, but few have read with any completeness, and
the subject has become, on the surface at least, compli-
cated and difficult. Now I believe that it is possible to
clear away the greater portion of this complexity at a
stroke by the adoption of an idea which makes it possible
to describe and discuss the whole of these phenomena in
a very simple way. When an encounter takes place
between two gas molecules, we suppose that the sum of
the energies of the two is the same after the collision as
before, and, further, that there are just two things to
consider — two molecules — after as well as before. I think
that we may carry this idea over almost bodily to the
newer theory. A radiant particle encounters an atom.
The particle is a definite thing ; it contains a definite
amount of energy, and whether it is an a, or jS, or 7, or
X-ray, its energy is to be found almost entirely inside a
very minute volume. The encounter takes place. When
it is over there are still two things, an atom and a radiant
particle, going away from it. The sum of the energies
of the two is still the same, which means that we denv
a possibility much considered at one time, viz. that in the
encounter the atom could be made radio-active, and could
unlock a store of energy usually unavailable. We suppose
there is no energy to be considered except the original
energy of the radiant particle, and we suppose that there
are not now two or more radiant particles in place of the
original one, which also is a limitation on previous ideas.
It is a theory which ascribes a corpuscular form to all
the radiations. Each particle, o, ;8, y, or X, is to be
followed from its origin to its disappearance, and we have
nothing to think of but the one particle threading its wav
through the atoms. It loses energy as it goes, though
little at any one collision, and it passes out of our reckon-
ing_ when it has lost it all. There are no secondary
radiations other than radiant particles moving in direc-
tions which are different from those in which thev moved
at first. Even ' when a kathode rav excites an X-rav in
the ordinary Rontgen tube, or the X-ray excites a kathode
ray in a manner almost as well known, it is hardlv an
exception to this rule. The kathode ray has an encounter
with an atom and disappears ; simultaneously the X-rav
comes out of the atom, a circumscribed corpuscle carrv'-
ing on the energy of the kathode ray. There is a change,
but it extends only to the external characteristics of the
carrier of energy. The X-ray passes through the glass
wall of the X-ray bulb, or at least it does so sometimes ;
it may pass through other matter as well, but sooner or
later it has a fatal encounter with an atom, and the
reverse change takes place. In all cases, in that of the
undeviatrng a ray, or the j3 ray which suffers so manv
deflections, or the 7 or X-rays, it is a matter of tracing
the movements of individual minute quantities of energy
until they finallv melt away.

Let us consider one or two simple experimental results
from this point of view in order that we mav illustrnt*^
this corpuscular theorv. and at the same time mav learn
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

something of the properties of the corpuscles and of the
arrangements of the atoms through which they pass.

We take first one of the simpler cases, the movement
of an o particle through a gas. The relatively large mass
of the particle gives it an effectiveness which the other
radiations do not possess. It moves straight through
every atom it meets, and ionises most of them. Very
rarely does it suffer any deflection from its course until
its velocity is nearly run down. Then, indeed, it does
appear to depart considerably from the straight path, and
it may be that it is much knocked about by collision^
before it finally comes to comparative rest. In this wa\
we may explain the distribution of the ionisation along
its path, which increases slowly at first and rapidly after-
wards, until the a particle has nearly finished its journey ;
it then falls off rapidly. Considering that the ionisation
increases as the particle slows down and . spends more
time in each atom, and considering the more broken nature
of the path near its end, the reason of these peculiarities
!s clear enough. Apart from its comparative simplicity,
there are some other very interesting features of the
particle's motion. It is found, for example, that the loss
of energy which the particle incurs in crossing an atom
is proportional to the square root of the atomic weight
very nearly, and there is no certain explanation as yet of
this curious law. And again, Geiger has examined th'
small scattering that does occur, and found that o particle-
when moving quickly may be swung round completeh
even by the thinnest films of gold leaf, though the numher
is so small that the effect would have remained undetected
had it not been for the scintillation method which he and
Rutherford have perfected. He has found that about one
particle in 8000 is returned in this way from a gold plate,
which need consist only of a few thicknesses of gold leaf
in order to give the maximum effect.

Now let us take an example from the behaviour of
the /8 rays. The /3 particle is so light that it is easily
deflected, even though it moves several times as fast as
the heavier o particle. Because it therefore possesses
little energy its effects are much smaller, and no one has
yet succeeded in handling a single j3 particle in the same
way as Rutherford and Geiger have handled the other.
We are obliged to content ourselves with observations of
the effects of a crowd of j3 particles, since the combined
action of many is necessary to give us an observable
result ; and at the same time that the /3 particle gives
much less effect than the a, it has a much more irregular
course, so that the problem is doubly difficult. We are,,
in fact, only just beginning to understand it. There is a
compensation in the fact that its very liability to deflec-
tion makes it all the more interesting an object. It is
possible — and this is the particular j8-ray problem I wish-
to consider now — to examine the deflection of a single
)8 particle by a single atom ; the parallel result in the
kinetic theory of gases has never, of course, been achieved.

Suppose that we project a stream of j3 rays against a
thin plate and measure the relative number sent back,
which we do by measuring the ionisations caused by the
incident and returned rays respectively. We do this for
varying thicknesses of the plate, and plot the results, as,
for example, Madsen has done. His plate was made of
gold leaves, which could be had of extreme fineness.
From the relation thus obtained, it is possible to obtain
with confidence the amount of 3 radiation that would be
returned by the thinnest plate that could be imagined,
only one molecule thick. In such case the particles turned"
back could have had but one collision, and we have
achieved our purpose. Madsen 's figures show that a plate
weighing 4 milligrams to the square centimetre turned
back a tenth of the ;8 particles that fell upon it, and, so
far as can be judged, the ratio of the proportion turne«f
back to the weight of • the plate would be almost doubled
for very thin plates. We could go more into detail, an<f
find the distribution of those that are returned ; we should
then have data from which we might determine in some
measure the distribution of the centres of force inside the
atom. W^e cannot follow this up now, but I would like
to direct \-our attention to a curious indication which we
obtain when we compare the results for gold with those
which Madsen found for aluminium. They show that the
lighter metal turns back fewer j8 particles, and that its
power of absorbing a stream of rays is rather an absolute

February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

493

abstraction of energy. There is clearly an actual absorp-
tion effect, which is to be distinguished from the scatter-
ing effect. Indeed, the two effects are obviously of
different importance in the two cases. When a ^ ray
strikes a gold atom it must be much more liable to
deflection than when it strikes the lighter atom of
aluminium. On the other hand, I think it can be shown
clearly that in ploughing through aluminium atoms there
is a relatively quicker absorption of energy. We may
illustrate this by a rough model. Let us stand an electro-
magnet upright on the table, and let us suspend another
magnet so that it can swing over the fixed one and just
clear it. If we draw back the swinging magnet and let
it go towards the fixed one, the currents running so that
the two repel, then as the moving magnet tries to go by
there will be a deflection depending on the relative speed,
the closeness- of approach, and the strength of the poles.
This may represent the turning aside of an electron by a
centre of force inside an atom. Now let the magnet at
the table be supported by a spiral spring so as to be still
upright, but have some freedom of motion ; then, when
the experiment is repeated, the swinging magnet pushes
the other more or less to one side ; it is less deflected, but
it has to give up some of its energy. This is exactly
•what happens in the case of the /3 particle. The centre
of force in the gold atom behaves like the stiffer electro-
magnet on the table ; it deflects the electron more, but
robs it of less energy in doing so. It will not do to sup-
pose the gold atom to diff^er from the aluminium atom
simply in the number of centres of force, such as electrons,
which it contains if it is supposed that they all act in-
dependently. There is some other fundamental difference,
equivalent to a diff^erence in the stiffness with which the
electrons are set in their places. There are two things
to be expressed in the behaviour of the atom towards the
/8 particle, as has been pointed out several times. H. W^
Schmidt has actually calculated them from experiments
which gave them indirectly and somewhat approximately.
•The method I have just outlined gives one of them directly,
viz. that which is called the scattering coefficient, and I
think the other can also be found directly by a method
.which will serve as an illustration of the behaviour of
7 rays.

We must first, however, consider the part which 7 and
X-rays play generally in this theory. Workers are by no
means agreed as to the proper way in which to regard
them, but there is no need to enter at once on a discussion
as to their nature. It is well known that they have the
most extraordinary powers of penetration, and are un-
affected by electric or magnetic fields. Thev have one
property which alone, as I think, brings them' within our
experience ; that is to say, the power of exciting /3 ravs
from the atoms over which they pass. Were it not for
this they would still be unknown. When we examine this
production of 3 rays, we find that in the first place their
speed depends on the quality of the 7 rays which cause
them, and not on the nature of the atoms' in which thev
arise ; in the second, that the & rays to a large degree
continue the line of motion of the 7 ravs, as if the latter
pushed them out of the atoms ; and', lastlv, that the
number of the 3 rays depends on the intensi'tv of the 7
rays. It is these facts which suggest the simple theorv
I have already described. The 7 ray is some minute
thing which moves along in a straight line without change
of form or nature, which penetrates atoms with far greater
ease than the a or /3 particle, which is not electrified, and
•which sooner or later disappears inside an atom, handing
on a large share of its energy to a j3 particle which takes
Its place. The absorption of 7 rays is simply the measure
of their disappearance in giving rise to )3 ravs, one 7 ray
producing one j3 ray, and no more.

We find the same sort of scattering in the case of 7
rays as in that of & rays. Of a stream of ravs directed
against a plate which it can penetrate easilv, w'e find that
a few are turned completely back, a ver'v much larger
number are only slightly turned out of their path, and
the rest go on. The scattered rays are verv similar to
the original rays ; there is no need to suppose that the
original ray disappears, to be replaced by a secondary, anv
more than there is to suppose that a and j3 rays disappear
and are replaced by others in similar cases. When, there-
fore, a 7 ray enters an atom, three possibilities await it.
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

The first is a negative one ; it may go through the atom
untouched, and this must happen in the majority of cases ;
the second chance is that of deflection, and the third that
of conversion into a & ray, using the word conversion in
a general sense, without going into details as to the nature
of the process.

Now we may consider our 7-ray problem. Suppose a
stream of these rays passing over a block of any sub-
stance, such as aluminium, or zinc, or lead. When they
are really penetrating rays they are equally absorbed by
equal weights of these materials, which means that in
equal weights equal numbers of 3 rays spring into exist-
ence. If these jS rays were able to move through equal
weights of the metals, we should find in each metal the
same " density " of /3 rays ; and the important point is
that this is independent of whether the rays are straight
or crooked in their paths. If ten lines of given length
were begun in every square centimetre of a sheet of paper,
the ink used in drawing them would be independent of
the straightness of the lines, but proportional to their
length. Now if we make a cavity in each metal the 3
rays will cross it in their movements to and fro, and if a
little air is introduced into the cavity, the ionisation pro-
duced in it will be a measure of the density of the /3 rays,
and therefore the average distance each moves in the
metal. Experiment shows that we get twice as much
ionisation in a cavity in the lead as in a similar cavity
in the aluminium, and we conclude that the jB particle
really has a longer track in the heavier metal. This
experiment gives us the second constant of i3-ray absorp-
tion, that is to say, the rate at which its energy is taken
away from it ; the other experiment gave the chance of
deflection only. We see that the path of a 3 ray in
aluminium is more direct, but of less length, than in lead;
in the latter metal it has really a longer path, but it does
not get so far away from its starting point because it
suffers so many more deflections.

Finally, let us take a problem from the X-rays. Let
us see how we may test the idea that X and 7 rays do not
ionise themselves, but leave all the work to be done by
the jS rays which they produce. Suppose a pencil of
X-rays to pass across a vessel and to produce ionisation
therein. It is convenient to use, not the original X-rays,
which are heterogeneous, but the rays which are scattered
by a plate of tin on which the primary rays fall. Such'
" tin ravs," as we often call them briefly, are fairly
homogeneous, and give kathode rays of convenient pene-
tration. In some experiments of mine the rays crossed
a layer of oxygen 3-45 cm. wide, having a density 000137,
and the ionisation oroduced was 227 on an arbitrary scale.
The result may be put in the following way. Suppose,
provisionally, that all this ionisation is done indirectly ;
the oxygen has converted so much X-ray energy into
kathode-rav energy, and these kathode rays penetrating
their one or two millimetres of oxygen, which is all they
can do, have ionised the gas. Then we may say that, in
crossing a layer of oxygen weighing 345 x 000137. or
0-00473 gr. per sq. cm., enough kathode rays have been
produced to cause an ionisation of 227 units, and there-
fore that a layer weighing one milligram per sq. cm.
would produce 48 units in the same way. We now pro-
ceed to compare this production in oxygen with the similar
effect in a metal such as silver. Stretching a silver foil
across the chamber in the path of the rays, we find that
under the same intensity of ravs the ionisation is largely
increased, and the change is due to kathode rays which
the X-rays have generated in the silver. Not all these
ravs get out of the silver, but we can overcome this
difficulty by taking silver foils of different thickness, draw-
ing a curve 'onnecting the effect of the foils with their
thicknesses, taking the cur\'e back to the origin, and so
finding what would be the effect of a foil so thin that all
the kathode rays did get out. In my case I found that
a milligram of silver produced enough kathode rays to
give an ionisation 1580. This is thirty-three times as
much as the oxygen could do. Now. according to our
theory, this should be because silver absorbs tin ra^-s
thirty-three times more than oxygen does, and exoeriment
showed this to be very nearly the case. In finding the
absorbing power of oxygen, I measured first those of
carbon and oxalic acid, and then proceeded by calculation,
for the absorption in a gas is difficult to determine.

494

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

Two interesting points appeared in this experiment. In
;the first place, the ratio between the two quantities of
kathode rays, whiqh appear on the two sides of a silver
leaf through which the " -tin rays " pass, is nearly con-
stant, for different thicknesses of leaf. With the thinnest
leaf obtainable each quantity was about half its full value.
It would have been desirable to have had still thinner
leaves ; but it is fairly clear that the ratio would be nearly
the same for extreme thinness. The kathode radiation,
which appears on the side of the leaf whence the X-rays
emerge, is 1-30 times that which appears on the other,
and we may take it that this would be the case even if
the leaf were but one atom thick. Thus when an X-ray
plunges into an atom in which its energy is converted '
into that of a kathode ray, the kathode ray may emerge
at any jx>int, but there is a 30 per cent, greater chance
that it will more or less continue the line of motion of
the X-ray than that it will not. In previous work on the .
conversion of y-ray into /3-ray energy, I have found that
the 3 ray may practically be supposed to continue the
line of motion of the 7 ray, so that there is a great differ-
ence in behaviour of the two classes of ray in this respect.
It is remarkable that the scattering of the 7 rays shows
also a much greater dissymmetry than is found in the case
of the X-rays. It looks as if the )3 rays that appear when
7 or X-rays impinge on atoms are related rather to the
scattered than to the unscattered primary rays. Putting
it somewhat crudely, no doubt, it might be said that
when a 7 or X-ray is deflected in passing through an
atom, it runs a risk of being converted into a ;3 rav in
the process, so that j3 rays are found distributed about
the atom in rough proportions to the secondary 7 or
X-rays. In the case of 7 rays this practically amounts
to their all going straight on at first; in the case of
X-rays the distribution is more uniform.

Another interesting point arises in this way. When the
X-rays from tin are allowed to pass into the ionisation
chamber through increasing thicknesses of silver foil, the
kathode rays grow at a rate which is not represented by
the exponential curve usually assumed. The amount is
for some time more nearly proportional to the thickness
of the foil. A second foil adds its own effect without
destroying much of the one on which it is laid. This may
easily be ascribed to the relation of the ionisation due to
the 3 particle to the energy it has to spend. The ionisa-
tion is nearly all at the end of the path, and the second
layer does not absorb the rays made in the first because
thev are still at the beginning of their career.

These few experiments which I have described mav
serve to illustrate both the justice and the convenience of
placing all these rays, o, /3, 7, and X, in one class. We
are tempted to consider them all as corpuscular radiations
of some sort, and we then look upon our researches into
their behaviour as attempts to understand the collisions
of the various new corpuscles with the constituent centres
of force in the atoms. But if we ascribe corpuscular
properties to the 7 and X-rays, we are led far away from
the original speculations as to their nature. Stokes sup-
posed them to be spreading aether pulses, but in his theory
the energy of the pulse spreads on ever-widening surfaces
.as. the time passes, and is utterly insufficient to provide
the energy of the /3 rays which the 7 or X-rays excite.
Some sort of mechanism has to be devised bv which the
■energy of the 7 ray moves on without spreading, so that
at the fateful moment it may be all handed over to the
5 ray, which carries it on. I had the hardihood myself
to propose a theory of this kind. My idea was that the
7 or X-ray might be considered as an electron which had
assumed a cloak of darkness in the form of sufficient
■positive electricity to neutralise its charge. Nor do I see
anv reason for abandoning this idea, for it is at least a
good working hypothesis. It means, of course, that not
only does the energy of the )3 ray come from the 7 ray,
but the /3 ray itself.

Manv insist that my neutral corpuscle is too material,
and , that something more ethereal is wanted, for it
appears that ultra-violet light possesses many of the
properties of X and 7 rays.- It can excite electrons to
motion, and sometimes the speed of the electron depends
on the quality of the light, and not on the nature of the
material from which it sprinjjs. They propose, therefore.
a quasi-corpusculnr theory of light, 7 and X-rays being
NO. 2154. VOL. 85I

included- The. immediate objection to this proposal i--
that it seems to throw away at once all the marvellou
explanations of interference and diffraction which Youi„
and Fresnel founded on a theory of spreading waves, and
I do not think anyone has yet made good this defect.
The light corpuscle which is proposed is a perfectly new
postulate. It is to move with the velocity of light, keep-
ing a circumscribed and invariable form, to have energy
and momentum, and to be capable of replacing and being
replaced by an electron which possesses the same energy
but moves at a slower rate, and, of course, it has to do
all that the old light-waves did. The whole situation is
most remarkable and puzzling. We are working and
waiting for some solution which, perhaps, will come in a
moment unexpectedly. Meanwhile, we must just try to
verify and extend our facts, and be content to piec
together parts of the puzzle, since we cannot, as yt t
manage the whole. My object to-night has been to show
you how we may conveniently bind together a large
number of the phenomena of radio-activity into an easily
grasped bundle, using a kinetic theory which has many
points of resemblance to the older kinetic theory of gases.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

Cambridge. — It is proposed to confer the degree of
Master of Arts, hotioris causa, upon Mr. K. J. J.
Mackenzie, university lecturer in agriculture.

On Thursday next, February 16, a Grace will be offered
to the Senate recommending that a site on the Downing
Ground be assigned for a building for the department of
physiology, to the east of the School of Agriculture. .At
the same Congregation a further Grace will also be
brought forward recommending that a space to the south
of, and adjoining, the proposed building for the depart-
ment of physiology, be assigned as a site for a laboratory
of experimental psycholog}'.

Oxford. — On February 4 Prof. T. W. Edgeworth
David, CM. G., F.R.S., delivered a public lecture before
the University, in which he described the part he had
taken in Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition of
1907-9, including the ascent of Mount Erebus and thfe
reaching of the South Magnetic Pole. On February 7
the honorary degree of D.Sc. was conferred on Prof.
David.

The report of the committee for anthropology for the
year 1910, just presented to Convocation, contains a record
of continuous and healthy development of the study in
Oxford. The salary of the curator of the Pitt-Rivers
Museum has been raised from 200Z. to 500?. per annum,
and a readership has been founded in social anthropology,
to which the secretary to the committee, Mr. R. R.
Marett, Fellow of Exeter College, has been appointed. A
large number of lectures have been delivered in the course
of the year under the general heads of physical anthro-
pology, psychology, geographical distribution, prehistoric
archaeology, technology, social anthropology, and philo-
logy, besides special lectures for Sudan probationers, and
addresses on the art of prehistoric man in France, by M.
Emile Cartailhac.

The consideration of the proposed amendments to the
statute on faculties and boards" of faculties has been
resumed by Congregation.

It is announced. in the Revue scientifique that Prof.
Hans Meyer has presented 150,000 marks to the Uni-
versity of Leipzig for the inauguration of an institute of
experimental psychology.

We have received from the honorary secretary of li
Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions a copy
of a letter sent by the association to the principal of the
University of London directing attention " to the marked
inequality of the requirements of the examiners for
'pass' in the respective subjects" for the intermedia:
and final B.Sc. external examinations. Tabulated statis-
tics, drawn up bv the association from the Universitv
Calendar, show that in 1909 the following percentages of
candidates, entering for the various subjects of science in
the intermediate external examination, failed : — chemistry.
469 ; physics, 307 ; pure mathematics, 25-3 ; applied

February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

495

atheniatics, 14-4; botany, 47-8; zoology, 28-8; and
geology, 14-3. The corresponding numbers in the B.Sc.
examination of 1909 were : — chemistry, 585 ; physics,
30-5; pure mathematics, 35-4; applied mathematics, 421;
botany, 33-3 ; zoology, 143 ; and geology, 14-3. The prin-
cipal is asked to bring these and other points for considera-
tion before the Senate and Council for External Students,
since, in the opinion of the association, a serious injustice
is being done to students and teachers.

We learn from Science that the bequests from the
Kennedy estate for educational and public purposes are
even larger than had been anticipated. Columbia Uni-
versity receives 472,000?., New York University 190,400/.,
and Robert College, Constantinople, 360,000/. ; the
bequests to the New York Public Library and the Metro-
politan Museum of Art are about 560,000/. Barnard
College and Teachers College, Columbia University, each
receive 20,000/., as do Hamilton College, Elmira College,
Amherst College, Williams College. Bowdoin College, Yale
University, Tuskegee Institute, and the Hampton Institute.
Lafayette College, Oberlin College, Wellesley College,
Berea College, and Anatolia (Turkey) each receive 10,000/.
Science also states that Mr. Carnegie's latest gift of
760,000/. to the Technical Institute in Pittsburgh is to be
used approximately as follows : — 460,000/. for increase of
present endowment, 275,000/. for new buildings, 20,000/.
for additional equipment, and 5000/. on grounds. The
residue of the estate of the late Dr. Seesel, valued formally
at " not more than 50,000 dollars," is divided between
Yale and the University of Leipzig. With the income
there is to be founded at each institution the "Theresa
Seesel Fund ". in memory of his mother, to be used for
researches in biology.

The first volume of the report for the year ended June
30, 19 10, of the U.S. Commissioner of Education has been
received from the Bureau of Education at Washington.
As usual, the publication of purely statistical information
is postponed for the later volume. The commissioner.
Dr. Elmer Brown, in his introduction to the volume ably
summarises the tendencies and advances in the various
grades of education which may be regarded as the out-
standing features of the educational work of the year
under review. The part of the introduction dealing with
higher education is of special importance. Dr. Brown
points out that by its higher education the place of the
United States in the world's civilisation and its prestige
before the more enlightened nations are largely deter-
mined. " It is," he says, addressing his countrymen, " a
patriotic duty of the highest order that our colleges and
universities, in all of the States, should get away from
the more injurious forms of competition and enter into
more effective cooperation." He enumerates many weak-
nesses requiring correction. He urges that an agreement
among the colleges with respect to admission require-
ments, which should do away with minor differences that
harass the preparatory schools, would rid the educational
situation of some of its most serious embarrassments.
There is, he continues, a great deal of possible division
of labour, particularly as regards instruction and research,
which is not yet realised. Much has yet to be done in
the way of a general survey of the present provision in
American institutions of higher education for advanced
instruction with the view of determining where enlarge-
ment is needed. The excessive variations in the worth of
American academic and professional degrees is still, says
Pi' ^''o^"> s cause of reproach abroad, and involves much
injustice among Americans at home.

A NATIONAL conference will be opened at the Guildhall
on February 28, at 3.30 p.m., by the Lord Mayor, with
the object of securing a national system of industrial train-
ing. The conference has been organised by a special com-
mittee of the elected representatives of the chief associa-
tions of employers and workers and educational authori-
ties. The intention is to urge upon the Government to
supplement our present system of elementary education by
providing by legislation a complete system of industrial,
professional, and commercial training. Several resolutions
will be submitted at the conference, among which may be
mentioned the following : — " That this conference views
with grave concern the large number of children annually

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

I leaving school without practical training for definite voca-
tions, and resolves that a national system of industrial,
professional, and commercial training should be estab-
lished, to which the children shall pass as a matter of
course (unless the parents are prepared to undertake their
future training) and without interval, for a definite period,
to be thoroughly trained for entry to the particular call-
ing for which they are best fitted, such training to be
under fully qualified instructors. That the Government be
urged to provide by l^islation such a complete system of
training, free to all scholars, and the expenses thereof
defrayed from the National Exchequer." The National
Industrial Education League, which it is proposed to
establish at the meeting, will be composed of 2500
organised bodies of workpeople engaged in trade union,
cooperative, and educational work, and, so far as can
be at present ascertained, they represent more than three
millions of workers, comprising 365 trades and professions
in 421 cities and towns. Intending supporters of the
league can obtain further information on application to
the honorary secretaries, Craig's Court House, Charing
Cross, London, S.W.

At the meeting of the Royal Society of Arts on
February 1, presided over by Lord Cromer, Mr. P. J.
Hartog read a paper on examinations in their bearing on
national efficiency. He raised the important question as
to whether it was not possible to test " general ability,"
and to separate the ablest candidates by methods involving
less strain both on the successful and the unsuccessful
candidates? Would it be possible, without reintroducing
the evils of jobbery, to follow the lines laid down by Lord
Cromer in the Egyptian Civil Service, and by Lord Selborne
in choosing candidates for the Navy? He suggested the
appointment of a Royal Commission to deal with the
whole question, with a suitable reference, such as " To
investigate and report upon the methods and efficiency
for their purpose of examinations carried 6n by Govern-
ment departments and other public bodies in the United
Kingdom ; to inquire into the influences of examinations
on the previous education of candidates ; and to suggest
such changes as may seem desirable." The commission,
he said, should be a small one, presided over by a states-
man with experience of affairs, and there should be no
attempt to achieve the impossible by including in it
representatives of all parties concerned. Lord Cromer
opened the discussion which followed. He compared the
merits of competition and selection for securing the best
candidates for any office. The principle of selection, he
maintained, if only it can be properly carried out, possesses
merits superior to those of competition. The former may
or ought to result in the creation of leaders of men. . The
latter tends rather to produce a dull level of mediocrit}".
Of late years there has been a tendency, notably in the
military, naval, and diplomatic services, to adopt the prin-
ciple of selection in dealing with all the later stages of
the careers of public servants more thoroughly than
formerly. This movement, far from being arrested, should
be pushed still further. The case of first appointments
presents, naturally, greater difficulties. Some few years
ago it became necessary to create a Sudanese Civil Service.
In the first instance, the appointments were practically
made by Lord Cromer. He found it, he said, a difficult
task, but whatever success has attended the administra-
tion of Egypt during the last thirty years has been mainly
due to the care which was taken in selecting and pro-
moting officials.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

London.
Royal Society, February 2.— Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B.,
president, in the chair.— -Colonel Sir D. Bruce, F.R.S..
Captains A. E. Hamerton and H. R. Bateman, and
Dr. R. Van Someren : Experiments to investigate the
infectivity of Glossina palpalis fed on sleeping-sickness
patients under treatment. — Colonel Sir D. Bruce, F.R.S..
and Captains A. E. Hamerton, H. R. Bateman, and
F. P. Mackie : Experiments to ascertain if Trypanosoma
gambiense during its development within Glossina palpalis
is infective. — Captain R. McCarrison : Further experi-

496

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

mental researches on the etiology of endemic goitre. —
H. Hamshaw Thomas : The leaves of Calamites (Calamo-
cladus section). Most of the material investigated origin-
ally came from the Halifax Hard Bed of the Lower Coal
Measures. Most leaves were very small, being only
1-2 mm. long and o-8-i mm. broad. They are falcate in
shape, and were borne on slender twigs in alternating
whorls of four. The structure of these slender twigs
differs somewhat from that of the young Calamitean stems
already described by Williamson and others, but it may
be compared in some features with the structure of the
young stems of some modern Equisetums. The tissues of
the small leaves show a concentric arrangement. In the
centre there is a vascular bundle consisting of four or five
small tracheides, surrounded by thin-walled elongated
cells. The bundle is surrounded by a zone of cells with
dense black contents, termed by Hick the melasmatic
tissue, and is probably comparable with the bundle-sheath
of the leaves of modern plants. The cells of the palisade-
like assimilating tissue abut on to this ; they have large
spaces between them. The epidermis is thinner on the
concave side of the leaf, and the stomata are situated on
this face only. The latter are characterised by trans-
versely striated guard cells, similar to those seen in many
species of modern Equisetums. These leafy twigs seem
to be identical with the impression species Calamocladus
charaeformis (Sternb.) ; their structure seems to indicate
that they grew in a pendulous manner. Specimens have
been obtained showing variations in structure from the
normal type. _ Four other types of leaf have been dis-
covered differing in size and in arrangement of tissues.
In all of these there is a very conspicuous strand of
sclerenchymatous fibres running up the adaxial side of the
leaf, and forming a large part of its apex. These fibres
become more conspicuous in the longer leaves. In some
types the thin-vi^alled (phloem) tissue of the bundle is
much reduced, or even absent. The melasmatic tissue
also varies considerably in amount. Some of these longer
leaves were probably identical with C. grandis (Sternb.),
others with C. equisetiformis (Schloth.). They are charac-
terised by a more compact structure, with smaller and
fewer intercellular spaces. The structure of the smaller
leaves probably indicates that they grew in a moist situa-
tion, or where the atmosphere was humid. The larger
leaves are more xeromorphic in character. The results
obtained from this work indicate that the Calamites were
truly microphyllous. — Dr. J. O. Wakelin Barratt : Com-
plement deviation in mouse carcinoma. The object of the
present investigation is to ascertain if in mouse carcinoma
antibodies are produced in respect of the tumour. The
method followed is an application of the complement
deviation test, an extract of mouse tumour being employed
as antigen. The experiments made fall into two groups.
In one the serum of the rabbit or of man was employed
as the source of complement ; in the other the serum" of
the mouse served as the source of complement. In both
cases the same result was obtained, namely, that the com-
plement deviating power of the serum of mice with
tumours was sometimes greater than that of normal mouse
serum, but not unfrequently the serum of a mouse with a
tumour was found to be identical in respect of its com-
plement deviating power with that of a normal mouse.

Linnean Society, January 19.— Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S.,
president, in the chair. — C. H. Wrigrht : Flora of the
Falkland Islands. An endeavour has been made to define
the distribution of plants in the islands and to show what
changes have taken place in the flora since the publica-
tion of the " Flora Antarctica " in 1847. The plants are
chiefly of dwarf habit, often with aromatic leaves, and
conspicuous, often scented, flowers, which are produced
chiefly between November and January. The earliest to
appear is Draba funiculosa, Hook, f., in September. The
extermination of the fox (,Canis antarcticus) has rendered
possible the keeping of sheep, with the result that plants
previously common have now become rare ; amongst these
are the tussac grass (,Poa flahellata, Hook, f.), cinnamon
grass (Hierochloe redolens, R. Br.), and blue grass (Agro-
pyron repens, Beauv.). Primula farinosa, var. magel-
lanica, Hook, f., while still abundant, is much dwarfed
in those islets where sheep have been introduced. Veronica
elliptica, Forst. f., attains a height of 7 feet, and is the
NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

tallest plant on the islands, the next being Chiliotricbuin
amelloideum, Cass. (the F^chima plant). Azorella
caespitosa, Cav. (the balsam-bog), forms hard masses up
to 10 feet long and 4 feet high, which rapidly decay <
being wounded. The flora shows a great affinity w;
that of Magellan and Chile. — C. Crossland : The g'
logical and geographical position of Khor Dongonab.
Mr. Hugh Scott summarised the following five reports ;
R. E. Turner : Fossorial Hymenoptcra. The author
enumerates twenty-five species, of which thirteen are from
the Seychelles, eleven from Aldabra and the adjacent
islands, while one (a common Eastern form) was only
found in the Chagos. — Prof. J. J. Kieffer : Two familif^e
of Diptera, the Cecidomyiidae (gall-flies) and the Chi:
nomidae. No species of either family has previously bi
recorded from the Seychelles, and they have been but liule
collected in the tropics as a whole. Hence it is not very
surprising that the twenty-four species of Cecidomyiidae
and the forty-eight species of Chironomidae described in
these papers are all new. The Cecidomyiidai all belong in
genera which are not usually gall-formers; the Chi
nomidae, with one exception, all belong to Europ' ,
genera, and forms of larger size are absent. Thf sc
families cannot at present throw much light on the affini-
ties of the Seychelles fauna as a whole, owing to their
not having been much studied in other lands in the same
region, but it is of great importance that one should
begin to gain some knowledge of their representatives in
such places as the Seychelles. — Dr. K. Kertesz : Report
on a family of Diptera, the Stratiomyiidae. This d>
with nine species, of which two are new to science ; i
new genera are also described, one being established 10
receive an already known species. Of the seven species
of Stratiomyiidae from the Seychelles and Aldabra which
are not new, one is also known from Madagascar, and
the other six from various Eastern, localities, such as
Cocos-Keeling and various islands of the Eastern Archi-
pelago so far as the Philippines.— E. Meyrick : Micro-
lepidoptera of the groups Tortricina and Tineina. The
author states that in these groups the Seychelles and
Aldabra faunas must be considered separately. From the
Seychelles he recognises 11 1 species, of which twenty-one
are almost certainly imported, while the remaining ninety
are probably endemic. These ninety consist in part of an
" ancient but highly specialised fauna," analogous to the
somewhat similar, but more primitive, fauna found in
Mauritius and Reunion, and in part of forms which may
have been derived sporadically from various parts of the
Indian region. Among the material from Aldabra, Mr.
Meyrick recognises nine species, all new, but belonging
to widelv distributed genera.

Mineralogical Society, January 24. — Prof. W. J. LewL,
F.R.S., president, in the chair.— F. H. Butler: Kaolin.
The kaolinite in the Glamorganshire Coal Measures
originated in the decomposition of felspar by carbonated
underground water. The secondary mica and quartz of
the Carboniferous grits and greisens are due primarily to
the formation of potassium carbonate and alumohexa-
silicic acid (Morozewicz), the acid breaking up into silica
and alumdisilicic acid (i.e. kaolin less water of crystallisa-
tion), and the latter combining with the carbonate to yield
muscovite and free carbonic acid- Kaolinite is destroyed
concurrently with the growth of schorl in kaolin rock, and
cannot, therefore, be a product of boration. — Dr. G. T.
Prior and Dr. G. F. H. Smith : Schwartzembergite.
Analyses recently made by the former show that this
mineral is a complex iodate and oxychloride of lead,
Pb(I03)2.3[PbCl„.2PbO].— A. Hutchinson : An improved
form of total reflectometer. The instrument is a gonio-
meter of the suspended type with a large base plate, to
which a telescope and collimator, a microscope bisecting
the angle between them, and other apparatus can be
clamped, and is intended for the measurement of minute
crystals, and for the determination of the optic axial ^r^
of biaxial crystals, and of the refractive indices by KoM-
rausch's method. — ^T. Crook : A case of electrostatic
separation. The apparatus consists of two copper plates,
one of which is coated on one side with a layer of shellac
Good conducting minerals are attracted to the shellac-
covered surface of the upper plate when it is charged by
means of an electrophorus.

February 9, 191 1]

NATURE

497

Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, January 25. —

Mr. Edgar Taylor, president, in the chair. — .\d\ourned
discussion. H. C. Bayldon : Notes on Chilian mills in
Russia. In this paper the author provides a useful and
instructive treatise on the slow-running Chilian or " Edge
runner " mill, invariably used in Russia for crushing gold
ores as a preliminary to amalgamation, &c. After a brief
historical summary, the paper gives descriptions of the
standard type of Chilian mill now in use, and of the
milling methods adopted in Russia, which are followed
by notes on an improved type of Chilian mill and milling
plant recently introduced. The descriptions are suitably
illustrated, and there are ample statistics relating to mills
and their efficienc}'. The author is of opinion that if the
same amount of thought and attention were devoted to
this tyf)e of mill as has been given to the heavy stamp
plus tube mill combination in South Africa, it would prove
a serious rival and give a product nearer to the ideal
aimed at on that goldfield. — N. A. Logrgin : Notes on
placer mining, with special reference to hydraulic sluicing.
The author here gives the results of a wide experience in
placer mining conducted on the hydraulic sluicing system
in the form of a collection of practical hints with regard
to the whole of the process involved, from the initial
determination of the value of the gravel to be mined
down to the most suitable location of the dump. As
might be anticipated, the chief points dwelt upon relate
to the arrangement of an efficient supply of water to feed
the " giants " and " deflectors " at the face of the mine,
as this constitutes the crux of the problem, next in import-
ance to which comes the construction of the flume in
which the gravel is washed and relieved of its gold
contents.

Edinburgh.
Royal Society, Decemter 19, 1910. — Prof. Bower, vice-
president, in the chair. — Prof. A. C. Seward : The
Jurassic flora of Sutherland. This contained a general
account of the fossil plants collected by Hugh Miller, Dr.
Marcus Gunn, and Mr. Archer from the Kimeridgian
strata on the coast of Sutherland. Dr. Gunn's collection
has been recently acquired by the British Museum.
Thanks were expressed to Mr. H. B. Woodward for notes
on the geology of the Sutherland plant beds. The flora of
Sutherland, with a few types collected by Hugh Miller at
Eathie (Cromarty), may be regarded as representing the
Jurassic flora of Scotland as a whole, the specimens re-
corded from western localities being very few and frag-
mentary. The Scottish Jurassic flora includes several
widely distributed species previously described from the
Inferior Oolite series of Yorkshire and elsewhere, together
with some Wealden types. From a botanical point of
view, the Kimeridgian flora of Sutherland is interesting
chiefly on account of the additional evidence it affords of
the general uniformity of the Jurassic vegetation of the
world, and as demonstrating the occurrence in north-west
Europe in the Jurassic era of such genera as Hausmannia,
Laccopteris, Araucarites, &c., which are now represented
by species in the southern tropics or in south temperate
latitudes. — Dr. A. A. Lawson : Phase of the nucleus
known as synapsis. The argument was that synapsis was
due, not to contraction, as generally supposed, but to
growth. — Prof. R. J. A. Berry : The sectional anatomy of
the head of the Australian aborigine.

January 9. — Prof. Hudson Beare, vice-president, in the
chair. — ^.\lan W. C. Menzies : A method for determining
the molecular weights of dissolved substances by measure-
ment of lowering of vapour pressure. The apparatus was
so arranged that the temperature of the liquid, with the
dissolved substance in it, was sustained at the temperature
of the vapour coming from the boiling pure liquid, while.
at the same time, part of the surface of the impure liquid
was subjected to the pressure of this vapour, while the
rest of the surface was subjected to the pressure of its
own vapour, which was somewhat less, because of the
dissolved substance. The difference of pressure was
balanced by the difference of height of the two surfaces
of the liquid. The method was found to be easy of
manipulation, and to lead to satisfactory measurements.
— Dr. George Green : The modus operandi of the prism.
The action of a prism on a light " pulse " incident upon
It was illustrated by means of the analogy between the
pulse problem and the hydrodynamical problem presented
NO. 2154, VOL. 8sl

by a point disturbance moving uniformly over a liquid
surface. Taking the ship-wave pattern to represent the
general form of wave disturbance within a prism immedi-
ately after the incidence of a light pulse, the author
applied the theory of group velocity to arrive at the general
features of the wave system after emergence from the
prism, deriving the usual formula for the resolving power.
— Dr. John Brovwnlee : The relation of the mono-
molecular reaction of life processes to immunity. The
simple law of exponential decay was found to govern
many of these processes. An interesting example was the
mortality due to scarlet fever at different ages ; the
statistics for two large towns showed that this mortality
amongst children diminished exponentially with increase
of age.

Paris.
Academy of Sciences, January 30. — M. Armand Gautier
in the chair. — H. Deslandres : Researches on the move-
ments of the solar atmospheric layers by the displacement
of the lines of the spectrum. Lack of symmetry and
peculiarities of the phenomenon. The author gives a
short historical survey of the whole of the work done in
this field, and proceeds to discuss in detail the observations
made at the Observatory of Meudon from 1892 onwards.
Special attention is given to the displacements of the K^^
line and the views which have been put forward to explain
the observed facts. — G. Lippmann : The acticm of
external forces on the pressure of saturated vapours and
the gases dissolved in a liquid. The lowering of the
vapour pressure of a liquid in a capillary tube was first
demonstrated by Kelvin. The explanation put forward by
Kelvin involves the constancy of the vapour pressure
throughout the whole column of the liquid, the variation
being assumed to be produced in a discontinuous manner
in the meniscus. The author proposes another explana-
tion, according to which, for equilibrium, the tension of
a dissolved gas varies with the level according to the same
law as the pressure of the gas in the interior of the
liquid. Saturated vapour can be regarded as a particular
case of this theorem. — M. Gouy : The existence of a
periodic element in the magneto-kathodic radiation. It is
known that in a high vacuum the magneto-kathode bundle
emitted by a wire serving as a kathode forms a luminous
sheet, separated from the kathode by a dark space.
Under certain conditions, dark and light fringes appear
in this luminous portion. It has been found that the
maximum intensity corresponds to rays the lengths of
which are exact multiples of a certain length, a, which
is inversely proportional to the value of the magnetic
field. — D. Th. Esorofff : Sets of measurable functions. —
R. Bourgeois : A cause of an instrumental error in the-
measurement of a base line. In the determination of a
base line at Blida, invar wires, standardised at the Inter-
national Bureau, were used. Certain discrepancies
appeared in the results, outside the ordinan." experimental
error, and these were finally traced to the inclinations of
the rule from the horizontal. The error was eliminated
when the measurements were made in opposite directions
over the same line and the mean taken. — Torres
Quevedo : A mechanical construction for the linkage
expressed by the formula d^ da = tan w. — Auguste Rigrhi :
The probable ionising action of the magnetic field. Some
experiments are described in which the discharge potentials
between metallic electrodes in an exhausted tube were
measured in magnetic fields of varying strength. The
hypothesis that the magnetic field can produce ions offers
a possible explanation of the observed facts. — C. Limb :
Compounding alternators by means of electrolytic valves.
— E. Urbain, CI. Seal, and A. Fe«ge : A new type of
arc lamp having a mercury kathode and giving white
light. An arc is struck in a quartz tube between an anode
of tungsten and a kathode of mercury. The light is prac-
tically white, spectroscopic examination showing a con-
tinuous spectrum with the mercury lines superposed. The
yield is high (0-45 watt per candle), and the arc w'orks
with a potential difference of 12 volts ; the voltage can be
increased by the presence of an inert gas in the tube. —
J. Bosellf : Reaction velocities in heterogeneous systems.
— Louis Hackspill : The density, coefficient of expansion,
and change of volume on fusion of the alkaline metals.
The metals (caesium, rubidium, potassium, and sodium>
were distilled in a high vacuum immediatelv before each

49«

NATURE

[February 9, 191 1

experiment and directly into the experimental tube.
The expansion of the liquid metal was measured directly
without the intervention of any other liquid ; for the
expansion of the solid, pentane was employed as the
indicating fluid. It was found, incidentally, that benzene
and toluene are rapidly attacked by liquid caesium with-
out any evolution of gas ; the nature of the compounds
formed is being investigated. — Daniel Berthelot and
Henry Gaiidechon : The photolysis of complex acids by
the ultra-violet rays. The action of uranium salts as
catalysers. Details are given of the decomposition pro-
ducts of various dibasic, ketonic, and alcohol acids when
exposed to ultra-violet light. The addition of small quanti-
ties of uranium salts, without altering the nature of the
gases evolved, increases the velocity of the decomposition
from four to six times. — A. Job and P. Goissedet : A
crystallised green manganitartrate.— E. E. Blaise and
L. Picard : The action of the chlorides of the o-alkoxy-
acids upon the mixed organo-metallic derivatives of zinc.
— P. L. Viguier : a-Bromocrotonic aldehyde. A descrip-
tion of the products of the reaction of this aldehyde with
hydroxylamine, semicarbazide, hydrazine, phenylhydrazine,
and urethane. — V. Grig^nard and Ch. Courtot : Some
new derivatives of indene. — Marin Molliard : Nitrogen
and chlorophyll in galls. — P. A. Dangeard : The deter-
mination of the active rays in the chlorophyll synthesis.- —
Henri Labre and L. Violle : The ingestion of mineral
acids in the dog. The amount of bases secreted in the
urine is increased by the ingestion of hydrochloric acid.
— ^M. Doyon, A. Morel, and A. Policard : A demonstra-
tion of the exclusively hepatic nature of antirhombine.
The extraction of this substance by a solvent for nuclear
bodies. — C16ment Vaney : Researches on the development
•of Hypoderma bovis. — E. Pinoy : The form of Sporo-
trichum Beurmanni in human lesions. Its fructification
in the interior of the capillaries. The visibility of the
parasite is largely dependent on the exact method of
■staining, and it is shown that in human lesions caused by
this parasite the organism is more abundant than has been
hitherto supposed. — L. Bruntz : The physiological signifi-
cation of the leucocyte reactions of infections and intoxi-
cations.— L. Mercier . and R. de Drouin de Bouville :
Lepidorthosis in Leuciscus rutilus of the lake of Nantua.
— L. Cayeux : The existence of limestones containing
Gyroporella in the Cyclades. — Louis Gentil : The Riffian
•deposits of Morocco. — Louis Fabry : The registration of
small artificial earthquakes at a distance of 17 kilometres.
Small earthquakes caused b}' subsidences in mining dis-
tricts have been recorded on the seismograph of the
Marseilles Observatory.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, February 9.

•RovAL Society, at 4.30. — (i) Certain Physical and Physiological Pro-
perties of Stovaine and its Homologues ; (2) The Effect of some Local
Anaesthetics on Nerve: Dr. V. H. Veley, F.R.S., and W. L. Symes.
— (i) Experimental Researches on Vegetable' Assimilation and Respira-
tion. 'VIII. A New Method for Estimating the Gaseous Exchanges
of Submerged Plants ; (2) Experimental Researches on Vegetable
Assimilation and Respiration. IX. On Assimilation in Submerged
Water-plants and its Relation to the Concentration of Carbon Dioxide
and other Factors : Dr. F. F. Blackman, F.R.S., and A. M. Smith.

"Royal Society of Arts, at 4.30. — Indian Superstitions: R. A. Leslie
Moore.

'RovAL Institution, at 3. — Problems of Animals in Captivity : P. Chalmers
Mitchell, F.R.S.

■Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Adjourned discussion :
Long Distance Transmission of Electrical Energy : \V. T. Taylor. —
Extra High Pressure Transmission Lines : R. Borlase Matthews and
C. T. Wilkinson.

Mathematical Society, at 5.30. — The Application of the Mathematical
Tneory of Relativity to the Electron Theory- of Matter : E. Cunningham.

FRIDAY, February 10.
Royal Institution, at 9. — Robert Louis Stevenson : Sir Sidney Colvin.
Royal Astronomical Society, at 5. — Anniversary Meeting.
■Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8.— Rivers and Estuaries : W. H.

Hunter.
Physical Society, at 8.— Annual General Meeting.— Presidential Ad-
dress : The Caloric Theory of Heat and Carnot's Principle : Prof. H. L.
Callendar, F.R.S.

MONDAY, February 13.

Royal Geographical Society, at 8.30. — Further Explorations in Bolivia :

Major P. H. Fawcett.
•Royal Society of Arts, at 8.— Brewing and Modern Science : Prof.

Adrian J. Brown.

NO. 2154, VOL. 85]

TUESDAY, February 14.

Royal Institution, at 3. — Heredity : Prof. F. W. Mott, F.R.S.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at i.— Further discussion: '1 1
Detroit River Tunnel, between Detroit, Michigan, and Wind-
Canada: W. J. \i\\%\i,=,.— Probable Paper: Coast Erosion: W. I
Douglass.

WEDNESDAY, February 15.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8.— Modern Machine Bookbinding : G. A.
Stephen.

Royal Microscopical Society, at 8.— On some New Objectives ai
Eye-pieces by R. Winkel, of Gottingen: E. M. Nelson.— On the Rece
and Fossil Foraminifera of the Shore-sands of Selsey Bill, Suss.:
Addendum : E. Heron-Allen and A. Earland.

Royal Meteorological Society, at 7.30.— Variation of the Depth

■ Water in a Well at Detling, Maidstone, compared with the Rainf..
1885-1909: R. Cooke and S. C. Russell.— The Actinograph ; an Instr
ment for Recording Changes in Radiation : A. W. Clayden.— N.
Cloudiness Charts for the United States : K. M. Clark.

Society of Dyers and Colourists, at 8.— The Enzymes of Malt, -^
their Employment in the Textile Industries : K. J. May.

THURSDAY, February 16.

Royal Society, at ^.3,0.— Probable Papers: The Constitution of t
Alloys of Aluminium and Zinc : Dr. W. Rosenhain and S. L. Archbuti.
The Production and I'roperties of Soft Rontgen Radiation : R. Whiddin^
ton. --Experiments on Stream-line Motion in Curved Pipes: Prof. J.
Eustice.

Royal Geographical Society, at ■;. — Research Meeting. Some Ant-
arctic Problems : Prof. Edgeworth David, F.R.S.

Linnean Society, at 8.

Royal Institution, at 3.— Problems of Animals in Captivity : P. Chalmers
Mitchell, F.R.S.

Illuminating Engineering Society, at Z.—Dicussion on School Light-
ing. Openers : Dr. James Kerr and Dr. N. Bishop Harman.

FRIDAY, February 17.

Royal Institution, at 9.— The Stimulation of Digestive Activity : Prof.
H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S.

Institution of Mechanical Engineers, at 8. — Annual General Meet-
ing. Further discussion : Modern Electrical Dock-equipment, with
.Special Reference to Electrically-operated Coal-hoists : W. Dixon and
G. H. Baxter.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — The Uses of Chemistry in
Engineering: J. Swinburne, F.R.S.

CONTENTS. PAGE

Studies'in Physiology. By Sir T, Clifford Allbutt,

K.C.B., F.R.S 465

The Pines of Australia. By W. B. H 465

Practical Inorganic Chemistry. By H. M. D. 466

Mathematics and Ophthalmology 467

The Beetles of India. By W. F. K 467

Electric Motors. By Stanley P. Smith 468

The Geology of Germany. By Prof. Grenville A, J.

Cole 468

Our Book Shelf 470

Letters to the Editor: —

Drainage and Malaria. — Dr. Chas. A. Bentley ;

Dr. Malcolm Watson 471

Studies of Magnetic Disturbances. — L. Vegard . 473
Sir F. Gallon and Composite Photography. — Lady

Welby 474

Darwin and the Transmission of Acquired Characters.
— E. A. Parkyn ; Prof. John W. Judd, C.B.,

F.R.S. . . . . 474

Glacial Erosion.— R. M. Deeley ; J.^W. G. . . . 475

An Unconscious Forecast by Joule. — B. A. Keen 475

The Sailing-flight of Birds. — Canon R. Abbay . . 475

A Morning Meteor.— Joseph H. Elgie 475

Investigations of Plague 476

What Science has done for the West Indies. By

Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. . . 477

Pictorial Natural History. {Illustrated.) ...... 478

Alcohol and Eugenics. By E. H. J. S 479

Notes 481

Our Astronomical Column : —

Nova LacertL^ 4^"

Mars and its Atmosphere 4^6

Cometary Theories 4^6

Polarisation in the Spectrum of o Ceti 486

The Earth's Action on Sunlight and Heat 486

Experiments on Coal-dust Explosions. [Illus-
trated.) By Prof. W. Galloway 487

Explorations in New Guinea 49°

Radio-activity as a Kinetic Theory of a Fourth
State of Matter. By Prof. William H. Bragg,

F.R.S 491

University and Educational Intelligence 494 i

Societies and Academies 495

Diary of Societies 49^

NA TURE

499

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY i6, 191 1.

A PRACTICAL MODERN TREATISE ON
GEOMETRICAL OPTICS.

The Principles and Methods of Geometrical Optics,
especially as Applied to the Theory of Optical In-
struments. By Prof. J. P. C. Southall. Pp. xxiii +
626. (New York : The Macmillan Company ; Lon-
don : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 255.
net.
T T is safe to assert that this volume will at no very
-»- distant date be in the hands of every serious
English-speaking student of geometrical optics. We
know of no other work in the Eng^lish language in
which the attempt has been made to give a thorough
anu systematic account of the fundamental principles
and methods of geometrical optics, so far as these are
necessary for dealing with the problems of the optical
workshop. There are in existence several conscien-
tious text-books of deservedly good repute, which, as
Silvanus Thompson has said, serve — rather, perhaps,
served — admirably to get up the subject for the tripos,
and are dotted with ingenious and fascinating
problems, e.g. to find the equation of the bright curve
seen on the spokes of a bicycle wheel rotated rapidly
in the sun ; but these leave untouched a vast number
of questions of fundamental importance to the prac-
tical optician. More recently Dennis Taylor, whose
practical knowledge and e.xperience are unquestion-
ably of the highest order, has attempted to provide a
handbook which would assist in practical lens calcu-
lations ; unfortunately the methods employed are un-
necessarily cumbrous, while, as originally published,
the book was marred by accidental, but serious, errors.
The need of such a work in English as the present
has been often stated, and with sufficient emphasis;
an Englishman may be pardoned for regretting that
it now only reaches him from the other side of the
Atlantic.

To the reader who is familiar with Czapski's
"Grundzuge der Theorie der optischen Instrumente
nach Abbe " and with " Die Theorie der optischen
Instrumente " (vol. i.), published by the members of
the Zeiss firm, a glance through the pages of Prof.
Southall's volume will be sufficient to show how
largely he is indebted to these works, both as regards
method of treatment and detail ; a debt, indeed, which
he warmly acknowledges. The author exhibits, fur-
ther, a wide acquaintance with recent French and
German optical literature, to which most useful refer-
ences are given throughout the work. But the book
is no mere translation or compilation. It is a
thorough, logical, comprehensive account of the funda-
mental principles of geometrical optics and of the
theory of optical instruments, written bv one who
not only has an exceptionally extensive knowledge of
the work done by others, but has also an unusually
complete grasp of his subject and of the essentials
necessary to its clear presentment.

In a work on geometrical optics nomenclature and

notation are both of the greatest importance, and to

these special attention has been given. The results

are, we venture to think, on the whole conspicuously

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

successful. The notation adopted is suggestive, clearly
stated, agrees in most important respects with estab-
lished usage, and is carefully held to throughout the
work. Great assistance is given by an index and
e.xplanation at the end of the book of the symbols
used. The use of thick face type to indicate points
on the chief ray of a bundle is especially convenient.
As regards nomenclature, it may be noted that the
term pencil of rays is confined to rays in one plane,
the word bundle being employed for a systerri of con-
current rays in space; the term "chief ray," Sylvanus
Thompson's translation of " Hauptstrahl," has been
adopted as denoting especially the ray which passes
through the centre of the aperture-stop in an optical
instrument, or, in the object space, through the centre
of the entrance pupil; and the words " Eintrittsluke,"
" Austrittsluke," are well rendered by the terms
"entrance-port," "exit-port," denoting the virtual
apertures or windows which bound the field of view
in the object space and image space respectively.

The general discussion of refraction through a prism
or prism system is given early in the book. In the
treatment much use is made of the work of Burmester.
This is followed by chapters on the reflexion and
refraction of paraxial rays at spherical surfaces and
their refraction through thin lenses. The discussion
of the relations between object and image in these
simple cases leads up to the important chapter on
Abbe's theory of optical imagery, of which a full
account is given in Czapski's volume above referred
to. In Abbe's theory the assumption is made of a
point-to-point correspondence, by means of rectilinear
rays, between object and image, and from this, with-
out any hypothesis as to the image-forming optical
instrument, the fundamental laws expressing the rela-
tionship between object and image are deduced,
whether for a simple or a compound optical system.
In his clear and full treatment of this part of his
subject Prof. Southall makes great use of geometrical
methods, which are, of course, specially appropriate.
It is possible that some practical opticians who are
unacquainted with the elements of modern geometry
may find this a deterrent, but the amount of know-
ledge necessary is so slight and so easily acquired
that it would be unreasonable to give such an objec-
ti.on serious consideration. The results are applied in
the succeeding chapter to the Gauss system of centred
surfaces.

The general discussion follows of the exact methods
of tracing the path of a ray through a system of
centred surfaces when the angles of incidence are not
necessarily small. The computation formulae given
are those of Kerber and von Seidel, and some illus-
trations of their use are afforded. In the subsequent
account of the approximate theory of the spherical
aberrations the author has followed somewhat closely
the plan adopted by Konig and von Rohr in the
chapter devoted to this subject in " Die Theorie der
optischen Instrumente." Thus the spherical aberra-
tion on the axis, distortion, astigmatism, curva-
ture of field, and coma, are separately considered,
while in conclusion a somewhat modified presentation
is given of von Seidel's theory, of which an excellent
account is provided in Silvanus Thompson's transla-

R

500

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

tion of Lummer's "Photographic Optics." A separate
chapter deals with the reflexion and refraction of
astigmatic bundles of rays, and in a further chapter
the colour aberrations are discussed.

The last chapter, which is of considerable Import-
ance, reproduces Abbe's theory of the action of the
"stops" in an optical instrument, and deals generally
with questions depending on the aperture and the
field of view.

The preceding notes will sufficiently indicate the
scope of the book. It is confined to the discussion
of general optical principles, and methods of calcula-
tion applicable to optical instruments, and does not
actually deal with the application of these methods.
It thus covers practically the same ground as
vol. i. of " Die Theorie der optischen Instrumente "
already referred to. The subtitle of that volume,
"Image formation in optical instruments from the
standpoint of geometrical optics," is, indeed, excel-
lently descriptive of the present work. The range is
sufficiently extensive, and it would hardly be possible,
within the limits of a single volume, to include in
addition the theory of lens design, or the application
of the general principles to special types of optical
instruments. On the other hand, a volume, or rather
volumes, dealing with these applications are urgently
needed. It is to be feared that there are many prac-
tical opticians in this country to whom it may appear
that this work offers little of immediate practical
importance, and to whom it would only be possible
to work back, so to speak, to the present volume from
one dealing with its immediate application to, say, the
telescope or the photographic lens. It is earnestly
to be hoped that Prof. Southall may be persuaded to
provide them with the opportunity. There are few
who have his equipment for the task, and the need
is universally recognised. There can be no question
that by the issue of the present volume Prof. Southall
has rendered a great service to American and to
English opticians.

It may be added that the general get-up of the book
is excellent; the type is clear, and the figures well
drawn. Some of the figures, however, would have
been much improved if they had been reproduced on
a somewhat larger scale.

MANCHURIA, KOREA, AND RUSSIAN
TURKESTAN.
The Face of Manchuria, Korea, and Russian Turke-
stan. Written and illustrated by E. G. Kemp. Pp.
xv + 248 + xxiv plates. (London: Chatto and
Windus, 19 10.) Price 75. 6d. net.

THE facilities afforded by extended railway com-
munication to remote regions of eastern Asia
have rendered it possible for the leisured tourist to
travel safely, and with comparative comfort, from
Russia to the seaboard of Asia on the east in a direct
line traversing a vast area, a great part of which still
remains unexplored, especially in Korea and Russian
Turkestan, although excellent work has been done
within the last decade by intrepid travellers in cross-
ing the deserts, and surveying the mountain chains
in which this part of Asia abounds. Judging from
NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

previous work, the author, as an expert tourist, has
had some useful training, and has not wholly confined
descriptions of the route to the face of things, but
has invested the work with unusual interest by histor-
ical and other notes concerning the races inhabiting
the countries traversed. Four months covered the
outward and return journeys, following the lines of
the Transsiberian Railway, and onward by connecting
lines to Korea, and home again.

The result is the volume under review, which forms
an attractive addition to tourist literature, a pictur-
esque guide-book so agreeably written as to captivate
the reader who has neither time nor opportunity to
follow in the author's footsteps. The historical notes
arc discriminating and sufficient for the purpose,
while the accounts of various regions and races in-
habiting them, their religion, social condition, &c.,
are not without interest. The political outlook created
by the new alliance of Russia and Japan is
painted in sombre colours. The Japanese determined
by force, if necessary, to coerce the Chinese into
throwing Manchuria open to Japanese colonisation,
and the attitude of China to resist advances. On the
other hand, there is Russia's demand to construct and
control a railway direct from Irkutsk to Peking, and to
prevent the Chinese running a line into Mongolia.

The position created for China is therefore not with-
out the gravest peril, and in the future may lead to
serious complications in view of China's progress as
a military Power. The author acknowledges indebted-
ness for trustworthy information supplied along the
route. The line into Manchuria joins the Trans-
siberian Railway with the continuation of the line to
Mukden and Peking, enabling the traveller to reach
the Chinese capital, starting from London, in about
seventeen days. The Japanese appear to have been
forestalled in their desire to colonise Manchuria, as
the country is being rapidly overrun by Chinese immi-
grants, owing to its great fertility, and affording an
excellent home to the settlers, who are more pros-
perous than elsewhere in the empire.

The first section of railway to Kharbin is under
Russian control, having soldiers posted at intervals
all along the line. Half-way from Kharbin to Mukden
it becomes Japanese, having military officers on board
the trains. The author's brief historical note on
Manchu history may be rendered all the more interest-
ing by a perusal of Mr. Meadows's "History of the
Manchus." It goes back to the. eleventh century B.C.,
and is full of adventure, enterprise, and war up to
1644, when the Manchus conquered and founded the
present dynasty as rulers of China, when they settled
down, adopting Chinese methods of government.

Mukden, the Manchu capital, a picturesque and
famous old city, is visited and described. It has
fallen into decay, although not without signs of re-
newed life by the transforming influence of the West.
The old palace museum contains perhaps the finest
collection of ancient Chinese bronzes and porcelain
that exists. Some account is given of the Boxer
rising and ravages. The hospital of the missions was
wrecked, but has been rebuilt, and we are pleased to
note that the Viceroy has promised to contribute 480Z.
annually in support of this beneficent institution. The

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

501

author's experiences in Korea are not the least in-
teres.tinfj part of the book. Korea proves a most
successful mission field in the East. The annual
native contribution to the missions is estimated at
25,000/.

The quaint city of Seoul, under Japanese rule, leaves
no doubt in the minds of visitors of the thoroughness
of their governing methods as carried out in minute
detail. One of the most serious losses sustained by
the Koreans was the death of the wise Prince Ito,
their governor. It was discovered when the murderer
of the Prince was condemned to death that he was
writing a poem, and the Japanese judge with grim
humour, or Confucian regard for literature, granted
him ten days' grace in order that he might finish the
effusion.

We must now leave the reader to follow the author
through Russian Turkestan, and in connection with
this part of the route he might consult Dr. Stein's
account of his recent exploration and wonderful dis-
coveries in the Turkestan desert, and Mr. Carruthers's
recent survey in the mountain region peopled by the
Kurghiz. The author's attractive sketches add to
the value of the book. J. T.

VARI ABILITY IN 'LOWER" ORGANISMS.
Die Variabilitdt niederer Organismen. Eine deszen-
denztheoretische Studie. By Hans Pringsheim.
Pp. viii + 216. (Berlin: Julius Springer, 19 lo.)
Price 7 marks.

T^HIS book is an attempt to analyse and correlate
-•• the known facts regarding variations in certain
so-called "lower" organisms. Among these, the
Bacteria occupy the chief place, although the Fungi —
especially the Saccharomycetes — and the Protozoa are
also considered to some extent.

To anyone acquainted with the present state of the
literature of this subject, it is unnecessary to point
out the difficulties entailed in writing a book of this
sort : yet from the admirably clear and concise manner
in which the author has presented the facts, the
average reader will obtain but a very faint idea of the
large amount of patient labour which has been devoted
to the task. Perhaps no greater praise could be given
to a work of this sort — a work which is unique in
that it attempts to correlate the variability of uni-
cellular organisms with that of "higher" forms, and
thus to supply biological facts in place of the a priori
notions which are usually given regarding jthe
"lower" organisms when considered in relation to the
theory of organic evolution.

.'\s a compilation of facts, the work leaves little to
be desired. The omissions are, for the most part,
unimportant. With the author's analysis and inter-
pretation of the facts, however, we by no means
always agree : but it is impossible to discuss these
properly in a few words, as almost every paragraph
in the analytical sections contains a significant idea.
By the admirable method which the author has
adopted of relegating the literature references and
details to a separate section — thus eliminating a large
mass of facts of great, but secondary, importance from
the main body of the text — a very clear and readable
NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

statement of the facts and arguments has been
achieved.

The author begins with a brief consideration of the
significance and causes of variability in general, and
of the herltability of variable characters. It may be
noted that the term mutation is rejected, and the
variations of " lower " organisms are designated
fluctuations, when they arise from internal causes,
and adaptions (sic) or accommodations, when they
are called forth by external influences. After some
discussion of the struggle for existence in " lower "
organisms, and oT the limits within which variations
occur, the author passes to an enumeration of the
observed facts regarding variations in these forms.

As already noted, most of the facts are derived from
the Bacteria. They therefore relate chiefly to physio-
logical variations. The author describes variations in
colony formation, optimum growth temperature,
motility, spore formation, metabolism, ferment and
colour production, virulence, and a number of other
variable characters. Morphological variations — aris-
ing naturally, from innate and unknown causes, or
produced by temperature changes, poisons, &c. — are
also briefly considered : but pleomorphism is dismissed
in a few words, as the author regards it as a normal
event in the life-cycle of those forms which display
the phenomenon, and therefore properly to be
eliminated from a discussion of true variations.

The author's general conclusions naturally consti-
tute the chief feature of interest in the book. He
believes "that all the observed cases of variability in
micro-organisms may be interpreted as fluctuating
variations " {i.e. arising from unknown and innate
causes) "and functional adaptations": and further,
that " there are heritable and non-heritable fluctuating
variations in micro-organisms, just as in highly
developed animals and plants."

Finallv, the author considers the bearing of the
facts upon Weismann's view of the relation between
amphimixis and variability. From the recorded
observations on the variability of "lower" organisms,
he concludes that no reasonable grounds exist for
supposing that amphimixis causes increased variability
in the organisms possessing it, because a high degree
of variability is found in non-sexual "lower" organ-
isms which multiply by simple fission.

*' One of the chief advantages of amphimictic re-
production is the exclusion of the inheritance of
acquired characters and the enforced equalisation of
the variable characteristics of special individuals."

A detailed criticism of this important work is not
possible in the short space allotted to the present
review. We would point out, however, that our chief
personal criticism concerns the author's point of view
— implied in the title of the book, and impressing
itself upon all the author's biological ideas. We do
not regard the so-called " lower " organisms as beings
which are nearer the beginnings of life than the so-
called "higher" forms. The Protista — even the Bac-
teria— display considerable morphological differentia-
tion, and a physiological complexity which is not
" low " in any sense. We believe that a much pro-
founder analysis of fundamentals is required than that
given in this book. It is also our opinion that the

5C)2

NATXJRE

[Februairy 1 6, 191 1

non-sexual nature of unicellular organisms — tacitly
assumed by the author — must be considered in an
analysis of this sort. The majority of Protozoa pre-
sent sexual phenomena in their life-histories, and
sexual processes also occur in many yeasts. Although
we believe that the Bacteria are truly non-sexual, we
think that the possibility of amphimictic processes
occurring in this group should at least have been
considered, as a certain amount of work has already
been published in this connection.

C. Clifford Dobell.

BIOCHEMISTRY OF FATS.
Monographs on Biochemistry. Edited by Prof. R. H.
Aders Plimmer and Dr. F. G. Hopkins, F.R.S.
The Fats. By Prof. J. B. Leathes. Pp. ix+ 138.
(London : Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.) Price
45. net.

PROF. LEATHES 'S former book on the
" Problems of Metabolism " proved him to be
a writer with originality in his views and a capacity
for stating them in a lucid and convincing manner.
One therefore turned to his long-proinised monograph
on the fats with considerable interest, especially as
the subject is one to which he has devoted so much
experimental research work.

The first hundred pages are devoted to a de-
scription of the chemistry of fats and their
constituents, and the various methods for separat-
ing, identifying, and analysing them. This sec-
tion of the book is useful and necessary ; the
facts, moreover, are clearly put and well arranged.
But this laying of the foundations affords little scope
for the thinker, and no doubt could have been equally
well done by any competent chemist. The real in-
terest of the book is the superstructure built upon
this, namely, the chapter on the physiology of the fats,
and one's only regret is that it occupies only eighteen
pages. Here the author is able to display his gift of
making the dark ways of metabolism as plain as is
possible with our present knowledge, and in suggest-
ing explanations and stimulating research on the
questions which are still largely hypothetical.

One word of criticism of a quasi-adverse kind
appears to be necessary, and that relates to
what, after all, is not the most important
matter, namely, that of nomenclature. The Chemical
Society has laid down certain rules for nomen-
clature in order to ensure uniformity among
English-speaking chemists; such terminations as in,
ine, ol, ole, ase, &c., have definite meanings assigned
to them, and surely all writers should endeavour to
follow the laws put forward by the society, which
occupies the foremost place in the chemical world.
Prof. Leathes, however, speaks of lecithine, cere-
brone, nucleine, jecorine, &c., and the substance he
terms phlorrhizine is recognisable, though this spell-
ing does not occur so far as one knows in any other
English chemical book.

He has also introduced an entirely new nomen-
clature for the principal lipoids, the phosphatides being
dubbed phophoHpines, the galactosides galactolipines,
and the basic constituents of galactosides lipines.
NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

A new nomenclature is always sure to cause con-
fusion, especially among students, and so should never
be introduced without careful consideration and with
some prospect that it will at once "catch on," because
it is manifestly appropriate. Prof. Leathes has nt.
doubt very carefully considered his new terms, and
everyone will agree with him that the existing ter-
minology leaves much to be desired ; but it is very
doubtful whether his new terms are better than the
older provisional names. The chemical constitution
of most of the substances in question is still a matter
of doubt and speculation. The proper time to intro-
duce new names will be when their constitution is
fully known, and terms can then be framed which
will express their structure with accuracy. At present
Prof. Leathes has only introduced a new set of pro-
visional names, which, like the older ones, will dis-
appear when our knowledge is more exact.

W. D. H.

BIRD OBSERVATION.
Unleitung zur Beobachtung der Vogelwelt. By Dr.
Carl Zimmer. Pp. iv-l-134. (Leipzig: Quelle and
Mej'er, 1910.) Price 1.25 marks.

THE author of this work is Dr. Zimmer, keeper
of the Royal Zoological Museum in Breslau.
On the first zoological excursion he undertook with
his pupils in the university of that town (where he is
also lecturer, as well as museum custos) they fell in
with a chaffinch singing in a tree. On his demanding
from them the name of the songster, the word
"nightingale" was ventured on after a prolonged
silence ! The little episode, which indicated, to his
surprise, their lamentable lack of knowledge of the
commonest local birds, induced Dr. Zimmer to prepare
this biichlein as an introduction to ornithological
observing. In some respects it reminds one of the
section in " Hints to Travellers," issued by the Royal
Geographical Society on the same subject, though
directed to a somewhat different class of observers.
One, however, lays the book down with the somewhat
unsatisfactory feeling that it is assumed that the stu-
dent will be made into an ornithologist by following the
instructions — all of them excellent and the result of
experience — therein contained, rather than that the
observer, who must be born so, and is already, if
that be his hent, an ornithologist, in embryo, before
he is aware of it, requires proper guiding only.

Many of Dr. Zimmer's hints will assist in directin;
the young ornithologist's earlier methods, and sug-
gesting interesting lines of observation, and so will be
of considerable value. After some words of introduc-
tion, the author gives a list of helpful books on
ornithology, especially those with good illustrations,
in English as well as German. His next section
deals with the subject of excursions into " the open ''
in quest of birds in their wild state — " the study of
cage birds is a make-believe " — and the periods of the
day when they can be observed to most advantage.
The most suitable field-glasses for the purpose are
described.

The larger portion of the book discusses bird life
at the different seasons of the year, and directs atten- ^

February i6, 191 i]

'NATURE

503

tion to what should specially be observed during each
of them. In spring" to love-making, song, and nidi-
fication, in summer to incubation, nestlings, with their
succession of plumages, and in autumn and winter to
the congregating of birds in flocks, and to migration
and the migratory instincts and such like. A further
section is devoted to the added help to field observa-
tions to be obtained from the study of cage birds, and
to the protection of birds by artificial nests, and in
protected woods. The formation of collections, the
methods of preserving eggs, skins, and skeletons, the
description of the proper instruments for the purpose,
and suggestions on the making of anatomical, sys-
tematic, faunistic, and specific observations occupy the
penultimate sections. The final pages supply some
hints on bird observation abroad.

The volume is illustrated by excellent blocks, many
of them being reproductions of Kearton's well-executed
photographs. There is also a good index.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING.

(i) Electric Circuit Problems in Mines and Factories.
By E. H. Crapper. Pp. viii+159. (London: Col-
liery Guardian Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 35. 6d. net.

(2) Exercises in Electrical Engineering for the Use of
Second-year Students in Universities and Technical
Colleges. By Prof. T. Mather, F.R.S., and Prof.
G. W. O. Howe. Pp. v + 71. (London : E. Arnold,
1910.) Price IS. 6d. net.

I ) ' I ""HE publication of this little volume is very
-I- opportune. Although the matter does not
differ essentially from that found in other books on
electrical testing of circuits, the manner of presenting
the subject is admirable, and particularly well adapted
to the class of reader for which the book is intended,
namely, the colliery- or factor}- engineer. There is no
padding and unnecessary- scientific verbiage, but
directness of treatment, which must be welcome to
the busy engineer. In this sense the treatment may
be called popular; there is only little mathematics
used, and that is of an elementary character, yet there
is no sacrifice of scientific accuracy.

After a short chapter dealing with the units of
measurements we get a chapter on the determination
of insulation resistance, including tests on live systems.
Here the author might with advantage have included
Russel's and other tests on three-wire systems. The
following chapter, called "Circuit Testing," is mainly
concerned with the location of faults on cables by
bridge and potentiometric methods, the latter being
preferred by 1;he author. Then we come to the con-
struction of cables, and what the author has to say
on this subject is well worth reading.

Fmally, there are some chapters on polyphase appa-
ratus and working. The only adverse criticism which
the present reviewer has to make is as to the appear-
ance of this little book. To present so much excellent
matter in so poor a guise is not doing the author
justice. The paper is too thin and the illustrations
are not neat. They are also of varying style, some-
times to a large scale, sometimes with fine lines,
then again to a small scale, or with unnecessarily thick
NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

lines, making no distinction between lines that are
intended to represent bodily objects, and others that
are merely diagrammatic. These may seem unim-
portant matters to the reader who sits comfortably at
his well-lighted writing-table, but let him take the
book down a mine to consult it w-hile he is making
a test and he will begin to appreciate thick and non-
transparent paper, large type, and a systematic method
in illustrating electrical connections.

(2) In this little book the authors have collected
the problems and exercises set in recent years at the
Central Technical College, both qs regards class work
and examinations. All teachers know how important
exercise classes are, especially if they are conducted in
a similar manner to the ever\'day work of the practical
engineer. Now in practical work problems seldom
present themselves in the definite manner in which
they must necessarily be given as examples in the
lecture-room ; the practical problem is often involved
or obscured by side issues and part of the work of
the practical man is to disentangle it and separate
that which really is of importance from that which
is merely a small disturbing influence, or without
influence at all. To present to students exercises pre-
cisely in the same way as problems arise in practical
work is, of course, impossible, for it would make the
questions too long, but the authors have gone as far
in this direction as may reasonably be expected. The
questions are such that some preliminary considera-
tion is required on the part of the student before he
can translate the wording into mathematical form,
and that is excellent training for his future work.

The 427 questions contained in the book are
arranged in twenty-four chapters, ranging from the
elementary conception of electric circuits to machinery
and apparatus in practical use. Not all the questions
are set in such way that a numerical answer can be
given, many can only be answered in a general way,
and these are specially useful, because of forcing the
student to think instead of merely to calculate by some
rule learned in the lectures or copied out of an
engineering pocket-book. Where numerical answers
are required the solution is given in an appendix, but
the authors recommend that this appendix shall only
be consulted after the solution has been found, not
before. Some chapters would be the better for a
more extended range of problems. Thus in the
chapter on commutation we miss the subjects of influ-
ence of speed, brush contact resistance, and interpoles,
while great stress is laid on shifting of brushes. But
nowadays most machines do not require this shifting
of brushes, sparkless commutation being obtained by
interpoles, contact resistance, or some sort of com-
pensating and commutating winding. Again, in the
sections dealing with A.C. generators and trans-
formers, nothing is found on the subject of heating
or the predetermination of the inductive drop. The
nomenclature is also peculiar. The authors distin-
guish alternators as of the "copper t}-pe," "iron type,"
and '"inductor type." The last name is generally
understood, but for the first two it would be better
to retain the usual designation, namely, "without
iron " and " with iron " in the armature. These are,
however, quite minor blemishes; on the whole the

504

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

authors have given us an admirable collection of exer-
cises, and if students will take the trouble to work
through these 427 questions conscientiously they
will find it excellent training for the solution of
practical problems. Gisbert Kapp.

ASPECTS OF DARWINISM.

(1) Darwinism and Human Life. The South African
Lectures for 1909. By Prof. J. Arthur Thomson.
Pp. xii + 245. (London: Andrew Melrose, 1909.)
Price 55. net.

(2) Darwinism and the Humanities. By Prof. James
Mark Baldwin. Pp. xi+i2S. Second edition.
(London ; Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1910.)
Price 3s.

(i) pROF. J. ARTHUR THOMSON is well known
■^ as one of the ablest and most jjudicious of recent
critics of the Darwinian position. Fully appreciative
of the extraordinary value of Darwin's contribution to
evolutionary theory, he is yet ready to give an im-
partial hearing to all genuine investigators in the field
of bionomics, whether their results appear to be
favourable or adverse to the views advanced by Dar-
win. Like some other writers who strive to maintain
a candid and unbiassed attitude in the face of con-
flicting opinions, he is liable to the usual penalty of
open-mindedness ; the imputation, that is to say, of
indecision — in homely phrase of " running with the
hare and hunting with the hounds." Such an impu-
tation, if meant as a reproach, would be in Prof.
Thomson's case undeserved; if intended as a tribute
to his faculty for seeing both sides of a question, it
would be justified.

The present volume, which is a reproduction in
permanent form of a series of lectures delivered
under the auspices of the South African Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science, is a good
example of the author's skill in popular exposition.
He does not shirk difficulties, but deals with them in
a lucid and popular manner. In most respects he
may be trusted as a faithful interpreter of the views
botn of Darwin and of his successors ; here and
there, however, in our opinion, he goes somewhat
astray. A notable instance of this is his treatment
of Darwin's term, the "Struggle for Life." There
can be no reasonable doubt that the leading idea in
the mind of the originator of the phrase was com-
petition— mainly between organisms of the same kind.
Nothing is gained, and some confusion is introduced,
by enlarging the conception so as to include resist-
ance to adverse external conditions, or the strife
between carnivorous animals and their pre}'. The
evolutionary significance of these latter phases of
organic existence lies in the fact that they necessitate
competition, whether active or passive, and conse-
quent selection, between generally similar individuals
exposed to their influence. Here, in our opinion,
Weismann, Haeckel, and Ray Lankester are right,
and the author of " Darwinism and Human Life " is
wrong.

On the question of the transmissibility of acquired
characters or "somatic modifications," Prof. Thom-
son takes- the line (and indeed he could scarcely do
NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

otherwise) that " we do not know of any clear
case which would at present warrant the assertion
that a somatic modification is ever transmitted from
parent tc offspring." At the same time he fully recog-
nises that these somatic modifications are very common,
that they are of much individual importance, that they
may have an indirect influence through the body on
the offspring, and, in short, may exercise an indirect
control over evolution in several ways. But he rightly
denies that evidence exists of their influencing the
germ-plasm in a Specific or representative manner.
That the germ-plasm can in certain cases be per-
manently altered by external conditions artificially
induced was surmised many years ago by Weismann
(for Chrysophanus phlaeas), and shown by Fischer (in
Chelonia caja). The same fact has now been demon-
strated on an elaborate scale by the careful experi-
ments of Tower on Leptinotarsa. But it is hardly
necessary to point out that these results go no way
towards proving the " Lamarckian " contention.

Not the least interesting passages of Prof. Thom-
son's book are those in which he deals with the
relation of Darwinism to social and political ques-
tions. But the bearing of the doctrine of natural
selection on human affairs in the widest sense re-
ceives a still more thorough and extended treatment
in Prof. Mark Baldwin's volume, entitled "Darwin
and the Humanities," of which a second edition
has lately been published (2). The special value
of Prof. Baldwin's contribution to Darwinian
literature lies in the fact that he is not
primarily a biologist with an interest in philosophy,
but a philosopher who seeks in biological data the
suggestion and justification of his philosophical
method. Hence the importance of his conviction,
reiterated in the course of the present and other
treatises, that "natural selection is in principle the
universal law of genetic organisation and progress in
nature — human nature no less than physical nature."
This, he affirms,

"Is the conclusion to which the lines of evidence we
now have distinctly point ; and while this has some-
what the appearance of a forecast, it is one of those
reasonable forecasts which give life and interest to the
progress of science and philosophy alike."

The application of this view to the problems of
psychology, the social sciences, ethics, logic, episte-
mology, philosophy, and religion, is the object of the
present work, which, though it is in the author's
words "no more than an outline or sketch," yet
succeeds in conveying in a comprehensive and effective
manner the suggestion of a philosophic method in
reasonable harmony with scientific fact^ and values.

A characteristic and consistent feature of Prof.
Baldwin's conception of Darwinian theory is the
emphasis that he lays on the psycho-physical char-
acter of the material presented to the operation of
natural selection. Bound up with this is the recog-
nition of mental plasticity, or, to use Sir E. Ray
Lankester's term, " educability," as an all-important
factor in progressive development. One outcome of
the view here spoken of is the rather unfortunately
named principle of "organic selection" — a principle
incidentally recognised, as the author shows, by

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

505

I ).ir\vin himself, though it was reserved for later inves-
lii^^ators to discover how powerfully it reinforced the
p distinctively Darwinian doctrine against Lamarckian
attack.

Throughout Prof. Baldwin's work we find that his
vivid realisation of the dominant fact of adaptation
keeps him faithful to Darwinian standards.

"It is well," he says, "to cast about for other
principles — to work out Vitalism, Mendelism, Muta-
tionism, &c. — in those sciences which do not have to
deal with the problem of adaptation, or of the accom-
modation of the organism through its external char-
acters. But wherever the question arises of the rela-
tion of organisms inter se, and to the environing
conditions of their life, the foregoing \i.e. variation,
accommodation, selection] are not only the fruitful
principles, they are the only principles we are able to
consider at all."

F. A. D.

OVR BOOK SHELF.

The Manuring of Market-Garden Crops. By Dr. B.
Dyer and F. W. E. Shrivell. New edition. Pp.
144. (London : Vinton and Co., Ltd., igio.)
Price 15.

^L\RKET-GARDE^• crops play a considerable part in the
agriculture of districts near to towns, especially on
light soils in not too high or exposed a situation.
Formerly the scheme of management was fairlv
straightforward : the grower sent in his vegetables in
carts to the early markets, sold them, and reloaded
his carts with dung from the town stables with which
to fertilise the next crop. But with the introduction
of the motor omnibus, the motor lorry and car, and
the electric tram, the supply of town dung has fallen
off, so that the grower has less available and has
also to pay more for it. Increasing competition
from abroad has forced down the price of his pro-
duce, and has placed him in the unpleasant position
of seeing his income fall while his expenses have in-
creased. In order to meet the position he has turned
his attention to artificial manures, and there is every
indication that they will cheapen the cost of produc-
tion.

Although a large number of experiments have been
made to show the effect of artificial manures on farm
crops, few, if any, had been made with market-
garden crops until recently. Dr. Dyer and Mr.
Shrivell have for the past sixteen years been making
trials at Hadlow, the cost of which is borne by the
Permanent Nitrate Committee, and have summarised
their results in the little volume before us. Practically
all the crops in ordinary cultivation are grown here,
and as each is the subject of at least half a dozen
trials, the number of plots is very considerable. At
no other place in the country, so far as the writer is
aware, are so many trials of market-garden crops
attempted, and this furnishes the most extensive
demonstration we have of what artificial manures will
do in this particular direction.

The plots are intended solely as demonstrations ;
they do not appear to be duplicated, and no deter-
mination seems to have been made of the magnitude
of the experimental error. Hence the results have no
precise quantitative sigrnificance, nor perhaps was it
meant they should. Their chief value is to show the
grower that he is not entirely dependent on town
dung, but can use a mixture of artificial manures
with smaller quantities of dung than hitherto, and
can get as good a crop at less cost.

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

Guide to the Crustacea, Arachnida, Onychophora and
Myriopoda exhibited in the Department of Zoology,
British Museum (Natural History). Pp. 133 + 90
illustrations. (London : Printed by order of the
Trustees of the British Museum, 1910.) Price is.
This guide admirably fulfils its functions ; it is written
i.i a clear style, and indicates tersely the main points
of interest associated with the chief families and
genera. The principal characters of each subdivision
—class, order, tribe, family — are concisely stated, and
those of its members are singled out for mention
which most aptly illustrate points in morphology or
distribution, or show some striking habit. The sec-
tion on the Crustacea opens with a short account of
the lobster — its external features and appendages,
some of its internal organs, its development, moult-
ing, and the asymmetry of its chelae, following which
are short notes on modifications caused by parasites
and on adaptation to environment.

The systematic account of the Crustacea contains
a large number of interesting references to morpho-
logical and distributional points, which make it valu-
able apart from the special purpose for which it was
prepared. To give two instances — (i) the formation
Oi a respirator}- siphon by apposition of the antennules
in the Albuneidae and of the antennae in Corystes,
and (2) the appearance of Apus in Scotland in 1907,
which is ascribed to the introduction of the eggs,
perhaps on the feet of birds, from the continent.
The Arachnida (including Limulus and the Eun.-
pterines) and Myriopoda are dealt with in a similarly
interesting manner, and short notes are added on the
Trilobita, Pycnogonida, Pentastomida, and Onych-
ophora. A little more space might well have been
devoted to the Ixodidae in view of their great import-
ance in connection with the spread of disease in man
and animals. The figures, many of which are new,
are excellent and well support the text.

Life and Hahit. By Samuel Butler. New edition,
with author's addenda. Pp. x + 310. (London :
A. C. Fifield, 1910.) Price 55. net.
Published in 1878, this was the first — and the most
important — of Butler's writings on evolution. The
present volume is practically a re-issue of the original
edition, though a few hitherto unpublished appendices
have been added.

The central point of Butler's system — that heredity
is memory — has been alluded to in our recent notice
of the reprint of his later work, " Unconscious
Memory " ; and we may pass it over with the remind-
ing remark that automatic action proves former prac-
tice in a pianist or knitter, therefore the apparently
unpractised but perfect pecking of a newly-hatched
chick proves that the chick has done it before (when
it existed in the bodies of its parents) and now remem-
bers how to do it again. This, then, is the point at
which Butler continually hammers, and it brings up
difficult and humorous questions, e.g. the question
of personal identity. If a person at eighty is legiti-
mately regarded as the same person as he was when
he was an embryo, we cannot tell where to stop chas-
ing him back, so to speak, for he is as much the
impregnate ovum as he is the fcetus, and he is as
much his parents, or part of them, as he is the ovum.
The upshot is that all animal and vegetable life must
be regarded as "nothing but one single creature, of
which the component members are but, as it were,
blood corpuscles or individual cells; life being a sort
of leaven, which, if once introduced into the world,
will leaven it altogether."
; Butler was somewhat of a dilettante, and he admits,
' with his usual whimsicalitv, that he did not at first
I believe in his own theorv ! — that he onlv believed in

5o6

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i _

it when he gradually saw how astonishingly well it
did fit the facts. But he was certainly serious, beneath
his brilliant paradoxes; and, though a pariah in his
own day, he is now recognised as a true if somewhat
wayward and satirical genius.

Stars shown to the Children. By Ellison Hawks.

Pp. xii+ 119 + 49 plates. (London and Edinburgh:

T. C. and E. C. Jack, n.d.) Price 25. 6d. net.
To give a clear, comprehensive insight into present-
day astronomy, in the " Shown to the Children "
series, was no light task, but in doing it Mr. Hawks
has approached nearly the ideal. To children " stars "
implies every extra-terrestrial orb, save the sun and
moon, and Mr. Hawks exhibits his ability to reach
the child even in his title.

Thus the first twelve chapters describe the pheno-
mena of the solar system, and very brief chapters they
are. Yet the juvenile reader will become acquainted
with practically all the broad principles of our know-
ledge concerning the sun, moons, and planets, and
will find in the sky a new and inexhaustible interest.

Nor can any important omission be pointed out in
the eight pages dealing with comets, yet the instruc-
tion is so interwoven with interesting " story " that
it is sure to be eagerlv assimilated. " Shooting stars,"
in three pages, should lead to many a night's watch,
and produce a number of recruits for the still too
small army of meteor observers : the page or two
concerning the Green Flash and the Northern Lights
will probably not prove so fruitful.

The stars themselves occupy seven chapters, thirty-
three pages, and only the most striking constellations
are described and drawn ; but the text is so replete
with interest and star-lore that the intelligent youth
will find himself forced to fill in the details. The
final chapters deal with the nebulae, the Milky Way,
and the appurtenances of an observatory, and should
complete the feeling of teing "at home " in the young
recruit.

The forty-nine excellent illustrations will of them-
selves command the intelligent interest of most
children. In one or two places it would appear that
an effort has been made to m.eet the child, e.g. on
plate xxxiv. "The Mightv Hunter" need not have
been drawn as the pantomimic " Bowd Slasher," and
his belt should have been properly directed ; but with
so much to commend, these blemishes are relatively
few and insignificant. W. E. R.

A Treatise on Electro-Metallurgy : Embracing the
Application of Electrolysis to the Plating, De-
positing, Smelting, and Refining of Various Metals,
and to the Reproduction of Printing Surfaces and
Art-work, etc. By W. G. McMillan. Third edition,
revised and enlarged. Revised by W. R. Cooper.
Pp. xv + 425. (London: Charles Griffm and Co.,
Ltd., 1910.) Price 12s. 6d. net.

The work of revising the excellent treatise of the late
Mr. W. G. McMillan has, on the whole, been admir-
ably done by Mr. Cooper, although there still remain
a few slight errors in the body of the work which
might have been corrected. For example, it is mani-
festly an error to recommend for nickel deposition a
solution of 8 pounds of nickel ammonium sulphate
per gallon (p. 220). Some of the recent develop-
ments in the practice of electroplating might have
been given more attention, such as electrolytic
methods of cleaning which of late years seem to have
corne into favour ; and the important uses of the sand
blast are still, as in former editions, almost ignored.
It is, however, impossible to deal adequately within
the limits of a volume of reasonable size, with all the
aspects of so wide a subiect. and the general excell-
NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

ence of the treatise in its revised and enlarged form
elicits warm approval.

The section devoted to electrolytic refining is much,
extended, and a very good summary on the smeltir^gl
of iron ores and the manufacture and refining of steel
by electrical means is a new feature in this edition.
There 'are a considerable number of useful tables given
as addenda, and chapter xx. consists of a convenient
glossary of substances commonly employed in electro-
metallurgy, with their more important properties, but^
the melting points of the metals might have been
revised in the light of the great amount of laborious,
and excellent recent work done on these, such a
standard temperature as silver 961° C. being given
as 1740° F. (949° C), and the ancient myth of anti-
mony at 800° F. (427° C.) instead of 631° C.

The book must, however, be considered as a
standard one on the subject, essential alike to students
and practical electrometallurgists.

A. McWlLLIAM.

Diptera Danica. Genera and Species of Flies

hitherto found in Denmark. By W. Lundbeck.

Part iii., Empididae. Pp. 329. (Copenhagen ;

G. E. C. Gad; London : W. Wesley and Son, 1910.]

Price 136-. 6d. net.
The family treated in the present instalment of the
"Diptera Danica" is one of considerable extent,
numbering 675 palasoarctic and 440 North American
species, eleven being recorded as common to both-
regions. The number of sjaecies described in the
present volume is 164 (Mr. E. E. Austin estimates
the number of British species as approximately 215),
divided into five subfamilies and twenty-seven genera.
The larvae live in damp ground, under leaves, or irr
mud, or in decaying wood, and are believed to be
carnivorous, like the perfect insects, the habits of
which are very curious, as recorded on pp. Sj^ and 84.
Sometimes the male catches an insect and presents it
to the female, who sucks it during their union, and
then drops it ; and in other cases the male presents the
female with a small dead fly enveloped in a kind of
balloon of froth.

* The long and detailed descriptions of genera and
species appear to be very carefully written, and the
141 text-illustrations of antennae, wings, &'c., are ex-
cellent. The book deserves the patronage of all British
entomologists who are interested in Diptera, especially
as it is written and printed in English for their
benefit. Although there are now more entomologists-
working at Diptera at present, the order has been less-
studied in Britain than any other, and we have not
yet a sufficiency of works dealing with many large
and important groups comprised in it.

Elementary Physiography. By Prof. R. D. Salisbury.

Pp. xi + 359. (New York: H. Holfand Co., n.d.)
This work is a reduction and simplification of the
author's larger book for schools, which was reviewed
in Nature, vol. Ixxxii., p. 335. It is expressly in-
tended for schools that can give only half a year to the-
subject. The numerous illustrations retained will-
attract attention, and those dealing with types of
glaciers and their products are unusually varied and
effective. The Salton Sea (p. 96) has been utilised
as an example of delta-flooding, and the buckling of
tram-lines in San Francisco in 1906 is shown on p.
197. There is in all American work a desire to bring
the present activity of the earth home to the general
reader. The same spirit is seen in Prof Walther's
crusade on behalf of geology in Germany; and there
are signs that the next generation will not grow up
entirely ignorant of this strange rotating ball oiT
which we live.

With the aid of maps and pictures from the British

February i6, 191 ij

NATURE

507

.>les, Prof. Salisbury's present book could be utilised
in English schools. Many geographical features can
be best illustrated from the open lands of the United
States; but the teacher will find in this volume a fair
number of references to European countries. We can
thus imagine a happy combination in a school course
of Salisbury's Elementar\- Physiography " and, say,
A, M. Davies's " Geography of the British Isles."

G. A. J. C.

Mentally Deficient Children, their Treatment and
Training. By Dr. G. E. Shuttleworth and Dr.
W. A. Potts. Third edition. Pp. xviii + 236.
(London: H. K. Lewis; Philadelphia: Blakiston's
Son and Co., 1910.) Price 55. net.

The third edition of Dr. Shuttleworth 's well-known
and excellent handbook has the advantage of an up-
to-date revision by Dr. Potts. It is not too much to
;say that Dr. Shuttleworth 's small book prepared the
way for the recent Roval Commission on Care and
^Control of the Feeble-Minded. The main conclusions
of that commission are dealt with in the present
edition. Many details from actual special schools are
^iven. The book is indispensable to those engaged
in the management and supervision of feeble-minded
children. The eugenics of the feeble-minded are
lightly touched upon ; but, in a practical handbook,
one looks rather for direction than for theory. The
illustrations have been increased in number, the biblio-
graphy, already copious, has been substantially added
to. There is a good index, both of subjects and of
authors.

The volume as a whole is so well-balanced that
it forms an excellent handbook to the studv of this
whole department, which, within the last five years,
has grown enormously in extent and in interest.

The Floiver Book : Being a Procession of Flowers,
passing from Meadow and Coppice through the
Hedge to the Garden, Pool, and Herb-Patch. Bv
Constance S. Armfitld. Pp. ix+153; illustrated.
(London : Chatto and Windus, 1910.) Price 75. 6d.
net.

It would be difficult to find a more direct contrast to
the formal method of nature teaching than the
imaginative yet fairly accurate presentation of epi-
sodes in plant-life charmingly depicted in the pages
of '"The Flower Book." The elements and flowers are
endowed with voices to express the tale of their diffi-
culties, their ambitions, and their victories. The
distress of the stock seedlings when transplanted, the
aspirations of the snowdrops and the buttercups, the
spread of the pinks in the border, should appeal to
the imagination of any bright child, and as natural
reasons for the various incidents are cleverly worked
into the arguments it may be expected that grains of
knowledge will be instilled. One item calls for
immediate refutation, that is, the suggested origin of
the water plantain from the common plantain. There
is a general theme linking together the five sections
noted in the title. The illustrations are not an entire
success, as some suffer from a want of proportion, but
grace and truth are combined in the pictures of the
rose, the bluebell, and the iris.

Hygiene and Public Health. By L. C. Parkes and
H. R. Kenwood. Pp. xi + 691. (London: H. K.
Lewis, 191 1.) Price 125. 6d. net.
In its original form, the first edition of this book was
reviewed at length in our issue of Januar}- 30, 1890
^vol. xli, p. 290). The present is the fourth edition
under the conjoint authorship; it has been carefully
revised, and new matter has been introduced where
necessary to bring the treatise up to date.

NO. 2155, VOL. 85J

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.]

Origin of Incense.

It is natural that incense should interest a botanist. For
at least 4000 years mankind has used for this purpose the
product of several species of Boswellia, natives of S.E.
Arabia and Somaiiland (the land of Punt). The English
name Frankincense, borrowed from old French, sub-
stantially means incense par excellence, and represents the
fact that, except amongst the Hebrews, it has been the
substance exclusively employed in ritual. At last Epiphany
frankincense and myrrh, in accordance with custom, were
offered at the altar of the Chapel Royal, St. James's, on
behalf of the King.

The use of incense might have originated in t\co different
ways, and it is not perhaps always easy to distinguish
these developments. Fumigation with fragrant or pungent
herbs would easily arise as a sanitary expedient. The
Greeks called this Ovfiiaua, which connects with fumus;
the plant name, thyme, derives from the same root. This,
as there is evidence it did, would develop into the notion
of ceremonial purification and then of consecration and
honour. For such purposes it would be natural to burn
frankincense on a fire-pan or censer. This was the
Egyptian practice. Mr. Arthur Evans has discovered In
Crete censers of Minoan age with lumps of some unde-
termined incense still adhering. Much of the use of incense
in modern religious ceremonies has only a sanitary signific-
ance. Thus, at the coronation of George III., an official
held a fire-pan on which frankincense was burnt, and this
appears to have had no ritualistic meaning. It was not
until the seventh century b.c. that frankincense was ex-
ported to Mediterranean countries. It doubtless carried
with it is religious significance, and from this period dates
the use of incense both by the Greeks and the Hebrews.
That incense was of exotic origin is shown by the fact that
the Hebrews called it lebonah and the Greeks \i8avor6s,
names which, like the Arabic lubdn, probably all derive
from some local name at the place of production.

The sacrificial use of incense developed gfradually and
from a different source from the sanitary. Sacrifices were
primarily offerings of food to the gods. It was a later
development to burn them so as to present them in an
ethereal form. Starting from the idea that the gods were
to be propitiated through the sense of smell, frankincense
was sprinkled on the burnt offerings to make them more
fragrant. The latest refinement was to burn incense on
the altar alone. The former the Greeks called \i$av»eThf
iwiTtOfvat, the latter XiBavosrhv Ka9ayi(€iv. Aristophanes
in the fifth century B.C. carefully distinguishes (Clouds, 426)
the three sacrificial acts : the sacrifice proper {Ovos), the
libatio'n, and the addition of incense.

The use of frankincense spread to Italy, where it was
used much .as in Greece. The Romans called it tus, which
is the equivalent of duo^. The substitution of the letter r
in the oblique case, tus, tur-is, shows that 6v0s could not
have found its way into Latin later than the fourth century
B.C. In Greece Ovos was always a sacrificial offering. Mr.
Christopher Cookson, who has taken much kind trouble
for me in this matter, informs me : " I can find no passage
where Odos need mean ' incense ' and many where it
cannot." Now, the Romans had their own " word for a
sacrifice, sacrificium. When they began to use frank-
incense, instead of borrowing its Greek name, they used
tus, the latinised form of 9vot, substituting the name of the
whole rite for that of a mere incident in it.

The confusion so produced has existed for some 2000
years. There have been several notices in Nature of the
so-called " Incense Altar of .Aphrodite " at Papfios. This
is apparently based on the passage in the Odyssey (8.363),
where Homer calls it fivfihs duitfts. But this is merely
one of his common forms. He uses it of the altar of
Jupiter on Mount Ida (Iliad, 8, 48), and (II., 23, 148)
of the altar of Sperchius. on which Peleus had vowed
that Achilles should offer fifty rams. It is quite true that
Otrfins has been translated "smelling with incense"; it

5oS

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

really has its obvious and simple meaning of " reeking
with sacrifice." Virgil was, however, misled, and para-

Shrases the. passage in the Odyssey (^neid, i, 416) with
is usual amplification into: " centumque Sabaeo)ture
calent arae. " But it is evident that this was not accepted
at the time. The elder Pliny more than once discusses
the question and asserts emphatically " Iliacis tempori-
bus . . . nee ture supplicabatur " (N. H., 13, i, i). What-
ever, therefore, may have been the development in later
times, the Homeric altar of Aphrodite at Paphos could not
have been an incense-altar. It is true that it has been
contended that sacrifices of blood were not offered to
Aphrodite. But this is not sustainable. Victims were
offered to the Paphian Venus in the time of Horace.

W. T. Thiselton-Dyer.

The Electromotive Foice of Standard Cells.

At the International Conference on Electrical Units and
Standards, held in London in October, 1908, it was
decided that the electromotive force of the Weston normal
cell should be taken provisionally as 10184 international
volts at 20° C. until further measurements, made under
the auspices of the International Scientific Committee on
Electrical Units and Standards, should enable a more
accurate value to be assigned.

Measurements of a high degree of accuracy have now
been completed, and show that the Weston normal cell
made according to approved specifications has an electro-
motive force of 1-0183 international volts at 20° C, i.e.
I part in 10,000 less than the provisional value assigned
in 1908.

In consequence, the International Committee has passed
a resolution expressing the desire that from January i,
and until a further recommendation, electrical standardisa-
tion in the standardising laboratories of all countries should
be based on the value of 10183 international volts for the
electromotive force of the Weston normal cell at 20° C.

Accordingly, all standard cells tested at the National
Physical Laboratory will be compared \yith Weston normal
cells of which the electromotive forces have been deter-
mined by direct measurement to be 10183 international
volts at 20° C. These latter cells, together with new
ones, will from time to time be remeasured in terms of the
international ohm and the international ampere in order to
ensure a constant standard of voltage.

It was assumed in the National Physical Laboratory
certificates for 1909 and 19 10 that the electromotive force'
of the Weston normal cell was 1-0184 international volts
at 20" C, and therefore these certificates may be corrected
for the change now introduced by subtracting i part in
10,000 of the value stated on the certificate.

R. T. Glazebrook (Director).

The National Physical Laboratory, January i.

Klaatsch's Theory of the Descent of Man.

TitERE appeared in Nature of December 15, 1910,
p. 206, a letter from Prof. Keith on Klaatsch's theory of
the descent of man. As this letter is likely to give great
discredit to the work of Klaatsch, in this country at
least, I find myself, as a pupil of Klaatsch, justified in
saying a few words more about it.

Klaatsch gives an account of his theory in a paper,
entitled " Die Aurignac-Rasse und ihre Stellung im
Stammbaum der Menschheit," in the Zeitschr. f. Ethno-
iogie, 19 10, Heft 3 and 4. After a short description of the
skeleton of the .\urignac man, described by O. Hauser and
himself in detail before, and after some general remarks
about morphological methods in comparing the fossil man
with anthropoid apes, Klaatsch goes on to consider in
some detail the comparative anatomy of the humerus,
ulna, and radius, and the skeleton of the hind limb of
Aurignac and Neanderthal man, orang-utan, and gorilla.
As Prof. Keith in his letter says that this basis is " flimsy
in the extreme," we may very well examine it again. In
the skull, the resemblance between Neanderthal man and
gorilla (called the N.-G. group), on one hand, and the
Aurignac man and orang (called the A.-O. group) on the
other, is hardly visible at all, only in the supraorbital ridges
there are still some traces of it. ' But the resemblances are

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

very well marked in the skeleton of the limbs, especially of
the arms. A superficial glance will show that the bones
of A.-O. are slender, whilst those of the N.-G. ?re
" clumsy." But this is no basis for exact scientific v
search ; the important point is that there are differeiu
in morphological details. The caput humeri, which artit t.
lates with the scapula, has a greater longitudinal diamet< r
in A.-O. and a greater transversal diameter in N.-(>.
There is a sulcus intertubercularis between two ridg» s
for the insertion of muscles. This runs straight down
in A.-O., whilst it is somewhat 8-shaped in N.-G. At
the distal end, N.-G. shows a much greater mesial epicon-
dyle, so that there results a sort of incision (incisura
supracondyloidea, Kl.). In -A.-O. the contour of the bone
is much straighter ; there is no sharp corner at all.

Very interesting differences are found at the proximal
end of the ulna, but as this especially is a point where
very detailed descriptions and technical terms are necessary*
I shall pass at once to the radius. The shaft of that bone
— the same holds good in both groups for the ulna — is
almost straight in A.-O., but is distinctly bent in N.-G.*
so that the proximal and distal parts stand to each other
in a well-marked angle. In the lower limbs the differ-
ences are not so well marked, although there, too, they
exist. Differences are observed in the position of the
trochanter major and minor, in the formation of the
posterior intertrochanteric lines, in the angle between the
collum (neck) and the shaft of the femur, in the shape of
the malleolus and of the caput of the tibia, and so on. But
they are not so striking as in the upper limb. This is
quite clear, because the hind-limbs in man are highly
specialised for the purpose of supporting the body, so that
the influence of function is here much stronger than it is-
in the arms, which are free, and not always submitted
to the same mechanical influences. So the differences are
more hidden. But they can be seen by everyone whO'
takes the care of studying the bones thoroughly.

I hope that even this short glance at the facts will have
shown to the reader that there are two distinct groups of
fossil man, the Aurignac man and the Neanderthal man,
the Aurignac man resembling in many points the orang,
the Neanderthal man resembling the gorilla.

In the first part of his paper Klaatsch only gives these
" rather dry morphological facts." In the second part
he proceeds to offer an explanation of these facts. As
there is a close resemblance in morphological details
of the Neanderthal race and the gorilla, and of the
.'Vurignac race and the orang, he thinks that there must be
a real blood-relation between the respective races. Klaatsch's
idea, then, as to the descent of man is this. There was,
originally, one group of primates, " propithecanthropoi,"
which, according to Klaatsch, resembled man more closely
than any other now living primate. These gave origin,
among others, to one group, out of which sprang the
Neanderthal race and the gorilla. The Neanderthal man
followed an upwards line in his development, the gorilla
sank back, having become specialised in one direction, and
by this being unfit for higher development. Klaatsch r*'-
gards the gorilla and the other man-like apes as " failf 'f
experiments of man " (misslungene Versuche zur defir
tiven Menschwerdung).

In much the same way there sprang up another grou:
which developed into the Aurignac race and into v
orang. So " the Aurignac man did not spring up fro:
the Orang, just as the Neanderthal man did not sprir^
up from the Gorilla " (p. 568, loc. cit.). How these tv
races of mankind reached Europe, Klaatsch tries to shov
in a sort of scheme, which has been published in Natlri
already (November 24, 1910). The Neanderthal race cam'
via Africa and Gibraltar, whilst the Aurignac race cam
via Asia.

Further on, Klaatsch thinks it possible that there n;
races who are related in the same way to the chimpanz
and to the gibbon. Other suggestions Prof. Klaatsi
makes about the existing races and the other prehistor
races. According to him, the Galley Hill and " Briinn I
skull belong almost certainly to the Aurignac race. ver\
likely also Chancelade and Engis ! As to the existin-
races, Klaatsch thinks to have found a relation of negro<
to the Neanderthal race. Otherwise his suggestions at
very hypothetical, and only meant as a working hyp'
thesis, so that it is no good now to consider them closel;

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

509

We first have to examine the theory itself thoroughly, and
llvn draw the conclusions.

Now, when Prof. Keith states that Klaatsch speaks
about a descent of man via the gorilla or via the orang,
this is wrong, as I hope to have made clear by the quota-
tions of Klaatsch *s paper. But when Prof. Keith speaks
about " convergence phenomena," to which has to be
ascribed a great deal, he no doubt touches the point most
exposed to criticism. It is, indeed, very difficult to believe
in two races, so much one like the other as man is to
man, and yet so unlike in some minute morphological
detail, as Aurignac is to Neanderthal, without supposing
that they once were very much more unlike, and that they
afterwards got more alike again by convergence. But this
difficulty of Klaatsch 's theory must never make us forget
the facts. The problem is this. There are two distinct
** races " each possessing distinct morphological characters,
the one resembling the orang in these characters, the other
the gorilla. How can these differences and likenesses be
explained? It is certainly a very difficult problem, but a
verj- interesting one too, that is well worthy to receive
serious consideration. In any case, we must be grateful
to Klaatsch for having directed attention to this fact, and
for offering us an explanation — even if the latter should be
only a preliminary one. Gerh.\rdt v. Bonin.

Breslau, January 28.

While admiring the manner in which Herr Bonin
states the case for his Professor, I do not think he has
produced any evidence that requires me to alter my state-
ment that Prof. Klaatsch 's latest theory of the origin of
human races is founded on a " flimsy " basis. To under-
stand the nature of Prof. Klaatsch 's " pan-anthropoid "
theory of the origin of human races, it is necessary to
know the circumstances which led him to formulate it.
He found that the recently discovered Quaternary in-
dividual, which he has dignified with the name of Homo
aurignacensis hauseri — quite a modern type of man —
followed closely in point of time the individual he described
in 1908 as H. moustieriensis hauseri — a man of the
Neanderthal type. To account for the manner in which
these two quickly succeeding types differ, Prof. Klaatsch
propounded the " theon,- " that the Aurignac man is de-
scended from the orang stock, while the Neanderthal has
arisen in the gorilla line of descent. Now the characters
which separate those two types are exactly of the same
nature and of the same degree as separate a blood-horse
from a Shire stallion. Ever}' one of the points cited to
differentiate these two types of men are dependent on the
degree of muscular development. Bones, especially limb
bones, react sensitively to the muscles which move them ;
muscular impressions and processes for the insertion of
muscles vary from individual to individual, and from their
nature are most untrustworthy for the purpose of tracing
affinities.

There is thus, in my opinion, no need to have recourse
to such a theory as Prof. Klaatsch has formulated to
explain the contrasted characters of the Aurignac and
Neanderthal types of men ; the problem is of the same
nature as meets us when we seek to explain contrasted
breeds among dogs and horses. Further, from a study of
acromegaly, that most interesting disease of growth which
I have had opportunities of examining of late, it is quite
aj^arent that an alteration in the action of the glands of
internal secretion — especially of the pituitary — will change
in the course of a few years a man of the Aurignac type
into one of the Neanderthal type — not an exact replica, but

Bnear enough to leave no doubt that the characters of acro-
DMgalics and of Neanderthal men are of the same nature.
"~ Prof. Klaatsch also realised that if his theory were
applicable to two races of men, it should hold true for
all. Hence his suggestion that some may have arisen
from the chimpanzee and some from the gibbon. His
theory — a " pan-anthropoid " theory — of the origin of
human races is designed to account for the various features
which characterise and differentiate human races.

To those acquainted with the great mass of evidence
which has accumulated in recent years relating to the
structure, development, and habits of living and extinct
anthropoids, Prof. Klaatsch 's theory must appear
alt<^ether untenable. From 1890 to 1900 I devoted myself
to an investigation of the Higher Primates, making com-
NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

plete dissections of more than eighty animals, and
collected all descriptions which had been published at the
close of that period, with the intention of tracing, from
the mass of facts thus collected, the evolutionary history,
not only of man, but of each of the anthropoids. -\n
extensive analysis was made of the structural characters
of each of these animal forms. Characters are found in
them which also occur in lemurs, in South American
monkeys, in old-world monkeys. Some characters are
common to all the members of the Higher Primates
(man, gorilla, chimpanzee, orang, and gibbon) ; others
which are common to the Giant Primates (man,
gorilla, chimpanzee, and orang) ; others which are found
only in man, the gorilla, and chimpanzee ; and then a
considerable number which are peculiar to each member,
and may be regarded as late acquisitions.

The characters I relied on were not such as Prof.
Klaatsch has used — the highly variable muscular impres-
sions on bones — they were points such as, I believe, most
anatomists would regard as of morphological worth.
Publication of my results was suspended owing to several
circumstances ; and I do not regret the fact, because since
then much additional evidence has been discovered, such
as the affinities shown by blood tests and by susceptibility
to disease, and much of an anatomical and physiological
nature, which I hope to gather and systematise. Mean-
time, I merely state briefly the results reached more than
ten years ago. Whatever theory is propounded of the
origin of the several members of the Higher Primates
must account for their structural and functional characters.
It is certain that Prof. Klaatsch 's theor>' is altogether
inapplicable for their explanation.

Table giving an Analysis of the Structural Characters
of the Higher Primates.

Nature and

A

B

c

D

E

Character

Man

GorilU

Chimpanzee

Orang

Gibboa

Peculiar to the genus

(generic characters)

312 .

75

... 109 ..

113

116

Common to A, B, C...

93 •

93

93 ••

—

B, C ...

.. 78

... 78 .

—

—

A and C.

93 .

...93 .

—

—

„ A and B.

87 .

r 87

—

A.B.CD

112

.. 130

133

130

—

,, AandD..

56

56

—

C and D..

—

."■ 65 .■.'

65

—

B and D..

—

■ 73

7i

—

A, B, C,

D, E

93 •

.. 132

... 132 ..

132

.. 133

Common to E and A,

B, C, or D

84

.. 56

93 ..

74

—

Common to Old World

Monkeys and A, B,

C, D, or E

53 •

1+4

172

213

323

Common to New World

Monkeys and A, B,

C, D, or E

60 .

33

32

38

T«

Lemuroid Characters.

17 .

4t

37 ••

50

50

1065 1004 9S0 949 1C02

The manner in which I seek to explain the distribution
of these characters is the following. The giblxKi is re-
garded as the representative of the basal stock of the
Higher Primates, and this Hjlobatian stock is looked
uport as an offshoot of a basal stock (late Eocene prob-
ably), which also gave rise to the Old and New World
monkeys. The distribution of characters of these groups
is thus explained in the modern representatives of the
Higher Primates. The evolution of the Hylobatian form
marks the first and most important stage in that process
which led to man's upright posture. The body of the
gibbon shows all the adaptations for an upright posture
(perhaps downright would be a better term) in which the
weight is more suspended from the arms than supported
by the legs.

The next stage in the evolution of the Higher Primates
is clearly the appearance of a form which, compared to
all that had gone before, may be regarded as a " giant "
stock. There can be no doubt the Giant Primates (man,
gorilla, chimpanzee, and orang) arose from the Hylobatian
stock, and that Dryopithecus (a Miocene form) is a very
good example of an early Giant Primate. The first stage
in the evolution of the Higher Primates is the acquisition
of a new posture, the second the acquisition of a new
stature. The orang does not possess a number of
characters which are held in common by man, the gorilla,
and chimpanzee, and I therefore suppose that the orang

5ICJ.

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

was the first to break off from the basal stem of the Giant
Primates. The orang, ahhough it has the giant size, has
retained the brachiating or arm locomotion of the gibbon
stock, his thumb and great toe have become vestiges ;
the process of shortening of the spinal column, which set
in during the Hylobatian stage, has progressed, so that
now the lower limbs are attached to the body one or two
vertebrae higher than in man, the gorilla, and chfmpanzee.
It has retained a primitive arrangement of the air cavi-
ties of the nose and face, whereas man, the gorilla, and
chimpanzee have the same elaborate arrangement of cells
which differentiate them from all other primates.

The orang 's lower limbs are in a state of retrogression —
as opposite to human limbs as could be. The Aurignac
man, which Prof. Klaatsch assigns to the orang stock, is
remarkable for his narrow and long head, whereas the
orarfg's head is the most rounded of all primate forms.
The resemblance between the humerus of the Aurignac
man and that of the orang is fanciful, in my opinion.
If we may judge the basal orang stock from its modern
descendants, the one thing we can be certain of is that
it is the last of the Higher Primate stocks which is likely
to give rise to the human race. On the other hand, the
chimpanzee, and especially the gorilla, are evidently
the descendants of a stock from which it is not difficult
to suppose the primary human stock may have arisen.
The tendency to a greater use of the lower limbs was
evidently already present in that primitive stock.

The conclusion I reached in iqoo simply confirmed the
statements made by Huxley in 1863.

Nothing is impossible in nature, but there are some
things which are highly improbable. A multiple origin
for a single species is one of the most improbable, and, so
far as the human species is concerned, there is no need
to suppose a multiple origin. Prof. Klaatsch's opinion of
anthropoid apes throws an interesting light on his theory.
He has reverted to a slight modification of the very ancient
view of the anthropoids — that they are representatives of
retrograde humanity. In Herr Bonin's words, Klaatsch
regards the gorilla and the other man-like apes as " failed
experiments of man." There is no scientific basis for such
a statement — the gorilla fills its place in nature quite as
satisfactorily as man.

This view of the nature of the anthropoids only affects
us so far as it may help us to understand Prof. Klaatsch's
theory of the " pan-anthropoid " origin of human races.
If that opinion is well founded, the opinion that the
Higher Primates were designed as experiments in
" Menschwerdung, " then, of course, it follows that the
experimenter may have succeeded on several occasions, and
that each of the primitive primates may have given rise
to races of men. In reality, we are being again intro-
duced to the old theory of design, and hence the state-
ment in my last letter that Prof. Klaatsch's theory
exceeded *' the limits of rational speculation."

A. Keith.

Royal College of Surgeons, England, February 4.

"In Forbidden Seas."

" D. W. T.," who writes a review of the sea-otter, or
rather of a book called " In Forbidden Seas," in Nature
of January 26, tells us that he is not aware that any
living naturalist has ever seen this animal in its natural
state. Now, Captain H. J. Snow, who is the author of
" In Forbidden Seas," is, from my point of view, a first-
class field naturalist, who by his collections and observa-
tions has added considerably to zoological and geological
knowledge. I may add that he is also a keen surveyor,
and his maps of the islands in these " Forbidden Seas "
were so far back as 1895 published for the use of sailors
by our Admiralty. By the publication of these charts, the
shortest routes between Vancouver and certain ports on
the Asiatic coast have been freed from uncertainties and
dangers. Canadian and other vessels crossing the North
Pacific, in cases of emergency have new harbours of
refuge which can be approached with comparative safety.
Snow's charts show new rocks and shoals, take out
others, adjust islands in longitude, indicate anchorages,
tide rips, watering places, seal and seal-lion rookeries,
and, in short, make the unknown known. Sailing direc-
tions go with the charts.

■-■ NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

By reason of their knowledge of these Forbidden S' .:
and our ignorance of them, in 1855 the Russian fleet w
enabled to evade that of the French and English alii'
H.M.S. Rattler was wrecked in these seas, and iIil-
Japanese man-of-war Tabor was totally lost. The dis-
abling of several gunboats which have attempted lu
survey these islands, and the numerous wrecks of British
and other schooners which are to be found along thiir
shores, testify to the difficulties which surround the navi-
gation of these waters before the advent of Captain Snow.
The Royal Geographical Society were so impressed by 1'
value of his work that they awarded him one of th
annual grants, and approached the Lords of the .'\dmir;i:
to obtain for its author substantial recognition. Had li
work been carried out by one of our surveying vessels
would have cost this country many thousands of poumi
All that was learnt was to the effect that no rule exist'
for the payment for work of this description. At a sub-
sequent date the Rt. Hon. Arthur J. Balfour was
approached. Among the signatories to the petition I s'
the name of the president of the Royal Geographii
Society on behalf of the council, the Admiral of the Fled,
Rudyard Kipling, and those of many other well-known .
persons. Captain Snow gave up his working tools and.
received no recognition. I know that captains and
admirals of British ships, like commissioners sent out to^
study seal fisheries, have sought and obtained valuable
information from Captain Snow. John Milne.

Shide, Newport, Isle of Wight, January 30.

I AM surprised and sorry that Prof. Milne should think,,
as he seems to do, that I sought to belittle Captain Snow'*
achievements, for I not only based my article on the sea-
otter upon Captain Snow's additions to zoological know-
ledge, but I also paid an unstinted compliment to Captain
Snow's romantic and adventurous career. I mentioned
briefly that Captain Snow had won the reputation of an
authority on the geography of the Kuriles ; but that brief
statement, brief because I was not dealing with, and was,
indeed, very imperfectly acquainted with, his geographical
work, was necessarily inadequate. Prof. Milne has done
proper justice to this part of Captain Snow's work.

As regards the valuable information that Captairt
Snow has given to persons charged with the inspec-
tion of the seal-fisheries, I can bear testimony of
my own. Still better testimony can be found, for
instance, in Dr. L. Stejneger's report of 1898 on the
Asiatic fur-seal islands, for Dr. Stejneger not only draws
his description of the Kurile seal-rookeries chiefly from
Captain Snow, but pays tribute to his " invaluable addi-
tions to the authentic history of the Kuriles," and to
himself as " a man of unusual ability, literary and scien-
tific, for the profession he had chosen to follow."

D'Arcy W. Thompson.

An Apparently hitherto Unnoticed "Anticipation" of
the Theory of Natural Selection.

In Louden 's Magazine of Natural History, 1835,
pp. 40-53, there appears an article entitled " An attempt
to classify the ' Varieties ' of Animals, with observations
on the marked Seasonal and other Changes which natur-
ally take place in various British Species and which df>
not constitute Varieties," by Mr. Edward Blyth. Certain
passages contained therein seem to indicate that the prill*
ciple of natural selection, or the survival of the fitteStj
was clearly understood by Blyth in 1835, and, further, •
that he recognised its application to artificial selectio;
Moreover, he demonstrates the idea of sexual selection :
one of its bearings. I have therefore considered them >
suflScient interest to be made public, as it appears th'
have hitherto escaped notice.

" When two animals are matched together, each remark
able for a certain peculiarity, no matter how trivial, the-
is also a decided tendency in nature for that peculiarit
to increase ; and if the produce of these animals be S'
apart, and only those in which the same peculiarity is mo-
apparent, be selected to breed from, the next generatio
will possess it in a still more remarkable degree ; and -
on, till at length the variety I designate a breed, is formal
which may be very unlike the original type." ..." It -
worthy of remark, however, that the original and typical

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

511

iorm of an animal is in great measure kept up by the
same identical means by which a true hreed. is produced.
The original form of a species is unquestionably better
adapted to its natural habits than any modification of that
form; and, as the sexual passions excite to rivalry and
.<onflict, and the stronger must always prevail over the

• weaker, the latter, in a state of nature, is allowed but
-few opportunities of continuing its race. In a large herd

of cattle, the strongest bull drives from him all the younger
and weaker individuals of his own sex, and remains sole
master of the herd ; so that all the young which are pro-
educed must have had their origin from one which possessed
the maximum of power and physical strength, and which,
consequently, in the struggle for existence, was the best
Jible to maintain his ground and defend himself from every
enemy. In like manner, among animals which procure
their food by means of their agility, strength, or delicacy
of sense, the one best organised must always obtain the
greatest quantity, and must, therefore, become physically
the strongest, and be thus enabled, by routing its

.opponents, to transmit its superior qualities to a greater
number of offspring. The same law, therefore, which was

. intended by Providence to keep up the typical qualities of

..a species, can be easily converted b)' man into a means
of raising different varieties; but it is also clear that, if

man did not keep up these breeds by regulating the sexual
intercourse, the}' would all, naturally soon revert to the

■original type. Farther, it is only on this principle that
we can satisfactorily account for the degenerating effects
said to be produced by the much censured practice of

* breeding in and in.' There would almost seem, in some
.species, to be a tendency, in every separate famih', to

some particular kind of deviation, which is only counter-
acted by the various crossings which, in a state of nature,
.must take place, and by the above-mentioned law, which
causes each race to be chiefly propagated by the most
typical and perfect individuals " (pp. 45—46).'

On the suggestion of Prof. Cossar Ewart, the above
quotation was submitted to Mr. Francis Darwin, who has
Jiindly informed me that he agrees with my remarks in
general, but is unable to slate definitely the identity of the
author.

In his introduction to the " Origin " Darwin notices
several such " anticipations," but no reference is made to
Blyth's name in this connection.

It seems indeed strange that Darwin should have been
unacquainted with this article, and, what appears stranger
still, that Blyth himself should have failed to direct atten-
tion to his paper, or that there should be no mention of
these passages in either Darwin's or Blyth's corre-
spondence. Mr. Francis Darwin has, however, indicated
(" More Letters," i., p. 62) that much of Daiwin's corre-
spondence with Blyth has not been forthcoming. This is
to be regretted.

Curiously enough, in a letter to Lyell, Darwin says : —

BUth says (and he is in many respects a good judge)
that his ideas on species are quite revolutionised. ..."
<" Life and Letters," ii., 1887, p. 316.)

At this juncture the question naturally arises, viz., Is
the Edward Blyth of the article the Edward Blyth of
Calcutta? On turning to Grote's "memoir" (Journal
Asiatic Soc. Bengal, .August, 1875, part ii., supplement),
we find (p. 5) that Blyth contributed to both Louden 's and
Charles worth's series of the Magazine of Natural History
from the year 1833. From the titles of the various articles
which appear under Edward Blyth's name in Louden 's
Magazine, there is no evidence to indicate that all these
contributions did not originate from the same writer. On
Grote's evidence we are therefore justified in concluding
.that our author is the naturalist who afterwards made
himself famous by his writings on, and profound know-
ledge of, the mammals and birds of India. Moreover, this
conclusion is substantiated by our author's address, given
in the same volume of Louden in several instances as
*' Tooting, Surrey," and we learn (" Diet. National Biog.,
London, 1886, vol. v., p. 276, art. Blyth, Edward) that
Blyth purchased a druggist's business at Tooting on
.coming of age.

Mr. J. Ritchie, of the Royal Scottish Museum, has
suggested to me that Blyth, in 1859, may quite easily have
forgotten what he had w^ritten twenty-four years
1 The italics in thi."; quotation are Blyth's.

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

previously, the more so as he failed in the true application
of his " principle." The association of his ideas with
those of Darwin would, therefore, be incomplete or
entirely wanting.

Though Blytfr seems clearly to have recognised the prin-
ciple of natural selection, he fails in its true application
in that he regards his " principle " as operating for the
conservation rather than the progression of the type,
whereas the two really go hand in hand, thjg one being
a. complement of the other in the successive stages of
evolution. Moreover, proof of Blyth's inability to recc^-
nise the logical issue of his theory is exhibited in some
of his remarks, which appear to disagree, or are incom-
patible with, one another. For instance, it is hard to
reconcile the sentence commencing " Farther," and end-
ing '• breeding in and in," with some of his previous state-
ments.

Blyth was a staunch supporter of Darwin's views, and
his eajly theorisings are of interest in connection with his
projected work on " The Origination of Species," which,
however, was never completed, even in manuscript form
(Grote, loc. cit., p. xiv). H. M. Vickers.

81A Princes Street, Edinburgh, February 3.

The Sailing-Flight of Birds.

In N.\ture of February 2, Mr. Mallock remarks that
the skimming of some birds near the surface of the waves,
where the variations in the velocity of the wind are great,
may be dependent only on the inequalities of a horizontal
breeze, and that an upward current is not absolutely
necessary. My own observations have led me to the con-
clusion that whenever a bird glides for any distance with-
out losing altitude he is, no less than the soaring kite
or eagle, utilising an upward current of air. But it is
possible that Mr. Mallock ma}- be thinking of the albatross,
who is perhaps without peer in his power of profiting by
the vagaries of the wind. Unfortunately, I have had no
opportunities of observing the albatross, and from those
who have I get very conflicting accounts, some maintain-
ing that he will glide for long distances under conditions
which make it almost certain that the wind is horizontal,
others holding that, though he brings the art to greater
perfection, he does nothing different in kind from what
the gull, that hangs with outstretched wings over the stern
of a steamer, is able to achieve.

My object in writing this is to urge any of your readers
whose good fortune gives them opportunities of watching
the albatross on the wing to make careful observations on
this very interesting subject. F. W. He.\dlev.

I AGREE with Mr. Headley that obser\'ations of the
various conditions under which flight with fixed wings can
be accomplished are desirable, but it is quite as important
to determine the motion of the air in any particular case
as to observe the behaviour of the bird.

In the case of a bird skimming close to the surface of
waves, the action is presumably that sketched below. To

appreciate this properly, regard must be had to the vertical
motion of the air in respect to time as well as to the wave
surface. It is assumed that the speed of the wind is
greater than that of the waves, and that the bird is flying
to windwards. In these circumstances, the mean velocity
of the air is less in the lee of each wave-crest than it is
on the windward slope (indeed, when the waves are steep,
the flow on the lee side may be reversed).

If a bird follows the course indicated by the dotted
line, it gains, not only from the ascending current off the
windward slopes, but also from the increased velocity it
can acquire by dropping to a low level in the slower wind
to the leeward of them.

The question of possible flight by variations of hori-
zontal velocity has been treated by Lord Rayleigh and Mr.
R. E. Froude. A. Mallock.

In the flight of birds, besides the change in the inclina-
tion of the wing planes noted by the Rev. R. .\bbay in
Nature of February 9, there must surely be some move-
ment either of the wing, tail, or body which takes the
place of the screw of the aeroplane. The seagull, for

512

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

instance, gives an occasional quivering motion to one or
both wings which is clearly perceptible to the unaided eye,
although propulsion and change of position relatively to
air currents seem to be accomplished by strokes of the
wings resembling sculling strokes.

It is not the birds, but certain insects, which exhibit
quiverings of the wing imperceptible to the eye. The
hoverer-fly, Syrphus, for example, can remain in one spot
in the air while the wings are vibrating at such a rate as
to be invisible, and at the approach of danger, or at will,
it may suddenly by some movement, also invisible, transfer
itself to a distance of a yard or more, and there continue
the wing quiverings, which maintain the body almost
stationary.

Is not motion in all flying and swimming things attained
by presenting the wings or fins at a suitable angle to the
air or water, while at the same time giving a pro-
pelling motion to the tail or dorsal fin and body, and also
by a sculling motion of the wings or side fins, in the case
of some insects and fishes, invisible to the human eye?

Dei by, February 9. Edward D. Hearn.

Demonstration of Peltier and Thomson Effects.

The following method of demonstrating the Peltier and
Thomson effects may be of interest. In Fig. i the current
passes through an Sb-BJ-S6 bar, the points of contact
being amalgamated to reduce the resistance. Two coils
of No. 36 covered copper wire are wound on the bismuth

A

one near each junction, and by means of the leads A and B
are placed in the gaps of a metre bridge, and a balance
produced. On passing a current of i ampere through
the bars, one junction is heated and the other cooled,
which is indicated by a galvanometer deflection of about
40 mm. due to the change in resistance of the copper
coils. The direction indicates a heating where the current
flows from Sfe to Bt, and vice versa.

Fig. 2 shows a similar arrangement for exhibiting the
Thomson effect. The bent iron rod is heated to red heat
at C, and the ends A and B dip into vessels of mercury.

Fig. 2.

thus ensuring a large temperature gradient. On passing
a current of 10 amperes in the direction ACB, AC is
warmed and CB cooled, showing that the Thomson
coefficient is negative. The part EF must be packed in
asbestos wool to prevent heating disturbances from out-
side. S. G. Starling.
Municipal Technical Institute, Romford Road,
West Ham, E., January 28.

The Formation of Spheres of Liquids.

In conducting Plateau's experiment for the formation
of_ spheres of liquid in a medium of equal density, it is
still customary to use oil of some kind in a mixture of
alcohol and water. The following method will be found
much simpler and more effective. A glass beaker about
10 cm. diameter and 15 cm. high is filled with water at
22° C. to two-thirds of its height. Bv means of a pipette,
NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

100 c.c. of a solution of 30 grams of common salt in
I litre of water are discharged at the bottom of the
beaker, so as to form a lower layer slightly denser than
the water above. A large funnel furnished with a tap,
and having a stem i cm. or more in diameter, is now
placed centrally in the beaker so that the stem terminates
about 7 cm. from the bottom of the vessel. A quantity
of commercial orthotoluidine, at a temperature less than
22°, is poured into the funnel, and the tap turned so as
to allow the liquid to flow gradually into the water. A
sphere of orthotoluidine forms on the end of the stem, the
growth of which resembles that of a soap-bubble blown
from a pipe.

It is quite easy in this way to make spheres 6 or 8 cm.
in diameter, and the red colour of the orthotoluidine
renders the procedure visible from a distance. The funnel
may be lifted out and the sphere left floating in the
water ; and on surrounding the beaker by a square glass,
vessel, also containing water at 22°, the true spherical
shape of the drop is seen. If the beaker be surrounded
by cold water at 15°, the sphere will elongate in its hori-
zontal diameter and sink, whereas if the surrounding
water be at 27° or more, a vertical elongation will take
place, and the sphere will rise and attach itself to the
surface of the water in the form of a hanging drop. This
behaviour is due to the fact that orthotoluidine and water
are equal in density at 22°, but owing to the former liquid
possessing a higher coefficient of expansion, it becomes
less dense than water above 22°, and more dense at a
lower temperature.

It may be added that all the usual experiments with
liquid spheres can be carried out in the beaker, and the-
method of formation has the advantage that a sphere of
any desired size may be formed by closing the tap when
the requisite quantity of liquid has run out. In the course
of a general investigation of liquids which are lighter or
denser than water, according to temperature, the writer
has found several which may be made to produce spheres
at certain temperatures in the manner described, but has
found orthotoluidine to be best suited to the experiment.

Chas. R. Darling.

City and Guilds Technical College, Finsbury, E.C.

Colliery Warnings.

I. HAVE read the letters which have appeared on this
subject with considerable interest. We have two theories
before us. Both theories connect the presence of fire-
damp with changes of atmospheric pressure, but the one
considers a time of high pressure as being most likely to
cause an outrush of gas, whilst the other regards a falling
barometer as the period of greatest danger. It does not
seem at all reasonable to suppose that the atmospheric
pressure would compress the rock and force out the gas
as the Author of the Warnings suggests. Rather would
air enter the rock cavities in such circumstances. The
tendency for firedamp to escape during a falling barometer
would be greater than during a rising barometer, but the
evidence only shows a very slight connection to exist
between the rise or fall of the barometer and colliery
disasters.

The firedamp generated in certain coal measures exists
in the rock,, apparently, under considerable pressures, and
its escape does not appear to be likely to be much affected
by atmospheric pressure changes. The Author of the
Warnings remarks : — " There was a time when no one f
guessed that the earth's surface was always on the |
move. ..." In colliery districts the earth's crust is i
always on the move, owing to the colliery workings them-
selves. This movement is not a bodily oscillation — it is
an actual rending of the strata for some distance below
as well as above the seam being worked. Is it not
likely that it is to the formation of fissures in the rock
in this way that the gas owes its liberation? Considerable
spaces may also be formed by the settling and creep in
front of a working face ; the firedamp would collect in
such spaces and be forced out by further settling. At any
rate, it seems clear that the escape of firedamp in quantity
is more likely to be the result of some local change rather
than to changes of atmospheric pressure.

R. M. Deelev.
Inglewood, Longcroft Avenue, Harpenden,
February 3.

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

513

THE OCEANOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE AT
PARIS.

THE inauguration of the Oceanographical Insti-
tute of Paris, which took place on January 23,
marks not only the completion of the foundation of
the Prince of Monaco's institute in Paris and Monaco,
but an era in the history of the science of oceano-
graphy. If Britain led the way in initiating the
systematic scientific investigation of the sea by the
dispatch of the Challenger expedition in 1874 under
the leadership of Sir Wyville Thomson, and by the
publication of the results of that remarkable expedi-
tion under the direction of Sir Wyville Thomson and
Sir John Murray, no country or individual has done
more to establish oceanography as a science than His
Serene Highness the Pnnce of Monaco.

Mr. J. Y. Buchanan has for so many years been
associated witii the Prince of Monaco and his oceano-
graphical researches, and one sees as an outcwne of

FiG. I. — \'icw of the OceanoKraphical Institute at Paris,

his influence the present methods of the physico-
chemical investigations, that are being carried out
on board the Princesse Alice, in the museum at
Monaco, and the institute in Paris. This valued help
and guidance the Prince has recognised, not only
conferring on Mr. Buchanan the Order of St. Charles,
but also by making him vice-president of the "Comite
de Perfectionnement."

Mr. Buchanan has given an impression of the life-
work of the Prince of Monaco, which found expres-
sion in the solemnities ^ connected with the inaugura-
tion of the Oceanographical Museum of Monaco in
April last vear,=' and it is now proposed to add a
further impression of the Prince's work on the occa-
sion of the inauguration of the Oceanographical
Institute of Paris.

When the Prince commenced to build the museum
at Monaco he was determined that the institution
should vield the best possible scientific returns. To

1 Natuhb, April 14, vol. Uwdii., p. 191.

2 /iid., November ?, vol. Ixzxv., p. 7.

NO. 2T

DD>

VOL.

«5]

ensure this he has created the Oceanographical Insti-
tute of Paris, where courses of instruction to students
of the university, and public lectures of a popular
character are given. Thus the Oceanographical
Institute is composed of (i) the " Institut Oceano-
graphique " of Paris, and (2) the " Mus^ Oceano-
graphique " of Monaco. The Prince has familiarly
described the museum at Monaco as the workshop
or factor}-, and the institute at Paris as the retail
house. At Monaco is carried on the work of a labora-
tory, and an exhibition of products of the sea in an
interpretative, scientific, and yet attractive manner. At
Paris there are lectures and demonstrations which, it
is hoped, will diffuse a taste for oceanography among
industrious youths, who would ultimately complete
their studies by personal research work at Monaco,
and afterwards give their successors at the institute
in Paris the fruit of their labours. Thus the two
establishments form one institute with an unbroken
interchange of w-ork — experimental on the one hand,
didactic on the other, all co-or-
dinated and concurrent with the
same aim— the advancement of
oceanographical science.

The institute, as has already been
pointed out, is at the same time
French and international. French
because its seat is in Paris, with a
French " Conseil d'Administra-
tion " ; international because the
men in whose hands the Prince of
Monaco has placed the technical
scientific direction are chosen from
the whole world, without distinction
of nationality, amongst savants who
are qualified oceanographers. The
Prince himself is president, Mr.
J. Y. Buchanan, F.R.S., vice-presi-
dent, and Sir John Murray, K.C.B.,
F.R.S., and the writer, are, along
with Mr. Buchanan, the British
representatives. Among others on
this "Comite de Perfectionnement"
are Dr. Jules Richard, who has so
long been the chief of the Prince's
scientific staff on board his ships,
and who is now- director of the
museum at Monaco, which, as Mr.
Buchanan has pointed out, owes so
much to his " strenuous and un-
selfish work"; Dr. Paul Regnard,
• administrator of the institute in
Paris ; Prof. Dr. K. Chun, of
Leipzig; Prof. Hergesell, of Strassburg; M. Forel,
of Lausanne; Dr. F. Nansen, Christiania ; Com-
mandant F. A. Chaves, director of the meteorological
ser\'ice at the Azores, and several others. The late
Prof. Agassiz represented the United States on the
committee. It will be seen from these few names
mentioned how international this committee is.

Situated in the heart of the Latin quarter, in Rue
St. Jacque, the institute is destined to fulfil an im-
portant role in the educational life of Paris. The
site chosen is the old property- of the " Dames de
Saint-Michel," which was acquired in 1906 by the
L'niversitA- of Paris with the help of the State, of
the cit}" of Paris, and of the Prince of Monaco, and
the universit}- has ceded the part occupied by the
institute to the Prince of Monaco.

In selecting M. N^not as architect, the Prince has
been able to combine art with science in the erection
of the institute at Paris.

The central feature of the institute is a large
lecture theatre, accommodating eight hundred people.

514

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

in which it is intended to give courses of popular
lectures on oceanography. This large lecture theatre
is ingeniously combined with a smaller one, which

Fig. 2. — The large Lecture Theatre. View from Platform

is suited to accommodate eighty persons, and is
suitable for conducting systematic scientific courses
of lectures to university students. The auditorium
of one theatre faces that of the other,
and the screen which forms the lan-
tern screen for each theatre, divides
the one from the other. The small
lecture room also forms additional
seating accommodation should the
large one be at any time crowded.

The administrator of the institute is
Dr. Paul Regnard, who has for many
years been associated with the
Prince's work. His house forms part
of the building, so that the adminis-
trator is always on the spot. Under
him are three professors — Prof.
Berget, for the study of physical
oceanography ; Prof. Joubain, for bio-
logical oceanography ; and Prof.
Portier for the study of physiology
of marine animals and plants. Each
professor has a very comfortable
private room of his own, and at-
tached to it a large well-equipped
laboratory, with every scientific re-
quirement, and even many scientific
luxuries, including a spacious and
well-fitted photographic dark room to
each of the three departments. These
private laboratories are each large
enough to accommodate several re-
search students if the professor of the
department so desires. There are,
besides, a few small laboratories,
which are set apart for specialists of any nationality
to carry out any special research.

There is a good library which will be subsidiary to

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

the important library that already exists at the
museum at Monaco. Two large rooms are set apart
for aquaria, one contains four large tanks, and the
other is to contain a large number of
small aquaria, where living animals
can be observed. The septic dissect-
ing chamber and theatre forms a
novel and interesting part of the in-
stitution, and close by is a crema-
torium for the disposal of organic
waste products. There is an excellent
mechanic's workshop, fitted up with
every possible requirement, and in
charge of a capable mechanic of the
French Navy. Already, as an ex-
ample of work that can be done in
this workshop, it may be mentioned
that a small sounding machine,
which is used on board one of the
Prince's ships, was entirely con-
structed here.

There is also a special room fitted
to contain some 96,000 lantern slides.
The " secretariat " is an important
part of the institution as well as a
handsome council chamber, in which
the " Conseil d'Administration " and
the " Comit6 de Perfectionnement "
meet. The secretary's room is deco-
rated in a very beautiful and original
manner by a young artist, M.
Laugier, who has passed several
years studying in the museum at
Monaco, at the Sorbonne, and at
Roscoff. He has thus become tho-
roughly familiar with the forms and
colours of many living marine animals and plants.
He has represented on the walls of the " secretariat "
a scene below the sea, so that the secretary lives in a

Fig. 3. — Prof. Portier's Physiological Laboratory.

veritable aquarium— wonderful molluscs, Crustacea,
and strange fish swimming round among rocks and
waving sea-weed, and the whole culminating in a

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

515

whirlpool in the centre of the ceiling, in which is
-figured a cuttle-fish with its outstretched arm.

The council chamber is richly but gracefully ornate,
though more orthodox. The large lecture theatre is
of excellent Florentine architecture, with fine panels
bv M. Louis Tinayre, who has accompanied the
Prince on board the Priucesse Alice during several
voyages, not only in the Mediterranean and tropics, but
also in Spitsbergen. One panel represents oceano-
graphical operations on the deck of the Princesse Alice,
especially the taking on board of a trawl and a trap
from the deep sea. Another represents a whale-boat
in charge of the Prince, who is fast to -a whale. A
.third represents the selection of the larger material
•from the trawl on the deck of the ship, while a fourth
■pictures finer work being carried out below, inside the
scientific laboratory.

The inauguration was presided over by the Prince
of Monaco himself, and was graced by the presence
■of the President of the Republic, M. Fallieres, and
many members of the Government, and by Ambassa-
-dors and Ministers of Foreign Powers at Paris. There
were also the members of the "Conseil d '.Administra-
tion " and of the '"Comite de Perfectionnement." A
guard of honour, formed from the Republican Guard,
lined the streets outside the building, and the band of
the Republican Guard played the " Marseillaise " and
the Monagasque national anthem as the President of
the Republic and the Prince of Monaco entered the
•lecture theatre.

The proceedings were opened by an eloquent address
by the Prince of Monaco, who pointed out that the
opening of the institute was the crowning of the work
he had devoted his life to during the last twenty-five
years. He rhen proceeded to give an account of the
aims and objects of the museum and institute, which
have already been given in the pages of Nature.
Finally, he gave the reason why he had chosen Paris
as the seat of the institute, and it is best to quote' the
Prince's own words in his fine peroration, which left
a deep impression on the audience.

" Si j'ai choisi cette capitale pour y centraliser mon
oeuvre, c'est que Paris a gagnd la reconnaissance du monde
intellectuel : les lettres lui doivent un rayonnement in-
comparable, les arts ont chez lui une de leurs plus
g^n^reuses patries, la science lui doit I'affranchissement
<^ui ouvre a la pens6e des champs sons bornes. Mais
c'est aussi parce que certaines ames demeurent toujours
sous I'influence de 1 'atmosphere ou sont n^es leurs
premieres affections et ou leurs vieilles tendresses sont
mortes ; ou des peines ont fortifid leur courage et oil les
contingences de la vie ont orient^ leurs efforts.

** Le mus^e oc6anographique de Monaco semble un
vaisseau ancr^ sur la c6te avec des richesses extraites de
tous les abimes ; je I'ai donn6 comme une arche d'alliance
aux savants de tous les pays.

" L'^ifice ou nous sommes recueillera la quintessence
du travail 61abor^ par I'oc^anographique qui planera
id^alis^e sur ce vaste domaine universitaire, au milieu du
Act grandissant de la science. Et je le confie k cette ville
de Paris qui m'a enseign^ le travail et dont 1 'esprit et le
coeur ont si souvent dirig6 1 'esprit et le coeur de ITiumanitd
entifere."

The Prince was followed by M. Maurice Faure,
Ministre de I'lnstruction Publique, speaking in the
name of the Government, who eloquently thanked the
Prince on behalf of France and the University for his
gift.

Others who spoke were M. Armand Gautier,
president de I'Academie des Sciences, and M. Liard,
vice-recteur h I'Academie de Paris, as well as M.
, Perrier, directeur du Museum d'Histoire naturelle.

Finally, M. Henri Bouree, aide-de-camp to the

Prince of Monaco, gave some very excellent photo-

p^raphs and kinematograph views of work on board

the Princesse Alice. These included some very mar-

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

vellous colour photographs of living invertebrates that
had been gathered during some of the cruises — the
most striking of which was a brilliant physalia,
glittering with translucent violet in the sun. The
kinematograph also showed the movement of the
physalia in a glass tank. Willia.\i S. Bruce.

THE OBSERVATORY AT MESSINA.
T N connection with seismological investigations,
•■• Italy is the possessor of a prestige which we
trust will grow. It was the first European country
in which the study of earthquakes received special
recognition and Government support. It systematised
seismometry, and through M. di Rossi published the
Bollettino del Vulcanismo Italiano, which, I believe,
was the first journal ever issued which dealt specially
with hypogenic activities. The work commenced in
Italy was extended in Japan, and at the present time
every civilised country in the world has established
earthquake observatories and recognises the scientific
and practical importance of what is now a new
science. From the knowledge we now possess of
earthquake motion new rules and formulae for the
use of builders and engineers have been established.
These have been extensively applied, and we see that
the new types of structure withstand violent move-
ments, while ordinary types in their vicinity have
failed. The new science has already justified its
existence by thus minimising the loss of life and pro-
perty. A side issue of seismometn.- has led to the
localisation of faults on railway lines and to altera-
tions in the balancing of locomotives. The result of
the latter has been to reduce the consumption of fuel.

Now we know that in whatever part of the world
we live it is possible to record large earthquakes, even
if their origins are so far removed as our antipodes.
These teleseismic records have increased our know-
ledge respecting the interior of our planet, thrown
light upon the cause of certain cable interruptions,
indicated suboceanic regions where depths are chang-
ing, and have had a far-reaching importance in many
other directions, both scientific and practical.
Although we now know that practical seismometry
is open to everyone, still there are particular sites
which seem more suitable than others for particular
investigations.

The popularity of the seismologist would be en-
hanced if, like the astronomer, he had the power to
predict. The latter tells us exactly when we shall
see the next eclipse of the moon. We stand outside
our door at the appointed time ; the eclipse takes place,
and we are again reminded of the accuracy of astro-
nomical calculations. Whether the eclipse did or did
not occur at the minute specified, so far as the general
public are concerned, might not matter verv much,
but it would matter if the eclipse reallv meant, as it
was supposed to mean in the Middle Ages, a portent
of a great disaster. What the public imagine they
would like to know about an earthquake is the time
at which it might occur. If this could be stated, and
at the same time something about the character of
the expected disturbance in earthquake districts, seis-
mology would be liberally supported. Astronomers
have received the support of nations since the days
of astrology, while seismology' is in its childhood
seeking for more extended recognition, and it is only
as this is afforded that the public should look for
replies to their difficult inquiries.

Through the Straits of Messina there is a fault or
line of faults in the earth's crust, and from time to
time,^ as in 1783, and in 1908, along these, sudden
yieldings have taken place. It has been suggested bv
many seismologists that before such reliefs of strain
take place a measurable amount of rock-bending may

5i6

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

be produced; rock-yielding or JTsfortion of this char-
acter seems to have been measured in California
before the earthquake of 1906, which ruined San
Francisco and other towns.

With properly equipped observatories on two sides
of the Straits of Messina, the existence or non-
-existence of such brady-seismical movements might
be demonstrated and limits be recognised which pre-
ceded a crash, Kovislegethy has suggested other
lines dependent upon the hysteresis of rock masses,
along which we might conduct investigation which

The extent i)f this damage is shown in the accom-
panying figur. s. If it is only on account of the unique
position of thi:> observatory I feel certain that it is th(;
wish of all seismologists to see it restored and re-
equipped to exttnd its useful work. J. Milne.

The Messina Observatory before and after the Earthquake of December 28, 1908,

may possibly lead to the prediction of disaster. The
<iividing line between Calabria and Sicily is a theatre
of hypogenic activity, and is a place above all others
in Europe to be watched and studied carefully. As a
site on which to make investigations respecting cer-
tain changes which are taking place beneath our feet
it is of importance not only to Italy but to the world.
We see from a paper we have recently received that
the observatory at Messina in 1908 suffered severely,
the disaster being chiefly due to the fall of a tower.

NO. 2Tf5, VOL. 85]

SYNCHRONISATION OF CLOCKS.
TOURING the past two years a committee consist-
^-^ ing of the following members of the British
Science Guild, Sir Hugh T-U, Bart., Hon. Sir John
Cockburn, K.C.M.G. (chairman)
Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B.,
F.R.S., Major O'Meara, R.E..
C.M.G. (representing H.M. Post-
master-General), Sir Alexander
Pedler, F.R.S., Dr. F. Molhvo
Perkin, Prof. J. Perry, F.R.S., Sir
William Ramsay, K.C.B. , F.R.S.,
and Mr. St. John Winne, has been
engaged upon the consideration of
a problem which has often been re-
ferred to in the Press, both lay and
technical; that is, the question as
to how best may be achieved a
systematic observance of absolute
Greenwich mean time.

The problem is not altogether one
affording opportunities for easy
solution, for, as stated in the re-
cently published second annual
report of the committee, it is
apparently beyond the power of
human ingenuity to produce two
clocks which will go together for
one week. Nor is the problem a
new one. In past years there have
been many endeavours to utilise the
services of electricity for the correc-
tion of clocks, so that a number of
such may be uniform in their indi-
cations. Some time about 1840
Alexander Bain devised an elec-
trically-driven pendulum, the prin-
ciple of which was adopted by M'
R. L. Jones, of Chester, to cau-
the pendulums of a group of clocks
to beat in sympathy with a regu-
lator, a system of synchronisation
which met with some degree of
success, but which was very limited
in scope. Since that date the
problem has been investigated by
many with varying degrees of
success.

Greenwich mean time has been
for many years, and is yet, the
standard time for Great Britain and
Ireland, and the facilities afforded
bv the network of wires under the
control of the Post Office authorities
have been made use of for the dis*
tribution of standard time to those
to whom the possession of means
for ascertaining at any moment
exact Greenwich mean time is a sine qua non. The
distribution over the wires has hitherto resolved itsel
into the transmission from Greenwich Observatory-^
where the standard mean time solar clock is corrected
dailv about 9 a.m. to accord with the results of the
preceding nocturnal stellar observations— of an elec-
trical signal to the Central Telegraph Office in
London, whence it is radiated over the telegraph wires
to offices in distant towns, and thence over direct
circuits to the subscribers who require the intelligence.

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

517

the main wires being temporarily connected to the
subscribers' circuits by a switch. The Greenwich
signal is transmitted to the Central Telegraph Office
every hour, and it is therefore available for the use of
such persons in London as require it, some few of
whom exist.

For the temporary connection of the wires converg-
ing on London, which are normally associated with
telegraph apparatus, to the Greenwich wire, a unique
automatic switching device, called the Chronopher,
is in use, a portion of which has existed since the
early days of the telegraph companies. The apparatus
consists of a multiple switch the movements of which
are governed by a clock which, by means of certain
electrical contacts, is arranged to operate the switch
at the proper time. The clock itself is automatically
corrected or synchronised by the Greenwich signal,
and this clock, which seems to be coeval with the
Chronopher, in common with certain others of a
similar type, is probably one of the earliest successful
endeavours to achieve automatic synchronisation, by a
svstem which seems to have been introduced by ^Ir.
C V. Walker, of the Electric Telegraph Company.
.About 1876 Ritchie, of Edinburgh, introduced an
improvement on a synchronising system (as distin-
guished from a sympathetic system), invented by Bain
in 1842, and later appears to have improved on
Walker's system, and many clocks synchronised on
this principle, as well as Walker's, one of which is
yet used at Aldershot for military purposes, are be-
lieved to be still in use.

There appear to have been one or two other syn-
chronising methods introduced during the past few
decades, but with the exception of the Standard Time
Company, the operations of which are confined to
London, and a system invented by Mr. Lund, none
seems to have achieved a large measure of success ; in
fact, the Greenwich time signal transmitted by the Post
Office is, in general, used to drop time ball, fire guns,
or to give other visible or audible signals, the correc-
tion of clocks being performed by means of human
intervention. A noteworthv method for accomplish-
ing the latter is that introduced by Sir George Airy,
sometime .Astronomer Royal, which is still used by
the Admiralty for correcting;^ the standard clocks at
their various dockvards. Each clock, in addition to
its ordinary compensated seconds-beating pendulum,
is provided with an auxiliary free pendulum, arranged
to swing behind the clock pendulum. Normally the
latter is latched to one side on a trigger which, at the
proper time, is released by the Greenwich signal.
"\Vhen both pendulums are swinging, observations
are made to ascertain the phase relationship, and a
current of electricity is passed through a fixed elec-
tromagnet in such direction as to attract or repel the
poles of a permanent magnet attached to the clock
pendulum, thereby accelerating or retarding the latter
until both pendulums are swinging in synchronism.
The British Science Guild Committee, however,
mentions that the correction of clocks by hand is
quite out of date and untrustworthy, and is unani-
mously of opinion that some form of direct physical
control of public clocks by electrical synchronisation
signals from a central time authority is essential.
It seems strange that in a city like London, the
largest in the world, and the most important com-
mercially, where exact timekeeping would seem to
be of the utmost importance, there should be so few-
clocks really to be relied upon. The committee refers
to "Big Ben," which automatically reports its time-
keeping performance to Greenwich Observatory, and
the larg-e clock in the portico of the old Post Office
in St. Martin 's-le-Grand, which is already electrically
synchronised, as being probably the two large public

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

clocks in London which can best be relied upon to
indicate Greenwich time.

The committee has approached the London County
Council, the City Corporation, H.NL Office of Works,
the Local Government Board, the Post Office, and the
various railway companies, but the response to its
inquiries seems to be very discouraging. It appears
that the question is treated rather apathetically by
all save the Post Office authorities, who alone appear
to realise the immense importance of the matter, and
who have, within recent years, adopted a simple
system applicable for the correction of large and
small clocks, as well as public turret clocks, and
who are extending the system as circumstances
permit. It is stated that the cost of synchronising
apparatus is small for any size or type of clock,
so that it is possible that one of the main objec-
tions to the use of the Greenwich time signal, as
at present transmitted, is the amount of the sub-
scription to the Post Office which it involves. It is
tj be hoped therefore that, if the synchronisation of
clocks is to be effected to any considerable extent,
the authorities will see their way to provide a syn-
chronising signal at a rate which will not appear to
be prohibitive to those who have public clocks under
their control.

It is clear from other reports which have appeared
from time to time in the Press that municipal authori-
ties and the public are not quite so apathetic as it
might appear at first sight, for recently, public clocks
have been installed by the local authorities at Aber-
deen and Sheffield, and are about to be erected at
Liverpool and at Taunton, which are, or will be, all
electrically synchronised to Greenwich time. The fact
that most of the makers of electric clocks, too, arrange
for their master or controlling clocks t(> be syn-
chronised as required, seems to indicate that they
appreciate the feeling that there is some public
demand in this direction.

The committee makes a comparison between the
practice in this country and the practice abroad, where
the importance of correct time seems to be more fullv
appreciated than here ; but, no doubt, although pro-
gress in the matter has been somewhat slow in the
past, given a reasonably cheap synchronising service,
London and the rest of the country will ere long
awake to the fact that, as the committee expresses
it, a meretricious clock is equally as dangerous as a
false yard measure, and then the observance of abso-
lute time, once fairly started in operation, will be a
recognised factor in our daily existence.

JULIUS WILHELM BRUHL.

IT is with much regret that we have to record the
death at Heidelberg, on February 5, of Prof.
Briihl, the distinguished chemist. He was of Jewish
parentage, and was born at Warsaw in February,
1850, and studied from 1868 to 1873 at Zurich and
Berlin. In 1873, on completion of his studentship, he
became assistant to Prof. Landolt at Aachen, and in
1879 was appointed professor in the University of
Lemberg, which chair he resigned in 1884 on account
ot ill-health brought on by the unsuitability of the
climate. After some sojourn at Freiburg (in Breisgau)
he was induced by Bunsen to transfer his services to
Heidelberg, where, in 1887, he became honorary pro-
fessor in the high school, and took over the private
laboratory of Prof. Bernthsen, who had then entered
the service of the Badische Anilin und Soda-Fabrik at
Ludwigshafen. In 1889 he commenced lecturing as
Bunsen 's representative, and was giv^en full title as
honorary professor in 1908. Briihl's contributions to
science will be appraised in due course : they are

5r«

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

-numerous and important and cover a wide range of
subjects, chiefly on the border-land of physics and
chemistry. His main work, and that with which his
name will be always associated, is unquestionably his
exhaustive and protracted series of researches on the
relationship between the refractivity and the chemical
constitution of organic compounds. Following the
pioneering work of Gladstone and Dale in this
country, Briihl made this subject for many years
essentially his own, and he has always been regarded
as the leader and chief' authority in this branch of
physical chemistry. It will be remembered that he
was the first to bring optical evidence to bear upon
the question of the constitution of the benzene "ring."

Briihl first made his mark in 1880 -in that depart-
ment of physical chemistry in which he laboured with
such conspicuous success throughout the latter part
of his life. His predecessors in this field had prepared
the way by showing that some relationship existed be-
tween refractivity and chemical composition, buc real
progress only began to be made when, by his re-
searches, he showed that the mode of linkage of the
■atoms, i.e. the chemical constitution, was all important
in determining this physical property of the chemical
molecule. Following up the fruitful line of work thus
opened out, he showed further, that not only could the
•degree of unsaturation of an organic compound be
determined by the refractivity method, but that the
.apparent anomalies between observed and calculated
results were referable to the relative positions of the
unsaturated groups, and so he invested the method
with increased powers as a means of attacking the all-
important problem of chemical constitution. Not the
least important application of his method, and one
which he himself developed towards the end of his
•caieer, is the determination by the optical method of
the constitution of tautomeric compounds in solution —
a problem which eludes ordinary chemical methods. It
was this and other developments of his labours which
brought him into contact with the researches of the
late Sir William Perkin, with whom he was in con-
stant communication and who had the greatest admira-
tion for his work. Perkin was, in fact, attacking this
and analogous problems by his method of magnetic
rotation, and the influence of the two pioneers upon
•each other's results is acknowledged in their scientific
publications.

A few years ago Briihl underwent a serious opera-
tion which crippled his activity and from the efi^ects
of which he never completely recovered. By his death
science suffers a heavy loss, and this country is
deprived of a warm friend, for the Heidelberg pro-
fessor's Anglophile sentiments are well known. He
was a familiar figure here, and highly esteemed by
all who had the privilege of his friendship. His know-
ledge of our language, and of English literature
generally, was both wide and deep, and his chief
recreation was the reading of the works of English
poets and novelists. Many letters by Briihl addressed
to the present writer are distinctly high-class literary
productions, which would put to shame many of our
university graduates. It w'ill be remembered that he
was responsible for the German edition of the organic
portion of Roscoe and Schorlemmer's treatise. He
gave a Friday evening discourse on his own sub-
ject at the Royal Institution in May, 1905. He
was an honorary member of that Institution, and
the University of Cambridge bestowed upon him
the honorary degree of Sc.D. during one of his
visits to this country. The life-work of Briihl
furnishes another illustration of the principle, so
generally ignored here, that practical applications
follow the development of pure science pursued for its
•own sake. Out of a series of researches prompted by

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

no immediate practical requirements, but carried out
solely with the object of ascertaining how far a par-
ticular physical property could be made available for
the solution of some of the most abstract of chemical
problems, there has arisen a method of the greatest
practical utility to manufacturers for the determina-
tion of the purity or the value of many products used
in chemical industry. Thanks to Briihl the " refracto-
meter " has become a recognised laboratory instru-
ment for technical as well as for scientific purposes.

R. M.

The second reading of the Government Bill for the
adoption of Greenwich time as the official time in France '
was adopted by the French Senate on February 10. In
the discussion of an amendment to the measure, reference
was made to the Daylight Saving Bill, and it was sug-
gested that the question of introducing Greenwich time
into France ought to be deferred until it was known
whether our House of Commons would adopt the seasonal
change of time-standard proposed in that Bill. The
amendment was, however, rejected by 213 votes to 73,
and the Bill passed into law, to take effect after the Presi-
dent's signature. France will thus be brought into the
international or zone system of time-reckoning, and its
official time will differ from other standard times in the
system by a definite number of hours. The time of the
Paris meridian will, however, be retained for naval
purposes.

By the instructions of the London County Council,
blue tablet of encaustic ware has been affixed to No. 3a
Soho Square, W., at one time the residence of Sir Josep
Banks, who was elected president of the Royal Society it
1778, and held that office for forty-one years.

The Helmholtz medal of the Berlin Academy of Science
has, says the Revue scientifique, been awarded to Prof.;
van 't Hoff.

The annual conversazione of the Institution of Civil,
Engineers will be held on Thursday, June 29, in the Roys
Albert Hall.

The next meeting of the Institute of Metals will be th
second May lecture, which is to be delivered in London on
Friday, May 12, by Dr. G. T. Beilby, F.R.S., on " Th
Hard and Soft States in Metals." The autumn meeti
of the institute will be held this year at Newcastle-or
Tyne on Wednesday and Thursday, September 20 and 21.

Dr. C. R. Beazley, professor of history, University
Birmingham, has been elected a corresponding fellow
the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, in recognition of hij
work on medizeval histor\', and especially on the explora-
tions of the Portuguese.

The gold medal of the Institution of Mining and Metal-
lurgy has been awarded to Sir Julius Wernher, in recogni-
tion of his great personal services in the advancement of
technological education and in the promotion of the highest
interests of the mining and metallurgical professions.

The British Medical Journal states that, in response to
the request of the Chinese Government for an international
commission to proceed to China at an early date to investi-
gate the present outbreak of plague in Manchuria, and to
devise means for the prevention of its further spread, the
British Government has instructed Dr. Reginald Farrar,
one of the medical inspectors of the Local Government
Board, to proceed to China at an early date.

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

519

Six Hunterian lectures on " The Fossil Remains of
Man and their bearing on the Origin of Modern British
Tvpes " are to be delivered in the theatre of the Royal
College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields, by Prof. Arthur
Keith, at 5 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
n the fortnight beginning on February 20. The lectures
ire designed to serve as an introduction to the study of
the anthropolt^ical collection in the museum of the college.

The Lannelongue prize, founded last year by Prof. Lanne-
longue, of Paris, has been presented to Sir Victor Horsley,
F.R.S. The prize is a gold medal and the sum of 200/.,
and it is awarded to the person who had contributed most
to the progress of surgery in the ten years before the date
of the award. It is open to surgeons of all nations, and is
to be awarded every five years during the annual meeting
of the Society de Chirurgie.

.'\t the anniversary^ meeting of the Malacological Society
of London on Friday, February 10, held (by permission)
at the Linnean Society's rooms, the following officers and
council were elected for the ensuing Vear : — President, Mr.
R. Bullen Newton ; vice-presidents. Rev. R. Ashington
Bullen, Mr. G. C. Crick, Prof. H. M. Gwatkin, Mr. B. B.
W'oodwarJ; treasurer, Mr. J. H. Ponsonby ; secretary, Mr.
G. K. Gude ; editor, Mr. E. A. Smith ; other members of
the council, Mr. S. Pace, Mr. H. B. Preston, Dr. W. G.
Ridewood, Mr. H. O. N. Shaw, Mr. E. R. Sykes, and
Mr. J. R. le B. Tomlin. The president delivered an
address entitled " A Sketch of the Chief Geological Zones
and their Mollusca."

The current number of the Revue scientifique announces
the election of the officers for the present year of several
French scientific societies. In the case of the Physical
Society, Prof. L. Poincar6 is the president, M. B. Baillaud
vice-president, M. H. Abraham general secretary, and
Prof. Jean Becquerel secretary'. Prof. B^hal has been
elected president of the Chemical Societ^•. M. L4on
Teisserenc de Bort becomes president of the Meteorological
Society, MM. Lemoine and Maillet vice-presidents, M.
Goutereau general secretary, and M. Besson secretary.

The Kainan Maru, with the members of the Japanese
Antarctic E.xpedition on board, left Wellington, New
Zealand, on February 11 for the Antarctic. It is stated
that the only chart of the far south possessed by the
expedition is a reduced copy of Sir Ernest Shackleton's
map, and that the only means of transport on land consist
of ver\ light sledges and twelve dc^s. A Press message
from Hamburg states that the German South Polar Ex-
pedition will start from there on May 2. The expenses of
the expedition, estimated at 68,oooZ., have been partially
guaranteed by Hamburg charterers.

At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Astronomical
Society on February 10, the following officers and council
were elected: — President, Prof. F. W. Dyson, F.R.S. ;
vice-presidents. Sir W. de W. Abney, K.C.B., F.R.S.,
Mr. E. B. Knobel, Dr. W. H. Maw, Prof. H. H. Turner,
F.R.S. ; treasurer. Major E. H. Hills, C.M.G. ; secretaries,
Mr. A. R. Hinks, Mr. S. A. Saunder ; foreign secretary.
Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S.; council. Sir W. H. M.
Christie, K.C.B., F.R.S., Dr. P. H. Cowell, F.R.S., Dr.
A. C. D. Crommelin, Mr. A. S. Eddington, Prof. A.
Fowler, F.R.S., Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher, F.R.S., Prof.
E. W. Hobson, F.R.S., Mr. H. P. Hollis, Mr. Thomas
Lewis, Prof. H. F. Newall, F.R.S., Rev. T. E. R.
Phillips, and Mr. F. J. M. Stratton.

At a meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers on
January 24, the influence of ocean currents along a coast-
line on the movement of sand was discussed by Mr. G. H.
NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

Halligar in describing the conditions on the coast of New
South Wales. A permanent southerly ocean current
having a vekx:ity of about i to ij knots per hour inshore
causes a sand movement in the direction of its flow which-
the heaviest seas or gales only temporarily disturb.
Observations showed that even the most violent gales from-
the south only reverse the current during their continu-
ance, while the more frequent northerly winds increase
its velocity. The run-oflf of the rivers is not sufficient to-
scour out the river-mouths except in heavy flood, and'
stress is laid on the necessity for so designing harbour
entrances that the velocity of the flood-tide entering it
may be less than that of the littoral current, in order that
the sand in suspension may be carried past the entrance
instead of entering the estuary at each tide.

On February 8 a portrait of Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins,
F.R.S., by Mr. W. Llewellyn, was presented to the Whit-
worth Hall of the University of Manchester by a large
number of friends and admirers who wished to show their
appreciation of his long and distinguished services to the
University, the Manchester Museum, and the City of
Manchester generally. The portrait was unveiled by Prof.
S. J. Hickson, F.R.S., dean of the faculty of science in
the University, and was received on behalf of the Uni-
versity council by Sir Frank Forbes Adam, CLE., and"
the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Alfred Hopkinson. In unveiling
the portrait. Prof. Hickson directed attention to the fact
that largely through Prof. Dawkins's energy anJ.
enthusiasm the present museum has been transformed"
from the condition of an unclassified local collection of
curiosities to be an important reference museum, meeting
the wants of students and teachers, the general intellectuaH
public, as well as those workers in science who have to
rely on trustworthy material for reference. He also re-
viewed Prof. Dawkins's contribution to the early history
of man, and the vertebrate palaeontology of the Tertiary
and post-Tertiary ages, as well as his activity in the '
problems of applied geolc^y. Although Prof. Dawkins
has now retired from the chair of geolc^y, he still shares
the work of the University as an honorary' professor and
as a museum lecturer and member of the committee, and
thus his retirement from university work is more format
than real.

" The Academic Aspect of the Science of Nationaf
Eugenics " (Eugenics Laboratory, Lecture Series, vii.
London : Dulau and Co., Ltd., 191 1) is the title of a-
lecture delivered to undergraduates by Prof. Karl Pearson-
Its main purport is to emphasise the need for the study
of social questions in the same manner that scientific
questions are studied. To quote the words of the
lecturer : — " You cannot settle such essential problems of
society as alcoholism, tuberculosis, mental defectiveness, .
or the changing status of women, by oratory in the market-
place. I claim that these things must be studied in uni-
versity laborat<M-ies, where Oxford shall check the results
of Cambridge, and London correct both of them, if need'
be."

A LIST of publications of the Bureau of .'\merican-
Ethnology, with index to authors and titles, has been
published by the Smithsonian Institution at Washington.
These publications consist of contributions to North'
American ethnology, annual reports, bulletins, introduc-
tions, and miscellaneous publications. The issue of
annual reports began in 1880, and the present maximunv
edition of an annual report is 9850 copies. With the
exception of a few copies of the publications of the Bureau
disposed of by the U.S. Superintendent of Documents, the
editions are distributed free of charge.

520

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

In Man for January, Mr. H. S. Cowper describes the
exploration of a flint implement factory on a site at
Hilwan, Lower Egypt, previously examined by Mr. A. J.
Jukes Brown, who contributed papers on the subject to
the Journals of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society and
the Anthropological Institute in 1877. He discusses the
theories that this type of implement may have been used
for arming the edges of serrated weapons or for fishing,
and, deciding in favour of the latter supposition, suggests
that the sites where implements of this type are found
should be studied in relation to the fishing industry. He
asserts that they have no connection with the Neolithic
implements found in such large numbers in recent years
in various parts of the desert of Lower Egypt.

The habits of the common American mole, Scalops, or
Scalopus, aquaticus, are discussed in two papers, respec-
tively by Mr. F. E. Wood and Mr. J. A. West, published
in vol. ix., of the Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory
of Natural History. This mole, which — despite its name
—is not aquatic, undoubtedly does much damage to newly
sown cornfields by burrowing along the lines of the drills.
From such tunnelled rows the seed is often found to
have more or less completely disappeared, and farmers
charge the mole with being the culprit. The accusation
is proved by Mr. West to be true, the stomachs of many
of the moles examined by him containing corn in various
proportions to the rest of the food. For the greater part
of the year, however, these moles feed on worms and
insects.

" The Sudden Origin of New Types " is the title of an
article communicated by Dr. F. Oswald to the January
number of Science Progress. After adducing evidence in
support of this theory from plants, the author observes
that the sudden rise and predominance of mammals in the
Tertiary must be due to rapid development of some part
of their organisation, and that this part was the mammary
glands. These glands, it is suggested, may have been
derived from the lateral-line system of amphibians, since
both are developed in the Malpighian layer of the skin.
Having stated that such a derivation is " within the range
of probability," Mr. Oswald proceeds to regard it as a
demonstrated fact, and to argue that, "as a necessary
corollary to the absence of the lateral line in all reptiles,
ft is evident that — contrary to the received and general
opinion — the mammals must have taken their origin
directly from Amphibia, not from anomodont reptiles."
Then follows a review of apparent instances of the sudden
rise of certain groups (such as graptolites) or certain
organs among invertebrates, special stress being laid on a
suggested origin of tracheae from the gills of a hypothetical
fresh-water trilobite by the transformation of the latter
into lung-books sunk in the body and communicating with
the exterior by means of stigmata.

Much interest attaches to the description by Prof. H. F.
Osborn, in the January number of the American Museum
Journal, of a " mummy " of the iguanodont dinosaur from
the Kansas Cretaceous, known as Trachodon annectans.
The specimen includes, not only the greater part of the
skeleton, but likewise a large portion of the epidermis,
which " is shrunken around the limbs, tightly drawn along
the bony surfaces, and contracted like a great curtain
below the chest-area." In the opinion of its describer, the
reptile, after dying a natural death, lay for a time on a
river-bank, without being molested by birds or crocodiles,
until it became thoroughly desiccated, after which it was
carried down by a flood, and buried in sediment of a
character suited to retain a cast of the surface sculpture.
NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

The skin was covered with tubercles, varying in size on
different parts of the body. The tenuity of the epidermis
favours the theory, according to Dr. Osborn, that these
reptiles " spent a large part of their time in the water,
which theory is strengthened by the fact that the diminu-
tive fore-limb terminates, not in claws or hoofs, but in a
broad extension of the skin, reaching between the fingers
and forming a kind of paddle. This marginal web, which
connects all the fingers with each other, together with the
fact that the lower side of the fore-limb is as delicate in
its epidermal structure as the upper, tends to support the
theory of the swimming rather than the walking or terres-
trial function of this fore-paddle." The article is illus-
trated with pictures, not only of the "mummy," skin,
and skeleton, but likewise of the restored animal, the
length of which was about 30 and its height between
15 and 16 feet.

According to the report on the Botanic Station Experi-
mental Plots and Agricultural Education, Antigua,
1909-10, there are indications that the cotton industry may
regain some of its late importance. Experiments are re-
ported on the flower-bud maggot and the leaf-blister mite ;
hybridisation work has also been begun. The production
of cocoanuts and limes is increasing, and becoming an
important industry ; onions are also being more and more
grown. Experiments are reported on broom corn and
other crops likely to be useful. The report on the Botanic
Station, St. Kitts-Nevis, shows that the sugar-cane season
has been successful ; early planted cotton also did well, and
planters are learning to control the pests ; there also seems
the prospect that cacao and rubber may be successfully
grown. Experiments are recorded on yams, sweet pota-
toes, and onions. The Montserrat report shows useful
work is being done in connection with cotton selection and
the cultivation of limes. Other lines of investigation deal
with the improvement of ground nuts and Indian corn by
selection, and the determination of the best varieties of
certain provision crops.

An investigation into the effect of coloured light on the
development of pure cultures of the green alga Stichococcus
bacillaris is described by Prof. G. A. Nadson in the
Bulletin du Jardin Imperial Botanique, St. Petersburg
(vol. x., part v.). The cultures raised in reddish-yellow
light showed weak growth and colour ; those in bluish
light showed at first rather weaker development, but
eventually the filaments assumed a purer green colour
than those in white light, and the improvement was main-
tained through successive generations grown in blue light.
The same author, with Mr. S. M. Adamovic, describes the
experiment of adding to a culture solution for Bacillus
myocides a proportion of the products of catabolism taken
from a previous culture of the orga.nism. This produced
a marked change in the Bacillus, inhibiting its powers of
liquefying gelatin and producing spores, and causing it to
form special membranes round its cells.

The International Association of Tropical Agriculture
and Colonial Development has issued, in pamphlet form,
the report on the present position of cotton cultivation,
which was presented to the congress in Brussels in 19 10
by Dr. Wyndham R. Dunstan, F.R.S. The reports which
Dr. Dunstan has brought together, as reporter-general to
the congress on cotton cultivation, relate to all those
countries in which cotton cultivation is an established and
important industry, and also to those in which cotton
cultivation is still in an experimental stage. The writers
of the reports were requested to pay special attention to
the present position and prospects of the industry, any

February i6, 1911]

NATURE

521

special difficulties met with, and the nature of the experi-
mental work in progress. Summaries of all these reports
are given here, and Dr. Dunstan discusses generally the
more important questions involved, and considers the
problems of cotton production as a whole. Copies of the
publication can be obtained from the Imperial Institute
at 15. each, or \s. \\d. post free.

The Colonial Annual Report, No. 644, deals with survey
work accomplished in British Africa, Ceylon, Cyprus,
Fiji, Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Honduras during the
year ending March 31, 1910. It is essentially a progress
report, and the methods of work employed in the
different Crown colonies are therefore not described, and
no comparison of them is possible. In several areas
triangulation, topographical detailed surveying, and
cadastral surveying are in hand, and the last-named is
often urgently needed for the settlement of native owners
and the allotments of Government lands. The long list
of directors and inspectors of survey already engaged on
this important work, which is presented at the end of the
report, would seem to indicate that the study of advanced
surveying may be worth the attention of physical and
mathematical students.

Meteorological material is rapidly accumulating in
Africa, and a valuable contribution is published in the
Mitteilungen der deutschen Schutzgebieten (Heft 5, Band
23). Tables of the rainfall recorded at fifty-one stations
in the Cameroons during 1909 are given detailing the total
and maximum in twenty-four hours for each month, as
well as the distribution of rainy days. On the whole, the
rainfall in the north and south of the colony was not
markedly greater than in the previous year, but at a group
of stations in the central portion, especially in the
Cameroon mountains, the rainfall of 1909 was consider-
ably greater. From the eastern coast of Africa we have
the whole of the meteorological observations taken at forty-
seven stations in 1907 and 1908 throughout German East
Africa from the coast so far inland as Lake Tanganyika.

As interesting question of geological nomenclature is
raised by Prof. J. \V. Gregory, F.R.S., in an article in
the Geographical Journal for Februar\\ The terms
" denudation," " erosion," " corrosion," and " corrasion "
are dealt with, and after an examination and discussion
of the uses of these terms by various geological writers.
Prof. Gregorj- makes several suggestions. He thinks it
would be convenient, with a view particularly to secure
uniformity in Europe and America, to use the terms as
follows : — denudation for the wearing down of the land
by any agency ; erosion for the widespread lowering of the
land by wind, rain, and weather, and by rivers and
glaciers acting laterally ; corrosion for the excavation by
rivers and glacier? of their beds ; corrasion dismiss as a
synonym of corrosion ; abrasion for the attack of the sea
on the land, though when used in this restricted sense it
is well to refer to the process as marine abrasion ; solution
for the action of solvents.

On February 13 Major P. H. Fawcett, R.A., lectured
before the Royal Geographical Society on the exploration
which had to be undertaken in Bolivia before the delimita-
tion of the new frontier between that country and Peru
could be carried out. Situated in the extreme north-west
of Bolivia, and watered by the Madre de Dios and its
tributaries, this plain at the foot of the eastern slopes of
the Andes is largely covered by dense forest, and the
natives have always been intensely hostile to all parties
who have attempted the exploration of this region. The
Heath river, previously hardly known, was ascended in

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

canoes, and by gaining the friendship of the natives much
assistance was gained. These Guarayos use the milky
juice of the *' manuna " or " soliman " tree, which is
perhaps to be identified with Hura crepitans, to capture
fish in the lagoons of the forest; it is poured into the
water, and every fish coming in contact with it is rendered
incapable of movement, though still alive, and in no way
impaired as food. Exploration being the object of the
expedition, little time could be given to scientific observa-
tion, and the weather rendered all astronomical observa-
tions for the determination of position impossible. Gold
is stated to occur in many parts of the foothills, and
copper, antimony, galena, and silver to exist abundantly
in a region which is still largely inaccessible.

Mr. N. a. Korostelef has collected meteorological
observations recorded by various expeditions to Novaia
Zemlia, among which those from Malyia Karmakuly ex-
tend over sixteen years (Bulletin of the Imperial
Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, No. 11, 1910).
The climate is exceedingly cold and damp, the sky is
generally overcast, and exceedingly strong winds are
fiequent, accompanied by only slight precipitation. The
variableness of the weather and of the monthly means of
the meteorological readings is very marked. The tempera-
ture of March was 194° F. in 1907 and —18° F. in 1902.
.\gain, the mean for the winter half of the year
(November-.April) was i&° F. in 1906-7 and -4° in 1901-2.
Cyclones following one another, with occasionally more
permanent anticyclones, account for the variableness of
the climate. The highest temperatures during the whole
period of observation occurred in all the months of the
year, that is, a thaw is possible in any month. On the
other hand, there was no month without frost ; once the
thermometer fell in July to 14° F. ; 1898 was remarkable
for the range of pressure, when the barometer in the short
interval from February 8 to March 16 passed from the
absolute minimum of the whole period of observation,
2831 inches, to the absolute maximum, 31-22 inches.
There is great humidity in the air in all months, the
average being 84 per cent., or 5 per cent, higher than in
St. Petersburg. The cloudiness is, on an average, three-
fourths, declining to nought in winter and rising so much
the higher in summer. The number of days in the year
with precipitation was 181 ; in October the average number
was twenty, and in one year there was in March only
one day without precipitation. The prevailing winds are
south-east and east ; only in June do they blow chiefly
from the north and north-west. The winds are verj- high,
and the greatest velocity recorded was 131 feet a second.
Not infrequently, however, the anemometer was unable to
withstand the force of the wind.

A RECENT contribution of Mr. .Alfred \V. G. Wilson to
Economic Geology (vol. v., No. 7) gives a descriptive
account of the organisation and work of the Department
of Mines of Canada. The department dates from 1907,
while the Geological Survey of Canada, the forerunner of
the present department, was first constituted in 1842.
The paper provides interesting particulars as to the
development and growth of the work of the department.
In past years the funds voted by Parliament for the service
of what is now the Department of Mines have usually
been little more than 20,oooi. It is only w^ithin the last
few years that there has been any notable increase ; for
1909-10 the total amount available was 101,000/., being
slightly more than one half of i per cent, of the annual
value of the industry for the same year. For the fiscal
year 1910-11 the total vote at the service of the depart-
ment for all purposes is about 124,000/., which includes

522

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

a special grant for the investigation of processes for pro-
•ducing zinc. In this connection, attention may be directed
to an advance chapter of the annual report on the mineral
production of Canada during 1909, which has been re-
ceived from the department, dealing with structural
materials and clay products. The chapter is by Mr. J.
McLeish, chief of the division of mineral resources and
•statistics. The subjects considered are cement, clay pro-
<lucts, lime, sand-lime brick, sands and gravels, slate and
•stone for building. It appears that 1909 was one of
record activity in the building trades. The value of
•cement sales in 1909 showed an increase of 44 per cent,
over 1908, clay products 43 per cent., and lime 58-8 per
• cent. The total value of the increase in production
amounted to well over a million pounds sterling.

The Bryn Mawr College Monographs continue to show
the activity of the institution in scientific research. Vol.
\\\\. of the reprint series contains sixteen mathematical
.and two physical papers. Miss C. A. Scott contributes an
elegant note on the construction of certain regular poly-
:gons with the help of an auxiliary hyperbola ; and among
the numerous papers by Mr. J. E. Wright, those on differ-
ential invariants may be mentioned as spxecially interesting.
The physical papers (both by ladies) are on the spectra of
sulphur dioxide and on the electric spark in a magnetic
field.

In his presidential address to Section A of the South
African Association for the Advancement of Science,

■delivered on November 2, 1910, Prof. J. C. Beattie gives
an historical account of the growth of our knowledge of
terrestrial magnetism, dealing more especially with the
magnetic elements in Africa. Prof. Beattie regards the

•establishment of one or more fixed magnetic observatories
in South Africa as an object of great scientific import-
ance, and in this he undoubtedly has the support of all
the leading magneticians of Europe. An appendix deals
•with terrestrial lines of declination, dip, and horizontal
Intensity for South Africa, based on the recent survey by
Profs. Beattie and Morrison, and contains a chart for
each of the three elements.

The December (1910) number of Terrestrial Magnetism
and Atmospheric Electricity contains a report of the Berlin
meeting of the Commission on Terrestrial Magnetism and
Atmospheric Electricity, and a useful reprint of the whole
of the resolutions passed by the commission since the
Munich meeting in 189 1. Many of these refer to the steps
.to be taken to facilitate the comparison of the results
.obtained at different observatories. For this purj>ose, it is
■xiesired that the curves of variation of declination be re-
produced to the scale of i minute of arc to i millimetre,
those of horizontal and vertical intensities to the scale of
0-00005 C.G.S. unit to I millimetre, and that for disturb-
ances the time scale be i hour to 15 millimetres. The
"importance of regular and frequent comparisons of the
Instruments used at the various observatories is insisted
on. So far, nothing appears to have been done to carry
:OUt the suggestion of the commission that magnetic
observatories be established along the magnetic meridian
passing through the centre of Africa.

Separate copies have been received of two communica-
"'ions made by Dr. F. Jentzsch, of Wetzlar, to the meet-
ing of the German Naturforscher und Arzte at Konigs-
3erg in September last, which have appeared in the
ferhandhingen- der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft.
I'hey deal with appliances designed by the author for
improving the ultramicroscope. It will be remembered
^hat in the ultramicroscope as used hitherto the light has

NO.. 2 I 55, VOL. 85]

impinged on one side only of the object. Dr. Jentzsch's
concentric condenser and ultracondenser receive the light
along the axis of the microscope. It is reflected by a
surface underneath the object, and, after further reflection,
crosses the axis at right angles at the point at which the
object is placed. An intense beam of light is thus pro-
duced, and the arrangement has the advantage that it
can be fitted to an ordinary microscof>e.

According to a circular issued by the Bureau of
Standards at Washington in December, 1910, the Bureau
on January 1 adopted the value 1-0183 international
volts for the electromotive force of the Weston normal cell
at 20° C. This is equivalent to an increase of 008 per
cent, in the value of the international volt as used by thr
Bureau. The above value has been arrived at by an inter-
national investigation carried out at the Bureau of
Standards by representatives of the Bureau, the National
Physical Laboratory, the Reichsanstalt, and the Labora-
toire Central, and is to be adopted by all these institutions
so soon as the various Governments pass the necessary
legislation (see p. 508). The international ohm, our
readers will remember, is the resistance of a mercury
column at 0° C, 106-3 centimetres long, of uniform cross-
section, and of mass 14-4521 grams, and the international
ampere deposits o-ooiii8 gram of silver per second.

In a paper read at the February evening meeting of the
Pharmaceutical Society, Dr. W. H. Martindale suggested
that rounded-off atomic weights should be adopted in the
new " Pharmacopoeia." The atomic weights of elements
emploj'ed in the pharmacopoeias of different nations show
considerable variation in magnitude, especially with regard
to the first, second, and third place of decimals. The
figures for such important elements as arsenic, bismuth,
bromine, chlorine, iodine, lithium, silver, and sodium vary
particularly, and the variations are not accounted for by
the fact that the oxygen standard is adopted by some and
the hydrogen standard by others. Dr. Martindale 's opinion
is that, with the exception of the weights for chlorine,
copper, and strontium, it might be better to do away \v!;'.i
the decimal proportions altogether, and that a rounded-off
series of figures like those in the French "Pharmaco-
poeia " would be sufficiently accurate for pharmaceutical
purposes. If rounded-off international standards could be
arranged, so much the better.

The Journal of the Chemical Society for January con-
tains the reply of Prof. Komppa, of Helsingfors, to tli
criticisms of Messrs. "Leblanc and J. F. Thorpe on h:
synthesis of camphoric acid. The critical point in th
synthesis depends upon the point of attachment of th
last methyl-group introduced into the molecule, whic
Komppa regards as attached to carbon (as in camphor:
acid), whilst Leblanc and Thorpe have urged that its reao>
removal by alkalies proves it 10 be attached to oxygen.
The original proof that the methyl-group was attached to
carbon was based very largely on the fact that camphoric
acid was actually prepared from the methylated compound,
but it is now shown, further, (i) that the ester contair
the group — CO — CO—, because it forms a colourin,
matter with o-phenylene diamine, resembling in this
respect the whole series of ortho-quinones, but contrasting
sharply with an isomeric ester in which the grouping
changed in the manner suggested by Leblanc and Thorp
to —CO— C(OCH3)=, and (2) that the Zeisel method o
analysis indicates the presence of only two — OCH, group
in the ester, although the isomeric ester actually gives th
three — OCH3 groups postulated by Leblanc and Thorp-
So much interest has attached to this synthesis, as settling

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

523

Hpyond all question the structural formula of camphor,
lat the confirmation now given of the validity of the
\nthesis is of considerable value and importance.

An article on petrol-engine ratings appears in Etigineer-
>ig for February lo. It has never been altogether clear
\ hy so much ingenuity has been expended in the invention
i>f formulae which will give the horse-power of a petrol
. ngine in terms of its physical dimensions, especially as
most builders of such engines are quite prepared to state
the actual brake-horse-power which has been given by any
of their engines. In 1906 the Royal Automobile Club
settled on the well-known formula B.H.P. =o-4D^N. This
formula is founded on an assumed mean effective pressure
of 67-2 lb. per square inch and a piston speed of 1000 feet
per minute. A report was presented at the meeting of the
Incorporated Institution of Automobile Engineers on
February 8, drawn up by the horse-power-formula com-
mittee. A new formula is given which avoids the objec-
tions raised to that given above, viz. the assumption of
values for both the mean pressure and the piston speed,
and the form being such that no correction can be applied
for the increase of mean pressure which takes place with
increase in the diameter of the cylinders, or for the
increase in piston s{)eed which occurs with an increased
stroke-bore ratio. The committee's formula is based on
the results of tests on 144 actual engines, and is as
follows : —

B.H.P. = o-45(d + s)(d-i.i8)N,

where d is the bore of the cylinder in inches, s the stroke
of the piston in inches, and N is the number of cylinders.

We are informed that, owing to an alteration in the
publications, papers read before the Physical Society of
London in future will appear, in general, only in the Pro-
ceedings of the society, and not in the Philosophical
Magasine. The Proceedings and other publications are
now obtainable by the public from the publishers to the
society, The Electrician Printing and Publishing Company,
Ltd., I, 2, and 3 Salisburv Court, Fleet Street, London,
E.C.

The eighteenth report of the Leicester Museum and Art
Gallery Committee to the Town Council for the year
ended March 31, 19 10, has been received. The long-
projected extension and reconstruction of the museum and
art gallery buildings have now been commenced.
Important additions were made to the museum during the
j'ear ; in the department of Coleoptera and economic
entomology, a collection of 6000 sf>ecimens of 1300 species
was presented by Mr. C. B. Headly, and 40S specimens of
356 species, chiefly from Leicestershire, were given by Mr.
F. Bouskell.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

Nova Lacert.^;. — Several further notes on Nova Lacertae
^>pear in the Astronomische Xachrichten. In No. 4470
Prof. Pickering gives particulars concerning the earlier
history of the star, according to the Harvard collection of
photographs, and states that spectrum photographs by Mr.
E. S. King showed eleven bright lines. Prof. Nijland
gives the results of magnitude observations at Utrecht
showing a gradual decrease in the nova's brightness from
7*40 on January i and 2 to 8-30 on January 16; the colour
was fairly constant at 3-7, and is found to be similar to
that of the long-period variables R Arietis, T Cassiopeiae,
and S Ursae Maj. at their maxima. Photographic
magnitude observations at Munich, reported by Dr. Kiihl,
agree with the above in showing a somewhat similar
decrease over the same period

In No. 4471 Dr. Max Wolf gives the measures of the
nova's position on plates taken on January 17 and in 1904,
and raises the question whether the slight difference of
oios. in R.A. may be ascribed to proper motion.

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

Mr. P. M. Ryves has communicated to us his observa-
tions of the nova's magnitude, made at Zaragoza, Spain^-
between January 5 and February 5. The observations
were made with a 3-inch telescope, Harvard and D.M.
magnitudes being taken for the comparison stars, and
show a steady decrease from 72 to 8-6 in the observed
magnitudes.

A further note concerning the spectrum of the nova, as
photographed at the Meudon Observatory, is contributed
by M. Idrac to the Comptes rendus for February 6. Three
fine nights, January 28-31, permitted him to secure photo-
graphs with from one to three hours' exposure on pan-
chromatic plates. The very broad, bright hydrogen lines
are seen to be divided into two components, of which the-
brighter show a " shift " of 7 .-Vngstroms towards the
red, while the fainter are displaced 16 Angstroms towards
the violet ; a dark line, possibly double, occurs on the
violet side of H7. In the jellow there are three bright
bands, at about X 587-4 (probably helium, 587-6), \ 575-4,
and A 567-5, while the green shows a band, about 30-
Angstroms broad, having its centre near X 500, and a
bright line at A 493-7. The band at A 465, mentioned in
the earlier communication, is shown to be multiple, having^
maxima at A 462 and A 466, with a fainter component at
A 470 ; the bright lines near A 437-4 and A 458-3 are also
shown, but appear less marked than previously- Other
maxima and minima mark the continuous spectrum, and
are probably indicative of lines or bands beyond the
separating power of the spectr<^raph ; such maxima are
well marked in the neighbourhood of A 425 and A 445.
The presence of nebula lines in the spectrum is open to-
question, but the strong band near A 500 suggests the
possible presence of the chief nebula line ; its great width,
however, prevents any definite solution of the question ; iir
fact, all the wave-lengths given may only be accepted as
approximations.

Ephemeris for Faye's Comet. — To No. 4469 of the-
Astronomische Nachrichten Dr. Ebell contributes a daily
ephemeris for Faye's comet, based on the elements pub-
lished in No. 187 of the Lick Observatory Bulletins, and
extending to March 27. At present the object is very near
to ir' Orionis, and is calculated to be a little fainter than
the thirteenth magnitude ; its motion is easterly, with a
slight northern trend.

Standard Astrometrv. — An important suggestion as to
the publication of results obtained in accordance with the
scheme of the International Astrographic Conference is-
made by Mr. W. E.- Cooke in No. 4470 of the Astro- ■
nomische Xachrichten. This scheme embodies the observa-'
tion of a definite list of fundamental stars by observatories-
equipped to carry out such work with the greatest possible
accuracy. Other stars, etoiles de repere, will be con-
nected with these by careful differential obsenations
through a third set of stars employed as " intermediate-
standards." Mr. Cooke's suggestion is that while ihe-
differential observations should be made with the greatest
possible accuracy, the results should be published in such '
a manner as to show the standards upon which each-
catalogued position depends.

The value of the suggestion is obvious. Although the-
international fundamental catalogue will probably be far
superior to any now existing, future improvements in the
standards are inevitable, and if Mr. Cooke's plan is
followed, future observers will be able to reduce the
individual published observations to the improved"
standards.

Mr. Cooke has followed this plan in vol. iv. of the
Perth Observatory Meridian Observations, 31° to 33° S.
(1900), recently received, and in an appendix he gives-
blank columns in which the corrections, dependent upoir
the future improvement of the places given in the " Perth"
Catalogue of Standard Stars, 1905-0," can readily be
inserted. '

New Spectroscopic Binaries. — Lick Bulletin No. 182
gives the measures of a number of stars of which the
radial velocities have recently been discovered to be-'
variable. The following were discovered on plates secured
at Santiago, generally with the two-prism instrument, and"
are described by Mr. J. H. Moore : — A Hydri, y Mensae,
{ Columbae, h^ and h^ Puppis, 5 Antliae, 0^ Crucis, 4 " and
h Centauri, and d Lupi ; for h Centauri Mr. Paddock finds
a period of about 16-7 days. Observations made during^'

5^4

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

1904-7 show that ^ Gruis is a binary with a range of
velocity from —8-7 to +17 km.

Variations in the radial velocities of the following stars
have also been detected from Lick and Santiago observa-
tions, and are rejx>rted by Prof. Campbell : — 16 Aurigae,
Oj Canis Maj., 12 Comae Berenices, 4 Ursae Min., t and
36 Ophiuchi, / Draconis, A Sagittarii, and o Cygni. In
the case of i Ophiuchi, a plate taken on April 28, 19 10,
shows that the line at X 4481 distinctly double, giving
radial velocities of —77 km. and +9-2 km. for the two
components. Fifteen plates of a Cygni, taken between
August, 1896, and December, 1909, show that the
variability of the velocity is not great, the range being
from o to 7-9 km.

Observations of Jupiter's Galilean Satellites. — In
No. 5 of the Transvaal Observatory Circulars, Mr. Innes
gives an account of the observations of Jupiter's satellites
made at the observatory during December, 1909, to August,
19 10. The observations were made with the 9-inch re-
fractor, and, in addition to the times of occultations and
transits, remarks are added as to the appearance of the
satellite, the phenomena of its disappearance or reappear-
ance, and the appearance of various belts on the planet
itself. Mr. Innes records that on February 16, 19 10, the
final occultation of J iii was long drawn out ; whereas
five-sixths of the satellite was occulted in 6^ minutes, the
remaining one-sixth took another 6m. los. When half the
satellite was occulted, the remaining half had the appear-
ance of a close double star alongside Jupiter's edge.
Satellites i and in were occasionally remarked to be oval
rather than round, and several spots and markings were
seen on their discs. An unpredicted partial transit of iv
across the N. pole of Jupiter occurred on August 14, 1910.

A CONFIRMATION OF THE DISINTEGRATION
THEORY.^

TT is probable that the transition from radium through
■^ the emanation to radium D involves the loss of four
a particles, that is, four atoms of helium. The atomic
weight of radium may now be taken to be 226-4, ^"<i if>
on changing into niton, one a particle is lost, it is to be
expected that the atomic weight of niton should be 222-4,
for 226-4 — 4 = 222-4. But attempts to estimate the density
of niton by determinations of its rate of diffusion have in
most cases yielded the value 176 to 180, though Perkins,
comparing the diffusion-rate with that of mercury vapour,
obtained the value 235; and Debierne, using Bunsen's
method of causing the gas to issue through a minute hole,
arrived at the value 220. Undoubtedly the emanation
belongs to the series of the inactive gases, and to com-
plete the series — helium, 4 ; neon, 20 ; argon, 40 ; krypton,
83 ; and xenon, 130 — there is room for two higher members
with atomic weights 178 and 222-4.

It might happen that, in the disintegration of radium
to niton, a non-radio-active substance might be produced
of atomic weight 44 ; the change would then be : —
radium (226-4) = helium (4)-f- (say) scandium (44)-|-niton (178-4).

The only certain method of ascertaining the molecular
weight of a gas is the determination of its density ; and
in this case it is almost certain that the gas is monatomic,
and that its molecular and atomic weights are identical.
This constant has now been determined by the help of a
balance closely resembling one recently described by Steele
and Grant in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

For details of the construction and use of the balance,
the original paper must be referred to ; suffice it to say
here that its sensibility is about two or three millionths
of a milligram. The weight is ascertained by the altera-
tion of the pressure in the balance-case, thus altering the
buoyancy of a small bulb of silica containing about 20
cubic millimetres of air, the weight of which is 0-027
milligrani, or 27,000 millionths of a milligram.

A preliminary experiment, in which 0-0977 cubic milli-
metre of xenon was weighed, gave its weight as 578
millionths of a milligram instead of the calculated 577 ; it
was thus shown that fairly good results might be expected
in determining the density of the emanation.

^ " The Density of Niton (Radium Emanation) aud the Disintegration
Theory." Bv R. Whytlaw Gray and Sir William Ramsay, F.R.S. Abstract
of paper read before the Royal Society on January 12.

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

In a month, the emanation may be taken as having
wholly changed into its degradation products, the chief ot
which is radium D ; and an experiment was made in which
a minute density-tube was left on the balance for three
months before it was opened, evacuated, and reweighed.
The loss was helium, and its weight was 27 millionths of
a milligram ; the calculated weight, on the assumption
that the density of niton is 222-4/2 = 111-2, and that each
volume of the emanation yields three volumes of niton
on disintegrating, should have been 38 millionths. This
helium, judging from previous experience, had probably
penetrated the glass of the density-tube and been retained
there. The tube was therefore heated in vacuo, and the
evolved helium washed out with a cubic centimetre of
oxygen ; the gases were transferred to a measuring
apparatus, and after absorbing the oxygen by charcoal
cooled with liquid air, the helium was measured. Calcu-
lating the volume to weight, its weight must have been
8 millionths ; and the sum of 8 and 27 gives 35, instead
of the calculated 38 millionths of a milligram. A further
proof is thus given of the conclusion drawn by Ramsay
and Soddy from the measurement of the volume of niton,
and of the hefium into which it changes, that the latter
is three times the former.

Five determinations of the density of niton were made;;
stated as atomic weights, the figures are : — 227, 226, 225,
220, and 218; the mean is 223. This number is the one;
calculated on the assumption that when radium disinte- '
grates, the only immediate products are niton and helium,
226-4 = 222-4-1-4.

In suggesting the name niton for the cumbrous ex-
pression " radium emanation," the authors point out that
it is advisable to indicate by a similar name the fact that
this gas belongs to the argon series ; were its radio-active
relations to be emphasised, as in the term " radium
emanation," it would be necessary to rename radium as
a derivative of uranium by some such name as woul<f
introduce the word uranium.

The authors regard the work as a further proof, if anj
were needed, of the beautiful disintegration theory
Rutherford and Soddy.

SAFETY LAMPS AND THE DETECTION OF
FIRE-DAMP.

Wl^ have received from the Home Office a leaflet and
'* a card in a convenient form for carrying about in
the pocket, upon which are shown, reproduced in colour,
the appearances presented by the miner's lamp in the pre-
scence of fire-damp. The difficulty of reproducing the appear-
ances presented by a fire-damp " cap" in the safety lamp
is very great, but it must be admitted that the illustrations
issued by the Home Office are of a very high standard of
excellence, whether considered from the artistic or from
the technical point of view. Necessarily, these illustra-
tions suffer from various defects : the Home Office does
not state what class of lamp was employed or the nature
of the oil burnt in it, and it is a well-known fact that j
these conditions influence greatly the nature and appear- ;
ance of the cap. It is, for example, very well known that f
the Wolf lamp, burning benzene, is more sensitive than an
ordinary Massant lamp burning, say, colza, or a mixture
of colza and mineral oil.

We very much doubt whether one man in ten would b
able to see I5 per cent, of fire-damp, as indicated on tl;
card, the lower limit of visibility with most men bein.
about 2 per cent. It is, of course, well known that men
eyes differ very considerably in the power of seeing the-
faint caps, and the representations here given are of cap
as they appear to a man whose eyesight is well develop-
by training and well fitted by nature for seeing the?
delicate phenomena. It is a pity that the Home Offic
has not directed the attention of miners more strong!}
upon the card, in the same way as it has done in it>
leaflet, to the danger attending far smaller proportions of
fire-damp than the lamp can detect in the presence of
coal-dust.

It is to be feared that the issue of the card without sue'
a caution as we have referred to, will induce among miner
the fixed opinion that they are perfectly safe so long a>
their lamp shows no cap. But it is well recognised that a

1

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

525

r smaller percentage of fire-damp than any lamp will
tect may be the source of the gravest danger in the
-^sence of coal-dust, and we hope that, in subsequent
issues, the Home Office will see its way to lay the
strongest possible stress upon this fact. The average pit-
man is only too prone to believe that anything which
the Home Office does not distinctly declare to be
dangerous, must be absolutely safe, and every care should
be taken to dispel so fatal a confidence.

FLIES AS CARRIERS OF ISFECTIOS'.^
T^HE reports referred to below include the results
■*• obtained in the further investigations concerning
flies as carriers of infection. These are considered under
the following heads : — (i) observations on the ways in
which artificially infected flies (Musca dotnestica) carry
and distribute pathc^enic and other bacteria, by Dr. G. S.
Graham-Smith ; (2) summar\- of literature relating to the
bionomics of the parasitic fungus of flies {Empusa
muscae), by Mr. Julius Bernstein ; (3) note as to work in
hand, but not yet published, and as to proposed further
work in reference to flies as carriers of infection, by E>r.
S. Monckton Copeman, F.R.S.

Dr. Graham Smith gives the results of an elaborate
series of experiments in connection with the role which
house-flies are supposed to play in the dissemination of
disease. He has proved conclusively (a) that in artificially
infected flies non-spore-bearing pathogenic bacteria do not
survive on the legs and wings for more than a few hours
(five to eighteen) ; (b) that these bacteria (a) frequently
survived within the crop for several days, and usually for
a longer period in the intestine ; (c) that the faeces and
regurgitated fluids (" vc«nit ") often contain the organisms
(a) in considerable numbers, and that they may remain
infective for varying periods ; (d) that " the only spores
(B. anthracis) with which experiments were made survived
on the legs and wings, in the crop and inteotine, and also
in the faeces, for many days.

His somewhat premature conclusions regarding naturally
infected flies are that cultures of pathogenic organisms
may occasionally be obtained from them, but that this
does not " afford conclusive evidence that such flies are
a frequent source of disease in man by infecting food
materials." Several of the photographic illustrations
accompanying this memoir are extremely poor and of
little scientific value.

Dr. Bernstein's contribution consists of a short resumi
of the literature relating to the fungus Empusa muscae
(Cohn).

Dr. Monckton Copeman has elaborated an excellent
organisation for the elucidation of the question as to the
range of flight of house-flies, and trials will also be made of
the respective value of various baits that have been proposed
from time to time for attracting and killing flies. The
results of these investigations will doubtless prove of great
value, and materially assist in the methods of controlling
this ubiquitous pest.

REPORTS OF METEOROLOGICAL
OBSERVATORIES.
JlfADRID OBSERVATORY {1902-5).— The meteor-
ological observations for these four years are
included in one volume (recently published). The data for
each year are divided into three sections : — (i) daily
observations and monthly means ; (2) monthly and annual
summaries, with differences from normal values ; (3) daily
sunshine observations, with monthly and yearly sum-
maries. This volume completes the series of these valu-
able observations, which for subsequent years have been
published in yearly volumes. The observations call for
no special remark, except that they appear to have been
very carefully made, and that full information of instru-
ments and methods is supplied. The average amount of
sunshine during the four years was 66 per cent, of the
possible amount, as compared with twenty-five years'
normal of 44 per cent, at Jersey.

1 Funher Reports (No. 3) on Flies as Carriers of Infection. Reports to
the Local Government Board on Public Health and Medical Subjects (new
•eriM, No. 40). Pp. 48+7 plates. (London: Printed for His Majesty's
StaticnerY Office, igto.) Price gJ.

xNO. 2155, VOL. 85]

Royal Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory,
Batavia (1907). — The observations include hourly readings
and results, and a list of the earthquakes and tremors
registered by Milne's seismograph and Ehlert's horizontal
pendulum. The mean temperature of the year was
26-0° C, which is practically normal. The month with
highest mean of daily maximum was October, 31-0° C,
and that with lowest mean minima August, 22-6° C. The
absolute maximum was 34-5°, in October ; minimum,
20-4°, in June. The mean magnetic results were : —
declination, 0° 52-21' E. ; horizontal intensity, 0-367105
(C.G.S.); dip, 30° 5517' S. ; vertical force, 0-219877
(C.G.S.). A new series of observations of upper clouds
was started in 1907, and the observatory is cooperating
with the Zurich astronomical observatory' for the observa-
tion of sun-spots. A regular service of kite and balloon
ascents has also been recently established.

Odessa Observatory (1908).— The meteorok)gical observa-
tions for this year have been published by Prof. B. V.
Stankevitsch, who has been appointed director in the place
of Prof. Klossovsky. In addition to the usual observa-
tions for the year, a useful summary of the results for
1870-1908 is given. The mean annual temperature is
50-2° ; January 26-6°, July 73-8° ; absolute maximum,
96-4° in July, minimum, — 18-8° in Februar>-. The aver-
age number of days of frost is 91. The average
annual rainfall is 1598 inches ; the wettest year,
2462 inches, the dryest, 8-97 Inches. The greatest fall in
one day was 3-1 inches. .An appendix contains an account
of magnetic determinations made by the director in the
summer of 1908 in the governments of Smolensk and
Kaluga.

Mysore. Rainfall Registration (1909). — The tables show
monthly, seasonal, and yearly values for stations and dis-
tricts, also averages extending over many years. The
values for 1909, and average annual values, are also
exhibited on maps. The rainfall of 1909 was verj- favour-
able as compared with that for 1907 and 1908. For the
whole province, the year's aggregate was 42-44 inches,
being 5-50 inches, or 15 per cent., above the normal. On
the whole, the excess was greatest in January, caused by
a cyclonic storm crossing the south of the peninsula to the
Arabian Sea. The greatest falls in twenty-four hours
were ii-io inches in Shimt^a district (July 12) and 13-96
inches in Kadur (June 6).

ASSOCIATION OF TECHNICAL INSTITU-
TIONS.

'T'HE eighteenth annual conference of the .Association of
■*■ Technical Institutions was held at the Stationers'
Hall on February 10 and 11. Sir Henry Hibbert, the
president for the forthcoming year, delivered his address
in the afternoon of Friday. In the course of the address
he pointed out that modern labour conditions render it
difficult for a boy to learn every branch of his trade. It
is therefore necessary that workshop practice should be
supplemented by the technical school. Day training classes
must be developed in order that those who are to take the
leading positions in great industrial concerns — the master,
his sons, managers, and foremen — may be scientifically
equipped, but the bulk of the provision of technical educa-
tion must be made by and through evening classes. He
would like to extend the day-school life — no boy to leave
school before the age of fourteen, and then to have a part-
time system up to seventeen. Students should not be
allowed to specialise too early. He would make prepara-
tory classes compulsory' before students were allowed to
join trade classes. To avoid irregularity" of attendance,
employers of labour must be got thoroughly in sympathy
with the organised efforts of education authorities. Con-
ditions have changed since the time when a man could
say he had succeeded without education. The education,
provided at the secondary schools under the regulations of
the Board of Education is not that required by children
who are able to remain at school for a limited period
prior to entering on industrial pursuits. For these special
schools are required. He believed that British employers
are not awakening to the necessity of strengthening their
producing power by the employment of highly , skilled
workmen.

526

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

The first part of the meeting on the Saturday morning
was occupied in a severe criticism of the Board of Educa-
tion. The association has frequently had to complain in
previous years of the late issue of the regulations, but this
last time the Board issued the regulations only just before
the commencement of the session, and at the same time
it suddenly insisted upon the substitution of a new and
complicated system of registration for the systems which
had previously been used by local authorities throughout
the country. Strong letters of protest were sent by the
council of the association to the Board, and at the meet-
ing on Saturday a discussion upon the subject was opened
by Mr. Crowther (Halifax), who pointed out that the
multiplication of registers which the Board's regulations
required rendered accurate registration almost impossible,
and it appeared as though they considered educational
efficiency a matter of small moment so long as statistics
were obtained. Other speakers followed, all condemning
the Board's action, and the meeting unanimously passed a
resolution approving of the action of the council and of
the request made by the council that the Board should
receive a deputation upon the subject.

During a discussion which followed upon the Course
System, speakers from different parts of the country showed
that, by insisting upon the junior students taking projierly
organised courses, although at first there was usually some
diminution in the number of individual students, this was
more than compensated for by the better work and the
greater, regularity of attendance which always followed.
Very striking statistics were furnished by ' more than
one) speaker. Mr. Reynolds, of Manchester, said that local
education authorities, who bore not only the lion's share
of the expense, but the lion's share of the hard work,
would not submit to the Board's ukase in these
matters. Local effort was the very essence of success in
educational administration. He had no sympathy with the
idea that a boy or girl who had been irregular in attend-
ance at one class of a particular course should be required
to discontinue the whole course. The difficulties and
exigencies of life were such that it was often very difficult
for boys and girls to maintain a continuous attendance.
Educationists must fight for the principle that boys and
girls between the ages of fourteen and seventeen should
work a limited number of hours a week in order that they
may be able to continue the education which up to the age
of fourteen had cost the country so much. He was
strongly opposed to insisting upon any rigid course system
in the case of adult students. At a school of technology
there were so many varieties of students that it was
impossible to force them into courses. Several other
speakers emphasised this point of view, and at the close
of the discussion the following resolution was moved by
Dr. Clay and carried unanimously :—

" While it is desirable that, as a rule, young students
should be required to take systematic courses of
study, the enforcement of similar courses in the case of
adult students is strongly to be deprecated, and a
large discretion should be left in the case of all courses, so
that special conditions and local circumstances may receive
due consideration."

The members of the association were entertained at
luncheon by the Stationers' Company on Friday, Februarv
10. The master acted as host, and proposed the toast of
the Association, to which Dr. Glazebrook, the retiring presi-
dent, replied. Sir Philip Magnus, in proposing the toast
of the Board of Education and Local Education .Authori-
ties, remarked upon the great development of the Board's
work which had occurred during the time in which Sir
Robert Morant had been in charge, which he said had
increased by some four-fold. Sir Robert Morant, and Mr.
Hastings Jay, the chairman of the London County Council
Education Committee, replied.

PROGRESS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTI-
TUTION.^
J^URING^ the past year the institution's activities have
been increased to some degree by gifts for the pro-
rnotion of certain special lines of study, particularlv in
biological research. Among the important works 'that

1 From the report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insttution,
Dr. C. D. Walcott, for the year ending June 30, 1910.

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

might be undertaken, I would especially direct atteni
to the great advantage to the United States and to .
world that would result from the establishment of
national seismological laboratory under the direction
the Smithsonian Institution.

Proposed National Seismological Laboratory.

The immense destruction of life and property by certnin
large earthquakes emphasises the importance of investi^
tions which may lead to a reduction of the damage
future earthquakes. The science of seismology is in
infancy, and it is not always evident what lines of inve-
gation will yield the most important results, hence i
importance of developing larger knowledge of seismok.
in all directions. As an example : It was not at .
realised that the accurate surveys of the Coast ai 1
Geodetic Survey in California would demonstrate that the
great earthquake there in 1906 was due to forces set up
by slow movements of the land which have probably been
going on for a hundred years. We have learned that slow
movements of the land must precede many large earth-
quakes, and monuments are now being set up In Cali-
fornia to enable us to discover future movements of the
land, and thus to anticipate future earthquakes. This, I
think, is the most important step so far taken toward t'
prediction of earthquakes.

Seismological work is too large to be prosecuted succ< -
fully by the universities, but requires some central office
under Government supervision to encourage theoretical andf
observational studies and to collect and study information
from all available sources. The seismological laboratory
would serve as a clearing house for the whole country.
It would also be the link to connect seismological work
in the United States with the work done in other parts
of the world.

The work of the laboratory would thus be : — (i) Coll- -
tion and study of all information regarding earthquakes
in the United States and its possessions. The preparation
of maps showing the distribution of earthquakes and their
relation to geological structure. (2) The study of special
regions which are subject to frequent earthquakes to
determine, so far as possible, where future earthquakes
are likely to occur. (3) The study of the origins of earth-
quakes occurring under the neighbouring oceans. (4) An
organisation of commissions to study in the field the
effects produced by large earthquakes. {5) The study of
proper methods of building in regions subject to earth-
quakes. This will require experiment. (6) The improve-
ment of instruments for recording earthquakes. (7) Other
theoretical studies. (8) The dissemination of information
regarding earthquakes by bulletins or otherwise.
Smithsonian African Expedition.

In the last report there was given an account of the
setting out of the expedition to Africa In charge of Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt, and of the results accomplished prior
to June 30, 1909. This expedition, which was entirely
financed from private sources through contributions by
friends of the Smithsonian Institution, landed at Mombasa
on April 21, 1909, and arrived at Khartoum on March 14,
1910. The collections made by it reached Washington
in excellent condition, and are now deposited in the
National Museum. The series of large and small
mammals from East Africa is, cbllectively, probably mopt
valuable than is to be found in any other museum of th^
world. The series of birds, reptiles, and plants are al»
of great importance, and the study of the material repre*
senting other groups will furnish Interesting resul'-
Colonel Roosevelt reports on the work of the expedit;
as follows : —

" We spent eight months in British East Africa. ^^
collected carefully in various portions of the Athi ar
Kapiti plains, in th6 Sotik and around Lake Nalvash
Messrs. Mearns and Loring made a thorough biologic
survey of Mount Kenia, while the rest of the party skirted
its western base, went to and up the Guaso Nyero, and
later visited the Uasin Gisbu region and both sides of th"
Rift Valley. Messrs. Kermit Roosevelt and Tarlton w^-
to the Leikipia Plateau and Lake Hannington, and D:
Mearns and Kermit Roosevelt made separate trips to t!
coast region near Mombasa. On December 19 the expcti
tion left East Africa, crossed Uganda, and went down th
White Nile. ...

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

5^7

" On the trip Mr. Heller has prepared 1020 specimens
of mammals, the majority of large sizes ; Mr. Loring has
prepared 3163, and Dr. Mearns 714, a total of 4897
mammals. Of birds, Dr. Mearns has prepared nearly
3100, Mr. Loring 899, and Mr. Heller about 50, a total
of about 4000 birds. Of reptiles and batrachians, Messrs.
Mearns^ Loring, and Heller collected about 2000.

•' Of fishes, about 500 were collected. Dr. Mearns
collected marine fishes near Mombasa and fresh-water
fishes elsewhere in British East Africa, and he and
•Cuninghame collected fishes in the White Nile. This
.^akes in all of vertebrates : mammals, 4897 ; birds, about
.1000 ; reptiles and batrachians, about 2000 ; fishes, about
); total, 11,397.

"The invertebrates were collected carefully by Dr.
Mearns, with some assistance from Messrs. Cuninghame
and Kermit Roosevelt. A few marine shells were collected
near Mombasa, and land and fresh-water shells through-
cut the regions visited, as well as crabs, beetles, milli-
peda, and other invertebrates.

" Several thousand plants were collected throughout the
regions visited by Dr. Mearns. . . . Anthropological
materials were gathered by Dr. Mearns, with some assist-
ance from others."

Cambrian Geology and Palaeontology.

During the field season of 1909 I continued my investi-
gations in the geology of the Cambrian and pre-Cambrian
rocks of the Bow River Valley, Alberta, Canada, and on
the west side of the Continental Divide north of the
Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia.

The measurements of the Cambrian section were carried
down to a massive conglomerate which forms the base of
the Cambrian system in this portion of the Rocky Moun-
tains. This discovery led to the study of the pre-Cambrian
rocks of the Bow River Valley. These were found to
form a series of sandstones and shales some 4000 feet in
thickness, that appear to have been deposited in fresh-
water lakes prior to the incursion of the marine waters in
■which the great bed of conglomerate and the Cambrian
rocks above were deposited.

Study of American Mammals.

Through the generosity of a friend of the institution,
Mrs. E. H. Harriman, there has been provided a trust
fund yielding an income of 2400Z. a year, which is placed
under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution for the
specific purpose of carrying on scientific studies, particu-
larly of American mammals and other animals, the donor
^ecifying Dr. C. Hart Merriam as the investigator to
carr\- on the work during his lifetime.

Biological Survey of the Panama Canal Zone.

It is gratifying to state that it now seems possible that
^n exhaustive biological survey of the Panama Canal Zone
will be undertaken in the winter of 1910-11. Definite
plans for this surv'ey have not been decided up)on at pre-
sent, but these are now under consideration, and it is
hoped that all the arrangements may be completed and
4he work put in hand in a few months.

It is particularly important to science that a biok^ical
survey of the Canal Zone be made at this time, as it
appears, without question, that it would yield important
scientific results, both as regards additions to knowledge
and to the collections of the L'nited States National
Museum and other museums. While the Isthmus is not
so well endowed with large forms as the great continental
areas, such as Africa, southern Asia, and some other
jegions, yet its fauna and flora are rich and diversified.
;The collecting which has been carried on there has been
on such a rather limited scale, and chiefly along trade
routes, that an extensive and thorough survey would surely
produce new scientific information of great value.
. A part of the fresh-water streams of the Isthmus of
'Panama empty into the Atlantic Ocean and others into
the Pacific Ocean. It is known that a certain number of
-animals and plants in the streams on the Atlantic side
are different from those of the Pacific side, but as no
exact biological surve>" has ever been undertaken, the
extent and magnitude of these differences have yet to be
learned. It is also of the utmost scientific importance to

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

determine exactly the geographical distrfbution of the
various organisms inhabiting those waters, as the Isthmus
is one of the routes by which the animals and plants of
South America have entered North America, and vice
versa. When the canal is completed, the organisms of
the various watersheds will be offered a ready means of
mingling t<^ether, the natural distinctions now existing
will be obliterated, and the data for a true understanding
of the fauna and flora placed for ever out of reach.

By the construction of the Gatun dam, a vast fresh-
water lake will be created, which will drive away or
drown the majority of the animals and plants now inhaoit-
ing the locality, and quite f>ossibly exterminate some
species before they become known to science.

Antiquity of Man in South America.

In March, 1910, the institution directed Dr. .'\les
Hrdlicka, curator of the division of physical anthropolt^v.
United States National Museum, to proceed to South
America and Panama Canal Zone for the purpose of
making anthropological researches, and particularly to
undertake investigation into the question of man's
antiquity in .\rgentina. Dr. Hrdliclca was accompanied
by Mr. Bailey Willis, of the United States Geological
Survey.

The subject of man's antiquity in South America dates
from the meagre reports concerning the scattered remains
in the Lagoa Santa caves in Brazil, the casual Seguin
finds in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, and the
Moreno collection of old Patagonian material in the valley
of Rio Negro, and it has assumed a special importance
during the last decade through a relatively large number
of reports by Argentinian men of science, but particularly
by Prof. F. Ameghino, of new finds of the remains of
ancient man and of traces of his activities. Some of these
more recent finds were so interpreted that, if corroborated,
they would have a most important bearing, not merely on
man's early presence in the South American continent, but
on the evolution and the spread of mankind in general.

Under these conditions, and in view of the fact that
some of the reports were not fully satisfactory as to their
anatomical or geological details, it was deemed necessary
to send down competent men who might subject the whole
matter to critical revision.

The researches occupied nearly two months. Everv-
specimen relating to ancient man that could still be found
was examined, and every locality of importance where the
finds were made was visited and investigated. The
evidence gathered, unfortunately, does not sustain a large
part of the claims that have been made. The human
bones and the archaeological specimens which should
represent geologically ancient man agree in all important
characteristics with the bones and work of the American
Indian ; and the finds, while often in close relation with
earlv Quaternary or Tertian.- deposits, bear, so far as
observed, only intrusive relations to these deposits.
Furthermore, there are specimens the original sources of
which are not so well established that scientific deductions
of great consequence can be safely drawn therefrom, even
though they present some morphological peculiarities.

The expedition secured numerous geological, palaeonto-
Ic^ical, and anthropological specimens, some of which
throw much light on the question of the antiquity of the
finds to which they relate. These specimens are being
identified and described in the National Museum. Dr.
Hrdlicka and Mr. Willis will present in due time a detailed
report on their investigations.

Following the researches in Argentina, Dr. Hrdlicka
visited several of the anthropologically important locali-
ties on the coast of Peru and made large collections of
skeletal material, which will help to settle definitely the
racial problems of these regions, and will have an
important bearing on the anthropology- of the western
part of South America.

Astrophysical Observatory.

The work of the Astrophysical Observatory during the
year has brought two important results : —

(i) The first result is the establishment of an absolute
scale of pyrheliometrv- within three parts in one thousand
as the result of a long series of experiments with various

528

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

pyrheliometers. The establishment of this scale through
Mr. Abbot's standard pyrheliometer has been supple-
mented by the distribution abroad and at home of several
secondary pyrheliometers constructed through a grant
from the Hodgkins Fund. The constancy of the scale of
these secondary pyrheliometers has been established, and
it is desirable to compare this scale with those in use
elsewhere. It is hoped that finally all pyrheliometric
observations will be made on the same scale as that used
here.

(2) The second result of the year's work is the agree-
ment within I f)er cent, of the " solar-constant " observa-
tions obtained by Mr. Abbot at the Smithsonian Mount
Whitney station in California at an elevation of 14,500
feet with those obtained simultaneously at the Mount
Wilson station in California at an elevation of only 6000
feet. _ This determination, in combination with the above-
mentioned establishment of an absolute scale of pyrhelio-
metry, gives 1-925 calories per square centimetre per
minute as a mean value, for the period 1905-9, of the
rate at which the earth receives heat from the sun when
at its mean distance. Determinations made with various
forms of apparatus show no systematic difference in this
value of the " solar constant." In 1905 this " constant,"
according to various authorities, was stated at values
ranging between 1-75 and 4 calories.

It_ is improbable that observations would have been
continued since 1902 on " solar-constant " work but for
a suspected variability of the radiation sent to us from
the sun. The laws governing this variability are of
extreme importance for utilitarian purposes apart from
their interest to astronomers. While confident of the
existence of variations of this value extending over some-
what long periods, and of the probability of short-period
variations as shown by the observations obtained on
Mount Wilson, yet, in order to establish full confidence
in the minds of others of this variability of the sun's
heat, there is a very pressing need of observations made
simultaneously at some other place where they could be
made over a longer period than is possible at Mount
Whitney. This new station should be so situated that
observations could be continued there while the winter
rainy season prevents them at Mount Wilson. A station
in Mexico would best fulfil such conditions.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.
Birmingham. — The University of Birmingham has for
some years been in considerable financial difficulties, for,
in addition to the great outlay incurred in erecting and
equipping the new buildings, it has been faced with an
annual excess of expenditure above income. On last year's
working the loss was about 12,000/., and it is estimated
that, even with most rigid economy, there will be a deficit
of io,oooZ. on the present year. This fact, combined with
the additional circumstances that the University has prac-
tically reached the limit of its power to borrow money,
has been a cause of grave anxiety to those responsible for
the management of the finances. At present the situation
is critical, and it is felt that unless further help is forth-
coming, not only must further development be out of the
question, but even a retrograde movement will be inevit-
able. Indeed, in the existing state of affairs economy is
being exercised to such an extent as to imperil efficiency.
The response of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the
recent appeal of English universities brought matters to a
crisis, for, as is well known, the allotment of the increase
of the Treasury grant is to be determined largely by the
extent to which local support is forthcoming. At this
juncture a letter was sent by the Chancellor (the Rt. Hon.
Joseph Chamberlain) to the Lord Mayor asking for further
assistance from the City Council in the form of an addition
to the halfpenny rate already granted for the support of
the University. The matter was referred to the Educa-
tion Committee, with the result that the committee recom-
mended the City Council to increase the rate to an amount
equivalent to " one penny in the pound for the year
1911-12 . . . and so from year to year until the council
shall otherwise direct. Further, that it be a suggestion
to the authorities of the University that they should

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

increase the number of maintenance scholarships avaii:i
for persons who would not otherwise be able to t^
advantage of university teaching." This recommendai
has now been approved by the council, with the excepii>..i
that the grant is for the one year only. In view of the
probability that the " Greater Birmingham " scheme will
have come into effect by next year, it was deemed advisable
that the matter should then be open to discussion by the
enlarged council resulting from that scheme. An interest-
ing feature in the discussion of the question throughout
was the evidence of a widespread desire that further facili-
ties, in the nature of scholarships, should be provided for
poor students.

Cambridge. — The special board for biology and geology
has nominated Mr. K. R. Lewin, Trinity College, to use
the University table at Naples for si.x months from
March i.

Sir Francis E. Younghusband, K.C.I.E., will deliver a
lecture in Cambridge on Thursday, February 23, oh
" Practical Geography."

The Secretary of State for India in Council has in-
formed the Vice-Chancellor that, as the result of careful
consideration of the existing regulations as to the training
of probationers for the Indian Forest Service, he has
decided to modify them in accordance with the following
decisions at which he has arrived : — (i) Any university
which possesses a forest school approved by the .Secretary
of State shall be permitted to train forest probationers.
(2) The Secretary of State is prepared to approve for this
purpose the forest schools existing at the Universities of
Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. (3) A course of
training in practical forestry in Germany or elsewhere, a
certain standard of knowledge in an Indian vernacular,
and any other special qualifications that the Secretary of
State may prescribe, shall be imposed upon all proba-
tioners. (4) The studies of the probationers shall be con-
trolled on behalf of the Secretary of State by the director i
of Indian forest studies (hereafter styled the director). ;
(5) The director shall be a selected officer of the Indian
Forest Service, shall be paid such salary as the Secretary
of State may determine, and shall hold office for a terrn
of five years.

London. — It is understood that the residue under Sir I
Francis Galton's will is bequeathed to the University for
the encouragement of the study of eugenics. During his
lifetime the testator gave a considerable sum of money to
the University for the establishment and maintenance of
the eugenics laboratory at University College, and it is
presumed that permanent provision will now be made for
the continuance of the work of the laboratory.

Oxford. — The following is the text of the speech
delivered by Prof. Love in presenting Prof. Edgeworth
David for the degree of D.Sc. honoris causa on
February 7 : — " Adest Tannatt Willelmus Edgeworth
David, Geologiae praeclarus auctor. Huic viro accepta
referenda sunt fere omnia ; quae de ratione geologica et
antiquis caeli vicissitudinibus, quibus usa est Australia,
comperta habemus. Velut hie inventus est qui doceret '
continentem illam glacie oppletam fuisse eo tempore cum I
silvae densissimae, in carbonem hodie conversae,
Britanniam nostram tegerent. Huius etiam laus est,
quod, cum corallinum quoddam ' dorsum Oceano .^ustrali I
supereminens usque in mille pedes terebraret, et omnia |
saxi frusta, summa, media, infima inspiceret, rationem |
Darwinianam de eiusmodi insularum ortu confirmare j
potuit. Quattuor abhinc annos novis Argonautis interfuit j
continentem Antarcticam exploraturis, quibus id potissi-j
mum munus propositum erat ut Australis Zonae magneti- j
cum, quem vocant, polum accuratissime definirent. Cuius i
rei causa itinere periculoso et laboris maximi suscepto
huius praesertim vii-i scientia atque constantia feliciter ;
navata sunt omnia. Xescio an nulli vel Borealis vel j
.Australis poll exploratores tantos scientiae fructus reporta-|
verint, quem eventum huic nostro David imprimis deberi
censeo." |

Prof. H. H. Turner, F.R.S., has been appointed Halley!
lecturer for the year 19 11. _ !

The statute on faculties and boards of faculties was j
again taken into consideration by Congregation on '
February 14, and the remaining amendments, thirty m

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

529

number, were disposed of. The statute as amended has
now to pass the ordeal of Convocation, in which assem-
blage both non-residents and residents have a vote.

The Board of Education is arranging to hold the
Imperial Education Conference on April 25-28 next. The
conference will be attended by representatives of all the
Home Education Departments, English, Scotch, and Irish,
and from most British dominions. It is proposed to
devote the first two days of the conference to the considera-
tion of problems connected with school education and the
training of school teachers, and tl^ last two days of the
conference to the consideration of problems connected with
education after the school stage and of certain adminis-
trative problems.

We learn from Science that the Smithsonian Institution
is about to come into possession of a bequest by the recent
death of Mr. George W. Poore, of Lowell, Mass. Kis
will provides, after certain minor legacies, that the resi-
due of his estate be given to the Smithsonian Institution
to form the Lucy T. and George W. Poore Fund, the
income of which is to be used for the purposes for which
the institution was founded. Mr. Poore explains in his
will that he makes this bequest in the hope that " it will
form an example for other Americans to follow by support-
ing and encouraging so wise and beneficent an institution
as I believe the Smithsonian Institution to be."

Sir Henry Roscoe, chairman of the Appeal Committee
for the new chemical laboratories at University College,
London, has issued a further letter with reference to the
appeal. As announced in Nature of February 2, the sum
of 25,oooZ. required for the site of the laboratories has
fortunately been acquired. It is now desirable to make
use of the site as quickly as possible by erecting the
chemical laboratories on it. The estimated cost is about
50,000/. The president and committee are particularly
anxious that this amount should be raised by Easter in
order that the building may be begun this year, and may
this way be associated with the year of the King's
Coronation. Gifts and promises can be addressed to his
Royal Highness Prince Arthur of Connaught, or to Sir
Henry Roscoe at University College, London.

A MEETING was held at Aligarh on January lo at which
it was decided to form a committee to be called " The
Committee for the Foundation of a Mohammedan Uni-
versity," and to ask his Highness the Aga Khan to accept
the office of president. We learn from The Pioneer Mail
that many distinguished persons in India have accepted
the office of vice-president, and that a representative com-
mittee has been appointed. The members of the com-
mittee include all trustees of the M.A.O. College, all
members of the college and school staffs of Aligarh, all
members of the central standing committee of the All-
India Shia Conference, all editors of Mohammedan
journals, and many representatives of other public bodies.
Provincial committees are to be formed in each province,
and the local committees of the M.A.O. Educational Con-
ference are to be asked to become local branches of this
committee. An appeal in various languages has been
widely circulated, and the movement seems likely to be
successful. A Reuter message from Calcutta on
February 12 states that his Highness the Aga Khan and
the Nawab of Rampur have each given io,oooZ. towards
the scheme for the foundation of this Mohammedan uni-
versity at Aligarh. The donations to the fund now amount
to about 66,66oZ. The Aga Khan confidently expects that
the subscriptions will amount to twice this amount by
March.

The ninth annual report, for the year 1909-10, of the
executive committee of the Carnegie Trust for the Uni-
versities of Scotland was adopted at the annual meeting
of the trust on February 7. In connection with the
endowment of research, the reports of the independent
authorities who have examined the records of the year's
work under the research scheme of the trust give evidence
that its past success is being well maintained. The com-
mittee acknowledges the assistance rendered by the uni-
versities in providing the scheme with so many able
Wiwkers, and in affording accommodation and supervision

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

' in their various laboratories. In the laboratory of the
Royal College of Physicians, which in the department of
medicine has taken a prominent share in the trust's
scheme, the record of work for the past year is equally
encouraging. The expenditure for 1909-10 upon the
scheme of fellowships, scholarships, and grants, and upon
the laboratory, was respectively 0824/. and 2454/., towards
the latter of which the Royal College of Physicians and
the Royal College of Surgeons together contributed 1025/.
The class fees paid in the universities and extra-mural
colleges amounted during the year to 48,540/., an increase
of 11842. as compared with the preceding year. The
average amount paid per beneficiary was 12/. 12s. gd.
The expenditure left a balance of 1240Z. to the credit of
the scheme of payment of class fees, but as the statistics
already to hand show an excess of expenditure of 2552/.,
it is unlikely that any credit balance will remain at the
close of the current year. The committee thinks a stage
has been reached in the administration of the scheme of
payment of class fees at which it becomes the duty of the
committee to direct the special attention of the trustees
to its operation in the past, and the modifications which
now appear to be necessary. The committee is of opinion
that it cannot secure itself against a deficit in future
years under the present system, and that the scheme must
be amended without delay. The first step it has taken is
to announce that after the close of the current year it
cannot continue to pay the fees in full, but must avail
itself of .the provision in the trust deed to pay in whole
or in part. It follows that the system of paying for
separate classes must be abandoned, and it is suggested
that some scheme of paying a portion of the composite or
Inclusive fees for the several faculties shall be considered.
A table published as an appendix to the report shows that
up to September 30 seventy-five beneficiaries had volun-
tarily refunded the class fees paid by the trust on their
behalf, amounting in all to 1689/.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

London.
Royal Society, February 9. — Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B.,
president, in the chair. — V. H. Veley and W. L. Symes :

Certain physical and physiological properties of stovaine
and its homologues. The bodies in question comprise the
methyl-, amyl-, phenyl-, and benzyl-homologues of stovaine,
and in addition a new compound recently prepared by M.
Fourneau, viz. the propyl ester of dimethyl-amino-oxy-
benzoyl-isobutyric acid. The densities of these diminish
with increasing molecular weight, and the affinity value of
the last-named is less than that already found by the
former of the authors for stovaine and for its methyl
homologue. Fourneau 's new compound abolishes the con-
tractility of muscle less rapidly than does stovaine or
methyl-stovaine. It has also less effect on blood pressure
and on respiration. Amyl-, phenyl-, and benzyl-stovaine
appear to act more slowly on muscle than does stovaine,
presumably on account of partial precipitation of their
bases. On blood pressure, amyl-stovaine has rather more
effect than has stovaine. The pronounced local anaesthetic
properties possessed by all these bodies are discussed in the
following paper. — W. L. Symes and V. H. Veley : The
effect of some local anaesthetics on nerve. The bodies
dealt with in the preceding paper have been compared with
one another, and also with cocaine, as to their effects in
blocking the physiological conductivity of frog's nerve.
The anaesthetic block produced by these bodies, when com-
plete for maximal single stimuli (Berne coil at 400 mm.),
is also complete for single stimuli many times more intense
{Berne coil at 200-100 mm.). A block complete to
maximal single stimuli (coil at 400 mm.) is usually also
complete to repeated stimuli with the same disposition of
the coil. Partial blockage of individual nerve fibres has
not been detected. Stovaine, its homologues, and Four-
neau's new salt all block more actively than does cocaine.
Stovaine, methyl-stovaine, and Fourneau 's new salt block
more rapidly than do the remaining bodies. Amyl-,
phenyl-, and benzyl-stovaine block more slowly, and the
resulting block is less rapidly washed out. Considered as
local anaesthetics, phenyl- and benzyl-stovaine offer no
advantage over the remaining bodies, .\mvl-stovaine mav

530

NATURE

[February i6, 191 i

in^

be of value on account of the relatively long duration of
its effect. Methyl-stovaine is the least readily decomposed
by faintly alkaline fluids such as lymph and cerebro-spinal
fluid. Fourneau's new salt has the least effect on circula-
tion and on respiration. — F. F. Blackman and A. M.
Smith : Experimental researches on vegetable assimilation
and respiration. VIII. — .A new method for estimating
gaseous exchanges of submerged plants. The plant is
enclosed in a glass chamber, a current of water is kept
flowing through the chamber, and samples of the affluent
and effluent liquid are analysed at frequent intervals. The
alteration in the amount of CO^ in solution which the
liquid undergoes in passing over the plant in the chamber
is the measure of the respiration or assimilation that is
taking place. For experiments on assimilation, the liquid
supplied to the chamber can be enriched with any desired
amount of CO^, and by a special use of a CO^ generating
tower the amount of this gas dissolved can be kept con-
stant for a long period of time. The glass chamber con-
taining the plant is sunk in a large copper water-bath
with a glass window, and the temperature and illumina-
tion can be controlled. When the conditions allow
vigorous assimilation, much oxygen is given off as bubbles
from the plant in the chamber, and these bubbles take up
an appreciable amount of CO^ from the solution. It is
therefore necessary to collect and measure this gas and
use it as a correction to the apparent diminution in the
dissolved CO,. The gas is separated from the liquid by
a valve at the highest point of the apparatus, and collected
automatically for analysis. This method has none of the
limitations of the bubble-counting procedure exclusively
employed previously for the investigation of the assimila-
tion of water-plants, and, since it takes account of the
CO, in solution and also of that in the gas bubbles, critical
measurements can now be made of the assimilation
throughout the whole range of the external factors that
primarily control this function. — F. F. Blackman and
A. yi. Smith : Experimental researches on vegetable
assimilation and respiration. IX. — On assimilation in sub-
merged water-plants and its relation to the concentration
of carbon dioxide and other factors. The experiments
were carried out by a new method, which takes account
of the alteration of the gases in solution as well as of the
gases liberated as bubbles. The aim is to demonstrate the
nature of the relation between assimilation and the chief
environmental factors — CO^ supply, light-intensity, and
temperature. The relation is such that the magnitude of
this function in every combination of these factors is deter-
mined by one or other of them acting as a limiting factor.
The identification of the particular limiting factor in any
definite case is carried out by apph'ing experimentally the
following general principle : — When the magnitude of a
function is limited by one of a set of possible factors,
increase of that factor, and of that one alone, will be
found to bring about an increase of the magnitude of the
function. From the data obtained, a new type of diagram
is constructed, by which it is possible to foretell what value
of assimilation in Elodea will be attained in any combina-
tion of medium magnitudes of the three factors of the
environment. In this diagram, against the different values
of assimilation as ordinates, are ranged three separate
curves showing the degrees of CO, supply, temperature,
and illumination, which are respectively essential for the
attainment of each value of assimilation. For any hyf>o-
thetical combination of the factors, it follows, by the prin-
ciple of limiting factors, that if the three functional values
corresponding potentially to these be ascertained from the
diagram, then the actual magnitude of assimilation
attained with that combination of factors will alwaj's be
the smallest of the three potential values. The last section
contains a critical account of the work of previous investi-
gators who interpreted their results on the assumption that
there was a primary optimum in the relation between
assimilation and each external factor. The substantial
work of Pantanelli led him to the conclusion that the
position of the optimum for any one factor shifts with the
magnitude of the other concurrent factors. This can only
be a transitional point of view, and from this we have
advanced to the standpoint that the whole conception of
optima in this connection is inapplicable, and breaks down
completely on careful analysis. The authors show in detail
that all the experiments of previous workers are more

NO. 2155, VOL. 85I

harmoniously interpreted from the point of view of in
acting limiting factors than by the conception of optima!

Geological Society, January 25.— Prof. W. W. Wal
F.R.S., president, in the chair. r—H. H. Thomas : The
Skomer volcanic series t^'embrokeshire). The rocks are
traceable on the mainland from near St. Ishmaels on Mil-
ford Haven to VVooltack Head, and on the west occupy
the islands of Midland, Skomer, and the Smalls. !
thickness exposed is some 3000 feet, and the lal'
extension some twenty-five miles. The chief evidence
indicates that the rocks are of pre-Upper Llandovery age,
but, from a consideratfcn of the geology of the neighbour,
ing country, it is probable that their true age is .\n i
The rocks are chiefly subaerial lava-flows, frequently in
stratified with red clays They are separated into
main groups by a mass of sedimentary rocks barren
fossils. The lavas form well-defined groups. The r(.
fall into eight chief types, two of which are of neces
new; in order of increasing basicity they are: — si
rhyolites, soda-trachytes, keratophyres, skomerites, mar
sites, mugearites, olivine-basalts, and olivine-doler;
The first five types may be included in the alkaline ch
they are rich in soda, and most of the felspars belon-
albite-oligoclase varieties. The last three types are normal
subalkaline rocks, in which the felspars range from oligo-
clase to labradorite.

February 8.— Prof. W. W. Watts, F.R.S., president, in
the chair. — Prof. T. W. Edgeworth David gave an account
of the researches pursued by him, in conjunction
with Mr. R. E. Priestley, geologist to the British Antarctic
Expedition of 1907-9, in the course of that expedition,
more especially the investigations connected with glacial
geology.

Physical Society, January 27. — Prof. C. H. Lees, F.R.S.,
vice-president, in the chair. — Prof. F. T. Trouton : A

demonstration of the phase difference between the primary
and secondary currents of a transformer by means of a
simple apparatus. The apparatus is a primitive induction
motor consisting of two horseshoe electromagnets with
their axes coincident and vertical, and their planes at r'n'
angles. Above the poles a copper disc is pivoted. J
primary current from a transformer is sent through •
magnet and the secondary current through the ou
With a suitable phase difference a rotating magnetic !
is thus obtained. Inserting an iron core into the tr.
former diminishes the speed of rotation. A steel core
produce a greater negative rotation than an iron one. 1 0
demonstrate the hysteresis effect, it is necessary that the |
core should consist of a bundle of fine wires, otherv''"^"
the Foucault currents set up will introduce a lag.
effect of Foucault currents can be shown by introduc ,
another coil within the transformer in place of the iron j
core and closing its circuit with a variable resistance. — '
Prof. J. A. Fleming: : A note on the experimental measn
ment of the high-frequency resistance of wires. 1
author refers to a paper read by him in December, u;<^-.,
before the Institution of Electrical Engineers, on quanti- !
tative measurements in connection with radio-telegraphy •
(Journal Inst. Elec. Eng., vol. xliv., p. 349, 1910). in j
which he described an apparatus consisting of a differ- 1
ential air thermometer having tubular bulbs into which j
similar wires could be placed, and by means of which
a comparison could be made of the high-frequency (H.F.);
resistance R' of a straight wire and its steady or ohmic !
resistance R. If two equal wires have passed through j
one a steady current A, and through the other a _H.F.
current -A,, then if these currents are adjusted until the
rate of heat evolution in each case is the same, we have,
A°R = A|-R'. Certain precautions are described in thej
paper for eliminating inequalities, but by means of correct
reading H.F. ammeters as devised by the author, the ratio;
of the resistances R'/R can be determined from the ratio |
of the mean square currents A^/A,-. — Prof. J. A. Fleminar,
and G. B. Dyke : The measurements of energy losses in
condensers traversed by high-frequency electric oscillations. ,
In this paper an arrangement of apparatus is described ;
for the purpose of measuring the internal energy losses
in condensers traversed by high-frequency (H.F.) current^ j
It is shown that these energy losses in condensers mav be'
considered as if they were due to a resistance loss *" *|
hypothetical resistance in series with the condenser, the

February i6, 191 i]

NATURE

DO

condenser itself being supposed to have a perfect non-
dissipative dielectric of the same dielectric constant. —
Prof. J.. A. Fleming: and G. B. Dyke : Some resonance
curves taken with impact and spark-ball dischargers. In
the course of the experiments described in the previous
paper on the measurement of energy losses in condensers,
a large number of measurements had to be made with the
cymometer of the frequency of oscillations in, and the
inductance of, the secondary or condenser circuit. It was
then an easy matter to draw complete resonance curves in
each case, and this has accordingly been done with both
the impact and spark-ball dischargers in the primary
circuit, and for various resistances in the secondary circuit.

Mathematical Society, February 9. — Dr. H. F. Baker,
president, in the chair. — E. Cunning^ham : The applica-
tion of the mathematical theory of relativity to the electron
theory of matter. — G. B. MatheiMS and W. E. H.
Berwick : The reduction of arithmetical binary forms
which have a negative determinant. — H. Bateman :
Certain vectors associated with an electromagnetic field
and the reflection of light at the surface of a perfect
conductor.

Cambridge.

Philosophical Society, January 23. — Sir George Darwin,
K.C.B., F.R.S., president, in the chair. — ^W'. A. D.
Rudg:e : (i) A constant temperature, porous plug experi-
ment ; (2) observations on the surface tension of liquid
sulphur. — A. E. Oxiey : The magnetic susceptibilities of
certain comp)ounds.

M.ANCHESTER.

Literary and Philosophical Society, January' 24. —
Mr. Francis Jones, president, in the chair. — Dr. A. N.
Meldrum : The development of the atomic theory : (5)
Dalton's chemical theory. The paper deals first with the
principles, and afterwards with the genesis, of Dalton's
chemical atomic theory. It is shown that it is impossible
to suppose that the hypothesis of Avogadro had any
influence on Dalton whilst engaged on the theor\-, the
main principles of which are : — (i) that atoms of different
kinds tend to combine in the proportion i : i rather than
in any other, that the next proportion to occur is 1:2,
then I : 3, and so on, and (2) that when two compounds
of the same two elements are gaseous, the lighter is binary
and the heavier tertiary. Dalton's explanation of them
shows that Newton's postulate of similar particles, which
are " mutually repulsive," was the fundamental idea of the
chemical as it had been of the' physical atomic theory.
The author concurs with Roscoe and Harden in rejecting
the account of the genesis of the theory which connects it
with the discovery of the composition of marsh gas and
olefiant gas, but is unable to accept their view, the gist
of which is that Dalton first satisfied himself that the
atoms of different gases have different sizes, and then
devised the chemical theory. He concludes that it was
Dalton's experiments on the combination of nitric oxide
and the oxygen of the air that aroused his attention and
made him apply his physical theorj- to the purfKJses of
chemistn.-. — Prof. A. H. Gibson : The behaviour of bodies
floating in a free or a forced vortex. The main conclusions
drawn from the experimental results embodied in the paper
are : — (i) In a free vortex, (a) Very small floating
particles rotate in spiral paths, approaching with a con-
tinually increasing velocit)', and finally disappearing down
the funnel of the vortex. {Jo) If of moderate dimensions,
the behaviour depends on the shape, size, weight, and
position of the centre of gravit},- of the object, the lighter
particles approaching more rapidly than those of a lower
specific gravity. With homogeneous bodies of the same
specific gravity, depth of immersion, and shape of plane
of flotation, the larger shows the greater tendency to
approach the centre. (2) In a forced vortex : — (a) Small
bodies approach the centre with a radial velocitv which
is greater the greater the radius of rotation. {Jo) In
homogeneous bodies of the same size and shape, the
heavier shows the lesser tendency to approach the centre,
(c) A non-homogeneous body shows a lesser tendency to
approach the centre than does a homogeneous bodv of the
same size, shape, and weight. If the centre of gravity of
the non-homogeneous body is sufficientlv low, the bodv
works out to the outer edge of the vortex, (d) The shape
of the body in itself has no effect on its behaviour so long
as the vortex is a true forced vortex. As in the case
NO. 2155. VOL. 8^1

of the free vortex, the knowledge of the forces called into
play is adequate for an explanation of all the observed
phenomena.

DUBUN.

Royal Irish Academy, Jaruary 23. — Dr. H. F. Barry,
vice-president, in the chair. — D. R. Pack-Beresford and
Nevin H. Foster : The woodlice of Ireland, their distri-
bution and classification. Twenty-five species of woodlice
(Crustacea Isopoda Terrestria) are found in Ireland, and
of these four species have been recorded from and are
common in every county. Sketch-maps are given which
show at a glance the various Irish countj* divisions in
which each species has been taken. A series of synoptical
tables is also included in the paper, which should prove
useful in enabling students to diagnose any British species.
Two plates illustrating Metoponorthus melanurus, B. L.,
and Eluma purpurascens, B. L. (species which have not
yet been found in England), and a comprehensive biblio-
graphy, are also included. — John MacNeill : The early
population-groups of Ireland, their nomenclature and
chronology. The object of the paper was to distinguish
the different classes of group-names found applicable to
Irish population-groups in early times, and to assign an
approximate period of origination to each class of names.
The formulae of the earlier names were distinguished and
discussed, and a list drawn up under each formula. The
paper dealt with the classification of the groups as free,
tributary, and unfree, and identified the civil and military
organisations of the petty States in ancient Ireland with
the earliest traditional form of tne Roman State.

Koyal Dublin Society, Januaiy 24. — Prof. T. Johnson
in the chair. — ^Prof. W. Bro«vn : Mechanical stress and
magnetisation of nickel, part ii., and the subsidence of
torsional oscillations in nickel and iron wires when sub-
jected to the influence of longitudinal magnetic fields.
The results of experiments on magnetisation and torsion
of nickel wire showed that a limit to the twist of the
free end of the wire is reached with a certain definite
longitudinal load. It was also shown by means of the
subsidence of torsional vibrations that the greatest internal
friction in the wire took place when it was surrounded by
a longitudinal magnetic field of the same value as thar in
which the maximum twist occurred with a given load on
the wire. — Dr. W. E. Adeney : The estimation of the
organic matters in unpolluted and polluted waters with
potassium bichromate and sulphuric acid. The investiga-
tions have been made with the view of discovering a rapid
and accurate method of estimating the total oxidisability
of the organic matters in unpolluted and polluted waters.
The water is treated under suitable conditions, which are
detailed in the paper, with a decinormal solution of
potassium bichromate and sulphuric acid, and, after
evaporation and digestion for a sufficient time in the water
bath, the excess of bichromate remaining is determined
by means of a decinormal solution of ferrous sulphate.
The results of a number of estimations of a variety of
waters are given, and they show that the method is cap-
able of yielding concordant and accurate results. — Prof.
Henr>' H. Dixon : The thermo-electric method of cryo-
scopy. The apparatus used in this method was devised in
order to determine the freezing points of small quantities
of solutions. With special devices for eliminating thermo-
electric errors, it has been found possible, using one pair
of junctions formed of copper and " eureka " alloy, to
determine the freezing points of a i c.c. of solution with
accuracy to o-oi° C. With a greater number of junctions
greater accuracy may be attained. The method is particu-
larly suitable for detf^cting very small differences of freezing
point.

Paris.

Academy of Sciences, February 6. — M. Armand
Gautier in the chair. — ^P. Idrac : New observa-
tions on the spectrum of Nova Lacertas (see p. 523).
— Henri Villat : The discontinuous motion of a fluid in a
canal containing an obstacle. — .\. Korn : The helicoidal
state of electrical matter : some new hypotheses for ex-
plaining mechanically electromagnetic phenomena. — Gaston
Gaillard : Researches on the influence of velocity on the
compass. At the high speeds attained in modern destroyers
there is a possibilitv- that the velocity may affect the
indications of the compass. Some experiments in this
direction have been carried out on a railway at speeds

532

NATURE

[February i6' 191 i

between 80 and 120 kilometres per hour. The results
obtained, so far, are inconclusive. — G. Sagrnac : Optical
systems in motion and the translation of the earth. — A.
Leduc : The application of the Lenz principle to the
phenomena accompanying the charge of condensers. —
L. Ddcombe : A physical interpretation of non-compen-
sated heat. — A. Lafay : A method of observation of the
trajectories followed by the elements of an air current
deflected by obstacles of variable forms. As an 'indicator,
a gas is used the refractive index of which is higher than
that of air, but approximately the same density. Such a
gas casts a sharp shadow on a screen, and hence the
motion of the air currents can be followed. Acetylene, a
mixture of acetylene and carbon dioxide, and ethylene are
suggested as suitable for this method of working. — MM.
Chdneveau and Heim : The extensibility of vulcanised
indiarubber. — G. Friedel and F. Grandjean : The struc-
ture of liquids with focal conies. — Louis Matruchot : A
new fungus pathogenic to man. This fungus, to which the
name Mastigocladitini Blochii has been given, has been
obtained in pure cultures direct from the lesions in man,
and hence appears to be the sole cause of the diseased
condition observed. — T. Klobb : The dextrorotatory phyto-
sterols (anthesterols) from Anthemis nobilis. — Gabriel
Bertrand and R. Veillon : The action of the Bulgarian
ferment on the monobasic acids derived from reducing
sugars. — A. Marie and M. MacAuliffe : Comparative
measurements of individuals of both sexes from lunatic
asylums with normal men and women. The inmates of
the asylums are generally smaller than the normal, especi-
ally in the bust. Details of the comparison -of various
limbs and parts of the body are also given. — E.
Deschamps : The treatment of epilepsy of gastro-
intestinal origin. Remarks on a recent note of M. Doumer
on the same subject. — A. Bonnet : Researches on the
causes of the variations of the aerial entomological
faunule. — M. Gigrnoux : The layers containing Strombus
bubonius in the western Mediterranean. — J. Bosler : The
relations between the earth currents and magnetic disturb-
ances.— M. Birkeland : The zodiacal light.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, February 16.
Royal Society, at 4.30. — The Constitution of the Alloys of Aluminium
and Zinc: Dr. W. Rosenhain and S. L. Archbutt. — The Production and
I'roperties of Soft Rontgen Radiation : R. Whiddington. — Experiments
on Stream-line Motion in Curved Pipes : Prof. J. Eustice.
Royal Geographical Society, at 5.— Re'search Meeting. Some Ant-
arctic Problems: Prof. Edgeworth David, F.R.S.
LiNNEAN Society, at 8.
Royal Institution, at 3. — Problems of Animals in Captivity : P. Chalmers

IMitchell, F.R.S.
Illuminating Engineering Society, at 8. — Discussion on School Light-
ing. Openers : Dr. James Kerr and Dr. N. Bishop Harman.
FRIDAY, February 17.
Royal Institution, at 9. — The Stimulation of Digestive Activity : Prof.

H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S.
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, at 8. — Annual General Meet-
ing. Further discussion : Modern Electrical Dock-equipment, with
Special Reference to Electrically-operated Coal-hoists : W. Dixon and
G. H. Baxter.

MONDAY, February 20.
Society of Chemical Industry, at 8. — The Composition of the Acids
flowing from the Thompson Displacement Apparatus for the Manufacture
of Guncotton : G. W. MacDonald. — (i) Ammonium Sulphate and its
Instability; (2) The Hydrolysis of Ammonium Salts : Watson Smith. —
A Study of some Reactions in Gels : Emil Hatschek. — A New Still Water
Calorimeter : J. H. Coste and B. R. James.
Royal Society of Arts, at 8. — Brewing and Modern Science : Prof.

Adrian J. Brown.
Victoria Institute, at 4.30. — Science in Relation to Christian Missions :
Rev. F. Baylis.

TUESDAY, February 21.

Royal Institution, at 3. — Heredity : Prof. F. W. Mott, F.R.S.

Zoological Society, at 8.30. — Report on the Deaths which occurred in

the Zoological Gardens during 1910 : Dr. H. G. Plimmer, F.R.S. — On

Tragelaphus buxtoni, an Antelope from Abyssinia : R. Lydekker. —

A Contribution to the Study of the Variations of the Common Salamander

(Salamandra maculosa) : E. G. Boulenger. — On a Collection of Fishes

from the Lake Ngami Basin, Bechuanaland : G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S. —

Observations on different Gibbons of the Genus Hylobates now or recently

living in the Society's Gardens, and on a Sywphalati^s syndactylus,

with Notes on Skins in the Natural History Museum : Dr. F. D. Welch.

Royal Anthropological Society, at 8.15. — Prehistoric and Aboriginal

Pottery Manufacture : Rev. J. W. Hayes.
Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — Coast Erosion : W. T. Douglass.
Royal Statistical Society, at 5. — The Fatality of Fractures of the
Lower Extremity and of Lobar Pneumonia. A Study of Hospital
Mortality Rates, 1751-1Q01 : M. Greenwood, jun., and R. H. Candy.

WEDNESDA Y, February 22.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8. — Water Finders : Prof. J. Wertheimer.

Geological Society, at 8.— The Geology of the Districts of Worcester,
Robertson, and Ashton (Cape Colony): R. H. Rastall. — Geology of
Northern Albania : Baron Ferencz Nopcsa, Jr.

British Astronomical Association, at 5.

7"iV:/^.S'ZJ^K, February 23.

Royal Society, at 4.30. — Probable Papers: Transmission of Flagellates
living in the Blood of certain Freshwater Fishes: Miss M. Robertson. —
Report on the Separation of Tonium and Actinium from certain Residues
and on the Production of Helium by Tonium : Dr. B. B. Boltwood. — The
Secondary y-Rays produced by ^-Rays : J. A. Gray. — The .Specific Heat
of Water and the vi^chanical Equivalent of the Calorie at Temperatures
from 0° to 80° C. vVith Additional Note on the Thermoid Effect :
W. R. Bousfield and W. E. Bousfield.— On the Measurement of Specific
Inductive Capacity : Prof. C. Niven, F.R.S.

Royal Institution, at 3. — Problems of Animals in Captivity : P. Chalmers
Mitchell, F.R.S.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Long Distance Trans-
mission of Electrical Energy : W. T. Taylor. — Extra High Pressure
Transmission Lin , ;: R. B. Matthews and C. T. Wilkinson.

FRIDAY, February 24.

Royal Institution, at 9. — Mouvement Brownien et R^alit^ Mol^culaire :
Prof. Jean Perrin.

Physical Society, at 5. — Flames of Low Temperature supported by
Ozone : Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S.— The Movement of a Coloured Index
along a Capillary Tube, and its Application to the Measurement of the
Circulation of Water in a Closed Circuit : Dr. Albert Griffiths.— An
Optical Lever of High Power suitable for the Determination of Small
Thicknesses and Displacements : E; H. Rayner.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8.— The Design and Construction
of Works for the Bacterial Purification of Sewage : R. J. Samuel.

CONTENTS. PAGE

A Practical Modern Treatise on Geometrical

Optics 499

Manchuria, Korea, and Russian Turkestan. By

J. T 500

Variability in "Lower" Organisms, By C, Clifford

Dobell 501

Biochemistry of Fats. By W. D. H 502

Bird Observation 502

Electrical Engineering, By Prof, Gisbert Kapp . . 503

Aspects of Darwinism. By F. A. D 504

Our Book Shelf 505

Letters to the Editor:—

Origin of Incense.— Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer,

K.C.M.G., F.R.S 507

The Electromotive Force of Standard Cells. — Dr.

R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S 508

Klaatsch's Theory of the Descent of Man. — Gerhardt

V. Bonin; Prof. A. Keith 508

" In Forbidden Seas."— Prof. John Milne, F.R.S. ;

Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson 510

An Apparently hitherto Unnoticed "Anticipation"
of the Theory of Natural Selection. — H. M.

Vickers 51°

The Sailing-flight of Birds. ( With Diagram. )— F. W.
Headley ; A. Mallock, F.R.S.; Edward D.

Hearn . 5"

Demonstration of Peltier and Thomson Effects.

(;r?V/i Z)f'rt^raw5. )—S. G. Starling 512

The Formation of Spheres of Liquids.— Chas. R.

Darling 512

Colliery Warnings.— R. M. Deeley 512

The Oceanographical Institute at Paris. {Illus-
trated.) By Dr. William S, Bruce Si3

The Observatory at Messina. {Illustrated.) Prof.

J. Milne, F.R.S .-.515

Synchronisation of Clocks 5^6

Julius Wilhelm BriihL By R. M 5i7

Notes 518

Our Astronomical Column: —

Nova Lacertte 5^3

Ephemeris for Faye's Comet 5^3

Standard Astrometry 5^3

New Spectroscopic Binaries 5^3

Observations of Jupiter's Galilean Satellites .... 524

A Confirmation of the Disintegration Theory . . 524

Safety Lamps and the Detection of Fire-damp . 524

Flies as Carriers of Infection 5^5

Reports on Meteorological Observatories 525

Association of Technical Institutions 525

Progress of the Smithsonian Institution .... 526

University and Educational Intelligence 528

Societies and Academies 5^9

Diary of Societies 53^

NO. 2155, VOL. 85]

NA TURE

533

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 191 1.

PARKER AND HAS WELL'S ZOOLOGY.
A Text- Book of Zoology. Bv Prof. T. J. Parker,
F.R.S., and Prof. VV. A. Haswell, F.R.S. Vol i.,
pp. xxxix + 839. Vol. ii., pp. xx + 728. (London :
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., igio.) Price 36$. net, the
two vols.

AFTER an interval of thirteen years, this well-
known text-book has appeared in a second
edition. Its merits have earned for " Parker and
Haswell " a high educational rank ; the clear, terse
descriptions of each selected example of the various
classes ; the comparison of the class with its exemplar ;
the abundance and excellence of the illustrations ; the
brief but useful summaries on general topics, distri-
bution, history, variation. Its drawback has been
that whilst containing a good two years' training
in the subject-matter of zoology, it does not satisfy
the needs of more advanced students. In some ways
the new edition makes good this defect, but we are
inclined to think that it would have been a gain if
a good deal of elementsury descriptive matter (such as
students invariably obtain in other and smaller works)
could have made way for fresh and much-needed de
scriptions of such examples as a tortoise and a mam-
mal other than a rabbit, or for such a topic as com-
parative physiology.

The most striking change in the book is the im-
provement, both in text and in the figures, of the
volume that deals with the invertebrata. The verte-
brates, on the other hand, remain essentially unaltered.
This differential treatment raises an interesting point,
for it corresponds ver\' closely with the relative amount
of interest taken by students in the two branches of
the subject and the relative progress, both in the
presentation of, and research into, the subject-matter.
Every experienced teacher knows — indeed, the book
before us shows — that our knowledge of invertebrates
has advanced more rapidly of late years and has a
more attractive appeal than our knowledge of the
vertebrata. Purely descriptive anatomy takes too
large a place in the presentation of the latter. The
discussions upon the origin of fins or the morphology
of the ear-ossicles still sound on — vague, unsatisfying,
unpragmatic. We do not expect our students to know
in detail the sclerites of an insect, but we do expect
them to know the hard parts of vertebrates. We still
regard embryology as something distinct from
anatomy, and the sense of dealing with the life-history
of a vertebrate in the way in which life-histories are
studied among invertebrates is never realised. Em-
brj'os are still treated as rarities, the phenomena of
colour are omitted or passed over brieflj', the questions
of heat-production and other problems of vital
mechanics are not mentioned. Is it to be wondered
at that our students with rare exceptions devote
themselves to research on invertebrata or to questions
of heredity? A fresh treatment of vertebrate zoology
is required. We regret that no attempt is made in
this work to put new wine into the old bottles, but
we cannot wonder at it. A new bottle is required.
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

With regard to the changes made in the first
volume, the protozoa are more fully illustrated and
described, but the accounts are not equally adequate.
For example, the life-histories of the Lobosa are not
referred to, the sexual dimorphism in Sporozoa
gregarinida is not mentioned, and much recent work
on forms mentioned or figured is not made use of.
The list of fresh-water jellyfish and hydroids on
p. 167 omits some interesting recent discoveries. It
is, of course, incorrect to repeat the statement of the
earlier edition that Limnocodium is only found in
Regent's Park. A description of the actual mode of
formation of a medusa would have been verj- welcome.
Amongst the few mistakes of nomenclature we must
mention Adamsia on p. 208 and on Fig. 157. The
anemone referred to is obviously not Adamsia but
Sagartia parasitica (to use the older name). The
accounts of the various worm-Phyla are much im-
proved and will prove extremely useful. The classifi-
cation of the Crustacea is quite the modern one, but
we miss any account of the recent work on para-
sitism and sex-production in this class. Fig. 454
is still incorrectly labelled. The treatment of the
insects might have been brought a little more up-to-
date in view, of the increased interest in and know-
ledge of the housefly and the tsetse-fly, neither of which
are noticed. The table of mouth-parts on p. 623 is
reprinted without reference apparently to the work
which had led to another comparison. The Aptera,
a most important order, are treated verj- summarily,
and no mention is made of the discoveries of Silvestri
and Berlese, which have revealed since 1907 a new
order, the Myrientomata.

These criticisms, however, do not preclude a gener-
ous estimate of the labour which these volumes have
cost, nor do they seriously diminish one's estimate
of their value. Prof. Haswell is to be congratulated
on the appearance of this new edition, which will be
greatly appreciated by all teachers, and in the matter
of typography and lithography is an excellent example
of modern English work. F. W. Gamble.

PAINTS AND PAINTING.

The Materials of the Painter's Craft, in Europe and
Egypt from Earliest Times to the end of the Seven-
teenth Century, with Some Account of their Pre-
paration and Use. By Dr. A. P. Laurie. Pp. xv +
444. (London and Edinburgh : J. H. Foulis, 1910.)
Price 55. net.

THE author of this interesting book, which be-
longs to a series treating of "The Arts and
Crafts of the Nations," has gathered within its covers
an immense amount of information concerning the
materials and methods of painting in early times.
Dr. Laurie has been, and is, an indefatigable investi-
gator, especially in connection with ancient processes
of mural painting and with the vehicles of mediaeval
and later days. His chief conclusions, some of which
have been published before, as in the little volume on
" Greek and Roman Methods of Painting," lately rcr
viewed in these columns, are now made accessible to
everyone interested in the subject. One has no longer
to search through the back numbers of a journal

534

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

for scattered papers and lectures, but can find in the
volume before us a risumi of his inquiries, with some
additional information, as well as a list of works,
old and new, which deal with some or other of the
topics discussed in Dr. Laurie's pages. This list
occupies nearly fifty pages, and is comprehensive if
not precisely exhaustive.

Of the fourteen chapters into which this handbook
is divided, not the least important is that which forms
the introduction, in which a sketch is drawn of the
interdependence of certain crafts, of the development
of the processes of painting, of the increase in the
number of available pigments, and of changes in the
workshop and studio. Then in six successive chapters
there are described Egyptian pigments and mediums,
and classical methods, such as wax-painting, egg-tem-
pera, and a kind of fresco-painting. The eighth
chapter deals with the later history of fresco-painting,
and then comes a series of discussions based on the
treatises of the monk Theophilus and on the "Book
of the Art," by Cennino Cennini. By means of
abundant quotation from these authorities and by
original comment. Dr. Laurie has certainly succeeded
in reproducing " the atmosphere " described in the
preface as that "in which these ancient works were
carried out." As our author never loses his hold on
modern science and modern practice, we commend his
appreciative sympathy with the naive descriptions and
utterances of the older writers and historians of art.

" On the painting of illuminated manuscripts " is
the heading of the eleventh chapter. There are here
some indications of the pigments used in such wonder-
ful productions as the "Book of Kells," and the
"Lindisfarne Gospels," both of the seventh century.
For instance, we learn that "the Irish monks had
learned to extract the purple dye from a species of
murex found on the shores of the Irish Channel."
Besides Tyrian purple the early Irish illuminators
had at their command red lead, several ochres, a green
identical with malachite and several lakes. The ink
they used is supposed to have owed its blackness
entirely to carbon, but a close examination of the
writing in the " Lindisfarne Gospels," recently made
by the reviewer, indicates, by the presence of a multi-
tude of reddish-brown spots, the employment of a
gallo-tannate of iron, like that described by Theo-
philus. To the subject of lakes and other "adjective "
colours, as used in ancient practice and in mediaeval
days. Dr. Laurie devotes a chapter of twenty-five
pages; the employment of dj^ed cloths as sources of
?ome pigments, as in the case of the red from kermes,
or Coccus ilicis, is described.

The last two chapters in the book are mainly given
up to the study of questions connected with the origin
of oil-painting, the making and use of varnishes and
the preparation of pigments and of canvas-grounds
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Dr.
Laurie admits that he is unable to pronounce definite
judgments on all disputed points, but he has certainly
contributed valuable material for a solution of some
of the problems offered bv pictures supposed to have
been painted in oil during the fifteenth century.

In the volume under review are included thirteen
illustrations, many of them in colour. They are not
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

merely pleasing enrichments of the text, but serve tin
purpose of throwing light upon certain descriptlvi
passages.

On the whole, we may consider that the aim of the
author has been satisfactorily accomplished and that
he has given, within reasonable compass, a fair ac-
count. In English, of the varied information scattered
very widely in the literature of the art of painting.

In a second edition the author must correct a few
slips. For example, the two great lunettes painted
by Lord Leighton in the Victoria and Albert Museum
are not in true fresco (p. 136), but in spirit-fresco,
an oleo-resinous vehicle containing wax. Again, Dr.
Laurie has misplaced (p. 334) the Christian names of
the brothers van Eyck. Revision is needed elsewhere
also, as In the recommendation to use terre verte in true
fresco-painting (p. 137) ; It has proved very treacherous
in this country. Then, too, the attribution to Mr.
James Ward of the "valuable suggestion, unknown
to the older painters, namely, the Introduction of
asbestos into the plaster to bind it together " (p. 138),
does not fit the circumstances. Mr. Ward In his
" Fresco Painting," published in 1909, does, it is true,
recommend this use of asbestos, but It had been so
employed long before, and Its adoption had been
urged nineteen years previously in a well-known tech-
nical manual. A. H. C.

THE COLLOID STATE OF MATTER.
Kapillarchemie, Eine Darstellung der Chemie der
Kolloide und verwandter Gebiete. By Dr. Herbert
Freundlich. Pp. viii + 591. (Leipzig: Akademlsche
Verlagsgesellschaft m, b. H., 1909.)

THE attention which has been directed during
recent years to the colloid state of matter has
led to the publication of a very considerable literature,
and the subject is rapidly becoming an important
section of physical chemistry. We therefore welcome
Dr. Freundlich 's book as perhaps the most complete
attempt to deal with the subject as a whole on the
lines of a definite hypothesis, and bring it into clear
mathematical relation to physics.

The colloidal state is usually, and possibly always,
a two-phased condition, In which one finely-divided
substance is suspended In another, and ranges by
Imperceptible gradation from such suspensions as clay
in water or butter-fat in milk to true molecular solu-
tions which to our present means of examination are
absolutely homogeneous. In such systems the sur-
faces of contact between the two phases are of
enormous area, and the phenomena of surface-action
and especially of surface-tension have an importance
of quite a different order to that which they possess in
single phases. Dr. Freundlich, indeed. Is inclined to
consider them essential causes, not merely of the pecu-
liarities of colloid solution, but of adsorption, co- j
precipitation, and electric cataphoresis, which often I
bear the closest resemblance to ionic chemical
reactions. While, however, the influence of surface
or surface-action is the guiding hypothesis of Dr.
Freundlich 's work, we have been particularly struck
with the candid and truly scientific spirit in which he
admits its limitations, and states opposing views.

February 23, 191 1]

NATURE

535

Beginning with a discussion of the mathematical
work of Laplace on surface-tension, the author points
out that while it adequately expresses the effect as
observed. on curved surfaces, it gives no explanation
of tension on plane ones, since it assumes the internal
pressure to remain constant to the surface and to
react vertically to it only. A more complete theory
has been developed by van der Waals and his pupils.
In the gas-equation, (P f a/v') (7/-b) = RT, the a/r^
represents the increase of pressure due to the mutual
attraction of the gas molecules ; and this, while only
a trifling correction in gases, becomes an enormous
pressure in liquids owing to the closeness of the mole-
cules. When, however, a particle lies actually on the
surface, it is only attracted by those below and around
it, and not compressed by others above, so that the
surface-layer is not only under a much lower pressure
vertically, but the surface is under actual tension
from the horizontal component of the attraction of
the particles around and below it. Since the liquid
particles not only exert attraction on others in the
surface-layer, but on those of vapour or gas imme-
diately above it, it is clear that the layer of rarefied
liquid must pass without break into a layer of com-
pressed vapour within the very small range of mole-
cular attraction. Substances, like most salts, which
dissolve with contraction of volume, increase of in-
ternal pressure, and diminution of vapour-pressure,
also increase the surface-tension, while volatile liquids
and many colloid organic substances diminish it.

It was first pointed out by Willard Gibbs, and
afterwards, more fully, by J. J. Thomson, that bodies
which diminish the surface-tension must tend to
accumulate in that surface, while the reverse is the
case with those which increase it. Freundlich sees in
this the explanation of adsorption, positive and nega-
tive ; and as such an effect on surfaces even between
liquid and vapour can be shown experimentally to
occur, it must be accepted as one of the causes, though
whether it plays the important part which he assigns
to it must remain uncertain until means are found
at least of estimating its quantitative effect. Lager-
gren has suggested another physical theory of adsorp-
tion based on the idea that a surface is a region not
of tension but of compression, and that substances
which favour contraction of volume must accumulate
there. While it seems impossible to accept the idea
of a compressed layer at the surface of a liquid in
contact with gas, it may well be that the liquid is
compressed, and its surface-tension negative on solid
surfaces, just as van der Waals assumes that gas is
compressed on liquid ones, since the internal pressure
and surface-tension of solids must be enormously
higher than those of liquids. Neither theory ade-
quately explains many of the individualities, both of
absorbent surfaces and adsorbed substances, some
substances being adsorbed at surfaces both of positive
and of negative surface-tension, and one is inclined to
believe, what indeed Freundlich admits, that chemical
forces often come into play, and that adsorption re-
sembles in many cases a sort of contact-solution of
two bodies having chemical affinities, or, what is prob-
ably the same thing, opposite electric potentials.

H. R. P.
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

TRAVELS IN ICELAND.
Island in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Rcise-Erinner-
tingen. By Paul Hernnann. Teil iii., Zweite Reise
quer durch Island. Pp. x + 312 + map. (Leipzig:
W. Engelmann, 1910.) Price 7 marks.

THIS volume, although complete in itself, is a
sequel to the two parts of " Island in Vergang-
enheit und Gegenwart" (1907), describing Herr Herr-
mann's travels four years previously. As before, the
town of Torgau allowed him the long leave, pro-
vided a locum tenens (as schoolmaster), and relieved
him of all anxiety during the illness resulting from
an accident on the journey. The money was pro-
vided for the undertaking by the higher educational
authorities, and we cannot wonder when he observes,
"Surely few towns would act so munificently." The
same guide was employed — he who accompanied
Thoroddsen on his explorations— but although the
surrounding circumstances were equally favourable,
the book does not give quite such an impression of
enthusiasm for Iceland in each and every aspect as
on the former visit.

The route was by sea round the eastern, western,
and northern coast, descriptions being given of all
places called at, and the scenery passed. Herr Herr-
mann is pleased to think his former books are used
as reference by tourists, and this part of the present
work is specially for their benefit. He thinks the
number of visitors will greatly increase when the
steamship service is improved. He complains greatly
of the accommodation now provided, and quotes and
agrees with the opinion of another traveller (O.
Komorowicz) "that if such were used in Germany
for the transport of animals the S.P.C.A. would inter-
fere " !

From Reykjavik the journey as far as Uxahryggtr
was over familiar ground, but a new route was struck
thence to Kalmanstunga — with an excursion to the
Surtshellir caves— and westward round the Snaefellsnes
peninsula, where the inhabitants were not found as
lacking in progressive spirit as from other accounts
was expected. Northward to Hrofberg with an appre-
ciative allusion to the agricultural school at Olafs-
dalur. Then eastward to Holar, the seat of an
ancient bishopric and present agricultural school, and
southward over the Kjolur to Geysir.

When the disadvantages of storms, cold, tent-life,
and many minor catastrophes were overcome, and the
pleasant neighbourhood of Hvitarvatn reached, an
attempt to visit Frodardalur resulted, owing to an
overtaking storm, in a severe fall from the pony. As
a result of this accident the remaining portion of the
journev, bv Skalholt, GuUfoss, and round Reykjanes
to Reykjavik, is undertaken with less spirit.

The author enlarges more on the geological aspect
of the country than in the preceding volumes; in the
meantime he has learnt much in this direction, but
wishes the scientific reader to remember always that the
descriptions, remarks, and conclusions are those of a
layman only. The more he knows of Iceland the
more his admiration of Thoroddsen, as a geologist
and explorer, grows, and this appreciation is ex-
pressed in many references.

For younger geologists the entirely or partially

536

NATURE

[February 23 191 i

unexplored regions are pointed out, with hints and
advice for future students. The folklore of the island
is never lost sight of, and many extracts from the
Sagas, and much historical matter, are interspersed
in smaller print than the bulk of the narrative.

The writer's love of Iceland is not lessened by his
second, and, as he regretfully remarks several times,
final visit. It is interesting to note that in his opinion
the union between Iceland and Denmark is political
only, and that the ties between the two peoples are
not likely to become deeper or closer.

The work is illustrated by many photographs and
drawings, and a map of the route followed. Alto-
gether it is interesting reading for lovers of Iceland
or for prospective travellers over the same ground,
although the detailed accounts, evidently intended for
future tourists, of the reception, food, lodging, and
cost at each stopping place are wearisome.

We regret that Herr Herrmann, with one excep-
tion, always alludes to our countrymen with some
contemptuous phrase; the four years' interval has not
softened his attitude towards the British traveller.

M. G. B.

HEREDITY AND ITS PHYSICAL BASIS.
Hereditary Characters and their Modes of Trans-
mission. By C. E. Walker. Pp. xii + 239. (Lon-
don : Edward Arnold, 1910.) Price 8s. 6d. net.
I'^HIS volume deals very clearly and briefly with
the whole field of heredity, but perhaps its most
interesting feature is the development of a theory as
to the relative share borne by the chromosomes and
other parts of the sexual cells in the transmission of
hereditary characters. Stated somewhat crudely, the
theory and the arguments which support it are as
follows : — In the chromosomes are represented new
characters {i.e. individual variations, mutations, and
the like), while other parts of the cell are concerned
with the propagation of old-established racial char-
acters. That the chromosomes do not bear entities
representing all the inherited characters is shown,
firstly, by experimental evidence, such as the fertilisa-
tion of enucleated Echinoderm ova. For instance,
Godlewski fertilised enucleated eggs of sea-urchins
with the sperm of crinoids and obtained gastrulae
which possessed pure maternal characters only.
Second, through the reducing divisions half the
chromatin is eliminated frona the mature gametes.
In spite of this, all the racial characters are shown
by the individual which develops from the fertilised
ovum. If one half the entities representing the racial
characters of the father are absent from the sperm, it
is so improbable as to be almost inconceivable that
exactly those characters which are unrepresented will
be supplied by the mother, seeing that the entities
present in the ovum have been halved in number in a
corresponding way.

Further, the racial characters are blended in in-
heritance, while individual variations and new char-
acters are transmitted in a Mendelian way, the
mechanism for which is supplied by the chromo-
somes. That the sexual characters also are propa-
gated in this manner was suggested, first by Castle,
NO. 2156, VOL, 85]

who supposed that both sexes were heterozygous in
this respect; that is to say, that each individual con-
tained both maleness and femaleness, the one latent
and the other patent. Difficulties in the way of
accepting this theory were removed by the suggestion
that one sex was homozygous, its sexual character
being recessive, while the other was heterozygous,
and showed the dominant character. Credit for this
emendation is given by the author to Bateson and
Correns, but by right of priority it belongs to Geoffrey
Smith. The latter, in his Naples monograph on the
Rhizocephala (published in 1906), suggests that in the
case of crabs the male is heterozygous since it exhibits
female characters when castrated by the parasite
saccullna, and must therefore have femaleness latent.
The female, on the other hand, under similar circum-
stances, never shows male characters. He further
surmises that in some parthenogenetic forms the
heterozvgous sex was the female, since from it both
male and female individuals were at times produced.

The ever-present question as to the inheritance of
acquired characters comes up again for discussion,
and the author, who largely follows the sane reasoning
of Archdall Reld, concludes that they are not inherited.
Among other arguments in support of this view he
includes that from the transmission of the characters
of neuter individual in ants. This argument, he says,
he has only met with twice before, namely, in
the "Origin of Species" and in Poulton's "Essays
on Evolution." He will no doubt be interested to
know that it figures very largely in the controversy
between Weismann and Herbert Spencer, published in
the Contemporary Review in 1893 ^^^ 1894.

One more point must be raised, namely, the use
of the word "regression" to signify something the
reverse of progression, instead of in the special sense,
acquired through biometry, in which it is generally
used. The author has followed Archdall Reid in this
respect, who, in his •" Principles of Heredity," speaks
of variations consisting of the addition of a character
as progressive, and those resulting in the loss of a
character as regressive. We hope he will also follow
him in altering " regression " and " regressive " to
"retrogression" and "retrogressive" in future
editions. E. H. J. S

GEOLOGY MADE EASY.
Geologic Nouvelle. Thdorie Chimiqiie de la Forma-
tion de la Terre et des Roches Terrestres. By H.
Lenicque. Pp. xvi + 271. (Paris: A. Hermann e;
Fils, 1910.) Price 7 francs.

THE book before us is the work of an engineer
who, having discovered that the received doc-
trines of geology rest largely on unproved hypotheses,
has been impelled to frame a new geology for himself.
The French scientific journals having ungratefully
met this by a conspiracy of silence, it is left for us ti
introduce it to the public.

This new light in the dark places of the earth

comes, it would seem from the acetylene lamp; for

in the principle of that useful invention the author

finds the clue to many phenomena which geologists

„ have explained in ways less sensational. Silicates and

February 23, 191 1]

NATURE

537

carbonates are decomposed at the temperature of the
electric furnace, where the stable compounds are sili-
cides, carbides, phosphides, and the like. We are
therefore bidden to believe that the heated interior of
the globe consists of such bodies as calcium carbide
and carborundum ; and it is clear that, when some of
these substances come into contact with water, start-
ling consequences are to be expected. Thus is ex-
plained, for instance, the origin of limestones, setting
aside some of late age which the author pronounces
to be organic. Eruptions of lime, in a pasty state,
were forced up by the pressure of acetylene gas, and
spread over the sea floor. Any creatures so unfor-
tunate as to be living in the neighbourhood were ex-
peditiously converted into fossils. In like manner,
shales and clays were produced by the action of water
on silicides of aluminium and calcium, and were
poured out in successive coulees, with equally painful
results. After this, coal presents no difficult}-. It was
erupted as a hydrocarbon, more or less fluid, super-
saturated with carbon, and such vegetable matters as
it happened to encounter were carbonised by the coal
itself.

An equal boldness of conception characterises the
author's treatment of other branches of geology.
Elevation and depression of continents being among
the unproved hypotheses, we are offered instead a
submergence, of the northern and southern hemispheres
in turn, resulting from the precession of the equi-
noxes. Glaciation, of course, finds a like explanation,
as CroU has already taught ; but our interest is more
stirred by those prodigious movements of the ocean
which result from the sudden collapse of a melting
polar ice-cap. To cataclysms of this kind are re-
ferred, not only the deluge in the days of Noah, but
the cutting of the Straits of Dover and the severing
cf Madagascar from Africa, and we gather that the
same dread agency may have torn the reindeer from
his northern home and transported him to sunny
France, where his bones still remain to tell the tale.

Here we must reluctantly take leave of M. Lenicque,
while assuring the curious reader that the theories
which we have noticed are chosen from many others
not inferior to them in noveltv and ingenuity.

A. H.

ALL SORTS AND COSDITIONS OF WOMEN.

Women of all Nations. Popular edition. Edited by
T. A. Joyce. Pp xii + 220 + 65 plates. (London:
Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 6s. net.

THOSE already familar with the former edition of
"Women of All Nations" will recognise
with what skill Mr, Joyce has dealt with it to
reduce it to the present extremely convenient and
informing little volume. Naturally, the popular
edition is less copiously illustrated, but the plates
retained are an excellent selection. The range of the
book is exceptionally vast, as the title leads us to
expect ; we pass from criticisms of the modern British
woman almost in the vein of Pierre de Coulevain
to the chapter on Africa, where we read of girls fat-
tened to attract suitors and of widows buried alive in
their dead husband's grave. Women doctors confront
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

us in many parts of the world; in fact, among the
Madi of the White Nile they are the chief medical
practitioners who receive fees, while the men only
act as honorary surgeons (p. 150). The Madi women,
we learn, fight duels; nevertheless, they are capital
wives, and married life is very happy in their couniry.
A Zulu lady doctor of very striking appearance is
portrayed opposite p. 158.

The chapters on Europe (viii. to xv.) are extremely
interesting, showing as they do how gradually East
merges into West, and how numerous are the back-
waters of civilisation in our very midst.

"Two hundred years ago the women of Russia lived
in as much seclusion as if they had been Moham-
medans. It was Peter the Great who first com-
manded them to lay aside their veils. ... In Russian
villages there are still old women who act as profes-
sional match-makers, and the peasant women still
keep their heads covered out-of-doors, even in the
warmest weather " (p. 104).

Austria affords an instance of the persistence of
national points of view as seen in the status of Slav
and Magyar women. A Slav proverb runs: — "That
household is threatened with ruin in which the distaff
rules and the sword obeys," while there is a Magyar
saying that "it is the chignon that must rule." Italian
law is exceptionally just to women (pp. 109-10) ; a
married woman's propert}- is absolutely her own,

"she has a right to the guardianship of her children,
and, as a daughter, to ar^ equal share with her
brothers in any patrimonial inheritance in case of
intestacy."

Unfortunately the space devoted to America is very

brief, 34 pages, the whole of South America — all too
scanty in the unabridged edition — being compressed
into seven pages. We regret that Mr. Joyce has so
greatly curtailed the section by himself on the Maori
of New Zealand, and also the discussion of the racial,
geographical, and sociological conditions affecting the
position of Polynesian women. We are glad to find
that the introduction is entirely omitted; it was cer-
tainly beneath the level of the rest of the book.

APPLIED MECHANICS.

(i) Notes on Applied Mechanics. By R. H. WTiap-

ham and G. Preece. ?p. vi + 206. (London :

Edward Arnold, 1910.) Price 45. 6d. net.

(2) Applied Mechanics, Including Hydraulics and the

Theory of the Steam-Engine. For Engineers and

Engineering Students. By John Graham. Pp.

viii + -J04. (London: Edward Arnold, n.d.) Price

55. net.

(i) nr*HIS little book is primarily intended for naval

-L cadets, who are undergoing instruction in

applied mechanics during their six months' cruise in

the Cumberland and Cornwall. The examples at the

end of each chapter, which are all fully worked out,

illustrate, so far as possible, the application of the

various principles discusse3^ in each section to actual

practical problems which are likely to be met with by

the cadets in their future professional career; there

is, therefore, a refreshing novelty in these examples,

and they differ markedly from those usually met with

in the ordinary text-books on this subject.

53«

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

The first nine chapters deal with machines and such
details connected with them as frictional losses, energy
of moving masses, relative velocities and accelerations,
and output of work. There is an excellent chapter
on simple harmonic motion, in which many of the
difficulties are smoothed away which generally worry
the young student entering for the first time on the
study of this branch of the subject. The latter half
of the book is devoted to stress and strain, bending
moments, shearing forces, and stresses in beams, the
stresses and amount of twist in shafts when trans-
mitting power, and the stresses in simple loaded
frameworks ; it is rather stranpfe that the authors
have entirely omitted to deal with the deflection of
beams. The last chapter is devoted to a simple treat-
ment of the problem of the flight of projectiles.

The two authors have succeeded in writing on a
well-worn subject a text-book which will be welcomed
by many young engineering students because of the
clear and lucid way in which fundamental principles
are explained and enforced.

(2) This book is based upon the lectures delivered
by the author to the students at the Technical College,
Finsbury, London, and it covers more ground than is
usual in the case of the more advanced text-books on
this subject.

The first thirteen chapters are devoted to a con-
sideration of the laws of motion, work, and energy;
friction ; the energy of rotating masses ; centres of
gravity, &'c. There is nothing novel in the treatment
of the subject, but fundamental principles are clearly
enunciated and explained, and fully worked out
examples are freely used in order to illustrate the
application of these principles to the many practical
problems which the engineer is called upon to solve.

The next eight chapters deal with the branch of the
subject usually termed " Strength of Materials." Two
excellent chapters on simple harmonic motion, and the
balancing of rotating masses, are included in these
eigfht chapters ; in any future edition it would be an
advantage to print these chapters immediately after
chapter x. of the present edition, as this is the correct
sequence for them.

The remainder of the book is devoted to elementary
h^-draulics and to the elements of the theory of the
steam engine, including in the latter case such
problems as the effects produced by the inertia of the
reciprocating masses, the dynamics of steam engine
g-overnors, valve gears, and their effect upon the steam
distribution. A four-figure table of logarithms is
printed as an appendix, and will prove useful to
students who are working through the problems given
at the end of the book. The book will probably prove
useful to junior students in technical colleges.

OUR BOOK SHELF.

The Microscopical Examination of Food and Drugs.

By Prof. H. G. Greenish. Second edition. Pp.

XX4-386. (London : J. and A. Churchill, 1910.)

Price J2S. 6d. net.
The general excellence of this standard work, which
first appeared in 1903, is maintained throughout the
second edition, and its usefulness is increased by the
addition of a valuable section or^ adulterants and an-

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

other on the practical examination of unknown
powders. Other new subjects which have been intro-
duced include notes on saffron and gentian, liquorice
and calumba roots, and a description of a method of
preparing fibres for cutting transverse sections.
Otherwise no change has been made in the method
of treating the subject-matter ; and, indeed, none was
necessary.

The first section deals with the various starches,
complete instructions being given as to how to mount
specimens for microscopic examination ; the author
describes the shape and appearance of the starch and
explains how the grains can be sketched to their
correct relative size. In subsequent chapters hairs and
textile fibres, spores and glands, roots, woods, stems,
leaves, flowers, barks, seeds, fruits, rhizomes, and
roots are dealt with in an equally complete manner,
and care has been taken to select types which will
best illustrate the methods of examination described.
With regard to foods, the book is essentially a treatise
on practical methods rather than a complete guide to
their examination.

In a future edition the inclusion of more foods
would make the book of still greater use to analysts,
but those at present included are well and adequately
dealt with. In the very useful section on adulterants,
oil cake might also have been treated from the point
of view of the adulteration of oil cake itself; and, in
passing, it may be noted, as a very minor point, that
in giving the sources of oil cake, the author omits to
mention cotton seed. The original illustrations are
carefully drawn as to detail, and the drawings selected
from other authorities are well chosen. The book
will continue to be of great value to students and
analytical chemists, as well as to those pharmacists
who pursue their calling in its higher branches.

Child Problems. By Dr. G. B. Mangold. Pp. xv +
381. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London:
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 5s. net.
In this volume the author deals principally with facts
and figures obtained from American sources, but the
problems are similar to those which were brought
into prominence in England in 1904, when evidence
was given before the Interdepartmental Committee on
the causes of physical deterioration. Prevention is
better than cure, and the hope for the future must
always be with the younger generation. In some
respects America is ahead of England. The deplor-
able waste of child-life owing to preventible causes is
recognised as a national concern, and in many of the
States there is a more or less efficient supervision
and regulation of the milk supply. Separate courts
for children have been established for some years in
several of the States, and the whole attitude of
society towards the youthful delinquent appears to
offer more chance of reforming him than does the
English system. In other respects possibly America
might learn from England, e.g. in regard to factory
legislation.

Social problems appear under somewhat different
aspects in different countries, but all civilised com-
munities are beginning to realise that national
efficiency depends on prevention of the causes which
lead to physical deterioration, and a study of the social
problems connected with childhood has world-wide
application.

"The child is father to the man": the physical,
moral, and intellectual welfare of the race depend on
the inheritance, training and education of the chil-
dren. Child problems are the gravest of our tiire and
the present volume should prove helpful to all who
are anxious to further reform. The subject matter is
dealt with under five heads : infant mortality, educa-

February 23, 191 1]

NATURE

539

tional reform, child labour, the delinquent child, the
neglected child. The author insists on the importance
of securing the cooperation of women, but he omits
to point out that until they possess the power and
status of citizenship their power of helping will be
crippled. The volume can be warmly recommended
as a wise and human study of immensely difficult and
important questions. Its value is enhanced by a full
biography and an index. The type is clear and the
printing good.

Dcr Begriff des Instinktes einst und jetzt. Eine
Studie iiber die Geschichte und die Griindlagen der
Tierpsychologie. By Prof. Heinrich Ernst Ziegler.
Second revised and enlarged edition. Pp. vi+ii2 +
2 plates. (Jena : Gustav Fischer, 19 lo.) Price 3
marks.
This is a revised and enlarged edition of a luminous
essay which Prof. Ziegler contributed to the Weis-
mann Festschrift in 1904. It deserves to be widely
known as a terse and interesting introduction to com-
parative psychology. The treatment is in the main
historical, and the author makes a point of showing
how the conception of instinct has mirrored the pro-
gress of science.

From the views of the Greek philosophers, the
Church, and the old Vitalists, the author passes to
Darwin and the Lamarckians, and thence to modern
comparative psychology, as represented by workers
like Lloyd Morgan, Groos, and Zur Strassen. Ziegler
himself, following Weismann, interprets instincts as
the outcome of the selection of germinal variations ;
they are now part of the inheritance and are objec-
tively represented by pre-established nerve-paths. In
his discussion he insists upon keeping to an objective
consideration, for it is impossible to discover how far
the lower animals are conscious.

In contrast to instinctive behaviour, we mav speak
of intelligent behaviour when it is worked out by the
individual's experiments, when it requires to be
learnt, when it is individually adjusted to particular
circumstances. But when we reflect how little we
know, for instance, in regard to the distribution of
feelings of pleasure and pain among animals, we see
the advisability of trying to define the grades of be-
haviour as objectively as possible. The author is,
therefore, resolute in leaving consciousness and feeling
and perception of purpose entirely out of account in
his conception of instinct. At the close of the volume
— which is all too short— there is an interesting
appendix showing how the brains of workers, queens,
and males among ants and bees differ from one an-
other, as their instincts do.

Licht und Farbe. By Robert Geigel. (Pp. 199.

(Leipzig : Philipp Reclam, junr., n.d.) Price 60

pfennig.
This little book belongs to a collection of volumes on
"natural science" published in the series known as
the " Universal Bibliothek," which is so familiar to
students of German literature in this countr}-, and
which, in Germany, by providing, at the lowest pos-
sible cost, translations of the masterpieces of foreign
literature, has helped to make the best books in many
languages known to all classes of readers. The price
of the usual small volume or "unit" of about a hun-
dred pages is 20 pf. : a number of such units may make
one book; thus the " Nibelungenlied " extends to four
" units," and may be bought for about tenpence.
Three units go to make the present volume, which is
illustrated by seventy-five drawings in the text, and,
in addition, four coloured plates — as well as a photo-
graph of the author — all well printed.

The aim of this volume is to give a simple, popular
.Mccount of the properties of light, and especiallv of

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

phenomena connected with variation in wave-lengths,
or colour. From this point of view the ground
covered is sufficiently extended : spectrum analysis,
fluorescence, interference, polarisation, colour photo-
graphy, meteorological optics, are all dealt with, in
addition to the theorj'^ of instruments and photometry.
It would be idle to discuss such a book in any
detail. In the nature of the case a work in German
intended to give some popular account of elementary
scientific ideas can have but little interest for English
readers. Clerk Maxwell's " Matter and Motion " is
a classic ; this volume can pretend to no such distinc-
tion. We have not found it inspiring, and in lucidity
it might be improved. There is a tendency to regard
the general reader too much as a child, and in one
instance at least the treatment is directly unscientific
in giving as consequences of a law the facts which
that law was invented to resume. On the whole,
however, the book gives a tolerably readable ele-
mentary account of the branches of optics with which
it is concerned, and no doubt will enable many a
German to take an intelligent interest in matters in
which he is not a specialist.

Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British
Museum. Vol. x., Noctuidae. (London : Printed by
order of the Trustees, British Museum (Nat. Hist.).
Price 20s.
The tenth volume of this important work contains
more pages than any which has yet been published,
vol. vii., the largest of the preceding volumes, ccm-
taining only 709 pages; and vol. ix. only 522, as
against 829 pages in vol. x. The series of plates re-
lating to vol. X. will include plates 148-173, and will
be published early in 1911.

Vol. X. is devoted to the Erastrianae, the thirteenth
out of the fifteen subfamilies recognised by the author
in the Noctuidae, and contains descriptions of 1222
species (numbered from 4987 to 6197) belonging to
136 genera, a considerable number, both of genera
and species, being described as new. There now
remain only the subfamilies Hypeninae and Hyblaeinae
to complete the great group of Noctuidee which,
according to the provisional arrangement of families
of Lepidoptera in the first volume of the present work,
is only the fourth of fifty-two families, and is placed
between the Agaristidae and the Pterothysanidae.

The Erastrianae are moths of comparatively small
size, and are ver>' varied in their colour and markings,
but the so-called " Noctud-pattern " is rarely present.
"The subfamily is to a large extent confined to the
tropical and warmer temperate regions, especially the
more arid districts, and it has few species in the
colder zones, and none in the Arctic and Alpine zones."
A few species are British, but though some are
abundant in special localities, they are not .generally
common.

The rapid progress which it has been found possible
to make with so bulky and extensive a work is most
remarkable, this being the second volume issued in
1910; and a volume appeared in each of the two pre-
ceding years.

Photography in Colours: A Text-book for Amateurs,
with a Chapter on Kinematography in the Colours
of Nature. By Dr. Geo. L. Johnson. Pp. viii+143.
(London : Ward and Co., 1910.) Price 35. 6d. net.
The author has rewritten and enlarged the last section
of his " Photographic Optics and Colour Photo-
graphy," and in this volume issues it separately.
Being " for amateurs," only those processes that are
practically suitable for this class of workers are in-
cluded, excepting the final chapter on kinemato-
graphy. Indeed, the subject has been narrowed still
further, for the only method treated of with any

540

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

fulness is the single-plate or screen-plate process.
Here evideniiy the author writes with considerable
experience and even enthusiasm, and as those parts
that deal with the "autochrome," "dioptichrome,"
"Thames," and "omnicolore" plates have been re-
vised by the respective makers of these plates, there
is excellent guarantee that the details given are
trustworthy.

There is always a difficulty when entering into par-
ticulars on such a subject, that commercial products
are liable to vary, and it is often impossible for one
person to krK)w the extent of this variation in every
section of the subject. Just one example will indicate
the need for bearing this in mind. Dr. Johnson says
of the " dioptichrome " plate that the '■ first black
condition is very perfectly fulfilled." That means
that the red, green, and blue patches on the colour
screen are so proportioned that the general colour
presented to the eye is a pure grey. We have just
examined two screens of this make, and one is a
rather fine green and the other pinkish. The pre-
liminary chapters on the eye, colour vision, and colour
blindness, although short, are of much interest.

Tables for Calculation of Rock-Analyses. By Alfred
Harker, F.R.S. (Cambridge: University Press,
1910.) Price li-.

Chemical analyses of rocks are constantly becoming
more refined and complete, and, in consequence, if
accurately interpreted, are of increasing value to the
petrologist. Systems of rock-classification that depend
on chemical composition are also now in favour. For
these and other reasons it becomes desirable that the
percentages of components as stated in a rock-analysis
should be translated as easily as possible into per-
centages of the constituent rock-forming minerals.
Mr. Marker's tables are designed to meet this want,
and they have so many valuable features that they
should be in the hands of all teachers of petrology.
They are very compact, and consequently are cheap
compared with the books hitherto in use for this pur-
pose ; much time may be saved by their use and long
calculations avoided. The method adopted is simple
and exceedingly ingenious, and with these tables a
student who has not hitherto attempted calculations
of this sort may make them more rapidly and even
more accurately than by any of the methoids formerly
in use.

Populdre Vortrdge aus dem Gebiele der Etttwickel-
ungslehre. By Dr. Wilhelm Breitenbach. Pp. vi +
264. (Brackwede i. W. : Verlag von Dr. W.
Breitenbach, 1910.) Price 3 marks.

This little book consists of six popular lectures, deal-
ing respectively with the origin of life, recent theories
or hereditV', fifty years of Darwinism, Fritz Miiller,
the prince of observers, Hermann Miiller. and the
historv of the human race. They are written in a
clear and interesting style, and, apart from their
scientific value, mav be strongly recommended to
English students of biology who desire to improve
their acquaintance with the German language.

Open-air Studies in Botany : Sketches of British Wild

Flowers in their Homes. By R. L. Praeger. Second

edition, revised. Pp. xiii + 266. (London : Charles

Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 65. net.

The first edition of this book was reviewed in Nature

of June 16, 1898 (vol. Iviii, p. 150). The present issue

has been revised throughout, but little alteration has

been made. The nomenclature has been changed

where necessary to follow that used in the " List of

British Seed-plants and Ferns," published by the

British Museum in 1907.

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

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 Perpetual Calendar.

I CANNOT allow the article signed by " W. T. L." in
Nature of February 2 to pass without a protest. The pro-
posal to make " New Year'.s Day " a dies non, named
" New Year's Day," and not a day of the week or of the
month, emanated, I believe, from Mr. Alexander Philip,
of Brechin. Supposing that January 1 were a Sunday, and
supposing that March, June, September, and December
were given 31 days, the other months 30 each, February i
would always fall on a Tuesday, March i on a Thursday,
and so on. This would save much trouble in arranging
dates for meetings. But, more important still, the four
" quarters " of the year would be equal, instead of, as at
present, consisting of 90, 91, 92, and 92 days. Fro.n
testimony by railway companies, insurance offices,
chambers of commerce, and business men, an alteration
which would equalise terms would meet with universal
approval. It is difficult to see where the trouble men-
tioned by your contributor would come in. It may be
stated that authorities in the leading churches have been
consulted, and that apparently no objection would b:-
raised by them. I am Informed that the Belgian Foreign
Office has addressed a diplomatic inquiry at the X'atican,
and that the Holy See is not opposed to the reform of
the calendar. Surely the organ of English science is.
not going to oppose a useful innovation, acceptable to all
practical men, which would save an enormous amount of
labour in accounting and would simplify all business
arrangements. \Villiam Ramsay.

University College, Gower Street, London, W.C.,
February 3.

Alterations in so fundamental a matter as the regula-
tion of time and of the calendar must always give trouble,
and should not be adopted unless very great advantages
would result from the <-hange. Now it appears to the
writer that no such advantage would be obtained by
making the days of the week always correspond to those
of the month ; indeed, in the arrangements of life it is
often found convenient that they should not correspond.
As to the lengths of the quarters being now unequal, they
could be rendered as equal as possible by the simple pro-
cess of restoring the original regulation of Julius Caesar,
according to which February had 29 days in common years
and 30 days in leap-years, and August had only 30 days.
\'ery serious inconvenience would probably result from the
ignoring of a day every year, particularly as this would
have to be extended to two days in leap-vear.

W. T. L.

The Progressive Disclosure of the Entire Atmosphere
of the Sun.

Some of the remarkable spectroheliograms which you
reproduce in connection with your report of M. Deslandres'
lecture, delivered by that gentlemari at the Royal Institu-
tion on June 12, 1910, call for special comment. This
applies more especially to the pair which represents th-^
sun for March 21, 1910. I had the good fortune to
observe spectioscopically an exceptionally fine prominence,
which persisted for two entire synodic rotations. During
some of the early days in March it graced the west limb,
then reappeared in the east about a fortnight later, showed
again in the west, reappeared in the east once more
towards the middle of April, and gave a final appearance
in somewhat modified form on the west limb on April 2S.
It is fullv described and illustrated in an interesting note
by Dr. F. Slocum in the Astrophysical Journal for
September, 1910.

This prominence, while of fair altitude, was more con-
spicuous with regard to its latitudinal extent. But as
regards altitude, it should be mentioned here that the
Yerkes photographs were taken in calcium light, while
my spectroscopic observations were made in hydrogen H=t
light, and I have noted on many occasions, before and

February 23, 191 1

NATURE

541

since, that the calcium photographs have a hard, skeleton
look about them. In hydrogen Ho the same prominences
look more full, and are overlaid by extensive crowns or
strata of clouds of varying brilliance, which \ cannot find
in the corresponding calcium pictures. Thus this promin-
ence also appeared much higher in the radiations of Ha
than the calcium spectroheliograms show. In the case
under discussion, the prominence was chiefly remarkable
bv virtue of its enormous extent in latitude, spanning as
it did right across the equatorial regions from P..\. 37 to
P..\. 84, encircling thus more than 45 degrees of arc
practically along an imaginary meredianal line.

It is here where the spectroheliogram taken by M.
Deslandres on March 21 comes in, showing as it does this
remarkable prominence as a pronounced dark calcium and
hvdrogen flocculus a few days distant from the east limb.
This dark formation conforms in the direction and magni-
ture of its principal dimensions to the bright structure
seen a few days before on the eastern limb. Not only
this, but it shows by its pronounced convexity towards the
•west palpable evidence of equatorial acceleration. Further-
more, it shows along its western contour a bright ribbon,
just as one would expect to see if the brighost portion of
the prominence was allowed to peep from under an over-
ling dark or absorbent stratum for reasons of perspective,
■which in that longitude would be considerable. This is
strikingly visible on the glass positives, a fine specimen. of
which M. Deslandres exhibited at London.

It remains to be recorded as another remarkable feature
of this same prominence (by no means infrequently seen
bv me before and since) that along its top • it :seemed to be
ciit off along its entire length by an unbroken 'and sharp
line when seen in Ho, giving the distinct »impression> that
the entire structure was overlaid by a dense, dark, absorb-
entlv acting mass of vapours, some other outlines of which
under conditions of best definition could be made out, as
I pointed out in my recent contribution to solar research
In Ihe Observatory. The -dark flocculus depicted in M.
Deslandres' spectroheliogram does in the present case un-
doubtedly show that hypothetical dark overlying stratum,
■which therefore is situated at very considerable height
above the sun's general surface. The prominence per-
sisted to show this abrupt upper termination during
successive appearances, but this was not so apparent when
It was last seen in the west on .April 28. but even then-
dark masses were seen projected on the luminous back-
ground afforded by the prominence itself.

Albert .Alfred Bess.

Chorlton-cum-Hardy, February 16.

Vibrations of a Piaooforte Sound-board.

While investigating the vibrations of the pianoforte
sound-Hoard, a curious result was obtained a short time
tgo which it is perhaps worth while recording.

One leg of an optical lever was attached to the sound-
board of a pianoforte at a point 3"-; cm. below the frame
suoDorting the keys and 9 cm. on the treble side of the
bridge. A beam of Heht from an electric ate fall$-on a
concave mirror attached to the ootical lever and ts Reflected
to, the drum of a phonogrraph. The combined vibrations of
the beam of light, set in motion by the sound-board, and
the rotation of the drum trace out a time-displacement

in both cases, 68 cm. per sec. It will be noticed that
No. 2 gives only the second partial of the note struck.
This was so unusual that it was thought some mistake
had been made, and the apparatus was again connected
with the same point of the sound-board. No. 3 shows the
curve obtained for a' and No. 4 that for a, thus confirming
the f)revious results.

It is remarkable that a point can be found on the sound-
board which responds so well to the second partial of a
particular note that the fundamental is apparently entirely
excluded. G. H. Berry.

14 City Road, London, E.C., February 3.

Occurrence of Maionia sarnientosa in Sarawak.

While resident in Sarawak I received several inquiries
with regard to the conditions of growth of Matonia
sarnientosa. Baker. As I can find no published record of
this, the following note will be of interest to pterido-
phylogrsts.

it was first found by Dr. Charles Hose hanging from
the roof of a limestone cave at Niah, in the Baram Resi-
dency, Sarawak ; this was supposed to be the only locality
in w^hich it occurred, until it was recently discovered by
myself to be growing also on the limestones at both Bau
and Bidi in Upper Sarawak. Although some 300 miles of
jungle separates this district from Niah. there are, I
believe, isolated limestone outcrops on which, when careful
search is made, it will possibly be found, thus accounting
for its erratic distribution, but it has not been found on
the limestone at Quop. which has been well searched.

This limestone formation is considered to be Jurassic by
Mr. J.. S. Gilkie, and is an extremely hard and fine-
grained type, but as the fern does not grow on the original
rock,, this can only influence its growth by providing suit-
able temperature and moisture. In the immediate neigh-
bourhood of these immense masses of limestone a cooler
atmosphere is noticeable.

I have never observed this fern grow^ing below 5P feet
above the ordinary ground-level : its range may extend to
an altitude of 200-300 feet, and then only on the rough
and somewhat soft surface of a stalagmite or when the
surface of the limestone has received a deposit of calcium
carbonate from solution. The position occupied by the
clumps is always open and ain*' ; the direct sun rays do
not app>ear to be detrimental, but it is invariably sheltered
bv an overhanging cliff from the rain. When the con-
ditions are all favourable, it grows in ver>- large masses
out of all proportion to its slender root -hold : this renders
its detachment from the rock easy, but its inaccessible
position, makes it one of the most difficult of ferns to
collect; and this can only be done bv the aid of Dyaks
clever at constructing ladders and scaffolding.

It is fnteresting to note that, of all the ferns peculiar to
this limestone, in its choice of situation it is the most
highly developed. Cecil J. Brooks.

Drinkstone, Bury St. Edmunds.

Glacial Erosion.

Your reviewer states that *' the passage of ice over the

British uplands swept away all the loose rock materials and

re-deposited them in the lowlands as glacial drifts." I

presume that the loose rock rftaterials

are supposed to have been produced by

pre-glacial weathering. Now, weathered

rocks are in ver>- many cases easily

recognised, and my own experience of

the rocks contained in boulder clays is

that they very seldom indeed show any

signs of weathering whatever. The

boulders are of fresh hard rock which

has been removed bv the ice.

R. M. Deelev.
Inglewood. Longcroft Avenue,
Harpenden. February 10.

curve of the vibration on a strip of photographic film
fastened round the drum. For a full description of the
apparatus see the Phil. Mag. for .\pril, iqio.

Four curves are enclosed. No. i was produced by
striking the note a' on the pianoforte. No. 2 by striking a
the octave lower. The speed of the drum was the same

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

Materlals loosened by pre-glacial weathering which are
weathered throug'hout are naturally reduced to powder alike
by glacial and by river transport : but any block which is
only partly weathered through would loose its weathered
crust and the nucleus would be- left as a fresh hard boulder.

J. \y. G.

542

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

■I'llE ETHNOGRAPHY OF SOUTH AFRICA.'

MR. McCALL THEAL, the celebrated historian of
South Africa, introduced into his volumes on
I hat subject, published first of all some fifteen or more
years ago, a variety of chapters and paragraphs on
I he traditional history, the habits and customs of the
South African natives — Bushmen, Hottentots, and
Bantu negroes. He considered that this work, owing
to its being scattered through a number of volumes
was not sufficiently useful or accessible to students
of South Africa, and therefore has now selected much
of his ethnographical material from the aforesaid
history, and has republished it in a separate book,
the volume under review. To these chapters origin-
ally written, we may suppose, about twenty years ago
— or even more — he has added a good deal of recent
research work, and it may be said at once that
although in some respects this book is not quite
up-to-date and fails to appreciate some of the newest
theories and most recently dis-
covered facts, it is likely to be
essential to all students of
Africa for a long time to come.
It is eminently readable; and
although there are a few mis-
takes, such as perhaps no such
work could be exempt from,
the slight defects of the book
are rather in the nature of
omission than of commission.

Perhaps Mr. McCall Theal's
greatest mistake is in connec-
tion with the Bushmen and
their relationships. He is apt
to assume, first, that the
Bushmen were the only human
race in the Old World, Hving
in a condition of absolute
savagery, which at the same
time was gifted with a remark-
able power of design and an
irresistible inclination to make
pictures, and to engrave, punc-
ture, scratch, or paint those
pictures on rock surfaces. He
is therefore inclined to ascribe to
Bushmen the marvellously good
prehistoric drawings, paint-
ing, and engravings which
have been discovered during
the last fifty years in the caves
of France and Spain. But, in
the first place, it must be
pointed out that the men of the
Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages
who did those drawings have been claimed by other
ethnologists as of Eskimo race, simple because the
Eskimo, like the Bushman, had the same pictorial
gift. Similarly, again, they might be represented as
Amerindians or Australoids. It is best to suspend
judgment on this subject until we have a far more
complete array of evidence. It seems probable
(Iiat man very early in his history as Homo sapiens
developed the art of drawing. This art, indeed, is
firesent almost without exception in all savage or un-
civilised races at the present day, though in some it
lemains dormant until a chance circumstance draws
it out.

Mr. McCall Theal is also in error when he con-
tinues (in spite of all that has been written and pub-

' "The Yellow and Dark-skinned People of Africa, South of the
Zambezi." A Description of the Bushmen, the Hottentots, and particularly
the Bantu, and numerous Folklore Tales of these different Peonle. By fir.
G. McCall Theal. Pp. xyi+397 + is plates. (London : Swan Sonnensch; in
and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 10s. td.

lished on this subject during the past ten years) to
identify the Bushmen with the Congo pigmies, and
with other stunted negro races of equatorial or tropical
Africa. Dr. F. C. Shrubsall, in reviewing the collec-
tions of the present writer, Dr. Arthur Keith, Prof.
Duckworth, Dr. Elliot Smith, to say nothing of
various German and French anthropologists, have
during the past ten years conclusively shown that
there was no connection (other than that they were
both members of the negro subspecies) between the
Bushmen and the Congo pigmies. The last-named
are nothing but stunted Forest negroes, whom the
peculiar conditions of life in the dense forests have
dwarfed. Removed from these unfavourable condi-
tions, the Congo pigmy in the second or third genera-
tion grows to a more ordinary stature. Neither in
language nor in physique do the Congo pigmies stand
apart from the other black negroes.

But the Bushman is a most distinct type of the
negro subspecies, due to a divergent development

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

Fig. I. — Engraving of a Zebra on a Rock in the District of Vryburg. The original is 13 inches in lengtl>»
From " The Yellow and Dark-skinned People of Africa, South ot the Zambezi."

which may be conceivably fifty to a hundred thousand
years old. The Hottentot, of course, is nothing but ;i
cross between the black negro and the Bushman.

Mr. Theal descants on the usually hideous aspect,
the ultra-negro character of the Bantu Damara (he
might have added also, of the Berg-Damara or Hauk-
woin), but this is likewise a superficial pronounce-
ment. Among the other Herero, and even amongst
the Berg-Damara, there are types (some of which
the present writer has illustrated through the kind-
ness of the Royal Geographical Society) which might
be selected as those of the ideal Bantu, faces almost
Hamitic in profile, and even in the abundance and
length of head hair. Yet the same tribal designations
will cover creatures that might be mistaken for Congo
pigmies or the most debased and animal-looking type
of Forest negro.

Likewise, amongst the Kafirs and Zulus, the aris-
tocratic types are constantly being given as illustra-

February 23, 191 1]

NATURE

543

tions of the degree of physical beauty to which the
negro can attain : yet even amongst these tribes and
peoples there are Forest negro tj'pes of simian ugli-
ness.

Mr. Theal is conscious himself of the extraordinarj'
mixture of racial types amongst the Bantu, and gives
us a vivid picture of their inextricable maze of wander-
ings in past times. But, of course, all the races of
South Africa descended from the north at one time
or another. Whether the first arrival of the Bantu-
speaking negroes south of the Zambezi was as late
in the world's histor\' as Mr. Theal surmises, is a
question as to which we cannot arrive at a very pre-

FiG. 2. — Portrait of Hcrero Men. From " The Yellow and Dark-skinned People of Africa,
Sooth of the Zambezi."

cise decision, though he is more likely to be right
in his approximate dates than some of his earlier
critics. But, of course, it is inconceivable that the
Bantu invaders, if they came so late in histor}', found
that the southern third of Africa was merely sparsely
populated with Bushmen and a few Hottentot hybrids,
or the lingering Strandloopers (who may have been
more of the forest negro t>pe and are alleged to have
preceded the Bushmen). There must have been a
fairly abundant negro population in the fertile regions
of South-East Africa, To what group or groups did
this belong? What language families did they re-

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

present? With this again is mixed up the mystery of
Zinibabwe. Prof. Randall Mclver's researches and
criticisms have badly damaged the theory which
seemed at one time such a convenient one to explain
Zimbabwe and similar ruins: that South-East Africa
was colonised perhaps two thousand years ago or
earlier, by a fweign, Semitic people — possibly the
Arabs of southern Arabia. Prof, von Luschan, of
Berlin, has gone into this subject more recently than
Prof. Mclver, and feels bound to endorse his objec-
tions to the art and architecture of Zimbabwe being
of extra-African origin. Yet the art and architecture
are profoundly unlike anything which has hitherto been
developed by the topical Bantu peoples
of East or South Africa; and the
Makaranga peoples, who are still the
principal indigenes of all this region of
ruins between the Limpopo and the
Zambezi, contain, as Mr. Theal points
out quite truly, so many individuals of
semi-Caucasian lineaments.

Of late, one or two German ethnolo-
gists have pointed out the remarkable
resemblance between the soapstone
birds, and some other emblems of Zim-
babwe, and the art of north-western
Kamerun, the interior of the Cross
River district (see for further light on
this the remarkable paper on the Ekoi
by Mr. P. A. Talbot in the December
. number of the Geographical Maga-
zine), and even of Benin and Yoruba.
The influence of this particular West
Africa culture certainly penetrated,
athwart all Bantu linguistic influence,
down the Congo coast to the mouth of
the Congo and to the western parts of
the Congo Basin. Can it possiblj have
traversed Central Africa to reach a
great isolated development in the region
between the Zaml)ezi and the Trans-
vaal ? The physical t)"pe of the negroes
associated with this Voruba-Kamerun
art is tj'pically negro, but would not
differ very markedly in skull formation
from that of the average Bantu negro.
So far, no skull remains dug up in or
near any of these "Zimbabwe" ruins
are other than negro of the Bantu tjpe.
Mr. Theal is not able in this book
to throw any fresh light on another
South African mystery : the place of
origin of the Zulus, that is to say, of
the dominating tribes or castes in
southernmost Africa, which created the
present Kafir-Zulu language or group
of dialects. Far from this Zulu-Kafir
language being what in eariier days
was styled by various writers the Sans-
krit of the Bantu (that is to say, the
Bantu language most nearh- represent-
ing the original mother tongne, and
the most archaic in its features), the
the case. Zulu-Kafir is in some
widely aberrant member of the Bantu
most aberrant, if one exclude from
purview certain worn-down forms of speech in the
heart of the Congo Basin or the Kamerun. It
has probably adopted its three clicks from the
Bushmen, but the clicks matter little in compari-
son with the large proportion of the word-roots which
have been — one might think — specially invented
and are without any known relationships in
other Bantu tongues. The culture of the Zulu recalls
strikingly that of the Masai, the most southern in its

contrary is
respects a
familv : the

544

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

range of the Nilotic negro peoples of East Africa.
But, so far as 1 know, not a single Masai, Gala, or
Nilotic negro word-root has yet been discovered in
the Zulu speech. The main relationships of this very
isolated language are with the East African Bantu,
though there are strands of West African Bantu in
its composition. It has, of course, affinities with the
Herero group, and this again is related almost equally
^o the West African, the East African Bantu, and
to the archaic forms of Bantu speech still existing in
and about the Victoria and Albert Nyanzas.
, Mr. Theal's book has some excellent examples of
southern Bantu folklore, though a few of these stories
have been so often repeated by other writers (borrow-
ing from him) that they are a little stale. So also
are the illustrations, which may be said to have be-
come common property, being derived from early
photographs and drawings going back to the 'seven-
ties and even 'fifties. But a very important (and it
^eems to the reviewer more or less novel) part of the
took is that which deals in pp. 264-73, '^^^ i" chapter
xxiv., with the growth in mental development of the
South African Bantu and their increase in numbers
under a civilised regime. On the whole, Mr. Theal's
observations would seem to point to . a very decided
and more or less permanent improvement in mental
development and well-being ; while as to their in-
crease in numbers under the Fax Britannica, there
can be no question whatever.

His observations on monogamy versus polygamy
would seem — whether he intends" it or not — to bear out
in a moderate way the opinions of various mission-
aries and students of Africa, that under monogamy
the rate of increase is at least as great as that which
prevails under the conditions of polygamy, and per-
haps is greater; while the improvement in morals and
the well-being and bringing up of children under the
system of " one husband, one wife," can no longer
be disputed. H, H. Johnston.

PHOTOGRAPHIC BIOGRAPHY OF BIRDS.^

THE present volume is a companion to the " Home
Life of a Golden Eagle," noticed in Nature of
May 26, 1910. It is about the same size, but four
biographies instead of one are contained in it. The
" Home Life of a Golden Eagle " as a vie intime w^ill
be difficult to excel. It admitted us, by means of
that impersonal spy, the camera, to the closest inti-
macy with the entire domestic arrangements, and to
the vmbroken succession of parental duties of the
royal birds. Mr. Beetham has attempted to do for
the spoonbill, the white stork, and the common and
the purple herons, ^vhat Mr. Macpherson did for the
eagle. We have to confess with regret that he has
succeeded only multum post intervallum. Both
watchers employed from an ambush the same methods
of the masked camera ; but we have from Mr.
Beetham fuller details of the methods than of the
object for which they w^ere the end. Both were ex-
perts in picture-taking, and our author's results are
in no way inferior to those of Mr. Macpherson. The
methods they employed are, it seems to us, those by
which the accurate life-histories of our birds up
to the standard of that of the golden eagle can be
obtained. It will take a long time before they can
all be biographed, but it w-ill eventually be accom-
plished so long as among the photo-ornithologists are
to be numbered men like Mr. Beetham, who despise
the unnumbered difificulties, discomforts, and often
very real dangers necessary to securing unimpeach-
able records.

1 "The Home-life of tbe Spoonbill, the Stork, and Some Heron=."
Photographed and Described by B. Beetham Pp. viii + 47 + 32 mounted
plates. (London : Witherby and Co., iqto.) Price 5s. net.

To be of real value, however, the observations must
be a continuous series of the same subject taken at
carefully chosen intervals, accompanied by detailed
descriptions of careful personal observations. In this
respect the present budget of biographies leaves much
to be desired. Instead of a connected diary we have
disconnected glimpses into the different households-
through swings of the door. The " Home Life of a
Spoonbill " can hardly be called more than a passing
"look in" at the nursery. Yet the peeps we do get
are not without value, and many are very interesting,
but they are solitary episodes in the bird's history.
Plates i. and ii. refer to one home; there its story
ends. The rernaining nine are pictures of another
home. Plate iii. was photographed on June 17, iv.
and V. on June 19, and the remaining six on June 23.
We are introduced to the young spoonbills when
they are ten days old; we next re-visit their home

Fig.

-The claw of each toe has a strong hooking action. From " The
Home-life of the Spoonbill," by Bentley Beetham.

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

when their age is twelve and fifteen days respec-
tively, when this second biography — which had no
beginning — also ends.

This is a very great contrast to the absorbingly
interesting development of the golden eagle's nestling
in unbroken sequence, from its birth to its coming
of age. Not more satisfying is the record of the white
stork, which begins when the storklings are fully
fledged, and though we have eight very excellent
photographs of them, w-e learn nothing about their
plumage changes and little about their upbringing
and education by their parents. We are equally dis-
appointed with what can hardly be called the "home-
life " of the common and the purple herons. We are
brought on the scene when the first chick of the
former emerges on April 1 1 ; then the door is closed
for six weeks — the most interesting period of the

February 23, 1911]

NATURE

545

babe's life — to re-open on the final scene, when the |
nestlings are read}- to escape, and really do so on
the approach of the observer.

The ston.^ of the purple heron contains many in- [
teresting observations on the habits of the half-

fiedglings, which we believe to be, if not new, at least ;

not widely known. It seems that during the intervals |

between their meals they descend from the nest and '

disport themselves on the ground, to re-occupy it when !

the mother is heard approaching. Usually when a i

Fig. 2. — A Bittern-like attitude, with the bill held vertically. From " The Home-life of the
Spoonbill," by Bentley Beetbam.

nestling leaves its nest it is difficult if not impossible
to induce it to remain in it, even if replaced. Although
the promise of its title-page is hardly fulfilled, the
book is interestingly written, and will be read through
when once taken up. As a photographer, Mr.
Beetham has been most successful, and his pictures
(two of which, by the courtesy of the publishers, we
reproduce here") have a high value independently of
their use as illustrations to his present book, which
seems to be produced at an astonishingly low price.

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

THE COSSEKVATIOS OF SATl'RAL
RESOURCES.'

TTHE two m.en who have played the largest part
* in the conservation movement that has now
assumed such great impKjrtance in the United States
are probably Gifford Pinchot and President Roose-
velt. Mnchot was primarily responsible for the
forests, but he saw that the conservation of forests
could not be dealt with satisfactorily by itself, but
was intimately bound up with the
conservation of water, of the soil,
and of mineral resources. It was
this flash of genius that founded a
new branch of economics, and the
strong personality of the President
brought the subject at once into the
region of practical politics.

In the volume by Mr. Van Hise,
which contains the substance of lec-
tures given at the Universit}- of
Wisconsin, he traces the histor\- of
the famous conference held in the
East Room of the White House on
May 1^, 1908. For the first time
in the histor}- of the country the
governors of the various States were
called together to consider a national
question. The President's letter of
invitation, and the declaration
passed, are both recorded in the
second book on our list, and are
both weight}- documents, worthy of
a great occasion. The first outcome
has been to take an inventor}- of
the natural resources. The second,
and much more difficult, has been
to start a great educational cam-
paign to bring home to the indivi-
dual citizen his responsibility in the
matter, and to point the way of
reform.

The report of the Conservation
Commission of Maryland deals with
the mineral resources, soils, forests,
waters, fisheries and oysters, game,
scenery, public health, and roads,
thus giving a more complete picture
of the State than has hitherto been
available in any one volume. The
account of the mineral resources re-
sembles in a general way our own
geological survey memoirs, and the
treatment of the other subjects is
not dissimilar. Mr. Van Rise's
book may be regarded as repre-
sentative of the educational outcome
of the movement. He discusses the
minerals, forests, soils, and waters,
and finally proceeds with a series
of recommendations calculated to
can-}- out the objects of the con-
servation movement.

Dealing first with the mineral
resources, it is pointed out that
they are far greater than those of any other
nation, and they bring in' some $2,000,000,000
per annum, an amount only exceeded by the
returjis from agriculture. Coal is by much the
most important, but it is being mined at an
astonishing rate; in 1S46 only five million tons were

1 '• The Conseri-ation of Natural Resources in the United States." By
Charles R. Van Hise. Pp. xv— 413. (New York: The Macmillan Co.;
London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 8j. 6</. net.

'• Report of the Conservation Commission of Marjland for 190S-9."
Pp. 204. (Maryland, Baltimore, 1909.^

54^6

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

raised, while in 1907 more than 480 million tons were
got. The consumption per head of population rose
twentyfold during this period. If this rate of in-
crease of exploitation went on the whole coal supply
would be exhausted in 150 years, but reasons are
adduced against so short a lile. The exact period
is unimportant. '* So far as our responsibility is con-
cerned," says the author, "it is immaterial whether
the coal will be exhausted in 150 years, 1500 years,
or 15,000 years. Our responsibility to succeeding
generations demands that we reduce its use to our
absolute necessities, and therefore prolong its life to
the utmost." The waste in mining must be reduced ;
it varies from 50 to 150 per cent, of the total amount
sold, and is often irrevocable. Many thousands of
tons of slack are thrown out and burnt in heaps
simply to get rid of it. The beehive coke ovens, of
which there are said to be some 95,000 in the States,
are declared to waste fully $50,000,000 worth of
material every year in comparison with the more
modern types that might be introduced. Mechanical
stoking effects a great economy. Finally, there is the
waste owing to imperfect combustion, neglect of
waste heat, and so on. Cheaper substitutes might
often be got ; gas engines are more economical than
steam engines, while great improvements are possible
in lighting. Two lines of reform are suggested : an
educational campaign, and legislation to control min-
ing rights and to make waste an offence.

The increase in the output of petroleum has been
enormous. During the first nine years of this century
more than 1,155 million barrels of 42 gallons was
got, this being more than 50 per cent, of the entire
output since it was first taken from the ground. If
the present annual output continues it is estimated
that the supply will give out in about ninety years.
Much of the oil is exported, and a fair proportion
is used for power. It is suggested that exportation
should be forbidden, and the home consumption
should be restricted to lubrication and lighting. About
natural gas the author has some very strong things
to say ; the waste, he tells us, has been appalling.
Gas has often been tapped when oil was sought ;
instead of closing up the bores or utilising the gas
the wells were lighted and allowed to burn. '* In
some cases a well has been thus allowed to burn for
twenty years. . . . Some of the wells have been
allowed to burn until the rock has caved in so exten-
sively as to have become veritable flaming lakes. It
is estimated that in the Saddo field alone of Louisiana
some 70,000,000 cubic feet per day of gas are wasted,
burned without doing any good in any way to any-
body." Legislation to stop the waste never gets
through ; attempts are regularly made, but " some
unseen power greater than Governor or Legislature has
so far thwarted and palsied every effort."

Turning now to iron ore, most of this occurs in the
region of Lake Superior, and at least half is in the
hands of one corporation. If the rate of exploitation
during the three past decades is maintained the high-
grade ores will be exhausted in about three decades
more. But the author has no special anxiety for the
future ; the ore is handled economically, low-grade
ores not yet profitable are stored instead of being
wasted, new deposits will probably be found as the
survey becomes more complete, and stone and cement
are being used in place of iron.

With water the principles of conservation are
different. So vast a quantity of water falls on to the
land every year that absolute exhaustion is out of the
question ; what is needed is to utilise the supply more
fully. Water that has been used for domestic pur-
poses may be used for irrigation with great advantage,
as it now contains fertilising material. Water used
for power may later be used for domestic purposes,
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

for navigation, or for irrigation. At present, how-
ever, there is an actual exhaustion of the water suiJ-
ply. In some parts of the States the level of tlie
underground water has fallen ten to forty feet. We
ourselves are in a similar situation ; the water level
in the chalk round London is known to be falling,
and great drafts are being made on the water in the
lower strata.

The original forests of th^ United States are esti-
mated to have covered some 1000 million acres, of
which one-half has gone. The amount of wood used
is enormous, but so great is the waste that only three-
eighths of what is cut appears in the final product.
Loss by forest fires is appalling, " Boxing " the
trees, i.e. cutting cavities in them for the purpose of
collecting turpentine, kills many of them. It is esti-
mated that the average growth on the forest land is
12 cubic feet per annum per acre, while the amount
taken is 40. The waste of timber is attributed at
least in part to the feeling that the natural resources
were illimitable, and could never in any circum-
stances give out.

Lastly, the author deals with the conservation of
the soil. First of all, there is the trouble due to land
speculation, which no legislation has ever been able
to get over. Then there is the question of improper
cropping. No "one crop" system can last without
an adequate expenditure on manure, and whether the
one crop has been cotton, as in the south, or wheat,
as in parts of the north, the result in the end is
disastrous unless proper manure is added. Now all
experience is that sufficient manure is not added, and
so we find in parts of the States that most terrible of
all sights — derelict land. Spillman considers that in
more than half of the area of the States the fertility
of the soil has fallen. Recourse has been had in the
dry regions to irrigation, with the inevitable result
that trouble has arisen through "alkali," i.e. an accu-
mulation of salts in the soil to such an extent that the
plant suffers. Methods of control are slowly being
worked out, but for a long time to come difficulties
will arise from this source.

Depletion of soil nitrogen is serious, but not beyond
remedy ; thanks to the work of Sir William Crookes
and others nitrogenous manures are now being made
from atmospheric nitrogen. Depletion of soil potass-
ium compounds is also serious, but again, is not
beyond remedy. The disquieting feature is the deple-
tion of the phosphates. Every year this goes on ;
whatever the crop and whatever the treatment a
certain amount of phosphate is taken up and sold off.
Phosphatic manures are required and are Seing used
at an enormous rate. Fresh deposits are being made
by birds on the guano islands off Peru, but how are
th,; birds treated? Coker in 1908, in his report to the
Peru Government, speaks of "the robbery of eggs on
a large scale in past years, the destruction of young
and old birds, and the disturbance of the birds in
their nesting grounds by the extraction of guano."
We are not surprised when he goes on to say that
there " has been a great diminution in number."

Some of Mr. Von Hise's data may be wrong — he
always gives his references — but it is incontrovertible
that we are taking but little thought for the morrow.
No doubt we in Great Britain have not wasted natural
gas, but what about our coal? Who can defend our
Victorian grates — still much the commonest form, in
spite of better types recently introduced — and our utter
neglect of waste heat in our houses? There is no
evidence that our soils are becoming exhausted ; much
of the land is left in poor pasture, and gives us little
return, but at least it is storing up fertility for a
future generation. But then we are importing
enormous quantities of foodstuffs from abroad, some
of which, being fed to cattle, helps to fertilise the

Febri. Ak\ 23, 191 ij

NATURE

547

land, and we also import much manure. Our great
waste in this direction is our failure to recover the
fertilising material from sewage; at present this may
be unavoidable, but there are other wastages — loss of
manures from our farms — that might be remedied.
We are far from blameless in the matter of forestry
also. The conservation movement is attracting atten-
tion in Canada, and it will, let us hope, become a
power there and also in the other dominions beyond
thi seas. First of all, however, the great educa-
tional crusade must come to impress upon the present
generation that our patrimony is not to be squandered
but to be used wisely, and handed on to our
descendants in as good a condition as possible.

E. J. R.

1

INDIAN WHEA TFOR THE BRITISH MARKETS
HE last seven years have seen a rapid develop
ment of the Indian wheat trade with the United
Kingdom. For the ten years ending 1902, when our
average annual import of wheat and flour was 99
million cwt. from all countries, we received an average
ot 5 million cwt. from India; for the past seven years,
however, our total import has been 114 million cwt.
on the average, of which 16 million cwt. have come
from India. The increase is due to several causes.
Cultivation and irrigation have extended in India ;
the seasons in the northern provinces have, on the
whole, been more favourable since 1903 than they
were in the eight years following 1894 ; there has
been a great improvement in the means of communi-
cation by ship, railway, and road, and, finally, the
rupee has been maintained at the uniform rate of
sixteenpence since 1898. For the past seven years
the area sown with wheat in India has been more than
26 million acres, or about one-ninth of the world's
wheat area (estimated at 240 million acres), and the
average yield has been 116 bushels, one-eleventh only
of the world's output, since this yield is lower than
in many other countries. It is chiefly in the Punjab
that the increase has taken place, and, as larger
areas come under irrigation, this province will assume
more and more importance as a producer of the
world's food.

Great Britain takes more than 90 per cent, of the
Indian exports of wheat, and the conditions obtaining
in our markets have therefore to be studied seriously
by the Indian producer, or rather by his expert
adviser. At present Indian wheat does not come here
in the beautifully clean, well-graded state in which
Canadian wheat arrives, and it therefore commands
a shilling a quarter less price. It is, however, more
valuable than English wheat, and usually fetches
about 25. 6d. a quarter more, chiefly on account of
its lower moisture content. The reason for its in-
ferior condition is to be found partly in the circum-
stances in which the wheat is grown ; most of the
Indian wheat is grown on small peasant's holdings,
and is threshed by being trodden out by bullocks on
an earthen threshing-floor, and winnowed by hand
in the wind, so that there is some mixing of varieties
and a certain amount of dirt naturally gets in. Sir
James Wilson states, however, that the wheat as it
leaves the farm contains only about i per cent, of
dirt, whereas when it reaches London the various
handlers have contrived to dilute it 6 per cent., so as
to increase their profits. It is considered that a
revision of the terms of contract would get over this
difficult}-. The other questions — the mixing of
varieties, and the low average yield — are matters for
the experiment stations, but it seems probable that
they can be satisfactorily dealt with.

1 Memorandum on Indian Whrat f.>r ihe British Market. By Sir James
Wilson, K.C S.I., late Financial Commissioner, PunjaU (Agiicullural
Research Institute, Pusa.)

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

HOTES.

The portrait of Sir William Crookes by Mr. E. S..
Walton, to which reference was made in our issue of
February 9 (p. 481), was presented to the Royal Society
before the ordinary meeting on Thursday last, February 16.
In the absence of the treasurer of the fund. Lord .■\vebur)',
the presentation was made on behalf of the subscribers by
Prof. Meldola, who acknowledged the active cooperation of
his colleague. Prof. Pope. The necessary fund was con-
tributed by about 130 Fellows of the society. Sir .Archi-
bald Geikie, as president, accepted the portrait on behalf
of the society in a graceful speech. Sir William CrocJ^es
also expressed his thanks to the subscribers for the honour
they had conferred upon him. In the course of his re-
marks he said that in two years he hoped to celebrate the
jubilee of his fellowship, as his election dated from 1863.

Sir Joseph Larmor, secretary of the Royal Society, has
been elected a member of Parliament to represent the
University- of Cambridge, in the seat rendered vacant by
the death of Mr. S. H. Butcher. Sir Joseph is Lucasian
professor of mathematics in the University, and his elec-
tion as one of its two parliamentary representatives places
in the House of Ccwnmons a man of distinguished eminence
who should command attention in that assembly, and be
able to do something for the development of scientific
method in national affairs.

H.R.H. THE Duke of Connaught has been elected presi-
dent of the Royal Society of Arts.

The British Medical Journal announces that the Fother-
gillian gold medal of the Medical Society- of London, given
trienniallj-, has been awarded to Dr. F. W. Mott, F.R-S.,
for his researches on the nervous system.

-At a meeting of the executive ccwnmittee of the British
Science Guild, held on February 15, it was agreed that
the Guild and the British Empire League should dine
together, and it is hoped that it may be possible to enter-
tain the Colonial Premiers when they are over for the
conference. It was also reported that the Guild's com-
mittee on the coordination of charitable effort was in
communication with the Social Welfare Association for
London to see if it might not be possible for them to work
tc^ether.

Dr. J. C. Braxner, professor of geolog\- at the Leland
Stanford Junior University, California, is starting on
April 15, with six assistants, on an expedition to explore
the western part of the north coast of Brazil. Its special
object will be to determine how far the distribution of.
Brazilian fauna is affected by the obstruction of the
Amazon River. The Government of Brazil has offered the
explorers the use of a gunboat.

Dr. Edward G. Jaxeway, one of the foremost diagnos-
ticians in the United States, died at Summit, New Jersey,
on February 10, in his seventieth year. At Bellevue
Hospital Medical College, New York, he was professor of
pathology and practical anatomy from 1872 to 1879, pro-
fessor of diseases of the mind and nervous system from
1881 to 1886, and professor of medicine from 1886 to 1892.
From 1898 to 1905 he held the chair of medicine at the
medical school of New York University. He was health
commissioner of New York City from 1875 to 1882.

The recent death-roll in America includes the name of
Dr. Leonard Parker Kinnicutt. He was born in 1854,
and spent his student period at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, the Universities of Heidelberg and Bonn,
and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He held a

54«

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

junior post at Harvard from 1880 to 1883, since which year
he had been connected with the Worcester Polytechnic
Institute as assistant-professor and professor of chemistry
successively. His chief work was done as an expert on
sewage disposal and water supply, and he had acted as
consulting chemist to the Connecticut Sewage Commission.

Ihe Times announces the death of Dr. C. Alexander
MacMunn, of Wolverhampton, at fifty-nine years of age.
Dr. MacMunn was a member of the Physiological Society,
the Marine Biological Association, and other bodies, and
he devoted himself largely to research, mostly in physio-
logical chemistry and animal pigments. He published
numerous works, some of which were translated into
foreign languages, and at the time of his death was
engaged on *' Outlines of Clinical Chemistr}'," which was
Hearing completion.

The death of Dr. William Williams, an authority on
sanitation, is announced in The Times. Dr. Williams was
president of the Sanitary Inspection Association of South
Wales and Monmouthshire, and held public appointments
in Glamorgan, including that of school medical officer and
director of the County Public Health Laboratory. He was
a Fellow of the Society of Medical Officers of Health and
the Royal Sanitary Institute, and ex-president of the South
Wales branch of the British Medical Association. He
delivered the Milroy lectures at the Royal College of
Physicians in 1904. He wrote works on sanitation, water
supplies, and milk adulteration.

In pursuance of the powers conferred on them under a
section of the Development and Road Improvement Funds
Act, 1909, the Development Commissioners have appointed
an advisory committee to advise them on applications for
advances and schemes for the development and improve-
ment of fisheries.' The committee is constituted as
follows : — Mr. H. J. Tennant, M.P. (chairman) ; Dr. A. E.
Shipley, F.R.S. ; Prof. G. C. Bourne, F.R.S. ; Prof.
D'Arcy Thompson, C.B. ; and Mr. D. H. Lane, formerly
Inspector of Irish Fisheries. In addition, the Fishmongers'
Company has been asked to nominate a representatie.

On Tuesday next, February 28, Dr. A. E. H. Tutton
will begin a course of three lectures at the Royal Institu-
tion on " Crystalline Structure : Mineral, Chemical, and
Liquid," and on Saturday, March 4, Sir J. J. Thomson
will commence his course of six lectures on " Radiant
Energy and Matter." The Friday evening discourse on
March 3 will be delivered by Dr. F. A, Dixey, on " Scents
oi Butterflies"; on March 10 by the Hon. Charles A.
Parsons, on "Recent Advances in Turbines"; and on
March 17 by Mr. John H. Balfour Browne, on " Water
Supply."

Sir William H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S., has been
awarded the John Fritz medal for 191 1, for " notable
achievements in naval architecture," by the special board
of award appointed by the four leading American societies
of engineers — the Civil, Mining, Mechanical, and Elec-
trical. The John Fritz medal is recognised as the highest
distinction which American engineers can bestow. It was
established in August, 1902, by the professional associates
and friends of the engineer and metallurgist whose name
,it bears. The award of the medal is made on the ground
of "notable scientific or industrial achievement," with
" no restriction on account of nationality or sex." The
first award was made in 1905 to Lord Kelvin. In sub-
sequent years the medal has been given to Alexander
Graham Bell, Thomas A. Edison, George Westinghouse,
Charles Porter, and Alfred Noble.

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

The anniversary meeting of the Geological Society of ".
London was held on Friday, February 17. The officers
were appointed as follows : — President, Prof. W. W.
Watts, F.R.S. ; vice-presidents. Dr. C. W. Andrews,
F.R.S., Mr. .Alfred Harker, F.R.S., Dr. J. E. Marr,
F.R.S., Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S.; secretaries. Prof.
E. J. Garwood and Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S. ;
foreign secretary. Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., president
R.S. ; treasurer. Dr. A. Strahan, F.R.S. The . following
awards of medals and funds were made : — Wollaston
medal. Prof. Waldemar C. Brogger ; Murchison medal,
Mr. R. H. Tiddeman ; Lyell medals, Dr. F. A. Bather
and Dr. A. W. Rowe ; Bigsby medal, Prof. O. Abel ;
Wollaston fund. Prof. O. T. Jones ; Murchison fund, Mr.
E. S. Cobbold; Lyell fund, Dr. C. G. Cullis ; Barlow-
Jameson fund, Mr. J. F. N. Green. The president
delivered his anniversary address, which dealt with the
evolutionary aspects of geology, more especially with the
mode and order of deposition of the various formations.

An International Congress of the Applications of Elec-
tricity is to be held in Turin, Italy, on September 9-20.
This congress, as its title implies, will deal with questions
of practical import, so that electrical engineers will be
able to participate largely in the discussions. The chief
endeavour of the organising committee, which is under the
chairmanship of Prof. Luigi Lombardi, has been so to
draw up the programme that the congress may be inter-
national in character as well as in name. To attain this
object, the cooperation of the International Electro-
technical Commission, with its local committees now
established in many countries, has been obtained, as well
as the assistance of the societies and associations in all
countries dealing with electrical matters. With the help of
these organisations, official reporters have been selected,
and already many assurances have been received that
numerous papers will be presented to the congress from
all parts of the world. The initiators of the congress are
the Italian Electrotechnical Society and the Italian local
committee of the commission mentioned above. The con-
gress is under the patronage of H.R.H. the Duke of the
Abruzzi, who is the president of the committee of honour,
upon which Prof. Elihu Thomson and Colonel Crompton, |
the president and honorary secretary respectively of the 1
commission, have been elected members. Papers are to
be presented in French, English, German, and Italian, and
the discussions will be carried on in all these languages.
The subjects to be discussed, the attractions which Italy
itself presents, both as regards scenery and electrical
development, in addition to the fact that the first official
meeting of the whole Electrotechnical Commission is to
take place in Turin about the same time, is bound to
make this congress a memorable occasion in the history
of electrical engineering.

We regret to record the death, on February 8, of Mr.
P. D. Scott-Moncrieff, assistant in the Department of
Egyptian and Assyrian .\ntiquities in the British Museum.
The cause of death was heart failure, after an operation
for appendicitis. Mr. Scott-Moncrieff was educated at
Charterhouse School, at St. Andrews University, and at
Christ's College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he took the \
Oriental languages tripos, and in December, 1903, he was
appointed to an assistantship in the British Museum. His
official duties brought him in contact chiefly with the
Egyptian side of his department, and in the winter of 1905
he paid a visit to the Sudan to undertake archaeological
work for the Sudan Government. In October and
November of. tliat 3"ear, in conjunction with Mr. J. W.
Crowfoot, he cleared out the, eighteenth dynasty temple

February 23, 191 1]

NATURE

549

at Wady Haifa, of which he afterwards published an
account, with plan and photographs, in the Proceedings of
the Society of Biblical Archaeology. After finishing his
work on the temple, he assisted in arranging the monu-
ments in the newly-founded Egyptian Museum at Khartum.
As a result of his work at the British Museum, Mr. Scott-
Moncrieflf had completed the first part of an official publi-
cation of hieroglyphic texts from Egyptian stelae, which
it is hoped will shortly appear. He had devoted consider-
able study to the archaeology of the later periods of
Egyptian history, and, as first-fruits of his work, he con-
tributed a critical discussion of Plutarch's treatise " De
Iside et Osiride " to the Journal of Hellenic Studies. For
several years past he was also engaged on an examination
of the problems, presented by the early developments of
Christianity in Egypt. He approached the subject from
the archaeological side, and, at the time of his death, he
"had nearly completed the MS. of a volume which he pro-
posed to call "Paganism and Christianity in Egypt."
His friends hope that arrangements will be made for the
publication of this work in the manner and form which he
desired.

The Maya hieroglyphs still await complete decipherment.
Some progress towards their interpretation has recently
been made by Mr. W. E. Gates, who describes his methods
in part i., vol. vi., of the archneological and ethnological
publications of the Peabody Museum. The famous Perez
Codex, accidentally discovered about fifty years ago in the
Biblioth^que Imperiale, Paris, has been reproduced by
Prof, de Rosny. But these facsimiles are scarce, expen-
sive, and not easily accessible to students. Mr. Gates has
now succeeded in reproducing the hieroglyphs in a form of
type, of which examples are given in his paper, and has
thus greatly facilitated the study of this obscure series of
pictorial documents.

In his treatise on the people of Hungary, " Ethnographie
von Hungarn," published in 1877, Paul Hunfaivy describes
a race known as the Ishmaelites, whoni he identifies with
the Mohammedans. Mr. Leo Wiener, in an article in the
number of the Gypsy Lore Journal for last October, review-
ing the original authorities on which Hunfaivy relied, shows
that there is much to be said against this identification.
He comes to the conclusion that these people were gypsies,
the original name Ishmaelite becoming merged with
Saracen, and the latter in its turn giving way to the more
popular appellation Cigan, which, by the beginning of the
fifteenth century in southern Europe, completely over-
shadows every other designation of the gypsy race.

The possibilities of the Tuantepec Isthmus as a rival
to Panama are seriously engaging the attention of
.American geographers. The character of the country, its
people, and resources are described in a well-illustrated
article, by Miss H. Olsson-SefTer, in the December (1910)
issue of the National Geographic Magazine. The native
Indian tribes are a singularly fine race, and the beauty of
their women, dress, and ornaments is remarkable. As
the Tuantepec route reduces the distance, as compared
with that via Panama, to Honolulu by 1273 miles, it may
become a serious competitor for traffic between the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans.

To the current number of Scientia Signor Rignano con-
tributes an article (in French) on " The Mnemonic Origin
and Nature of the Affective Tendencies." The author
points out that in every living organism there are physio-
logical systems in a state of rest, which it is always tend-
ing to maintain or, when disturbed, to return to. He cites
various biological instances showing that, when an

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

organism adapts itself to a changed environment, the
altered conditions at once tend to become the " optimum "
few that organism. Thus he deduces a basis of memor>',
a mnemonic origin, for ever}' such optimum, to attain
which the organism is always reacting, and subjectively
experiences an afTective tendency of want, appetite, or
desire.

In the third part of " Zur historischen Biologie der
Krankheitserreger, " published at Giessen in 1910, Prof. G.
Elliot Smith and Dr. M. Armand Ruffer give an account
of Pott's disease of the spine in an Egyptian mummy
belonging to the time of the twenty-first dynasty about
1000 B.C. The paper is illustrated with two plates, show-
ing a drawing and a photograph of the angular curve of
the spine as seen from without and from within the body.
The authors claim no novelty in the discovery of a case of
Pott's disease in the remains of the ancient Egyptians.
They believe it of importance, however, as being the first
case which has been thoroughly investigated and proved to
be tuberculous in nature, and their case has led to the
detection of tubercle as the cause of abnormal conditions
found in other bodies since examined. Many ancient
Egyptian bodies have shown abnormal curvature of the
spine, and some of these have been described as instances
of Pott's disease. On examination, however, they have
been found to be in reality typical examples of osteo-
arthritis, or the disease described and illustrated by Dr.
Wood Jones under the name of " spondylitis deformans."
This disease was extremely widespread in upper Egypt,
particularly in the predynastic age, so much so that signs
of it are to be seen in practically every body raised from a
common burial ground of that time. This disease was also
widespread in the time of the Persian dynasties, about
525-332 B.C., and in lower Egypt the skeletons of
Macedonian soldiers and their families frequently show
unmistakable signs of spondylitis deformans. The mummy
described by the present authors shows a very typical
angular curvature of the spine, while the interior of the
body shows the remains of a psoas abscess, a very frequent
complication of tuberculous disease of the spine at the
present day.

An illustrated account, by Mr. W. H. Mullens, of the
two Tradescants and the famous Tradescant Museum —
which once contained the whole skin of a dodo — forms the
first article in Witherby's British Birds for February.

Vol. vii., No. 2, of the Zoological Publications of the
University of California is devoted to an account of the
birds and mammals collected during the Alexander expedi-
,tion to Alaska in 1909, two rodents being described as
new.

The fifteenth instalment of the report on the zoological
results of Dr. Franz Werner's expedition to the Egyptian
Sudan and northern Uganda in 1904 appears in vol. cxix.,
part vi., of Sitzber. Acad. Wissenschaften, Vienna. In
this contribution Dr. E. von Daday commences an account
of the microfauna of the Nile and its tributaries, as
exemplified by plankton collected by the traveller at a large
number of localities, but actually deals only with the
E*}'ptian forms. Many of these have been previously
identified in other parts of Africa, but half-a-dozen crusta-
ceans are described as new.

The Biological Survey Division of the U.S. Department
of -Agriculture has issued (as Bulletin No. 36) an illustrated
pamphlet on the practicability and possibilities of breed-
ing dee»- and other big game in confinement in the United
States in such a manner as would make the experiment

550

NATURE

[February 23, 1911

remunerative. The author, Mr. D. E. Lantz, states that,
were it not for prohibitive laws, there would be a large
and constant demand for venison in the country, and that
it could be placed on the market at a lower price than
beef, owing to the facility with which deer can make a
living on poor pasture. Both the wapiti and the white-
tailed deer ate rapidly diminishing in numbers, and since
both kinds can be easily tamed and bred in confinement,
there is every inducement for trying the experiment, which,
if successful, would prove a lasting benefit. For a time,
the rearing of both species for stocking parks ought to be
more profitable than the sale of the venison. Schemes for
domesticating the caribou and the moose as beasts of
draught, as well as for introducing Indian and African
antelopes into the United States, are likewise mooted.

The Journal of the College of Science of the Imperial
University of Tokio (vol. xxvii., article 17) contains an
interesting account by N. Yatsu of his experiments on
germinal localisation in the egg of Cerebratulus. These
experiments afford a typical illustration of the manner in
which experimental methods are now being applied to the
study of animal development. Ovisection in various planes,
and separation or dislocation of the blastomeres by
mechanical or chemical means are employed, and though
the results obtained cannot, perhaps, be regarded as very
definite, they are certainly very suggestive. The author
concludes that the egg contains " organ bases," but that
these have no hard and fast lines of boundary between
them ; still, there is " something " for each larval organ.
He also concludes that there must be a regulating
" factor " which in some way brings back shifted
blastomeres to the normal position, or, at any rate, to such
a position that they are able to produce a larva which
differs but little from the normal.

The problem of sex-determination is just now receiving
a good deal of attention from students of heredity, and an
interesting controversy has arisen with regard to the
Mendelian interpretation of sex ratios. Russo maintains
that he is able to alter the proportion of the sexes in the
case of rabbits by injecting lecithin into the female parent
before the eggs have arrived at maturity. Two kinds of
eggs are said to occur in the ovary, one of an anabolic or
constructive type, containing globules of lecithin, and the
other of a katabolic type, containing crystals of acid fat.
The former are believed to give rise to females and the
latter to males, and the injection of lecithin into the
parent increases the proportion of females. Russo's results
have been criticised by Punnett, and more recently by
Castle {American Naturalist, July, 1910), and Russo replies
in the Biologisches Centralblatt (January i, 191 1). He
points out that Punnett, in repeating the experiment, only
administered the lecithin by the mouth of the rabbit,
instead of by injection, and that it is decomposed in the
alimentary canal. It is obviously very important that
Russo's experiments should be repeated by an impartial
observer, and that the methods employed by him should
be strictly followed.

A CATALOGUE of botanical books, chiefly secondhand,
comprising floras of all countries, has been recently pub-
lished by Messrs. John Wheldon and Co., Great Queen
Street, Lx)ndon. The fullest sections are those enumerating
general and local British floras, and systematic publica-
tions dealing with the plants of India, North and South
America, and Australasia.

The fifth number of last year's botanical volume of the
Philippine Journal of Science contains the conclusion of
the article, by Mr. E. D. Merrill and Mr. M. L. Merritt,
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

on the flora of Mt. Pulog, and a revision of the Philippine
Piperaceac, by Dr. C. de Candolle. The latter paper raises
the total number of Piperacea; known to exist in tli •
Philippines from thirty to one hundred and twenty-five, all
referable to the two genera Piper and Peperomia.

Two articles on the subject of pansies and violas, pub-
lished in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society
(vol. xxxvi., part ii.), cannot fail to interest growers, as
they are contributed by Mr. J. Grieve and Mr. Wm. Cuth-
bertson, experts of many years' standing. Mr. Grieve
explains that he originated his violas by applying pollen
from " show pansies " to the stigma of wild species,
V. lutea, V. cornuta, V. stricta, and V. amoena ; the
reverse cross did not give any good results. Hints on
culture are supplied by Mr. Cuthbertson, who remarks that
many of the best varieties raised years ago still continue
to maintain their position.

Some historical notes, compiled by Mr. H. B. Watt, with
reference to early tree planting in Scotland appear in
the Glasgow Naturalist (vol. iii.. No. i). The introduction
of fruit-bearing trees during the period of Roman occupa-
tion, and plantations round monasteries and ecclesiastical
establishments, are suggested as the earliest beginnings.
Historical references date from the fifteenth century, and
the first plantations at Inveraray appear to have been about
the year 1600. Evidence for computing the ages of the
oldest trees, chestnuts, sycamores, and beeches, is pre-
sented ; the Kippenross sycamore and Corstorphine
" plane " are referred to the fifteenth century. A list of
trees enumerates twenty native and fifty introduced species.

In many countries at the present time the detailed
investigation of their geographical conditions attracts as
much attention as the study of distant lands, and has the
advantage of being based on much fuller and more accurate
information ; moreover, the period over which such data
are spread enables comparisons to be made between the
conditions which existed at different periods. In the
December (1910) number of Petennann's Mitteilungen
Prof. H. Hassinger presents a brief study of the geography
of towns and cities, indicating in a systematic manner the
lines of investigation which may be followed in order to
show the influence that their surrounding and the require-
ments of the population have had on their development.
Dr. Maull in the same number discusses a more localised
subject, the zone of the northern limestone Alps, and traces
the settlements and lines of communication as they occur
in forest belt and neighbouring region, as well as their
gradual development. A more specialised type of study is
that of Dr. K. Schneider (,Mitt. k.k. Geog. Gesell. Wien,
Nos. II, 12, 1910), wherein he discusses at some length
the geographical relations of the German and Czech peoples
in Bohemia, the development of towns and cities, com-
munications, and commercial intercourse.

The meteorology of the future is the subject of an
instructive lecture delivered some time since by Prof. C.
Abbe at Columbia University, and printed in the Popular
Science Monthly for January. The author admits that the
question is a very difficult one, and that it is impossible to
foresee in detail the problems of the future. Long ago
mariners took advantage of the knowledge of trade winds
and monsoons, but it took two more centuries to acquire a
knowledge of whirlwinds as they advance over the globe,
and we are not yet able to speak of weather forecasts as
more than probabilities. Some very interesting experiments
were arranged, illustrating the formation of cloud and
rain, and, with reference to ineffectual attempts made in
some countries, it was shown that if we wish to avert

February 23, 191 1]

NATURE

55

rain or hail, we must be able to cut off the supply of
moisture, or prevent rapid expansion. The most important
problem at the present time, and in future, will be to
attain a clear idea of the mechanics of the atmosphere as
a whole, comprised under the technical terms hydro-
mechanics, aero- and thermo-dynamics, and another century
may elapse before all these questions can be solved.
When meteorology has become more truly deductive, the
author further remarks, then we can pass to the satis-
factory discussion of the great problems that we now can
merely toy with.

In an address delivered on December 29, 1910, as
retiring vice-president of Section B (Physics) of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr.
L. A. Bauer deals with some problems of terrestrial
magnetism, especially with the question whether the
sudden commencements of magnetic storms are simul-
taneous in occurrence at different places. The views which
he expresses on^ this subject are similar to those already
given by him in Nature. Dr. Bauer also refers to a
different type of storm having effects appreciable over only
limited areas, but does not say explicitly whether the type
is essentially different from the " polar elementary "
storms described by Prof. Birkeland in the .Arctic or the
" special type of disturbance" recorded in 1002-3 in the
.Antarctic. Towards the end of his address, Dr. Bauer
states that modern researches point to the conclusion that
attempts to represent the earth's magnetic field by a
Gaussian potential are of doubtful value, owing to the
enormous number of Gaussian constants required to repre-
sent anything beyond the more general features.

The annual report of the council of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers for the year 19 10, which was adopted
at the general meeting on February 17, deals with the chief
directions of the progress and work of the institution. The
work of the alloys research committee has been continued
at the National Physical Laboratory, and it is expected
that the tenth report will be presented for discussion during
the current session. It will deal with the binary system of
alloys of aluminium-zinc, together with some preliminary
results obtained in a ternary system of aluminium-zinc-
copper, the quantity of copper being limited in amount.
The work of the gas-engine research ccwnmittee has been
continued at the University of Birmingham, and Prof.
F. W. Burstall is preparing a report dealing with a new
series of tests on the experimental engine at the University,
varying only the ratio of air to gas, dealing also with the
composition of the charge during expansion. Prof.
H. C. H. Carpenter has concluded his research, referred
to in the 1907 report, upon the production of castings to
withstand high pressures. Of the remaining researches in
the hands of special committees, that on the value of the
steam-jacket is in abeyance at present, while that on the
friction of various gears is awaiting the publication of the
results of some experiments in the United States. It has
been decided not to undertake experiments on " heat trans-
mission " at present.

In the No'.ember (1910) number of the Bulletin of the
Bureau of Standards Mr. B. McCollum describes and
investigates the theory of a new form of dynamometer for
the measurement of the quantity of electricity which flows
through the instrument. It consists of a relatively large
fixed coil with its axis horizontal, at the centre of which
is suspended, by a long vertical wire, a smaller coil with
its axis parallel to that of the larger coil. .Attached to
the moving coil is a cylinder of some homc^eneous material
with its axis coincident with that of the suspension. When
the current is sent round the coils, a magnetic couple acts
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

on the moving coil, tending to hold it with its axis parallel
to that of the fixed coil, and if the moving coil is dis-*
placed it will oscillate about its axis of suspension. The
quantity of electricity which passes through the c<m1s
during n swings of the coil is equal to

2»n v'K(i-T»/T,*)/C,
where K is the moment of inertia of the moving system, T
the time of swing with, T, the time without the current,
and C i; the constant of the coils which can be calculatetl
from their dimensions. The investigations of the author
appear to promise a degree of accuracy in the measure-
ments comparable with that of the current balance.

The Central of January contains an article on " Crystal
Structure and Chemical Composition " from the pen of
Prof. W. J. Pope, F.R.S. It is no exaggeration to s.'iy
that the theory which has been so admirably developed in
recent years by Mr. Barlow and Prof. Pope is likely to
prove equal in value with the work of Pasteur, van 't Hoff,
and Le Bel, which culminated in the enunciation of the
theory of the tetrahedral arrangement of the valencies of
the carbon atom. The systems of close-packed spheres
devised by Messrs. Barlow and Pope certainly give a more
realistic picture of the actual arrangement of the atoms in
the molecules of a crjstal than the wide-spreading models
which are commonly used to represent the tetrahedral
theorj-, although the latter are of greater service in inter-
preting the chemical changes which the molecules may
undergo. The widespread appreciation of the new theories
of crystal structure has been hindered by the scanty dis-
tribution of crystallc^raphic knowledge and by the
difficulty of visualising the diagrams by which its essential
features are expressed ; a popular and simple exposition of
his views by one of the authors of the theory is therefore
doubly welcome. The same issue contains articles by
Prof. Dalby on " The New Engineering Laboratories of
the Central Technical College," by Mr. Tripp on " Cross-
Channel Steamers," by Mr. Branch on " The Bonus
System in a Machine Shop," and by Mr. Montgomery on
'* The Devel<^ment of the Humphrey Pump."

The Silica Syndicate, Ltd., 82 Hatton Garden, London,
E.C., has issued an illustrated descriptive catalogue of its
transparent quartz-glass apparatus. Transparent quartz
glass does not crack on subjection to violent and sudden
changes of temperature. Its melting point is indefinite,
but may be taken at about 1600° C. ; there is, however,
no trace of fusion at 1555° C. .Above 1000° C. it is per-
meable to hjdrc^en. Its expansion up to 1000° C. is
regular ; above 1 100° C. it contracts. The catak>gue gives
particulars of the numerous pieces of apparatus obtainable
in this useful material, tt^ether with the current prices.

Bulletin No. 43 of the University of Illinois contains
an account, by Prof. E. C. Schmidt, of experiments oa
freight-train resistance and its relation to average car
weight. The tests were conducted by the Railway
Engineering Department of the University of Illinois in
1908 and 1909; all were made by means of a dynamometer
car owned jointly by the University and the Illinois
Central Railroad, and were carried out on the Chicago
division of this road. Results of tests on thirty-two
ordinary freight trains are discussed ; the average weight
per car ranged from a minimum of 16-12 tons to a maxi-
mum of 6992 tons, and the number of cars in the train
varied from twenty-six up to eighty-nine. The results
may be expressed by an equation

R = a+bS + cS',
in which the coefficients a, b, and c depend on the average
weight W of the cars in the train in tons ; S is the speed
in miles per hour, and R is the resistance in pounds per

552

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

ton weight. A table of values of the coefficients is given
'for values of VV from 15 tons up to 75 tons. This formula
shows a maximum error of half of i per cent, when
•compared with the experimental results. .Another
empirical formula is given which has a maximum error
•of 95 per cent., viz.

T> -S + 396-00.II W
4-08 + 0-152 W
The formulae are limited to conditions similar to those
;prevailing during the trials, viz. straight and level track
of good construction, temperature above 30° F., wind
•velocity not more than 20 miles per hour.

In our notice of the fourth edition of *' Les Roches et
leurs Elements min^ralogiques," by the late M. Ed.
Jannettaz, in December last (vol. Ixxxv., p. 166), we com-
plained of the description of the work as a revised and
■enlarged edition (Quatrieme Edition, revue et augment^e).
We have now to acknowledge the receipt from the pub-
lishers, MM. Hermann et Fils, Paris, of another copy with
modified cover and title-page, in which it is now described
correctly as " Quatri^me Edition, conforme k la Troisi^me
et augment6e de huit planches." The publishers assure us
they had no intention of misleading purchasers by the
wording of the former description. The work has at least
*he merit of cheapness, the price being only eight francs.

We have received from the Board of Agriculture and
Fisheries a memoir of the Geological Survey, Scotland,
•entitled " Catalogue of Photographs of Geological Sub-
jects," which has been prepared by the Geological Survey
and Museum. The catalogue enumerates the first 19 13
photographs taken to illustrate subjects of geological
interest in Scotland. The number, subject, and locality of
each photograph are given, and the number of the i-inch
map in which each locality occurs. The districts illustrated
lie chiefly in the north-west Highlands, Skye, in the
•counties of Argyll, Perth, Aberdeen, Kincardine, Fife,
Haddington, and Mid-Lothian. Copies of the catalogue,
price 6d., can be obtained from any agents for the sale of
Ordnance Survey maps, or- through any bookseller.

OVR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

Nova Lacert^. — L'Astrononiie for February contains a
jiumber of observations of Nova Lacertae, and includes a
reproduction of a spectrogram secured by Dr. Mas Wolf,
at Heidelberg, on January 2. In addition to the broad
bright hydrogen lines, the outstanding features are the
band at X 463, several emission lines between Hj3 and
H7, a conspicuous break in the continuous spectrum on
the more refrangible side of H7, and the strong emission
. line near A. 4056.

Nova Sagittarii, No. 3, H.V. 3306. — While examining
a plate taken at Arequipa on September 6, 1899, with the
i4nch Cooke lens, Miss Cannon found a star image which
appeared to be that of a nova in the position (1900)
R.A. =:i8h. 13m. 47-5S., dec. = -25° 13-5'; this is about
i' north of the C.D.M. tenth-magnitude star -25° 13020.

The customary investigation of past plates revealed the
fact that the light-curve of the star had the characteristics
•of the curves of novae. A large number of photographs
were examined covering the period June 7, 1889, to
September 3, 19 10, and many of them showed no trace of
the nova. On plates taken on .August 5, 6, 7, and 9, 1899,
It is not shown, although the last-named shows a neigh-
bouring star of magnitude 11-4, yet the photograph of
August 10, 1899 (G.M.T. I2h. 28m.), shows it at full
brightness, viz. magnitude 8-5 ; this photograph was taken
with the 13-inch Boyden telescope, the exposure being
loom. Seven plates, taken for the cluster N.G.C. 6266,
show a star of magnitude 15-6 in the position of the nova,
within the limits of measurement, but this object exhibits
no variability on five earlier plates or on five plates taken

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

since 1905. Since .August 10, 1899, the nova has appeared
on twenty-six plates taken with various instruments a;
Cambridge (Mass.), and Arequipa, and on the last <il
these, taken on October 3, 1901, its magnitude was 133.
The light-curve shows that the brightness decreased rapidls
at first, but was nearly stationarry, at magnitude 120,
from .April to July, 1900. A plate accompanying Circuhr
183 of the Harvard College Observatory reproduces t!.
photographs of the nova's region taken on August 3 aiv:
10, 1899.

The Satellites of Mars. ^Observations of Phobos and
Deimos during the opposition of 1909 are recorded ij>
Prof. Lowell in No. 50 of the Lowell Observatory
Bulletins. Several interesting observations relating to tht
apparent magnitudes of the two satellites are described,
Phobos generally appearing the brighter. Thus on
September 16, 1909, it was half a magnitude brighter than
Deimos, although with reduced apertures — 6 inches being
the limit — it was the fainter.

From a discussion of the data obtained. Prof. Lowell
finds that Phobos is probably 2-48 times the diameter of
Deimos, has 6-15 times the visible surface, and, if the
densities are equal, has 15-25 times the mass. The data
are too meagre to give a definite conclusion, but, so far
as they go, they suggest that there is a difference of
brilliancy in one, or both, of the satellites, dependent on
their orbital positions ; this suggests that each satellite
has different local albedoes, or an irregularity of shap .
and that it always keeps the same face towards Mars.

The Spectra of some Wolf-Rayet Stars. — Bulletin
No. 182 of the Lick Observatory contains a note by Mr.
J. C. Duncan describing the spectra of seven Wolf-Royet
stars photographed by him, with the one-prism spectro-
graph mounted on the 36-inch refractor, during the summer
of 1908.

Many of the lines and bands shown on these photo-
graphs exhibit no notable differences from those published
by Prof. Campbell in 1894, but those given in the follow-
ing table did not appear in the earlier publication : —

A. of centre g^^j. g p Description of line or band

of line or uand „

4I20'84 .. +35'3953 ... Narrow dark line

4068-40 ... +30-3639 ... ,, bright,,

4630 ... +36-3956 ... ,, faint band

4058 ... +36-3987 ... Fairly bright band 15 A. U. wide

4099 ... +363987 ••• M >. 34 ».

4628 ... +36-3987 ... Faint bind 54 A. U. wide

4056 ... +37'3»2i ... „ „

Southern Nebula. — Two notes describing remarkable
southern nebulae appear in No. 5 of the Transvaal
Observatory Circulars.

The first deals with a great ring nebula in Aquarius
(N.G.C. 7293, Harding; 22h. 23m., -21° 26'), which is
nearlv circular and has a diameter of 11'. Mr. Innes
describes it as a remarkable object, looking like a ring
nebula superimposed on a planetary nebula, and states that
it was first seen in the 2-inch finder. This points to the
description " very faint " in the N.G.C. being incorrect, or
the nebula is variable ; it is difficult to account for its
being missed, with its present brightness, by Messier and
the Herschels. From a photograph taken on October 4,
1910, with 6om. exposure, Mr. .Woods describes the
nebula as a broad, continuous ring extending across 52s.
in R.A. and 12-6' in declination, and appearing slightly
fainter in 135° and 315° than at other parts.

The second object was discovered on a plate taken by
Mr. Mitchell on August 1, 1910, with the Franklin-Adams
star camera, with an exposure of 2 hours. This is a
large, irregular nebula, around and preceding tt Scorpionis,
which is not mentioned in any of Dreyer's three cata-
logues. Its position is i5h. 53m., -25° 50', and it extend^
over 1° in a north and south direction, its other diam'-:
being about i°.

A Slowly Moving Meteor. — A fairly bright meteor,
remarkable for the leisurelv rate at which it moved, was
seen by Mr. F. E. Baxandall, at Putney, at 9 p^m. on
February 19. It first appeared in about 169°, +39°. ^nd.
travelling very slowly, passed through 211°, +28°, fi""'^^'
; disappearing below the north-east horizon after a flig.it
i lasting fully 15 seconds.

February 23. 191 1]

NATURE

555

GEOLOGICAL WORK IN BRITISH LANDS.

I. — In Asia and in Africa.

"DART iv. of vol. xxxviii. of the Records of the Geo-

logical Survey of India (19 lo) contains two papers by

Mr. Murray Stuart on the oil-bearing beds of western

L

Fig. 1. — Silt-beds uptilted by recent earth-movements, near head of Son-Sakesar Lake, Punjab.

Prome and Kama, in Lower Burma. Maps and an ideal
section are provided. The strata of economic interest, the
Kama clays, are of Miocene age, ranging from Burdigalian
to Pontian. The author considers the palaeontological
evidence in some detail, following the determinations of
Dr. Noetling. Mr. Cotter treats of
part of the Yenangyat oilfield, of which
a special map is given. Mr. Datta
describes siliceous haematites from
Chanda, in the Central Provinces,
some of which are already used as iron
ores. One would like to hear some-
thing of the relations of the lodes to
the surrounding rocks, for comparison
with similar materials in South Africa.
The remainder of part iv. is occupied
with the results of Captain R. E.
Lloyd's visit to the Aden Hinterland,
a country rarely visited. The author
was able to travel ninety miles inland
along a line due north from Aden,
terminating at the town of Dala.
Here bedded lavas and ashes cover
much of the country, and Mr. Vreden-
burg (p. 322) suggests that these are
representatives of the Deccan Trap.
Captain Lloyd shows them to be
younger than certain Jurassic strata,
and they have been carved out by
denudation into plateaus. These lie
(P- 317) ^s much as 6000 feet above
sea-level. The volcanic rocks are
mostly basalts and dolerites without
olivine, in this recalling the Deccan
series. A curious rock is described on
p. 330, consisting of minute augite
prisms in a green ground of devitrified
glass, with spherical vesicles infilled
by zeolites, triclinic felspar, and epidote. It may be of
interest to remark that a precisely similar infilling of
vesicles is found in an andesite from Brighton, Massa-
chusetts. Mr. G. H. Tipper describes (p. 336) the Jurassic
fossils collected by Captain Lloyd, which agree with a

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

series previously described by Messrs. Newton and Crick

as indicating a fairly high horizon. Perisphinctes is the

prevailing ammonite.

Vol. xxxix. of the Records is occupied by a review of

mineral production from 1904 to 1908. In vol. xl. (i9io)>

Mr. F. R. Cowper Reed, of Cambridge, discusses (p. i>
the distribution of life in pre-Carbon-
iferous life-provinces, with especial
reference to recent work in Asia. '* It
is no longer possible," as he usefully
remarks, " to maintain that the
diffusion of Lower Palzeozoic life was
uniform." Mr. La Touche (p. 30) very
interestingly shows that recent beds of
silt, laid down in some cases in old
channels of overflow, have been tilted
by earth-nwvements in the lake-district
of the Punjab Salt Range (Fig. i).
The hollows of the lakes themselves
are, with one exception, due to faults
or synclinal basins in nummulitic lime-
stone. Among the plates from this
area is a fine one (Plate x.) showing a
" bad land " produced by the erosion
of solian loess. Mr. La Touche also
illustrates excellently " certain glaciers
in Sikkim " (p. 52, and Plates xv.-
xxiv.). These glaciers show marked
features of retreat during the last fifty
years. One of them is formed from
snow-slides already charged with
debris, and is choked from its very
beginning " to its fullest capacity with
moraine stuff " (Fig. 2). It thus be-
comes almost a rock-flow, in which the
stones are held together by ice, and no-
ice is visible except where it breaks
into cliffs (p. 56). Mr. G. E. Pilgrim
(p. 63) describes several new genera

and species of mammals, mostly from the Siwalik beds.

A giraffoid skull in the British Museum is now styled

Indratherium.

On p. 185 Mr. Pilgrim summarises his present results

as to the correlation of the tertiary fresh-water deposits of

Fig. 2. — Part of the stone- filled Alukthang Glacier, Sikkim, showing ice only where frmcture occurs.

India. He points out that more than a hundred species of
vertebrates from N.W. India have been assigned to no
special horizons, though derived from a series of beds some
20,000 feet in thickness. He therefore supplies a table
showing their vertical distribution, which should do much

554

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

to clear the way for an appreciation of the successive
faunas. The Lower Siwalik Beds, with Deinothermm
indicum and Tetrabelodon angustidens are classed as
Tortonian and Sarmatian ; the Middle Siwalik Beds, with
Mastodon, Stegodon, Hipparion, and Helladotherium, as
Pontian ; and the Upper Siwalik Beds, with Equus, Bos,
Elephas, and Sivatherium, as truly Pliocene. Mr. C. S.
Middlemiss (p. 206) revises the " Silurian-Trias sequence "
in Kashmir, in a paper covering a wide field.

In the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of
London, vol. Ixvi., part iii., p. 420, Mr. J. B. Scrivenor
describes the relations of the igneous rocks of islands
between Johore and Singapore, and connects these rocks
successfully with types in Borneo and Amboyna. A
granite has caught up masses from a gabbroid magma,
while this magma has in turn invaded the consolidated
granite. The paper is important for those who have to
consider the question of segregation-patches as against
inclusions brought up from below. In a subsequent paper
{p. 435) Mr. Scrivenor describes a number of remarkable
rocks from the Kinta Valley of Perak, consisting of tour-
maline and corundum. These mostly contain carbon as a
separate constituent, and are " evidently derived from
certain beds forming part of a series overlying massive
beds of limestone." Residual structures remain in these
highh' altered rocks which strongly suggest oolitic grains.
The mineralisation is believed to have taken place during
extensive intrusions of granite in the district. Cassiterite
" frequently occurs in schists with which the tourmaline-
corundum rocks are associated."

If Egypt, for geological purposes, may be included as a
British land, it should be mentioned that Dr. Hume,
the director of its Geological Survey, has published a
memoir on " The Building Stones of Cairo Neighbourhood
and Upper Egypt " (Survey Department Paper No. 16,
1910, price 150 mmes.). Maps of the quarry-areas are
given, with names in Arabic and English. Analyses of
many of the limestones are quoted, and their durability
and power of absorbing water are considered. Much of
the information was collected by the late Mr. T. Barron.

Dr. Hume also states his views on " The Origin of the
Nile Valley in Egypt" (Geological Magazine, 1910, p. 385).
He believes that the dome-structure of the strata in the
Gulf of Suez has been cut across by notable fractures, of
which there is still more marked evidence in Sinai. But
the main structure of Egypt and of the Nile Valley lying
in it has been determined by folding and erosion rather
than by trough-faulting. Egypt is formed by a synclinal
following on the " wave-crest " that is revealed by the
Eastern Desert and Sinai. The Nile ravine follows the
axial line of the centre of the synclinal trough, and has
been assisted by the presence of easily eroded Cretaceous
and Middle Eocene strata. A transverse system of folds,
fairly east and west, is also traceable. The oases seem to
be due, in the first instance, to the main north and north-
west folding.

The Cairo Scientific Journal for September, 1910, con-
tains a general review of the origin of petroleum, by Dr.
Hume, with special bearing on the Egyptian oil-area at
Gebel Zeit. The author inclines to the view that the
Egyptian oil is derived from animal matter included in
the deposits of a drying Mediterranean Sea, and points out
that the associated gypsum supports this theory. Major
H. de Lotbini^re (p. 221) shows how the clays in the Nile
Valley bear up the water now introduced by irrigation
into the overlying sands and the cracked clays of the
surface. This rise in the water-table, discussed by Mr.
Ferrar and others, is one of the newest agricultural
problems that Egypt has to face.

South Africa continues to produce a wealth of geological
memoirs. The Transvaal Mines Department issues an
explanation of Sheets 5 and 6 of the large-scale geological
map, covering the country round Zeerust and Mafeking
(price 2S. 6d.). The Geological Commission of the Cape
of Good Hope has allowed the use of its map to complete
the Mafeking sheet drawn up by its neighbour. Messrs.
Hall and Humphrey, authors of the memoir, point out the
large part played by contact-metamorphism in the rocks
of the Pretoria series of the Transvaal system. The
Bushveld plutonic complex is held to be responsible for
the widespread production of slates with biotite, cordierite,
and andalusite. The gold-bearing quartz-reefs along the
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

Malmani River near Ottoshoop are reported on, and it is
suggested that work in them was abandoned when the
water-level in the adjacent dolomite was reached. Hill-
shading has been added to these maps, which is a great
improvement. It is doubtful, however, if the rivers on a
heavily coloured geological sheet should be shown in blue,
since it is always important to trace out their courses
at a glance. The geologists, moreover, are probably not
responsible for the choice of scale, which is provokingly J
near i cm. to i mile, but still nearer 3 inches to 7 miles. ■
This is a heart-rending thing to work with, whether miles
or kilometres are familiar to one's mind.

Mr. A. L. Hall has written for the Transvaal Survey
an important memoir on the " Pilgrims' Rest Gold Mining
District " (1910, price 7s. 6d.), in which a large map of
the Lydenburg and Barberton districts is inserted. The
great escarpment of the Drakensberg, formed of the lowest
sandstones of the Transvaal system, runs from north to
south down the eastern part of the area, and the hill-
shading portrays for the first time the numerous immature
valleys dropping steeply from it to the broken granite
lands of Barberton. The Blyde River has an interesting
course, mainly on the Dolomite, past Pilgrims' Rest,
within and parallel with the escarpment, catching the first
waters on the dip-slope, and escaping finally over the edge
by a long notch in which the granite is exposed. Its
basin is clearly threatened by the recession of the great
escarpment. Westward, the beds of the Pretoria series,
above the Dolomite, come in, remaining almost level over
broad areas, as we reach the true plateau-land of the
Transvaal. The general fall of the country northward to
the Olifant's River is seen, however, in the parallel courses
of the streams, of which the Blyde River is the most
easterly, and their valleys give a rolling character to the
landscape. The important auriferous deposits of the area
consist mainly of quartz-reefs lying at definite horizons in
the Dolomite, with certain cross-reefs cutting across the
bedding. An area for future prospecting is indicated
towards the Olifant's River (p. 144). The handsome illus-
trations in this memoir will interest anyone who has stood
on the Drakensberg edge in eastern Transvaal, and has
seen the huge inland plains terminate suddenly against the
highland air. Yet here, as Prof. Penck has urged, it is
not necessary to invoke a fault to account for the rapid
fall towards the Indian Ocean. Folding and erosion, the
same processes that have given us our Chilterns and our
Cotteswolds, seem alone responsible for the impressive
margin of the veld.

The Geological Commission of the Colony of the Cape
of Good Hope has published in 1910 Sheets 32 and 40 of
the map on the scale of i inch to 3-75 miles. Here,
again, the scale, i : 238,000, has a truly British and un-
compromising air. Sheet 32 has Van Wyk's Vlei near
its centre, where depressions occur on rocks of the Ecca
series, between flat-topped kopjes. The dolerites in the
Karroo system form characteristic ring-like outcrops.
Sheet 40, showing the country around Marydale, includes
the north-westerly stretch of the Orange River on the
edge of Griqua Land West. It is a very interesting map
for the student, as may be seen at once in the section at
its foot. The contrast of the old schists on the west,
invaded and almost eaten up by granite, with the un-
dulating beds of the Transvaal system on the east, is only
one of its many attractive features.

We cannot do justice to the numerous papers in the
Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa.
Prof. Schwarz (vol. xi., 1909, p. 107) points out the interest
of the occurrence of high Senonian or Danian beds (the
Alexandria formation) on the south coast of Africa. Their
age appears to be determined by Mr. W. D. Lang from
the pol3'zoa onl)s and they seem to have been deposited
near a shore. Their position implies an epoch of sub-
mergence after the elevatory movement that carried the
Lower Cretaceous Uitenhage beds to a height of 4000 feet
above the sea. The discussion on this paper will be found
in vol. xii., 1910, p. xxxv. Dr. Rogers here points out
that there may not be such a gap in the African Creta-
ceous as Prof. Schwarz suggests, if we regard the Pondo-
land beds as Senonian rather than Cenomanian. Mr.
Recknagel (vol. xi., p. 83) has. the advantage of describing
a new field in his paper on some mineral deposits in the
Rooiberg district, where tin-ore and tourmaline figure

February 23, 191 1]

NATURE

555

largely. Yet even here (p. 89) certain unknown primitive
miners sought tin in fairly deep diggings before the pre-
sent natives occupied the coimtry. Ihe same author (vol.
.\ii., 1910, p. ibisj reviews all the occurrences of tin-ore
in South Africa, and concludes that cassiterite in workable
quantities is a product of dirterentiation in granitoid
magmas, and that literal secretion accounts for its con-
centration in certain veins.

Mr. A. L. Hall (vol. xii., p. 8) describes schistose struc-
tures in the liushveld granite as having arisen marginally
through pressure during consolidation. Mr. H. Merensky
(p. 13J, in a short but important paper, urges that the
diamonds of Luderitziand, in German South-West Africa,
which occur in an aH>lian sandstone, must be derived from
an underlying sandstone, which he proves to be of Creta-
ceous age. Mr. P. A. Wagner (vol. xiii., 19 10, p. 56) shows
that dykes of monchiquites, allied to kimberlite, occur in
the Pomona district of this region, and in this district the
largest diamonds have been found. Prof. R. B. Young,
of Johannesburg (vol. xii., p. 82), supports the view that
the gold of the banket conglomerate of the Rand was
imported, with the pyrite, after the deposition of the beds.
He believes that a heavy mineral, such as titanic iron-ore,
was present as an original detrital constituent, and pro-
moted the precipitation of auriferous pyrite. He traces a
second generation of gold, distributed more irregularly
than the first. He suggests that the gold was brought in
by solutions arising from igneous rocks, both basic and
acid, that penetrate the W'itwatersrand series. The acid
intrusive rocks have been described for the first time by
Mr. M. Weber C»6td., p. 67), who has detected gold in
them. The future must show whether the gold in these
igneous rocks has or has not been derived from other
rocks through which they have passed in their ascent.

A question that attracts even more interest in South
Africa is raised by Mr. H. S. Harger's paper (p. 139) on
the occurrence of diamonds in Dwyka conglomerate and
amygdaloidal lavas, and the origin of the Vaal River
diamonds. Mr. Harger is a specialist in diamond-bearing
pipes, and he believes that some of the material in old
alluvial gravels above the Vaal River has been derived
from local kimberlite. He regards, however, most of the
blocks associated with the diamonds as torn from more
distant masses by the ice of Permo-Carboniferous times.
The gravels are, in fact, concentrates from lost patches of
Dwyka conglomerate. He shows that the so-called
" bantam " pebbles, commonly associated with diamond
on account of their specific gravity of 3-3, are probably
worn from a metamorphic rock rich in manganese-garnet,
and he traces these pebbles to the Dwyka beds. He
finds, moreover, diamonds in the andesitic lavas that are
older than these strata, and urges that the gems originated
in these lavas, and were carried thence into the con-
glomerate, and thence into the residual gravels. In the
discussion reported on pp. Ivii-lix of the Proceedings of
the society for 1909-10, Mr. Harger defends his position
by recording the occurrence of diamond in the Dwkya
conglomerate at Windsorton. He does not, however,
encourage the exploitation of this intractable and uncon-
centrated series. We do not seem nearer to the actual
parent rocks of the diamond, which may well lie in some
metamorphic zone, from which the gems became picked
off into the lavas. Mr. C. Baring Horwood (vol. xiii.,
p. 29) publishes and discusses a number of analyses of
typical Transvaal rocks, including the dolomite and its
partly silicified varieties. In association with Mr. A.
Wade, he has recently reviewed the whole series of " old
granites " in South Africa (Geological Magazine, 1909,
PP- 455 ^nd 497), and concludes that there is a real funda-
mental granite-gneiss formation in that portion of the
globe. The state of affairs, however, as he fairly enough
points out, is somewhat suspiciously like that in Canada,
where the fundamental series tends to become more and
more visionary every year. Dr. Rogers, in his address to
the South African Association for the Advancement of
Science, in November, 19 10, clearly differs from Mr. Hor-
wood in regard to the African series, and points out that
the oldest gneisses are igneous intrusions including flakes of
sediments (Reports, Section B, p. 30).

Mr. F. P. Mennell (Quart. Journ. Geo!. Soc. London,
vol. Ixvi., 1910, p. 353) claims the great mass of rocks in
southern Rhodesia as " Laurentian "; but he is convinced
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

that the granitoid mass which forms so large a part of the
country is younger than the series of schists, banded iron-
stones, and limestones, and he holds that mixed rocks are
important features of the contact-zones. The present
writer has had the advantage of seeing some of these
composite gneisses under Mr. Mennell's guidance near
Bulawayo. Interesting cases of the absorption of granite
by dolerite, recalling the reverse action near Carlingford in
Ireland, are described on p. 372. Mr. Mennell, in referring
to two Rhodesian examples of " blue ground " pipes con-
taining diamonds, declines to connect the diamonds with
the prevalence or non-prevalence of eclogite-fragments or
of garnet. This is in contradiction to the view of the
Vaal River diggers, as quoted by Mr. Harger in the
paper already referred to, since the " bantams " on which
they so much rely prove to be largely made of spessartine.
Geologists may well envy the field open to Mr. Mennell,
Mr. Molyneux, Mr. Zealley, and now to Mr. Maufe, who
between them are attacking an area at least as large as
the Transvaal. G. A. J. C.

THE AIRSHIP FOR THE BRITISH NAVY.
''PHE leading article in Engineering for February 17 gives
•^ some account of the airship for the British Navy
built by the \'ickers Company at Barrow. Trials were
conducted on Tuesday, February 14, in presence of the
Government's Advisor}- Committee on Aeronautics, these
being analogous to the basin trials of a warship, and
have proved to be quite satisfactory. The structure for
accommodating the hydr<^en reservoirs or balloons is
512 feet in length and 48 feet in diameter. It is in the
form of a decagon in section, and the ten sides are built
up of longitudinal lattice-girders, with vertical intercostal
girders, the top and bottom boom in each case being
formed of angles or tees of duralumin. Each bay has
diagonal wire bracing. The form is whale-like, with a
bluft entry, and a sweet run aft to a point, where, at the
bottom, there is a big fin, increasing in depth aft accord-
ing to the upward rise to the point of the stern.
Aluminium was first tried, but the girder structure of this
metal collapsed under stress. The metal adopted —
duralumin — is one of the magnesium alloys of aluminium,
and contains 91 per cent, of aluminium. It has a specific
gravity between 2-77 and 284, a melting point of about
650° C., a yield point varying from 12 to 16 tons per
square inch according to the hardness, and a breaking
resistance from 22 to 29 tons per square inch. The
elongation varies from 23 to 18 per cent., and the con-
traction of area from 34 to 26 per cent. It will thus be
seen that, despite its lightness, it bears comparison with
mild steel.

For more than half the length of the structure there is
a bottom girder, or keel, of V shape, carried on the
girder structure of the decagon. The bottom is flattened
with spruce grating, laid inside to form a gangway, and
serves as a means of communication between the two
gondolas. The gondolas are connected to the central
girder, and are constructed of timber of ship-shape form.
Should the ship alight on water, the structure will float
by reason of the buoyancy afforded by the hydrogen gas
contents of the reservoirs. Both gondolas contain a typical
ten-cylinder Wolseley marine petrol-motor with reversing
clutch. The engine in the forward gondola has two pro-
pellers, each with two wooden blades. There is one on
each side at a considerable elevation above the gondola,
supported on duralumin raking girders. The engine in the
after gondola drives a single two-bladed propeller abaft
the gondola, with only a reversing coupling between pro-
peller and engine.

To give lifting power, eighteen or twenty gas-bags are
used, the structure for the hydrogen reservoirs being
divided vertically into compartments by rope netting. The
covering of the structure was the subject of experiments
at the National Physical Laboratory, and, as a result, silk
coated with a proofing by the loco process was preferred.
This weighs about 100 grams per square metre, has fire-
resisting qualities, and is of British manufacture. The
upper half is coated with aluminium dust in order to
reflect the sun's rays, while the lower half retains the
yellow shade of the silk.

556

NATURE

[February 23, 1911

To enable the ship to rise or descend during flight there
■are three parallel horizontal planes on both port and star-
board sides, forward and aft. These are comparatively
small, pivoted in the centre at each side, with a vertical
rod at each corner, and through these all are tilted to the
desired angle by wire gear operated from either gondola.
For lateral movement there are three groups of vertical
rudders, one having four parallel planes above and a j
similar one below the main structure near to the stern, j
while abaft of the propeller, in the after gondola, there
js a group of three rudders. Rudders, engines, and pro-
pellers were worked before the members of the advisory
committee at the trials. The committee are to be con-
gratulated, as well as Captain Sueter, who has had charge
of the work on behalf of the Admiralty, and also the
\'ickers Company on the important stage which their
unicjue work for the Navy has now reached.

INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY^
"T^HE report before us is one of the most important
studies of infantile mortality yet produced. Adminis-
tratively, it will be of immense value, for it constitutes a
first guide to the " dark areas " of England. Scientific-
ally, it is also of value, for it brings actual administrative
■data to bear on a fundamental social question, namely,
•does the prevention of infant deaths tend to the deteriora-
tion of the race? Whatever be the final reply to this
question, the work of prevention will certainly proceed as
if the question had never been asked, because the impulse
towards prevention is itself a fundamental impulse in
modem society, and will realise itself against all
.hindrances.

It is, however, of immense importance to know whether,
on the whole, the methods of prevention in this particular
field are favourable to the rearing of a sound race or not.
Survival of the fittest, however, is no longer to be imaged
merely as survival of individuals of a single qualitv.
Rather it is imaged as survival of fit groups, and the
concept of the " group-person " is steadily gaining a place,
not in biology alone, but also in economics. The pre-
servation of the " group-person " implies that natural
selection must be regarded as operating on the group, not
on the ■ mere individual considered abstractly. Conse-
quently, it may well happen that, as the preservation of
the group is the primary and immediate object of social
organisation, the preservation of a certain proportion of
Telatively weak individuals may be ultimately harmless
even on the most stringent interpretation of the Darwinian
principle of natural selection. At all events, it is important
to have the problem studied in detail, as is the case in
this well-loaded document. If it turns out that the pre-
servation of the individual does not, even in a minor
«legree, impair the fitness of the group, all the better.

It is this important consequence that Dr. Newsholme's
investigation, so far as it goes, tends to establish by actual
facts. The administrative results we may leave alone.
One of the primary intentions of the report was " to
determine, on the basis of our national statistics, whether
reduction of infant mortality implies any untoward in-
fluence on the health of the survivors to later vears "
(p. i). The figures of a single year, 1908, are taken and
■carefully analysed. The counties of high infantile
mortality are compared in sufficient detail with the
counties of low infantile mortality. Infantile mortality is
■compared and correlated with the mortality at later ages —
-age one to two, two to three, three to four, and four to
five, and even at age-groups five to ten, ten to fifteen,
fifteen to twenty. In this way, data variously presented
are obtained for testing the influence that the infantile
mortality has on the mortality of the survivors, even up
to adult ages.

" This comparison is important, because attempts to
reduce infant mortality are regarded by many as an inter-
ference with natural selection, which must be inimical to
the average health of those surviving. According to this
school of_ thought" (we think Dr. Newsholme too
generous, if he is not ironical, in dignifving those some-
what casual theorists by the name of " school "), " efforts

1 Supplement to the Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Local Govern-
ment Board, igog-io. By Dr. Arthur Newsholme, Medical Officer to the
Board. (London: Wyman and Son?, Ltd., 1910.) Price is. jd.

to save infant life merely prevent the weeding out of th^.-
unfit, and ensure the survival of an excessive proportion
of weaklings " (p. g). The results of the " correlations "
are startling, though some of them may equally be come
at by general reasoning. However we turn the figures,
it remains true that " a high infant death-rate in a given
community implies, in general, a high death-rate in th"
ne.xt four years of life, while low death-rates at both age-
periods are similarly associated " (p. 13). ITius of the
eight administrative counties with highest infant death-
rates, the infant death-rate was 139-1 per 1000 births, and
the death-rate at age one to five was 69-2, while in the
eight administrative counties with lowest infant death-
rate, the corresponding figures were 77-9 and 32-6.

This relationship is found also in the comparisons of
the individual counties. But the correlations reveal the
further fact that at the later ages the same general rela-
tion is true. " Speaking generally, it will be seen that
the eight counties having a high infant mortality also
had a relatively high death-rate of males during each of
the four first lustra of life, and the eight counties having
a low infant mortality had also a relatively low mortalitv
at ages 0-5 and 5-10, and to a diminishing extent at
10-15 and 15-20 " (p. 16). Probably at the later ages
other special influences, such as migration, complicate the
issue.

The problem of the " selective influence " is analysed
and estimated in greater detail in a special section by Mr.
Udny Yule, whose general conclusion, frcHn somewhat in-
adequate data, is " that there is little definite evidence of
such selection beyond the second year of life, and that
after the third year the environmental influences even of
infancy alone appear to preponderate over any possible
selective influence " (p. 78). There is no space even to
indicate the wealth of fact that goes to the discussion of
the causes of infant mortality. The broad conclusion is
that no effort should be spared to reduce the mortality of
infants and to remove all removable causes of death.
Philanthropic impulse is thus reinforced by scientific
analysis of the facts. This report will be followed next
year by a similar study of infant mortality in the large
towns. Dr. Newsholme is to be congratulated on tiis
admirable combination of scientific analysis with pr.ictical
administration.

FIXATION OF ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN.
CINCE the work of Lord Rayleigh in 1894, when he
•^ repeated the experiments of Cavendish with improved
apparatus and more modern methods, continual progress
has been made in connection with the oxidation of atmo-
spheric nitrogen. Rayleigh 's experiments, carried out on
a large laboratory scale, showed the feasibility of obtain-
ing nitric acid or nitrates from the atmosphere, and, given
cheap f>ower and appropriate appliances, the possibility of
it being done on a paying commercial scale.

The pioneering work which followed for a long time
spelt — commercially — failure. But as first one idea and
then another was shown ^o be unsatisfactory, and had to
be discarded, knowledge increased, as is always the case
with research, and in 1903 Birkeland and Eyde designed
and erected a plant which, at any rate, in part solved the
problem. In a lecture delivered before the German
Association of Naturalists and Physicians in September
last, Prof. J. Zenneck takes up the subject at that stage,
and reviews this process and others which have since been
devised (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1911). The lecture was
evidently delivered to a popular audience, because Prof.
Zenneck describes and illustrates the processes in a wa\
which will interest and instruct those who may have very
little knowledge of chemistry. For example, by means of
a model, he showed how in the Notodden process of Birke-
land and Eyde the air is driven by means of a compressor
through the furnace containing the disc-shaped arc, then
how gases are partially cooled and the heat given up is
used for the generation of steam and for evaporating th^
liquors. We believe, indeed, that coal is not required in
the works at all for heating purpvoses. The Notodder,
plant, however, is so well known that it will be superfluou-
to describe it further, except to mention that very good
diagrams and pictures of the works are included in the
printed lecture.

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

February 23, 1911^

NATURE

557

Prof. Zenneck then describes the Pauling process. It
is a well-known fact that vigorous blowing will put out
the electric arc, consequently it is not an easy matter to
blow air through an arc so that the nitrogen may become
oxidised without blowing out the arc. In the process of
Pauling, air is blown through an arc. The arc, however,
is struck between horn-shaped conductors, such as are
used as lightning arresters. The two horns are closest
together near the bottom, and it is here that the arc is
struck. Owing to the ascending hot air, the arc rises
upwards, and is broken once for each period of the
alternating current. A new arc, however, is immediately
produced again at the bottom, and this goes on con-
tinuously. An air current is also driven at high speed
through the electrodes, and this further elongates the
flames, so that an arc of very considerable length is pro-
duced. This process is now in successful operation in
Switzerland and the south of France.

Special attention is given to the interesting process of
the Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik. This particular
process was illustrated experimentally at the International
Congress of Chemistry held in London in May, 1909. An
arc is caused to form throughout a long tube, and the
air fs blown in tangentially. In practice, arcs of 8 metres
long are employed.

Which of these three processes will best stand the test
of time remains to be seen. The sine qua non in all cases
is, however, cheap power. In structional details each
plant is being continually improved, and at present each
of these processes is being commercially worked. The
Paulin process is, we believe, very well adapted for the
manufacture of concentrated nitric acid, which is so
important in the manufacture of explosives, and if suflRci-
enily cheap may readily be converted into a fertiliser.
The other two processes are certainly well adapted for the
manufacture of fertilisers, and there is no inherent reason
whv nitric acid should not also be produced in all cases.

F. M. P.

BIRD XOTES.

T N a lecture on the birds of \'ictoria delivered to the
-*• local Field Naturalists' Club in September, 1910, and
published in vol. xxvii., No. 8, of the Victorian Saturalist,
Mr. J. A. Leach directed attention to the extraordinarv,
and apparently unique, richness of Australia in birds.
Net only, he remarks, has the country its own peculiar
typves of interesting birds such as emeus, malleebirds,
black swan, laughing jackass, cockatoos, many parrots,
lyre-birds, bower-birds, &c. (some of these being common
to New Guinea), but it likewise contains representatives
of every widely spread family of birds with the exception
of vultures and woodpeckers.

To vol. vi., No. 2, of the Journal of the South African
Ornithologists' L'nion Messrs. Bucknill and Gronvold
contribute a paper on the eggs of certain South African
birds, which, for the most part, have not been previously
described or figured, the paper being illustrated by an
exquisite coloured plate. The largest egg figured is that
of the African hawk-eagle (Etitolmaetus spilogaster), one
of a pair taken in Matabeleland in 1904, and now in the
Transvaal Museum. Perhaps the most interesting of all
is the egg of Poliohierax semitorquatus, which, in its
uniform whiteness, corresponds with those of the nearly
related Indo-Malay falconets (Microhierax). In 1902. when
the second volume of the " Catak^ue of Birds' Eggs "
was published, the British Museum possessed one clutch
of eggs of Microhierax, birt none of the allied African
genus.

The third part of vol. x. of the Emu (December, 1910)
contains a report of the tenth annual session of the Royal
Australian Ornithologists' Union, held at Brisbane in
October. Special attention was directed to the need for
protecting Australian birds, and it was decided to request
the Government of Tasmania to take action for protecting
the penguins on the Macquarie Islands. Mention was
made of the founding of a Gould League for the purpose
of encouraging a love of birds among the rising genera-
tion. At one of the meetings the State Governor, Sir
William Macgregor, expressed himself in favour of bird-
protection, but had doubts as to the feasibility of its
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

enforcement. His Excellency stated as an example of this
diflSculty that when in British New Guinea he passed
laws for the protection of birds-of-paradise, and that these
were nearly fatal to the red species. For during his
absence a visitor asked permission to obtain one or two
specimens for scientific purposes, and, having obtained it.
straightway proceeded to shoot all that were obtainable,
so that when the Governor, on his return, visited Fer-
guson Island he found not a single full-plumaged bird of
this species remaining.

Country Life of January i contains two life-size illus-
trations of the newly named Irish coaltit, placed alongsid
those of its Bcitish representative, with descriptive not'
by Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant. The Irish bird is chara
terised by the light patches on the sides of the head and.
neck, as well as the occipital spot, being pale mustard-
yellow, instead of white ; the back olive^rey washed with
yellowish cinnamon, in place of olive-grey ; the upper tail-
coverts cinnamon, in marked contrast with the rest of
the upper parts, instead of brownish-fawn, not decidedly
different from the back; the breast and belly whitish,
washed with mustard-yellow, in place of whitish or
greyish-white ; and the sides and flanks cinnamon, instead
of fawn. In freshly killed examples the mustard-yellov.
is bright and conspicuous, but fades a few days afte:
death. The British coaltit, which Mr. Grant regards a»
a subspecies {Parus ater britannicus), occurs in County
Down, a fact, in his opinion, affording additional evidence
in favour of regarding the Irish bird (P. hibernicus) as a
separate species.

Considerable discussion, reported in various issues of
the Field, has taken place at the British Ornithologists'"
Club with regard to white-breasted British cormorants.
While some ornithologists regard all such birds as
immature, others maintain that certain examples are much
older, and consider that one particular skin belonged to
a bird of ir'om twelve to fifteen months old. It was also
suggested that white-breasted birds appeared sporadical!)
in certain colonies, where they might become th-
dominating type.

Notes on the peregrine falcon in the Midlands and on
the habits of the crested grebe are contributed to the
Januani- number of the Zoologist by Mr. O. V. Aplin.
The former species, it appears, is still a regular visitor
to the southern Midland counties, but the birds seen-
there in autumn are, in most instances at anj- rate,
immature.

Of a very different character from all the foregoing is a
paper by >ir. H. C. Tracy, issued in the Zoological Publi-
cations of the University of California, on the significance
of white markings in passerine birds. The object of the
inquiry on this subject undertaken by the author was to
endeavour to reconcile the old theory that white_ markings
in birds are recognition-signs, with the newer, and appar-
ently contradictor}.-, hypothesis that they are for protective
purposes. The result, in Mr. Tracy's opinion, is that both
theories are perfectly true and mutually supplement one
another. Markings which are displayed only or chiefly
when the birds are in flight, such as the white area at
the base of the tail-feathers common to many terrestriaf
birds — as in our own wheatear — are recognition-marks,
and it is noticeable that these are specially developed in
gregarious groups. On the other hand, in the case of
arboreal species, white markings at the base of the flight
feathers, which become specially conspicuous when their
owners are in flight, appear to serve for protection and
for recognition. The author took, for instance, specimens
of the green-backed goldfinch (AstragaUnus psaltria) and
black-headed grosbeak (ZameJodia melanocephala), in
which these particular markings are well developed, and,
after spreading the wings, " photographed them against
sunlit foliage and backgrounds of leaves with spaces of sky-
showing through. The birds were difficult to find in the
resulting prints. Urnloubtedly the photographs, by theii^
lack of relief, exaggerated the concealing effect ; yet that
there is such an effect, in general, it is safe to admit.""
L^ter on, it is added that when the bird takes wing, a
different principle comes into play, and, as there is no
broken background, the markings stand out conspicuously.
" When we consider." continues the author, " the value
to all birds ranging in the open foliage of instant recogni-
tion at a distance and sight-clues for the purpose of keep-

558

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

iiiji together, we shall not easily believe that wing and
(ail white are solely features of concealing coloration.
'I'lu-ir revealing function during flight is entirely in
harmony with their concealing functions when at rest."

In conclusion, brief reference may be made to the paper
by Mr. E. A. Wilson, field-observer to the Grouse-disease
Inquiry Committee, in the Zoological Society's Proceedings
for December, 19 lo, on the changes of the plumage in the
grouse, a communication specially noteworthy on account
of the excellence and beauty of the numerous coloured
l)lates by which it is illustrated. R. L.

THE AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE

ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.
""PHIS year's meeting of the Australasian Association for
the Advancement of Science was held at the Uni-
versity of Sydney on January 9-14, under the presidency
of Prof. Orme Masson, F.R.S., professor of chemistry in
the University of Melbourne.

The work of the meeting was divided among eleven main
sections, each with its own president, vice-president, and
secretary. The following is a list of sections with the
name of the presidents and the subjects of their addresses,
v/hen these are stated in the official circulars which have
been received.

Section A, Astronomy, Mathematics, and Physics : Prof.
T. H. Laby, professor of physics in Victoria College,
Wellington, N.Z. Section B, Chemistry, Metallurgy, and
Mineralogy ; Prof. B. D. Steele, professor of chemistry in
the University of Queensland, Brisbane, who in his address
dealt with inorganic solvents. Section C, Geology : Prof.
P. Marshall, professor of geology in the University of
Otago, Dunedin, N.Z., whose address was on the western
margin of the Pacific basin. Section D, Biology : Mr.
F. M. Bailey, Government botanist at Brisbane. Section
E, Geography and History : Prof. G. C. Henderson, pro-
fessor of history in the University of Adelaide, whose
address discussed colonial historical research. Section F,
Anthroplogy and Philology : Mr. Edward Tregear.
.Section G, (i) Social and Statistical Science : Mr.
E. W. H. Fowles, the subject of whose address was un-
employment. Section G, (2) Agriculture : Prof. W. Angus,
late director of agriculture in Adelaide. Section " H,
Engineering and Architecture : Mr. Ellwood Mead, who
was unable to attend the meeting, and instead of a presi-
dential address, Prof. W. H. Warren, of the University
of Sydney, delivered a lecture on irrigation in India.
Section I, Sanitary Science and Hygiene : Dr. W. Perrin
Norris, Commonwealth Director of Quarantine, Melbourne,
who took for his subject public health ideals. Section J,
Mental Science and Education : the Rev. E. H. .Sugden,
whose address dealt with the place of music in education

During the meeting Prof. P. Marshall delivered a
popular lecture in the great hall of the University on
glaciers of the southern Alps ; Dr. Mawson, of .Adelaide,
lectured on " Antarctica," with special reference to his
forthcoming exp>edition ; and Prof. T. H. Laby exhibifed
a working model of Brennan's mono-rail. Numerolis
social functions were arranged, including a garden-party
to members of the association, given, by Lord Chelmsford.

There are several committees of the association which
are to continue to exist during the present year. Among
these may be mentioned the Solar Eclipse 1910 Committee,
appointed at Brisbane in 1909. In ccnnect'o-i with the
work of this committee, the local Council (.i N'ew South
Wales passed the following resolulion : — " '1 hat the com-
mittee appointed at the Brisbane meeting \r, 1909 in con-
nection with the solar eclipse of iqio be asked to make
such arrangements as may be necessary before the meet-
ing of the association in January for the observation of the
total 'lo'ar eclipse of 191 1 by Australian and other astro-
tior-'^rs, and report to the meeting." K was announced
durinf> the meeting that the Federal Government had
granted 500?. in aid of tli? solar eclipse expedition of this
■year. Other existing committees are those on solar re-
search, terrestrial magnetism in Australia, seismology,
alkaline rocks of Australia, glacial phenomena, geological
and geo-physical phenomena, deep-sea dredging off the
east coast of Australia, New Zealand food-fishes, and the
biological and hydrographical studv of the New Zealand
coast.

RECENT ADVANCES AND PROBLEMS IN
CHEMISTRY.

'T'HE subjoined lecture was delivered by Prof. Emil
■*■ Fischer, of the University of Berlin, on the occasion
of the inauguration of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft
zur Forderung der Wissenschaften, in the presence of the
German Emperor, on January 11, in the Ministry of
Education at Berlin.

Prof. Fischer traces the relations between science and
scientific industries in Germany, pointing out that by
affording facilities for the prosecution of pure scientific
research, technical industry can only gain.

If only this fact were practically realised in this country
as it is in Germany, we should be spared the humiliation
of seeing important technical branches of commerce, such
as chemical industry, transferred soon after their initiation
from England to the Continent.

Prof. Fischer in his address deals fully with this sub-
ject from the German ix>int of view, so that it is un-
necessary to refer to it here in detail ; the remedy, how-
ever, lies entirely with the powers that be.

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

Your Majesty ; Gentlemen,

At the present time, more than at any other period, we
are inclined critically to examine the fundamental prin-
ciples of all branches of knowledge, and, when necessary,
to introduce far-reaching alterations in our original con-
clusions. This state of mind applies also to the natural
sciences. During the last decades our actual knowledge
has been extended to an extraordinary degree owing to
new methods of research, and in view of the more recent
observations the older theories have proved in many cases
to be far too narrow. Even the fundamental principles
of our knowledge appear, to a certain extent, to demand
revision.

Thus the progress in physical science forces us to adopt
views which are incompatible with the older principles of
mechanics, in spite of the fact that these were regarded
as unassailable by thinker*, such as Hermann von Helm-
holtz, Heinrich Hertz, and Lord Kelvin.

We stand in the snne position with respect to the
elements in chemistry. Owing to the discovery of radium
and similar bodies, we have been forced to the conclusion
that chemical elements are not unalterable, and hence that
their atoms are not indivisible.

The same sate of affairs obtains to even a greater
degree in t\e biological sciences. In comparative
anatomy, ani nal and vegetable physiology, theory of
evolution, microbiology, and almost all branches of medical
science, tne rapid advance of experimental knowledge is
accompanied by an equally rapid change in established
theories. Even the semi-historical sciences, such as geo-
'Of^y> palaeontology, anthropology, and the venerable
'^ri'^nce of astronomy, are taking active part in the general
progress.

Thus in these times of general scientific activity is
founded the Kaisef-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Forderung
der Wissenschaften, the primary object of which is the
erection and maintenance of institutions of research.

It need scarcely be said that we scientific investigators
welcome this new and highly specialised creation with
intense satisfaction, and I regard it as a particular honour
to be permitted to be the first to give expression of our
profound gratitude.

No one will be able to assert that experimental research
in Germany has been neglected ; exactly the opposite con-
clusions must be drawn on contemplating the history of
science during the nineteenth century. This displays a
long series of brilliant scientific discoveries made in this
country. The industries closely connected with science,
such as the chemical and electrotechnical industries, fine
mechanical engineering, production of metals, industries
connected with fermentation, and last, but not least,
agriculture, have also undergone in our hands a develop-
ment envied on almost all sides by other nations.

Should a criterion of the results of experimental research
be desired, this may perhaps be found in the distribution
of the Nobel prizes, which are awarded by absolutely
independent corporations in Sweden.

Only a month ago the Nobel prize for chemistry came

February 23, 191 1]

NATURE

559

for the sixth time to Germany ; this constitutes 60 per
cent, of all the Nobel prizes hitherto awarded for chem-
istry. During the same period of time two and a half
prizes were awarded to Germans for physics and three a. id
a half for medicine. Dr. Alfred Nobel, unfortunately, did
not provide for the remaining natural sciences.

The majority of the investigations distinguished by the
award of these prizes, however, belong to the nineteenth
century. Since that time matters are to some extent
altered. It is well known that the greater number of
German scientific investigators are teachers at universities
or polytechnics. During the last ten years a scheme of
practical education of the masses has developed, which
affords to all students the possibility of acquiring a
thorough training in experimental science, and which pro-
vides our industries with an army of scientifically educated
workers. But this very education of the masses tends
mentally to exhaust the teacher to a great extent, certainly
to a higher degree than is desirable, or indeed compatible,
with the creative power of the investigator.

There prevails in modern educational laboratories a con-
dition of overstrained activity comparable with that exist-
ing in all but the smallest factories and commercial
offices, and in the harassing cares of the day the teacher
loses far too readily that peace of mind and broad view
of scientific matters necessary for tackling the larger
problems of research. This danger has been most keenly
appreciated by teachers of chemistry, to which body
I myself belong. It is therefore no mere accident that in
our circles of recent years the cry for new laboratories
should be at its loudest ; an appeal for laboratories which
should permit of research in absolute tranquillity, un-
encumbered by the duties of teaching.

But all our efforts were fruitless, in spite of the active
support of an industry ready to make any sacrifice, and
we were about to abandon, with reluctance and with sad-
ness, our cherished plan, when the action of your
Majesty in directing the attention of all munificent ladies
and gentlemen in Germany to the need of supporting
scientific research came to us like a heaven-sent aid.

In place of the one State-supported chemical institute
which we had planned, chemists may now anticipate the
immediate possession of two such institutes in which gifted
men may conduct their original researches with ample
means in freedom from any other duties. It is anticipated
that the younger generation of chemists will thereby
derive special benefit. By the younger generation I mean
in particular those men who are at present acting as
assistants or lecturers in university laboratories, and who
can carry on research in addition to the servile labour of
teaching only by possession of an extraordinary capacity
for work.

That which applies to chemistry may, mutatis mutandis,
be applied to the other sciences, and is esf)ecially applic-
able to new branches of knowledge, for the prosecution
of which the laborious organisation of educational labora-
tories leaves no possibility.

The handicap under which we work, in comparison with
other nations, in particular the United States of America,
in which similar institutes have recently been founded,
can thus be removed. If the hopes which we all place in
the new institutes are fulfilled, Germany will in the future
not lack recipients of Nobel prizes, and we may then hope
to maintain the honourable position which we hitherto
have held in the domain of science.

That this is, however, not only a matter of sentiment
and honour, but a palpable advantage in material respects,
is at once evident from the close relation between modern
scientific prepress and national well-being. I am not here
to demonstrate this relation by means of statistics or
political economical considerations. On the contrary, I
would invite your attention to a cursory review of my own
science. I shall thus, in considering the most recent
achievements in this field, be able to point out to you the
diversity of the problems and their fertility with regard to
the most varying branches of technical industry.

As I have already remarked, our conception of the
nature of chemical elements has to some extent altered
owing to the discovery of radium, the first element to be
discovered by a woman. We are now acquainted with
more than twenty-four such substances— the so-called
radio-active elements — and we recognise that they disinte-

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

grate spontaneously, and that elementary transmutations
are hence possible.

Germany took at the outset only a small part in the
notable researches connected with the discovery of these
elements, although the first stimulus leading to the dis-
covery of radio-activity was given by the Kontgen rays.
The reason for this is that Germany possesses none of the
raw materials necessary for the production of radium, and
that the majority of German investigators have not the
means for the purchase of this costly element. This lack
of means was especially keenly felt when radium first
found profitable application in the fields of medicine.

We are therefore all the more delighted to record such
an event as the recent discovery due to Prof. Otto Hahn
of the chemical laboratory- of the University of Berlin.'
He has for several years been investigating the disintegra-
tion products of thorium, which is employed in large
quantities in the manufacture of incandescent mantles, and
has in the course of his work discovered several radio-
active elements, the most important of which he has
designated mesothorium. He has, moreover, succeeded in
devising a process for the isolation of this substance from
the valueless waste products occurring in the manufacture
of thorium I am therefore able to show to you a speci-
men of Hahn's preparation. This is the bromide of meso-
thorium, a white salt, which evolves the same highly
penetrating rays as the corresponding salt of radium. In
radio-active power this preparation is equivalent to 100
milligrams of pure radium bromide, but costs only one-
third as much. Nevertheless, it is not cheap, since for
this small quantity of material 550Z. was paid. Thanks to
an endowment from Dr. von Bottinger, of Elberfeld, the
Akademie der Wissenschaften in this city will in a few
months be in possession of 250 milligrams of this sub-
stance, and lend it out to German investigators. It would
be possible yearly to produce in Germany a quantity of
this preparation of Dr. Hahn's equivalent to more than
lo grams of pure radium bromide from the valueless resi-
dues after the extraction of the thorium. This is approxi-
mately equivalent to the world's stock of radium. By this
discovery, the radium famine hitherto prevalent in
Germany may be said to be relieved.

The field of chemical experimentation has in the last
decade been widened to an extraordinary degree by the
ease with which it is possible to obtain very high and very
low temperatures. High temperatures can now be
obtained by means of electric furnaces with which
temperatures up to 3000° are easily produced. Low
temperatures may be obtained by means of liquid air.
This commodity can now be purchased in Berlin at the
price of a wine of medium quality, that is to say, at
IS. gd. per litre. For this we are indebted to your
Majesty, wfio invited Prof, von Linde, of Munich, lo
erect here one of his large machines for the liquefaction
of air.^ You will understand how indispensable this liquid
has become when I tell you that in the laboratories of the
University of Berlin several litres are daily consumed for
scientific purposes.

Far more effective is liquid hydrogen, which affords a
temperature lying 60° below that of liquid air. The boil-
ing point is so low as —252-6°, only 20-4° above the
absolute zero. It cannot, however, yet be purchased in
Berlin ; in fact, it cannot be obtained here at all. I am
nevertheless able to show it to you. This preparation
comes from the physical laboratory of the University' of
Leipzig, where it was prepared this morning and trans-
ported here with some care. I will now transfer a small
quantity from the oddly shaped container into a transparent
glass vessel, and demonstrate the lowness of its tempera-
ture by immersing in it a glass tube sealed at the bottom.
On removing the tube it is seen to be filled with a white
solid resembling snow ; this is solid air ; you will see that,
when once removed from the cooling liquid, this solid
melts after a few moments.

The remainder of the liquid hydrogen in the containing
vessel is to serve to-day for scientific purposes. At the
end of my lecture it will find its way to the physical

1 Dr. _ Hahn ipade the discovery of mesothorium in the laboratory of
University College. London, while investigating some thorianite residues
giwen to h'm by Sir William Ramsay. — Tr.

2 A similar apparatus was independently devised and simultaneously
patented by Dr. William Hampson in London. — Tr. '

56o

NATURE

[February 23, 1911

chemical laboratory of the University, there to be employed
this evening and during the night by Prof. Nernst for his
important researches on the specific heat of the elements
at temperatures in the vicinity of the absolute zero.

When the Kaiser-W'ilhelm Institutes for Chemistry are
once in full swing, we shall, I hope, no longer be obliged
to travel to Leipzig every time we want some liquid
hydrogen-
Liquid hydrogen was prepared for the first time about
twelve years ago by Prof. Dewar in the famous laboratory
at the Royal Institution in London. But the costly experi-
ments necessary for its production were rendered possible
only by the liberal means which Dr. Ludwig Mond, the
great benefactor of chemistry, placed at his disposal. Dr.
Mond, moreover, has not forgotten his (Jerman Father-
land and German science. He bequeathed to the Uni-
versity of Heidelberg, where he had studied, the sum of
50,000/. for chemical and physical research, and several
years ago he endowed the State-supported chemical insti-
tute which we had planned with the sum of 10,000/.

Inorganic chemistry, in which, thirty years ago, advance
was scarcely considered possible, has, owing to the new
aids to research — as, for example, high temperatures and
powerful electric currents, &c. — undergone absolutelv un-
expected developments. I will merely give you some idea
of this development by indicating a few processes of
technical importance, beginning with the attempts to pre-
pare valuable nitrogenous compounds from the nitrogen of
the atmosphere.

The direct production of nitric acid from air ' by means
of a powerful electric discharge has reached the stage of
large-scale manufacture. In Norway at the present
moment a gigantic works, by the side of a mighty water-
fall, is in course of erection by German factories in con-
junction with Norwegian engineers, and supported by
German and French capital.

Synthetical saltpetre is already on the market, and
German dje factories derive a considerable portion of the
nitrites necessary for their work from the same source.

The strikingly original process devised by Prof. A.
Frank and Dr. N. Caro in Charlottenburg for the pre-
paration of calcium cyanamide from calcium carbide and
atmospheric nitrogen, came somewhat earlier into practice.

And now a third process, based upon the direct com-
binat'on of atmospheric nitrogen with hydrogen to form
ammonia, has been announced. Prof. Haber, of Karls-
ruhe, by means of an ingenious application of the laws
of physical chemistry, has succeeded in obviating the
difficulties which hitherto have rendered this synthesis
impracticable. The well-known Badische Anilin- und
Sodafabrik at Ludwigshafen-am-Rhein has taken over his
patents and technically perfected the process to such a
degree that synthetical ammonia will in all probability
shortly be placed on the market.

The greater the number of such processes and the keener
the competition which they excite, the greater is the
Ijenefit to the consumer. In tbe case I have just men-
tioned, this has an especial significance, as the bulk of
technical nitrogenous substances are employed in agri-
culture for artificial manures.

In the opinion of high , authorities, German agriculture
could easily consume twice, nay thrice, the amount of
nitrogenous material at present employed for this purpose,
were only the price to fall to a corresponding degree. In
such a case it is possible that the crops would increase to
such an extent that Germany could be independent of
foreign countries with respect to agricultural produce, h
task of great national importance has thus been set to
chemical industry.

This last process, the synthesis of ammonia, possesses
the advantage that no electricity, merely heat, is involved.
In other words, all that is necessary is fuel, a commodity
of which Germany has ample store. Furthermore, it is
to be noted that the cost of production depends only on
the price of hydrogen, which, together with the inexpensive
atmospheric nitrogen, serves as raw material. The
problem of producing hydrogen at a moderate cost has
already been solved by chemical industrv, owing to the
great interest recently taken in airships. In this wav. the
truth of the old saying is established — that all industries

1 First carried out on a moderately large scale by Lord Rayleieh (Trans.
Chero. Soc, igg7, Ixxi.. i8i)-Tr.

NO. 2156. VOL. 8jil

affect one another, and that improvements in one field may
occasion fertile results in totally remote spheres of activity.

Such a relation of mutual stimulus obtains also between
theoretical chemistry and the production of metals. The
production of gold, silver, and copper has gained in
simplicity to an extraordinary degree by the introduction
of electrochemical methods. The study, moreover, of
alloys, and the perfecting of inexpensive methods of pre-
paring metals hitherto obtainable only with difficulty, such
as chromium, tungsten, manganese, vanadium, and tan-
talum, has been of immense benefit to the steel and electro-
technical industries.

Not to omit the latest productions of these industries, I
here show you a new sort of iron, the so-called " electro-
lytic iron." This is prepared by the Langbein-Pfann-
hauser factory in Leipzig by a process devised by Prof..
Franz Fischer in the laboratories of the University of
Berlin, in which process the iron is deposited from a solu-
tion of an, iron salt by an electric current. You see it
before you in the form of extremely tough plates, reaching
a thickness of 5 mm., which may readily be rolled or
drawn into wire. The bright surface is not due to any
fwlishing, the metal being detached in this state from the
electrode. Here you see a seamless iron tube coiled in
serpentine fashion, which was deposited in the same way
upon a leaden core.

This iron is distinguished from all other commercial
varieties of iron by its extraordinary puritj', in consequence
of which it possesses distinctive physical pro{>erties. In
particular, it is much more readily magnetised, and loses
its magnetism far more rapidly than other kinds of iron,
this property rendering it especially suitable for electro-
magnets. This electromotor before you, of ordinary
design, . formerly developed 0-5 horse-power, but on r-
placing the original electromagnets by those constructed < ;
electrolytic iron, the efficiency has risen to 1-25 horse-
power. This new iron should therefore be of the greatest
importance in the construction of electromotors.

Our present-day material civilisation is to a great
extent founded on the rapid utilisation of the fossilised
combustibles anthracite and brown coal. But posterity
will not fail to reproach us with having grievously
squandered this valuable material, for in the conversion
of the heat of combustion of coal into energ}" in the
ordinary way by means of steam engines, more than
85 per cent, of the work potentially contained in the coal
is lost. This loss, however, may be appreciably lessened
by suitable chemical treatment of the coal. If the coal
be first converted into combustible gas — so-called power
gas — and this then consumed in a gas engine, the output
of useful power is treble that developed in a steam engine.
Valuable bye-products — ammonia and tar — can, moreover,
be recovered, and, indeed, the methods hitherto employed
for the production of power gas are in many respects
capable of improvement. I therefore deem it possible that
at some time special institutes will be founded in the
centres of the coal districts — perhaps under the auspices of
the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft — where these important
problems can be investigated with the aid of all the
methods known to science.

Fossilised combustibles, which owe their origin to the
vegetable kingdom, form a connecting link between
mineral and organic substances. Organic chemistry- sur-
passes inorganic chemistry in variety of methods and pro-
ducts to the highest degree. Small wonder, for it embraces
all those complicated chemical bodies which occur in
animal and vegetable life. The number of organic sub-
stances accurately investigated may to-day be estimated at
the huge figure of 150.000, and every year eight or nine
thousand more are added to the list. We may therefore
reckon that at the close of this century organic chemistry
will comprise the entire gamut of substances found in the
animal and vegetable kingdoms.

This rapid increase is wholly due to organic synthesis.
From the few elements occurring in organic chemistry, of
which carbon predominates, all these compounds are built
up, much as an architect produces the most diverse edifices
from the same form of brick.

Synthesis in organic chemistry is an ofTsoring of Berlin.
It was born eighty-two years ago in the Niederwallstrasse
bv the synthetical production of urea by Friedrich
Wohler. It has, moreover, found its greatest field of

February 23, 1911]

NATURE

561

activity in Germany. It stands no longer in fear and
trembling of the complicated constituents of the living
organism. I shall demonstrate this fact by discussing the
three classes of substance predominating in organic life :
the fats, the carbohydrates, and the proteins. The
svnthesis of fats was effected so far back as two genera-
tions ago by M. Berthelot in Paris. The first synthetical
carbohydrates — grape sugar, fruit sugar, &c. — saw the
light twenty years ago in Wurzburg ; and the methods for
the synthetical building up of albuminous substances have
been worked out during the last ten years in the laboratory
of the University of this city. I am therefore able to
show vou one of these products. It is the most compli-
cated substance ever evolved by synthesis, and has so long
a name that I do not venture to pronounce it here. The
amount is certainly small, and, as you will perceive later,
the beakers and flasks of the scientific investigator are
minute when compared with the vats employed by the
chemical manufacturer. This relative difference in size is
also borne out by the comparative wealth of these two
classes of men. This synthetical protein, like the prepara-
tion of Dr. Hahn, is anvthing but cheap. The starting
materials for its synthesis cost about 50/., and the labour
involved in its preparation must be estimated at even a
higher figure. It has therefore not as yet made its appear-
ance on the dining-table. It is, in fact, nothing but a
chemical curiosity. But you must bear in mind that what
is to-day a curiosity may to-morrow be of the greatest
value. Chemistry affords numberless illustrations of this
statement.

Through such things as these proteins, carbohydrates,
and fats, organic chemistry is brought into close touch
with the biological sciences ; for the entire metabolism in
the living organism is merely a sequence of chemical trans-
formations which these substances undergo. Chemistn.- is
thus called upon to partake in the solution of the great
riddles of life : nourishment, growth, reproduction,
heredity, age, and the manifold pathological disturbances
of the normal state. It is not surprising that the keenest
activity e.iists in these interesting fields of work, and we
may safely hope that provision will be made for biological
research in the new Kaiser-Wilhelnx institutes.

The example given by the magnificent institute here in
Berlin for the study of the problems of the industries con-
nected with fermentation, in which the results of scientific
research meet the practical requirements of brewers and
distillers, serves to show how fruitful can be the collabora-
tion of biologists and chemists. This institute has contri-
buted its share to the small exhibition here this evening by
a series of beautiful mould cultures and yeast preparations.

Moreover, chemical and many other industries have
derived great benefit from organic chemistry. A few-
examples from recent times will illustrate this fact.

The most widely distributed of all the carbohydrates is
cellulose, of which cotton and linen are entirely composed,
and which is the chief constituent of wood and plant
fibres. And what a variety of articles is nowadays manu-
factured from cellulose ! Paper, collodion, celluloid,
photographic films, smokeless powder, artificial silk,
artificial hair, artificial leather.

Paper, in this era of paper, is not a substance which
justifies its exhibition here ; the same may be said of
celluloid and collodion. I have not brought here samples
of smokeless powder and the other high explosives derived
from cellulose, as the Ministn.- of Education seems a place
far toKV peaceful for their exhibition. But you see before
you artificial silk and horse-hair and films in diverse and
magnificent array. These come from the works of Furst
Guido von Donnersmarck ; and not to omit mention of
his competitors, I here show you some photographic films,
manufactured by the Berlin Anilinfabrik, which, unlike
the ordinary variety, burn only with the greatest diflficuliy.
All these products have been prepared by ingenious com-
binations of chemical and mechanical processes. To dispel
any false impressicKi, I must tell you that artificial silk
and hair, in spite of their striking similarity, are of totally
different composition from the natural products, which are
not derived from cellulose, but belong to the class of
proteins.

The magnificent colours ^ with which these artificial tex-

1 The first, " mauvine," was prepared by the late Sir William Perkin in
the year 1856 and manufactured at Greenfbrd. — Tr.

NO. 2156, VOL. 85I

tures are so beautifully dyed are, of course, the work of
organic chemistry. These belong to the family of synthe-
tical co>al-tar dyes. This subject is to-da\- so large that
complete half-yearly courses of lectures are delivered upon
it at the universities. Hundreds of such dyes are on the
market, and the value of the dyestuffs produced in
Germany, the majority of which are exported, approxi-
mates to fifteen millions of pounois sterling.

Of all these dyes I shall only mention s>-nthetical indigo,
because this substance was the most difficult of all to
synthesise, and on the other hand was a great commercial
success. This beautiful crystalline preparation, purified by
sublimation, hails from the Badische Anilin- und Soxia-
fabrik. It is also manufactured by the dje factory at
H6chst-am-Main.

This synthetical product is not only much purer in com-
position and colour than the natural dyestuff, but alk>
considerably less expensive. On this account, the cultiva-
tion of the indigo plant in India has diminished to one-
sixth of the original extent, and will, to all appearances,
soon disappear altogether.' \Vo)o>llen and cotton goxwis are
now dyed with German indigo even in Asia, to which ccvn-
tinent a quantity of indigo worth no less than i,90X),ooo/.
was exported in the year 190)9.

While on this subject, I may refer to the two most
important colouring matters of animal and vegetable life,
chlorophyll and haemoglobin. The former plays an
important part in the chemical process upon w^hich all lif-e
depends — I refer to the conversion of the atmospheric
carbon dioxide into sugar, which takes place in green
leave* under the influence of sunlight. The red pigmen:
in the blood fulfils in our own bodies the important func-
tion of transporting the oxygen from our lungs to the
tissues, thus rendering possible that process of combustion
which forms the basis of our bodily and mental strength.

I here show to you two specimens o>f pure chlorophyll,
one of which is crystalline. I owe these rare preparations
to Prof. R. Willstatter, of Zurich, who of recent _vear>
has been studying this colouring matter with remarkabl>
successful results. Haemoglobin has also lately been
thoroughly investigated in Stuttgart and in Munich, and
the remarkable conclusion has been drawn from these
investigatiotis that chlorophyll and haemoglobin are closely
related. This fact thus denotes a species of consanguinity
between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. This must,
however, be of great antiquity — that is to say, to dat-?
from remote times, when the animal and vegetable
kingdoms were as yet not distinct.

Of greater commercial importance than the coal-tar dyes
is indiarubber. Its consumption is continually increasing,
and is estimated at some 70,oox) tons yearly, an amount
corresponding in price to abonit thirt>-five millions of
pounds. You can therefore readily understand that th:~
subject has attracted the attention of synthetic chemists,
and for the last nine months one has heard, even in public,
of attempts to prepare synthetical indiarubber. In fact, in
August, 1909, Dr. F. Hofmann and Dr. C. Coutelle,
chemists to the Elberfelder Farbenfabrik, succeeded in
devising a practical proxress for its synthesis. The start-
ing material is a volatile, mobile, and colourless liquid
termed isoprene," which in turn can be readily synthesised
from even simpler substances.

This liquid is converted into indiarubber merely on heat-
ing in closed vessels. Here you see a sealed glass tube
which was originally filled with this mobile liquid isoprene,
but now, after heating, contains a jelly-like mass o*^
synthetical indiarubber. When thus prepared on a larg
scale, it is somewhat denser and of a light yellow colour,
as you see from this preparation. That this proxluct i-
reallv indiarubber has been definitely established by the
scientific investigations of Prof. Harries in Kiel, a high
authority on this subject, who has since independently
devised another process for the same purpose.

When synthetic chemistn.* has once taken possession of
such a field, it is not confined to the particular proxiuct

1 The recent work of Bloxam and his collaborators hss demonstrated the
possibility of recovering: from the leaf a yield of indigo increased to such a
degree that the cost of production is certainly no more than that of the
sj-nthetical product. Furthermore, the natural indigo is stated by some
authorities to possess certain benign impurities which render it more suitable
for dyeing purposes. — Tr.

* First shown to yield indiarubber in 1S92 by Sir William Tilden {Ckem.
iVV»*, IxT., 265). — Tr.

562

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

occurring in nature, but can bring forth a whole series of
similar substances. You will therefore not be surprised
when I show you other rubber-like substances which have
been prepared, not from isoprene, but from similar liquids,
such as dimethylbutadiene. Such products are termed
homologues. They possess properties closely resembling
those of indiai-ubber, but differ slightly in chemical con-
stitution. It is, as yet, not decided which of these synthe-
tical substances forms the most suitable substitute for
indiarubber. The same applies to the far more important
question of cost of production. But when one considers
the fate of natural indigo, of madder, and of other natural
products, one may hope to see synthetical indiarubber
gradually enter into successful competition with the
naturally occurring commodity.

Camphor, which may be placed in the same chemical
category as indiarubber, is also prepared artificially on a
large" scale. The first firm to manufacture synthetical
camphor was the Chemische Fabrik auf Aktien (formerly
Schering), of Berlin, but other firms are now following
suit. By this, the camphor monopoly, which the Japanese
Government was able to establish after the annexation of
Formosa, was broken down.

Here you see an artificial resin which closely resembles
amber in its external characteristics, and which, as these
necklaces, combs, cigar-holders, &c., show, can be
employed as a substitute therefor. These articles have
been placed at my disposal by the Bakelite Companv of
this city, Bakelite being the trade name of this substance.
It is prepared from constituents of coal-tar by a process
which, although long known, has been technically worked
out by the American chemist Baekeland.^

Synthetic chemistry, in close association with medicine,
is actively engaged in pursuit of the discovery of new
medicaments. The great amplitude of this subject again
compelsme to mention only a few instances.

In this bottle you see a white powder — veronal — which
is a hypnotic largely employed at the present day. It is
in no way connected with the older vegetable narcotics —
opium, &c. — but is entirely a synthetical product. One-
tenth of this quantity would suffice to send this entire
gathering into a peaceful slumber. But should the mere
demonstration of this soporific— coupled with this lecture
of mine — take effect on any susceptible persons present,
there is no better remedy than the cup of tea which we
are_ to enjoy later, for tea contains a chemical substance
which s.Imulates the heart and nervous system. This is
also present in coffee, in which it was discovered ninety
years ago by Runge in this country. The humorously
mclined discoverer gave to it the name of " Kaffeebase,''
which, however, was afterwards changed to the more
aristocratic " caffein." It is an odd coincidence that
caffein was first synthesised in the laboratory of the Uni-
versity of Berlin exactly fifteen years ago. This synthesis
has led to its manufacture on a large scale. In this bottle
you see a specimen of synthetical caffein, manufactured by
the firm of Messrs. C. F. Bohringer and Sons, in Mann-
heim. It is prepared in large quantity from uric acid, a
constituent of guano, but has undergone such a complete
chemical transformation and purification that it no longer
FKjssesses the unpleasant characteristics of the raw material
from which it is manufactured. The chemist may there-
fore apply to such substances the remark made by the
Emperor Vespasian concerning the tax-money which came
to him from an unclean source : non olet (it does not
smell).

Pure caffein is at present employed only as a medica-
ment, though, indeed, in considerable quantity. But it
finds, of course, a far greater application in the form of
the active principle in tea, coffee, kola, and Paraguay tea
(mat^), so chat after alcohol it is certainly the most widely
employed stimulant. So soon as organic chemistry
succeeds in the entirely possible task of synthetically re-
producing the aroma of tea and coffee, ' there will be
nothing to hinder the' artificial preparation of these
beverages ; and when the Minister of Education invites to
teaa gathering to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft, the repast, I hope, will
consist of synthetical tea.

Organic synthesis is not limited to vegetable products

1 A ••imilar process for the manufacture of this substance was independently
developed and patenteH in England hy .«tory (Brit. Pat., igoj, 8875) — Tr.

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

only, but embraces equally fearlessly substances of anim.r
origin. An instructive example of this may be found in
remarkable compound (adrenalin) which is formed in om
own bodies in the suprarenal glands, and which plays an
important part in the regulation of the blood pressure.
Shortly after its isolation in a pure condition from these
glands. Dr. F. Stolz, chemist to the dye factory at Hochsi,
was able to synthesise it from constituents of coal-tar.
This synthetical product has now been placed on the-
market by the Hochst firm under the name of " Supra-
renin." A very dilute solution of this substance causes a
powerful contraction of the blood vessels, and consequent
dispersal of blood from the tissues. A skin surface well
charged with blood — as, for instance, a red nose — is
instantly rendered quite pale on painting it with such a
solution. Unfortunately, the colour is not evenly dis-
charged, owing to the varying permeability of th»
epidermis, and as the action of the drug soon ceases, with
return of the original redness, adrenalin is not suitable a-
a cosmetic. On the other hand, it finds most useful
application in surgery, as by its means certain incisions
can be made without loss of blood ; this is found particu-
larly convenient for operations on the eye, mouth, and
nose.

The factory in Hochst, which has placed at my disposa
this preparation in the numerous forms which you see
before you, has also contributed several samples of the
new arsenical remedy originally known as " Ehrlich-
Hata," but now as " Salvarsan." If you are desirous of
knowing more about it, I must refer you to the more
authoritative knowledge of the discoverer, Prof. Ehrlich,
who is at present in our midst. ,

Flora's fairest children, the sweet-scented flowers, mus:
also submit to competition with synthetic chemistry. The
scent industry has received a powerful impetus from
synthesis, and yearly turns out in Germany alone goods
of the value of more than two million pounds. I shall
here show you only a few of the numerous products. This
bottle contains ionone, an artificial violet-scent discovered
in the laboratory of this University by the late Prof. F.
Tiemann, and manufactured by Messrs. Haarmann and
Reimer in Holzminden. The contents of this bottle would
be sufficient to envelop, not only the Ministry of Education,
but the entire avenue " Unter den Linden " in an atmo-
sphere of violet perfume, for the osmophoric value of these
substances is extraordinarily high.

In contradistinction to the simple ionone, the majority ot
the natural odours of flowers are due to complex mixture?
of different scents. These, nevertheless, have been
successfully reproduced. Among the scents here displayed
are lily-of-the-valley, mock-orange, lilac, tuberose, and,
finally, the greatest achievement, synthetical attar of roses.
Although the natural oil from roses contains about twenty
different odorous substances, the chemists of the scent
factories at Leipzig (Heine and Co., Schimmel and Co.)
have succeeded after laborious research in isolating all
the components, Synthesising these, or preparing them
from less costly oils, and then reuniting them in the proper
proportions. It now requires a most sensitive nose indeed
to distinguish the synthetical attar of roses from the
natural product.

I only hope that the noble patroness of roses, her
Majesty the Empress, will not take amiss this intrusion
of chemical synthesis upon the monopoly hitherto held by
her favourite flowers. Perhaps she will regard it more
favourably if your Majesty will be so kind as to present
this synthetical product to her Majesty as a humble offer-
ing from chemical industry.

These examples show the success which has followed the
encroachment of synthetic organic chemistry in nature's
domain. What I have already said is sufficient to prove
that chemistry, as well as all natural sciences, is the true
field of unlimited possibility. The Kaiser-Wilhelm insti-
tutes are henceforth to take part in the expansion of this
field and the appropriation of the treasures hidden therein.

It is, of course, not to be expected that they will entirely
supplant all the older scientific institutions. We of the
older institutions do not feel by any means so weak as
willingly to allow such an event to occur. On the con-
trary, we shall exert our best energies to maintain a keen
competition with the younger institutes. This will serve
to keep both sides fresh and active.

February 23, 191 1]

NATURE

563

But there can be no doubt that these godchildren of the
German Emperor will in the healthy air of the Grunewald
soon develop great strength from the liberal nutrition sup-
plied by their patrons, and grow up into renowned centres
of research.

We may therefore confidently hope that in later years
the foundation to-day of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft
will be regarded as an unmixed blessing to scientific
research in Germany.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

Cambridge. — It is proposed to alter the regulations for
the diploma of agriculture so as to ensure that agricultural
physiology shall be one of the compulsory subjects for
part ii. of the diploma examination. It is also proposed
to abandon the present method of grouping the subjects,
and that in part i. of the diploma examination a candidate
who has obtained honours in the natural sciences tripos
shall be excused chemistry if he has passed chemistry in
the tripos, botany if he has passed botany in the tripos,
and zoology if he has passed either zoology or physiolog}'.

Mr. H. Maxwell-Lefroy, Imperial entomologist for
India, will give the inaugural lecture of his course on
entomology at the Imperial College of Science and Tech-
nology on Thursday, March 2, at 5 p.m.

Prof. V. H. Blackmax, who since 1907 has occupied the
chair of botany in the University of Leeds, has been
appointed to the professorship of plant physiology and
pathology at the Imperial College of Science and Tech-
nology at South Kensington. H^e will take up his new
duties at the beginning of July.

On several occasions we have directed attention to the
useful work done by Prof. Perry, F.R.S., through his
system of bursaries, which he established at the Royal
College of Science in 1902 with a contribution of 100/.
from the Drapers' Company. The bursary fund was
established particularly for the benefit of national scholars,
but the scholarships held by these students have now been
increased in value sufficiently to render Prof. Perry's
bursary fund unnecessary. A final balance-sheet dealing
with the period between July 17, 1908, and January 24 of
the present year, has been published in the current issue
of The Phoenix, the magazine of the Royal College of
Science and Royal School of Mines. During the years
since Prof. Perry inaugurated the scheme, the sum of more
than i6ooi. has been disbursed to students needing judicious
assistance in a tactful way. We have reason to know that
it is seldom that such a sum of money i? spent with so
great an advantage to the beneficiaries.

The successful students of the City and Guilds of London

Institute received their prizes from the Lady Mayoress at

^ the Mansion House on February 17. On this occasion the

P honorary secretary of the college. Sir John Watney,
announced that the name of the City and Guilds Central
Technical College will be changed to the City and Guilds
Engineering College, and as such will constitute the
engineering department of the Imperial College. It will
be managed by a delegation representing the City and
Guilds Institute, the Imperial College, and the Goldsmiths'
Company. After the distribution of prizes. Dr. R. T.
Glazebrook, F.R.S., director of the National Physical
Laboratory, delivered an address on the interdependence
of science and industry. He said the agencies at work in ,
London applying science to the wants of industry included
the university colleges, the polytechnics, and the technical
schools. He asked. Is it not possible to conceive some
scheme by which the labours of such agencies can be
coordinated and linked up with the Imperial College as a
centre where the staff and students will be free to conduct
original investigations, and, through these, to learn new
truths? Under such a scheme the Imperial College would
become, first, the Central Technological University for
London, and then for the Empire. A body like its
governing body, modified so as to include representatives
of the other institutions, forming with it the technological
side of the University' in London, would become the
council of the faculty. He put forward the following pro-

NO. 2156. VOL. 8^1

positions : — (i) that a combination of the technological
departments of existing institutions and schools into an
independent technological faculty is necessary ; (2) that in
such a faculty a definite value should be given to technical
education in each London scho(d ; and (3) that the techno-
logical faculty should confer degrees under conditions to
be laid down by the faculty.

In the French Chamber of Deputies on February 16, M.
Maurice Faure, Minister of Public Instruction, summed
up the discussion on the estimates for his department.
From the report by the Paris correspondent of The Times,
we learn that, with reference to higher education, M.
Maurice Faure said that the French universities, which
are autonomous, thanks to the legislation of 1896, and
have been endowed by the State with foundation? amount-
ing to more than 1,000,000/., are keeping pace with modem
requirements, and are extending their influence abroad as
well as at home. New laboratories are being erected by
the Sorbonne in the Rue Saint Jacques, the University of
Nancy has opened an electrotechnical institute, at Grenoble
there is now a new paper-making school, at Lyons a new
chemistry school, at Lille various new mining courses, at
Dijon an agricultural and oenological institute, and fresh
technical subjects have been introduced into the curriculum
at Toulouse, Caen, Rennes, and elsewhere. Foreign
students are being attracted in increasing numbers, and
abroad there have been established French institutes at
Florence and at Madrid, which are respectively affiliated
to the University of Grenoble and to those of Bordeaux.
Toulouse, and Montpellier. The foundation of similar
institutes is contemplated at St. Petersburg under the
auspices of the Sorbonne, and at Constantinople under the
auspices of the University and City of Lyons. The crea-
tion of a chair of colonial history in Paris has been pro-
posed by the Budget committee, and the faculty of medi-
cine is to be asked to consider a proposal in favour of the
foundation of a chair of climatol<^y and mineral hydro-
logy, the cost of which the various French spas and
watering-places have offered to defray. In the secondary
schools, the paramount claims of purely scientific studies
has been recognised in accordance; with modern require-
ments.

The third annual meeting of the Old Students Associa-
tion of the Royal College of Science, London, was held
at the college last Saturday, the president. Sir Thomas H.
Holland, F.R.S., presiding. Sir Alexander Pedler, F.R.S.,
was elected president for 191 1, and Mr. T. LI. Humber-
stone and Mr. A. T. Simmons were re-elected secretary
and treasurer respectively. A draft report, prepared by a
special committee, for the Royal Commission on Uni-
versity Education in London, was considered and adopted.
In the evening, the third dinner of old students was held
at the Criterion Restaurant, about ninety being present.
Prof. Edgeworth David, F.R.S., an old student of the
college, in proposing the toast of the Royal College of
Science, referred to the request of the association for the
representation of old students on the governing body of the
college. It was, he said, the academic thing to do, for
no one could better appreciate the needs of a college than
the men and women who had graduated there. The prin-
ciple was recognised throughout the universities of the
world, and had been adopted with marked success in his
own University of Sydney. Mr. William Burton, in reply-
ing to the toast, expressed the hope that better provision
would in the future be made for the financial and social
needs of the scholars attending the college. The chair-
man. Sir Thomas Holland, in responding to the toast of
the Old Students Association, proposed by Mr. G. T.
Holloway, referred to the adoption of an academic costtune
for associates, which, he said, secured the definite rect^ni-
tion of the college. But, in maintaining the rights of the
college and the interests of the association, he urged old
students not to forget that they belonged to a larger college
in which other interests were represented. The associa-
tion were indebted to their governors for the sympathetic
way in which they had met the demands of members.
Sir Alexander Pedler, F.R.S., the new president of the
association, proposed the toast of the Guests, for wh<Mii
Dr. A. D. Waller, F.R.S., replied.

In reply to a question in the House of Commons last
week, the Home Secretary stated that the Pharmaceutical

5^4

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

Society is considering certain questions connected with
the educational curriculum of pharmaceutical chemists and
of chemists and druggists with the view of framing bye-
lays in pursuance of the powers vested in them by the
Poisons ■ and Pharmacy Act, 1908. At the present time,
candidates for the qualifying examination in pharmacy are
not required to undergo a systematic course of instruction,
and it is no part of the duty of the society to inquire how
or where they were educated. In the absence of a com-
pulsory curriculum, " cramming " is very prevalent in
connection with this examination, the result being a high
percentage of failures. Thus last year, out of 1027 candi-
dates who entered for the examination, 620 were un-
successful. Before actually proceeding to frame bye-laws,
the council of the society has drafted a scheme, which has
been submitted to pharmaceutical associations in all parts
of the country and to the principals of schools of phar-
macy, with the object of eliciting expressions of opinion
on the matter. The draft scheme suggests that the
examination be divided into two parts, and that a candi-
date desiring to enter for the intermediate examination
shall produce evidence that, subsequent to passing the pre-
liminary examination and being registered as a student, he
has attended, in a teaching institution approved by the
council, not fewer than 50 lectures in botany, 100 lectures
in chemistry, and 25 lectures in physics, and has done
25 hours' work in practical botany and 300 hours' work
in practical chemistry. As to the final examination, it is
proposed to require candidates — ^who must have been
engaged for three years in the ordinary work of pharmacy
under the supervision of a pharmacist — to produce evidence
of having attended at a recognised institution 60 lectures
and demonstrations in materia medica, 30 lectures in phar-
macy, and 20 lectures in dispensing and prescription Latin,
and of having done 200 hours' work in practical pharmacy
and 100 hours' work in practical dispensing. The pro-
posals have already been discussed by a number of
pharmacists' associations, and divergent opinions have been
expressed. While some are in favour of adopting the
scheme, others are pressing more especially for a modifira-
lion of that part of the proposed curriculum which pre-
cedes the intermediate examination, and the council is
being urged to consider the advisability of accepting the
certificates of other examining bodies in lieu of the inter-
mediate examination.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

London.
Royal Society, February 16.— Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B.,
president, in the chair. — W. Rosenhain and S. L.
Archbutt : The constitution of the alloys of aluminium
and zinc. In connection with researches on light alloys,
carried out on behalf of the Alloys Research Committee'of
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the authors have
studied the constitution of the Al-Zn alloys by pyrometric
and microscopic methods, including the study of specimens
after prolonged annealing at definite temperatures and after
quenching. The results are represented in an equilibrium
diagram differing materially from those previously put for-
ward. The principal points of difference are : — ^(i) The
liquidus curve shows a small break at a concentration of
85 per cent, of zinc, this break being connected with the
formation of a definite compound of probable formula
Al,Zn,. (2) In alloys under conditions of complete
equilibrium the occurrence of eutectic ceases at a concen-
tration of about 78 per cent, of zinc, although in ordinary
slowly cooled alloys the eutectic can be traced down to the
vicinity of 50 per cent. zinc. (3) At a concentration of
about 78 per cent, of zinc, the solidus curve of the allovs
rises abruptly from the eutectic line (380° C.) to a hori-
zontal line of arrest points at 443° C. This line com-
inences at the break in the liquidus curve already men-
tioned, and extends to about 37 per cent, of zinc ; between
78 and 40 per cent, this line represents the solidus, but
near_ 40 per cent, the solidus bends upwards towards the
melting point of pure aluminium. The reaction indicated
by this line of arrest points is the formation of a com-
pound (Al^Zn,) by the reaction of crystals of a solid solu-
tion of zinc in aluminium with the residual liquid. (4) A
second horizontal line of arrest points of considerable
NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

intensity has been found at 256° C. in alloys containing
99 to 35 per cent, of zinc. These heat evolutions are due
to decomposition of the compound (Al^Zn,) into two phases,
one of which is the saturated solid solution of Zn in Ai,
while the other is practically pure Zn. (5) The existence
of a definite compound is indicated, stable only between
443° C. and 256° C, and having a zinc content of about
78 per cent., most nearly represented by Al^Zn,. Evidence
for its existence is derived from the termination of the
eutectic line and the position of maximum intensity of the
line of heat evolutions just mentioned ; this is strikingly
confirmed by the micro-structures, which show the com-
pound in the form of characteristic hexagonal dendrites.
When decomposed (at or below 256° C), it exhibits a
duplex laminated " pearlitic " structure strikingly re-
sembling the pearlite of carbon steel. — R. WhiddinKton :
The production and properties of soft Rontgen radiation.
Rontgen rays from ordinary bulbs are usually produced at
generating potentials of between 10,000 and 100,000 volts.
It is possible by using a special tube with a very thin
aluminium window to experiment with rays generated at
only a few hundred volts. The rays dealt with in this
paper were generated at 1000 to 3600 volts. It has been
found that such soft Rontgen rays have much the same
properties as the harder rays usually experimented with.
They produce ionisation in air, affect photographic plates,
and can excite secondary radiations when incident on solid
bodies. Their range in air, however, is not many centi-
metres. For many purposes a Rontgen radiation is
sufficiently defined by a knowledge of (i) the total energy ;
(2) the penetrating powers in absorbing screens. These
two properties have therefore been investigated in some
detail, with reference particularly to the influence exerted
by (i) the material of the antikathode ; (2) the potential at
which the rays are generated. The antikathodes used fall
naturally into two groupings : — Group A. — Al, Pt. Group
B.^Ag, Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Sb, Sn, Zn. The anti-
kathodes of Group A emit secondary radiations, those of
Group B do not. Experiment indicates that Al emits a
soft characteristic radiation of \/p 580 (in Al). In order to
arrive at a common explanation of a number of experi-
mental results, it is suggested that this Al radiation dis-
obeys the law of " Rontgen ray fluorescence " recently
advanced by Barkla. — ^Prof. J. Eustice : Experiments on
stream-line motion in curved pipes. In a paper on the
flow of water in curved pipes, the author has shown that
during the flow of water through a pipe, if a change is
made from a straight to a very slightly curved form, there
is an increased resistance to flow, which is very marked
at velocities below the critical velocity. In order to find
the cause of the increase in resistance, an apparatus was
designed which provides for the distribution of six variously
coloured filaments of dyed water into a glasSjpipe through
which water is flowing. The positions of the filaments can
be so arranged that in the passage of water from a straight
to a curved pipe the directions of the stream-lines in any
part of the tube can be investigated. The experiments
show that the curvature of a filament is less than the
curvature of that part of the pipe in which the filament
is flowing, and if the velocity of flow increases the curva-
ture of the filament increases. The filaments impinge on
the outer wall of the pipe, and, flattening into bands,
follow the surface of the pipe and cross over to the inner
wall, where the filaments start again" in their path along
the main stream, until (if the pipe is sufficiently long) the
filaments again meet the outer wall, when the return flow
along the surface is repeated. A filament flowing in the
central plane of the pipe, when reaching the outer wall,
divides into two parts, which come together on the inner
wall of the pipe ; the other filaments flow through the loop
which is thus formed. A filament not in the central plane
remains on that side of the plane in which it enters the
curved pipe. The experiments were extended to angle
pip)es, and the velocities were increased until turbulent
motion was obtained. After flowing through a curved pipe
or angle, vortices are generated which persist in a con-
tiguous straight pipe.

Challenger Society, January 25.— Dr. C. H. Fowler in
the chair. — Commander Campbell Hepworth : Remarkable
displays of phosphorescence in the sea. These displays
took the form of rapidly moving curved bands of lumin-

February 23, 191 1]

NATURE

565

escence, separated by dark or non-luminous bands : they
appeared to radiate from a centre on the horizon, round
which they seemed to rotate with increasing brilliancy
and velocity. In one case they overtook the ship. The
writer attributed them to the stimulation of phosphorescent
organisms by tide-ripplings. — G. P. Farran : The breeding
seasons of Calanus finmarchius. Though found over
much of the North Atlantic, the species is only abun-
dant shoreward of the isohaline of 3525 per mille. In
the end of the year a small stock, consisting of the penul-
timate stage V is found. In early March maturity has
been attained and rapid reproduction sets in. By May
immense shoals are formed, consisting mostly of the
youngest stages, but with some adults. Reproduction
slackens gradually, and by November has ceased.

Royal Meteorological Society, February 15.— Dr. H. N.
Dickson, president, in the chair. — R. Cooke and S. C.
Russell : Variation of the depth of water in a well at
Detling, near Maidstone, compared with the rainfall 1885-
1909. This well is on the chalk formation at the foot of
the range of the North Downs, 358 feet above sea-level ;
its present depth is 118 feet. Weekly plumbings of the
water in the well have been taken without interruption
since 1885, and the authors have compared these plumbings
with the rainfall of the previous week. The extreme
variation of the water-level during the whole period was
30 feet 3 inches. Successive weeks of steady rainfall
exercise a far greater effect upon raising the water-level
than weeks of heavy but intermittent rainfall. .\s a rule,
the effect of the autumn rains is not felt on the well until
the month of December, but the winter rainfall penetrates
most readily. Following a series of wet years, a high
limit of saturation is attained ; and once this condition is
thoroughly established, the water remains at an almost
constant level throughout the seasons, excess or deficiency
of rain causing ven.- little effect. — .\. W. Clayden : The
actinograph — a new instrument for observing and recording
changes in radiation. — K. M. Clark : New set of cloudi-
ness charts for the United States.

Eoi.NBURUIl.

Royal Societv, January 23.— Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S..
vice-president, in the chair. — ^James Ritchie : .-Vn ento-
proctan polyzoon {Barentsia benedeni) new to the British
fauna, with remarks on related species. .An account was
given of the minute structure of individuals attributed to
this species, colonies of which, obtained at Hull, were
kept alive under observation for some time. The later
development and the various forms of this and related
species were described, and the conclusion was arrived at
that a redundancy of species and of genera had been
established among the entoproctan polyzoa. Some of these
the author proposed to suppress. — ^The following three
papers w^ere from the Physiological Department of
Glasgow University : — (i) .Adam Black : A study of
artificial pyrexia produced by tetrahydro-3-naphthylamine
hydrochloride. Experiments on rabbits were given to
show that the fall of temperature produced by ether
anaesthesia was largely due to increased loss of heat, and
that it was prevented if the loss of he?t were checked.
It was then shown that the ether prevented the develop-
ment of pyrexia under the drug, the conclusion being that
the drug acted largely by causing contraction of cutaneous
vessels, and thus decreasing heat loss. The changes in
the protein metabolism under the drug were studied in the
dog, and it was found that the disturbance was small in
comparison with the disturbance produced by fever-pro-
ducing toxins. (2) Dr. Janie Hamilton M'llroy : The
independence of the peripheral neurons of the retina. The
nature of the neurons having been considered, the results
of a series of experiments upon section of the optic nerve
upon these neurons were described, and it was shown
that the f>eripheral neurons having their cells in the inner
and outer nuclear layers preserve their integrity for at
least nine months after section of the nerve. On the other
hand, another series of experiments showed that in aseptic
autolysis these peripheral neurons disintegrated rapidly and
at an earlier date than the neurons of the ganglionic layer.
— (3) Dr. Williamina Abel : A description of the cerebral
cortex of the guinea-pig. The histological examination of
the cerebral cortex showed the presence of five tv-pes of

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

cerebral lamination. The area, in which the lamination
indicated a motor t>-pe of cortex, lay in the posterior half
of the cerebrum, and was surrounded by sensory zones.
Electrical stimulation supported the conclusion come to
through histological investigation as to the position of this
nMtor area. Consideration was given as to the signifi-
cance of this special type of cerebral top<^raphy.

Paris.
Academy of Sciences, February 15. — M. Armand Gautier
in the chair. — C. Quichard : The deformation of quadrics.
— M. GoMy : The periodic structure of the magneto-
kathode rays. A further investigation of the fringes
described in an earlier paper. A reproduction of a photo-
graph of a set of fringes is given. According to the
electron hypothesis of these phenomena, the figures
described would be the caustics of the trajectories of the
electrons, and the experimental results are not inconsistent
with this view. — Lecoq do Boist>audran : The dehydra-
tion of salts. It has been stated that there are no examples
of salts, containing more than one molecule of water of
crj'stallisation, losing a single molecule of water to form
a lower hydrate. Examples are given from the sulphates
of copper, iron, cobalt, magnesium, zinc, and nickel dis-
|>roving this statement. — Paul SalMitier and A. Maiihe :
Direct esterifkration by catalysis. The preparation of
benzoic esters. If a solution of benzoic acid in an alcohol
is vapourised, and the vapours passed over a column of
oxide of thorium heated to 350° C, a nearly quantitative
yield of the corresponding benzoic ester is obtained. The
benzoates of ethyl, propyl, isobutjl, isoamyl, and allyl
have been prepared in this manner. — C. E. Guillaume was
elected a correspondant for the section of physics in the
place of M. Van der W'aals, elected foreign associate. —
Paul Dienes : Series of polynomials and the singularities
of analytical functions. — N. Saltykoww : The theorj' of
characteristics and its applications. — Pierre Weiss : The
magnitude of magneton deduced from the coefficients of
magnetisation of solutions of iron salts. The mean figure,
1 122- 1, is practically identical with the 1123-5 deduced from
experiments made at Leyden on the metals themselves in
liquid hydrogen. — A. Hanriot : .Adhesivit>-. When two
strips of brown gold are heated within the limits of
temperature of their transformation into ordinars' gold,
and the strips are allowed to come in contact, they
become soldered to each other. The conditions under
which this phenomena takes place have been experiment-
ally studied, and the results are given in detail. — .A. Guntz
and J. Mingruin : Contribution to the study of the ultra-
violet radiations. .An account of the mechanical, physical,
and chemical effects of ultra-violet light on some organic
substances. — J. Boselli : The velocities of reactions in
gaseous-liquid systems. — Daniel Berthelot and Henry
Gaudechon : The comparative action of the ultra-violet
rays on organic compounds possessing linear and cyclic
structure. The study of mineral salts in aqueous solu-
tions. It has been shown in earlier papers that fatty com-
pounds are decomposed with evolution of gas under the
action of the ultra-violet rays. The treatment in a similar
manner of a series of aromatic derivatives has given
throughout negative results ; no change is effected. — R. L.
Espil : Some new anhydrous selenites. — .A. Verneuil : The
preparation of the black enamel of the Italo-Greek
potteries. The secret of the preparation of this fine
enamel has been lost, and numerous attempts to reproduce
it in current times have been unsuccessful. The author
finds that the use of finely divided metallic iron in the
coating gives a black resembling that of the ancient
pottery. — Marcel Oswrald : The action of heat upon silver
nitrite. — J. B. Senderens : Ketones derived from phenyl-
propionic acid. Mixtures of phen\ipropionic acid and a
fatty acid, passed over a column of thoria at about 460° C,
give three ketones, the two symmetrical ketones derived
from the phenylpropionic and fattA- acids singly, and the
mixed ketone. .A description is given of several new
ketones prepared by this method.— Charles Moureu and
.Amand Valeur : The preparation of isosparteine. The
action of methyl iodide on this base. — M. Grigrnard : Two
new methods for the synthesis of nitriles. Chloride of
cyanogen or cyanc^n itself reacts with organo-magnesium
compounds, giving nitriles, the necessary condition being
that the magnesium compound should be added drop by

566

NATURE

[February 23, 191 1

drop, and never be in excess. — Marcel Dubard : Remarks
on the classification of the genus Sideroxylon. — J. Granier
and L. Boule : The phenomena of the conjugation of the
chromosomes at the prophase of the first reducing kinesis.
— ^Raoul Bayeux : Experiments made at Mt. Blanc in 1910
on gastric secretion at very high altitude. The experi-
ments were made on a dog, and showed that the quantity
of gastric juice secreted in a given time, the feeding being
maintained constant, diminishes in a marked manner
during a stay at a high altitude. The total acidity is
only slightly diminished under the same conditions. The
general activity of the gastric juice is also slowed down.
The bearing of these results upon mountain sickness is
discussed. — H. Agrulhon : The action of the ultra-violet
rays upon diastases. Eight diastases were studied, and all
of them were more or less rapidly attenuated by the radia-
tions passing through quartz and arrested by glass. —
Samuel Lifchitz : The sonorous reproduction of a periodic
curve. — A. Conte and C. Vaney : The experimental repro-
duction of acephalous Lepidoptera. — E. Roubaud : IBio-
logical studies on the Glossina of central Dahomey. —
H. Couti^re : The ellobiopsis of bathypelagic crayfish. —
Fernand Gu^gTuen : Cladosporian mycosis in man.
Details are given of a diseased condition in man caused
by a fungus of the genus Cladosporium, the first .example
of a pathogenic action of a member of this genus. — R.
Robinson : The heterotopic theory in pathology. — Louis
Gentil : The formation of the south Rif^ian isthmus.— Ph.
Ndgrris : The existence of the Trias and Cretaceous on
Mount Voidias in the north of the Peloponesus.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

rj¥f//?.S"/?/iK, February 23.

Royal Society, at 4.30. — Transmifsion of Flagellates living in the
Blood of certain Freshwater Fishes: Miss M. Robertson.— Report on
the Separation of Ionium and Actinium from certain Residues, and on
the Production of Helium bv Ionium : Dr. B. B. Boltwood. — The
Secondary y-Rays produced by j3-Rays: J. A. Gray. — The Specific Heat
of Water and the Mechanical Equivalent of the Calorie at Temperatures
from 0° to 80° C. With Additional Note on the Thermoid Effect :
W. R. Bousfield and W. E. Bousfield.^On the Measurement of Specific
Inductive Capacity: Prof. C. Niven, F.R.S.

RovAL Institution, at 3. — Problems of Animals in Captivity : P. Chalmers
Mitchell, F.R.S.

Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8.— Long Distance Trans-
mission of Electrical Energy: W. T. Taylor. — Extra High Pressure
Transmission Lines : R. B. Matthews and C. T. Wilkinson.

FRIDAY, February 24.

Royal Institution, at 9. — Mouvement Brownien et R^alit^ MoUculaire :
Prof. Jean Perrin.

Physical Society, at 5.— Flames of Low Temperature supported by
Ozone : Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S.— The Movement of a Coloured Index
along a Capillary Tube, and its Application to the Measurement of the
Circulation of Water in a Closed Circuit : Dr. Albert Griffiths. — An
Optical Lever of High Power suitable for the Determination of Small
Thicknesses and Displacements : E. H. Ravner.

Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — The Design and Construction
of Works for the Bacterial Purification of Sewage: R. J. Samuel.

MONDAY, February 27.
Royal Geographical Society, at 8.30. — Labrador : Dr. Wilfred T.

Grenfell.C.M.G.
Royal Society of Arts, at 8. — Brewing and Modern Science : Prof.

Adrian J. Brown.
Institute of Actuaries, at 5. — The Assurance Companies Act, 1909,

some Explanatory Notes on such Portions of the Act as relate to the

Business of Life Assurance : A. R. Barrand.

TUESDAY, February 28.

Royal Institution, at 3. — Crystalline Structure : Mineral, Chemical, and

Liquid : Dr. A. E. H. Tutton, F.R.S.
Royal Society of Arts, at 4.30. — The Resources and Problems of the

Union of South Africa : The Hon. Sir Richard Solomon, K.C.B.
Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — Modern Railway-signalling :

some Developments upon the Great Western Railway : A. T. Blackall.

WEDNESDAY, March i.

Entomological Society, at 8. — Persistence of Bacilli In the Gut of an
Insect during Metamorphosis : A. Bacot.

Society of Public Analysts, at 8. — Examination of the Process of
Shrewsbury and Knapp for the Estimation of Cocoanut Oil : R. Ross,
J. Race, and F. Maudsley. — The Estimation of Iron by Permanganate
m the Presence of Hydrochloric Acid : A. C. Cumming and A. Gemmell.
— The Analysis of Sweetened Condensed Milk : A. Backe. — Note on
Henry C. Frey's Method of Estimating Petroleum in Turpentine :
H. _S. Shrewsbury. — Note on .he Formation of Hypoiodites and their
Action on Sodium Thiosulphate— a source of error in certain Iodine
Titrations : J. P. Batey.— New Form of Specific Gravity Apparatus :
C, Butler Savory.

Royal Society of Arts, at 8.— Caisson Sickness and Compressed Air :
Dr. Leonard Hill, F.R.S.

NO. 2156, VOL. 85]

THURSDAY, March 2.

Royal Society, at ^.y^.— Probable Papers: Reversal of the Reflex Effect
of an Afferent Nerve bv altering the Character of the Electrical Stimulus
applied: Prof. C. S. Sherringion. F.R.S., and Miss S. C. Sowton. —
Carbon Dioxide output during Decerebrate Rigidity (preliminary com-
munication) : Dr. H. E. Roaf. — The Alcoholic Ferment of Yeast Juice.
Part VI. The Influence of Arsenates and Arsenites nn the Fermentation
of the Sugars by Yeast Juice: Dr. A. Harden. F.R.S., and W. J.
Young.— Experiments to ascertain If certain Tabanidae act as the Carriers
of Trypanosoma pecorum: Col. Sir D. Bruce, F.R.S., and others.

Linnean Society, at 8. — Dermaptera (Earwigs) preserved in Amber, from
Prussia: Dr. Malcolm Burr. —Report on the Marine Polyzoa of the
Collection made by Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner In the Indian Ocean in
H.M.S. Sea/ark: Miss Laura Roscoe Thoinely. — On the Mysidacea
and Euphausiacea collected In the Indian Ocean during 1905 : W. M.
Tattrrsall.

RSntgen Society, at 8.15. — Some Experiments with a 10,000 volt. Storage
Battery : A. A. Campbell Swinton.

FRIDAY, March 3.

Royal Institution, at 9 —Scents of Butterflies : Dr. F. A. Dixey,

F.R.S.
Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — Lagos Harbour Survey, 1909-

1910: H. Ellis Hill.

SATURDAY, March 4.

Royal Institution, at 3.— Radiant Energy and Matter: Sir J. J.
Thomson, F.R.S.

MONDAY, March 6.
Society of Engineers, at 7.30. — Petrol Air-gas : E. Scott-Snell.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Parker and Haswell's Zoology. By Prof. F, W,

Gamble, F.R.S 533

Paints and Painting. By A. H, C 533

The Colloid State of Matter. By H. R. P 534

Travels in Iceland. By M. G. B 535

Heredity and its Physical Basis. By E. H. J. S. . 536

Geology Made Easy. By A. H 536

All Sorts and Conditions of Women 537

Applied Mechanics 537

Our Book Shelf 536

Letters to the Editor: —

A Perpetual Calendar.— Sir William Ramsay,

K.C.B., F.R.S. ; W. T. L 540

The Progressive Disclosure of the Entire Atmosphere

of the Sun.— Albert Alfred Buss 540

Vibrations of a Pianoforte Sound-board. {Illustrated. )

— G. H. Berry S4>

Occurrence of Matonia sarmentosa in Sarawak. —

Cecil J. Brooks . S4i

Glacial Erosion.— R. M. Deeley ; J. W, G. ... 541
The Ethnography of South Africa. {Illustrated.)

By Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B 542

Photographic Biography of Birds. {Illustrated.) . 544
The Conservation of Natural Resources. By

E. J. R 545

Indian Wheat for the British Market 547

Notes 547

Our Astronomical Column : —

Nova Lacertre 55^

Nova Sagittarii, No. 3, H.V. 3306 552

The Satellites of Mars 552

The Spectra of some Wolf-Rayet Stars 552

Southern Nebulae 552

A Slowly Moving Meteor 552

Geological Work in British Lands. I. — In Asia

and in Africa. {Illustrated.) By G. A. J. C. ... 553

The Airship for the British Navy 555

Infant and Child Mortality 55^

Fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen. By F. M. P. . 556

Bird Notes. By R. L 557

The Australasian Association for the Advance-
ment of Science 557

Recent Advances and Problems in Chemistry . . 558

University and Educational Intelligence 563

Societies and Academies 5^4

Diary of Societies 5^6

y.

Physical *
Applied ScL
Serials

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